Chapter 309: Lead the way.

Rain began to pour from the sky as footsteps pounded against the surface of the water and splashed droplets of the ocean up onto Haru's face as he channelled mana into the soles of his feet to keep him afloat and then into his legs to increase his speed to rival that of a fighter jet as he blasted off towards the coast.

​​

Haru's Unit was far behind him as he reached the shore and heard the sound of gunpowder exploding in the air as bullets were being exchanged within the city of Shenzhen.

'This is so strange. The whole city is completely different from what I remember it looking like. All of this rubble… That is from the skyscrapers that used to tower over everything… Now it's a pile of rock on the ground.' Haru thought as he sent out a wave of Qi to sense for life as his instincts began to kick in.

As much as he would love to run off on his own and find out if Zen and Suyin's family were safe, He still had priorities, and he couldn't look over the chance of civilians being killed nearby.

As the wave of Qi expanded across the City, Haru gained a pretty good understanding of what was going on.

In the centre of the city, the military from both sides were shooting at each other from rooftops, and in the far corner, the Chinese police were trying their best to evacuate civilians while under fire from explosives that seemed to be locked on their location. But about 200 meters away from Haru, there were two soldiers being pursued by a unit often.

'It's okay guys, Hold on a little longer I will be right there.' Haru said as he transferred his voice into both of their heads as something even closer caught his attention.

There was a faint breath of someone trapped beneath the rubbles that were scattered all over the beach.

"Sir, are you okay!?" Haru called out as he ran over to the fallen building and began to claw at the grown to create a gap to see if he could get a better look inside.

There was no response to his question, but he could sense fear from the man who was trapped beneath. Haru concluded that the man was unsure which side was calling out to him and was afraid to answer in case it was the enemy, and they opened fire on him.

"It's okay, sir. You're safe now. I'm with the Japanese defence force." Haru called out as he quickly turned back to see that no one had caught up to him yet.

'Okay, it's safe.' Haru thought as he held out his hand and began to gather Qi around his fist and then added a small amount of mana to use both Magic and cultivation to create an invisible hand that was capable of picking up the rubble like a crane.

As Haru moved his hand, the rubble began to float up towards the sky before dropping to the floor beside the previous pile, revealing a middle-aged man in a black suit laying on the ground with blood streaming from his head.

Haru glanced at him for a moment before sending another wave of Qi towards the man and infiltrating his body to check for injuries.

'There isn't any serious damage to his head. It was just cut open by a falling rock. But his spine… It seems like that took most of the damage. If it wasn't for healing Magic, then he wouldn't be able to walk again.' Haru thought as he reached out his hand towards the man, but just as he did, a voice called out from behind him.

"What happened!?" Jake shouted as he finally reached the coast to see Haru standing over the man.

"I found him like this. We need to get medics here as soon as possible to treat him." Haru said as he turned back to Jake to see that a few more members from his Unit had turned up alongside him.

'Thanks for the save. I was just about to heal him.' Haru transferred his thoughts to Jake's mind to avoid suspicion as his act of body enhancing mage was still in place.

Jake simply smiled back with a look on his face that said "Anytime" as he felt happy he could help Haru maintain his appearance before turning back to the Unit he was in command of.

"Quick. Someone give treatment to this civilian. We need a neck brace, backboard and stretcher immediately. Someone stay by his side until the ships come into dock." Jake ordered as two people quickly rushed to the man's side and began to ask questions, but he remained unresponsive as the pain was too much for him to handle.

"What's next on the list? Did you discover anything else when you got here? Or should we proceed to help with the evacuation?" Jake asked as he knew that Haru would have a better understanding of what was going on than anyone else.

They had orders to help with the evacuation, but that was the only order they received. How and when they decided to do that was entirely up to them, so Jake didn't feel too bad about letting them wait a while.

"I'm not sure. We definitely need mages with protection magic to head over and help evacuate. They are being bombarded right now.

But to get to the evacuation zone, we will need to break through the warzone in the centre of the city. But since you guys have this covered, I need to make a quick pit stop.

There are two soldiers being chased not far from here. I will be back as soon as possible." Haru said as he began to prepare to sprint off in the direction he had sensed them going, but just as he did, Jake grabbed his arm.

"Then we go together. I'm not leaving you alone for this. I'm with you to the end." Jake said with a smile as the other soldiers looked over and knew that they were about to be ordered into a dangerous situation.

"Yeah, thanks," Haru said as Jake then turned to address the rest of the Unit.

"Nearby, there are members of the Chinese military who are being held down by the enemy. We are going to create an opportunity for them to escape before we focus our efforts on the evacuation.

If you are nervous, then stay back and watch. We aren't going to put ourselves in danger needlessly." Jake assured them as he could see some worried expressions from the soldiers that followed him. But his reassurance seemed to calm them down a little as they nodded their heads and prepared their weapons by activating their Lux's and drawing out different types of weapons.

"Lead the way, private Kitagawa!" Jake shouted out with a smile as he still hadn't gotten used to being in command.

Haru nodded his head and then began to keep pace with the others as he guided them towards the two Chinese soldiers that were fighting desperately for their lives.

A crack whistled through the air as a beam of light shot through the sky overhead as Haru led the Unit towards the fighting.

Everyone instinctively lowered themselves to the ground as Haru continued running forwards.

"What's the plan?" Jake asked as Haru began to speed up a little.

"Plan? I plan to inspire these guys and rescue the Chinese soldiers at the same time. So I guess we can go ahead with a head-on attack." Haru said as a flash of light emerged from his hand as he pulled out a sword from his lux.

"Haha, That's like you. I will take care of the sky then. You handle ground attacks." Jake said as the rest of the soldiers could no longer keep up as Jake jumped up into the air and began to fly over the tops of the deserted buildings while Haru sprinted towards the gunshots.

"What was that sound?" One of the enemy soldiers asked as he heard something behind him. But before he could ask anything else, his head hit the floor with a thud as Haru slashed his sword through the man's neck and stood still as he looked for his next target.

"It's an ambush! Quick, open fire!" Another one of the enemy soldiers shouted as he spotted Haru and then quickly aimed his rifle towards Haru's chest.

Haru watched as the trigger slowly began to move backwards as the man prepared to shoot Haru. But as he did so, a ball of fire rained down from the sky above and hit the man in the face.

"Agh! It burns!" He cried out in pain as his skin began to melt from the fireball.

"I got this one! Keep going!" Jake called out from the sky as there were still eight remaining enemies.

Haru nodded his head before powering his legs with mana and jumping forwards with another slash of his sword to put the burning man out of his misery. He then ran towards a group of three that had their backs turned and were still busy opening fire on the Chinese soldiers before quickly taking them out and moving on to the other two as Jake finished another three people at the same time.

Screams echoed all around as ten soldiers were brutally murdered before everything went silent.

"What is happening out there?" One of the Chinese soldiers asked as they remained covered behind a concrete block. It had been a while since anyone had shot, and they didn't know what to do.

"It's okay to come out now! We're with the JDF!" Haru called out in Chinese as I made sure that all their pursuers were dead.

Two sets of hands raised up over a slab of concrete to show that they didn't have any weapons as the two Chinese men stood up and turned to see the distinctive uniform of the Japanese army.

"Thank god, I thought we were dead for sure. I can't express my gratitude to you." The Chinese soldier responded as his friend clutched his shoulder and winced in pain.

"It's our pleasure. But it seems that your buddy isn't doing so well. Come along with us, and we can get you some medical attention." Haru said with a smile as he offered his hand out to them and then guided them back to where the rest of his squad was waiting.