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Chapter 551: Lone Wolf Laying Traps

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With a gun on his head, shouldn’t Angus be afraid of the man then? Yet, more than the apparent terror, Angus’ reaction came as a surprise to the people of his platoon’s support team.

“You!!!” Angus yelled but it was not from fear, but a palpable anger. Yes. How could he ever forget that face? It was the face of the man that’s ruining all of his and his father’s plans to gain power!

Angus’ eyes darted at the violet font name above the Neutral Hostile’s head and he froze.

“You’re that [Mitra]?!!”

“Hello, Angus. You’re still as pathetic as ever. Ah, it stinks… did you shit yourself from fear? You’re really so pathetic that it’s disgusting to actually kill you using my own gun.”

The Drillmaster’s obvious disdainful mockery of his entire being doesn’t bother him but just a few of Mitra’s words actually elicited more rage to him than anything they could imagine.

“Don’t look down on me!”

BANG!!!

A bullet hole emerged on his left shoulder and he screamed in pain, trembling, and something seem to reek afoul when Angus moved to grab where the injury had been inflicted.

“You’re too noisy.” Said the [Mitra], but then his face crumpled in disgust as he cursed “Geezers crust… you actually shit yourself again from that?”

From the way the man covered his face and back away, even the people in the CP could only think of and imagine —and regretted it— just how ‘foul’ actually was Angus’ shit that its audible excretion even rung into the speakers in the CP.

“It hurts! It hurts… it hurts! IT HUUUURTTSSS!!!”

“Urgh, this is fucking useless.”

In truth, the gunshot was actually a miss. It only hit muscle and it was angled to miss the shoulder bone so Angus could actually still move it a bit.

But this pain made him forget his anger and the earlier fear of death that possessed his body had returned along with its source.

“Aaah… Ah… ah… ahh…. it huuurrrtttsssss…!! It fucking hurts!!! How dare you… how dare you!”

Angus remained looking down, wallowing in the pain, his face a painting of snot and tears meshed together into one pathetic mess of a person as he also cursed at the progenitor of his misery.

“I’m actually regretting letting you live. I planned to mess with your psyche but the disgusting show you’re displaying here is clearly repulsive. I have to kill you now, Angus, so I hope you won’t throw a fit in anger after this since this is all part of our tests. You see, both of us are being tested.”

Rex didn’t dare to make it so that it was all just his personal vendetta. He wanted to give impression to everyone listening that he was also just one of them, a candidate, but a rather special one at that.

But Angus’ fury for his pride being stepped upon, twice, by a single man burned away his rationality.

Rex had underestimated Angus’ pride on himself.

“I’ll get you for this! I swear I will kill everyone you love for humiliating me!” Angus cried back but as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt a rapid coldness embraced his heart and spine.

He raised his head meeting Mitra’s and he froze in shock and fear. He realized he had just spoken something that came out from his ego store and wasn’t spoken of by his conscious awareness of its implications. In short, it was an impulsive burst of his fury because his pride and ego was hurt.

But the moment of regret past and a punishment came right afterwards.

A dull sound rung and Angus’ world changed its angle of view.

With one step, Mitra kicked his face and his body slammed back into the main tree trunk, back first, snatching his air but still made him awake because the pain on his face was unbearable.

Then…

BANG! BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!”

Four simultaneous shots and the sprawled Angus let out a blood-curdling scream, evident of the extreme pain he was subjected with.

Rex was wearing the same armor as him so it was simple enough to him to shoot the defenseless Angus to where it would actually hurt him.

Angus’ pants were already wet but another batch of liquid was once again excreted. The simulation of the sensations that came with pain replication was to make the future soldier candidates know of the reality of warfare. The UNICORN Military has enemies in the shadows of the remaining forests and cities; insurgents and terrorists that have been plaguing world peace they’re trying to keep and maintain.

If these candidates doesn’t know the reality of the profession (Soldier) that they were about to enter and still decide to get recruited, then they would only be half-assed soldiers after their training so it was better to make them feel it this early so that a “shock” wouldn’t happen once they were actually put into the training fields.

Still, it’s not as if this perk doesn’t come with its own disadvantages.

Pain was real and in case of weak hearted dimwits who impulsively thought this was just a game, pain is like a shocking stimulant that may leave them in a trauma for years, or perhaps, even permanently.

PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Seasoned soldiers may get it so there should be no wonder if these ‘green geniuses’ get it as well.

They were warned about this, of course, so since they still decided to go on and discovered that they couldn’t bear with the pain, they have no one else to blame for it but themselves.

Angus’ four limbs were shot through their joints and he screamed like a lady in child labor. It was a high-pitched squeal that should not have come from a male adult.

He looked like a scarecrow leaning at the tree but the earlier smiling Mitra was gone and there was only a mad demon approaching him and shooting his legs twice again to further shake his sanity.

“Argh! STOP! It hurts! IT FUCKIN HURTS! Stop it already! Please!!! I beg you… sto—”

He was only given three seconds to plead as in the next second, Mitra kicked Angus in the chest, slapped his face with his open hand, and kicked him again to pin him back into the tree’s roots.

Even those watching in their Comms couldn’t help cringing at the brutality of this Mitra.

But the Drillmaster, Mitra’s supposed target, was actually paying attention not on Angus’ pathetic display but on Mitra’s face and his movements.

His kicks were sharp, precise, and strong enough to actually lift Angus from where he sat but deal only enough physical damage to hurt him but not actually injure him that he’d die.

In short, Mitra is plainly just torturing him. And the Drillmaster could actually see the skill behind it so he squinted his eyes in contemplation.

Angus was slightly lifted at the last kick and he fell slowly on his butt at the tree roots, his face now swollen as if it was stung by many bees.

Only when Mitra was satisfied on the punishment did he stop and stood in front of Angus, kicking his legs apart.

Who knows what he was gonna do to him?

Mitra slowly lifted his gun and pointed it at Angus.

“I will only say this once so you pathetic piece of shit better listen carefully.”

Angus’ black-eyed face lifted his gaze. By this point, the pain on his broken-shot limbs is shared by his face and entire body. He met “Mitra” eye to eye and saw the seething fury and malice on it he himself couldn’t believe was coming out from one who was actually younger than him.

This was pure and unfiltered malice.

Angus felt the true murderous intent from Rex he only felt once when he met a real killer, one of his father’s men. He then realized Rex Kingsley was also [MITRA] a Neutral Hostile —universal enemy of everyone else in this place with no ally and no team to rely on.

The fact that he wiped his team out within a mere few seconds proves that he had real ability. What more, he also only now recalled that his name was only entered at the very last moment and that the fact he was this skilled means that the UNICORN recognized his ability… to think that he’d actually threatened to kill the people he knows straight at his face…. Angus must be crazy, then?

When Angus realized this mistake, it was too late.

Rex Kingsley’s anger was already ignited, his fury tangible that it seethes out from his eyes and into Angus’ soul. He was now, officially, truly, shaken.

—who the hell are you?!!

Alas, he couldn’t speak the question and could only widen his eyes as Rex stared down at him as he, Angus, stared at the barrel of the gun.

“I don’t care if you chase after my life. I will even gladly receive it as a challenge. But you do not, in the slightest, not even at the thought of, threaten the innocent people around me. Your blood feud is with me. If you have the guts to fight me, then come and find me. If you can’t even do that much, then just shut the fuck up and stay away from me or to anyone I care. Because I can swear to your entire pantheon of Gods and Demons that I will find you even to the ends of the earth just so that I could make sure that you will squeal like a pig as I gut you alive, inch… by….. bloody…… inch.”

He enunciated his last words as clear as possible so that not only Angus, but every person in their Comm Channel could hear his declaration.

The Drillmaster actually smiled as he heard those words and he closed his eyes, chuckling, shaking his head in defeat. Although he didn’t have a feud with this Mitra, he could feel the tactile sincerity and absolute capacity to do the very thing he just declared to Angus with utmost surety.

“….wwwyyy……. I’m sowwwyyyy….” Angus could not even speak properly but he cried as he spoke the words.

—HOW DARE YOU!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!

But although he was crying like that, in his heart, he was screaming in hate and swore that he will kill Rex Kingsley with his own two hands once he gets home from here.

“I’ll be seeing you later then.” As if to read his mind, Mitra scoffed and pointing his gun at the man’s crotch. “Let this be a warning to you.”

BANG! BANG!! BANG~~!!!

“Umuaaaaaa… haaaaa……………haaaaaaaa…..”

