Chapter 8

—TATATATATA!!!!

The number of soldiers guarding this place is more than I imagined but we are slowly moving to the cliff. Hiding behind the metal crates that scattered throughout the base, turning them in covers.

The more we kill, the more they come. But we almost reached the escape route. Suddenly I can feel a sudden chill on my neck. I quickly jumped to the side and about five sharpen icicles landed on my path. I looked up and there she is the red hooded witch floating in the sky surrounded by sharp ice 'spears'.

"We finally met again, soldier."

The witch looks quite pissed seeing me. Well a prideful witch got outsmarted by a lowly soldier of course she is pissed. If I'm being honest, I don't think we will leave here unscathed. I gave Ilya to Tina and quickly grabbed my rifle.

"Tina, run as fast as you can. Me and Rio will provide a covering fire."

"Yes Sergeant."

"Are you ready, Rio?"

Rio looks at me with a reassuring and confident smile.

"Right behind you, Sarge."

I smile back while giving a small nod.

"Ready? Tina run!"

—TATATATA!!!!

Continuous hail of bullets flew towards the red hooded witch. She then manifests a transparent membrane in front of her, stopping all of the bullets that are flying toward her. She then descends and slowly walks towards me.

"There's nowhere to run, soldier. If you surrender now, you will die a quick and painless death."

I quickly pulled out a hand grenade and threw it to her feet.

—BOOM!!!

But as if mocking their efforts, the witch walked nonchalantly as she wiped off the dust that was covering her robes

"I have given you the mercy of quick death. But now that you have refuse this mercy that I have shown, I will slowly torture you that you will beg for me to kill you."

I look around and formulate possible plans to bring both me and Rio out of here. Now we only have rifles and grenades but both of them are useless against a witch. We need at least .50 cal bullets to penetrate their magic shield. Suddenly I can feel Rio gently grabbing one of my hands.

"Don't worry sir, I will protect you. I'll buy you a bit of time Sarge. Run to the escape point."

Why did you look like you want to sacrifice yourself?! Shit, shit, shit. Focus Hyun-woo, take a deep breath. There must be a way. I slowly looked around and my eyes finally stopped at a shoddy looking humvee parks not far from us, mounted with what looks like a shoddier version of our .50 cal machine gun.

"Teams, we have a slight change to our plans. The rest of you head to the LZ as planned but me and Rio need to take a small detour. Do you copy?"

""Yes Sir!""

I then grabbed both of Rio's shoulders.

"Rio... Don't ever say talk as if you are about to sacrifice yourself ever again. This is an order, do you hear me?"

Rio just vacantly looks at me, a slow smile forming on her lips.

"You really like to make my job harder aren't you Sarge."

I also smiled seeing her and quickly ready my rifle.

"Okay here's the plan. We use that humvee over there to bring this witch on a wild goose chase. With that .50 cal machine gun, we can at least slow her down until evacs arrives."

"Very well, Sarge."

"Rio, I want you to go to the jeep and try to turn it on. I'll buy you some time."

Rio hesitates for a moment, when she finally nods to my plans.

"Make sure you are safe Sarge. I'll return as fast as I can."

I looked back at the witch and quickly raised both of my hands.

"Wait, stop! I want to negotiate."

The witch that slowly walked towards me stopped as she heard my voice.

"Negotiations? Hahahaha!!! You really know how to make me laugh, soldier. What makes you think that I want to negotiate with you?"

Dozens of Imperial soldiers can be seen gathered behind the witch, aiming their weapons towards my position. I hope that Rio will be here as fast as she can.

"How about I give you the Valkyries' location? Don't you want to capture them back, alive?"

The witch then suddenly stopped.

"How did you know that we want them alive? That slut Witch of Desolation! She must have been leaking the info to the enemies, just because she cannot fight Master toe to toe she resorted to this dirty scheme."

Looks like the witch began her crazy rambling. I slowly turned my head and saw Rio inside the humvee and suddenly the roaring sound of the humvee being turn on quickly snapped the witch back to reality. Before they can respond I quickly run towards the humvee as multiple soldiers quickly open fire. Unfortunately one of the bullets struck one of my legs, causing me to fall down.

"SHIT!"

Rio quickly put the humvee into a reverse and quickly provide cover for me. I slowly stand up and slowly limo towards the humvee's back door.

—TATATATATA!!!

Gunshots continued to fly towards me but I somewhat managed to get into the humvee.

"Rio! Move!"

