+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Nomosian Countryside

  January 8, 1539 CE

  The campaign was proceeding nicely to Hans’ estimations.

  Today, they had killed their fourth demon ever since they started the offensive. The unfortunate demon, which reportedly killed at least eight thousand people, was now nothing but burning dust on the serene Nomosian fields, courtesy of the 22nd Imperial Artillery Battalion, A Battery.

  “We’re still going to head southwards, no?” Captain Strobel said behind Hans, who was still inspecting remnants of the avian-like demon.

  He checked the number of bleeding holes on the massive creature. Gunfire and artillery by the 1st Anti-Demon Unit had been extremely effective. While some larger perforations were bleeding out in a messy manner, smaller wounds due to small-arms fire seemed to be cauterized.

  Hans stood up, finishing his notes on the dead creature. The musketry and canister shelling certainly did their job well once again. At this rate, even without Adelyn and Hans, he believed that Captain Strobel and Captain Weibel could reasonably fight against standard demons.

  “Yep. Send a dispatch to the General that he should send further scouting cavalry southwards to scour the countryside,” Hans scratched the back of his head, annoyed. “That damned calamity is evading us way too well.”

  Captain Strobel laughed tiredly.

  “Funny, huh? Mankind manages to fight back effectively for once, and they start folding.”

  “They’re still too scattered with their attacks and operations. Disorganized and confused. It seems like their methods rely on us being unable to effectively resist, thus they spread out to cause as much chaos as possible,” Hans smiled. “But when we start effectively resisting, that strategy falls apart. They’ll be defeated in detail.”

  “Do you suspect that they’ll eventually start teaming up to resist us?”

  “That’s a certain possibility, which already happened. I fear that the next time, we might face another double or god-forbid triple event. That’ll certainly push us into problems.”

  “Yeah. The last four demons we liquidated cost us quite a lot of munitions. We’re going to need to wait for the next shipments in a few hours. Then we can move out.”

  “How many hours do you estimate it will take for their arrival?”

  “The supply wagons should reach us in eight to twelve hours. At least, that’s what the last report I received said.”

  Hans nodded.

  “Alright. Tell the boys to start digging temporary trench lines. We’re not going to be sitting ducks here. I and Adelyn will also conduct mobile recon ops. Just to keep things safe.”

  “Aight, I see that,” Captain Strobel nodded and left Hans.

  Hans walked out of the demon’s resting place, grabbing his canteen to drink a fresh serving of water. He looked straight at his parked Wanderfalke, which remained silently still as the morning wind breezed through them. With a sigh, he climbed up on it, before sitting near his turret, his back resting directly on it.

  Silently, he opened a pack of crackers and began snacking on it. Behind him, the men of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit were already hard at work, digging in fast and hard. Assisted by their trained engineer mages, the process didn’t take long anymore. The drills meant that the process of creating elaborate earthworks would be faster than normal.

  “Someone’s proud of something,” a teasing voice said from behind. It was Adelyn. Hans didn’t immediately turn in his partner’s direction until she climbed up on his mech and sat beside him. “I heard we’re going on a sortie soon?”

  “Yep,” Hans bit on his cracker. “We’re on the move in thirty minutes. We’ll circle the immediate vicinity, then scout the lands thirty kilometers south of us. Don’t wanna get our pants caught in the open if there’s a demon in town.”

  “I see, I see,” Adelyn said, smiling a bit. “Hey…we’ve been doing quite well now, aren’t we?”

  “Four demons killed in a few days, and tens of thousands of civilians liberated or rescued, yeah I suppose we are,” Hans laughed. “All those exercises and improvements were worth it. If we can just plow through Nomos this quickly, we’re going to clear out most demonic threats nice and easy.”

  “I believe that to be true. Though, regardless, we still have a roadblock ahead of us. That Calamity of Recklessness seems like a very strong lady. We’re going to be pushed to our limits once we meet her.”

  “I expect that. That’s why we worked a lot on improving ourselves,” Hans looked up at the skies, watching as birds peacefully flew. “You know, I’ve been wondering, what do you think about this world?”

  “Beautiful,” Adely replied. “Terrifyingly beautiful, at the moment. But I imagine, and I hope, that one day, this world will just be beautiful. Magic. Fantasy. Wonders that I could never have imagined on Terra. It makes me hopeful even if things are bad.”

  “You sound like you’d want to retire here one day.”

  Adelyn laughed.

  “Why not? If you can’t go back home to a war-torn world, why not just stop the war in this wonderful place, and then live here? After all, unlike in Terra, you and I here—we matter. Look at how much good work we were able to do. We’re not just nobodies or numbers in this place.”

  “The hero shtick is getting on your head and your ego is being rapidly inflated—” Hans replied, before Adelyn hit his side with her elbow, annoyed.

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  “Shut up. You’re way too mean sometimes,” she crossed her arms. “I’m just enjoying things. You don’t need to be such a killjoy.”

  “Still, I knew that the noble mind in your head has a lot of grandeur ideas on it,” Hans laughed. “Nothing wrong with it I suppose.”

  “Yeah,” Adelyn smiled. “Anyhow, I’m prepping my mech.”

  “Sure,” Hans waved at Adelyn after she jumped off his Wanderfalke, walking instead to her parked mech in the distance. When she returned to her mech, Hans drank from his canteen. “Doing good huh? I wonder how long that optimism lasts.”

  +++

  January 9, 1539 CE

  They passed by dozens of towns and villages as they continued southwards, mostly just eliminating monsters that overrun settled areas. Unfortunately, they were increasingly running into truly empty and desolate environments. No more were towns and cities this far from La Veridad remained lively.

  Most were empty, destroyed, or abandoned. The singular town they passed by yesterday that had life only had refugees that were staying there temporarily. Southern Nomos, at the moment, felt like a land that had been wiped clean.

