Promise (1)
A white signal flare embroidered the far side of the sky in a dazzling blaze.
Meursault was the first to react.
“Commander…!”
His face drained of color, Meursault reflexively started to bolt toward that direction—then stopped short and looked back at me.
I was the one currently in command of this team.
Without my leave, not a single member could break formation.
Barely clinging to his composure, Meursault asked,
“Lee Dam, what will you do?”
Even if I forbade it, his expression said he would still race off that instant to check on the commander’s safety.
Before answering him, I tipped my head back and counted the white flares hanging in the sky.
One, two… looks like more than six.
A white signal flare was the signal for spotting a single large-class monster.
More than six flares meant more than six monsters had been found.
Yet something about it felt wrong for a discovery made during a normal search.
For one thing, the flares had gone up all at once.
Firing them together like that made the bursts overlap, rendering an exact count almost impossible; under ordinary circumstances they would have staggered the shots one by one.
What floated before our eyes, however, was a chaotic tangle of overlapping signals.
There’s no way those were fired under normal conditions.
Judging by the scattered pattern, the most likely scenario was that a team had suddenly run into large-class monsters and every member had frantically launched the white flares they carried.
Even so, if they had been that rattled it probably wasn’t just one or two; three or more at the center felt like a safe estimate, even if it wasn’t quite six.
Our team was stationed farthest from the center.
Other teams that had seen the signal would already be moving, and even if we sprinted we would almost certainly arrive last. Still, given my position—and Meursault’s—I couldn’t simply ignore it.
And besides…
If six really had appeared at once, the commander’s life itself might be in danger.
He had been learning how to locate a large-class monster’s gem by sight alone, but applying that skill cleanly in real combat was another matter entirely.
Especially when the number of targets was this high.
Large-class monsters didn’t usually travel in packs to begin with; the fact that so many had surfaced together was already unnatural.
I finished my brief calculation and turned to Meursault.
“How many bikes do we have right now?”
“Two.”
The snow bikes—broad boards instead of front wheels so they could tear across the tundra without hesitation—had originally been brought to haul heavy supplies like tents. They were too bulky for ordinary subjugation work, but with the reduced manpower for this operation they had been pressed into service as mounts.
I swept a glance over the newly commissioned officers and said,
“Lucas, Bones. You two come with Meursault and me to the center. Everyone else holds position here.”
“Yes, sir!”
We could have loaded everyone into the trailers hitched to the bikes, but I decided to take only a fraction of my team when we went to confirm the commander’s status.
This sector had already been cleared of monsters, so the remaining officers would be safe enough on their own. Dragging them into an area that might be crawling with large-class monsters wouldn’t help much anyway.
Meursault seemed to share the same thought; he immediately ordered the junior officers to start unloading the supplies still strapped to the bikes.
Once the trailers were uncoupled and only the firearms and ammunition remained, the bikes looked far lighter.
“Will you be driving?”
Meursault, keys in hand, asked Bones. Bones answered with a stiff face.
“I don’t know how to ride a bike.”
From the way he carried himself I would have bet he could ride one standing up.
“I can drive.”
Unexpected but welcome: Lucas knew how, so the second set of keys went to him.
Naturally I left the bike I would ride in Meursault’s hands.
I could handle a bike myself, but my current physical condition wasn’t suited for driving.
“Meursault and I will go first. You two keep your distance and follow.”
“Yes, sir.”
After giving the pair their orders I approached my bike. Meursault was already seated, face tight with tension.
Honestly, I ought to leave him behind too…
Our original plan had been simple: Day One for search, then methodically clear the large-class monsters we located starting on Day Two.
We had prepared for a few contingencies, but never for several monsters erupting in the very sector the commander was searching.
In other words, under normal circumstances Meursault should have been sitting in the operations room.
Whether he would be useful in a fight was debatable, but he was the commander’s adjutant by rights.
He should have been at the commander’s side; only the special circumstances surrounding me had kept him here.
With the possibility that something had happened to the commander, Meursault had to be the most anxious person present.
“Meursault.”
“Yes, Lee Dam.”
“Just in case: we do not ride straight into the place where the flares went up. We dismount at a distance and approach on foot.”
“…Understood.”
From his expression, if I hadn’t said it he might have driven the bike right into the middle of everything.
I climbed on behind him, wrapped my arms around his waist, and pulled the goggles down from my forehead.
