00037 - The Little Prince in the Ossuary
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A despairing soldier threw himself. A 30-meter free fall. For those waiting, it was a feast falling from the sky. Two of them died from the impact, and the rest began their feast. It seemed the soldier had pulled a few grenade pins before falling. A loud explosion occurred.
"Fisher Three down. Out of fuel."
The drone that had taken off first crashed. The fuel level had been precariously low for some time.
Repeated misfortunes persuaded the platoon leader. A radio urging retreat from the company headquarters was also repeated.
The mission branched at this point. Retreat was safe, while advancing was dangerous.
Gyeo-ul deliberated.
「Insight」 suggested acquiring a skill. If one had genius-level 「Movement」 at least of the Level 11, there was a chance to overcome the situation. This meant breaking through this chaos with extreme obstacle-overcoming ability and evasion rate correction.
Level 10 is the maximum limit an ordinary human can reach with effort. Beyond that is the realm of genius. It's a realm unattainable without being a genius. Therefore, even with the 「Talent Advantage」, the experience cost beyond the Level 11 was burdensome. That was why Gyeo-ul had only one skill of the Level 11, 「Firearms Proficiency」.
It was possible. If he used all his resources, even reaching the Level 14 was within reach. Aside from what he had not used and saved, he had accumulated considerable experience through interpersonal interaction evaluation.
Thus, Gyeo-ul's concern was not the investment but the probability of success.
Then another warning came.
"Platoon Leader! Strange ones have appeared!"
They were indeed strange. Although they had scars, they were not rotten like the others. It meant they had overcome immune rejection responses. They resembled cured Hansen's disease patients. Their entire bodies were muscles, yet they seemed agile. Their skin was so pale it was close to gray, with veins visible beneath.
Gyeo-ul thought.
'Is that so? Enhanced mutants after special mutants?'
Enhanced mutants, commonly called "ghouls (屍鬼)."
Easier than special mutants, but difficult when they appeared in hordes.
They were running directly. While ordinary ones scattered uncontrolled frenzy with their entire bodies, they clenched their teeth and sprinted like sprinters. Their arms swung vigorously back and forth. Their pupils were completely still. Their thighs were abnormally thick.
Ddudduddudduduk!
Machine gun fire knocked down the enhanced mutants. Those that avoided vital spots got up again. The platoon leader made a decision. And Gyeo-ul also made up his mind.
"Damn it... retreat! Retreat!"
The rangers and Gyeo-ul moved in the opposite direction. The platoon leader was astonished.
"You! What are you doing?!"
Gyeo-ul ran vertically up the wall of a house, grabbed the edge of the eaves, and jumped. He flipped his body and landed on the roof. That was all in one breath. The linking of advanced 「Movement」 and 「Insight」 calculated the optimal path and mapped it as augmented reality in his vision. Dozens of lines changing with every moment, and colors varying according to possibilities.
The impressive movement seemed to have caught their attention. The enhanced mutants targeted Gyeo-ul first. Leaping from the ground, they grabbed the roof directly with the elasticity of their arms and jumped again. Before one could step on the roof, while still airborne, Gyeo-ul kicked it hard.
The creature was struck in the solar plexus with a military boot. It flew back, clutching its deeply indented chest, and crashed to the ground. Convulsions and tremors.
Five ghouls climbed after.
Dduduk!
One was taken out with a shot. Overlapping angles reduced shooting efficiency, with the second trailing with blood. Gyeo-ul thrust his bayonet. The blade fixed under the muzzle pierced through the chest and upward, stabbing under the chin, penetrating the brainstem.
A new threat approached from behind. Dodging a gray hand, Gyeo-ul reversed, released the gun, turned his body, switched hands to pull back the gun, and delivered a spinning kick to the shin. Kwadeuk! The sound of a bone cracking. The third one, losing its balance, rolled off the roof.