  They were now driving ahead of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit, scouring the increasingly hot flat lands of South Nomos. Green fields of lush grasslands, unattended grazing fields, and farmland passed through their display screens as the duo drove undeterred. The search for the Calamity of Recklessness wasn’t something that Hans wanted to fail.

  He’d find her, no matter where she hid.

  They soon took another stop on the road, scanning the fields for a second for caution beforehand. When they were done, Hans left his mech to check on Adelyn and Alizée. They dined for a few minutes with the rations they brought with them, passing time to let the rest of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit catch up.

  “I think we’re starting to overextend ourselves,” Adelyn said, as Hans finished emptying the food on his aluminum mess kit. “Think we should back up and retreat?”

  “I suppose,” Hans took the final spoonful of the quick stew they heated up on the road. On the other hand, Alizée boisterously declared that she finished eating first, before giving her bowl to Adelyn. “Though, backing up would be a waste.”

  “I guess so…” Adelyn climbed back up her mech. Hans waited for a minute until she finished placing back the utensils and kitchenware they had used inside. When she exited her hatch again, she gave her orders. “We should do a recheck instead of our rear lines. See if a demon got through.”

  “Sure. That seems sound,” Hans replied. He went back to his mech, climbing on top of his Wanderfalke’s hull before sliding back inside his pilot’s compartment. The displays inside were already active, and within a few moments, the duo was on the move again. As they scoured the countryside, their comms lit up as they coordinated their search operations.

  “I’ll try sweeping the east side of this road, and you do the west side,” Adelyn said. Hans naturally followed it, driving through the tall grass situated on the west side of the main road they used to get here. “There. Now we’ll just cover each other until we reach them.”

  “Clear copy, Captain.”

  Hans, still on great alert, scanned his surroundings as his mech drove forward. His turret never stopped moving left and right, and his thermals were at full power to avoid being attacked. He squinted his eyes as he noticed some returns on the west side of the fields.

  It was incoming for the duo.

  “I think I have a contact, fast-mover coming our way west of our position,” Hans warned. “I got visual. Seems to be humanoid. Again, fast-mover. She seems…oh crap…”

  “I can see her now!”

  “I know,” Hans tightened the grip on his controls. “Alright, let’s play. Support me from the rear, I’ll try to keep this bastard in check. If she wants round two—then I’ll give it to her.”

  Finally, I found you.

  Hans grinned.

  His mech swerved westward, as gunfire emanated from his double coaxials. This wasn’t what he was expecting, but he couldn’t care less. Die if he had to die, what mattered was that he now knew where she was. And he now knew that she had recovered and that she was active.

  “Fools!” the Calamity of Recklessness shouted, as she grinned. “You two came here alone. That is the height of arrogance, of recklessness. I’ll be sure to punish it!”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Hans replied with his speakers, followed by his main gun doing the talking. “Eat this, you madwoman!”

  An explosion from his MPAT round struck the rapidly running demon. Immediately, a hail of wooden spikes rained in Hans' direction, but he dodged them with expert precision. Behind him, Adelyn quickly settled into her job, her main gun firing itself every time that it was reloaded.

  Hit after hit was registered on the demon’s body, badly suppressing her. Vines and other sharp objects began attacking Hans. But their constant gunfire, both with machine guns and actual tank rounds kept the Calamity of Recklessness on the backfoot. Not to mention, Hans was forcing her to back out and retreat.

  After all, his machine guns were no joke. Each bullet that struck the woman incinerated her painfully. Not even the feeble plant-like defenses that she would create to block it were doing well. Hans watched as the Calamity of Recklessness readied her staff, and aimed it at him.

  Three vines shot out of the ground, trying to slice and murder him. But his mech expertly drove past it. She seemed to be trying to recalibrate her attack, trying to flee to a forested area to disappear. But Hans was conducting a hot pursuit, and Adelyn was at the rear, hard at work.

  “Alright!” Hans pulled his mech into a westward turn, abandoning his charge. He wouldn’t fall for an obvious trap. “We got her badly damaged enough already. We’re pulling out!”

  “Copy that, I’m covering you!”

  That seemed to annoy their foe.

  “You two gremlins!” she shouted. “Not only are the two of you so sloppy, you two lack honor. Aren’t we in a duel?!”

  Hans didn’t respond. That further infuriated the demon, and she began chasing the duo again. A hail of wooden spikes was sent at them, blotting out the skies. The magical attack, however, this time around, was too overwhelming. Hans found his mech struck by the wooden spikes, causing catastrophic damage to his subsystems.

  But he didn’t care anymore.

  “Adelyn! Pull out now!” Hans ordered. “My engine is down—but I’ll hold her off. I have a plan. It’ll all work out if you escape!”

  “Hans, what the hell are you talking about? You’re downed!”

  “Exactly,” Hans laughed, turning his turret back at the demon charging at him. “But my plan doesn’t end even in death.”

  Come at me, monster. Let’s see how you’ll fare next time. I know where you are now.

  A defiant burst from his machine guns ensued, causing burning wounds on the demon. She screamed in frustration, sending a barrage of wooden spikes again at Hans’ immobilized mech. One of the spikes went straight into his crew compartment, slicing his back and abdomen.

  But Hans smiled through the pain, his bloodied hands squeezing hard on his main gun while he aimed using his blood-stained targeting screens. His final shot, a sabot round, pierced and badly mauled the demon. Hans laughed, as Adelyn’s mech charged back to retrieve him.

  Unfortunately, he was losing blood rapidly.

  He pressed the button for his speakers before his consciousness died out.

  “Let’s meet again, Recklessness. I’d like to see how you’ll fare when you face a prepared foe.”

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