149 The Long Walk Home

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Lt Joesph yelled as the Hero retreated from sight, "Check your weapons! Medics! Get to work! We got wounded here!" He quickly directed the men into action, "Section Three and Four set up a defensive perimeter! Here and here! Sergeants! Take charge of your men! Move!"

Lt Joesph walked up to the two operators that were in a sorry state but still standing Claymore One members. "Report soldier!"

Hitsu and Loke both straightened up and replied, "Sir! Specialist Corporal Hitsu and Specialist Private Loke reporting Sir!"

"What happened, son?" Lt Joesph gestured them to sit down as medics arrived to check on their wounds, "Take it easy, and tell me what happened."

Loke and Hitsu then gave out their own accounts of the situation from the time they left the town to till just now's fight. By the time their story was told, the rest of the heavily injured members were all stabilized and strapped onto stretchers, waiting to be transported.

"Damn, that was a hell of a fight!" Lt Joesph said, nodding in admiration of their capabilities. "Alright, get some ammo, food, and water, we will move out and head to the rendezvous point and hopefully round up all those that were scattered."

Lt Joesph stood up and glanced around the destroyed land, an artificial clearing roughly the size of a small marshaling field with stumps of broken trees and roots sticking out from the gorged out soil, and large pieces of wet wood littering everywhere that gave off a sweet and sickly smelling sap.

He looked at his Platoon Seargent who wordless handed him a note and read the contents. "Seven wounded, One critical from Platoon 4. Claymore One has two walking wounded, the team leader and one more in critical condition. And we have two prisoners, both slightly shaken up, one of them had a gunshot wound in the leg but she will survive." Lt Joesph raised his eyebrows as his Seargent gave his report.

"Secure the prisoners," Lt Joesph said, "Give them all the courtesy but if they try anything funny, shoot them."

"NCOs (Non-commissioned officers) gather up!" Lt Joesph yelled, clapping his gloved hands together. Soon all the Sergeants arrived before him, and he said, "We will move out in 10 minutes, prepare your men to move. I want section 4 at the rear covering our asses! We do not know if the Hero will come back for round two, so tell your boys to keep their eyes and ears open, their mouths and asses shut tight!"

"Yes sir!" The NCOs chorused, grinning at the prospect of kicking the Hero's ass again if he comes back for round two."

"Ensure your men have adequate ammo, water, and food," Lt Joesph continued, "I did not bring along the supplies on the ASASGs just to look pretty out here, I expect them to be used up! Now before the fight, we had encountered some of the freed slaves, and we pointed them to the general direction of where to meet up later. Section 2 and 3 will do a sweeping patrol back to the rendezvous point, and keep your eyes out for any stragglers. Section 1, will transport the wounded. Questions? No?"

"Okay, get to work people! We got a long walk home!"

-----

Dante scrambled madly through the forest, ignoring the slaps of low hanging branches and suddenly appeared before a small river stream. He splashed into the icy cold water and the cold shook him awake from his flight and he stood there heaving in waist deep water, the river washing away the blood and mud from his body.

"AHHHH!" He slammed both his clenched fists down on the flowing water, causing two massive spouts of water to surge up. "Ants... dare to wound me?"

He let the falling spray of water wash over him and he dunked his head into the river for a short while before standing up again, and on his face was his usual smile, "Now I know why The Rock requested me to come here."

He turned back to look at where he ran out from, and his smile grew wider, "I will be back, and this time, I will crush you ants." And he vanished without a trace from the river.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Situation on the ground now?" Captain Blake asked as he settled into his chair, accepting a steaming mug of local tea from an aide.

Commander Ford turned around from the tactical plot table and replied, "Situation resolved, but unknown if the Hero will attempt a second attack."

Blake nodded and looked up at the UAV feed hovering over the area of operations. "Damn, they destroyed an area of a football field in the forest?"

"Yes, sir, but it is mostly done by the Hero himself only," Ford explained, "Also watch this," He switched the view to where the manifestation of divine power was recorded.

"What the hell?" Blake sat up in his chair as he looked at the golden eye in the sky. "What do we know about this?"

"Sadly, nothing," Ford replied, "Magister Thorn hasn't seen anything like that before and his explanation is that power is highly likely to do with the divinity in the Hero's possession."

"We tried all matters of spectrum analysis on it, and it showed up in every sensor we have out there, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma," Ford continued, "Dr. Sharon appeared to be going crazy in her lab over this."

"She reports a dense amount of radiation was given off, but it did not belong to any of the three main types we know of," Ford said, "Not alpha, beta or gamma."

"But one thing we do know is that the Hero's radiation spiked and all the radiation is given off were like attracted to him like a magnet," Ford switched an image, showing a black an white image, a massive orange-red blob over the 'Eye' and the colorful blob was connected to the Hero at the bottom of the image. The Hero was displayed as an ink blob of orange and red in the picture.

