“Everyone, fix bayonets.”
Clack.
A chilling metallic sound rang out. In the darkness, dozens of bayonets locked onto muzzles.
Then the artillery fire that had been shaking the earth ceased. A strange silence descended all at once.
“……”
The soldiers swallowed dryly and glared into the dark. Just before fear of the unseen enemy came crashing over them, Hanna moved her lips.
“…They’re coming.”
She spoke with her eyes closed.
“A lot… of them.”
I checked the [Minimap] once more.
“Hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
The tank unit from earlier had been nothing but a preview. The edges of the minimap were covered entirely in crimson dots. They were using the tank wreckage and the shadows of collapsed buildings to burrow into our flank. Quietly, and swiftly. They must have been planning to cut our throats while our guard was down.
Unfortunately for them, there were two people here who could see their positions as clearly as the palm of their hand.
“Klaus.”
I picked up the radio. A brief moment to relay the location.
“…Confirmed.”
Bang!
The head of an enemy officer moving between buildings burst apart.
“Gunther.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Three o’clock, the collapsed bakery. And one o’clock, the sewer entrance.”
I pointed into the air with my finger.
“Save the flares. Once they enter the kill zone, open up on my signal.”
“…Are they really there?”
Instead of answering, I grinned and pulled the bolt on my submachine gun.
The red dots on the minimap crawled right beneath the buildings where our company men lay in ambush. They must have believed they were perfectly concealed.
Five meters. Three meters. One meter.
Just before the red dots overlapped with our green ones.
“Now! Fire!”
Bang!
My muzzle spat flame. Screams rang out once more through the silent streets of Rosenheim.
“Gaaah!”
“A-an ambush! How did they know…!”
In the darkness, from bakery windows and sewer openings where there seemed to be nothing at all, Republican soldiers tumbled out, spraying blood.
“T-they really were there…!”
“We hit them just by firing where the Captain said!”
The soldiers looked at me with gooseflesh rising on their faces.
But perhaps it had already become routine.
“As expected of the Captain.”
“Hey, I told you. He was like this in the Ashen Forest too. We just need to look where the Captain points and shoot.”
The soldiers quickly accepted it and resumed the operation.
“Hanna! Next!”
“Second-floor terrace, two o’clock! And multiple troops flanking through the alley at nine o’clock!”
Ratatatat!
When I pulled the trigger without hesitation, there was an enemy at the end of the trajectory. Each time a red dot on the [Minimap] disappeared, another Republican corpse piled up in the dark.
[Chhk! This is 1st Platoon! Enemy vanguard suppressed! They’re panicking!]
[This is 4th Platoon! We smashed the heads of the bastards trying to flank through the sewers to the station! As expected of the Company Commander!]
Walter and Franz’s reports continued over the radio.
But the bastards weren’t fools.
“Smoke grenades! They’re blocking our line of sight!”
Hiss—!
Gray smoke rose from the mouth of the alley. At the same time, using the building wreckage as shields, they stubbornly crawled in.
Tat-tat-tat-tang!
We fired, and fired again.
But their numbers were beyond imagination. Bodies piled up to the point of becoming barricades, but more of them climbed over those corpses.
“Hah, hah…”
The soldiers’ breathing grew ragged. Gun barrels glowed red-hot and gave off heat haze, and shoulders were bruised from recoil.
And then, what had to come came.
Click.
“……Huh?”
What rang out instead of a gunshot was the hollow metallic sound of a firing pin striking nothing.
“D-damn it! Ammo! We’re out of ammo!”
“I’ve only got one magazine left too! There are too many of them!”
“Don’t you have a spare magazine?! Just give me one!”
“I don’t have any either, you bastard! I used them all earlier!”
The net of fire thinned. As the gunfire that had poured down like popping beans began to break up here and there, the Republican bastards noticed with ghostly precision and surged in.
“Waaaaah!!”
The shouts of the Republican army drew closer. Grenades rolled into the buildings, and I heard the sound of a comrade’s head bursting apart.
“We’re being pushed back! They’re climbing over the wall!”
“Captain! What do we do?!”
I bit my lip.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Status: Ammunition depleted, extreme fear, combat will on the verge of collapse.]
“Everyone, keep your heads down! If you don’t want to die!”
I shoved the soldiers behind cover and hid myself behind the wreckage of a ruined building in the corner.
Then I madly scraped together the concrete debris and twisted pieces of rebar scattered across the floor. My fingernails broke and my palms were scratched raw, but I didn’t care.
“Hoo…”
My heart pounded as if it would burst. My mana circuits were still narrow, and my stamina was at rock bottom. But there was no other choice.
‘Material Conversion.’
[Skill ‘Material Conversion (Lv.1)’ has been activated.]
The world spun with a ringing in my ears.
[Converting the properties of the target.]
[Concrete Fragments & Scrap Metal -> Crude 7.92mm Rifle Rounds]
It felt like drawing the blood from my veins and using it as fuel. Lights flashed before my eyes, and gastric acid surged up my throat.
“Urgh…!”
I bit the flesh inside my mouth and swallowed my scream.
Rattle.
Cold bullets spilled into my palm.
They were far from properly shaped. Instead of the gleam of brass, they had dull, cement-colored casings. And lumpy warheads. Anyone could tell they were defective.
But this was enough.
“Take them!”
I threw a handful of freshly made rounds at Gunther’s feet.
Clatterrr!
“W-what is this…?”
The soldiers’ eyes widened.
“C-Captain? What are these bullets…?”
“I told you earlier! We found them in the basement storeroom! What, got a problem with that?”
I wiped the blood flowing from my nose with my sleeve and shouted.