Mitra emptied the clip and Angus screamed and cried in pain until he actually passed out. Rex was not going to let him be so he gave him a sharp kick to the neck and broke the bones in it.

“Hmp.”

Rex proceeded to rob the squad and took out the handguns and their bullets, two rifles, 3 Auricles, 5 SpyCams, 4 Energy Packs, 5 tactical knives, 2 Garrote Wire Bangles, and 2 hacking-consoles.

Seen from afar, he now looked like a guy going on an outdoor camp. He carried with him three of their backpacks along with his own metal case. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to bring it all just by himself so he needed help and he had a plan for that.

He put the Auricle used by Angus into his ear and spoke out, “I am [Codename: Mitra], special force, secret operatives candidate. I want to speak to the person in charge.”

On the CP, the Drillmaster smiled and he pressed a button on the candidate’s console panel and he spoke out loud.

“Simple. I have a proposition for you.”

The Drillmaster smiled. He already had an idea of what Mitra was talking about and although he did not hear anything about a special force operative, and even in doubt if this “special force” even exist in the first place, the fact that he was here in this assessment tests with the rookies was testament of the UNICORN being aware of who he was.

And because he was alone, Herbert Batista was at least smart enough to realize a few directions as to where this “proposition” of his will be heading.

He prompted. He was starting to like the kid. In his career as a soldier, this was the first time that he had acknowledged a junior as someone that is stronger and better than him at his skill sets.

“Good. I want a collaboration, what do you say?”

The Drillmaster smiled. He guessed it right.

The people in the CP and the squad still 200m away were surprised but because this was what their Drillmaster had spoken of, they couldn’t say something that will only punish them.

A video feed appeared on Rex’s vision and they looked at each other eye to eye.

“You’re a smart man.” He teased.

“I’ll provide you Intel, I need your numbers. I will also give you resources. All you need to do is to strike the targets I want eliminated in the manner and planning that I’ll instruct. Do we have a deal?”

The people in the CP reacted. Many wanted to ask why the Drillmaster doesn’t question him about what will happen to the candidates but held the question in.

“Heh. A smart man indeed.”

“Good man.” As he spoke, Rex swiped the air and provided the information for Herbert. Now that he had an Auricle from an existing team he could use a few things that are not available to him with only his own Auricle; such as information sharing and planning ambushes.

They’ve seen his skills and ability so the second squads didn’t have any quibble to the idea of him taking charge of their entire platoon.

Besides, in Angus’ platoon, one of the ten people he wanted to recruit to Black Label was just the girl, Fabula, and so he prioritized taking her out to avoid complications on his plans. He knew this, of course, from the video feeds on Chronos’ Room.

Angus being on her team was just a convenience.

Rex knew the location of the other nine and since the rest of Angus’ platoon wasn’t important to him, he didn’t mind working with them as his pawns.

“Not really. In terms of overall strategy, I will still leave to your squad leaders to perform according to your planned scenarios or something. Issue all the [Missions] as per normally but when it comes to taking out the other teams, I will only suggest a few planned scenarios once I finish setting them all up. Until then, I’ll just be a ghost. But you rest assured that I will still leave you valuable intel on enemies when I have them. For now, these are all the information I can tell you.”

Rex had sent them the location of his ambush site and the location of the traps he had set up.

This was to avoid this team having to commit the mistake of activating them. Also, they can use the traps to set up ambush site for their targets when they are chased.

“Personally, I don’t need the resources. But aside from the satellite scan feature, I really don’t have any use for the other features in the list. I will try to secure resources for you guys so you better make use of them.”

Rex shrugged at the man.

“I’m not really being generous. Remember that I still need your numbers. I have enemies I need to take down and they are invulnerable to you guys so I’ll deal with them alone. What I need you to do is to block the other platoons from interfering with my operation. In this round of assessment, I’ll be controlling who the ones that will pass. That is my mission. I chose your platoon but it’s still up to you if you’re up to the task. If not, then whoever survives my assault will be the ones that will pass so you’d all be better working harder than this.”

The reason rex told him this is because he didn’t want them to rely solely on his help. This is still an assessment event after all.

It was from another voice.

