He was his most trusted comrade in arms. Starting from a point of hate, to a point of compet.i.tion, to the point of forbidden love. And later somehow, to the point of love when he found 'her' true face. 'Sarah.'

Being in their line of work, one got used to death, every time they left, they were no longer nervous like those of any other squad.

They did not hope to come back.

They did not shed tears in yearning.

They were just waiting for death to take them.

Simply because, over the years, they'd seen more faces change than one could count. They mourned for the dead, but did not grieve. Because they knew one day it'd be their turn, and it'd be the saddest thing to be grieved upon after shedding as much blood as they could.

But there was one man who understood this more than anyone, yet at the same time was detached from the experience. In all their eyes, Ode was immortal.

None could take the mad beast down. No matter what sort of h.e.l.l they were sent into, regardless of which devil they had to face then, even if all of them died, Ode would stand.

And to all their eyes, Ode was a beacon of strength. So much so that one would rather pray to him than their G.o.ds in battle.

But that faith went another way with Travis, to the point of radicalism. It came to a day they believed that they were definitely going to die. There were hundreds of enemies left, and scarcely any of them to even speak of.

They had to split into two groups, one to guard their base to draw the enemy's force, and another to storm their base and grab their general's head.

And he truly believed, with every fiber of his being that if she was with Ode, she'd be safer. He left, believing he would not come back from attacking the enemy's base, even if he did complete the mission, regretting that he actually did.

Finding the person he put all his faith into, only a man that at that point was on the brink of death himself.

"Where is she?" He asked through glazed eyes. Only to receive silence.

Maybe if he'd answered the same way he did right now, he might've reacted the same as Jacob. Pretending that if there was no information on the person, it meant that there was a high chance she was still alive.

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"I'm sorry but that's not happening." One of the men answered before any of the two could. "I'm tired of this farce! either you're joining in with us, or you're dead."

"What are you doing! he can beat us all." One man behind him, tugged on his arm nervously. "No he can't, if you really think about it, he wouldn't attempt at negotiations and holding those two hostage if it was that easy to kill us all."

Zhao Wei agreed obviously. He was ways stronger than them, but even tigers can be killed if there are enough ants, and these guys weren't ants. While his defenses had been strengthened, bullets could still pierce him.

And he might survive one or two, but from several hundreds of men with several hundred guns? he might not just get hit by one or two.

"After we finish off this guy, we need an answer from you though." The man turned to Moto-tsune, "It'd be harder without you, but it's not like we 100% need you."

"Do you really want to do it this way?" Zhao Wei eyed the soldiers, most of whom were still deliberating by themselves, but quite a few had already made their decision it seems as they too raised their guns in preparation for a fight.

Those with melee weapons, gathered themselves closer to Zhao Wei, while the gunners began to subtly move to the back. They also understood that the fight before was easier on Zhao Wei because they were all clumped up together, making it hard for them to coordinate their attacks when a moment had come.

But like this they had formed a wall of melee fighters to keep him in front of them, while the ranged attackers would be picking him off from the back.

What surprised everyone, Zhao Wei included, was that, the first person to initiate an attack was neither side. But instead Bartram.

And unlike before, where Zhao Wei was able to catch his neck almost instantly, he was bursting with a speed that matched his own and a strength that made him feel like he was up against the apes again.