Shadows Over the Forest
The forest was already beginning to darken as night crept in. We had recovered the corpses we discovered along the way, but the two survivors broke down in tears for a moment when they saw the bodies—mangled beyond recognition. After handling the remains, we marched for several hours without rest. The survivors were clearly exhausted, but we managed to reach the base safely.
“John! Mack!”
“Stina!”
The woman we had rescued first and the two men embraced each other tightly, sharing their joy. As we removed our helmets and caught our breath, soldiers approached and handed us canteens, thanking us for our hard work. My brother poured the water over his head, then shook his soaked hair and said,
“Phew! It was tough, but it feels worth it.”
“Is Ekaterina okay, nya?”
“Haa… haa… I’m a little tired.”
“It was quite a forced march, so it’s no surprise. Let’s rest for a bit.”
Considering that Ekaterina was a non-combatant and not particularly athletic, the fact that she had held up this long was impressive in itself. After handing over the corpses to the soldiers and asking for lodging, we were guided to a tent. We each unpacked our gear onto the simple single-person cots and collapsed onto them.
“Haa… what a grueling day.”
“We were running around like crazy, nya.”
“Still, we saved three people.”
A sense of pride washed over me at the thought that we had found and rescued three people amid this chaotic battlefield. As we all lay on our cots, Ekaterina pulled some simple rations from her spatial bag and said,
“Everyone, eat something before you rest. Eating properly is important too.”
We silently took the field rations and had a quiet, late meal. Then a question suddenly occurred to me.
“By the way, if there’s a war going on, that means there are other races fighting against those lizard-like creatures. I wonder what kind of species they are?”
“Who knows? It seems even the soldiers here don’t know much. Maybe information is being controlled from above?”
“And doesn’t it seem awfully passive for them to have mobilized the military? For a search mission, they could have at least sent in special forces.”
Ruya chewed on her chocolate and voiced her doubts. Just as she said, the military seemed to be doing nothing more than supporting the hunters.
“They’re probably wary of sustaining heavy losses. It’s common for hunters to die or get injured beyond the dimension, but not so for soldiers, right? If they commit troops and things blow up, there’s nothing good in it for the higher-ups.”
“Ahh… I see.”
After hearing my brother’s explanation, it made sense. In other words, the losses of hunters—who were essentially experts at entering other dimensions—could be covered up easily, but the military could not do the same. My brother habitually grabbed the back of his neck and rolled his head from side to side to loosen his muscles before continuing.
“That’s why they didn’t handle it internally and swallowed their pride to make an emergency request to the International Hunter Association.”
“Nya. I wish they’d take care of dangerous stuff like this on their own, nya.”
“Hehe, if there’s a cooperative system like this, we’ll be able to receive help in emergencies too.”
“Exactly. That’s what the treaty was for in the first place.”
Charlotte still didn’t seem pleased about being mobilized for this emergency request. More importantly, was it okay for a cat to eat chocolate? Or were beastmen different…? I was pondering this while watching Charlotte happily munch on her chocolate bar when noise erupted outside the tent.
“Injured! We need a healer! Is there a healer here?”
At the word “injured,” I lifted my head and met Ekaterina’s eyes—she had done the same. She offered a benevolent smile and spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“We should go, shouldn’t we?”
“Yes, we should.”
As Ekaterina and I stood up after nodding, Ruya rose as well, dusting off her rear as she said,
“I’ll come too. I have some medical knowledge, after all.”
“Should I come along as well?”
“Please rest, husband.”
“Useless husbands should rest with me, nya.”
“It’s true I’m not much help, but that’s still harsh.”
At our insistence, Gwangnam and Charlotte—who wouldn’t be of any help in treating the wounded—stayed behind in the tent while the three of us headed toward the commotion. Under the lights illuminating the dark night, soldiers and hunters were moving about busily. As we approached the large tent at the center of the chaos, a soldier spotted us and called out.
“You hunters over there! Aren’t you the ones who treated the survivors earlier?”
“Yes, that’s us.”
“The hunters who went on reconnaissance have been brought in injured. We’re short on personnel capable of treatment, so we need your help. Please, we beg you to treat them.”
“Lead the way.”
“This way, please.”
Following the soldier’s guidance, we entered the tent. The interior was thick with the smell of blood, and patients lay unconscious on simple cots. Their fellow hunters were providing emergency care with first-aid kits, but the injuries were so severe that their efforts had clear limits. The patients looked to be in bad shape.
Then, when they saw Ekaterina—clearly a nun in her habit—and me and Ruya wearing simplified veils, their expressions flooded with relief. Ekaterina glanced around the tent, then rolled up and secured the sleeves of her nun’s robe as she said,
“Let’s start with the most critical patients.”
