High School Soldier
Help from the enemy

Nio saw himself floating freely in the space he thought was very spacious, and all along his view Nio only saw white. He recalled what had happened to him earlier, and he instantly thought that the magic circle was what brought him to this vast white space.

“Are they safe? Well, that's obvious, anyway. But, what about me?” there was nothing here except white and Nio was still able to breathe normally. The first thing he worried about was his entire subordinates, Edera, and Hevaz. Meanwhile, he did not feel resigned to the situation, but he could not move enough to make Nio want to beat anyone who made him like this.

The first thing Nio thought about the white color where it floated was the torture room called ‘White Room /White Room’. One of the tests he had to pass while performing the education section to become a Special Student Team was to be confined indoors in white, white mattresses, cutlery and white food, and the clothes that are worn are also white for two days. Holding someone in a white room is believed to be able to damage the mental and undermine one's confidence in his identity. In essence, the punishment of confining someone inside the White Room meant torturing someone with one of the deadliest methods of torture.

If a person is overly panicked or excessively anxious when confined inside the White Room, it is most likely that when they get out of the room they will experience insanity or worse. The magic circle had previously brought Nio to an all-white place that was much wider than ordinary White Space, but had not been able to drive Nio crazy or anything like that. He only felt uneasy as his body floated freely like he was in a place with zero gravity. He felt his body drift without direction, and there was no land or anything that could be used as a medium for him to land.

The appearance of Beautiful coincidentally made Nio suspect if the girl was the one that kept him trapped and continued to float here, even he started to feel his stomach would spit out its contents. His cheeks bulged, and refrained from taking out his lunch now. But, letting out suspecting someone still needed some energy, and Nio did not want his energy to be wasted just from suspecting someone without the right foundation. Moreover, Nio thought that the situation he was in right now was one of the common magic phenomena, and included the thing he was afraid of when he was reassigned to this world.

In the Japanese novels and comics he has read, it is explained that a main character is transferred to another dimension, and they are in a white room before being moved to the destination. But, what he experienced now was completely real, and the god or other figure that the main character encountered in Japanese comics or novels before being transferred to another world probably would not be experienced by him. But, moments after he floated freely and without direction in this vast white space, Nio felt his body feel the combination between being slashed by hundreds of swords and being struck thousands of times into one.

Nio did not know who made his entire body feel sore and very sick, even the effects of his training so far had never been this severe. Although he had gotten many incisions of sharp objects in his body, it was not as painful as he felt now. Nio could only scream out loud as the pain he was suffering from got worse. But still, in this place there was only white and something that could keep him breathing. No one heard the pain-filled scream that Nio was experiencing, and his shout grew louder as the pain in his body grew worse.

However, there were no sharp incision wounds or bruises from the fist, but Nio was seen to feel both pain simultaneously as very real. Nio rebelled as he floated, as if against someone who made him suffer as he is now. Unfortunately, there was no one else but her in this place, and she was completely alone here.

Nio who was still awake and still felt an incredible pain all over his body, his two eyes that were almost closed due to suffering with all the pain were looking at the black-colored hole that was getting bigger – or himself that floated and flew closer to the hole. Nio was unable to calm himself down when he was in a situation that ‘suspicious’ like this.

“What is a hellhole? Does the world have a hell or a heaven? Are the heavens and hells of this world the same as those of my religion?” Nio said it in his heart in a resigned tone, as he was completely unable to move.

The black hole looks bigger and bigger, and looks like trees and hills from behind the hole. Nio doubted if behind the black hole was hell, because it was impossible for hell to have a soothing view of the mountains. Anyone would not think if there is a hell that has beautiful scenery and has the potential to become a famous tourist spot.

Along with the pain in his body slowly disappearing, the black hole seemed to grow bigger, then slowly engulfed Nio's weak body and moved it somewhere. Death is indeed the end of all living things, and all creatures have their own way of death depending on fate, and most humans must be afraid of it, even the greatest warrior or the strongest man in the world.

**

The black hole appeared six meters above the ground of the tenth floor Labyrinth, and took out a person in snow camouflage clothes and carried a complete weapon. Nio spewed out from inside the black hole in a head down position, and both eyes saw that the ground was ready to welcome him. Nio closed his eyes to prepare himself for a very rough and very painful landing.

*thump

The pain Nio suffered increased as his body hit the ground violently from a height of three meters, for a few seconds he did not move. Nio's place was similar to a forest, but with a very high roof and no pillars to support it. Nio's body was on his stomach, he spat out the soil and pebbles that entered his mouth. Both hands tried to raise his body carrying combat equipment, so that his body weight increased by eight kilograms if weighed along with all his equipment, including his SS20 G2 and seven magazines as spare ammunition.

