Kyle grabbed the arctech handgun dropped by the sergeant and shot the lady, the projectile tearing through her windpipes before she could scream even more to attract attention.
However, her initial scream had already attracted the attention of a dozen soldiers who were still herding the villagers at the open clearing in the middle of the village. The gunshot startled them as well, prompting them to raise their repeaters in wariness.
“Hey, what was that?”
“It came from the leader’s house! Where’s the sergeant?”
At the same time, Kyle knocked out the sergeant with a kick to the jaw, sending a concussion right up to his brain, before dragging him back into the house quickly.
The soldiers had already spotted him, with five of them rushing out to the front of the house, their bodies hugging the walls to prevent being shot from within the house. The first soldier peeked through the broken-down door but was unable to spot anything other than a bloody mess on the floor. “Don’t bother hiding in there – we saw you! Come out peacefully, and you will have a fair trial!”
Nobody replied, but the soldiers who had their ears to the wall could hear the dragging of bodies on the ground. “Thundercrackers, through the windows now!” One of the soldiers ordered, prompting them to brandish a metallic arctech orb.
Before any one of them could toss the orb in, a loud gunshot ripped through the thin curtains of the windows and grazed the forehead of one soldier, who quickly ducked in response, his heart pounding wildly.
A hand reached out from around the edges of the doorway, grabbing onto the soldier’s legs firmly and dragging him inside whilst his head landed with a heavy thud from the sudden jerk.
“He’s right under the windows! Get him!”
Just as the soldiers were about to react, a whirring rotating sound could be heard behind them, before they felt sharp pain erupting all over their body. The machine gun’s pellets tore through them like butter, a hundred pellets shredding them as their bodies became ragged.
The pellets lodged themselves in the walls and pockmarked the curtains, tearing off chunks while all five soldiers died, slumped to the ground with the armed thundercrackers popping off like a loud banging noise with a white flash, blinding everyone who even slightly looked in their direction.
The remaining soldiers at the central clearing were not unaware of what was happening – they had just witnessed the five soldiers gunned down by a machine gun from a house opposite.
“Shit! How did they get a machine gun here?! What do we do? There’s no way we can fight that!”
“Retreat, get back to headquarters to ask for more backup and equipment. Move!”
“What about the sergeant?!”
“Fuck him, he’s dead!”
Panicking, the soldiers beat a hasty retreat, running away from the middle clearing. However, two shots suddenly rang clear through the evening sky, boring a hole in the two soldiers forehead and prompting the rest of the soldiers to get off the road immediately and duck behind the houses, aware that the shot came from behind them.
“Where was that?”
“Behind, but angled high?”
“Huh? The highest is two storeys here!”
“The chimney, the chimney!”
At the top of Drake’s house, Feldon was still positioning himself at the edge of the chimney, his face straining as he fired another shot towards the soldiers taking cover. His body was precariously pushing against the inner walls while he propped himself up.
A soldier spotted his head, firing back three shots from the repeater that whipped fragments off the chimney, nearly nailing Feldon right in the head. However, Feldon was unfazed, the cumulative effect of Sasha’s training and the dungeon delving with Kyle hardening his senses. The return fire from Feldon was accurate, blowing out the brains of the soldier as the repeater clattered to the floor with a loud echo.
“Fuck it, just sprint for the tree line! Once we make it there, we’re clear!”
The remaining four soldiers nodded and charged out, Feldon unable to pin them down any longer. However, they spotted a lady wielding a machine gun standing at the entrance to the village, the barrel aimed right at them.
With a torrential roar of gunfire, the soldiers barely stood a chance, the bullets shredding them. The villagers in the open clearing cowered with their hands above their heads, protecting themselves from the stray bullets that swished overhead.
As the red-hot barrel of the machine gun sizzled softly in silence, the remaining villagers came to the realisation that all the soldiers were dead.
Hayden did not waste any time, quickly running past them and ignoring their questions. The sight of her hauling the machine gun startled them, making them start to believe that she was the revolutionary hiding amongst them.
She hefted the machine gun barrel at the house, yelling out loud. “Ghost of Tenar! Come out quietly. I do not wish to hurt you.”
“Then put down the machine gun, and we can talk.”
“Release Drake first.”
“What makes you think I am holding him hostage? In fact, I saved him from your gunfire. Did you think the wooden walls were enough to hold back two hundred shots at that range?”
Hayden’s eyes widened with a stark realisation, and ran towards the house. “Drake!”
As soon as she cleared the doorway, a knife lunged towards her neck, prompting her to lift the machine gun’s still red hot barrel to block it. The body of the machine gun was grabbed with a strong grip before her legs were swept out from under her, her body falling to the ground as Kyle pinned her down, the knife pushing against her throat.