Another video feed popped out in existence with a youthful guy glaring at him. It was the Sqd Ldr from the second assault team of their platoon. It turns out he hate being looked down upon out of all things. Rex, of course, welcomed this attitude.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” he said. “For now, get all resources in the nearest hotspot. It’s safe. I have scouted it out earlier and aside from my enemies who you are unable to injure, no one will attack you in this area. Oh, and for the logistics team, please procure enough stars to buy at least two amphibious hovercrafts. You’ll need it to survive with the plan I’m concocting. Until I contact you, I’ll be silent so don’t bother contacting me. And one last thing, I’ll be sending you some locational data so I need you to set up the SpyCams I’ll be leaving here on those places according to angles that I will specify.”

After he spoke, he cut the call and the CP began to make preparations.

The Drillmaster’s judgement and attitude talking to [Mitra] was found weird by the candidates. Some of them was even jealous because Mitra looked younger to them and yet he was treated with the degree of *respect* that the Drillmaster only gave to those he found worthy of it.

It felt like a preferential treatment or some sort of favoritism but these candidates didn’t dare to say their complaints in fear of being castigated like a certain cretin who died with holes in his balls.

Even the Sqd Ldr of the second squad couldn’t but grit his teeth and gave order to make haste.

10 minutes later…

“Alright. Let’s get out of here. It’s 15 minutes from now that this hotspot will regenerate its lost stars so let’s use that time to get more hotspots closer to us. Let’s move out.”

The resource hotspot was secured and the 2nd Team Squad Leader immediately left with a cheer and the morale of the team as high as the skies.

Passing through the hill slope that Mitra came as he obliterated Angus’ team, they heard someone scream a high-pitched cry from afar.

The 2nd Sqd Ldr silently lifted a fist, indicating a full and silent stop and they, in the middle of their steps, also stopped as if statues and ducked to find cover, while they scouted every direction of their surroundings, looking for the origin of that earlier sound.

Its sound wasn’t even that close but because it’s a sound generated from surprise and fear, it was loud enough to be heard even from far away.

The Sqd Ldr lifted three fingers and then pointed on their right side. In the visions of the candidates were the ‘scans’ of the fingers and when the Sqd Ldr pointed to the right side, the ‘order’ was then translated into their visions; 300m to the right.

(AN: although there are standards to this practice of “hand gestures” in the Military, there are also a few non-standard team-specialized personalized command gestures. One of the specialized is the Police Assault Team hand gestures that’re very different from the orthodox Military Operations hand gestures in the field. As such, what I am using here is the non-standard “Movie” version to avoid spilling of army secrets.)

The candidates nodded.

Wedge formation, sneak-assault, weapons at the ready… the team jogged through the cover of the bushes and trees to find out the source of that loud cry earlier 300 meters away.

After a few minutes, they reached the source of the sound’s area and there, they saw a headless body dangling in the air.

It was still swaying when they came so it was sure that it was this guy who was unlucky enough to get his foot on the trap. Good thing there was no blood but the ladies in the team still gasped as the sight of a dead body was still new to them.

The Sqd Ldr wasn’t affected but the candidates were and so he made hand gestures again.

A balled firm fist then two fingers up, circle, then he pointed on three directions.

The hand gestures were translated as orders into every candidate’s visions: stay alert, secure visual perimeter, we’ll exit on three points if dangerous.

Again, the candidates nodded and positioned themselves in a circle, guns spread out, alert and eyes wide-open with ears listening to every bit of rustling sounds.

Then, they heard it… footsteps.

Ducked 30m away, three people wearing ninja outfits and clad in the blue “invulnerable” coloring, appeared and looked at the headless corpse.

They couldn’t hear what they were saying but one of the three kicked the ground and the other hit the nearest tree with a punch. The person which seemed to be the leader only studied the trap and looked up at the result.

“Squad Leader, what should we do?’ asked one of the curious hot blooded ones.

“Nothing.” The squad leader replied. “You can’t injure them and they aren’t even our enemies. It’s safe to assume that these are the enemies of that Mitra earlier.”

Everyone went silent.

“Shouldn’t we tell Mitra about them?” asked one of the candidates.

“Even if we wanted to, he said we’re not obligated to help him and to not contact him regardless of any reason so we’re good if we follow his words.”

The candidates fell silent again as they could feel the irritation on their Squad Leader’s voice.

After a second, the Squad Leader made a shrug and said, “Well, let’s just setup his cameras and be done with it… we’re going after our objectives after we finish setting them up.”

