WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 343: Sunlit Shade (10)

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Sergeant Doyle shouted.

“Sir! Come back! Hurry!”

Doyle had sensed the attack about to begin. The hand-raiser group’s violent movement was like a single mind made of many bodies. As the commander, Doyle gave the order before anyone could stop them.

“Fire! Kill them all unless you want to die! Claymores! Number 5, number 6! Detonate!”

“Not yet!”

The sniper, positioned higher up with a wide field of view, tried to stop it, but it was too late. A pair of Claymores exploded, and 1,400 steel balls swept across the front. Every body in the kill zone was torn to shreds. But when the bloody mist settled, the scene revealed was less devastating than expected.

“What?”

The sergeant stared in shock. The hand-raiser group had only looked like one solid mass. It might have been that way at first, but as they crept closer, the front and rear had separated. The rear had actually fallen back. Far more footsteps. The murmur of madness and fanaticism. An uneasy rear. The fear of facing an unprecedented special mutant. All of it had thrown off a veteran’s senses.

Esther’s goal was to exhaust their defenses. The remaining hand-raisers scattered like wild animals. This was not how a person handled other people. It was hatred rationalizing itself.

“Heavy Infantry! To the church!”

One curt order from Gyeoul was enough. The reserve unit, realizing what the immediate fire was, had already started moving before the order even came. They had to kill the larval bodies that had managed to hide inside and deal with the bitten believers.

‘If we don’t hold back, even ten minutes would be enough...’

They could kill them all. Gyeoul felt disgusted. He wanted to let Park Tae-sun die.

But he could not.

As he had said, the direction of the end depended on this.

“Support troops are entering! ETA, approximately seven minutes!”

The message came from Schreiber. However many troops they planned to push in, command had ultimately chosen a sure cleanup over secrecy. It was late as hell, but for a decision from the dizzying heights above, it was actually extremely fast.

The instant the approach emptied like a receding tide, acid babies flew in from the sky, their membranes spread, thrown from some alley. They skimmed low over the roof. Their range was absurdly short. There was not even time to warn the soldiers to duck.

Tatatang! Three babies were torn apart by Gyeoul’s rapid fire. Even premature, their destructive power was nothing to scoff at. A spray of strong acid burst outward. The shower that came pouring down was a bonus. Either way, the acid scattered in one direction, carried by inertia and wind. Fuck! The drenched security personnel panicked and shook themselves off. Despite the acid-resistant coating on their protective suits, harsh smoke rose from all over their bodies.

“One o’clock! On the roof!”

The sniper on the second floor of the defensive position fired a Snap Fire, then dropped flat. Suppressive fire from the other side began just as this side’s momentum faltered. The gunshots sounded like distant thunder echoing through the streets. They were not small-caliber weapons. It was heavy automatic fire, at least .50 caliber.

‘A heavy machine gun?’

There was no way Esther had something like that... The gun cabinet in Lab Five had only held personal firearms. Confused, Gyeoul caught a glimpse while evading and confirmed the weapon carried by the girl who had become a monster. It was a heavy machine gun that looked as if it had been forcibly torn from an unmanned turret. An electrically operated trigger was no obstacle to her. She was firing a pair of them.

Several threatening lines of fire grazed Gyeoul. After a heavy thud knocked him into a roll, he found that one side of his protective suit had burst open. There was no bleeding, but there was pain. It throbbed like a bruise. Her aim was unexpectedly accurate. Even without shouldering the weapon.

“Damn it! Save the flamethrower!”

Flames suddenly spewed out. The sergeant barked at a subordinate. All the soldier had done was burn three hand-raisers who had rushed in through a gap in their fire. An obvious waste. The fuel in a portable flamethrower lasted only a dozen seconds or so. Even one for Heavy Infantry did not last thirty seconds.

Where had she left Campbell? Esther was alone. By this point, she must have decided Campbell would no longer serve as a shield. She might have already snapped Campbell’s neck.

While the security personnel were pinned down by heavy machine gun fire, Gyeoul used the cover of a camouflaged covered position and fired back. But rifle rounds were not powerful enough. Esther ignored minor injuries. If her puppets swallowed the defensive line, she won.