“Yeah, let’s begin with that one.”
Ruya quickly assessed the patients and began treating the most urgent cases first. The treatment combining Ruya’s medical knowledge, Ekaterina’s holy power, and my essence was extremely efficient. We healed the patients at an astonishing speed.
Extracting bullets that had pierced through bodies, scraping out fragments lodged in internal organs, and then suturing and healing the wounds was an incredibly gruesome process. The frantic treatment continued until we had stabilized the seventh critically injured patient, finally putting out the most immediate fires.
While I poured essence into a hunter suffering from severe blood loss, Ruya asked about the situation.
“The teams that went in the opposite direction from yours and the ones that headed toward the center were attacked by bipedal lizards. They were outnumbered and the lizards were firing wildly, so there was nothing they could do.”
“There are many critically injured, but it seems no one died, fortunately.”
“They’re all seasoned hunters who’ve been through hell and back. The problem is that this location may have been exposed to the enemy.”
“Do you think they’ll launch an assault?”
The man answering Ruya’s serious question grew even graver as he replied,
“Considering how extremely aggressive those lizards are, the chances are very high.”
“Are the Americans aware of the situation?”
“Yes, they were informed first. They’re probably in the middle of devising countermeasures right now.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“Haha. It’s nothing. To the nuns who saved our team members, this is the least we can do. Thank you for keeping those guys alive.”
He bowed his head repeatedly in gratitude. After accepting his thanks, I finished pouring in the last of the essence as Ruya approached, then stood up. Ekaterina turned to Ruya and asked,
“Is the situation very serious?”
“Quite a bit. There’s a chance a full-scale war could break out.”
“Being surrounded by gun-wielding lizards sounds genuinely terrifying.”
If bullets came flying from every direction, I wasn’t confident I could endure it even with bulletproof gear. Ruya sighed and crossed her arms as she said,
“It all depends on how quickly the Americans make a decision. Whether to withdraw with the people we’ve already rescued or continue search operations to save more.”
“With so many injured right now, continuing the search would be far too dangerous.”
“I agree completely.”
The critically injured patients whose lives had been hanging by a thread had been stabilized, but the shock and aftereffects made combat impossible for them. With so many non-combat-capable wounded scattered about, continuing searches while protecting them was simply unrealistic.
“Anyway, we’ve saved all the urgent cases, so let’s head back and rest.”
“Yes. Ekaterina looks incredibly tired too.”
She was still smiling, but the exhaustion around her eyes could not be hidden.
“It really has been a difficult day in many ways. Oh, right—you said essence is specialized for recovery, didn’t you? Does it help with fatigue as well?”
“Yes. Once we return to the tent, I’ll give you an essence massage.”
“Oh my, how wonderful.”
Although I had consumed a great deal of essence today, the amount stored in my magic core had been overflowing lately thanks to being embraced so often by the two men. I still had plenty to spare. If it came down to it, I could always absorb the essence accumulated in Ruya’s yin crest.
We returned to the tent where we were staying, wiped the blood from our bodies with water and towels, then changed into fresh clothes. Gwangnam, who had been watching us intently, asked,
“So this place could be attacked by those things?”
“From what I heard, yes. They’re so aggressive that they’ll charge in without thinking.”
“A surprise attack might be manageable, but if they come at us with sheer numbers, we’re done for, nya.”
“The obvious answer is to withdraw, but there are complications.”
My brother stood up and casually slipped his hand into Ruya’s panties, stroking her pussy as he spoke. Since we weren’t at home, Ruya had been acting normally—until his touch made her face quickly melt into a woman’s expression. She obediently let him caress her as she said,
“Hng, there’s no way those goblin bastards would miss an opportunity like this. Ahn.”
“They’re warmongers, so they’ll definitely try to fight. We need to prepare for the worst-case scenario too.”
“Aah~”
While he toyed with Ruya, whose legs trembled as she soaked her panties, he stroked Charlotte’s hair—she had already pulled down his pants and was sucking his cock—and said,
“Remember, our goal is to return safely, no matter what.”
“Yes, husband. They’re all outstanding women, so they’ll do well.”
Even Ekaterina, wearing only her underwear, clung to my brother, kissing him and beginning to caress him. Hmm… just in case, maybe I should keep watch.
“There might be other people coming, so I’ll stand guard outside.”
“Ah, thank you, Elisha.”
The night air had grown quite chilly, so I adjusted my collar and stepped out of the tent. I stood guard while listening to the soft moans coming from behind me.