Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 98

퓨쳐나이트 98

At the same time, the Dark Elves, who had already begun their operation, were diligently carrying out acts of terror within the Allied forces’ formation.

Ring, ring, ring!

“Enemy!!”

“Everyone, wake up! Open your eyes! Jackson!”

As the detection magic alarm rang out loudly, hundreds of soldiers who were lying on their beds, still in their armor, rose up simultaneously and entered a state of emergency alert.

However, only the alarm rang loudly; the enemy was nowhere to be seen.

After several repetitions, the soldiers, now completely exhausted, barely reacted even when the alarm went off.

After fighting all day long, it was needless to say how tired they were.

But the wicked Dark Elves did not let them sleep comfortably from the very first day.

A bizarre scene unfolded where ten soldiers stood guard in one place, yet soldiers on guard duty would still return as headless corpses.

Of course, it went without saying that the soldiers’ sleep time was significantly reduced.

“Fire! The food warehouse is on fire!”

As a fire broke out in the food warehouse, soldiers busily carried water buckets. Everyone knew who was responsible without being told.

“We guarded it so tightly, how did they even crawl in?”

“Damn bastards!”

Fortunately, it was discovered early, and they were able to put out the fire before it spread, but they couldn’t afford to be careless.

In a barracks a little further away, a hornet’s nest containing giant hornets that could kill with a single sting flew into the barracks, killing thirty people and leaving ten in a coma in a horrific act of terror.

Moreover, the hornet’s nest terror occurred simultaneously throughout the vast Allied camp, forcing the soldiers to spend the night wide awake in extreme fear.

Their only wish was to stretch out their legs and sleep.

The Dark Elves’ terror made not only ordinary soldiers but also Sword Masters [highly skilled warriors] feel threatened.

Of course, assassinating them, who had reached the realm of superhuman, was almost impossible, but they loitered around the Sword Masters, stimulating their sensitive nerves.

They were truly audacious assassins.

Their black hands reached not only soldiers and Sword Masters but also top-secret security documents containing operational details and troop deployment plans.

Fortunately, the documents were guarded so securely that they had no chance to steal them, but they never gave up.

* * *

The command headquarters situation room was in chaos.

“The 8th Regiment’s food warehouse is on fire.”

“Commander! An enemy monster has appeared in the 12th Regiment’s barracks, requesting the deployment of Gigantes [large, powerful war machines]!”

“Enemy Gigantes have appeared in the Materia army’s camp!”

“Commander, a communication has come in from your wife!”

Communications through the crystal ball were flooding in like a summer deluge.

As a result, the communication mages had no time to sit and rest, and the mages who received the situation were busy displaying it on a large situation board.

Duke Sachsen’s expression, as he looked at the damage reports, was grim.

“Commander, your wife is asking to speak to you right away…”

“Tell her I’m in an operation meeting!!”

“Ah, yes!”

Duke Sachsen snapped, startling the mage, who hurriedly returned to his seat. Daist, the veteran of Terbia, watched Sachsen’s reaction with a worried look.

His appearance was so similar to his own from two weeks ago.

“You’ve become too sharp, Commander-in-Chief.”

“Haa… I’m really going crazy, Lord Daist.”

“Didn’t you already expect this would happen?”

“Lord Daist, you are truly amazing. To endure these attacks for a whole month…”

“Don’t even mention it. Just thinking about that time still makes me jump out of bed in the middle of the night.”

“It must have been very difficult for you.”

Daist rebuked Duke Sachsen, whose voice already showed extreme fatigue.

“Commander-in-Chief! No matter what happens, you must not lose your judgment. Do you understand?”

There was a heavy weight in the words of Daist, who had experience, and Duke Sachsen, who knew it well, forced a smile and said.

“I will keep that in mind, Lord Daist.”

“By the way, shouldn’t that Kang Chan leading the Black Wyvern unit have arrived at the enemy’s rear by now?”

“Yes, that’s right. They said they took off ten minutes ago, so they should be arriving around here by now.”

Duke Sachsen pointed to a part of the map with his baton, and Daist nodded and said.

“Hmm, I hope they do well.”

“They must. They are the only ones we can trust right now…”

The two men looked at the map pointed to by the baton and remained silent for a moment.

Then, Duke Sachsen said as if he had suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, and that Kang Chan…”

“Yes.”

“It turns out that he is actually a disciple of Elradion, the Elf of the Sword.”

“No! Is that true?”

“I happened to learn that fact through their conversation.”

Daist said with a very surprised expression.

“An Elf teaching swordsmanship to a human? I’m seeing all sorts of things in my life.”

Duke Sachsen also nodded as if agreeing with Daist’s words.

“That’s what I’m saying. I have never heard of an Elf teaching swordsmanship to another race in my entire life. Lord Daist, didn’t you see his skills?”

“I saw it clearly right next to him. He had tremendous skills. To defeat someone who roamed the continent with two daggers hundreds of years ago, he is truly extraordinary.”

Suddenly, something flashed through Daist’s mind.

