...Perched precariously on a broken mountain road, the Rhino stood still as the members of the cohort cautiously climbed higher. Belle, Dorn, and Luster were hiding a hundred steps ahead, just below the crest of the tall hill, while Sunny and Kim were currently on the roof of the armored vehicle.
Samara was tensely studying the screen of her military communicator, which was receiving the video feed from a compact spy drone that she had sent ahead. On it was a small valley. The image was grainy and noisy, sometimes breaking out entirely because of the interference of the Nightmare Gate exerted on it.
Flooding the valley, a swarm of Nightmare Creatures could be seen.
"There are hundreds of them. Most are Awakened, but there are several Fallen abominations, as well. The Gate Guardian… has already emerged. It seems to be a Devil."
"Correct. There are two hundred and seventy-four abominations, of them two hundred and forty-two are Awakened, while thirty-two are Fallen. The Guardian is indeed a Fallen Devil."
One of his shadows had snuck much closer to the swarm of Nightmare Creatures. It wasn't suffering from any interference, as well. Sunny, however…
Maintaining a calm facade, he shivered inwardly. The Gate was whispering into his ears, calling to him on a level much deeper than thought or emotion. He had experienced the Call before, but now that he was a Master, it became so much stronger and harder to resist.
Sunny had experienced this change almost instantly after the First Evacuation Army made landfall in Antarctica. While the other three convoys were sent to East Antarctica — the largest and most populated region of the Southern Quadrant — the one he had traveled with was meant to deliver troops to the Antarctic Center.
The Antarctic Center was a long, narrow, mountainous landmass that served as the administrative and industrial center of the continent. As such, it harbored many priority targets that had to be evacuated at all costs.
The first several days after the arrival of the army was pure chaos. The large city they entered, Falcon Scott, was in a state of utter havoc. Millions of people had just learned that their entire lives would be uprooted, or maybe even lost. While the local government forces had done their best to maintain order and prepare the civilians for evacuation, that did not amount to much in the end.
The situation had been only made worse by all the Gates that were opening near and within the city.
As one of the Southern Quadrant Awakened had put it, it used to be that one Gate opened every few weeks. Then, it was one every week. Then, several a week.
By the time the Evacuation Army arrived, the situation was swiftly growing even worse.
With so many Gates around, every Awakened, Master, and Saint felt their Call, some more than others.
It wasn't easy for Sunny to adjust to this new, subtly maddening reality. He wouldn't be surprised if the prolonged exposure to the Call drove many people insane.
But they had not reached that point yet, even if the world seemed to have lost its mind.
After spending several days in the panicked chaos consuming Falcon Scott, a large chunk of the army corps stayed behind to start converting it into an impregnable fortress. The northernmost city of the Antarctic Center was going to serve as its largest evacuation center, so it had to be converted into a full-fledged siege capital in the coming months.
Most of the government forces, however, moved out and started their long march south. Their job was to reach other population centers, establish safe evacuation corridors, and start moving civilians through them to the handful of siege capitals.
The First Irregular Company left with the field army and split up to assist its various divisions.
And now, just a day later, Sunny's cohort was going to fight its first battle.
The division they were escorting was already engaged in a low-intensity confrontation against a mass of Nightmare Creatures that had emerged from half-a-dozen Gates at the lower altitudes. To wipe the abominations faster, they needed to flank them, but the most suitable road skirted the mountain slopes and was itself blocked by the seventh Gate.
Deploying soldiers to fight on such rough terrain was problematic, so the Irregulars were sent instead.
Standing on the roof of the Rhino, Sunny sighed.
Both Samara and Kim turned and stared at him with inscrutable expressions. After a few moments of dead silence, the latter said in a timid voice:
"I am sorry, sir… but how can facing three hundred Nightmare Creatures and a Fallen Devil b—be called luck?"
"That is what I call a low-threat Gate. Do you have a guess why?"
"Because… there's no Tyrant?"
Sunny nodded with a smile.
"Indeed. Sure, there are a lot of abominations, but without a Tyrant or a Terror to control them, they're just a herd. Things would have been much, much worse if all these creatures could coordinate their attack. Plus, we're smarter. That means that we can stack the odds in our favor."
She lingered for a moment.
"I think the odds are already in our favor. We have higher ground, and the wind is blowing in the right direction. The Nightmare Creatures have not caught our scent yet, which means that the element of surprise is on our side."
Sunny shook his head.
"Don't be fooled. They already know that we're here… abominations have other ways of sensing human flesh and souls. In fact, they would not have stayed put near the Gate unless they were up to something, in the first place. They would have spread around and tried to find something to tear apart and devour."
"Then… what are they waiting for?"
He glanced at her with an amused expression.
"Isn't it obvious? They're waiting for us to walk into the trap. That Fallen Devil is much smarter than it looks."
Sunny's expression hardened.
"Which is why it has to die first."
Samara studied the screen of her communicator for a few moments and sighed.
"I can probably make the shot from this distance, but we don't have a direct line of fire. The crest of the hill that hides us from sight also protects the enemy from ranged attacks."
Sunny's smile turned into a dark grin.
"That is true… as far as your rifle goes."
A swarm of scarlet sparks shimmered into existence around his hand, and then, a black bow appeared in it, radiating a feeling of devastating strength. Its string was bright red, and there was a small brand of the same color on one of its limbs, in the shape of an anvil pierced by a straight sword.
"But arrows, unlike bullets, do not have to fly in a straight line…"