“Let’s go see exactly what kind of mess we’re dealing with.”
While racing across the snowfield we came upon several bikes that had clearly arrived ahead of us.
Other teams had also thinned their ranks and rushed here in a hurry.
Dismounting to look, we found footprints radiating chaotically from the parked bikes across the white expanse.
Every track pointed the same way, and not far off we could already hear shouting and gunfire—proof that a considerable number had already joined the fight.
“Try the radio first.”
Meursault attempted contact, but no reply came back.
Too busy fighting monsters to answer, maybe.
Not a promising sign.
“We’ll just have to go look…”
I had been about to tell them to stay put while I scouted alone when Meursault stepped forward as if reading my mind.
“I’m going too.”
“You sure?”
“You’ll tell me the gem locations, and you already know how much my marksmanship has improved.”
Apparently he still felt embarrassed about having left everything to me on that first hunt; his shooting had since risen to the level of a decent hunter.
He wasn’t the type to bluff in a situation like this, so I decided to trust him.
We still had no idea how many reinforcements were already on the scene; more bodies would only help.
As we parked the bikes and began checking our weapons, Lucas and Bones—who had stopped a short distance away—approached fully armed, faces taut with nerves.
“We’re going in right away?”
I nodded and issued the shortest possible orders.
“I take point. All of you keep your distance behind me. Get too close and you might catch a bullet from our own side.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Once I locate a gem I’ll fire first; Meursault, you follow my shots. Lucas, Bones—do not close beyond a set range. Shoot for the eyes and cover us.”
“Understood.”
After checking their gear I turned my head and met Meursault’s eyes; he was watching me with a faint trace of fear.
“What?”
“…I was just wondering whether I could stay this calm if I were in your place.”
Even in a sudden crisis I had given orders with practiced ease, and Meursault was looking at me as though I were a complete stranger.
Lucas and Bones seemed no different.
I had assumed their earlier tension was simply the shock of the emergency, but both of them gave tiny, involuntary nods of agreement at Meursault’s words.
Lucas muttered, face serious,
“I already knew you were absurd, but seeing this… you’re truly beyond reason.”
Hmm…
Looks like the kids were scared.
Their own fear was making the person who looked unfazed suddenly seem larger than life.
In a way it was convenient.
Having them trust me enough to follow was far more useful than having them bolt in panic.
I had said it before: this situation was anything but ordinary.
I was only calm because I was a veteran of the game; seasoned soldiers facing the same thing could easily make fatal mistakes out of shock.
These three were staying this collected only because they had no prior subjugation experience to compare it against.
Judging that a little reassurance would help more than nothing, I said,
“If you’re already like this, we’re in trouble. I’m about to show you something even more absurd.”
Bones snorted a short laugh.
“Hell. If you get any more absurd than this, the team leader’s gonna be scarier than the monsters.”
“Bones! I told you you can’t talk to Lee Dam like that anymore.”
Lucas immediately scolded him for the flippant tone, but the fear in the air had lightened a fraction.
That was exactly why I had chosen these two as the junior officers to bring along.
Even in the training simulations they had been able to make relatively cool-headed decisions, and when danger appeared they still stepped forward out of a sense of responsibility.
Bones especially never lost his wit even when cornered; a guy like that would find his own way out of a tight spot.
Personally I thought Lucas had the better qualities for command, but as a teammate I preferred someone like Bones.
The two of them meshed well; I would keep an eye on them going forward.
Anyway, the mood had loosened enough…
Time to move.
I looked at Meursault; he nodded, ready. I adjusted my grip on the rifle and jerked my chin toward the far side.
“Don’t forget what I said. Follow me.”
Once the three of them nodded I began gliding across the snow as if skating.
The closer we got to the center the deeper the drifts became; shorter teammates sometimes misstepped and sank, but to a veteran like me the safe paths stood out clearly even when everything was blanketed in white.
Others had already run ahead of us, so the ones following behind had little trouble keeping up.
How long did we run along those footprints?
The first thing that entered my field of vision was the head of a dinosaur-like monster.
A shaggy-furred dinosaur was one of the more common large-class types, yet I still doubted my eyes.
The number of large-class monsters in my sight alone far exceeded six.
I kept my speed and closed in; a massive reptile lay collapsed on the ground, and human-shaped figures were sprawled motionless all across the snowfield.
What the hell.
They hadn’t fired six flares—they had only managed to fire six.