While everyone was busy panicking, Iron opened his mouth and spoke solemnly.

“Just so you know, I have already reported this to the search unit commander. He didn’t say anything much and just gave me his support.” 

Iron smiled as the soldiers bowed their heads in obedience.

There was nothing else that they could do after being threatened with the search unit commander. Rebelling against their superior would bring nothing good to them so all that they could do was to work hard and survive.

They were fully aware that Iron did not care whether they rebelled or not. But when they heard the name of the search unit commander coming out of his mouth, the final shred of their feisty will that they kept at the corner of their hearts silently disappeared.

After seeing that the soldiers’ will to resist had disappeared, Iron led them to climb the mountain once again. 

On their way up, they encountered the soldiers working on patrol and guard duty. The soldiers that they passed by saluted Iron and the people who would take on the mission with him. Iron silently accepted their salute before moving forward. However, the soldiers did not put their hands down.

These soldiers stopped whatever they were doing and raised their hands in salute as a form of respect for their comrades who would go on these dangerous missions. They kept their hands raised in salute and only placed their hands down once all of the soldiers passed by.

After passing through one guard post after another, they finally arrived in the area where they killed the monsters during their training. 

“From here on out, we will be stepping on a dangerous area. This place is closer to the 3rd outpost but this is a place that they do not venture into since it’s dangerous.”

This was the territory of the ice goblins. These monsters were one of the dangerous monsters in the Northeast. However, these monsters were weak enough that they could easily be hunted by the academy students.

However, that was not the case here in the Winter Mountains. The ice goblins in this place knew how to use ice magic. There were even some of them who knew how to use sorcery just like the snow golems. This was the reason why they could firmly hold out here in the Winter Mountains. They also had the poisonous needle, a weapon characteristic to goblins, and they could also ski so their movement speed in the snow was extremely quick. In other words, the goblins in the Winter Mountains were extremely difficult to deal with. 

“Ice goblins are monsters that specialize in guerilla warfare. I believe any corporal who had experienced the ice goblins’ guerilla warfare would know of their dangers.”

The corporals nodded solemnly upon hearing Iron’s words. 

One might say that they did not attack in a large-scale battle since they were protecting their territory. But despite their small numbers, they would let their enemies suffer irreparable damage whenever they attacked. This was because they were beings who knew how to use their tactics properly. Compared to other monsters’ whose greatest threat was their overwhelming power, the ice goblins and their clever heads were the biggest threat to anyone going against them. 

There were various threats that they needed to face whenever they fought with ice goblins. This included magic, sorcery, poisonous saliva and many others. But fortunately, the soldiers could handle their mana so getting hit by their attacks would not mean an instant death. 

However, the ice goblin, who weren’t picky on the timing of their attacks, would attack them anytime regardless if it was day or night. And after staging a surprise attack, they would then go and run away quickly.

The soldiers, who experienced this constantly, were bound to get annoyed eventually. Even if they chased them down in their anger, the only thing that they would get was exhaustion. After all, these monsters were extremely quick on their feet.

What was worse was the fact that they would attack the empty outpost to steal their supplies while the soldiers were busy chasing them down.

That was how tricky and clever these monsters were.

“We will fight them here.”

“Yes? Are you saying, right now?”

“Yes. After that, we will quickly move on to the territory next to them.”

“Isn’t the next territory the territory of the silver wolves?”

“That’s right.”

On top of dealing with tricky monsters, they would also start to encroach on the silver wolves’ territory. Knowing this, fear started to color the faces of the soldiers. 

“The name of our tactic is EEJ. This is also a tactic that we will use in the future. We will break into the monsters’ territories and induce a fight among them. It’s dangerous so you should never go in too deep. You have to get out as quickly as I say.” 

The soldiers gulped dryly. Their nervousness that had been dampened earlier was now flaring up wildly again. It was to be expected. After all, the mission in front of them was far more dangerous than what they could imagine. 

Iron smiled as he watched his soldiers sweat in trepidation. 

“Don’t be nervous. We will never induce a large-scale battle anyway. At most, we will only scratch a bit on the surface. However, just that small scratch alone would be able to create discord among the monsters. That’s our mission.” 

Iron spoke as he stared at the soldiers. 

