บท 12: The Massacre
"System, what is this "Mana practitioner" thing?"
Add had heard a little about them, but it was not in detail and only vague things like, they could use mana and were very strong. Hence he was quite curious as to what it exactly was. So he asked his good friend the system about it, while he kept shooting the soldiers.
[Host, the system can answer this question for 500 CP.]
The same as ever black heartedness of the system made his brows twitch. This system really was too cheap. So Add turned to Anna and asked her the same question. Luckily, Anna the elf beside him, knew about it and told him without asking for any price.
Every person on Iseria was born with a set potential for harnessing and storing mana in their body. Although every living thing had some mana in them, few had appreciable amounts of it. Among humans, those who did, were called Mana Practitioners. Then again there were two divisions among Mana practitioners, warriors and mages. However only one in 10,000 had the potential to become a mage. Being a warrior was easier, and some high level warriors had tremendous amounts of mana in them.
The warriors were people who had superior talent in controlling mana within their bodies, much like regular humans like the guild master who could use [Mana Equip], however their mana capacity was higher than the normal humans, but not as high as to become a mage. They focused on building their physical bodies as strong as possible and honing their martial techniques. They were many times stronger than normal humans and were divided into 10 ranks based on their strengths as Rank 1 Warrior, Rank 2 Warrior, Rank 3 Warrior, and so on.
On the other hand mages were similar to Warriors, but they had enormous reserves of mana in their bodies. Not anyone could become a mage. Only those born with special meridians through which mana could smoothly flow like blood, and had sufficient talent for magic could become full-fledged mages. They chose the path of spells and the mystic rather than the sword and the shield. They used various kinds of spells as their weapons and their spells were usually very dangerous. They used mana which was a mysterious force and the very basis of magic. Magic itself could bend the laws of nature. No one knew where and where magic first appeared, but most believed that it was the gift of gods. Using chants made by ancient runic languages and combining ones imagination, a mage could use her/his innate mana to create spells, which were basically, manifestation of imaginations. Mages were also divided into ranks similar to the warriors.
In general, it was a proven fact that in the one on one fights, a mage would be vastly superior to a warrior of the same rank in terms of attack power, provided they could keep the distance. But mages had weak physiques, and thus, in close quarter fights however warriors would mostly win. As such, since mages were much rarer than warriors, they were deemed more important. In wars or battles, they were positioned at the safest points protected by warriors. The warriors fought the melee battles while the mages usually supported from the protected places.
Elves also had a similar system with their own warriors and mages. When compared one on one, an Elf beat a human in every field, be it Mana capacity, magic talent, or physical prowess as their innate high affinity for mana naturally strengthened their bodies. The only reason that Elves had reached such a sorry state was their low reproduction rate and as a result a very small population when compared to humans.
"So it turns out that Rank 1 Mana Practitioners are only this much….."
Add had been thinking that the Mana Practitioners would pose more of a threat, but now it seemed that the AX338 was enough for them. By now he had already killed 30 soldiers, and the rest had begun taking cover behind trees while looking for the mysterious attacker, but could not see anything. He finally stopped shooting using the sniper as the soldiers were scattering. If he continued sniping, some of them would definitely escape. So he put away the AX338 and took up the PKP Pecheneg Medium Machine Gun. It looked ready to shed some blood.
*Click-Clack*
He loaded the 250 round box magazine and turned the safety off. He also prepared a few as reserves in his inventory. The 15 kg weapon to him was as light as a 1 kg one.
"Wait here…"
"What are you going to do?" Anna asked him with a shaky voice. She was terrified as how this mysterious human boy so easily killed so many human soldiers without even exposing himself. She was thankful that he was not their enemy….yet.
"Miss Anna, just sit back and watch….I am going to deal with this situation, we can talk later…"
He instructed the Elves and swiftly began moving towards the river. As he moved towards the human camp, he formulated his plan of action. Anna tried to speak to him but he was gone before she could do so. Add who was wearing his tactical combat gear blended well with the darkness of the forest, however if he went into the open he would be instantly drawing attention. But he didn't think it was of any risk. Firstly, he had already killed the few archers that the soldiers had, secondly, this group had no mages in it, and lastly he had full faith in himself.
