Chapter 50
Chapter 50: Strong Arrow
The bus came to a stop and the platoon members got off one by one. They all wore their army outfits accompanied by giant backpacks and protective shields. With their weapons ready in hand, they quickly went into formation.
“Has everyone already packed their hunter equipment?”
“Yes, sir. We have everything we need.”
“Good. It might not be enough so there’s a chance that we would have to settle everything with close-combat instead of retreating.. Keep that in mind.”
“Yes, sir!”
He then went towards Jaehwang after he finished talking with the other platoon members.
“I would do a quick briefing but I’ll just tell you again. There’s a small village across this low valley and the place would be crawling with animals. There could be up to 300 of them but by all means, we could only hunt 100 of them at most.”
“How long would it take?”
“They said that it’ll take thirty about minutes.”
“Okay. We’ll ready our best weapons to protect our group once we start the attack. So don’t worry, we’ll be able to handle it.”
“Got it.”
Jaehwang looked ahead as Joonghwi continued with his explanation. The place was humid and sometimes he could see a cloud of steam floating around them as they moved towards the village.
“Let’s go!”
They all followed Joonghwi’s command and all of them disappeared one at a time into the dark woods ahead of them.
“Install two police car lines!”
“Installation complete!”
The platoon heard his voice and they all moved according to his instructions. They cut off a few tree branches with their bare hands and made a hidden trap by tieing a long wire to a nearby tree. They then installed explosive pipes underground as a finishing touch. The oaks were born with an intensive knowledge of a huntsman, thus, all of them could not lower their guard.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, sir.”
Joongwhi glanced over at Jaehwang as they walked through a steep slope further down the path.
‘He’s really is a unique person’
Jaehwang kept his silence as they went on their way to cross the mountain through a rainforest. The humidity of their surroundings had made the ground slippery but they didn’t have a hard time even though they had been carrying their gears on their backs.
It wasn’t long before their journey had started to increase its difficulty now that they would have to give more care into their steps especially in this kind of topography.
‘But still, who is he?.’
He felt like he didn’t know anything about his new platoon member. He called him to his side, he talked to him in all hopes of understanding him. He wanted to know him better, the only problem was that Jaehwang didn’t seem to want that at all. He soon got lost in his thoughts and was caught looking at him.
“What is it?”
He didn’t say anything and just answered with a hand signal.
‘There’s three up ahead waiting for an ambush’
Joonghwi lowered his body and gave a signal for the other platoon members. He knew that they would have yet to experience that so he looked again at Jaehwang and gave another signal.
‘Focus.’
Joonghwi acknowledged Jaehwang’s signal as he kept his eyes on the three arrows on his hand.
‘Guided Arrow…’
Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh!!!
The three arrows disappeared into the forest and soon after, they hear three beings scream.
“Done.”
Joonghwi was left speechless. They continued to walk further into the forest with keen attention to their surroundings and they then discovered something.
“Huh…”
They had found three dead oak animals with arrows sticking out of their bodies. The surrounding trees were left in a terrible condition, it seems that they did their best to try and shake it off.
“Looks like they were able to sense them.”
“Uh… How do we fix this?”
Seongyun asked Jaehwang as he looked at the corpses in front of them. Two of them were covered in a pile of leaves and one was completely on sight. The thing that took their concern was that they saw a thing coming out of the Oak’s temple within the distance.
Seongyun then looked over to Jaehwang as soon as she noticed that there were traces of arrows left on his hands.
“You could tell them where to go?”
“I don’t have to go that far though, I could only just control the movements of my arrows.”
They all stopped in the middle of the path until Joonghwi got out of his thought and caught up with them.
“Let’s hide them. Quickly, we don’t have any time to waste!”
“Yes, sir.”
All of them wished that they could have just packed them but they were already carrying so many things for their mission. They rolled a tree down a steep cliff, picked two towering trees to serve as a lookout point and built a fence around it. They saw one big house at the center of the village and they also saw some oak soldiers repairing their hunting equipment.
The young ones seemed to be gathered inside a room and the older ones were enjoying their time basking in the sun. The village would have looked to be very much in peace with their surroundings so serene if weren’t for the pile of dull white human skeletons dumped in the middle of an empty field.
“We’ll have to check the 300 of them one by one.”
Said Seongyun.
