+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Nomosian Countryside

  “We’ve been taking quite a while with this search now,” Adelyn mumbled on the comms. Their mech had just stopped near a village. They were on the road, silently observing it. The village was already long abandoned. It wasn’t exactly attacked, but Hans and Adelyn were treating things with caution. “And there seems like nothing.”

  “Yeah, I’m not seeing anything on my end either,” came the resigned response from Hans. “And here I thought we’ll breeze through this fast and easy.”

  “Nothing comes fast and easy. You know that.”

  “Right,” Hans continued scanning the village. But again, nothing. He soon pushed his mech forward to keep scouring the countryside. Behind him, Adelyn followed close by. Their two fast vehicles raced through the night’s fields rapidly. They passed by hills, wheat fields, abandoned towns and villages, and even a few destroyed ones.

  It was a procession that Hans felt miserable about. It felt like this area of the “frontline” was truly wiped out. Even the few villages and settlements they visited briefly by driving through them were silent and empty. Only a few distant reminders of hasty evacuations remained.

  Closed stores, broken wagons, stalls, signs, and posters that either called for military recruitment or evacuation decrees…nothing more than that. It almost felt post-apocalyptic for Hans. He briefly imagined how it would look like if this was happening in his original world.

  It would certainly not be so far off.

  They soon stopped in front of another abandoned village fifty-two kilometers south of Fort Sagrada. Hans’ illumination lights lit up one of the empty, blank stone houses ahead of him. He turned it sideways a bit before his turret stopped turning. He popped his hatch open, jumped out of it, and walked in Adelyn’s direction.

  She had also left her mech, carrying a map.

  “Hey,” Adelyn unfurled the map, then, she showed it to Hans. “We’ve driven quite far. We’re right here. Near the city of Lerille just twelve kilometers to our west. Abandoned three weeks ago.”

  “Three weeks ago?”

  “Yeah. The Viceroy ordered everyone around the vicinity of Lerille and Finistere. So that’s…everyone around here.”

  “Mostly due to the Army of Nomos retreating?”

  “Yeah.”

  Hans looked back at the empty houses. Meanwhile, Adelyn folded the paper map and placed it on the leader's pouch on her waist.

  “Well, if that’s the case, considering how much ground we covered, that demon’s probably gone,” Hans said. “Maybe they damaged it so badly that it just died.”

  “Is that even possible?” Adelyn asked.

  “Probably. Maybe not. Who knows. But I wouldn’t be so surprised. Any creature getting shot by canister shells, much less enchanted ones, should die. Maybe we’re finally making progress at leveling the playing field,” Hans smiled. “That’s nice in that case.”

  “Alright. So we’re heading back to Fort Sagrada?”

  “Yep,” Hans briefly checked his watch. “Should just be an hour's ride. Assuming we don’t get bogged down in anything.”

  “Is your tank full?”

  “Yeah, it’s still half full. I’ll replenish it tomorrow before the rest of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit marches out,” Hans nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”

  The two immediately climbed back on their mechs. Turning their mechs northwards, the two commenced to drive forward. For a few minutes, it was mostly a silent affair. Regardless, they didn’t turn complacent. They continued scanning both their flanks and rear. Their turrets turned left and right on a near constant, as they covered each other’s blind spots.

  At this point, the two had worked as close partners for so long that their movements were well synchronized. When Adelyn turned her turret to the left, Hans would already be turning his to the right. When Adelyn drove through a town to check it, Hans was already circling the outskirts for any threats.

  They would also momentarily stop at times just to give a quick scan of the environment, almost every five kilometers of covered ground.

  They soon stopped when they detected something ahead of them. Hans immediately took over as the forward element, while Adelyn drove to an overwatch position. Right immediately, Hans activated his [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA I] upgrade. He also switched his coaxials on, which were armed with ADI, MG24 belts.

  “Keep frosty. I’ll just check this out,” Hans said. “If shit happens, retreat immediately while opening fire.”

  “Copy that.”

  Hans drove in the direction of the strange readings he saw on his thermals. It was right behind the treeline, almost hiding in the bush. His finger hovered on the button to fire his main gun, as he closed in on the unknown reading. At five hundred meters away, he decided enough would be enough.

  He pressed his speakers.

  “If you are Imperial citizens—”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  A loud shriek came from the treeline. Immediately, out came a humanoid creature. Its body was purely white, almost calcified. Its face was empty, with a smooth visor-like thing covering it. Something on its heart was glowing though, and it was glowing purple.

  A bunch of flying purplish crystals surrounded the creature. That made Hans grin.

  Found you then.

  His fingers pushed on the buttons for his double coaxials. Immediately, a torrent of gunfire rained on the creature. Fires burned and charred its smooth skin, while the trees and bushes behind it were set ablaze. Hans doubled down, firing an MPAT round straight at the creature.

  “Engage, Adelyn! Engage!”

  “I’m on it!”

  Hans on the other hand pulled his mech out of the area, as the floating purple crystals flew in his direction. And to top it off, he finally activated [UPG: SMOOTH RESPONSE I].