(But let's buy these just in case…..)
By the time he arrived at the stream, he purchased a few things from the system, to ensure total success in what he was about to do.
"What is he doing...?" wondered Anna who had also began following Add after he left, while the other 3 Elves also had no choice to follow her as well.
They watched in suspense as Add walked out into the open without any change in his deadpan expression and stood right on the bank of the stream. The soldiers saw him and became alert, but they didn't see the Elves as they were hiding within the forest growth. The soldiers were shouting things like:
"Who are you!?"
"Where did you come from!?"
Some soldiers moved away from their covers and approached him pointing their swords and spears at him, but Add only gave one response to them.
"You all can now go die."
And then it began.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Derek Brian was a company commander of the royal army of Reingleif. His company was one among the many stationed at Helmsberg, comprising of 200 men under him. Although he was the fourth son in his household, and had to leave his house at the age of 20, to avoid being targeted by his brothers, he still belonged to a lower viscount household and thus had some authority in the army, which he had used to get this position. Although he belonged to the lower rung of the army, he was satisfied with his position.
"This damn forest...."
In his tent, Derek smashed a mosquito which had been annoying him for some time now. His below handsome face was scrunched up due to the heat making him look quite ugly. The heat and humidity of the forest along with the ever so annoying bugs were making his life quite difficult. On his regular duty he would have been staying at his nice and cozy office while his subordinates did most of the work, but he had been ordered to come here instead, by his superiors.
At first he was unwilling to come himself and only send his men to do the work, but when he heard that they were going to capture Elves, he heartily joined. Elves were well known for their superior looks and beauty. It was a common saying that a bedding a female lf was the blessing among blessing. Ever since 5000 years ago, humans had been constantly suppressing them by their numerical superiority. As such making slaves out of Elves was a common practice. An elven slave sold over 4000 gold coins on an average, while females themselves fetched even higher prices, especially as sex slaves for wealthy people, like rich merchants, nobles and the aristocracy.
Derek knew that he had no chance to have an elf as his personal slave due to his social status. Actually the slave firm which was hunting this particular group of Elves had asked for some help from the army in capturing them, so Derek and his men had been sent to do the job. They were to assist some members of the slave firm. The slavers who first discovered the village of Elves had suffered major losses in trying to capture them by themselves. So this time, after they managed to track down the runaway Elves, they had decided to take help of the royal army. The army themselves would receive remunerations from the sale of the Elves while the majority of the profit would go to the slave traders. A major reason behind the army supporting the slavers was that the king of Reingleif had long been thinking of getting the the forest regions around Helmsberg as his own territory. The Elves were just unlucky to be living there.
"Well at least I would get to have some fun with those elven beauties…he he he…."
Normally someone like him would have no chance to have an elf for himself, however, since he was leading this attack, he had certain "privileges". They had confirmed that the Elves were only around 30 in number, rest had been killed or captured by the slavers before. Their group of 200 troops had 200 rank 1 warriors while Derek himself was a rank 2 Warrior. Further they even had a group of 50 mercenaries from the slavers' side. Such a force was enough to flatten the 30 or so Elves, even twice that number would be little problem.
They had tracked the Elves successfully and had set camp, a little distance away from the temporary camp of the Elves. The plan was to attack the Elves at night and catch them all in a single sweep. Even if the Elves tried to run, they would still be unable to escape from the grasp of so many soldiers. It was an easy victory for the humans, and a profitable one as well. However, man make plans, and the heavens laugh. Just as Derek was dreaming of having his way with the beautiful elves, suddenly a commotion broke out in the camp. He hurriedly picked up his sword and went out only to find that some mysterious attackers had attacked his soldiers. Before he could understand what was happening, 10 of his soldiers had been killed. They all had their heads or chests pierced by something, which only left holes in their bodies, while some heads even exploded.
"We are under attack! Everyone take cover!"
