Chapter 39
Even after Kael went outside the truck, the situation did not improve.
At least, it did not for the first few minutes.
If anything, the attack grew even more intense.
Sena gritted her teeth while maintaining the defensive spell.
Whenever blue flashes scraped across the armor plating, the surface of the barrier rippled like water, and the impact traveled straight up her arms and shoulders.
The output was not enough to overwhelm her, but maintaining it for long was still a heavy burden.
“It seems like they’re concentrating their firepower on the right! Yudin, you still haven’t dealt with those bastards?”
Sena shouted.
Yudin answered briefly without lifting his eye from the scope.
“I’m trying, but they’re layering barriers over there, too. And whenever I put one down, another takes its place from behind. Even if they’re trained, they’re no ordinary opponents.”
“So they’re trained bastards, is that it.”
Brick growled from in front of the rear door, holding his shield plate upright. Blue fragments flew every time bullets struck it.
Brick was skillfully forcing back the enemies who kept attempting to enter from outside.
“Team leader! Two more are coming to the rear door with cutting equipment. These bastards look determined to tear the whole door off!”
“Maras, give me visibility on the rear!”
“I am!”
Maras gripped the drone controller and moved her fingers rapidly.
The small screens floating before her continued to shake, making everything overlap in a dizzying blur.
“Two in the rear cutting team. One mage behind them. Be careful, Brick. They’re preparing a binding spell behind the barrier. Keep a good hold on your shield.”
“Thanks for the warning!”
At Maras’s words, Brick angled his shield plate.
At that exact moment, a blue chain-like spell flew through the rear door.
Aiming for Brick’s shield plate, it slid across its surface with a soft hiss before embedding itself in the doorframe.
Kiiiiiing!
The spell coiled around the doorframe, sending sparks flying.
Brick reached out through the opening and grabbed the arm of an enemy carrying cutting equipment.
“Welcome, you son of a bitch!”
When he pulled with all his strength, the enemy’s body was dragged inside through the rear door.
At the same time, Yudin’s gunshot rang out.
Bang!
As the enemy’s shoulder snapped backward, Brick kicked the collapsing body back outside.
“One down, for now!”
“There are too many enemies to start counting yet.”
Sena said.
“I know! Still, that’s how you keep morale up!”
Then a metallic scraping sound came from the ceiling.
Kiiiiiiik.
Maras immediately looked up at the noise.
“These bastards have started tearing through the roof!”
“If they breach the roof, it’s over. Yudin, can’t you deal with them?”
“I can, but the enemies on the right are keeping me from looking up.”
Sena shoved the barrier toward the right and shouted.
“I’ll hold them off for three seconds.”
At her words, Yudin turned without complaint and raised his gun toward a small gap in the ceiling.
Bang!
One shot.
The cutting sound stopped as a metal component exploded beyond the ceiling.
Maras checked the screen.
“The ones on the roof are backing off for a moment. But a second group is climbing up behind them.”
“Prepare again.”
Sena drew a short breath.
The fingertips of the hand maintaining the defensive spell were growing numb, and the excessive ACU output was making the back of her neck gradually heat up.
If they kept being pushed back at this rate, she would not last long.
She reorganized the battle in her mind and gritted her teeth.
We can hold.
No—we have to hold.
While Kael shook up the enemy formation outside, they had to protect the cargo on this side.
The problem was that she had no idea what Kael was doing outside right now.
Maras had tried checking on him with the drones from time to time, but the smoke and interference kept him from appearing clearly.
“Team leader.”
Yudin said.
“Where did the ones on the right go?”
Sena immediately turned her head.
“They withdrew?”
“There were definitely three of them taking turns firing. Now there’s… one? No, that one just stopped, too.”
Maras enlarged the drone display.
“The ones approaching from the rear door also seem to be pulling back rather than trying to enter.”
Brick frowned behind his shield plate.
“What the hell are these bastards plotting?”
Sena fell silent for a moment.
‘It’s far too quiet.’
It was as though they were in the eye of a storm.
Sena did not lower her hand and continued maintaining the defensive spell.
“No one lower your guard. And don’t relax just because it’s quiet. We still don’t know whether the enemy has retreated, is repositioning, or is trying to lure us outside.”
Maras rapidly swiped through the screens.