  Right exactly at that point, a light purple field surrounded his mech—blocking one of the high-speed crystals from slicing through his mech. But it immediately shattered.

  So that’s how it’s used.

  It was more of an experiment for Hans than anything. Immediately, he already stopped being sloppy. His mech zigzagged through the fields like a flash, dodging the crystals left and right. Then, he pulled on his brakes and turned his turret back on the target.

  A torrent of incendiary rounds immediately rained on the demon as it tried to escape.

  +++

  The demon staggered and fell back.

  Gunfire from Hans turned into an overwhelming, and unstoppable tide. Hans naturally pressed on, chasing the demon no matter where it went. Its defenses were weak and largely incapable. The crystals that it was sending in his direction all kept missing him.

  At this point, Hans was starting to master his mech’s abilities. He capitalized on its mobility and agility, almost hawkishly. And like he wanted for so long, he was turning into a predator against demons. The demon naturally seemed to understand its disadvantage.

  It fell back deeper into the forest, in an attempt to seemingly deny Hans and Adelyn space to move. But Hans merely chased it further. Adelyn from the rear on the other hand continued to provide overwatch fire. The small section of the forest, on the other hand, started to erupt into flames.

  Hans’ bullets were no joke. Even when they merely zipped through trees and leaves, they ignited hard. He had already once seen the sheer strength of his ADI, MG24. It wasn’t a joke. The flames it generated as it flew through the environment seemed to somewhat have the ability to even melt lighter, low-quality steel.

  Worst of all, the flames that it would start seemed to be hard to peel off. It would burn, and burn like white phosphorus. He once had a demonstration with it against monsters. His findings were that it burned deep, even to the bone.

  And the same strength was held by Adelyn’s shots. She mostly stayed out of the forest, firing her main gun in close concert with Hans. Their coordinated action left very little room for the demon to wiggle out. And they abused it with the wrath of two vengeful knights protecting mankind.

  “Give it another tap!” Hans ordered as he reloaded his main gun.

  “ADI, MPAT—firing!”

  Her shot screamed through the forest. The demon barely had a chance to dodge it, when its proximity fuze detected it. An explosion ripped through the trees around the demon, while those around it immediately burst into flames. The demon collapsed hard on the ground, hissing in extreme pain and agony.

  From the darkness, however, Hans jumped in. With razors engaged on his mech’s forward legs, he sliced through the demon's body hard. Blood pooled out of it, as he dragged the demon through the ground. He pushed it out of the burning areas, then he jumped away.

  Heh. The game’s over now, rat.

  Hans immediately turned to the demon’s direction. Now, it was truly prey, and Hans was its predator. It tried to stand up, its movements shaky and desperate. But Hans’ turret had already been aimed at it.

  Hans almost felt pity for the creature. Until he was reminded of its crimes. Whichever human, Vanus, or Virtus being this demon was before, it wasn’t now. All that was in front of him, was a corrupted mess.

  A corrupted mess that must be trimmed for public safety.

  “Die.”

  It was his only word as the final barrage of hot, burning rounds rained from his double coaxials. The demon jerked violently from each shot, almost resisting it. But fires charred and consumed its body. Hans pushed harder on the buttons until his machine guns finally ran out of ammunition.

  The demon, still on fire, collapsed on the burning grass.

  “Threat eliminated,” Hans reported coldly on the comms.

  “Good hunting, Lieutenant.”

  It’s getting harder and harder to level up.

  Hans lamented that fact. Though, perhaps, this demon wasn’t exactly strong anyway. Not to mention, it was already badly injured. Still, the fact that he only barely raised his levels by two was unfortunate. The road to Tier IV was now starting to look like a harder ladder to climb.

  But Hans grinned.

  I can reach it soon.

  He only needed to keep using his mech. The more demons, monsters, and other enemies of mankind he killed, the stronger he would be. Obstacles were now starting to look like annoyances to him. So what if the path to Tier IV was hard? So what if he would die soon?

  All mere walls that he felt he could scale so long as he tried.

  “Let’s go back to the base, Captain,” Hans said. He turned his mech in her direction. “I kinda feel hungry now.”

  “Yeah, same,” Adelyn giggled a bit. “Lieutenant, we’re doing good work. Watching you fight like that from here, I feel somewhat jealous now.”

  “Is that so? I feel like I have more right to be jealous, considering your broken upgrades and skills.”

  “You’re one to talk. That machine gun upgrades you have…I believe it has great potential. It’s a great tool to suppress our enemies.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t you see? That demon…it couldn’t even fight back much. Each shot from you seemed like a paralyzing spell on it. And your gunfire was endless. You suppressed it well.”

  “...That’s good then,” Hans laughed. “Well, I’ll try to keep that in mind when picking upgrades.”

  Hans felt his heart turn lighter as he rejoined Adelyn on the field. They still had a long road to the campaign tomorrow. But he was starting to feel truly confident in himself.

  It reminded him of the days when his mind would be in turmoil from every defeat he would solely take.

  He wanted nothing more than to wean himself off such weaknesses.

  It’s good that I’m on that path now.

  Discord server here!