He shouted and ducked behind a thick tree. But his men were many in number and all of them rushed to hide, causing commotion. Some crawled behind trees, some jumped into bushes, and some just lied down behind their tents or whatever they could hide behind. In the chaos that ensured he saw his men dropping dead like flies. He gritted his teeth as he realized that all his archers had been killed. His group didn't have many archers to begin with and now they all were dead. What annoyed him to no end was the fact that he could not see anyone, who could be doing the attacks. For someone to be able to kill in broad daylight, and that too without being detected was really dangerous. As the soldiers and mercenaries scrambled for cover, more kept dying, within a few minutes he had lost over 30 of his men.
"Dam it! Which f***er is doing this!?" Derek was enraged.
But he could do nothing other than telling his troops to keep hiding while they tried to find the attacker. But they still found no traces even when they looked all around them. But then suddenly the attacks stopped, nd after sometime, a boy dressed in strange black clothing appeared on the other side of the stream. He appeared to be in his mid-teens and was carrying a strange object in his hands. Derek immediately felt suspicious of this new arrival. He felt that this boy was probably not the killer but maybe an accomplice of the killers?
"Who are you and what are you doing here!?" he shouted, but the boy gave no response only looking at the soldiers, his face expressionless.
"You five! Go bring that brat over here! If he resists, kill him!"
Derek wanted to take no chances. He ordered a few soldiers close to him, to go and bring the boy over to him. The soldiers looked at each other and gulped. Having seen many of their companions killed had clearly scared them. They didn't immediately move which made Derek even angrier.
"Dam it you bastards! Either you go, or I will kill you all right here!"
The soldiers who knew how bad the temper of their commander was, hurriedly scrambled towards the strange boy. But just when they were about to cross the shallow stream,
"You all can now go die."
They heard the cold voice of the boy and a small round object came tumbling towards them and landed on the ground right before them. It was a small round object which looked like a ball, they looked at it confused and a soldier moved his hand to pick it.
"What is this thi-------"
*BOOM*
The ball like thing was actually a Type-201 HE grenade, which could kill a group of hobgoblins. And though these soldiers were rank 1 warriors, they were apparently not enough before it. The unlucky fellow who was trying to pick up the grenade was hit at point blank and blown to pieces, while the other four were blasted away, not in much better conditions, and died.
(The Type-201 works just fine…..if it didn't, I would probably have to run away.)
Add was testing the effectiveness of the grenade on these people. Though the effect was not as on normal humans, the bodies of these "Warriors", being, stronger, but it was more than enough. The Type-201 was made in the early 22nd century, and was still in service while Add lived. It was known as the "Mushy Masher", by the people who used it, as it literally made mush out of people. Here too it did its job pretty well.
Derek was stunned at the sudden explosion and before he could breakout from his stupor, Add had made his move. In a flash he was across the stream and began throwing more of grenades. He had already estimated where large groups of soldiers were hiding. The other soldiers had also seen what those small ball like things could do, but they were so shocked that most of them reacted a second too late to evade what was coming.
"Look out!" someone warned, but it was too late….
*BOOM..BOOM...BOOM..BOOM..*
Series of explosions rang out followed by screams of the soldiers. There were body parts flying around and pained screams kept echoing. The whole area drowned in chaos. The mercenaries who were a bit farther from the soldiers began running away. They only fought for money, but they were not fools, and they put their lives before everything else, so seeing the horrifying power of the enemy they decided to run. Add then began walking towards the remaining soldiers who were trying to run and flipped his hand.
*CLINK…CLINK…CLINK…*
Around ten pins dropped on the ground, proof of how many grenades had been thrown.
[Ding! You have leveled up!]
Add ignored the message as he had more important things to do. This was not the end, before the enemy could react, he began his final attack. The PKP Pecheneg was aimed at the escaping soldiers and he pulled the trigger. The shells dropped as the 7.62*54 mmR bullets, shot out at almost twice the speed of sound at the escaping soldiers and mercenaries. They who had ever faced a gun before, and could not see the bullets had no way of defending from them. Wherever the bullets passed through, they turned the humans full of holes. Add also chased the escaping humans as he gunned them down without any mercy. Some tried to attack him but were quickly filled with bullets before they could reach him.
