The cluster of be'ti and magic wielders melted with getinized petroleum exploding overhead, bestial inhumane screams snuffed out by the fmes.

  Breaking out of cover several meters away, Private Selkirk dashed ahead, with Colonel Becker bringing up Kaehe'kakoe and his squad.

  As Selkirk approached the burning men, with the pungent sweet-oxidized smell spreading fast, he fired three buckshot shells in the general direction of the shirtless men, bringing them down. Leaving the others to disintegrate, he saw four be'ti that escaped the fire come for him.

  Taking aim at their raised shields, he emptied two slugs into the warriors. To his dismay, the slugs only stopped them momentarily, just about denting the shields before shattering to the ground. Rather than press the matter, he continued running in the direction of warriors on the right fnk.

  Behind him, Becker opened fire with armor piercing rounds, each one cracking on the metal leaving only white screeches. The warriors continued with their charge, with the leanest of their group chasing down Becker with his two-handed mace poised to swing downward at Becker's back.

  Eyeing Kehe'kakoe coming towards him, he swiped his right leg, and quickly twisting to face the new adversary, brought it crashing down sideways.

  Kaehe'kakoe barely dodged the spikes, barely nicking him in the face, and took advantage of the opening. With one fast blow, he hacked at the warrior in the neck with the paddle-shaped bde. Shifting the pole arm, he struck the warrior in the face with the bottom end, tripped and shoved him to the ground finishing the fight when he brought the bde down on the warrior's face.

  Undeterred, the remaining three be'ti threw themselves into the fray against the be'ti with husk blue crystalline bdes in a thick scimitar pattern with chipped, vile serrations with the spinal hilt design. With calcuted swings of their two handed swords and battle axe, taking advantage of the fact their opponents had no shields, the three warriors lunged at the swordsmen. When their blows missed, they immediately recovered and struck again, spreading the swordsmen apart.

  One intrepid be'ti swordsman saw an opportunity to strike the three in their backs. Kaehe'kakoe braved the axeman and attempted to keep his attention, barely being able to nick away the obtuse head.

  The swordsman aimed to sever the head, priming his right arm to open the neck in one swing.

  *Thwack*

  With one blow, the swordsman dropped forward onto his opponent's shield, attempting to hold on to anything as his right thigh turned into a floppy stump. Knocked onto the ground, the axe hacked deep on the beck of the right shoulder downward, cracking the rib cages and severing the lung.

  Private Selkirk reached to a thin tree about twenty meters from the nearest scout. Switching over to the China Lake, he reloaded three more shells into the grenade uncher as he overheard the calls from the others to aim in his direction. Without pumping the weapon, he moved further to the right as big arrows with long, ovid point heads pin-cushioning the general area, crossbow bolts and needle bolts firing in deflection too close for him to stop. There was a small depression ahead surrounded by fern bushes. With one mad dash, Selkirk slid down turning himself face down. As he looked up, a sickly green stream jetted overhead onward towards the trees beyond, turning whatever it touched into bck sludge.

  *Pfft* *Pfft* *Pfft*

  Shooting in three-burst mode, Colonel Becker brought down the iwi-kwadi whom had shot the stream, immediately firing upon another one with a double-barreled weapon fed by an estic pipe from a mechanism akin to a steam-engine bagpipe held in the scout's back. As Becker picked off more targets, Selkirk threw the China Lake further to the right, reloading the Benelli M4 with more slugs.

  Becker moved ahead from cover to cover, even if it was next to useless. The archers and crossbowmen had no time to aim and shoot before succumbing to the sub-machine gun. One more iwi-kwadi with a strange hand cannon shot the rge projectile, snapping apart the thin trunks in its way. Throwing himself to the ground, Becker pulled the trigger twice, bringing the gunman down and forced to reload with another pair of taped magazines.

  Moving towards the China Lake, Selkirk took aim at the mara-mara encroaching from his northwest. The first one primed himself to hurl his hand axe when the slug went through the shield, puncturing into his guts. Flying spears forced him to reposition, quickly bringing them down - one shell, one tumbling corpse. Attempting to fnk him, the remaining warriors rushed in a horn formation, swerving between the trees.

  Grabbing the China Lake, Selkirk moved backward before pcing it near a tree, all the while keeping the shotgun up supported by the sling behind his back. Heading for the horn on his right, he went towards a small incline, not giving a chance for them to get close. The st of his shells left the chamber before he had finished off the wing, and as the st two mara-mara raised their swords, Selkirk kept the barrel pointing at the two. Just before the others reached striking distance, he flung it back and pced his right hand by his side.

