Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 40: Battle for Hood Hill (3)

As the face off began, the men laughing at him stared him down. "You have nowhere to run or hide, boy." The enemy commander said as he looked down at Eric. "I suggest you lay down your weapon and let us kill you the easy way. Who knows, we might not even torture you."

Eric smirked as he looked at the man. "I am not as stupid as you are, so how about you play catch first." He said before throwing a grenade. After throwing it in the middle of the group, he used their distracted chaos to find cover. "Tch. It didn’t take enough of them out." Eric groaned as he climbed into a tree. He loaded a magazine while aiming. "One shot, one kill."

Eric sat on a tree as he looked down at the unit chasing him. He was down to his last mag. Purple mana continually released from his body, keeping him in the fight longer than should have been possible. He leaned against a branch as he observed his surroundings. "Goddamnit, we are running out of time. Where are they!"

His breath was running ragged as burns covered the entire right side of his body. On his left thigh, an arrow had penetrated his body, gashing completely through his leg. "Those one man versus an Army stories are bullshit." Eric said to himself as he loaded his last magazine. He had taken out a large portion of the unit guarding the cannon, but there were still many more.

"There he is!" A voice called out, pointing at the tree Eric was in. He groaned in response, taking aim and firing one shot after the other.

The new bullets Jonny had been producing worked better than advertised, and that was the main reason why Eric was still alive. Each bullet was a miniaturized grenade, shredding two to three enemy soldiers at a time. He would not go down without a fight.

Finally, the last soldier had fallen. Eric stood against the tree he stopped at, limping as he walked over to the clearing. He could see the cannon from where he was perched. His breathing slowed as his eyes threatened to close. "NO! Not yet!" He growled. He used every ounce of his willpower to stay awake. He would survive. He would see Mia again. He would be here to welcome his child into this world. "I am an American soldier." He growled as he cut off a strip of his undershirt. He wrapped the makeshift bandage around his femoral artery. One of the last soldiers had gotten a good shot in with a spell called "magic bullet."

"I am a warrior and a member of a team." The memory of being pinned as an E-5 by his father passed through his mind as he stepped closer to the cannon, inspecting it. "I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army values." He groaned as he leaned against another tree, blood spurting from a cut he had recieved when a sword passed too close to his ribs. His IOTV had been useless by that point.

"I will always place the mission first." A folded flag and mother crying over a casket flashed in his mind. The first time he had ever done memorial detail.

"I will never accept defeat." The first deployment when the battalion had been outmatched outside of Baghdad. They had to call in the dreaded "broken arrow." His best friend had died in his arms.

"I will never quit." Tears streaked down his face as he looked up at the sky, a gentle voice calling out his name, a bed that was too soft for a world that was too cold.

"I will never leave a fallen comrade." Daniel, Mireles, and so many others. The names of those they had lost on this deployment and others. He could almost hear them yelling at him, screaming for him to fight the pain. Keep pushing through. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills." His breaths came in little more than bursts now, ragged and short. Blood smeared against the tree as he slid down, his rifle still in his hand. One round left.

"I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself." The joint trainings with Mia and her soldiers, their late nights together pouring over tactics and empire doctrine. When she questioned Earth technology, and he puzzled over mana. The way she looked at him after their mistaken night of falling asleep together.

"I am an expert and I am a professional." Eric knew that composure and restraint was necessary when meeting with locals. When he met Kamer for the first time, he knew that they had to tread lightly. To the locals, Eric and the battalion seemed like Gods at first. It was only later that he had been made aware of the respect Kamer had for him simply because he hadn’t tried to overtake the village by force.

"I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat." Each time they took a life, each breath they claimed from an enemy, each light they snuffed out; it was a stark reminder that life was precious. Ideology didn’t matter to bullets, and creed held no weight to a rocket. Life was best lived one second at a time.

"I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life." The soldiers had slowly been integrating with the villagers, relationships and laughter became common throughout the growing town. Refugees had begun to flock to it, and it had even undertaken the name "Freedom Village." Eric smiled as he remembered the first time he and Mia had taken a walk out to the house they had their honeymoon at. "This is what my freedom looks like." She had said, the sparkle in her eyes more gorgeous than ocean water when the sun shone on it. "A perfect paradise surrounded by peace and tranquility."

"I am an American soldier." The final line of the soldiers creed. The exclamation to his life. A soldier that stood up for his beliefs, morals and values. He loved freely, he gave without thought, and he fought for the woman he loved.

"Fuck that." He growled, standing up as he looked at the cannon. "I won’t let you take all those memories... all that weight from off my back. Those are mine. This is our war to win. You aren’t taking my family from me before I even get to know them."

Mana surged around him, he felt the weight of it coalesce inside of him as he aimed his M4 at the cannon. There was little time left until the round was shot, so Eric focused his everything on it. "Not today, motherfucker." He said.

And pulled the trigger.

Everything went white.

Milano stood on the hill as he watched the enemy units falling back. "We’re out of time." He said grimly. When he had heard the location of the cannon, he had the Apaches scrambled and up in the air within two minutes. Two apaches flew over the enemy formation, engaging and destroying whatever remained of the echelon. The other two birds pushed their machines to the limit, flying in the direction of the now desecrated gas station grounds. Each minute ticked down, drawing the battalion closer to their end.

At one point, he had made the decision to have Mia sedated. She was going frantic, and had even tried to steal a tank so that she could rescue Eric herself. Milano would not let a pregnant woman go out onto the battlefield herself, so he had at first had her restrained. That had no effect, so he had her sedated.

He looked at the clock, knowing the apaches wouldn’t make it in time. "I’m sorry, Dryer." He said... his eyes looking at the sky. "Goddes Triamal, if there is a way to do it. Only you can. You are the only one to save him. I can’t reach him even with all my technology and power. Please Goddess, I know that you are not allowed to intervene directly, but if you can, please save him. He is among the best soldiers we have, the only man that I know who is capable of fighting the world while holding himself back."

Memories of fallen soldiers usher through Milano’s mind. Each one a painful memory of what war meant. Twenty one gun salutes overlapped as the chaos of the battlefield and death were drowned out. A wailing mother, a grieving wife, the questions of why it wasn’t him or what he could have done differently. How many more men would he have to send to meet their maker before he could rest? How many more lives would have to be broken, mother’s that lose their sons, and daughters their fathers.

He looked at the clock again, as it struck zero.

And the world broke.