*RATATATA…RATATATA…RATATATA…*
The melody of a machine gun echoed in the forest as more and more people dropped dead.
"How nostalgic…this atmosphere….the smell of blood gunpowder and iron….this is what humanity is all about…." He spoke in a daze. For him who had spent t almost 3 decades in the battlefield, this was extremely familiar.
The Elves who were still hiding in the forest, were dumbstruck, seeing all this. They couldn't believe their eyes. The group of humans which was sure death for them was being slaughtered by this human so easily.
With a peculiar glint in her beautiful eyes, Anna frowned slightly. She was filled with fear towards such power, and curiosity as well: "Just what kind of person is he…..to have such devastating strength…"
Within few minutes, add had killed all of the soldiers and mercenaries, none had survived. Using his superior speed and [Perception] skill, he easily tracked and intercepted all escapees. The forest floor was dyed red in blood and gore, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of blood, gore and gunpowder. Add was used to such situations, so he was totally unaffected, but the elves were terrified of the manslaughter he just committed.
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
With this he leveled up for 8 times in a row.
Just as he was reloading his gun, Add felt a chill and dodged by jumping aside. A sword stabbed where he was standing a moment ago. He had just felt the sword enter the range of [Perception] and next moment it was beside him. How fast it must have been thrown. He turned to look at the person who had thrown the sword. It was the leader of the human group. Derek Brian. Derek had carefully snuck away when the grenade explosions were happening. He had seen how terrifying the boy was, slaughtering his soldiers like pigs. Derek as not confident in facing the boy head on so he had been hiding, waiting for a chance to attack the boy and kill him. And he got that chance when Add was near him and stopped to reload.
Derek took this chance and threw his sword using all of his strength towards Add, but he still dodged it. Right now, the two were over a hundred meters apart, and Derek realized that, he probably won't be able to kill the boy anymore. So he decided to escape. He only had to bring some reinforcements from Helmsberg and then he would be able to deal with him easily. The power of a Rank 2 Warrior burst forth as he dashed madly away from Add. The later, narrowed his eyes at the speed of the escaping man. It was a bit faster than the current him, so he immediately took out his AX338 and gave chase. As soon as he had a clear shot, he fired. The .338 Lapua Magnum round tore through the air towards Derek, but to Add's surprise, right before hitting Derek, it ricocheted away.
"Barrier?"
Add wondered as he was able to see a slight transparent force field like thing covering the man, protecting him. Actually, it was a barrier made by a spell. When he was leaving his house, Derek's father had gifted him a small ring which had been enchanted by a Rank 3 wizard. It could form a barrier when under attack and protect from attacks of Rank 3 Warriors easily. When the .338 Lapua Magnum hit it, it didn't have enough power to piece the barrier and bounced away. But he did feel like a hammer was hit on his back, as a trickle of blood leaked from his lips.
"Just you wait you fucking brat! You dare kill soldiers of the Royal Army! You are done for! You are DEAD!"
He shouted and smiled cruelly. Once he returned with powerful reinforcements, he would take his time torturing this boy. Derek, kept running in a zigzag manner making it difficult for Add to chase him. He had to stop Derek before he entered dense forest or else Add would lose him, because of his speed. He furrowed his brows and put away the AX338. While still chasing Derek, he took out the light fifty, the Barrett M107A1 50 caliber rifle.
"Let's see if it can block this….."
With a muffled *BANG*, an empty casing bounced away as the 12.7*99 mm NATO round pierced through the air and hit the barrier protecting Derek, whose smile froze on his face. The round pierced the barrier like a needle pierces a balloon and the ring on his finger shattered. The last thing Derek Brian saw before dying was a bloody hole in his chest as his eyes filed with unwillingness, and then lost their lights forever. Thus ended the lives of an entire company of soldiers.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
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Comrade_Weismann
Comrade_Weismann First of all, very sorry for no releases this February. Life has been very hectic for me, and i barely get time to write. That aside, Expect a chapter every week. And every weekly chapter would be 3K long or two smaller chaps per week. Thank you for reading!
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