"Dr. Sharon suggested that divinity powers or even magic powers are a form of radiation. Just what kind, how, why, or even the dangers of long-term exposure are all blanks at this point in time still." Ford said. "She is suggesting that if we can fine-tune our instruments to detect this unknown kind of radiation, we can use it to detect magic."

Blake nodded, "Do it, and tell Sharon to take a break, lately she doesn't seem to be herself, I do not want to order her to lay off her work, god knows how important it is, but she needs to pace herself and not overwork, we need her healthy and in one piece."

"Yes, sir," Ford nodded, "I will pass on your word."

"Good, what's the extraction plan for our forces on the ground?" Blake asked.

Ford switched the view to an overhead map and traced several lines. "They will march from this point all the way back."

"Why not have the Valkyries airlift them back?" Blake asked.

"We do not have the capacity for all that," Ford replied, "Each trip can take the most 60 people, and will require at least three hours before the next dust off. This will make the last two groups remaining on the ground highly vulnerable to attacks from monsters or the Hero."

"I see," Blake closed his eyes, "Make sure all available support is given to them. It's a long walk home..."

-----

Uncharted Forest, Rendevous Point Red

The tired slaves cried out in desperate fear and anger, as three massive owlbears stood before them and charged. They slammed into the single line of slaves who were armed with looted swords and shields of the Empire soldiers and a frenzied melee broke out.

Young's rifle and his pistol had long ran out of ammo, and he could only stab out with the bayonet attached rifle, scoring a thin gash on the flank of the bear-like creature.

Towering over three meters when on its hind legs, the owlbear had a head and face of an owl, and a body of a bear, with feathers growing out at certain parts of its front limbs. Its claws were tipped with 6" long razor-sharp talons, that can rip a man apart into two with a single swipe of its claws.

The desperate slaves could only stand and fight as they no longer had any strength to run, and running will only result in the owlbears hunting them down behind. "Shit! They must have smelled the scent of blood from our bodies!" Altied yelled as he fired his last remaining pistol magazine at the nearest owlbear, blowing out chunks of meat and hair from its chest. "FARK! I'm out!"

Young eyed the river at a short distance away, seeing a small mound of stones set in a pre-arranged manner. He knew that the Marines had landed and they had buried a small cache of supplies there. But the issue now is the remaining three owlbears blocking their way.

"Use your spells!" Young yelled as he summoned up his remaining mana reserves, barely drawing out a two circle magic spell and flung the lightning bolt at a charging owlbear who was cutting down the weaker slaves.

"My magic is as dry as your tits!" Altied yelled back as he rammed his bayonet into the back of an owlbear. The owlbear roared as the bayonet stabbed through its thick hide, and it spun around, sending Altied flying back, screaming. It reared up on its hind legs and hovered over the stunned soldier, ready to turn Altied into bloody meat paste.

Suddenly, a white shaped bird darted down and slashed at the face of the owlbear, sending it into a maddened frenzy. The white bird constantly harassed the face of the owlbear, make it retreat and trying to claw the bird down.

"Quickly run!" A girl's voice came from behind and Young and Altied turned and saw a white-haired cat girl carrying someone on her back gesturing them from behind a tree.

"We can't!" Young bitterly yelled back, "This is where we need to wait for the rest to come!"

"You want to die here?" Kaga angrily yelled back, "My magic won't last long! I don't the proper materials to make any proper talismans!'

"No shit," Altied said as he watched the owlbear take swipes at the paper bird. "If we run, they are gonna hunt us down, and running just makes you die tired."

"Can you make more of those things?" Young asked, "We need like, five.. no three minutes!"

"I don't have the materials!" Kaga yelled, wondering why this two would want to keep fighting, "I need parchments!"

"Will this do?" Young tossed out his slightly sweat soaked soggy notepad. "Its a bit wet but its paper."

"Paper?" Kaga looked at the almost perfect white rectangle notepad. "Yes... I think so!"

She quickly put the still unconscious Billy against the tree trunk and bit her own forefinger, breaking the skin and blood soon flowed out and she started to scribble some weird runes on the paper.

Young and Altied looked at each other and gave a shrug, unable to understand her magic. "Okay, once her spells distract the three owlbears, we go for the buried supplies. Clear?"

Altied looked over at where Young was pointing and gauged the distance, "about a hundred meters sprint, and to dig, three minutes? I think we need five!"

"Just do it!" Young said, "Come on," He gripped his empty rifle and charged out, angling towards the buried cache. The remaining slaves were still valiantly fighting off the owlbears who had smelled blood and were hungry for the juicy flesh running around in front of them.

"Done!" Kaga yelled only to look up to find both of the soldiers missing. "What? Wait! Arghh!"

She saw the two had already run up to the owlbears without waiting for her. She quickly held the three pieces of makeshift talismans and chanted, imbuing her spirit power into the pieces of paper and she tossed them out sharply.

"GO!"