Starship Commander Trapped In A Fantasy World 207 Irregular Mana Concentration Site #59

"There you are, let's get you cleaned up."

Grasping the arm Dax pulled the person out from the grave after the former copse cleaned his face off and was stunned by what he saw. 

"W-why am I still alive?"

First recognizing Dax, Chad looked after the hole in his chest but found nothing but his own skin. After overcoming his initial surprise the knight looked at Dax with a look of horror, he had no idea how it was even possible for him to still be alive as he still vividly remembered the sensation of having his own heart crushed.

"What is going on here!?"

"You don't need to know that yet, let's go find your beloved princess. Follow me."

-

Travelling on foot for about an hour, Chad had a good amount of time to think about what had just happened. He was sure he had died to that imperial knight, no doubt about that, but then how was he here right now? No matter how long he taught about it no answer came to him, the only thing which greeted his mind was further frustration and confusion.

"Dax, would you please explain what is going on!?"

"Nah."

Feeling further frustration at Dax's reluctance to answer Chad swung a punch at Dax before he even realized what was going on, having sensed the punch coming Dax turned on a swivel and blocked the knights punch, returning one himself.

"Gha!"

Being knocked to the ground Chad felt like his entire head was on fire while blood flowed freely from his ears and nose, but like it had all been an illusion the pain suddenly stopped.

"When you and your princess offered everything to me I accepted it, that means you two are my possessions. That means you're mine and mine forever, simply getting your heart crushed won't be enough to release you from that. Why wouldn't I improve my possessions? Now, I am going to release Xi from capture and you need to make a choice: Either you come with me and help, or I impale you to a nearby tree and leave you here until I'm done."

Judging the conversation was over, Dax started walking again and after a while, he heard Chad join behind him.

"If you're wondering I killed all the imperial knights and wiped out one of the cells responsible for targeting your country."

"... Thanks."

Walking a bit further Dax stopped inside a dense forest in the middle of a clearing, before Chad could ask what was going on something fell from the sky and landed right in front of them. After the dust cleared Chad found some kind of burnt metal container, roughly the size of a person. Before he could ask what was going on, a part of the container was blown open from the inside and when Chad walked over to that side he saw some kind of strange all metal golem with bright red eyes emerging from it. Feeling the golems 'eyes' on him Chad froze up, this was once more something completely beyond his comprehension, but whatever it was, it was made to kill. Retrieving some equipment while Chad was flabbergasted, Dax found something the knight could use.

"This one is going to run as the backup on the operation. Here, catch."

Reaching into the canister, Dax tossed a sword to Chad which he caught before examining it more closely.

"What is this? It's so light…"

"No it isn't, that one weighs two times as much as your normal sword. But that's not important, press the b.u.t.ton on the side of the near the pommel and try to strike a tree."

Doing as he told Chad found that the sword cut cleanly into the solid looking oak tree without any resistance and when he tried the sword on a nearby rock it had the same effect.

"Wh-"

"You don't need to know at this time. We need to move."

Tossing an incendiary grenade into the canister Dax left with the Reaper drone and Chad in tow, arriving at what looked to be an abandoned village after a few minutes.

"Splash 15 seconds… Put this on."

Tossing Chad a gas mask Dax cracked his neck and took his Gauss PDW from the hawk done which was suddenly hovering right next to him, right after Chad finished putting the mask on and somewhat adjusted to breathing with it on, a combined strike consisting of orbital artillery and Viper cla.s.s cruise missiles completely levelled the village.

"This is command, addressing all units: Mission start, annihilate all hostiles, secure VIP package #1 and 2."

As Dax spoke out while completely ignoring the want and destruction which had just happened in front of them, he returned completely to being a h.e.l.lwalker as the fake cover over his artificial eye was purged.

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, ALL UNITS NOW FOLLOWING OPERATIONS PLAYBOOK AT LEVEL BLACK, WEAPONS FREE.]

"Good… ICI, fire mission: My relative grid 00 00 +09 +01, send one times 10 megaton tactical cla.s.s payload, delay + 50 mikes."