“Hmm. The interference still makes it hard to see anything….”
Yudin spoke without taking his eye from the scope.
“They might really have retreated. Their command structure may have collapsed, or they may have decided the objective was too difficult to achieve. It’s hard to accept given the current situation, though.”
Sena thought as she listened to them.
‘Their command structure collapsed?’
The enemy had been moving methodically.
They had cut off the front and rear vehicles simultaneously, then pressured them from three directions as if they knew exactly how many escorts had been placed inside.
She could not understand why such a force would suddenly stop.
In fact, at the exact moment when they should have intensified the attack and brought them down, she could think of only one reason they would withdraw.
Someone had struck at the enemy’s head.
And one person came to Sena’s mind.
‘No way….’
That was when it happened.
Thud.
Beyond the rear door, footsteps began to sound through the smoke that had yet to clear.
Thud.
And through the gap.
Ssshhk.
Everyone inside the truck reacted at once to the sound of something being dragged across the ground.
“Don’t fire until we confirm who it is.”
At Sena’s words, everyone aimed their guns at the shape beyond the smoke.
The footsteps did not stop.
Thud.
Thud.
Ssshhk.
The dragging sound also drew closer.
A black shadow first began to appear in the smoke.
Two people.
One was standing, and the other was being dragged along the ground.
“Haa….”
Kael emerged from beyond the smoke.
He was dragging along an unconscious enemy.
He stopped in front of the rear door and spoke in his usual voice.
“I shook up the enemy formation quite a bit, as instructed.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Then Brick was the first to speak.
“…Quite a bit?”
When he glanced outside over the shield plate, he could see several shadows of fallen enemies through the smoke.
Brick looked back at Kael.
“Is this really a situation where you can say ‘quite a bit’? It looks to me like the outside is almost completely cleared.”
Kael denied it.
“Not completely.”
Then Kael set down the man he had dragged in by the hand.
Thud.
The man’s body fell heavily onto the truck floor.
“And I think this guy was the commander.”
Yudin narrowed his eyes without lowering his gun.
“Is he alive?”
“He’s alive.”
Brick immediately asked.
“Why did you bring him?”
“Because he’s a prisoner.”
Brick shut his mouth for a moment, then continued asking questions.
“No, I can see that. I’m asking why you went out of your way to drag back a prisoner. After causing that much havoc outside… it would’ve been easier to just finish him off and come back.”
Maras nodded as well.
“Right. If he’s the commander, there’s a high chance he has a self-destruct device or a tracking signal attached. Bringing him here could be dangerous. Of course, I assume you checked something before bringing him in, but I think we need an explanation in this situation.”
Kael answered calmly.
“I removed the self-destruct device. I also broke one tracking transmitter. And I cut out a separate device hidden inside his neck.”
Brick tilted his head.
“A device hidden inside his neck?”
“It was blinking red.”
Maras frowned.
“Damn. It was probably a gag device, not something to prevent suicide. Good work. Wait, you cut that yourself? In the field?”
“Yes.”
Maras studied Kael for a moment.
“What can you really do, and how far does it go?”
Instead of answering, Kael looked at Sena.
“And I brought him back because there was a separate request.”
Sena furrowed her brow.
“An additional request?”
“They asked me to capture one of them alive, if possible.”
Brick asked with a blank expression.
“Who?”
Kael answered casually.
“The client.”
Maras opened her mouth, then closed it.
“Seraph contacted you directly during the battle?”
“Yes.”
Brick let out a hollow laugh.
“Hahaha…. I don’t understand what’s going on anymore.”
Sena pressed her lips together, then spoke again.
“All right. Maras, rescan the prisoner’s entire body. Tell me immediately if any hidden signal or self-destruct device remains. Yudin, maintain visibility on the rear. The stragglers could still rush us again. Brick, keep watching the rear door and hold it.”
Brick raised his shield plate again.
“Got it. But honestly, now that this guy’s inside, I’m more worried about him than the ones outside.”
Kael looked at Brick.
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. I don’t know what you did outside, but the enemy attack stopped and you dragged their commander back in. Isn’t it normal for me to be worried?”
“I suppose.”
Maras spoke while scanning the back of the prisoner’s neck.
