+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Nomosian Countryside

  January 8, 1538 CE

  “We’re still going southwards, no?”

  “I’m back,” Hans laughed as he looked down at the remains of a demon in front of him.

  Behind him, Captain Strobel took a step back when Hans turned to look at him. The pain of being sliced diagonally was still fresh in Hans’ mind, and he seemed like he was wincing a bit as he looked up at his buddy. But, instead of fear this time—Hans’ eyes seemed to suggest a glint of excitement.

  “What?” Captain Strobel asked, bewildered.

  Hans laughed again, looking down and shaking his head.

  “Nothing. Of course, we’re going southwards. The 1st Anti-Demon Unit is ready for the worst anyway,” Hans stood up, looking at the horizon ahead of them. “Indeed. That’s right. No matter what those bastards send our way, we’ll murder them.”

  “Am I hearing signs of overconfidence from you?” Captain Strobel asked.

  Hans shook his head.

  “Nope. Though maybe yes. I don’t know, I just realized,” Hans turned back to Captain Strobel. “They’ve struck fear into our hearts deep, yes? Why don’t we do the same?”

  “We’re trying—”

  “Then we’ll try harder,” Hans walked past him. “Ready the entire unit. We’re going to march out, and we’ll beat the bastards. Ready yourselves for not just a double event. We’re facing quite a wall ahead of us.”

  “A wall?”

  Hans stopped.

  “Yes. A wall. But we’ll scale that wall. I swear we will. We always did, anyway.”

  Hans continued, smiling confidently to himself. I refuse to be beaten down by some crazy hag. Hans laughed at himself. Why would I? She killed me many times already, but she can’t actually stop me. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it up.

  You’ll pay your dues soon, Recklessness

  +++

  “We need to retreat!” Adelyn shouted over the comms as the horde approached them.

  Hans followed his previous plans largely, deducing that this pitched battle was simply unavoidable. Not to mention…he wanted the challenge of killing that demon face-to-face with his mech. Thus, his reply to his partner was an empty one.

  “Yep. You’ll retreat. I’ll hold them back and buy time for the rest,” Hans replied. “You’ll get there, and you’ll warn them about this. Make sure the response is well coordinated once I arrive on our lines.”

  “W-what?! I’ll leave you behind?”

  “Yes,” Hans eyed one of the war elephants headed their way. “Why? Do you intend to face these monsters too? I’d rather that you’re not hurt.”

  “But what about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m a slimy bastard anyway,” Hans laughed. “I’ll fight and get back there in one piece. Just as I always did.”

  “Hans.”

  “I said what I said,” Hans briefly smiled. “I’ll do everything to get us out of this one. This is just a part of my plan.”

  “...I see. Can I support you before fleeing?”

  “Sure,” Hans chuckled. “Take your potshot.”

  Just as he said that a shot rang out from Adelyn’s main gun. Without even a split-second later, a depleted uranium solid shot round pierced through one of the war elephants. The demon screeched in pain before all monsters and demons locked their eyes on the hill where Hans and Adelyn were positioned.

  They were about to charge in when Adelyn turned her mech’s hull northwards and gave her parting words.

  “Do your best, Lieutenant.”

  “I will.”

  Adelyn fled the battlefield, and Hans stood alone.

  The gunfire began to emanate from the hill that Hans occupied. The horde of beasts began charging at him, anger clear in their eyes. But Hans wasn't going to let his temporary opportunity of having the high ground pass by. His machine guns mainly targeted the horde of night wolves that were coming for him, while his main gun opened fire on the two demons every eight seconds.

  Soon, they were so close for comfort that Hans was forced to flee, descending on the hill as the beasts chased him. Their speeds picked up, but Hans’ mech had already turned its hull backward, and he began driving hard to the west. It dragged the horde hot on his tail on the route he was taking.

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  His previous surveys of the area meant that he knew that there was a good forest on his west to distract them. The demons and monsters chased him, while Hans took the best routes through the forest. It meant that throughout the chase, he wasn’t impeded even once, allowing him to drive through it smoothly while whittling down their numbers.

  But he suddenly ran into trouble.

  “Oh shit—”

  Hans pulled his mech’s controls into a hard turn southwards when a serpentine demon appeared in front of him. Purple acid sprayed out of its mouth, raining on the green fields and Hans’ mech. The few drops of acid that managed to touch his armor rapidly melted and burned as it evaporated, damaging his mech’s armor.

  Hans however escaped just in time, the serpentine demon hissing at him as he drove out of the forest—the rest of the horde still chasing hot behind him.

  Alright. I just need to get to the—

  Suddenly, in front of him, Recklessness herself appeared to stop him. That however didn’t deter Hans. The reverse was true—he felt like he struck a golden opportunity.

  His speakers blared out.

  “I found you!”

  He squeezed hard on his control sticks, sending a barrage of red-hot ADI MG24 rounds at the demon. She screamed when some of the bullets managed to nick her, burning through her skin and leaving charred holes as wounds.