“H-how long had they been rotting down there…? Th-the surface is completely rough…”
“You… idiots!”
A curse burst out of me on its own.
“Is this the time to complain about defects?! If you shoot, it still fires!”
I forced the rounds into their hands and grabbed them by the collars.
‘Charming Speech.’
“If you don’t shoot, we die. If you don’t want to die, then shoot! Understood?!”
My madness-filled glare overwhelmed the company men.
Ding.
[Skill ‘Charming Speech’ stimulates the company members’ survival instincts.]
[Doubts about the quality of the ammunition are blocked by their fear of you.]
“U-understood! We’ll shoot!”
As if bewitched, the soldiers pushed the crude rounds into their chambers.
Clack.
It was stiff. Likely because the specifications were slightly off. But the bolt closed, and the firing pin struck the primer.
Bang! Bang!
The muzzle flames were redder than usual, and acrid black smoke spewed out. With the gunpowder mixture such a mess, it couldn’t be helped.
But the power was sufficient.
“Aaagh!”
A Republican soldier climbing over the wall clutched his chest and fell. The warhead made of stone shattered inside his ribcage and turned his organs to rags.
“It fires! The bullets fire!”
“Die! Die, you bastards!”
The soldiers howled as they pulled the triggers. When a casing jammed and caused a misfire, they kicked the rifle to force the bolt back and fired again.
Behind them, I kept picking up stones and wringing mana out of myself as if vomiting blood.
‘Material Conversion.’ ‘Material Conversion.’ ‘Material Conversion.’
Blood dripped from my nose, down my chin, and soaked my uniform. My mind felt like it was burning white, and the sensation in my fingers had long since vanished.
[Skill ‘Indomitable Mind’ forcibly maintains your consciousness.]
I was a moving supply depot, a living factory.
If I fell, the line would be breached. If I stopped, my subordinates, my comrades, my women—my future would all end.
“Hanna! Position!”
I shouted in a hoarse voice.
“Hah, hah… Eleven o’clock! They’re… they’re coming again!”
“Gunther! Eleven o’clock! Rake them down!”
“Ammo! More ammo, Captain!”
I hurled a freshly made bundle of absurdly rough bullets toward them.
“Here! Use them sparingly, you bastards!”
That was when it happened.
“Aaaaaagh!”
A wretched scream. When I turned my head, I saw a soldier rolling on the ground, clutching his face.
“My eyes! My eyes! The gun exploded!”
Was it the limit of the hastily made ammunition? Or was it because the old rifle couldn’t withstand the chamber pressure? The barrel had bent like taffy, and the bolt had flown out, crushing the soldier’s face.
The gap in firepower led to an immediate crisis.
“They’re breaking through! The first floor’s been breached!”
Taking advantage of that opening, a Republican soldier leapt out from around the corner.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Affiliation: Republican Army 4th Armored Division]
[Rank: Corporal]
[Status: Frenzied, murderous intent]
Without hesitation, I drew the entrenching tool from my waist.
“Move!”
Crunch!
A dull impact. The blade of my entrenching tool struck precisely between his collarbone and neck.
“Kuh, ghk…”
His body sagged. I kicked him in the solar plexus with my military boot and yanked the shovel free.
“C-Captain… L-Leff… his gun exploded…”
One of the soldiers beside me pointed at his fallen comrade. The soldier groaned with a blood-soaked face.
‘Charming Speech.’
“Throw away the gun.”
I picked up the bloodied rifle from the corpse I’d just killed and tossed it to him, then barked.
“Pick up a dead man’s gun and shoot! If the gun explodes, stab them with a knife, and if the knife breaks, tear them apart with your teeth!”
Leaving the fallen soldier behind, I grabbed another heap of stones.
Cruel? No.
What we needed now wasn’t sentimentality, but one more bullet. With my bloodshot eyes red from ruptured vessels, I wrung out my mana again.
‘Material Conversion.’
The night was long. Terribly long.
Shoot, kill, make, and shoot again.
And when the overheated guns finally broke down, the soldiers drove in bayonets instead.
“Die! Die!!”
By the time even the blades had gone dull, they smashed the enemies’ spines with entrenching tools.
Ashen dust stabbed into our lungs, and gunfire and screams tore at our eardrums. There was no time for despair to creep in. We simply moved like machines.
How much time had passed?
“……”
No more red dots were approaching.
The artillery fire stopped. The gunfire stopped too.
“Hanna… Hanna.”
I called for Hanna out of habit.
“What… time is it now…?”
“Dawn… 5:17.”
Five in the morning.
The darkest hour, and the hour when exhaustion was easiest to succumb to.
Over the ruins of Rosenheim, acrid smoke from burning tanks hung thick in the air.
Was it because the tension had left me? My legs gave out, and I nearly collapsed where I stood. I shook off the soldiers trying to support me and, with staggering steps, squeezed myself into the wreckage of a nearby building.
And then.
Ding, ding, ding.
[You have perfectly repelled the enemy’s overwhelming second offensive.]
[You have minimized allied casualties and forced massive losses upon the enemy.]
[Your command ability and unconventional tactics have shone brightly.]
The moment I planted my backside somewhere safe, system messages poured in as if they had been waiting.
[You have acquired a massive amount of experience as a reward.]
Ding!
[Your level has risen to 15!]
[Available Skill Points: 1]
Was the noise of the battlefield finally fading because my ears had gone deaf? Were the flickering blue lights because my eyes had gone blind?
I rolled up my bloodstained sleeve and looked toward the horizon. Beyond the sea of charred black iron and blood, an achingly blue dawn was breaking.
Soon, the sun would rise.