“This is a very important mission. If it succeeds… and the results are good, it will be developed into a mission for the entire special search unit. In other words, we are now serving as the vanguard and pioneer of this mission.” 

When they heard Iron’s words, the fear in the eyes slowly started to change. Their gazes were now shining in anticipation. 

They were now a vanguard and a pioneer of a mission that will be performed by the entire special search unit. This meant that if they survived, they would gain tremendous honor and be promoted quickly. 

“I believe all of you know the importance of being a pioneer.”

The soldiers nodded as they showed him their new found determination. 

“Once you survive and you go back alive, you will be promoted.” 

When Iron spoke out to affirm their guesses, the soldiers’ eyes completely changed. Iron smiled when he saw that their morale had increased. 

“Just do what you did during the training and you will be able to come back alive. Understand?” 

“Yes, sir!” 

“Good. Then, let’s start moving. Make sure to stay concealed.” 

Iron and his soldiers moved slowly and stealthily as they entered the ice goblins’ territory. 

Their goal was to move to the neutral zone between the ice goblins and the silver wolves. Iron carefully moved, making sure that he watched the topography while ordering his men to get into position. He moved with the most reliable Corporal Charles and three other corporals. 

“An ambush?” 

“That’s right. We’ll do an ambush.” 

“What do we do now?” 

“Shoveling.” 

The corporals looked strangely at Iron after hearing his words.

“Set up a trap.” 

“If we’re talking about a trap… are we trying to lure them to the other side, Outpost Leader?” 

“Then, I’ll do it for you.” 

“It’s dangerous.” 

Iron smiled when he heard the worry in Charles’ voice. 

“Just worry about yourself.” 

He continued to smile as he turned away from Charles.

“But will the goblins be fooled?” 

Charles’ expression that screamed ‘Those clever bastards?’ but Iron just grinned at him.

He knew what he was worried about. They specialized in guerilla warfare so they would first doubt you if they were provoked unnecessarily. However, their evil and wicked outpost leader was just grinning at them. 

“Who knows… Well, they have no choice but to be fooled.”

Iron left those words as he moved out by himself to personally draw the aggro of the ice goblins. He left the corporals with several orders. Hearing his plan, the corporals were left with no choice but to just shovel in silence.

Meanwhile, Iron moved quickly to where the goblins were located.

Just as what had been repeatedly mentioned before, ice goblins were goblins trained in guerilla warfare. And since they were exposed and could basically use mana, their danger level was comparable to monsters at the medium-range in size. They were clever monsters that were suspicious of everything that approached them.

―Kiiik?

The goblin turned around when it felt something move from behind him.

There, it saw Iron smiling brightly while waving his hand at him. The goblin immediately placed a poisonous needle in its mouth as soon as it spotted a human. But it realized that the young human in front of them was quite strange.

The goblin wondered if the human that was waving and smiling brightly was hostile to them. Perhaps this was the reason why it stopped its movements. It even looked at the goblin beside it as if to ask about this matter. But the goblin next to it was also tilting its head in confusion after seeing the crazy human. It seemed like they couldn’t understand its actions so they called for their superior.

―Kiiik, kiik, kiik, kiik!

―Kiiik?

The ice goblin walked towards the boy after hearing the briefing of its subordinates.

Although the opponent was a young boy, the ice goblin still dragged all of its subordinates to approach the enemy. It firmly believed that it should never underestimate the opponent especially if the opponent was fully armed. One should never let their guard down since humans sometimes exhibit crazy skills despite being young.

―Kiik… Human!

“Hello?”

―Why are you here? Are you trying to invade our territory?

Iron did not answer the ice goblin right away, but in the end he still nodded his head in agreement.

―Is that so?

“Yeah!”

―Is this a declaration of war?

“Yep.”

The ice goblin stared at Iron blankly. It looked like it was at a loss for words after having that conversation with him. While the ice goblin was staring in a daze, Iron quickly pulled up his gun. 

“Bye!”

―Crazy human!

The ice goblin swung its sword at the crazy human that dared attack it. However, Iron immediately took a back step as he fired his gun at it. The ice goblin was able to instinctively create a wall of ice from its mana. The ice was able to bounce off or reduce the power of Iron’s bullet which helped minimize the wounds that it received.