The Drillmaster seems to support the decision of the Squad Leader so he replied, “Roger that, CP.”

Everyone heard the stern command and they all slowly backed away, proceeding to extract more stars for their own use after they set up Rex’s SpyCams for him.

*****

“Leader.” Prompted the ninja on the right.

“Don’t mind them.” said the leader, not batting an eye to the retreating squad. “We can’t even injure them so it’s useless to pay them any attention.”

The other ninja pulled out a panel console and he looked at the universal map on his vision.

In it were the location of the other squads, their activities, and directions of movements. It was a feature available to them so that they can’t affect the procedures of the assessment tests.

After all, their target was nobody else but [Mitra].

“Let’s use one of the features. Conduct a scan.”

As the leader spoke, he looked at the left ninja. A nod later, he pulled out a panel console with a [3] indicated in green font: it was the total number of “credits” they have to use a [feature]. Since they can’t procure the resources in the hotspots, they were given these three chances to use features according to their discretions.

The only downside of it being that using one of these three credits not only makes them admit that dealing with [Mitra] is hard, it also lowers their contract’s rewards later.

The 20km map was displayed in their midst and it was at the next instant that a “scanning” effect is triggered —an arching wave that started right in the middle of the map and spread out into the far edges of the map.

It only took one second to scan the enter map. At the next instant, they saw their target, a red dot in the middle of white dots.

“Dead. That squad is dead.” said the right ninja.

“He’s looting.” said the left ninja. “Since he’s all alone, he would need items to replenish his own limited stocks.”

“…”

The leader was silent.

At the next moment, they saw Mitra’s dot move at a direction away from them. He was running. He had to. He must always be on the move or else they would catch up to him. It made the leader beam a wide smile.

The scan time lasts for 10 seconds and during that time, they can spy on the location(s) of their targets as well as their movement directions.

For the candidates, it was a useful feature but to the ninjas, it was a limited scan.

After all, in their visions, the location and direction of the candidates were always displayed as blue dots and the only red dot on their sights was Rex Kingsley —Mitra— alone.

In the map, four squads were on a heated scuffle on different locations, three squads dead with one of them close to their location, and then there was their target, running away towards the location of another squad.

The leader zoomed on the map and the dot was converted into a person, running at full speed to the direction of another squad 150 meters away.

“Wow. He’s 1.8km away from us, sir.”

“Damn, how can he run so fast? Look, he’s even carrying that 3m large weapon with him while he’s running. That will drain his exoskeleton’s batteries even faster.”

“…”

The leader was still silent and only watched as the scans ticked its last seconds while watching Rex.

Then, he frowned. In the zoomed image, though they can’t make up Mitra’s face, they at least can see his running figure and just now, he turned his head back and seeming to jump in the air.

“Hm?” The leader lifted his head up, looking at the direction of where Rex should be.

The ‘scan’ only showed a bird’s eye view but the different elevation of the terrains were still made to look like snaking contour lines, differentiating the elevations with every space between lines as the further the lines to each other, the higher the elevation in the terrain.

Basing on the contours of the map, Rex was at a hill that’s why the leader lifted his head up and looked over the direction where he was coming.

His scalp went numb and he immediately ducked, the left ninja, surprised, followed, while the right ninja, bewildered, only looked on, confused.

“Get down!” the leader shouted but before the right ninja could even say a word or react to it, his upper body vanished and the area behind him also suffered a devastating smash.

Soils and rocks flew up, and the body fell. There was silence as the two ninja looked on. Then, the leader began to move and run, shouting, “Scatter and run, he’s got SpyCams all over this place!”

The left ninja realized what happened and he too stood up and run away.

And yet, as soon as he took his first step, he was also shot and his body separated into many parts as if being punched by Optimus Prime. Of course the tree closest to the left ninja was also smashed to smithereens following the trajectory path of the anti-tank bullet.

The leader cursed and clicked his tongue. His ear sounding with the last member of his squad who asked if they could use another of their credits to revive their entire team, or to use it for another one of the map’s features.

If they choose revive them, they will be revived back into their vehicle but that also means that the pride of their team as a group of capable mercs will also be besmirched and their rewards will be reduced by a third again.

He felt annoyed.

“No. I’ll try and stick to the plan. I’ll deal with him.”

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Rex bears his fangs…

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