Hayden glanced around the house, noticing Drake was fine in the corner, albeit clearly shaken from the firefight he had just witnessed. She turned to glare at the wooden mask of the man pinning her down. “Don’t bother hiding your face. You’re the one with the mineral ant slash on your back. Is this how you treat those who saved you?”
“I believe I am the one who saved him first. Who are you?”
“I should be asking the Ghost of Tenar that.”
“Let me guess – a blacksmith carrying a military-grade machine gun around, coupled with fighting tactics similar to that of the Versian military.”
Before Hayden could reply, a resounding crash was heard at the fireplace, with another person rolling out from it as the embers clung to his clothes. “HOT, HOT!” Feldon screamed as he rolled around the house in a panic, putting out the fire. Drake quickly rushed to help him, smothering any stray flame that threatened to burn down the entire house.
“Then let me guess your identity – a disgruntled noble who wants to take back his country, acting as though he is fighting for the people. I’ve seen your face.”
“I work for Minister Dekar.”
Hayden’s eyes widened slightly before she quickly controlled her reaction. “And? That name doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“And Zayin.”
This time, Hayden was purely stunned. “Who are you? Johan?”
“I am not one of the original revolutionaries – but it seems that you are. We’re on the same side here.”
“Then get the fuck off me.”
Kyle complied, releasing Hayden as she gingerly wiped the small stains of blood off her neck, still glaring at Kyle with anger.
Already outside, the villagers were crowding around the dead lady’s body, arguing with each other in a frenzy.
“How did she know we had a revolutionary here in the village? And how did she tell the military in the first place?”
“It does not matter – we need to kick Hayden out of the village right now, as well as those two strangers! The military will find out that their entire detachment has died, and they’ll come back even stronger!”
“Idiot, kicking them out won’t do us any good. They already want to evict us for illegal occupation! Why would kicking out the revolutionaries help us in any way?”
“I don’t want my children to get caught in the crossfire. We should surrender to the military immediately – tell them who the exact revolutionaries are and negotiate.”
“This village was built on trust and loyalty among us. If we are selling out our own people, what kind of village is this?! I did not sign up to betray one of us!”
“Hayden is not one of us; she barely joined us a year ago.”
“And? You still use her metalware right now in your house – don’t forget the metal pots you use to cook for your children!”
“We should move away from here – find another area. The Keru Forest is big; we’ll definitely find another place.”
“How the hell are we going to fight through the mineral ants hive and the other animals in the forest?!”
The argument was heated, as the villagers were clearly divided on what to do. Not many participated in the argument, some simply heading home to check on their damaged furniture from the rough handling of the soldiers, while a few curious kids warily picked up a dropped repeater, examining it before their mother quickly snatched it away.
It was the first attack on the village in forever, with the mineral ants hardly ever coming out this far. It was the entire reason the village had managed to flourish here – though the forest was still a dangerous place.
Inside the house, Hayden and Kyle were still arguing with each other, Hayden completely unintimidated by the Ghost of Tenar. “You expect me to believe that mineral ants attacked you and your ‘friend’ here and somehow managed to find our village when just a week ago you were killing representatives in broad daylight in Tenar? Do you even know how far Tenar is away from here?”
“I don’t know how far it is from here. Mostly due to the fact that mineral ants attacked me.”
“Gah! Fine. I applaud your commitment to the Ghost of Tenar identity. It’s clearly obvious that you are simply an imposter. You just managed to do your research on the original revolutionaries, namedropping them randomly.”
“Believe whatever you want to believe. But as of now, we have a common goal as revolutionaries.”
“A common goal? Pfft, you are just an imposter? How would you ever comprehend what the goal is?”
“Says the one who was about to leave the village earlier today without telling anybody. Is that a goal too?”
Hayden stiffened up, noticing Drake’s eyes staring at her in confusion as he was simply listening to the whole conversation while treating Feldon’s burns. “Drake, I… I was going to tell you! I…” She stammered slightly as she tried to explain, but Drake had already turned away from Hayden’s face, unable to meet her eyes.
She turned to glare at Kyle. “Outside, now.”
The two of them left Feldon and Drake alone in the house, with Feldon clearly aware of what had taken place. “Doctor, don’t worry too much. My first wife pulled the same trick on me, too, packing up and leaving without telling me.”
“And she came back?”
“No, I heard that she’s having a blast in Proco. Married one of the mayors or something.”
“What? What are you trying to tell me?”
“Uhh… all things work out in the end? I got a second wife no-ARGH!” Feldon screamed as Drake tightened the bandage far too hard before stomping out of the house, leaving the whimpering Feldon on the ground.
The villagers noticed Drake leaving the house, quickly clamouring around him and trying to convince him of their viewpoints.
“SILENCE!” Drake bellowed as loud as he could. “Tonight, there will be a village meeting in three hours after dinner. I expect all villagers to attend. The future is at stake.”
