"Sh#t" Jacob spat, gritting his teeth. Why was he being so reckless? Was it because of the way he had treated Ode before.

He couldn't help it, as long as there was a chance that anything Ode did would put Faris in harms way he needed to be cautious.

They had known each other since they were kids. In fact it was Faris who first wanted to be a mercenary even against his objections. Him? After figuring that she wouldn't listen no matter what, he decided to follow to make sure she stayed safe.

It wasn't like he liked the situation as it was. Ode was the first person to take them in when they first began, teaching them the ropes. He had become their mentor, friend and at some point even family.

But Jacob would not feel guilty for the way he was, until the end his priorities were straight. And it wasn't like he was one sidedly blaming the man, he just needed to clear everything up. But up till this point Mr.Travis had only given him a cryptic statement which had begun his worries in the first place.

He had wanted to clear things with Ode before, right as the attack came.

Now as it was, there was just too much going on to worry about that. Still, he wasn't just going to let that guy die, but before he could give chase a hand pulled on his shoulders. "Jacob! we're already lacking one guy, if you leave as well then there's really no point to us being here is there?"

"Gh! fine! let's do this quickly then save that old man!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'I guess I'm pretty lucky.' A man thought to himself as he put all his strength into steadying the turret and making sure he didn't slip off the car. His arms were pretty sore as they shook violently with the minimgun's thumping.

He was pretty new, well that was an understatement... he had quite literally only left the military academy before he was told to pack up and head straight to this remote area. That usually meant a death sentence.

'And it probably would've been.' He thought, seeing those who had spent months with him at the academy get ripped apart by the enemy army on the ground. Before this morning, he was supposed to be with them, in the defensive lines, praying for dear life as they watched death get closer and closer to them.

He wasn't even supposed to touch a HMMWV (Armored Car) until he took the training course and cla.s.ses. But they were lacking manpower, else all these new bloods wouldn't be conscripted straight into the heart of a battle.

And just yesterday night, the guy who was supposed to be where he was right now, died. Something about trying to forage his own food to add to the military rations and mistaking an other world mushroom for the s.h.i.+meji from their world.

He hadn't seen the guy, but he heard it wasn't pretty. All he could do now was thank the guy for being stupid and pray he went to heaven for giving him the chance to live.

"Hey guys, check this out." The driver spoke. "This one crazy old bloke is trying to take us on his own."

"He must think we're riding a beast hehehe." A guy in the shotgun seat replied. "Well let's just run him over."

"You sure, my aims pretty good, I can just pick him off." He spoke while trying to aim.

"No point in doing that, that's a GAU-19 you're holding there. It'll shoot more bullets than one guy's worth." The driver spoke.

"And how many bullets do you think a guy is worth?" He asked, looking down from his position.

"Most of the time... One." He answered nonchalantly. "But in the case f this gun, half."

"It's different if it's a woman though, hehehe!" a reply came from below. "Then again, we'd be shooting something different, hahahahaha!"

"Idiot." The driver said. "Anyway, just keep shooting at our sides, don't want any of these neumans to get close."

"Do we really need to target him? It's just one guy."

"Hey kid, is shooting that thing fun?" The dirver posed a question.

"Errr... Yeah?" He answered.

"Well you've had your share." He said, s.h.i.+fting the car into higher gear. "Now this... is mine."

He could pretty much tell that this wasn't going to look pretty so he simply continued to aim and shoot where he needed to.

But then he thought of something. It was weird, this guy didn't seemed panicked at all not trying to get out of the way like most men they had seen would and he wasn't even holding his s.h.i.+eld and sword which were on the ground in front of him.

With such a thing, it could only mean one of two things. Either this guy was suicidal and was fine with this or... this was a trap.

"Hey stop the car!"

"What!?"

*Cras.h.!.+*