Chương 70: Chapter Seventy: War Waits for No Man

"Sebastian, I need you to cauterize my wounds quickly." Vince says while nodding his head towards the hardened stump of his missing arm.

"What about the healers? Have them fix you up. Cauterizing the wounds now will make it more difficult." I brush him off while eyeing the rest of the platform, still on guard for the rest of the hidden infiltrators.

"I can't, the bugs took them out first. Also, their healing can't fix missing limbs, their skills are nowhere near as strong as Nurse Sella's." He replies with a grunt. Shit. I didn't think about who the Freylith might have targeted before they attacked Angus. Just how much of our supporting forces were taken out before I had caught on?

"Fine. Keep that shield ready though. I need to focus on managing the temperature, so I won't be able to defend us for a bit." The man wordlessly hefts the buckler higher and extends the barrier to form a larger dome around us. I approach and begin filling my hands with thermal energy without hesitation. The crisp scent of burnt flesh fills my nose, and I trace the partially sealed wound with my fingers to identify the edges of flesh before laying both of my palms over the exposed tissue.

I use partial inspiration from what I have learned about Flame Drakes and their own healing techniques. The process isn't as simple as letting the heat do all the work through my skin, and I quickly alternate between <Emit> and <Infuse> to cover all ends of the gaping wound while goading the left-over strips of flesh over the exposed bone still left behind. After I get the technique down and eventually finish up the arm stump, I move on to the other more pressing wounds riddling his stomach and back.

The task isn't as demanding as the stump, so I passively continue to modify my Flare Loop in the meantime as well. There is something else I'm interested in trying too, yet I hesitate before testing. With the last of the seeping wounds beginning to seal shut, my endless energy sourced from the chaos unraveling around me finally runs my patience dry. Screw it. Without warning the man I'm treating, I experiment by using <Infuse> to push a tiny amount of radiation directly into Vince's body.

The barriers I have sensed covering the Honlir and the first infiltrator's bodies have made me want to see if others had a natural resistance to my skill as well. I don't have enough experience to know how exactly it works, but the idea of monsters having some sort of innate protection against foreign skills or mana is something I need compare with actual people in order to confirm.

When my radiation finally reaches forward to fill a small portion of the man's skin, I immediately feel another incorporeal barrier over his body that fights against my infusion. I guess it isn't just monsters after all, and humans also have some sort of inherent protection against foreign skills or something of the like. The confirmation just makes me want to experiment even more, and while my hands continue to seal Vince's wounds, I get to work on the side to poke at the invisible shield.

Testing the boundaries a bit, I push harder and see how the barrier reacts. With the current output I have attempting to invade his flesh, the barrier continues to hold up, yet even now, I can feel the wall holding me back slightly warp underneath my touch. Cranking it up a bit, I focus a bit of energy directly onto the spot I can feel warping. To my surprise, the barrier pops like a bubble and my energy begins to fill straight into the hardened skin underneath my fingertips.

I hear a gasp and a large hand grasps onto my shoulder painfully. The bones in Vince's grip creak and I look up to find the man making a most peculiar expression.

"D-don't do that. Whatever you just did, don't do it again." He says through gritted teeth while his eyes stare at me with a wild intent I've never seen before.

"Uh, yeah, my bad." I reply, not fully understanding what just happened. After a few more seconds, the wounds are cauterized to the best of my ability, leaving the man's missing eye as the only injury I do not touch. As I go to get up and let him know I'm finished, I see a small patch of blackened skin on his back. A small movement of his muscles caused the skin to ripple, and I silently watch while a tiny chunk of the dark skin falls off, as if the entire patch were made of charcoal.

Instead of inspecting further, I rise to my feet and decline from mentioning the phenomenon to my patient. The patch is right where I had poked through Vince's innate barrier and began infusing my radiation. I'm not sure exactly what that means for the man's health or how my energy penetrated his natural resistance so easily, but this new development is something I really don't have the time to worry about right now.

"Okay, you're all patched up for now. What are you thinking about our next move? Is staying here really a good move now that we know someone or something is screwing with us?" I ask while turning my attention back to the station once again.

"Thanks. Unfortunately, I think our best course of action is to stay here. It looks like the commanders are cleaning up the remaining infiltrators now that they showed their hand. I expect we will need to re-double our efforts managing the wave to account for our loss of manpower." He says grimly.

"So, we're just going to sit here and wait for the next floor change to pick off another one of our teammates?" Our leader's face twinges in response to my needling. I did it on purpose though; Vince needs to realize the situation we are in. No more withholding information, no more delusions of protecting everyone by himself; the man has to be transparent with everyone. I find it hard to believe that I, of all people, must be the one to impress upon the importance of trust to someone who used to be in the military.

If anything, I should be the one he has to convince to cooperate given my nature position as the outlier of this group. But the fact is, a situation like this doesn't just call for trust; it requires it. I can accept this and move forward accordingly, but something deep inside this man rejects true trust in his companions even in such a dire circumstance. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

For the remainder of Squad Five to live another day, Vince needs to get his head out of his ass and do what he always has: lead the group.

"Let's regroup with the others now that the commanders are taking care of the infiltrators." He says. Keeping my sensory skills active to make sure there aren't any more bugs running around, I move with facing away from Vince's back while he covers our front. We hadn't been that far away from the rest of the group, so it doesn't take long to return to them. At this point, the others are heavily on guard despite not currently being under attack, and only after Vince and I arrive do they finally collect themselves.