“Sniper! Anti-materiel rifle!”

The sniper, unable to even think of firing amid the shattering concrete fragments, threw over one of the spare weapons.

“The ammunition type is armor-piercing high-explosive rounds!”

He had used it before while hunting the Trickster. Gyeoul snatched up the powerful weapon, forty-eight inches, or 121 centimeters, in length. He caught the three spare magazines thrown after it with one hand.

“I’ll cover you! Larry! Grenades!”

Tutututung! The riflemen and machine gunners opened a gap, and the grenadier planted four high-explosive rounds in two directions. The first and second rounds were aimed at Esther, as expected. The monster girl crouched the instant they exploded. To Gyeoul’s eyes, the blood spraying from her was clear. In that moment, he aimed at that wound and pulled the trigger. The armor-piercing high-explosive round would dig beneath the peeled flesh and explode inside the muscle.

Boom, boom, boom!

Its power rivaled a heavy machine gun, and the muzzle flash was enormous. Beyond the dust-veiled scene, a distant, sharp scream rang out. But fierce retaliatory fire poured down immediately after. Gyeoul had not expected a lethal hit in the first place. One of the security personnel muttered a curse.

“Why are the unmanned turrets still dead?”

It was a complaint made despite knowing the situation. The troops stationed in this settlement zone were originally meant to supplement the remote security system. Most components of that system could not be operated manually. It was probably due to fears of capture, but right now, that was bitterly regrettable. If they had just paid a little more attention...

From the standpoint of secrecy, they likely could not recklessly increase security manpower either. Jurisdiction issues between the various agencies must have been involved as well.

Sergeant Doyle berated the subordinate. Stop whining.

“Four minutes left! Hold out a little longer and reinforcements will be here! Keep this up!”

Each position was holding back the people bewitched by Esther well enough. Even pinned down by Esther’s suppressive fire, this side’s firepower was not so weak that they could not stop unarmed hand-raisers. However much their physical ability rivaled mutants, an ordinary mutant horde could not break through a defensive line of automatic weapons.

For a moment, that was what Gyeoul thought.

“Two o’clock! Anti-tank mine!”

“What?”

“Forty meters out! First-floor corner! There’s a bastard carrying a mine!”

A mine, out of nowhere? Sergeant Doyle was baffled, but Gyeoul also confirmed what the soldier had seen. A large mine powerful enough to destroy not only Grumble but even a tank through blast pressure. A hand-raiser had it in their arms and was rushing in while using cover. Like a terrorist trying to blow themselves up while hugging a bomb.

‘How?’

How did they get a mine? Even if there was a minefield, it should have been thoroughly camouflaged.

Before the question could fully form, Gyeoul instinctively aimed at the mine. Then he corrected his aim and shot the puppet in the knee instead, making them drop it. He could only hope the mine would not explode when it fell and rolled. If it blew, their vision would be blocked. Until the aftermath of the explosion settled, this side’s firepower would be blind.

But the crude metal lump packed with explosives weighed fourteen kilograms. The impact from the fall finally triggered the fuse.

Kwa-rurung!

A black storm mixed with fragments surged all the way to the front of the church. Through the wavering flames came a rapid dadadadak, like something popping. It must have been a building that held unmanned turrets and other isolation measures inside. Then again, there was no reason to place useless obstacles in front of the final defensive line. Inside, flames were probably cooking ammunition. A hot, gunpowder-thick, opaque wind blew across them.

Among the security personnel coughing in short bursts, Gyeoul steadied himself and realized it.

‘Smell... Has she even gained that ability...?’

In Sacramento, a Stalker had once infiltrated under cover of night. The mutant with an enhanced sense of smell had broken through a minefield. Like a rat trained to find explosives, it had found the exact locations of the mines by smell. In Esther’s case, she could offload the danger of removing them onto other people who had lost their minds.

Even if it was not Esther herself, it was possible if one of the larval bodies had a sensitive nose.

A shame. It would have been nice if they had placed anti-handling pressure fuses beneath the mines.

