Pellets sang through the air, ripping and tearing through hanging curtains, shattered glass windows and opulent furniture used as temporary cover. The former grand entrance had now been turned into a warzone, with soldiers on both ends firing at each other from afar, their vision filled with smoke, blood and the intermittent flashes of green arcia bolts, stopping pellets as they clanged to the floor.
An ADCON soldier heaved heavily into his full-face helmet as his back was against a marble pillar, as he reconnected his arcia fuel pack with a backup tubing to the rifle. Only the grime and sweat could be felt on his entire skin, the humidity and tension of the battle building up on every pore as it trickled down, with intermittent flashes of cold from the steel armour.
His hot breath fogged up the helmet, making it impossible for him to see. He quickly removed the visor, revealing it to be Jaden, one of the survivors of the Keru Forest village.
A torrent of pellets suddenly slammed into the edge of the pillar, causing him to instinctively flinch while he tried to wipe his visor with his gloves. His squad mates shot back over their own makeshift cover of cracked benches, solid wood tables, broken painting frames and even fallen chandeliers.
Jaden had been working as a hunter ever since they moved to the underground tunnel base. He had personally witnessed how Kyle could turn and influence events around him even when the situation was dire. He never liked the atmosphere of the village, especially when it all came to a head with the villagers threatening to sacrifice their own people.
Power! Power is what I want! This was the reason why Jaden had become an ADCON soldier. Only strength and power can give him the opportunity to survive and not let anything bad happen to him again. Drake had tried to convince him otherwise, but Jaden could not tolerate the pacifist stance any longer. The world is a war-torn place – only through fighting is there a chance of victory!
Kyle did not reject his application: anyone willing to fight for ADCON was accepted as long as they knew what they were getting themselves into. No one had a delusion that they were fighting for a greater cause or a grand goal; it was all about the money, training and fame, nothing else.
For such a time period of conflict, Jaden was no different from the others who had signed up, wanting to be protected or supported. Their equipment was far better than what the Versian military had, thanks to Kyle’s designs.
However, he was still young and lacking in training. It had only been a month, which paled in comparison to the amount of time Count Leon’s knights and the Nest defenders had practised for. This would be their second real battle following the Nest attack on Desham. Apart from that, Jaden had spent most of the time hunting mammoth hogs in the wide Keru Forest or training in the dungeon against the rock spiders that seemed never to end.
Despite his ambitions and goals, the subconscious threat of death still loomed over him like a guillotine, his actions measured as he placed his wiped visor back onto the full-face helmet. I survived rock spiders and Desham, of course I’ll survive this too!
“Lob!” The ADCON sergeant roared, prompting Jaden to instinctively grab a grenade, the hand motions drilled into him over the weeks of non-stop training. The ADCON squad lobbed their fragmentation grenades over their covers, some missing their target but many landing behind the metal barricade covers of the Nest defenders.
The ensuring series of explosions sent fragments piercing through everything in a radius, twisting through the exposed flesh of Nest defenders between the seams and cracks of armour as they yelled in pain, the hot metallic pieces digging into their skin and searing their capiliaries.
Before the blood could even flow out of their wounds, the ADCON soldiers charged in, capitalising on the opportunity. Jaden roared as well as he rushed out of the pillar, following his squad and rushing towards the enemy. The heat of the battle filled his veins and vision, the slow dull thumping of blood audible in his eardrums as each footstep sent thuds rumbling through his bones while he sprinted.
The ferocity of the ADCON soldiers was unmatched, sharpened through continuous combat in the dungeon. They pushed through the Nest defenders like a spearhead, with the sergeant at the front leading the charge. Just like the drills.
Jaden quickly filled his spot, rushing at a staggered Nest defender and immediately firing five pellets into his brain, the strength and impact of the pellets blasting through the skull and cratering the floor with stains of blood and mush.
His instincts suddenly screamed, but he was far too slow to dodge fully, forcing himself to lift his rifle to block as an axe bent the body and barrel, threatening to snap it. The impact force sent Jaden staggering two steps back, the area around him devolving into a chaotic brawl, everyone switching to close combat. Jaden tripped on a body, causing him to tumble down onto the floor. The arcia fuel pack on his belt did not break, a result of Kyle’s new over-engineering.
Before he could recover, the Nest axeman was already lunging at him, swinging downwards again. Jaden tried to roll out of the way but instead was blocked by the previous Nest defender he had killed, coming face to face with the dead vacant eyes. He frantically raised his vambraces to block the incoming swing, but the arctech axe was far too strong, cleaving through the armour and lodging itself into Jaden’s left arm.
The cold piercing bite of the metal axe seeped right into his bones as his nerves screamed out, sending jolts down to his brain that nearly made his body writhe in agony. At that moment, intoxicating adrenaline kicked in and rushed through his muscles, with Jaden’s life now on the line, as he watched the axeman about to step on him to pull out the axe.
Instead of letting the axeman pull out the axe, Jaden gritted his teeth and grabbed the axeman’s axe handle tightly, not letting go. He pulled hard while using his feet to kick the ankles of the axeman, causing him to topple onto the ground as well.