Kyle grabbed the arctech handgun dropped by the sergeant and shot the lady, the projectile tearing through her windpipes before she could scream even more to attract attention.
However, her initial scream had already attracted the attention of a dozen soldiers who were still herding the villagers at the open clearing in the middle of the village. The gunshot startled them as well, prompting them to raise their repeaters in wariness.
“Hey, what was that?”
“It came from the leader’s house! Where’s the sergeant?”
At the same time, Kyle knocked out the sergeant with a kick to the jaw, sending a concussion right up to his brain, before dragging him back into the house quickly.
The soldiers had already spotted him, with five of them rushing out to the front of the house, their bodies hugging the walls to prevent being shot from within the house. The first soldier peeked through the broken-down door but was unable to spot anything other than a bloody mess on the floor. “Don’t bother hiding in there – we saw you! Come out peacefully, and you will have a fair trial!”
Nobody replied, but the soldiers who had their ears to the wall could hear the dragging of bodies on the ground. “Thundercrackers, through the windows now!” One of the soldiers ordered, prompting them to brandish a metallic arctech orb.
Before any one of them could toss the orb in, a loud gunshot ripped through the thin curtains of the windows and grazed the forehead of one soldier, who quickly ducked in response, his heart pounding wildly.
A hand reached out from around the edges of the doorway, grabbing onto the soldier’s legs firmly and dragging him inside whilst his head landed with a heavy thud from the sudden jerk.
“He’s right under the windows! Get him!”
Just as the soldiers were about to react, a whirring rotating sound could be heard behind them, before they felt sharp pain erupting all over their body. The machine gun’s pellets tore through them like butter, a hundred pellets shredding them as their bodies became ragged.
The pellets lodged themselves in the walls and pockmarked the curtains, tearing off chunks while all five soldiers died, slumped to the ground with the armed thundercrackers popping off like a loud banging noise with a white flash, blinding everyone who even slightly looked in their direction.
The remaining soldiers at the central clearing were not unaware of what was happening – they had just witnessed the five soldiers gunned down by a machine gun from a house opposite.
“Shit! How did they get a machine gun here?! What do we do? There’s no way we can fight that!”
“Retreat, get back to headquarters to ask for more backup and equipment. Move!”
“What about the sergeant?!”
“Fuck him, he’s dead!”
Panicking, the soldiers beat a hasty retreat, running away from the middle clearing. However, two shots suddenly rang clear through the evening sky, boring a hole in the two soldiers forehead and prompting the rest of the soldiers to get off the road immediately and duck behind the houses, aware that the shot came from behind them.
“Where was that?”
“Behind, but angled high?”
“Huh? The highest is two storeys here!”
“The chimney, the chimney!”
At the top of Drake’s house, Feldon was still positioning himself at the edge of the chimney, his face straining as he fired another shot towards the soldiers taking cover. His body was precariously pushing against the inner walls while he propped himself up.
A soldier spotted his head, firing back three shots from the repeater that whipped fragments off the chimney, nearly nailing Feldon right in the head. However, Feldon was unfazed, the cumulative effect of Sasha’s training and the dungeon delving with Kyle hardening his senses. The return fire from Feldon was accurate, blowing out the brains of the soldier as the repeater clattered to the floor with a loud echo.
“Fuck it, just sprint for the tree line! Once we make it there, we’re clear!”
The remaining four soldiers nodded and charged out, Feldon unable to pin them down any longer. However, they spotted a lady wielding a machine gun standing at the entrance to the village, the barrel aimed right at them.
With a torrential roar of gunfire, the soldiers barely stood a chance, the bullets shredding them. The villagers in the open clearing cowered with their hands above their heads, protecting themselves from the stray bullets that swished overhead.
As the red-hot barrel of the machine gun sizzled softly in silence, the remaining villagers came to the realisation that all the soldiers were dead.
Hayden did not waste any time, quickly running past them and ignoring their questions. The sight of her hauling the machine gun startled them, making them start to believe that she was the revolutionary hiding amongst them.
She hefted the machine gun barrel at the house, yelling out loud. “Ghost of Tenar! Come out quietly. I do not wish to hurt you.”
“Then put down the machine gun, and we can talk.”
“Release Drake first.”
“What makes you think I am holding him hostage? In fact, I saved him from your gunfire. Did you think the wooden walls were enough to hold back two hundred shots at that range?”
Hayden’s eyes widened with a stark realisation, and ran towards the house. “Drake!”
As soon as she cleared the doorway, a knife lunged towards her neck, prompting her to lift the machine gun’s still red hot barrel to block it. The body of the machine gun was grabbed with a strong grip before her legs were swept out from under her, her body falling to the ground as Kyle pinned her down, the knife pushing against her throat.
