章 13: Friend Or Enemy

"Austin Mende! Where are the reinforcements you were supposed to send!" Eileen who retreated from the battlefield asked for an explanation to the command headquarters.

"Oh! Isn't this little Eileen? Why have you returned? Weren't you and your squad has given the task of stalling the monster's until reinforcements were sent?" Austin is a General in the command center, he mocked her with an arrogant face.

"Damn it! We've been buying a long time there even three of us have fallen!" Eileen gritted her teeth.

"Then? That shows your incompetence."

"How dare you! You think to fight against [SSS Rating] monster we can stall for a long time!?"

Austin Mende is the successor of the Mende family, the second strongest family after the Stanford family in the Southern City. He had been chasing Eileen for a long time because of her beauty to be his wife, but Eileen flatly refused.

Their dispute began to heat up since the death of Eileen's father in a battle in the Azazel City area against a monsters horde led by a [SSS Rating] monster. Eileen's grandfather who still served as a General even though he was one hundred and forty years old was one of the few survivors from the great battle which destroyed one-eighth of the Azazel City.

At first monsters on Mars are low-level monsters who were brought as a source of meat and fauna for the planet. Currently, they are more likely to be like wild animals in the jungle, and [S Rating] monsters or above prefer to remain in their respective territories.

This non-threatening relationship broke out after one monster rose to [SSS Rating] and assumed the north was his territory. In the Stanford family, now only Eileen's disabled grandfather, her mother who ran all the family businesses, and Eileen who an elite General.

Austin realizes the setback from the Stanford family and once again proposes to reunite their family through marriage. Unfortunately, Eileen refuses once more considering Eileen who has a higher degree in the military, he can't do anything rash.

The appearance of [SSS Rating] monsters attacking alone was an opportunity to weaken Eileen's military strength. Austin prevents reinforcements from arriving on time and hinders information that should be sent to other cities.

Eileen, who realized the scheme of the vile man before her, could only grit her teeth, she did not have concrete evidence to accuse him.

"Eileen! Eileen! You're here... You promised me that you wouldn't go to battle against monsters that are far stronger than you!" Woman with adult charm with a voluptuous body coming in hurriedly. Lina Emeralda, the mother of Eileen immediately hugged her only daughter with tears in her eyes as if they were about to spill and cry.

Lina was an orphan who worked as a medical worker before Abraham Stanford made her a wife. She lost her husband in the battle against the [SSS Rating] monster, making this a nightmare for her. A while ago when she was managing the Stanford family business, she got a report of her daughter's squad damage, she almost got a heart attack with the thought she would also lose her daughter.

"Mother..." Eileen couldn't answer and could only hug her mother back, aware of the promise she was breaking even when circumstances forced her. She and her squad are the strongest elite team at Stanford City and are best suited to buy time until reinforcements arrive but unfortunately, this is just an Austin scheme.

When Eileen and her mother were hugging not caring about the people around them they were shocked by a danger alarm signaling a threat approaching the city within a radius of fewer than ten kilometers.

Eileen's face paled looking at the space monster she fought a while ago coming towards the city.

"Austin! Look what you did! Now the monster is approaching the city!"

"Hum! He's just alone, what can he do? The weapons we have are more than enough to fight that monster." Austin does not realize what will happen as a result of his actions and underestimates the threat that comes. Little did he know, this would be the end of his career in the military.

"Mother. I know what I did was wrong. But this is threatening humanity. So allow me and give me your blessing." Eileen looked at her mother with a gentle look.

Lina knew her stubborn daughter if she had decided what to do would slowly let go of her hug.

"Okay, then promise me whatever happens, come back to me."

"I promise!" Lina who was still in tears stared at the back of her daughter who rushed to the battlefield with many other soldiers.

They returned to the battlefield ten kilometers from the city, a very dangerous distance to fight. This condition forced Austin, who was the General in the information command, to jump into the field in the front row. Even though he was a General in the information command section, the power he possessed was also in [S Rating].

The space monster looked annoyed and fired a hot green light as an opening attack.

"Take position! Avoid the heat ray! Counterattack! The city and the family we want to protect are behind us!" Eileen became a pioneer General counterattacking the space monster.

The battle was fierce and tragic. Many soldiers died in defense battles this time. Eileen realized, reinforcements from other cities would be too late, the city might have been destroyed by the time they arrived.

Eileen noticed the weakness of the monster's defenses in the head. She channeled the remaining energy she had in her secondary unit to the long sword she held, hoping to break through the defenses in the monster's head and immediately kill the monster.

"Hya! Take this!" Eileen had shot right above the monster's head and launched her final attack.

"Eh?" Eileen was entangled in the tentacles that held her tightly all of a sudden, locking her movements.

'Is this the end for me?' Eileen murmured in her mind, seeing that she was carried by the monster's largemouth.

'Mother. Forgive me. I renege on my promise again.' Eileen cried remembering the mother she had left behind.

"I won't let you!" A robot unit shot out quickly and hit the head of the monster to prevent Eileen to be eaten.

Eileen fell to the ground after escaping from the grip of the corrosive tentacles. She saw who saved her from death a moment ago.

"Ah!"

"A..Arina!" Eileen shouted to see one of the soldiers under her command pierced by one of the tentacles right in the middle of the robot control unit's cockpit.

"General... I really respect you... Your struggle will not end here..." Ariana coughed up blood as she uttered her final words through the visual communication channel of her unit to Eileen.

"Arina! Noo!"

*CRUNCH*

Arina was eaten by the monster, fared the same way as Doreen in their previous battle.

The space monster, which is currently very close to the city, was staring at Eileen, who was about to become his meal. But just before he caught Eileen, he was thrown by a tremendous power that made him throw far away.

Eileen saw a robot unit that she had never seen before with a height of about five meters with black glitter and red accents adorning all its components.

The battle that followed was very different from what she had experienced in the defense battle just a moment ago. The monster looked like it was being played by a robot unit that had just arrived.

'So strong... Who piloted it?' Eileen accessed the [Axtia Device] around her neck and searched for information from the mysterious unit, but even with information from [Axtia Goddess], the result was unknown.

'He is not in the [Axtia Goddess] database? Is he a friend or an enemy? '

The shock wave that instantly killed the monster made Eileen get out of the thought train in her mind.

'Is it that easy to kill space monsters?

"This isn't good. I have to check it myself." Eileen watched from a distance the mysterious robot unit descended from the sky and immediately rushed towards that location.

The bodies of enormous space monsters turn into tiny particles and disappear when the mysterious robot touches them.

'How can!?' Eileen was surprised by the many abilities of the robot unit, but she immediately returned to the reason why she came all the way here, worried that the mysterious robot unit would soon leave.

"Please .. please wait a moment!" The mysterious robot with dark colors and red accents staring at Eileen with his red eyes light up in the twilight sky as if he was a god of death who descended to Mars.

"Are... Are you a friend or an enemy?"

Unfortunately, the mysterious robot unit just nodded and flew into the sky at such a tremendous speed that Eileen could not detect it anymore. She just stood while staring at the sky as if she understood what the mysterious robot unit meant and heaved a sigh of relief.

'At least he was not an enemy'

Eileen returned to inspect the surviving soldier with a sad look. From the report that [Axtia Goddess] gave, half of all units that plunged into battle had fallen. Eileen's gaze turned fierce as soon as she realized Austin had fled the battlefield a long time ago.

Only two of the four Generals were on standby at Stanford City, and two others were on duty in other cities.

Retreating from a defensive battle that threatens the safety of the city is a serious crime, and the punishment is a death sentence!