Hazard Lands Revenge

Chapter 7 - Devil

Author’s Notes – Sorry it’s really late, there’s been brownouts everywhere in my region, so couldn’t find internet. Also, I just realized how crap my naming skills are… Hudsonn and Personn… Thanks for reading!

Any similarities between this novel with the real world, other fiction and events are purely coincidental.

Enjoy!

--* Fenlei City, Fenlei Military Brigade Headquarters *--

Having had witnessed the death of his friends, fellow soldiers, and mutated humanoids, Nik had already been nearing the brink of his sanity. Seeing the only two of his acquaintances swiped aside like grass by the Crimson Wolf, he felt rage springing up in his head, yet he could do nothing. Watching his fellow soldier who had tried to save him and the others die a miserable death had almost snapped him. Now the one next to die would be him.

He really could not accept it. After all, who would want their heads to be served up on a silver plate that easily?

As he watched the claw fly at him, the world seemed to slow down almost to a halt. His crimson eyes were glowing an eerie light, similar to those of enraged beasts. Nik’s face was warped into an ugly frown as he carefully examined everything he could. Though his brain could easily comprehend the current events, his body however, could not. He could only stare, helplessly, at the menacing beast in front of him.

“Do you want… power?” an ancient voice suddenly reverberated in his head, coming from nowhere, yet also from everywhere.

The boy snapped out of his concentrated examination. Forgoing any hope of finding some sort of opportunity to avoid death, Nik focused on the voice inside of him.

“Who are you?” he thought.

“The being that will save you…” the ancient voice replied, its voice caused his mind to wrack with pain, but Nik persevered.

“What’s your price?” caution was written all over Nik. Who would trust a strange voice’s word?

“Hahaha! Are you really in a situation that could deny anything I ask for?” laughter echoed out inside his head. It was so forceful, it seemed as if Nik’s head would explode from the pain.

“… Give me power,” he replied, unable to endure the piercing power of the voice’s laughter.

“That’s more like it!” the voice shouted in excitement. The head splitting pain that had haunted Nik over the course of their conversation disappeared.

Though this took a while to describe, the conversation occurred over the course of pure milliseconds. The wolf’s paw moved at a snail’s pace in Nik’s perspective.

Just as the voice had disappeared from Nik’s consciousness, terrifying power invaded his body. He felt that something was going wrong, but he had already lost control of himself. His soul could only sit at the back of his mind, watching whatever the voice came from easily take control of his body.

It truly seemed like he had made a deal with the devil this time.

….

In the middle of the battlefield, two bodies were collapsed on the ground, twitching under the agonizing pain wracking them. They were Jasmine and Hudsonn. Their bodies were broken in multiple places: snapped ribs, bruised flesh, bloody scrapes, their wounds could not be easily listed.

Two pairs of eyes were slowly opening, as the two recruits gradually regained their consciousness. Their faces winced from the pain haunting their bodies, but they could only choose to accept it.

“Nik? Nik!?” Jasmine’s voice rose, as she tried to stand. Nearing the edge of her sanity, just like Nik, she has been holding back her grief of losing family members and friends. She simply could not withstand the death of another one of her friends. Tears trailed down her smooth pale skin as she desperately looked around, looking for any signs of the red-eyed boy.

“Ahh----!” a male’s voice screamed, endless fear deep within it. Just like Jasmine, Hudsonn had woken up. Right before him was the head of their senior soldiers, Personn. Vomit urged its way through his throat and spewed forth from his mouth, disgust haunting his soul. He had already witnessed death, but one can endure only so much before realizing the ugliness of it all.

As Jasmine noticed the scream, her pale face became even paler; it was as if blood was drained from her body. She could not even pay attention to the bodiless head. In her eyes was a demon.

Across the courtyard were two flashing lights, one red and one black. A thin boy constantly blurred, as his body ran towards the Crimson Wolf. A punch here, a kick there. Though it seemed as if his body could not even muster a proper punch, each and every hit would explode into shockwaves. Howls of misery and anguish constantly penetrated the air as the wolf was beaten, unable to stop the young monster before him.

What used to be his prey was now his predator.

Eyes of fear and astonishment were all targeted towards the two flashing individuals. The wolf that had easily slaughtered lines of soldiers was being held back by a frail looking boy. What was truly strange however, was the aura of death surrounding him. Void colored tendrils constantly emanated from his body, like souls escaping from the deepest layers of the Earth. Strange tribal rules were painted upon his skin, moving like parasites underneath his flesh.

Blood sprayed into the air, following the blood that fell from the sky. Howls and whimpers sounded out, as the wolf was beaten ruthlessly. It seemed as if it had already given up, and wanted to surrender, yet the little demon could not notice it, as fists flew out.

“Imperis mortir corpus litvac jascushin bri le telficude (A.N. This is gibberish, so don’t bother Google translating it lol). Seal!” a domineering voice spread out all over the military base. Soldiers and mutated alike tried to cover their ears, as it seemed like the voice was going to break their heads open. During their anguish however, the black demon suddenly disappeared. In its place was an unconscious boy. He slowly fell to the ground, but before he could truly collapse, an arm captured his body.