‘Hmm? Two daggers?’

“…….”

“What’s wrong suddenly?”

“That’s… something is strange. His master, Elradion, uses a rapier, but why does Kang Chan use dual swords like the Dark Elves?”

Duke Sachsen nodded with an expression of agreement at Daist’s words.

“Hmm, now that I hear it, it certainly is strange.”

“Moreover, Kang Chan’s swordsmanship was very similar to Nemitz’s swordsmanship. I wonder why that is…”

Duke Sachsen didn’t want to doubt Kang Chan, who led the Allied forces to victory today, but there was always a possibility.

“Lord Daist, let’s keep today’s conversation between the two of us for now.”

“I understand, Commander-in-Chief. Then I will return to my barracks.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Please get some rest.”

As the veteran Daist saluted and stepped back, Duke Sachsen was left alone, silently lost in thought.

‘A person who travels with a dragon and has an Elf as a master…’

Duke Sachsen, who already had a headache, rubbed the back of his neck and ordered his subordinate to bring him coffee.

“Make it strong without sugar.”

“Yes, Commander.”

He always drank black coffee when he had a headache.

The bitter taste of black coffee relieved his headache.

After a while, Duke Sachsen drank the bitter black coffee that his subordinate had carefully prepared and temporarily forgot about Kang Chan and thought about the ogre he had seen during the day.

‘An ogre who uses the swordsmanship of the Kalitz family… I personally need to meet him sometime.’

* * *

The Wyverns, cutting through the dark night sky and arriving at the enemy camp, slowly reduced their speed as they approached their target and began to fly in a horizontal line.

『Report readiness for descent.』

As Kang Chan issued an order through the earpiece containing a short-range communication crystal, the Black Wyvern members prepared for descent as they had been trained. And when the readiness report for descent from all Wyverns was completed, Kang Chan ordered the descent.

『All Wyverns, descent preparation complete. Black Wyvern unit, descend!』

“Descend!”

The five Black Wyvern members released the safety hooks connected to their saddles and threw themselves into the sky. Then they disappeared into the darkness, and soon after, the next Black Wyvern members threw themselves.

As all ten members disappeared into the darkness, Kang Chan also jumped into the darkness after them.

As Kang Chan fell through the strong wind, he saw ten members successfully deploying their parachutes and slowly descending to the ground.

The parachutes were made by Ellika, who stayed up all night with tears when the members were undergoing hellish commando training, and like the armor, they were all dyed black.

The members who used the parachutes for the first time were very amazed, asking, ‘Is this also magic?’

The reason Kang Chan created parachutes and infiltrated the enemy camp in this world where magic was developed was simple.

Using magic to infiltrate the enemy camp could be detected by the enemy’s detection magic.

This world had very developed detection magic that detected the use of magic, like radar on Earth.

Therefore, magic that consumed a lot of mana, such as teleportation or flight magic, was immediately detected by detection magic, risking interception or encirclement by the enemy.

And going directly to the ground on a giant Wyvern was no different from announcing, ‘I’m here,’ so Kang Chan’s final choice was the parachute.

There was nothing better than a parachute for infiltrating the enemy camp quietly and secretly.

Whoosh! Thud!

The Black Wyvern members landed silently on the ground one by one in the darkness.

Their appearance, all in black from head to toe, was exactly like the special forces of Earth.

“Hurry! Move quickly!”

The members who landed on the ground quickly recovered their parachutes, stuffed them into their bags, and hid them in the bushes.

After organizing everything, the members gathered around Kang Chan, who put on a black cloth that did not let light leak out, took out a map, and determined the current location and the direction to the first target.

To strike the targets provided by the Bismann Empire’s intelligence department.

“The current location is roughly…”

Kang Chan, after identifying his location with the location tracking device attached to his suit, used a compass and map to determine the distance and direction to the target, then turned off the light and came out of the black cloth.

“Everyone pay attention, our location is currently about five kilometers away from the enemy’s formation. Our first target, the food warehouse, is about three kilometers away. Everyone moves at full speed in stealth mode.”

All the members tapped their helmets as a gesture of understanding, put on their stealth cloaks, and infused them with mana.

Soon, the Black Wyvern members, all in black, disappeared completely from sight without leaving a trace.

They began to move secretly like the wind towards their first target.

The Black Wyvern members, who arrived at the first target, hid in the bushes and surveyed the surroundings with night vision goggles.

『Fence height approximately two meters, twenty people at the entrance, fifty moving patrols inside, many workers carrying food, over.』

As expected, the security of the food warehouse was tight.

In war, food is an important factor that determines the combat sustainability and morale of the infantry.

『Masera, infiltrate quietly and move to the rear of the building, install the magic armor rounds, over.』

The Black Wyvern members all had one magic armor round on their backs, so they had a total of ten magic armor rounds.

『Understood. Over』

Masera, who received the order, quickly crossed the fence with the agility of an upper-level Sword Expert and moved very slowly towards the rear of the building in stealth mode.