―Kiikiikiik!

Light slowly started to emit from the ice goblin’s body as it watched Iron attack them. When Iron saw this, he quickly raised the mana in his body as best as he could to pull himself away from them. 

At the same time, he continued to fire his gun to incite and stimulate the ice goblins. The ice goblins felt annoyed so they ran forward to chase him. 

―Kiikiik!

The goblin leader tried to calm down its subordinates when it realized that something was wrong. No matter how it looked at it, it felt like they were being led to a trap. But it was already too late when it realized that fact.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

With Corporal Charles at the forefront, the corporals began shooting at them. 

The goblins used their ice magic to block the bullets but when bombs started to get thrown at them, they had no choice but to retreat. 

However, despite retreating, the humans continued to follow them all the while planting bombs on the path that they took. Faced with a situation where they were unaware of the number of their enemies and their path being surrounded by bombs, the goblins had no choice but to retreat somewhere else. 

The ice goblins were only able to find a single path where they could pierce through. So, they concentrated their firepower over there and tried to break through. 

If they were given the time to think things a bit more thoroughly, they would have probably realized that this was also a trap. But the goblins were not given any time to think. Their rationality had almost been blown away from the anger, agitation and the urgent situation that appeared in front of them. 

They finally came back to their senses when disaster befell them. 

Bang, bang, bang!

Some of the goblins were caught in the explosion of the trap that they had dug in advance. The damage that they received increased further as their defenseless back was showered with a rain of bullets. 

―Human!

The goblin glared at Iron angrily but all it could see was Iron’s laugh.

―Filthy human bastard!

The ice goblin let out a bloody roar as it struggled to survive at the expense of its subordinate. It knew better than anyone else that they would be wiped out if it stayed still like this. So it tried to live. It knew that its skills were insufficient to save its subordinates. But someone had to survive, pass on this information and wage a war against the humans for revenge. 

In the end, plenty of goblins died filled with hatred for the humans that attacked them. 

“Is… Is this right?”

Corporal Charles spoke heavily as he watched the goblins roar desperately for revenge. Even the other corporals looked bitterly at the scene.

“Do you think I was too much?”

The corporals couldn’t say anything when Iron asked them. One might think that his methods were too much but the result was a success and no matter what they did, they were their enemies. 

“Think carefully. You can say that it’s a creature before it was a monster and think that what I did was too much. But before all of that, they are our enemies. Furthermore, they are the bastards who bothered and pilandered us with their guerilla warfare. Can you even say that in front of your dead comrades?”

The corporals shut their mouths when they heard Iron’s words.

“War is basically us carrying out and applying cruelty upon one another. We started a war in the Winter Mountains and we must win.”

Iron looked up at the sky as he continued speaking. 

“We must be willing to do anything to survive. The situation is already getting worse. If we stay still, annihilation will be greeting us in the future. We’re not in a position where we can measure the morality of our each and every move.”

Before they knew it, Iron’s face that looked up at the sky was also filled with infinite bitterness.

“Even if we have to do all the underhanded and dirty tricks, we need to survive.”

“…Yes.”

Charles wanted to ask Iron what future was waiting for them but when he saw the deep depression and bitterness that colored Iron’s face, all that he could do was shut his mouth. The same was true for the other corporals.

***

Notes

[Guerilla Warfare] – a form of irregular warfare where a small group of combatants attack using military tactics like ambushes, raids etc.

[EEJ] 이이제이 (以夷制夷) – An idiom meaning control [defeat] the barbarians with barbarians. Basically, it means making use of the contradictions between factions to induce conflict and reduce each other’s power. By reducing their power, you would be able to control/rule/defeat them. Idk if there’s an english counterpart but from what I heard, the internet community used EEJ as an abbreviation for the word. It’s a bit similar to using poison to defeat poison ig.

[Stay Concealed] – The exact term that they used is 기도비닉 (kidobinic) which means to move secretly without leaving a trace or sound. 기도 means attempt, invoke etc. The 비닉 is an abbreviation of 비밀 (secret)  + 은닉 (concealed). It is often seen as an operational term in the military that they use during covert operations, ambushes etc. However, the term was added to the list of words that were selected for removal to eliminate the remnants of CN and JPN in their military vocab back in 2012.