  *Bang* *Bang*

  The warriors colpsed from the Sig Sauer P228 at close range. The dead warriors, however, had accomplished something. Before they all died, those on the left horn turned around heading straight for Private Selkirk.

  Shuffling to the left, he whittled the formation down but not enough. Four warriors approached by the time he reached for another magazine, and before it slipped into the pistol, Selkirk's face impacted with the shield charging at him. Sent to the ground and in a slight daze, he felt everything too far to pull himself back together when he saw the sword turn around to plunge down. Whether it was a pointless exercise or not, he nevertheless brought the magazine and the P228 together.

  *Bang* *Bang*

  With a double tap, the mara-mara's brain shut off. Behind him, the others colpsed under the armor piercing rounds of Becker's MP5.

  Becker: Get on with the grenades. I'll keep the others at bay.

  Meanwhile, Captain Abraham no longer had to worry about enemy encroachment, but rather on the question of assistance. Since the sorcerers' flesh cooked off their bones, the enemy be'ti were now privileged with priority elimination status, however, down bellow the bark of the L4A3 Bren Gun had ceased, allowing the forward warriors a chance to rush towards the boulders and regroup. Further on, the two other mercenaries were in critical danger of allowing Private Temples being encircled - they had not yet shot their grenade uncher.

  As unsatisfying and potentially dangerous to his fireteam as his idea was, he took action against the main targets.

  Taking aim at the pole axe wielding be'ti, he aimed aimed and opened fire for the unprotected tendons. After three shots, the heavily armed warrior colpsed, and attempting to keep himself up, bent the wounded foot backward, almost severing it away completely. As if not enduring unimaginable pain, the warrior nonetheless readied his axe to continue to swipe at anyone approaching.

  Not wasting time in seeing how this dispy would end, he switched back and forth between the other two remaining. The one closest to him continued to sway about with vicious blows from his rge sword threatening to cleave through anyone approaching. In one twist of his body, the warrior exposed his back too much, outside the safety of the exquisitely patterned shield. Opening fire, Abraham aimed to bst away the coxis.

  With two shots, he brought the rge mara-mara to his knees, blood coming out of the right side of the lower back and upper hamstring. Immediately, Kaehe'kakoe and two others rushed over to hack at the wounded warrior. Switching over to the st one, Abraham observed that the be'ti had adjusted his stance to keep the shield facing his general direction. There was nothing more he could do for them.

  Turning towards the middle, Captain Abraham had only a few targets to select before the position was overwhelmed. He opened fire at any warrior even remotely signaling with his hands, but at st, the warriors passed by the boulders.

  The Bren Gun came back to life further deep in the sludge closer to the river, but the China Lakes had not opened fire.

  *Captain!*

  *Captain, we're not te, are we?!*

  Looking to his right, two soldiers with the lust red "Rx" armbands rushed forward with HK91A3s, looking more like indigents than proper soldiers.

  Captain Abraham: Take your time, chaps!

  As the newcomers positioned themselves to open fire, at st, pools of napalm formed around the Bren Gun. Further to the southeast of Private Temples' position, small fshes popped at the encircling force. Further ahead of Abraham's position, jets of fire shot up as tree bark split and snapped.

  There were no calls to retreat, no conch shells blown, nor white fgs unfurled. Every warrior was his own general in the decision to cut and run towards the safety of the walls.

  Perhaps the running torches of napalm throwing themselves on to the ground or towards any nearby pool of water was what finally cracked their morale. Whatever it was, they just ran with the motivation to stay alive.

  There would be no accommodation.

  Captain Abraham: Inform Captain Oxley - press forward against the enemy.

  Much sport was had with the macabre human version of snipe hunting. Running east, there was nothing they could to to stop their limbs blowing off, their lungs rupturing forcing them to cough out blood, their lower waists shredding apart. Becker and Selkirk chased the warriors behind them, passing by the piles of burning matter as they shot at anyone still alive in the back and only pausing to hold on to the midway. Further down, the newcomers closed in to the thinning cluster of warriors, gunning them down at criminally devious ranges. Private Temples and the other two mercenaries regrouped and kept behind the gunfire.

  Captain Abraham: You two - head down over to where Colonel Becker is, and inform Captain Oxley where to group.

  It took a while before the mercenaries made their way towards the mud, the sun's rays intensifying the tint of the steam and fog. Captain Abraham made his way alone as he stayed to provided cover for the others.

  Without warning, a grotesque, pathetic sight crawled out from one of the water pool - a burnt cluster of gooey flesh with a twitching terrified mouth. Gncing at the dapper mercenary, it sped its arduous crawl away from the field, unable to even mutter a grunt.