Hayden glanced around the house, noticing Drake was fine in the corner, albeit clearly shaken from the firefight he had just witnessed. She turned to glare at the wooden mask of the man pinning her down. “Don’t bother hiding your face. You’re the one with the mineral ant slash on your back. Is this how you treat those who saved you?”
“I believe I am the one who saved him first. Who are you?”
“I should be asking the Ghost of Tenar that.”
“Let me guess – a blacksmith carrying a military-grade machine gun around, coupled with fighting tactics similar to that of the Versian military.”
Before Hayden could reply, a resounding crash was heard at the fireplace, with another person rolling out from it as the embers clung to his clothes. “HOT, HOT!” Feldon screamed as he rolled around the house in a panic, putting out the fire. Drake quickly rushed to help him, smothering any stray flame that threatened to burn down the entire house.
“Then let me guess your identity – a disgruntled noble who wants to take back his country, acting as though he is fighting for the people. I’ve seen your face.”
“I work for Minister Dekar.”
Hayden’s eyes widened slightly before she quickly controlled her reaction. “And? That name doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“And Zayin.”
This time, Hayden was purely stunned. “Who are you? Johan?”
“I am not one of the original revolutionaries – but it seems that you are. We’re on the same side here.”
“Then get the fuck off me.”
Kyle complied, releasing Hayden as she gingerly wiped the small stains of blood off her neck, still glaring at Kyle with anger.
Already outside, the villagers were crowding around the dead lady’s body, arguing with each other in a frenzy.
“How did she know we had a revolutionary here in the village? And how did she tell the military in the first place?”
“It does not matter – we need to kick Hayden out of the village right now, as well as those two strangers! The military will find out that their entire detachment has died, and they’ll come back even stronger!”
“Idiot, kicking them out won’t do us any good. They already want to evict us for illegal occupation! Why would kicking out the revolutionaries help us in any way?”
“I don’t want my children to get caught in the crossfire. We should surrender to the military immediately – tell them who the exact revolutionaries are and negotiate.”
“This village was built on trust and loyalty among us. If we are selling out our own people, what kind of village is this?! I did not sign up to betray one of us!”
“Hayden is not one of us; she barely joined us a year ago.”
“And? You still use her metalware right now in your house – don’t forget the metal pots you use to cook for your children!”
“We should move away from here – find another area. The Keru Forest is big; we’ll definitely find another place.”
“How the hell are we going to fight through the mineral ants hive and the other animals in the forest?!”
The argument was heated, as the villagers were clearly divided on what to do. Not many participated in the argument, some simply heading home to check on their damaged furniture from the rough handling of the soldiers, while a few curious kids warily picked up a dropped repeater, examining it before their mother quickly snatched it away.
It was the first attack on the village in forever, with the mineral ants hardly ever coming out this far. It was the entire reason the village had managed to flourish here – though the forest was still a dangerous place.
Inside the house, Hayden and Kyle were still arguing with each other, Hayden completely unintimidated by the Ghost of Tenar. “You expect me to believe that mineral ants attacked you and your ‘friend’ here and somehow managed to find our village when just a week ago you were killing representatives in broad daylight in Tenar? Do you even know how far Tenar is away from here?”
“I don’t know how far it is from here. Mostly due to the fact that mineral ants attacked me.”
“Gah! Fine. I applaud your commitment to the Ghost of Tenar identity. It’s clearly obvious that you are simply an imposter. You just managed to do your research on the original revolutionaries, namedropping them randomly.”
“Believe whatever you want to believe. But as of now, we have a common goal as revolutionaries.”
“A common goal? Pfft, you are just an imposter? How would you ever comprehend what the goal is?”
“Says the one who was about to leave the village earlier today without telling anybody. Is that a goal too?”
Hayden stiffened up, noticing Drake’s eyes staring at her in confusion as he was simply listening to the whole conversation while treating Feldon’s burns. “Drake, I… I was going to tell you! I…” She stammered slightly as she tried to explain, but Drake had already turned away from Hayden’s face, unable to meet her eyes.
She turned to glare at Kyle. “Outside, now.”
The two of them left Feldon and Drake alone in the house, with Feldon clearly aware of what had taken place. “Doctor, don’t worry too much. My first wife pulled the same trick on me, too, packing up and leaving without telling me.”
“And she came back?”
“No, I heard that she’s having a blast in Proco. Married one of the mayors or something.”
“What? What are you trying to tell me?”
“Uhh… all things work out in the end? I got a second wife no-ARGH!” Feldon screamed as Drake tightened the bandage far too hard before stomping out of the house, leaving the whimpering Feldon on the ground.
The villagers noticed Drake leaving the house, quickly clamouring around him and trying to convince him of their viewpoints.
“SILENCE!” Drake bellowed as loud as he could. “Tonight, there will be a village meeting in three hours after dinner. I expect all villagers to attend. The future is at stake.”