The fourth one caught him. Entwined arms and reversed grip on the gun, ongoing strength contest. Meanwhile, the fifth one attacked from behind. Gyeo-ul wedged the gun body into the fourth one's teeth and, while entangled, turned to the side. The gripped gun, the muzzle, pointed at the fifth. Gyeo-ul's left thumb hooked the trigger. Firing. Until the magazine was completely emptied.
The fifth's rib shattered with a crisp, splintering sound. As rough as the aim was, so was the death. Its lungs failed, blood spurted out, and its body collapsed. It died trembling all over. The roof was stained crimson.
Now there was only the fourth left. Gyeo-ul pressed the ghoul down with pure force. Slowly, but surely. The muscle boosting of the high-grade combat skills made this possible. The ghoul kneeled. He pushed back and forced it to lie down entirely. Gyeo-ul, kneeling on its arms, sat on its pale chest. He grabbed the gun firmly with both free hands and yanked it toward himself.
Eujijik—
The sound of the jaw dislocating, the flesh tearing. The ghoul's hollow scream. Now Gyeo-ul held the rifle upright with both hands. He began pounding the ghoul's head with the buttstock. A hammering filled with a murderous aura, intent on crushing it. Blood and flesh splattered, and people sharing the experience cheered. Each blow ignited a burning stone in the chest, increasingly growing disconnected from reality.
The scream before him slowly faded, like the last cry of a cicada spent with life.
In the meantime, the ranger platoon had retreated to a distance. Still, they managed to take the injured soldiers safely. Sergeant Perry's figure, unable to tear his gaze away from the boy, was visible. On the roof, ordinary mutants were attempting to pile up a living tower targeting the boy. Trying repeatedly, only to collapse again.
Gyeo-ul reloaded his magazine and surveyed his surroundings. In the airspace where helicopters circled, survivors would be hiding below. There had been no indication in previous communications that the hiding had been exposed. Was it called the Western Motel?
Despite this, the receiver was quite noisy. It had been the platoon leader's voice searching for Gyeo-ul.
"Clown! Clown! Hey, Clown! Respond!"
Gyeo-ul transmitted.
"Yes, this is the Clown."
"What the hell are you doing? Did you throw your life away? Huh? You're supposed to follow command!"
The voice, a complicated mix of worry, irritation, and anger, in equal parts. Gyeo-ul responded.
"I'm sorry, but I'm on a different chain of command. I don't have to follow your headquarters' orders, do I?"
"Are you out of your mind?!"
How should he respond here? Gyeo-ul used the keyword provided by 「Insight」.
"My command authority is with Camp Roberts Command, and the only instruction I received is to 'Kill the monsters in Santa Maria magnificently.' There's really no mention of delegating command authority to Captain McGuire. Therefore, I will complete my mission. While I'm at it, I'll handle one secondary task as well."
Using the provided keyword attached system correction, even if lacking in 'acting ability.'
"You kidding, this has got to be a... joke."
"I'm going to be busy for a bit. Please understand if you don't hear a reply."
Gyeo-ul rolled a grenade forward. Rolling. The tiny bomb rolled adorably over and landed right on the forehead of the first one to climb the tower. Immediately, an explosion.
Bang!
Blood and flesh scattered in the air. Torn intestines falling here and there in the street.
Gyeo-ul ran. He stepped on a writhing pile of living bodies and leaped down to land back on the road. Black dots scattered on the dusty asphalt. They moved. Cockroaches, like omens of catastrophe. They were crushed with an eek-eek sound under the military boots.
A drone, perhaps still curious, hovered nearby. Its lens captured the boy.
Out of ammunition, it seemed. The gunfire from the helicopters had stopped. Two helicopters turned their nose back toward headquarters.
Now the fight was entirely the boy's. The destination was about 200 meters away. Every mutant in between recognized Gyeo-ul. A running child soldier. A pack of mutants charged.
No matter how many there were, there were always gaps in an unregulated group. Gyeo-ul exploited those gaps. Between outstretched arms and charging bodies, in the sheer gaps between ill-composed instincts.