“It looks like their numbers could even reach up to 500 without even counting the ones staying inside their houses. We would still be able to put our defenses but there wasn’t this many when we came here last time.”
“There’s been lots of prey moving around recently so maybe there’s a chance that their boundaries had become loose.”
“Good. That makes it easier for us.”
They looked at their seemingly peaceful and happy lives. They looked at themselves as invaders who were tasked to eliminate the oaks instead of trying to make peace or coexist with them. In the end, they couldn’t really tell if they were trying to understand them or if they were trying to make a zoo out of them.
Their force had been there for 60 years. The generation mashup had caused death to a lot of humans but it cost the lives of many monsters as well. Some people were brainwashed and controlled and they took over without a shred of sympathy for those who they kill. Countless of people were then condemned for the brainwashing and they were thrown out of society.
“It’s time to shoot… Hold your fire when I give the signal and try to divide your shots. Be careful not to waste any ammo”
“Yes, sir.”
Each of the platoon members took out their weapons. All they had was the noisy CAR816 assault rifle and a grenade launcher. A CAR817 model was supposed to be handed out as a suitable weapon compared to the CAR818 that they had but it was pushed back since a lot of troops were recruited. The series of firearms that came into their hands was long and a lot of variations hand come out.
They all stepped back and sat next to the assigned attacker for the day which was Jaehwang.
“Let’s get going. Stay on the lookout. The main entrance and the back door needs some guarding. Be prepared to shoot anything that comes close. We can do it, right?”
“Yes. but, how will we get there?”
Jaehwang asked.
They weren’t exactly sure about what they would see when they arrived. He didn’t learn much about the oaks in the academy except that sometimes, a fourth tier oak would casually appear. The leader had said that there was only one animal left and although it wasn’t neutralized, they said that it was useless. A second tier oak would just be a walk in the park but a fourth tier one would prove to be much more difficult.
“Normally we would concentrate everything on our firepower and throw in a few smokescreens to retreat but I want to hear your suggestion.”
Joonghwi said to Jaehwang.
“I’ll handle it.”
“Okay. we’ll believe in you.”
Joonghwi wasn’t surprised at Jaehwang’s answer. He wouldn’t want to handle a fourth tier monster on his own and now, all he could do was to believe in him. It hasn’t been long since they had met but he felt like he couldn’t doubt his skills.
“Okay. the previous member was able to attack successfully.”
“I see.”
Jaehwang looked ahead.
-Use the weighted arrow.
-Okay.
He chose the black weighted arrow and felt its hidden destructive power even though it was damaged. He had thought about his current limit as he took his time to adjust his bow’s string. He soon then finished his analysis with the help of the spirit so he took a deep breath and pulled the string.
Swoosh…
He pulled it with all of his strength and sent it flying at full speed.
Pong…
The stoma laser option overlapped four times as the heavy arrow approached the lookout tower at a terrible speed. Jeahwnag then followed and released another arrow without checking his targets.
Swoosh… Swoosh… Swoosh…
The arrows flew and hit its target even though it looked like it was about to crash into a house. Two had reached the watchtower and knocked down it’s guards. The troops at the main entrance got their gear but they were soon got shot down one by one. It was almost a complete wipeout.
Everything was going just as Joonghwi planned and it was all thanks to Jaehwang as he continued to release his arrows one after another.
Swoosh… Swoosh… Swoosh…
The range were about 150 to 200 meters but its power was still strong. The arrows rained on the oaks and those who were hit fell onto the ground. It seemed like it was impossible to dodge and it was impossible to endure as he continued to launch his heavy arrows from his bowstring.
“Fire simultaneously!”
Teukkk!!! Teukkk! Teukkk!!!
Jaehwang started to shoot more until some of the surviving oaks started to notice his position. They had gathered the others who were still alive to launch their attack and that’s when the other platoon members joined in.
They soon started to collapse as soon as they platoon members loaded their weapons and attacked. The place was soon covered in blood. There were many who tried to escape but they were shot down even before they got away.
More of then soon started to appear from the doors and trees with poorly-made shields on their hands. It wasn’t much but it still protected them from the platoon’s hands.
Swoosh!
Seongyun started to attack along with Jaehwang and arrows had then again rained all over the place.
“Keep shooting!”
Everyone reloaded their weapons and started shooting at the buildings.
KwangKwang!!! Kwang!
Strong Arrow, The end.