Chapter 58

Chapter 58
A brilliant white distress flare painted the distant horizon in a piercing luminescence.

Meursault reacted instantly.

“Commander…!”

His face drained of all color, Meursault instinctively moved to charge in that exact direction before catching himself and turning back to look at me.

I was holding the leadership role for this squad at the moment.

Without my explicit authorization, no one was permitted to break our formation.

Struggling to keep his anxiety in check, Meursault asked,

“Lee Dam, what is your plan?”

His posture made it clear that even if I forbade it, he would still sprint off right then to verify the commander’s well-being.

Before giving him my answer, I tilted my chin upward to tally the white flares suspended in the firmament.

One, two… it appeared there were upwards of six.

A single white flare traditionally indicated the spotting of one large-class creature.

Surpassing six flares implied that a minimum of six beasts had been located.

Yet something felt inherently amiss for a discovery occurring during a standard patrol.

For starters, the pyrotechnics had all launched simultaneously.

Releasing them together caused the luminous bursts to overlap, turning any precise calculation nearly impossible; under normal protocols, individuals would stagger the illuminations sequentially.

Instead, what drifted before our sight was an entangled mess of overlapping signals.

There was zero probability those had been discharged under routine circumstances.

Based on the haphazard pattern, the most logical assumption was that a unit had unexpectedly collided with multiple large-class beasts and every operative had frantically fired whatever white flares they had on hand.

Other squads who spotted the warning would already be mobilizing, and even if we dashed over, we would almost certainly arrive last. Still, given my rank—and Meursault’s—I could not simply overlook it.

And besides…

If six really had emerged at once, the commander’s personal survival might be compromised.

He had been practicing how to spot a large-class creature’s core visually, but executing that technique cleanly during actual combat was an entirely different challenge.

Especially when the volume of adversaries was this immense.

Large-class monsters did not typically travel in groups; the reality that so many had surfaced collectively was already abnormal.

I concluded my quick mental assessment and faced Meursault.

“What is our current bike count?”

“Two.”

The snow bikes—outfitted with wide platforms instead of front steering wheels to plow across the frozen tundra effortlessly—had initially been brought to transport heavy gear like tents. They proved too bulky for standard extermination tasks, but owing to the trimmed roster for this mission, they had been repurposed as transport.

I swept my gaze over the newly appointed officers and stated,

“Lucas, Bones. The two of you will accompany Meursault and myself toward the center. Everyone else holds their ground here.”

“Understood, sir!”

We could have crammed everyone into the trailing carts hitched behind the vehicles, but I opted to bring only a fraction of our personnel to check on the commander’s status.

This zone had already been swept clean of threats, meaning the remaining officers would be secure enough by themselves.

Dragooning them into a sector potentially swarming with large-class beasts offered no tactical advantage anyway.

Meursault appeared to share that reasoning; he promptly instructed the junior staff to begin unloading the equipment still lashed to the bikes.

Once the cargo trailers were detached and only firearms and ammunition remained, the machines looked considerably lighter.

“Will you be driving?”

Meursault, holding the keys, directed the question at Bones. Bones replied with a tense expression.

“I can drive.”

Unexpected yet helpful: Lucas also knew how, so the second set of ignition keys went to him.

Naturally, I kept the vehicle I would ride on under Meursault’s management.

I was capable of operating a bike myself, but my physical state at the moment was not optimized for driving.

“Meursault and I will take the lead. You two maintain your distance and trail behind us.”

“Yes, sir.”

Having delivered instructions to the pair, I walked over to my machine. Meursault was already seated, his features rigid with tension.

Realistically, I ought to leave him behind as well…

Our original strategy had been straightforward: Day One for reconnaissance, followed by methodically eliminating any large-class threats we mapped out starting on Day Two.

We had braced for various contingencies, but never for a cluster of monsters erupting in the exact sector the commander was scouring.

In other words, under standard conditions, Meursault should have remained stationed in the operations room.

Whether he would prove valuable in a skirmish was debatable, but he was technically the commander’s adjutant.

He belonged at the commander’s side; only the unique circumstances surrounding my presence had kept him anchored here.

Given the possibility that misfortune had befallen the commander, Meursault was inevitably the most distressed individual present.

“Meursault.”

“Yes, Lee Dam.”

“Just in case: we do not charge directly into the coordinates where the flares originated. We dismount at a safe distance and finish the approach on foot.”

“…Understood.”

Judging by his expression, had I omitted that warning, he might have driven the bike right into the epicenter of the chaos.

I mounted behind him, wrapped my arms securely around his waist, and pulled my protective goggles down from my brow.

“Let us go find out precisely what kind of disaster we are facing.”

While speeding across the snowy expanse, we crossed paths with several vehicles that had evidently beaten us there.