"Yes Sir!"

I can feel the humvee have begun to accelerate, throwing me back for a bit. I tried my best to get into the turret but the injury on my leg makes it quite hard to stand properly.

"Oh no! you are not escaping me again this time!"

The witch then flew towards the humvee at a terrifying speed. I quickly cocked the machine gun and aimed at her.

—TATATATATATATA!!!!!

In just a few seconds, hundreds of bullets were flying towards the maddening witch. The witch quickly changed her trajectory to avoid the bullets but I quickly changed my aim to shake off her pursuit. Slowly but surely the witch distance from the humvee widening.

—BANG!!!

Rio quickly rammed the barrier covering the entrance causing me to lose my balance for a moment. I quickly get back into firing position and continue to shoot the chasing witch.

—TATATATATATATA!!!!

The witch flies with ease, avoiding all of the bullets with finesse as if dancing in the sky. It's a bit frustrating but I can't even land an effective hit on this psycho witch.

Suddenly I can subtly see the witch is planning something, when suddenly I can barely see something shine at my peripheral.

"Shit! Rio the witch is casting her spells!"

As soon as I scream to Rio the witch intentions suddenly a multiple large spikes shoots out from the ground almost causing the humvee to crash. Not long after more and more spikes shot out of the ground trying to stop us from escaping.

"You okay Rio?!"

"Yep, don't worry about me. Avoiding all of the witch's attacks is nothing."

I turn my attention back to the witch and continue to fire the machine gun but suddenly...

—TATATATA CLICK!!!

"Shit! The gun's jammed."

I quickly opened the loading chamber to pull out the jammed bullet. But the witch realized the machine gun that had stopped firing, quickly shortened her distance. At much closer range she began casting her magic.

—CRASH!!!

The spikes managed to impale at the side of the humvee. Rio, unable to effectively control the humvee crashed into one of the big trees. I was thrown out of the humvee as it crashed. I tried to get up.

"NGHHHH!!!"

Stinging pain from my arms prevents me from doing any sudden moves. I looked down and saw a bone sticking out of it.

"Rio! Are you okay?"

"Yes Sarge, no damages here. What about you?"

"Aside from the broken arms and bullets in my calf, I'm all good."

"Wait a bit Sarge, I'm coming."

Looks like Rio must have been stuck. I tried to stand up again to help her out but this time a red silhouette landed in front of me.

—WHAM!

"GUHK!!!"

"SARGE!!!"

I was thrown a few feet back as the silhouette kicked me right in the face. Blood began to flow out from my nose.

"Hah, good thing you survive. I'm kind of afraid that you won't. I still have a lot of unfinished business with you."

The psycho witch in front looks at me with an unnerving smile as she slowly walked towards me.

"I was planning to kill you quickly but now that you have humiliated me in front of my men, I have no choice but to take my time with you."

Before she could try anything, I tried to quickly grab the handgun on my hips but unfortunately the witch is much faster than me and quickly kicked the gun out of my hands. She then cast some kind of spells and as if it were alive the ground began to wrap itself on all of my limbs.

"Now, now. Don't struggle too much, I don't want to accidentally kill you."

The witch then pulled out a syringe from her bags. The ominous dark purple concoction that can be seen filled the syringe to the brim causing me to struggle even harder. I don't know what it is and I don't want to find out what it does either. But the more I struggle the gripped on my limbs slowly becoming stronger.

"Hey, hey, hey I told you to stop struggling right. Don't worry, this thing won't hurt you at all..."

"YOU WITCH BASTARD!!!"

She then mounted me as she grabbed and held my head to the side.

"... It will only amplify your pain receptors, so you can acutely feel everything that I will do to you. It will also make you unable to pass out from the pain, a perfect torture serum."

Slowly the syringe comes into contact with my skin.

"NO... NO... NOOO!!!"

As the needle penetrates my skin I can feel the liquid slowly entering my blood stream. I can see the psychotic smile forming on the witch's lips.

"Perfect. Now let's enjoy this to the fullest extent and hey you, that doll over there in that humvee over there, I hope you enjoy the show."

I can see Rio inside the humvee struggling to get out of the humvee. And at the same time the witch on top of me pulled out a knife from her bags.

"You know I can't remember when was the last time I sharpened this knife. I think it has been dull for quite a long time... A perfect knife for this moment don't you think."

The witch just smiles innocently as the cold knife touches the skin on my arms.

"Please enjoy it because I will."

"ARGHHHH!!!"