[FIRE MISSION CONFIRMED.]

Walking towards the smouldering village Dax was joined by Chad while the drone remained at range to eventually cover for them. As they reached the village the smell of burnt flesh invaded Chad's nose even as he wore protection against it, but before he found himself overcome with anger he noticed that it was more of those homunculi with extra limbs Dax had killed and thus didn't object to it. Eventually, the pair reached what had up until a few moments ago been some sort of plaza, and it seemed like Dax's destination was the half destroyed church in front of them, but suddenly he dragged Chad with him into cover.

"Seems like one of them survived and is equipped with captured equipment… Can you handle it?"

While he talked Dax ducked deeper right before a 40mm round fired from a gauss rifle priced trough right where his head had been, casually dealing with that by tossing a few smoke grenades out from cover Dax seemed like he wanted to test Chad, or that's at least how it seemed to the knight at that moment.

(Seems like I've somehow come to serve a really crazy master… But this is still for the good of my lady.)

"Yes! Please leave it to me!"

"Off you go then. Oh and a few things to note: It needs to stop shooting every 30 shots and continued fire will reduce hit rate. Stay low and stay fast, whatever you do don't jump at it."

Checking on the location on the shooter Dax informed Chad on a few more points about his opponent as he sent the knight running when the shooter was reloading. Almost shooting out of cover Chad was surprised at how fast he suddenly moved, as if being propelled by some new power which burst forth from within him. 

(So slow…)

Spotting his target on top of a half ruined two story building Chad was able to clearly track the homunculus' movements, right down to how it was pointing its weapon at him. Sidestepping shot after shot, Chad only got increasingly more confident in avoiding the hostile fire, that is until he was shot right through the chest.

(f.u.c.k!)

Feeling a burning pain spread throughout his chest he fell to the ground, but even before he landed in the dirt the pain had started to subside.

"Get your f.u.c.king s.h.i.+t together!"

Hearing an extremely p.i.s.sed off Dax shouting at him, Chad finally realized what he had just been doing. If the past him had just witnessed what had happened, he would be as ashamed as he was now that he realized what he was doing.

(What the f.u.c.k am I doing!? This is not a f.u.c.king game!)

Slapping himself in the face Chad got back on his feet while something changed inside him, it was like there was a brand new type of light in his eyes, a mix of the old and new him. Moving faster than he had ever done before Chad quickly closed the range on the understandably surprised homunculus that was caught mid reload. As the opponent was about 5 meters above him, Chad was tempted to just jump at him when he remembered what Dax had told him and instead did a number of smaller jumps until he finally reached the homunculus.

"What f.u.c.king kind of monster are y!-"

Even as it did its best to defend, Chad's sword sliced straight through it as it struggled to reload under pressure. Returning to the destroyed church, Chad found Dax digging through some of the rubble to clear out an area near the main altar. For the second time within an hour, Dax turned around on a swivel and punched Chad in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Are you done f.u.c.king around?"

"... I am."

Also feeling quite ashamed at what he had done, Chad didn't even try to block the punch as he realized he had done something wrong.

"Then let's do this, take this and inject it."

Tossing a vial of black matter to Chad who was still on the ground, Dax went back to digging up the buried entrance. Breaking apart a solid stone tile Dax found a dark entrance to what looked like an almost endless stairway.

"Okay, I'm going to say this only one time so pay attention. When we get past the stairway and down into the facility we're going to split up, I'm going to secure intel while you secure the princess and time is definitely of the essence. In 40 minutes this place is going to be a molten radioactive crater, artillery doesn't care about friendly fire."

"U-understood!"

"Good, then let's get this show on the road."

Hurrying down the stairway neither Chad nor Dax realized they were being watched closely, deep inside the facility two creatures had already 'seen' them coming.

"Those sure are some strange creatures 01."

"Yeah, they are 02, that one person's chest is still healing up."

"I hope they come and play with us, I'm bored 01. It has been months since master was here."

"It sure has, I really miss master… I wonder what if he really meant what he said before he left."

"Yeah…"