Alternative squads had also cut down their numbers and rushed to the scene in a panic.

Dismounting to inspect the area, we discovered footprints radiating haphazardly from the abandoned bikes across the white terrain.

Every track aligned in the same direction, and not far away we could already hear shouting and gunfire—proof that a significant number of combatants were already engaged in the fray.

“Check the radio frequency first.”

Meursault attempted to establish contact, but no response came through.

Too preoccupied fighting beasts to reply, perhaps.

An ominous indicator.

“We will simply have to go look ourselves…”

I was on the verge of telling them to stay put while I scouted ahead independently when Meursault stepped forward as if reading my thoughts.

“I am coming too.”

“Are you certain?”

“You will pinpoint the core locations for me, and you already know how much my marksmanship has advanced.”

Evidently, he still felt self-conscious about leaving everything to me during that initial hunt; his shooting proficiency had since risen to the standard of a capable hunter.

He was not one to posture falsely in a crisis like this, so I chose to place my trust in him.

We still lacked intelligence on how many backup units were already engaged; extra firepower would only help.

As we parked the machines and began checking our armaments, Lucas and Bones—who had halted a short distance back—approached fully equipped, their faces tight with nerves.

“Are we moving in immediately?”

I gave a curt nod and delivered the most concise directives possible.

“I will take point. The rest of you maintain your spacing behind me. Get too close and you risk catching friendly fire.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Once I locate a core, I will strike first; Meursault, back up my shots. Lucas, Bones—do not cross past a designated threshold. Aim for the eyes and provide covering fire.”

“Understood.”

After inspecting their gear, I shifted my gaze to meet Meursault’s eyes; he was observing me with a subtle hint of apprehension.

“What is it?”

“…I was merely pondering whether I could remain this composed if I were in your position.”

Even amidst an abrupt emergency, I had issued directives with practiced ease, and Meursault stared at me as though I were an absolute stranger.

Lucas and Bones appeared no different.

I had initially assumed their prior tension was merely the shock of the sudden emergency, but both of them offered tiny, involuntary nods of concurrence in response to Meursault’s observation.

Lucas muttered, his expression grave,

“I already knew you were absurd, but witnessing this firsthand… you are truly beyond reason.”

Hm…

It appeared the youths were unnerved.

Their internal panic made the person who looked entirely unruffled suddenly appear larger than life.

In a sense, it worked to our advantage.

Having them trust me enough to follow instructions proved vastly more beneficial than watching them scatter in blind terror.

I had noted it previously: this situation was anything but standard.

I remained calm solely because I was a veteran of the game; seasoned soldiers confronting the exact same scenario could easily commit fatal errors driven by shock.

These three were holding it together only because they lacked prior subjugation encounters to measure this against.

Determining that a touch of reassurance would help more than silence, I spoke up, prompting Bones to let out a brief, dry laugh.

“Hell. If you get any more absurd than this, the team leader is going to turn out scarier than the monsters.”

“Bones! I told you that you cannot address Lee Dam in that manner anymore.”

Lucas promptly reprimanded him for the casual tone, yet the heavy dread lingering in the atmosphere eased slightly.

That was precisely why I had selected these two specific junior officers to bring along.

Even during training simulations, they had demonstrated the capacity for level-headed decisions, and when peril arose, they still stepped forward out of a genuine sense of duty.

Bones, in particular, never lost his wits even when cornered; an individual like that would always carve out a path from a tight spot.

Personally, I believed Lucas possessed superior traits for command, but as a direct teammate, I favored someone like Bones.

The two of them complemented each other effectively; I would keep a close eye on their progression moving forward.

Regardless, the mood had thawed sufficiently…

Time to advance.

I glanced toward Meursault, who nodded in acknowledgment, signaling he was prepared. I tightened my grip on the rifle and jerked my chin toward the distance.

“Do not forget my instructions. Follow my lead.”

Once all three of them confirmed their readiness, I began gliding across the snowpack as though ice-skating.

The closer we drew to the center, the deeper the snowdrifts became; shorter teammates occasionally misstepped and plunged into the powder, but to a veteran like myself, the secure footing remained plainly visible even when everything was cloaked in white.

Others had already charged ahead of us, meaning those trailing in their wake faced minimal difficulty keeping pace.

How long did we press forward along those tracks?

The initial sight that entered my field of vision was the massive head of a reptilian monster.

A shaggy-furred dinosaur represented one of the more standard large-class variations, yet I still questioned my own eyes.

The quantity of large-class beasts within my immediate line of sight vastly exceeded six.

Maintaining my momentum, I closed the distance; a colossal reptile lay collapsed upon the earth, and human-shaped forms were strewn motionless across the entire snowfield.

What on earth is happening here.