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n“Did you manage to get rid of the other magic platoon?” I asked the lieutenant, who was also being treated as a chunk of her forearm was completely black and burnt.

n“We did… We’ll be in another stalemate shoot-out for another week. Magicians are precious, and close combatants are useless at this stage… So unless they bring out tanks or another magic platoon, this battle won’t go anywhere… **… just how are we supposed to get out of this….” The liutennt muttered.

nBehind the lieutenant was Luna lying back with blood splattered all over her face and uniform.

nHer eyes had a thousand-yard feel which was to be expected, but obviously, she’s taken it much better than the other three when they first did something like this.

nWell, there is a chance she’s already experienced something like this…

n“You good?” I asked Luna before gently laying Aisa down as she took a little rest with the help of a drowse-inducing mage.

nSomebody like her was dangerous, so it was good she was on our side.

n“I thought I was used to seeing corpses… but when they’re mushed, cracked, beaten, burnt, torn, and broken like this… I don’t think I could ever get used to this,” She muttered, and despite her cold expression, she was a bit of a softy underneath.

nI chuckled a bit before tossing her some rations, but her appetite was spoiled, so she tried to push them away.

n“You have to eat something in order to retain some energy,”

n“I’m fine… Ugh… Lieutenant, what are we going to do now?” Luna asked the mage platoon leader, who was currently having a conversation with my own lieutenant.

n“Shut the hell up for a second. I’m trying to figure it out as well,” She immediately replied mercilessly, causing Cy, me, and Findir to snicker a bit underneath the sound of gunshots above us.

nA few hours had passed, and the lieutenants finally came back with a plan.

n“Once all of my mages are healed, all of you will climb back through that tunnel and dig as fast you can. We need to reclaim that trench… We’ll cover you to the best of our abilities, so please regain that trench. We need to take that trench within a few days at least; otherwise, they’ll gain too much momentum, ultimately leading to our downfall,” The mage platoon leader said, and my platoon leader added on.

n“For everyone on my team, we have half a day to rest. On Michelle’s team, you have one day to rest, but the ones too severely injured like the young miss over here will stay back,”

n“I-I can still help,” Bella muttered, slowly turning over.

nThis alarmed the healers helping her as now her wound was gushing blood once again; it was definitely going to leave a nasty scar once it had finished healing.

n“Shut the hell up and follow my orders. You’ll just get in the way of this important task… Also, you snipers. Cover us instead of helping dig through the tunnel. We’re not completely impenetrable,” The mage platoon leader said as she shifted her eyes over to Aisa.

nThey both locked eyes, and Aisa shivered under the woman’s cold and almost despising gaze.

n“I’m more than enough. She can still rest….” I said, but both leaders weren’t having any of it.

n“This is why kids shouldn’t come to the battlefield! You’ll just be dead weight and a waste of ammo! If you’re really that scared, then go ahead and die. Shoot yourself!”

n“Tch… If you can’t handle the battlefield and adjust right now… I’ll shoot you myself,”

nBoth leaders were frightening, and I could tell Aisa wanted to run away now, but that was truly impossible.

nThe trenches behind us were completely packed, and moving through them would be impossible…

n“You have two days to make your decision. Either you get your ** together, or you die by my hands,” My lieutenant said before cracking open a box of cigarettes and smoking one right here.

n“Isn’t that a bad idea?” Findir asked.

n“It’s fine… There’s no way they’ll be able to tell the difference between a cig smoke and the smoke of a fire… Plus, it looks like it’s about to rain,”

nA heavy dark cloud suddenly shuffled over us, matching the tone of the trench as we all tried to contain our feelings.

nEverybody was stressed, angry, sad, scared… but in a matter of survival, you had to set all these feelings aside in order to achieve victory.

n…

nAnd so, just like that, an entire day had passed, and I only had about two hours of sleep in total as the rapid explosions in the distance shook the earth itself.

nAs we didn’t have any earth mages, we had to dig the tunnel back out again and replace the framing, which my platoon did while Aisa and I sat back.

nThen, we soon popped our heads out of the trench as the mage platoon quickly shuffled out of the trench, charging into the battlefield with a few of the mages creating blue shields of magic.

nThey were able to completely destroy any bullets and most spells that came in contact with it, so they were perfect for defending the mage platoon as they did their thing.

n“Just breathe, Aisa… Your helmet will save you more times than you can count,” I muttered as we both held our snipers so still you’d think we weren’t even gripping them.

nThen, I swayed the barrel slightly to the left,

nPew

n“Got one,” I muttered, and seeing me so relaxed made Aisa ask a question.

n“I-I know I’m a sniper and all, but I can’t get used to the feeling of taking somebody’s life. It felt so easy when I tore through them with my daggers on the previous battlefield, but when we got back, I kept having nightmares and nightmares… It’s like their souls are trying to torment me even after death… So, what do you feel when you kill somebody?”

n“The tensing of their muscles as my blade cuts through them… and my sniper… I guess the recoil… what else?”

nI heard Aisa chuckle a bit next to me, and even though I didn’t look at her, I could tell she was smiling.

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