If there was no path, he created one. When it felt surrounded on all sides, grabbing the wrist of one in front, pulling it, tipping it over, rolling round, quickly slipping through the sparse bars of legs and legs and more legs.
He stood up with the same rolling speed. Five meters ahead was an enhanced mutant. Gyeo-ul shot its knee. Collapsing lower body, leaning upper body. Using the fallen ghoul as a step, he leaped over more.
Now it seemed as if he'd be trapped. Gyeo-ul climbed up on an abandoned camper by the roadside. He ran across its broad roof, stepped on the edge, and leaped as far as he could. A flight without wings. Starving creatures howled beneath the boy's feet. Gyeo-ul stepped on a tree branch. Taking the elasticity of the bending woody material, he jumped once more into the distance. Skill correction. The impact of landing did not rise above the knees. Rolling once again converted the falling force into forward momentum.
Each of the two leaps covered a distance of 15 meters.
There was no need strictly to adhere to roads. He scaled walls, crossed roofs like flatland.
Finally, 'Boogie One', the original Grumble, took interest. It gave up searching for hidden citizens and turned its body. There were dead and dying things between monster and boy, but the predator's solid gaze did not lose sight of the new target. Firmly fixed gaze of a predator.
"Gweeroooaaah!"
Preparing its sprint pattern targeting Gyeo-ul.
This was what he had been waiting for. With his current evasion rate, it was definite.
Bulging blood vessels on Grumble's thick legs. Enormous mass, terrifying acceleration. All the mutants jumping between Gyeo-ul and the monster were trampled. Gyeo-ul threw himself at the precise moment. Swung Grumble's fist missed by a strand of air.
Yet Grumble tore up over ten more meters even after. A crimson paved road mixed with flesh and bones. Phishwiik—steam blew from its nostrils as the monster slowly turned around. Gyeo-ul provoked another charge. A frenzied earth tremor. The asphalt cracked like a spider web. It was a force and weight beyond belief. Mutants caught in its path flew about with their limbs torn.
"Watch out, Clown! At six o'clock! Boogie Two's got you in its sights!"
Even without the warning, he sensed it. A sensation penetrating the marrow and the augmented reality's alert. The appearance of another Grumble. It was the interconnected function of 「Combat Sense」 and 「Survival Sense」.
Gyeo-ul kneeled, taking precise aim. He needed to create a time gap in the two monsters' charge. Deep breaths, heaving shoulders. The aiming line shook, but it was an Level 11 shooting skill. Dududududud! He fired three rounds in semi-auto that burrowed into a wide-open throat. Right after, Gyeo-ul jumped. In the unchecked direction, a massive weight passed just by. He heard the roar of the shot one. Immediately, he dodged again. The second one only stopped after smashing into an entire house.
How many times had he repeated this action? The horde of mutants gathered at the downtown area faced a massacre. A sea of corpses and blood. At last, the two helicopters, returning with replenished ammunition, joined in. Even with animalistic intelligence, could they foresee death? The many mutants still in sight started scattering.
Now Gyeo-ul thought of taking down the Grumbles. He had made the two monsters gather on one front and approached while alternating shots whenever they roared.
Only three grenades remained. He couldn't kill both. First, he dealt with one, made the other cough up blood. With one reduced in combat power, the helicopters descended. A low-altitude flight. The grenadier aimed the large muzzle at the growling monster.
Thunk—
A slight resonance. The result heavy. The explosion of the grenade before it could even close its mouth. The monster's last exhale was a flame mixed with blood.
Gyeo-ul looked around. He found it. The Western Motel. He walked toward it, unhurried. It wasn't necessary for him to personally deal with the surviving mutants. That was the role of the soldiers who disembarked from the helicopter. One of them, for a moment, hesitated in front of Gyeo-ul. It was as if he wanted to say something but didn't know what would be appropriate. In the end, he just saluted and that was it.
---------------------------= Author's Note ---------------------------=
People usually say it takes three hours to write an episode...
I also want to do that... hehe...
Clacky's Corner:
This author.