Gold eyes slowly examined the collapsed body, “Shit… How am I gonna explain this to the General…” he voiced in worry.

“Lieutenant, hurry up and bring him over to the shelter, we can’t expose them to anymore danger,” a stern voice called out.

“Yes sir!” Lieutenant Colonel James saluted, as he placed Nik on his shoulder. Before him was the Colonel, who was carrying the two recruits who came along with the one he was carrying. Beads of sweat ran down both of their backs, as they could not imagine the repercussions they’ll receive once the General finds out of the event.

As the two of them approached the headquarters, various mutated creatures kept trying to block their paths, yet they could only turn into puddles of blood. A violet light constantly revolved around the company, anything that enters it would be crushed to paste. James just stared at the Colonel’s back, admiring the prowess of his superior’s Mysticism. As for the Crimson Wolf they had left behind, it had already turned into a heap of flesh, bleeding out from various puncture wounds, which strangely seemed like fists.

In the span of a few breaths, the group of five arrived before the Headquarters. Squads of gunmen were gathered around the building, forcing back mobs of monsters with waves of flying metal.

“Garret, open the Shelter, we’ve got the three recruits!” the Colonel’s voice yelled. As it spread, the floor of the Headquarters suddenly disappeared, as if it was never there to begin with. Humanity claiming that they had advanced technology was not simple boasting. They had already figured out the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, how to rip apart space and stretch time, and even create matter out of nothing, which had broken all previous laws of physics.

As the five individuals entered, descending down into the shelter, the floor slowly materialized back into existence. Jasmine and Hudsonn could only gape in astonishment, as they limped forward with the Colonel, who supported their almost broken bodies. Nik had stayed unconscious throughout the whole event.

A man approached the Colonel, “Sir, we’ve evacuated about 40% of the Brigade, another 24% are currently waiting in queue. Unfortunately, we’ve lost 36% of our men,” he reported.

The colonel could only sigh. He had treated his men like they were part of his family, but now he’d already lost more than a third of them over the course of a day.

“Remind me later to recruit new men for the Intel team; we cannot make any more mistakes concerning these mutated monsters. First mistaking a Third Stage with a First Stage, and now being unable to notice a Fourth Stage attacking our Headquarters…” he sighed once more.

“Uhh… Colonel? What was that?” Jasmine suddenly asked, curiosity piqued in her eyes. Her family was not rich due to any inheritances, but due to the profits they had made through their large amounts of inventions. Despite all her studies and her family’s records, she had never witnessed any inventions that could easily displace and replace matter like the Shelter’s entrance. Teleportation was possible at the current era, but they still require large amounts of space for the technology and hardware required, unlike the empty entrance.

“Hehe, you’ll find out soon, but since you look so eager, in short, that was not technology,” the Colonel snickered. Obviously dissatisfied with his answer, Jasmine pouted, but did not continue to pursue the answer.

“Colonel, what did he mean by queue?” Hudsonn voiced, as he looked over at the man who joined them earlier.

“The Brigade cannot hold back the army of mutated outside. It’s only a matter of time before they reach the Headquarters and defeat us. So, we’re currently evacuating to a safer location,” the man replied instead.

“And where is that?” Jasmine asked, curious of where they were heading.

“The World Nations’ Central Army Base,” James answered.

“Well, for now we’ll get you guys rested. We have a long day tomorrow,” the Colonel announced, as he lead the group to the Shelter Nursing Area.

National Order

The Central Army has determined that the waves of Mutated Creatures are too difficult to hold back. All branches of the Army are to evacuate their individual bases using the Teleportation Capsules located in their Underground Shelters. Report back to the World Nations’ Central Army Base to your direct superiors. We will not tolerate any Branches from disobeying these orders. We do not desire the slaughter of our soldiers for pride.

To those who are concerned of living quarters and space, we have modified the Mildr (Mil-dur) City into a massive military Stronghold. Bring all the supplies one can salvage, as the World Nations are currently under heavy rationing. This includes any vehicles, food rations, ammunitions and firearms.

Supplies will only be given through the Merit System, as to prevent individuals from hoarding. There are multiple ways to earn merits to use for exchanging, such as repairing weapons and vehicles, or hunting mutated creatures, which will earn individuals the most merits according to their skills. To gain merits through hunting, extract the Crystal inside of the hunted creature and turn it in to your commanding superior.

The ranking system for merits are as follows:

Stage 1 – One merit

Stage 2 – Three merits

Stage 3 – Ten Merits

Stage 4 – One Hundred Merits

Stage 5 – Two Hundred Fifty Merits

Stage 6 – One Thousand Merits

Stage 7 – Five Thousand Merits

Stage 8 – Twenty Five Thousand Merits

Stage 9 – One Hundred Thousand Merits

Stage 10 – One Million Merits

If one were to encounter special type Mutated, discuss its value with Information Brokers located inside the Headquarters.

As for the prices of supplies using merits, there will be lists posted in the markets, located inside the Headquarters as well. Any soldiers that steal merits, forge merits or do anything dishonorable will be considered civilian on the spot, and will be forced out of the city.