Traces in the Burned Forest
We moved with the highly sensitive Charlotte in the lead, keeping Ekaterina—the healer—protected in the center as we scanned our surroundings. The burned forest was littered with charred corpses. None appeared human, yet we saw no living souls either.
“Sniff sniff. The smell of burning makes my nose useless, nya.”
“The smoke is narrowing our vision too.”
“Damn it, trying to find people in a place like this. It’s worse than searching for a needle on a beach.”
I was running my analysis program to detect any human traces, but the sheer variety of overlapping marks—most of them badly damaged by fire—made the results nearly useless. After we had pushed forward through the scorched woods for roughly three hours, the faint crack of gunfire echoed from somewhere in the distance.
“Did you hear that?”
“Gunfire, nya.”
“This way!”
We quickened our pace and headed toward the source. The sporadic shots grew steadily closer. We lowered our bodies and approached with caution until the gunfire suddenly ceased, replaced by a heavy, oppressive silence.
“Damn. Are they dead?”
“Wait a moment.”
While I scanned the area, my analysis program picked up something. Footprints matching human shoe sizes were pressed into the forest floor. I pointed them out.
“Shoe prints. They lead that direction. Likely female.”
“Let’s go.”
Since I had found the trail, I took point and followed the tracks. The footprints veered ninety degrees away from the gunfire and continued for about five hundred meters before vanishing.
“The trail ends here.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s anything.”
Indeed, aside from marks that seemed deliberately erased, there were no obvious signs left behind. That was when my olfactory sensors caught the faint metallic scent of blood.
“I smell blood, nya.”
Before I could even speak, Charlotte’s nose twitched as she began gauging the direction. With sharp eyes sweeping the area, she soon moved off in one specific way. We followed her for another three hundred meters until the smell of blood grew thick and unmistakable.
“It’s here, nya.”
Gwangnam oppa glanced back and gave us a nod, and we began combing the area thoroughly. While reviewing the various analytical readouts in my vision, I noticed an unnaturally bent tree branch. The closer I drew, the stronger the blood scent became. When I pushed the branch aside, I found a woman dying inside the hollow trunk.
“Found her!”
Her eyes were closed, her breathing faint. Her face was deathly pale, and the pool of blood soaking the ground around her told us how severe her injuries were. The bandage wrapped around her abdomen was drenched and pulpy, with organs spilling out.
Ekaterina rushed over and began chanting healing spells while Ruya used emergency medical tools to clean the gaping wound and spray water and medicine over the exposed organs.
“Damn, the bleeding is too severe.”
“Healing spells can only mend the wounds. They cannot restore lost blood.”
Ruya carefully returned the spilled organs to their proper places and held the torn edges of the wound together. Under the flow of divine power, the abdominal injury began to close rapidly, yet the woman’s pale skin continued to grow colder.
“Let me try.”
Since vital energy specialized in recovery, I wondered if it might stimulate blood regeneration. I placed my hand on her chest and poured essence into her. Her heart, which had nearly stopped, began to beat again under the influence of the essence. The energy that reached her bones and liver triggered blood production at an astonishing rate.
“Give her water!”
“On it, nya!”
After a long, intense struggle, the combined power of holy energy, vital essence, and science performed a miracle—reviving the woman who had been on the brink of death. Once the treatment was complete, not a single scar remained. She had regained some color but remained unconscious.
While we washed the blood from our hands, oppa—who had been keeping watch—spoke with open admiration.
“My women are truly incredible. You brought back someone who was practically dead.”
“We’ll have to wait until she regains consciousness to be sure. The time her blood couldn’t circulate was far too long.”
“That power called vital energy is remarkable. It completely resolved the blood deficiency from massive hemorrhage.”
“It’s a force close to life itself, so it excels at recovery. I only hoped it would work, but I’m glad it did.”
If any single measure we had taken had been missing, she would have died. Above all, Ruya had been extraordinary—touching the wounds without hesitation, cleaning the organs, returning them to place, and holding everything together.
“Ruya, you were amazing. How did you know how to position the organs like that?”
“Playing with biological models has been normal for me since I was little. It helped me study a lot on the subject.”
“That’s impressive.”
We moved to a safer spot, pitched a tent, and waited for the woman to wake. After roughly an hour, she regained consciousness. She woke screaming, trembling with terror, but once she understood we were a rescue team she burst into heavy sobs. Only after she had cried for a long while and finally calmed down could we learn that she was a member of the Second Investigation Team—and that there were other survivors.
“He said he would lure the creatures away to protect injured me. P-please… I beg you. Please find them.”
“I understand how you feel, but this is still a dangerous zone. We need to escort you to the assembly point first and then return.”
“I’ll go with you!”
“We came here to rescue all of you.”
She stubbornly insisted on joining the search for her comrades. Yet although her life had been saved, her condition was poor—occasional convulsions wracked her body. Even with the essence I had given her, a body that had died and been revived was so frail it could collapse at any moment. There was simply no time to escort her to the assembly point and still return before it was too late for the remaining survivors.
“Then I’ll take her to the assembly point and come right back.”
“By yourself? That’ll take too long.”
“Did you forget? I’m a succubus.”
Right there, I stripped off my bulletproof vest and top and unfurled my wings. As I floated upward and looked down, I saw my family’s faces light up with sudden realization and the woman staring in blank astonishment.
“Aha! You can fly!”