  As disgusted as Captain Abraham was, he could not help have the impression of the sight seer into his mind. He could not distinguish...this...from a man and a melty baby doll. By the time he at st reacted, the man crawled far enough to leave a small trail of charred matter.

  Captain Abraham continued to walk, quickly unholstering his sawed-off double barrel shotgun from the back and blowing away the man's head, and reloading as fresh rouge mingled with the bck taint.

  When he arrived to the meeting point, all the others waiting had spread out and kept their weapons trained down south, only lowering them down when they identified Abraham. As well as the two assisting him up above, two other new mercenaries were present with lowered eyes-only ski masks, equipped with a Daewoo Telecom K7 and a suppressed HK417 16" Recce.

  Becker: Status?

  Captain Abraham: Situation normal, sir.

  Becker: Then let's move on. Captain Oxley is waiting for us.

  Private Temples handed Abraham back his radio and earpiece from a canvas bag.

  Private Temples: I took the liberty to remove the rubber band out of the button and return your comms back to our channel.

  He nodded back in acknowledgement.

  Back where Private Selkirk first unleashed the napalm grenades, Kaehe'kakoe and his remaining five be'ti had stripped the three unscorched dead bodies of their armor and divided among themselves the remaining shields and weapons, turning the corpses over with their torsos opened from the throat down bellow their bellies, their backs showing scorch marks from where the swords stabbed and cut through. As their hands were severed, Becker and Captain Abraham told the others to keep watch as they approached Kaehe'kakoe, two other disheveled, haggard mercenaries armed with Uzi and another K7, and inspecting the steaming charred unarmored remains, was Captain Oxley.

  Poking through with a steel rod held by hand in a bck military glove was a 1.7 meter man whose dumb bell cargo trousers were tucked into his tanned Waxi boots, all coated with mud and grime they formed a yer of its own. Everything from the knees up, however, was covered in a rich grey and brown Navajo serape in a bck background with his G3KA4 hanging by his abdomen with its butt tucked in.

  Oxley's neck was covered with a thick grey scarf, and despite having sharp smooth features with slicked back pitch bck hair and a tight Wellington nose, his skin sallowed with plump fat bags underneath his keen, snt eyes. Over his hair Oxley wore an open crown mid-size rim bck hat with an cream orange-yellow band.

  Captain Abraham: We're gd you are all safe, Captain Bruno.

  Captain Oxley: 'ou missed 'avin' 'our 'and 'eld, Captain?...Colonel. Strange t'find 'ou amon' the lot.

  However crass his pronunciation, he maintained a skeptical smile as he spoke.

  Becker: Someone had to do your job, mate.

  Captain Oxley: Sorry t'say but this ain't 'em. 'ere a third one missin' 'ere.

  Captain Abraham: Can you recall how he looked?

  Captain Oxley: We don' know if it's a 'e. Bloke's covered in drapes, 'ou see. Damned queer spells 'nd all, but neve' 'ad a chance to find out. 'ese twins howeve'? We've neve' seen 'ese dogs seperate.

  Becker: Two shirtless men, one of them with a stick, right?

  Captain Oxley: Ay. That also means we don't know 'ow many o' 'em Gandalf cunts 'ere be. Least we can use our comms now, I hope.

  With that Kaehe'kakoe signaled one of his be'ti to come over.

  Kaehe'kakoe: So that's why you did that "hot-mic" of yours?

  Becker: Yes...but we've still to sy a hexer or more, I'm afraid.

  Kaehe'kakoe: Better take their hands and heads, just to be safe. Now then, what of Darkapa? Loyal or traitor?

  Captain Oxley: 'tis best 'ou see for 'ourself. We know whe'e 'ey a'e.

  The st to have his body hacked at was their dead companion. Stretching the arms, the heavy sword severed the wrists one by one, cut the neck off, and were wrapped in a small bnket with much reverence.

  Becker looked on at the practice - it was only with this one whose body parts held any dignity for them. The rest of the body, though undefiled, was left to stiffen as it was, discarded like garbage with not so much as even a subdued mournful look.

  Kaehe'kakoe: It does not matter. Why does your kind pce so much importance in tainting flesh?

  Becker: Yeah, it seems to be the reigning way of thinking here around here, I suppose.

  Kaehe'kakoe: It is only a fact of life. He gave it all in the fight and it was not enough. So ends his life. Let us endeavor to not fail.

  As Kaehe'kakoe made his way out to catch up with the rest, Becker closed his eyes momentarily, muttered so low his jaw barely moved, then moved on with the rest.

  Captain Oxley: Suppose 'ou don' 'ave a fag, now do 'ou?

  Becker: When have you ever seen me with a pack?

  Captain Oxley: Fuckin' 'ell! 'tis 'as not been a prope' job' for so long...Sir.