Chapter Fifteen: The First Battle in the Dense Forest

Chapter Fifteen: First Blood in the Jungle

After Xu Xuan returned, he explained the mission to the others. They would move with Dutch's team. There was one unpleasant point, however: Dutch said his squad always operated alone. But after Xu Xuan showed off his godlike marksmanship, the Americans had no choice but to yield. Enough of that.

After collecting the required gear, the rookies returned to their rooms. In their excitement, Huster and the others noticed that the three lowlifes had a wild glint in their eyes, and could only shake their heads.

"All right, everyone get some sleep. If you still have energy when we go out tonight, I'll be surprised," Huster said, then lay down with Lolita.

After everyone had fallen asleep, those three lowlifes seemed to think of getting a little revenge on Huster. The moment they got up, three throwing knives struck the wall behind them, grazing their scalps.

Terrified, the three of them broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly lay back down to sleep. No matter how fearless a person might be, no one picked a fight with a monster.

At one in the morning, while everyone was still asleep, they were woken and told it was time to leave. When the group stumbled out in a noisy confusion to the landing area, Huster, Lolita, Zhang Jie, Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, Chu Xuan, Zero Point, and Overlord were already fully equipped and waiting by the helicopters.

As for those three lowlifes, their ugly expressions and Li Xiaoyi's oddly pleased look made it clear enough: the three of them had tried to bully the one who seemed most useless, only to get a beating from Li Xiaoyi.

Around four in the morning, after several hours of flight, they were nearing the site of the incident.

"Do you know how to use the descent rope?" Chu Xuan asked softly in Huster's cabin.

"Mm." Five voices answered at once.

Descending by rope, Huster saw Lolita on the other helicopter climbing down while carrying a girl. Zhan Lan climbed down by herself, followed by the rest of the newcomers, who landed with unsteady legs.

The battle begins.

At 5:12 a.m., the two squads rendezvoused. After a brief rest, they split up and advanced while searching the area. Huster led the group, saying he would act as scout. Zheng Zha followed with an M1 Super 90 that Huster had recommended specifically for use against the Predators. Their defenses were formidable; unless buckshot or other hollow-point rounds struck flesh and armor, ordinary bullets would not cause a fatal wound.

The others followed Chu Xuan's advice and carried AKs. The veterans, however, along with Zero Point, Overlord, and Chu Xuan, kept a little distance from the group of newcomers.

Chu Xuan himself stayed at the rear beside Lolita. Rather than protecting the newcomers, this formation was more like a watch over them.

As they moved, no one spoke. They advanced in silence, because Huster had warned them beforehand not to get too close to the Americans, lest those special forces soldiers expose their true background and kill them all.

Moving through the jungle, the first to falter were two of the female newcomers. Huster, at the front, kept cutting away the growth with a machete so the others behind him could walk as if on a normal path.

Dutch's men walked with relaxed ease, but Huster noticed that each of them maintained their own zone of vigilance, and that these zones overlapped until they formed one large security circle with almost no blind spots.

They had traveled a long while through the dense jungle, advancing in silence, when suddenly Huster and Dutch both raised their left hands, closing them into fists.

Then, at the same instant, Dutch and Huster opened their left hands wide, all five fingers stretched straight. Everyone knew that was the signal that the alert had been lifted. The major then had Harry bring out the radio to contact headquarters and discuss their next move. The huge Native American, Billy, grabbed a vine, split it open, and drank from it. He knew this place well and was clearly skilled in wilderness survival. At the very least, he knew how to conserve the water in his canteen.

The soldiers began searching the surrounding area. After a while they found a helicopter, the starting point of this doomed expedition.

A tall white man reported to Major Dutch, "The helicopter was hit in the cockpit. They took everything from inside. The guerrillas used a heat-seeking weapon to bring it down. Also, Major, this isn't an ordinary helicopter. To me, it looks more like a reconnaissance craft."

"Any tracks?" asked the deputy leader named Dillon.

"Billy's looking," the major replied.

After a pause, the major added, "Dillon, this is getting more and more complicated. How could the guerrillas have heat-seeking weapons?"

At that moment Billy walked over and said, "Major! There are two groups of guerrillas. They took our men from the helicopter, but there are other tracks..."

"What do you mean?" the major asked.

Billy went on, "There are six men wearing U.S. Army boots. They came from the north. They've been tracking the guerrillas all the way."

Just then, Huster suddenly sprang with astonishing agility onto a giant tree, leaping back and forth among the branches until he reached the crown of the tallest one, where he saw a flock of crows taking flight.