“And quite fast, too. If I carry her and fly at full speed, I can make the round trip quickly.”
“That’s awesome, nya!”
I gathered the still-dazed woman in my arms and soared into the sky. Leaving the others waving below, I accelerated hard toward the assembly point.
“Kyaaak!”
“If you don’t want to bite your tongue, stay quiet.”
“It’s too fast!”
“That’s why I told you about your tongue.”
Flying at the maximum speed I could manage, the forest we had trudged through for hours flashed past beneath us in moments. The distance that had taken over three hours on foot was covered in barely ten minutes. Soon the combat vehicles at the assembly point and the soldiers standing guard came into view.
I slowed gradually and landed near the defensive perimeter. The soldiers, who had been aiming their rifles with clear tension, rushed forward.
“How in the world… Never mind that—is she a survivor?!”
“She’s a survivor from the Second Investigation Team. You can hear the details from her.”
Her already weakened body had suffered from the high-speed flight and was now trembling violently. I handed her to the soldiers and took off again. With one less person’s weight, the return trip that had taken ten minutes was completed in five.
I landed lightly beside my family.
“I’m back.”
“Already? You really are fast.”
“Elisha is secretly a jack-of-all-trades, nya.”
“Good work.”
“Hurry up and get dressed. We’re moving out immediately.”
I put my clothes and vest back on, and we headed in the direction the survivor had indicated. It was the same direction from which we had heard the gunfire.
As we pushed through the silent forest, only Ekaterina and Ruya’s conversation drifted to us.
“So the gunfire we heard came from the survivors who turned themselves into bait to save her.”
“But her injuries were far too serious. Without us, she would have died anyway, rendering their sacrifice meaningless.”
It was a painful truth. They had become bait for her sake, yet the woman who had suffered such grave wounds would have perished alone in that hollow trunk.
After advancing another thirty minutes into the woods, signs of battle began to appear. Countless bullet scars on the trees showed just how fierce the firefight had been. Staying alert for any unknown enemies, we followed the trail until we discovered a corpse riddled with holes.
“Shit…”
“So cruel, nya.”
“Those insane bastards…”
The body appeared to be a human male, but it was shredded beyond recognition from the sheer volume of bullets. Blood, flesh, and bone fragments sprayed in every direction made it clear he had been shot indiscriminately while already on the ground.
“He was shot down and then sprayed with bullets while helpless.”
“Tsk. Mark the location for now and let’s keep looking for other survivors.”
“Understood.”
We planted a signal beacon in the ground and continued tracking. The trail of bullet marks and desperate flight stretched on for quite a distance. How far had we gone while following those pitiful traces of a life-or-death escape? Suddenly Charlotte froze and signaled for silence.
She had even removed her bulletproof cap. Eyes closed, ears perked, she was concentrating hard. A moment later her eyes snapped open and she pointed slightly to the right of our front.
“Noise coming from that direction, nya.”
“Let’s move.”
I raised the sensitivity of my auditory sensors, but all I caught was the usual forest noise. As expected, Charlotte’s animal instincts were extraordinary.
We hurried through the undergrowth toward the source. Sure enough, her senses proved accurate once again. Gradually we began to hear strange hissing sounds, footsteps, and faint groans.
We exchanged glances, nodded, and approached even more carefully, softening our steps to near silence. When we finally drew close enough to peer from behind a tree, we saw beings that appeared to belong to a civilized race from another world.
They had reptilian features yet walked upright on two legs and carried weapons that resembled firearms. Lizard-like heads wore helmets, and simple armor covered their bodies, giving them the look of soldiers. Three of the lizardmen stood guard around two badly beaten human men who were tied up and moaning in the center.
Ruya signaled that there were no more enemies. Oppa motioned for Charlotte and me to each take one. Charlotte slipped silently behind the farthest lizardman while I moved into position behind another and waited for the signal.
The instant oppa’s sword severed one creature’s head, I sprang forward, seized the lizardman’s head and snout, and twisted with all my strength.
Crack!
Startled by the sudden ambush, the creature’s eyes bulged. Its neck spun a full circle until it faced forward again. When I gave the now-rigid body a light push, it toppled over dead.
“Whew. Everyone did well.”
“They look like lizards but their senses are surprisingly dull, nya.”
Charlotte approached, flicking blood from her dagger. A clean puncture wound ran straight through the center of the creature’s neck and chest.
“So this is what passes for a gun in this place…”
While Ruya picked up the square-shaped weapon from the ground to examine it, I moved to the bound men and cut their ropes. Both had been beaten unconscious and were groaning in pain. I called for Ekaterina.
“Ekaterina, they’ll need healing.”
“Yes, I’m coming now.”
As a non-combatant, Ekaterina had stayed back while we engaged the enemy, so she only approached once the area was secure. The two men soon regained consciousness under her healing spells. After we explained the situation, they let out sighs of relief and shed tears, telling us they belonged to the Third Team of the Second Investigation Unit. Out of ten members, only three had survived.
Oppa frowned in thought as he listened, then spoke.
“For now, let’s return to base. The safety of the survivors takes priority.”
“I agree.”
“We should hurry, nya. We don’t know when the enemy might strike, nya.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yes, we can manage.”
Since we had already traveled the path once, we moved at a near-run back to the base. Thanks to the healing, the two men had recovered enough to keep up with us—barely—proving they truly were investigation team members.