The battle was over, but the soldiers had no time to relax and celebrate their victory. They did not even have time to collect the soul shards and other spoils from the army of slain abominations. Instead, as soon as the fighting ended, everyone got busy preparing for an immediate retreat.
That was the nature of the war in Antarctica. No matter what terrible foe you defeated, a dozen more were just beyond the horizon. They were in enemy territory. The ferocious battle against the Skull Centipede had not taken a lot of time, but it had created a lot of noise.
Already, several hordes of Nightmare Creatures were flowing across the plain, converging on the location where the battle had taken place. Unless the expedition force wanted to drown in an endless flood of abominations, it needed to disappear as soon as possible.
Sunny, Jet, Effie, and Kai were gathered in front of the Skull Centipede's massive corpse, careful to steer clear of the water. They did not know what the poison was exactly, but the river was visibly tainted. Even in death, the Corrupted Tyrant continued to spread death and destruction.
They had just retrieved the five Transcendent soul shards from the ghastly carcass - that was the extent of the trophies the expedition force was going to carry back with it. The huntress looked at the hundreds of dead abominations laying on the ground and sighed.
"Damn, what a pity. That would be enough for an entire cohort of Sleepers to saturate their cores."
Sunny felt a bit regretful, too. The monetary value of all these shards would have been astronomical... granted, now that the Chain of Nightmare had flooded the waking world with abominations, the price of shards was not what it had been before. He knew it from his occasional correspondence with Aiko.
He shook his head. "That might be true, but what's the use of having all these shards if we die before reaching a siege capital?"
Kai nodded. "Indeed. We have already reaped the main benefit - preventing the Tyrant from growing stronger and reaching one of the human settlements. Our casualties were light, too... that's a win in my book. Anything else is irrelevant."
Sunny knew that his friend was right. But, nevertheless, he could not help but sigh with regret. At least his luck had been good, granting him several Ascended Memories. None seemed particularly useful, so he promptly fed them to Nightmare. That was already a good result for one day.
After a short pause, Sunny said: "In any case... good job, everyone. That went much smoother than I thought it would. Especially you, Kai - that was an insane shot!"
Sunny knew a thing or two about archery. Shooting an arrow through a thin crack in the skull of a moving target, while flying at high speed... that was one for the books. The charming archer had been the one to destroy the skeletal trees, as well.
Kai smiled shyly. "Thank you. Ah... to be honest, I can't quite believe it. I never thought that I would kill a Corrupted Tyrant one day."
His green eyes turned slightly wistful, as if he was recalling the past. Sunny blinked a couple of times.
"...What on Earth are you talking about? Can't believe it? Says the guy who jumped into the mouth of a dragon to kill it!"
Kai coughed, while Jet glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "A dragon? What kind of a dragon are we talking about?"
The archer shook his head. "It was just a transformed Saint. In the Nightmare."
This time, it was Soul Reaper's turn to blink.
"...Ascended Nightingale killed a Saint?"
Her voice sounded a little dull. Effie suddenly laughed.
"What about it? I killed one, too. A huge pain of a bastard! And that one..."
She pointed at Sunny.
"...he actually killed the same Saint twice. Speak about holding grudges."
Jet rubbed the back of her neck with a neutral expression.
"Huh. And I thought my Second Nightmare was exciting..."
At that moment, Kai turned his head slightly, as if listening to something. He was most likely receiving a message through his comm. And indeed, a few moments later, he called out to them:
"Everything is ready. We can depart in three minutes."
Sunny let out a relieved sigh. The two companies had been quick to organize themselves for a rapid march, and so, they would be able to leave before any of the migrating hordes arrived.
Kai looked at Sunny and Jet, then at Effie. Then, he asked hesitantly:
"Oh... are we going to take my ride, or yours?"
Effie scoffed. "Does it matter?"
She grinned and answered her own question:
"Of course it matters! Do you think that I don't know how pampered you are by your soldiers? That guy... ah, it's really unfair! He has a fan club even in the army. They bring him all kinds of little gifts, including snacks. And sweets! So... I think we need to celebrate, and I think you're treating."
Kai looked away in embarrassment.
"That... those aren't gifts! People are just concerned about their commander. I can't really refuse, either... they become sad if I do..."
Sunny grinned.
"Uh-huh. Whatever you say..."
The archer shook his head.
"Alright. Then we will ride in my APC. We can work on compiling a report for Army Command in the process, too..."
With nothing more to discuss, they hurried to leave the scene of the battle. Riding a personnel carrier at the head of a column of soldiers made Sunny remember the cold, dark days in the Antarctic Center... granted, Kai's APC was a little shabby when compared to the robust, beautiful Rhino.
Still, it got the job done, and the charming archer really had some delicious stuff squirreled away in the nooks and crannies of the heavy machine.
The expedition force left the ravaged river shore behind and rushed across the plain, escaping the approaching mass of Nightmare Creatures. They masterfully navigated the landscape, avoiding the wandering swarms and keeping out of sight as well as they could.
The column had to fight off a few packs of abominations, but these skirmishes were too inconsequential to pay them any attention. Things like that were unavoidable when a large force traveled across Antarctica.
Everything was going well.
But, of course... it had not gone well for long.
At some point, the loud sound of an emergency message rolled through the interior of the APC.
Sunny looked up and turned to the communication terminal, frowning.
As soon as the damned thing lit up, he knew that something had gone really, really wrong.