“For now, he’s alive. He’s unconscious because the neural connection point was compressed. His wrist device is… destroyed, and the transmitter around his waist has been removed. The device inside his neck is… really cut through?! And incredibly cleanly.”
She glanced at Kael with a questioning expression.
“Did you do this with your bare hands?”
Kael did not answer, but no one pressed him any further.
Now that the enemy’s communications interference was gone, Sena opened the internal network.
“Seraph Logistics Security Department, this is the transport escort team. Requesting support forces. One prisoner captured. Cargo status confirmation required. Please report the support forces’ location.”
Static crackled over the connection for a moment before a response came back.
-This is Seraph Logistics Security. Support forces are scheduled to arrive within four minutes.
Only then did Sena let out a long sigh.
She looked back and forth between the commander lying on the floor and Kael, who was quietly inspecting his gun beside him.
Then she muttered to herself.
“I really have no idea what this guy is.”
..
..
Soon afterward, an announcement rang out from outside.
[Seraph Security Bureau entering the scene.]
[Cargo escort team inside, keep your weapons lowered until your identities have been confirmed.]
[Repeating. Cargo escort team inside, keep your weapons lowered until your identities have been confirmed.]
Brick grumbled.
“We’re the ones who were attacked. Why are they telling us to lower our weapons?”
“Don’t pick a fight for no reason. This isn’t the time to argue with our allies.”
When a blue signal flare rose outside the rear door, Maras confirmed it.
“Identification complete. They’re allies.”
Only then did Sena completely withdraw the barrier.
When the blue circuit-light at her fingertips went out, her entire arm dropped heavily.
She could feel the ACU, which had been overheating moments ago, cooling down inside the back of her neck.
She caught her breath for a moment, then rose from her seat.
“Good. Everyone, let’s slowly move outside. Brick first, then Yudin and Maras. Kael, stay beside the prisoner. Until we hand him over to Seraph, he’s in our custody.”
Kael nodded.
“Understood.”
Brick stepped toward the rear door and slowly checked outside without folding away his shield plate.
“Visual clear. Nothing directly ahead.”
At that, Sena followed him outside.
The smoke that had continued billowing up was gradually settling.
The moment she looked around, she could not say a word.
What had entered her field of vision was beyond description.
Numerous enemies lay fallen around the truck.
Beneath the road structure was a ruined automated turret. A dagger was lodged in its rotating shaft, and the scorch marks scattered around it made it obvious that someone had dealt with it very cleanly.
‘He handled this alone…?’
In the middle of that melee.
Alone.
“….”
Brick was unable to speak for quite some time.
He looked around and muttered softly.
“He did all this… alone?”
Maras was looking at the scene with her own eyes rather than through the drone display.
She tried to make a joke as usual, but failed.
Her lips merely parted slightly as she slowly turned her head.
“Insane….”
Yudin added.
“He wiped out an entire squad by himself.”
Sena swallowed dryly without realizing it.
‘This….’
This was not the movement of a mercenary who had just been issued a freelancer license. No, it was impossible.
It was not a matter of rank, nor was it a matter of equipment specifications.
If she reproduced Kael’s specifications exactly, could she produce a result like this?
Knowing better than anyone that she could not, Sena turned away.
Soon afterward, Seraph security officers were rapidly entering the scene.
Just then, a Seraph security team leader approached Sena.
“Are you Ms. Sena Vark?”
“Yes.”
“I received the situation report. I’ve confirmed the secured prisoner and the condition of the cargo. Good work.”
Sena gave a short nod.
“I’ll submit the official report later. I don’t think I have the energy for that right now.”
“It certainly looks that way.”
The security team leader glanced around once, then asked in a low voice.
“Even with four A-rank mercenaries, to create a scene like this while bringing along a rookie… You’re even more impressive than the rumors suggest.”
Sena fell silent for a moment at his words, then turned to look toward the truck.
Kael was still sitting beside the prisoner inside the truck, quietly inspecting his handgun.
As if nothing happening outside had anything to do with him.
Sena spoke quietly.
“Most of it was done by one person.”
The security team leader’s eyes widened.
“One person…?”
Brick cut in from behind her.
“Yeah. One person. We don’t want to believe it either, but after seeing this, how can we not?”
“What the hell is he… No, where did that guy even come from?”
Everyone turned to look at Kael.
He was still quietly checking over the things he needed to do.