We wordlessly exchange greetings, and it is clear to me that before coming to get me, the army man had not told the rest of the group about the situation. With everyone just happy to see we are still alive, I break their mini celebration with a shove to Vince's back. With his injured state and the fact I'm probably a good amount of levels higher than him now, I am able to make him stagger forward a step toward everyone else.

"I'm going to get new orders from the platoon sergeants." An unbelieving look crosses the larger man's features, but I quickly quash his worries.

"I won't go off the deep end again. I'll be back in a few minutes, just update them on the situation while I'm gone. All of it." I say pointedly while ignoring some confused looks from those who still have yet to check their notifications. Running off toward the command tent, I find Tobias waiting inside with a bandage around his neck while a younger woman treats his wound.

"What the hell are you doing here? No recruits allowed in the command tent!" He yells, clearly still unstable from the surprise attack.

"We need new orders. From what I saw, Brian is taking care of the remaining infiltrators. Shouldn't we be rushing to manage the front line? If any more time passes without us supporting the ground troops, we will be overrun."

"Don't tell ME what the situation is, boy! Address your superior properly!" He laments in a snide tone.

"Don't act like you know what the hell is going on. I've fought the waves longer than you have been alive! The front line is gone by now. It doesn't matter, even with most of our ground troops slaughtered the Veil will stand. Any stray bugs that find their way inside will be exterminated before they even scale the wall. Just go back out there any manage the horde. Leave the real decisions to the people who are qualified, boy!"

Biting back my retort, I throw the flaps of the tent open and march out of the glorified break room for Tobias and Brian. These men could not have been less prepared for any hiccups in their plans. Their confidence in the Veil's power is foolish and will get everyone here killed. It's clear their past experiences have clouded their judgement of how difficult this wave is supposed to be. It's no real surprise.

Even with the change being made and the hidden infiltrators that slaughtered probably more than half our troops, it is clear the commanders are no more than props in this war. Whatever comes next is up to us to act upon. Stomping away from the command tent, I try to head back over to my group's spot while keeping an eye on the losing battle still taking place beyond the wall.

With so little ranged support still focused on the horde, the ground troops still fighting are struggling in vain, as there will be no saving them if the leftover manpower on the walls can't manage to gather themselves back up and concentrate their efforts on the fight once again.

"Hey, you! Fallen boy!" Suddenly a familiar voice yells toward me and I breathe out a sigh of annoyance before turning to face Brian. The man's wide form and armor are battered and scratched up, yet his ugly face remains unmarred by the fight which allows me to see his bloodshot eyes fixed on me while he cleans off the heavy metal axe that his arm has temporarily transformed into.

"You can see the infiltrators, yes? Why didn't you report their presence before our troops were killed!?" He roars with misdirected anger. Putting up my hands in a sign of surrender, I glance once more at the identifier above his head and curse once I see it is still unreadable.

"I wasn't able to see them before now. I figured it out with the help of the other Fallen after I realized what was going on."

"You mean to tell me you and your little group just magically 'figured out' how to see through a monster's stealth skill that was double your level?" He demands with obvious disbelief and accusation.

"Yes, Master Lirin made me learn a relevant sensory skill before coming here. I had just leveled it up enough to catch traces of the monsters with the help of my friends' own skills taught from their masters." I lie. My mention of Master Lirin is enough to make the man hesitate before spewing his next accusation, yet I can see that he isn't satisfied with my explanation.

The rage at such a disgusting negligence of his own responsibility grates at the man, and I can tell that he is looking for any logical reason to use me as a scapegoat. I expect this type of slip up resulting in such a slaughter is almost unheard of from Brian's previous experience with the waves. With his role as the leader of this station, it's obvious he knows just as well as I do that even if it's not technically his or Tobias's fault- when the wave ends, there will be hell to pay from his own leadership.

With his own mind overwhelmed by such meaningless consequences, the man probably doesn't even realize that it is likely many other stations were ambushed just like ours. With no knowledge of the changes forced upon this floor, the NPC has nothing to do but fit this current reality into his own world, making him out to be the one at fault by simple process of elimination. And unfortunately, that means he can take all of his negative thoughts out on his troops; Or the Fallen, to be more specific.

Brian's lips pull back in an angry snarl and he shows me his teeth while somehow trying to look down on me despite being several inches shorter.

"Alright then. I'm putting you and the rest of the Fallen in charge of infiltrator patrol. If any of our troops die to another stealthy fucking Freylith, I'm holding all of you accountable." He states with no room for argument. Swallowing my pride for a moment, I nod at his order and give the man a pearly white smile of my own.

"I sure hope we don't miss any heading toward our beloved leaders!" Brian's smile falters for a moment, and I see his face turn even more red than it was before while the arm axe he had been cleaning off comes dangerously close to me.

"If you think these bugs have a snowball's chance in hell of killing a level 100 Veil Guard, you got another thing coming, brat. But please, let me find one of those infiltrators anywhere near me, and I'll gladly take care of them myself. Then I'll come to deliver the appropriate punishment on the sorry bastard who let one slip through their fingers." He says, a grin once again adorning his pudgy features.

"BRIAN IS THAT YOU? GET THE HELL IN HERE." I hear Tobias shriek from inside the tent. The short Veil Guard continues to leer at me for another moment, forcing me to breathe in his horrid body odor. It looks like he really wants to use that axe, but I see him restrain himself after his fellow guard screams for him once again.

"One mistake, boy. Make one mistake and I'm killing everyone of your friends and saving you for last." Brian growls before finally turning away and stomping toward the command tent. When he goes inside and him and Tobias begin trading shouts of accusation, I continue modifying the Flare Loop clinging to my neck while staring at the dark entrance of the tent.

"Something tells me you won't be there to see my next mistake."