Marching ahead

Silence overwhelmed the 200 man army as they marched through a dense forest. Evidently, they were well trained as not one had been lost.

At the front, Yuuji and his companions lead the march to their goal.

“Hey Yuuji, how did you even come up with that speech?” Allen asked out of the blue.

“I just thought of it on the spot…” Yuuji responded while scratching his cheek. ‘It sounded pretty cliche.’ He couldn’t help but think.

“Well… it sounded p-pretty awesome.” An awkward smile crept onto Allen’s face.

Yuuji looked at him with a blank expression. “That’s not what you’re really thinking.”

“What? Of course I thought it was awesome! It was a great speech! Right, guys?!” Allen exclaimed while looking at both Amilia and Kazuma.

“Yes! It was pretty amazing!” Amilia instantly said.

“...” An audible sigh came from Yuuji as he heard Amilia.

“You did well for someone who was put on the spot.” Kazuma responded while nodding.

“Thanks… Are we almost there yet, Allen?” Yuuji asked, quickly trying to change the topic of the conversation.

“Yes.” Allen nodded his head. After going silent for a moment, he put his hand out to stop the group which caused the army to stop in their tracks. “Everyone, take a break for 10 minutes as we discuss the plan.”

A few minutes later, Allen managed to scratch out a map of the base.

“There’s 3 gates to the inside.” Allen explained while drawing arrows to the gates. “We estimate that there’s around 60-70 people inside, it could be more or less. However we have enough man-power to completely overwhelm them.”

“How are you so sure we can overwhelm them?” The leader of the soldiers asked while narrowing his eyes.

“These are just foot-soldiers, they really aren’t that strong.” Allen shrugged before continuing. “However, there is one issue.”

“Which is?”

“The people they captured, if they realize we’re here… They could just slaughter everyone inside and this raid would be useless.”

“...”

“Hey Yuuji, what do you think we should do?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have an idea on what we should do?”

“Well…” Yuuji looked at the poorly sketched drawing, the three gates covered the directions, north, east and west. It’s possible they could breach it from the south but moving this many people around it'll be guaranteed they’d be spotted… ‘Wait…’ “Allen, what if we have a small group that’ll breach the south of the base, meanwhile the rest will attack the gates.”

“That doesn’t sound bad, right Kazuma?” A wide smile crept onto Allen’s face as he turned to Kazuma.

“Indeed, who’ll be the ones breaching the south?” Kazuma asked while looking at Yuuji.

“Hm…” Yuuji’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the ground for a moment. Ideally they would need someone who can take the front and lead the charge and someone who can support from the rear. “Me, Amilia, you and Akio.”

“I assume I’ll be leading the army to the gates?” Allen asked after everyone nodded to Yuuji’s plan. “Then let’s get started…”

—----------------------

“Hey, how long do we have to stay here?” A blonde haired woman in a dark cloak asked the man next to her.

“As long as needed.” He replied without moving his gaze away from the abundant forest in front of them.

“As long as needed? We’ve been here for a month at least! With the Beast of Annihilation there it should be at least a day!”

“If it takes a month, it needs to take a month.”

“That’s completely stupid…” The woman mumbled. This could’ve taken a day if not less, the Beast of Annihilation could completely annihilate a stupid nation. She couldn’t help but complain internally.

Many minutes of nothingness passed. Suddenly, a whizzing sound flew past her ear, followed by a thunk and a bone chilling gurgle.

“What…?” She couldn’t help but mumble as she looked towards the man. An arrow made of water dug deep into his throat… The gurgling sound ran out of his throat as blood flowed intensely through his mouth.

“What the hell….” Her entire body immediately became drenched as she looked towards the woods. More than 60 soldiers left the woods, all being led by a man who held a bow that was created from water.

“Shit..! WE’RE UN-” She tried to yell but she got silenced by an arrow piercing through her neck.

The base went silent as their three gates were bombarded with nearly 60 men on each side, no matter what they did it would lead to nothing.

‘Looks like this will be easy!’ Allen couldn’t help but note as he looked at the army he led to breach the north gate finally break through. A wide smile crept onto his face.

“LET’S GIVE EM’ HELL!” Allen roared as every single soldier rushed inside. However, everything was anti-climatic, every single person inside stood like a deer in headlights. But that was soon over as each one drew their weapon and prepared to attack.

In an instant the two parties clashed. Metal clashing with each other constantly rang out, blood quickly coated the ground as each member of the opposing party fell.

“DIE YOU TRAITOR!” A roar reverberated through the air as an organization member swung his sword at Allen’s neck. Only to be met with a sword.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that.” Allen responded with a smug smile on his face.

Quickly retreating his sword and taking a few steps back, the organization member took a defensive stance. Clearly waiting for an attack from Allen.

Shrugging his shoulders Allen bounded towards him while reeling back his arms. A loud bang could be heard everywhere as the organization member was sent back a few feet.

‘Looks like he can’t handle another exchange…’ Allen thought as he saw the man’s arms start to shake just from that one swing. Disappointment arose inside him as he was hoping for some fun.

As predicted, the member couldn’t handle the second slash… neither could his sword, as it made contact with Allen’s sword it shattered causing Allen to sever the man in half.

“...”

“Sir Allen, we captured who we coul…” The brutal scene in front of the soldier shocked him to the core… Sure, he’s fine with blood but the scene of a human split into with their organs splattered everywhere was something else.

“Great, did we lose anyone?” Allen asked, trying to change the subject.

“We only lost 2…”

‘More than I thought we’d lose.’ Allen sighed internally before looking at their main goal: The main building where they kept the kidnapped victims.

‘I hope they are doing well…’