He climbed up there and, once at the treetop, hacked through the leaves with a slash of his blade. With a raucous cawing, a large number of crows burst out of the tree, revealing several flayed, blood-soaked corpses inside.

"A plot thread discovered. Reward: one B-rank side story and five thousand reward points."

Huster pulled down a few dog tags, the common name for the metal identification plates carried by American soldiers, and tossed them to Dutch, who had rushed over.

After examining the dog tags and the corpses, Dutch confirmed that the flayed bodies were indeed the downed pilots they had been sent to rescue.

"Chamberlain," the major murmured softly. "Mac, lower them."

After saying this, the major turned and walked away. He then approached Billy, who was picking up bullet casings from the ground, and asked, "How is it?"

Then he noticed AK-47 casings as well. "Very strange. There was a firefight here. They fired blindly in every direction." It seemed they had encountered something or been ambushed, and an eerie unease rose in everyone's hearts.

Several newcomers watched the scene from afar like a film still, witnessing the American pilots who had died at the hands of the Predator. The rookies immediately vomited everything they had eaten that morning.

Major Dutch and his men looked on in some confusion at the newcomers' reaction.

"Sorry. These are all newly recruited members. Our experienced fighters died last time. We brought them out this time so they could see blood. As for your mission... a few of us are enough," Huster said helplessly.

Faced with such provocation, all of Dutch's men were enraged. Then, before anyone could react, Huster's hands blurred like phantoms, flashing up and down; in an instant, every one of Dutch's men had a throwing knife buried half an inch into the ground beneath his feet.

Confronted with this attack, Dutch's team aimed their weapons at Huster. Huster, meanwhile, continued idly flipping his knives and said, "You see, gentlemen, we're saying the same thing: a few of us are enough."

In the end it was the Black man, Dillon, who stepped in to smooth things over, steering everyone's attention back to the murdered pilots.

The rescue team was infuriated. After some discussion among Dutch and the others, they decided to follow the footprints and track the guerrillas who had attacked and abducted the pilots to their camp, so they could rescue the remaining captives.

After noticing the change, Huster looked back and whispered, "The story's begun. Good luck to all of you. Once the Predators have you in their sights, I may not get to you in time."

At that moment Major Dutch extended his right hand, raising one finger while closing the rest into a fist, and circled it in the air several times. The action had begun.

The other soldiers climbed into their assigned positions one after another and began their tasks. They were about to assault the guerrilla camp.

First, there was a guerrilla on the hillside with a red headband, smoking a cigarette. Suddenly, the trees behind him seemed to come alive: one hand covered his mouth while another produced a dagger and slit his throat. His body was then dragged into the forest.

Another sentry died even more strangely. A shadow passed, and he vanished. Then Huster silently emerged, holding a dagger. Only then did the others realize Huster was gone.

"Two eliminated!" Dillon said, watching through binoculars and reporting to the others. On the other side, Mac had already reached a small machine-gun nest built of sandbags. He drew his dagger, pressed his back to the sandbags, and whistled like a bird, very softly, just loud enough for one enemy to hear. A guerrilla with a white headband barely poked his head out to see what was happening when Mac covered his mouth with one hand and drove the knife into his heart with the other. He did not even pull the dagger out, but simply supported the body with his hand, eased him down, and laid him on the ground.

Then Major Dutch infiltrated the guerrilla camp alone. He walked up to a vehicle whose rear end was propped up and spinning its wheels, made a gesture, and raised his palm with all five fingers spread. Everyone immediately lay in ambush where they were.

Then Major Arno slowly walked to the front of the vehicle, placed something beneath the rear section, and lifted the car.

The vehicle that Dutch had shoved aside crashed into the guerrillas' mess hall. Boom! The bomb on the car ignited the signal flare for the ambush.

"Throw grenades!" Chu Xuan shouted from the side.

The newcomers and veterans all hurled them out. One person's hand shook, and the grenade slipped free, landing on the ground right beneath them. Lolita reacted fastest, kicking it into the guerrilla camp.

Taking advantage of the enemy's chaos, Dutch's team surged forward. A one-sided massacre began. Fierce firepower, precise shooting, and fluid movement left the guerrillas utterly unable to organize an effective defense; the special forces soldiers tore into them with assault tactics and overwhelming force, leaving them dazed and helpless.

Even so, the guerrillas still mounted a counterattack. More than twenty of them realized that the newcomers' firepower and aim were both poor, so they turned toward this side, intending to ambush the group. Zero Point and the others had already found their positions, ready to harvest points, leaving only the newcomers huddled together there.

P.S. Once the Predator is finished, the Infinite Space ends very soon!