Fortunately, Esther’s heavy machine gun fire stopped. She could have fired even without vision, so was she out of ammunition? Had she really fired that long? Suspicion flashed through Gyeoul’s mind.

Covered in dirt and dust, Sergeant Doyle immediately made the best judgment.

“Damn it! Claymore! Fire number 3! Number 4, stand by!”

They could not see ahead, so they had to shred a wide area. Even if it meant risking another mine explosion. Until their visibility improved even a little, there was no telling how many meters would vanish between them and the enemy. But the security personnel clicking the Clacker hurriedly reported.

“No response! Looks like the wire’s cut!”

“Then pull number 4! If that doesn’t work, number 2! Then number 1!”

A lone set of running footsteps came pounding through the smoke.

“Cover! Everybody down!”

Only one second passed after Gyeoul’s sharp warning caught the sound of running. Their feet trembled violently. The tremor through the ground shook even their insides. It was an anti-tank mine exploding at closer range. Gyeoul felt fragments hit his whole body in a rattling patter. How many remote-operated anti-tank mines had they buried in this area? It was probably preparation for the possibility of a special mutant emerging among the fanatics. Now it was being used against them.

Then the third and fourth explosions and afterblasts followed. Surely no more would go off? The sergeant, watching for an opening, gritted their teeth at the silence that followed.

“Flamethrower!”

The gunner spewed fire into the unseen other side, but it was one beat too late.

“Get out of my waaaaay!”

Boom! Gyeoul’s reflexive shot smashed Esther’s knee as she burst through the smoke. The armor-piercing high-explosive round crushed the cartilage. Her body lost balance and rolled with a crash, carrying destructive inertia and overwhelming weight. The girl used the momentum of her roll to stand, then broke through the defensive line on an awkward leg. Part of her body was on fire, but she seemed to have forgotten even pain.

“Shit! Grenades!”

Gyeoul had already pulled the safety pin before Sergeant Doyle shouted. But he threw in a different direction. He had sensed the people bewitched by radio waves rushing in after Esther. Esther had not sent them ahead of herself, apparently because she wanted to make the most of their reduced numbers. To keep their forces pinned here.

‘She only needs to buy time until she reaches Pastor Park Tae-sun!’

As grenades exploded one after another, Gyeoul aimed for Esther’s ankle. It was not simply because he wanted to keep her alive. Every other part was too thick. Her transformed body let even heavy machine gun armor-piercing rounds dig only a handspan deep before stopping. Her back, swollen like a tumor, covered her cervical spine and head. There was no room to hesitate.

Boom! Clack! Boom, boom, boom!

Even after he changed the magazine and fired in something close to rapid succession, she got up each time she fell and pressed on with desperate force. Only her speed slowed. The sight of Esther running while burning and bleeding looked more like a frantic struggle.

“Paaark Tae-suuuun! Come ooooout!”

The five Heavy Infantry blocking the entrance could not withstand Esther’s collision as she fired the heavy machine guns wildly. The way she slammed past them at an angle looked like a traffic accident. Even so, they held Esther up for a moment. In that time, Gyeoul emptied another five-round magazine. The girl who had become a special mutant bled more heavily, and her staggering worsened.

“I’ll leave this place to you! Send support as soon as you have breathing room!”

After replenishing his magazines, Gyeoul entrusted the rear to Sergeant Doyle. There were still signs of enemies up front, so it was hard to abandon the defensive line. Mission aside, they had to survive first.

At the church entrance he raced past, there was a fanatic still breathing. A man sat among the scattered corpses, muttering like a madman.

“Devil... get out of my head...!”

Signs of reinfection. Judging by his panting injuries, the Heavy Infantry reserve unit had done it.

Gyeoul rolled the moment he entered the church. Puh-eok! A person flew in and struck the doorframe, becoming a lump of blood. No, maybe they had already been covered in blood before they were thrown. The fanatics who had survived until this point while avoiding reinfection were throwing away their lives to protect their own Second Coming of Jesus.

Among them, Esther roared.

“Yeaaah! You toooo! You’re all! Going to die! Anyway! So just! End it! Here! Noooow!”

Boom! Gyeoul’s muzzle flashed.

Footnotes:

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