Jaden quickly used his core muscles to lift his legs up, pivoting them to grapple the axemen onto the ground while using his body weight to pin him. Ripping out the axe from his own left arm with a wince, Jaden yelled a battle cry as he swung down with his right hand on the axeman’s helmet before the axeman could retaliate.
The first strike cratered the metal helmet, denting inwards as the man’s head was slightly crushed. However, the axeman fought back, using his hands to grab both of Jaden’s arms, stopping them from moving.
It was a battle of strength, with Jaden being slowly overpowered by the older Nest axemen. The axemen’s grip began to crush his left forearm as well, exacerbating the wound even further and causing Jaden to grit his teeth even harder in agony, bearing the pain.
The tussle on the ground went on for a few more harrowing seconds, with the life-or-death battle being only one of many in the brawl.
Just as the axeman was about to overpower Jaden and throw his lighter body off, a series of pellets slammed into the helmet of the axeman, killing him instantly as his limbs went limp.
“Get up, kid!” The sergeant roared as he focused his rifle on another enemy, helping out the others.
Jaden ignored his limp left arm, grabbing a fallen Nest rifle and hooking up his arcia fuel pack tubes to the rifle. He began to support the other ADCON soldiers, flanking their enemies.
Soon, the battle was over, with the ADCON soldiers taking over the defensive position and firing at the reinforcing Nest soldiers who were coming in, creating a new gunfight. Jaden panted as he slumped behind a cover while the medic of his squad quickly treated his wounds.
They didn’t have Yul’s tears to make direct health potions, so all the ADCON soldiers had was mixtures of Poair Leaves and Greis Powder applied directly in a herbal salve concocted by Drake to stem and close the wound up with a makeshift bandage.
The radio chatter could be heard from the sergeant’s belt as the sergeant returned fire as well, reloading using a Nest ammunition canister.
[Reporting: Mornero is no longer in his office. He is in the underground bunker.]
Lucky for them, the ADCON soldiers had the entire mapped layout of the palace, thanks to the former high position of Minister Dekar, who knew every nook and cranny.
[Side Entrance A cleared, pushing into the second floor now.]
[Back entrance cleared.]
This main entrance was not the only entry point for the ADCON soldiers, though it was the most heavily contested. However, the morale of the soldiers was high despite some casualties. Even Jaden was smiling, despite his wounds and the close call he had just now.
The rush of battle was permeating, lifting their spirits as more and more announcements of sectors cleared began to roll in while they occupied their defensive position. The Nest defenders began pulling back, regrouping to concentrate their forces as they were besieged on all sides. Jaden and his platoon began to inch forward, chasing their tails through the blackened palace.
Soon, the ADCON soldiers and Count Leon’s knights met up, pushing together in synchronisation through various corridors and clearing the entire hallway room by room. The skill of the knights was extremely impressive, far more professional than anyone in ADCON as they swept through each room with well-drilled experience, covering every angle and hiding spot.
Any government worker or member of parliament spotted was killed immediately – no prisoners were taken.
The battle was fierce, with both sides mounting casualties. ADCON had lost a quarter of their original three hundred based on what Jaden was hearing on the radio.
Soon, Jaden reached the main hallway that led to the President’s office: the final stretch. However, a fierce firefight and melee brawl was underway, with countless bodies tossed to the side, the blood flowing freely and pooling in the inconsistent surfaces of what seemed like a corridor of death.
Scores of Count Leon’s knights lay dead on the side, nearly half of their force having been killed. Their veins were blackened, with dark capillaries surging towards their now vacant expression, gaping holes in their waists and shoulders.
There were still knights left, but Jaden estimated there weren’t more than a hundred left. “This is the final stretch, boys! Help our allies!”
Jaden rushed in, reinforcing whatever ADCON soldiers were left in the brawl. “Come on, men! You want to live forever!?” His sergeant screamed out before firing into the throngs of Nest defenders. However, Jaden soon saw a flash of black, with the sergeant crying out in pain as the sharp tip of an arm shield pierced into his chest, the poison spreading quickly through his body up his neck while the sergeant gagged out blood.
“Shit, it’s the leader!”
The ADCON soldiers and Count Leon’s knights tried to gang up on Nox, but he exploited the lack of practice and coordination between the two forces, using each other to block firing angles and attack ranges, slamming bodies against one another while he rapidly stabbed everyone near with his poison-tipped arm shields.
Jaden too tried to help, but the Nest leader was far too fast, moving quickly through the corridor that was slowly devolving into yet another melee brawl as the two sides were entangled with one another.
However, a sudden bang could be heard, with a railgun pellet the size of a marble slamming into Nox, staggering him and forcing Nox to back off behind his soldiers.
Jaden suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder; looking up to see Kyle in the Version 0 exosuit, the railgun still aimed at Nox. “Stay back. I’ll handle him.”
M.G.Driver
A new author with a story in the vein of Omniscent Reader Viewpoint (I love ORV, i read that stuff and even bought the premium edition from Korea)
Do you like system apocalpyse? Did you like ORV? Solo Levelling? or any Korean apocalpyse webtoon, really?
This story is right down that vein, with a bit of a Chinese twist. Super fun scenarios with a MC that grows over time (she is a bit pissy at the start, but it definitely gets better. Character growth, am I right?)