  “How did you even—?!” She raised her staff and aimed it at Hans. “You madman. Take this!”

  A hail of wooden spikes rained on Hans’ mech, which he dodged swiftly. His guns opened fire, targeting Recklessness with great fury. Gunfire peppered her body, setting her on fire and burning her hard, punctuated by a successful APFSDS shot straight into her.

  She retaliated by sending massive sharp vines at Hans, but he had already activated [UPG: SMOOTH RESPONSE]. One of the vines that managed to nick him was immediately deflected by his shields, allowing him to push further forward.

  I got you now—!

  Before he could pounce on her disabled form with his mech, one of the elephants charged from his side. Its massive tusk slammed straight on Hans’ shield—depleting [UPG: SMOOTH RESPONSE]. He managed to get himself out of trouble, but a rain of acid splattered on his mech’s hull.

  Rapidly, the thin armor of his mech began melting, disabling his vehicle’s subsystems one by one. The last thing Hans saw on his display was a warning icon about his engine.

  It was inoperational.

  Right then, a vine shot out of the Earth, slicing his mech in half—including him.

  Darkness consumed him again.

  But, within a few moments, he opened his eyes.

  “We’re still going southwards, no?”

  He laughed. Another defeat.

  But I learned more about them. Seems like I can use my shield well to block the major attacks.

  “Of course we are,” Hans stood up, looking back at Captain Strobel. “We’re this close to stopping that crazy woman. Why stop now?”

  I’ll figure out a way to deal with five demons soon.

  No matter how many loops he had to do.

  +++

  January 9, 1538 CE

  Nomosian Countryside

  Hans took a light sip on his canteen as he watched the soldiers of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit dig in, sitting on top of his mech’s hull. It had already been two loops, and he was back for another three this time around.

  The last two defeats he had, Hans took a new approach. He began taking experimental tactics to directly confront the Calamity of Recklessness. While he still needed the 1st Anti-Demon Unit sapping and draining the strength of the demons, he also needed to figure out a way to perfect dealing with Recklessness.

  Otherwise, it seems like she can stay back and overwhelm us with her horde.

  It was the main strategic problem that Hans faced. She was a force of nature, well, perhaps a controller of nature itself. The amount of monsters she tamed was beyond what the 1st Anti-Demon Unit could deal with.

  That was Hans’ main problem. No matter how many tries he took, he couldn’t eliminate her alone. He managed to get a few close calls by hitting her with his APFSDS, but she was always incomprehensibly fast at regenerating.

  On the other hand, the past battles showed that I need Adelyn and Emilia behind me, supporting the 1st Anti-Demon Unit itself if I want them to survive. But…

  It wasn’t like it was a bad strategy. Most of the time, the horde would be focused on them, while Hans faced a smaller group when attacking the Calamity of Recklessness. But he recognized that a change of tactics would soon be in order.

  He wondered if he could somehow bait the entire horde at the direction of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit, then mobilize an assault force on the Calamity of Recklessness, killing her before the guys on defense were overwhelmed. It certainly was an interesting proposition to Hans.

  Hmm…

  “Thinking long and hard over there?” Someone called Hans from below. It was the Viceroy, and she seemed to be smiling a bit. “You know, I’m starting to wonder about this strategy of yours too. Charging in here without proper supplies…it feels a bit uncomfortable.”

  “I thought you liked this style?” Hans asked, laughing a bit. “I remember back then, you always wanted us to keep charging onward.”

  “But that was before we were soundly defeated—”

  “Stalemate, Lady Viviani. Not defeat. We weren’t defeated,” Hans shook his head. “In fact, we held Presidio by the end of it. It was the Calamity of Recklessness that was forced to retreat. If you think about it, we technically won.”

  “Okay, but what does that have to do with this?”

  Hans stood up and jumped off his mech. Turning face-to-face to her, Hans proposed something to her.

  “Alright. Tell me. Do you think in the middle of the battle, you and Adelyn can peel off from the rest of the unit, and join me in directly targeting the Calamity of Recklessness?”

  “Maybe?”

  “Then we’ll have to do that. I have a good feeling that she’ll be staying back this time after experiencing the humiliation she took in Presidio,” Hans said. “But if she does that, it implies she’ll be throwing other things at us instead.”

  “So your plan is…to directly target her if she attacks us with other demons while staying behind?”

  “Yes. I don’t think we can win this by attrition. But we also already demonstrated that she isn’t invincible either. Perhaps she’s probably weaker than the Calamity of Desire,” Hans grinned. “That’s my point. To defeat her, we cannot turtle incautiously. We have to be aggressive. Reckless.”

  The two looked to their side. It seemed that Adelyn was now approaching their parked mechs after discussing their plans in their unit’s command post.

  Hans readied himself. It would be another sortie before the battle.

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