The young man managed to stand up despite his grimacing face from feeling the pain in layers, and tried to walk even though his legs were heavy to step on. He managed to walk a few steps, and stared around with an expression of pain and awe. With heavy strides, Nio walked in this forest-like place while enduring the pain all over his body.

With the threat of war if he accidentally walks in enemy territory, Nio tries to speed up his pace and carries a rifle in front of his body in single-shot mode. If any enemies saw him at any time, Nio could shoot them as a precaution. However, his legs also felt like he was hit with hundreds of batons, and made him several times almost fall even though there was no obstruction in front of him, except for the dense and large leaves.

Nio calmed down in hopes of alleviating the pain all over his body, and now his stomach no longer felt nauseous. The atmosphere was so silent, it was as if there was only him in this place and the residents who had not yet known his form but his voice echoed. Nio heard the sound of a simple roar, as if that was the communication way of a creature that let out such a roar. Although there is no adequate light source, but the light produced by flying animals such as giant insects can produce light that makes the atmosphere dim. At least with that Nio can look around without the help of a flashlight or torch.

In addition, he saw some green and red mineral stones that produced additional light for this place. Although Nio had not heard of any stone that could produce light on its own, or a stone that had light energy without any assistance, but he regarded the glowing stone pillars in this place as one of the phenomena of this world. He was indeed quite admiring the phenomenon of giant insects that could produce extremely bright light and a few stone pillars that produced a bright light, but Nio could not help but stay focused.

After walking for a few minutes with the state of the body feeling a tremendous pain, Nio stopped and stood up while closing his eyes. He felt his gaze begin to blacken, along with that came the voices of some people who shouted, “Protect him!”, and sounded like a female voice. Nio was indeed grateful that in this place in the middle of nowhere there was someone who happened to find himself, but a terrifying roar came back and became clearer and louder. He turned his body to look at the situation, while raising his rifle to aim at the target. Unfortunately, Nio felt himself losing all his strength and making both his legs completely unable to support his body.

Nio's body hit the ground again, and both eyes closed, and the five Explorers girls approached him while fighting a herd of bull-headed humans who were trying to attack them. But the number of monsters occupying the tenth floor Labyrinth numbered more than them, while the five girls happened to find Nio who was suddenly unconscious.

**

Sakuya and the five Explorers carried the body of the strangely dressed male warrior to a giant tree with a large hole in its trunk. Yes, the five girls considered the clothes Nio was wearing was very strange and thought the man was from a primitive world, while Sakuya of course knew where the soldier came from just by looking at the Indonesian flag on the left arm of his uniform. Even though he told the five Explorers girls about Nio's origin, still he felt that they would not understand him.

One of the warrior-class Explorers and Sakuya carefully resuscitated Nio's body, and moments later came the sound of tens of minotaurs coming together. Although heart-shaking, but Sakuya seemed to remain calm – even though her heart was not. Although he already had the power that was able to make his enemies to ashes, but the form of a scary bull-headed monster made the girl restless.

“Alright, I will return against the minotaurs who are chasing us, and this man I leave to you.”

As Sakuya said, the dozens of bull-headed humans between two and four meters tall moved and looked like they were looking for them. The five Explorers girls did not look calm after hearing the roars of these dozens of powerful monsters of the tenth floor occupants, and the two warrior-class Explorers girls grasped their respective weapons tightly, gripping each other's weapons tightly, even though their faces showed restless expressions. Meanwhile, the two Witch-class Explorers have yet to gather their magical energy to the brim, as well as the only navigational girl in the group clenching her hands and ready to bring out her hidden abilities.

(olog note: actually this world does not mention the bull-headed monster with the call ‘minotaur’. The monster in this world is referred to as ‘Cilvek Zezen’. But to make it easier to write and pronounce, and the name minotaur is much more familiar, then I still name the monster with ‘minotaur’. And the monster is believed to have the teenage equivalent of sense for some kind, teachable to speak human language)

“We will also join the fight with you, Miss Hero Empathy. This man will be safe here as long as we fight.”

“At least you will get extra power, although much smaller than your own power.”

The tenth floor was known to be inhabited by many dangerous, powerful, and clever monsters, and Sakuya did not know why there was a group of Explorers on this floor, even all members of the group were women. Although he had previously seen the five girls be able to defeat a minotaur, but they looked very difficult and had to exert all the abilities they had just to defeat one of the monsters.

The five explorer girls were seen to have been several days on the tenth floor, evident from their dirty clothes and conditions and clothes that were tainted with the mud and blood of the monsters they defeated. Then, a question arose in Sakuya's heart, “Why does the Explorers Union allow them to explore the tenth floor if they know that this place is very dangerous?”. Although there were very many precious items and very expensive if sold, it was comparable to the many dangers and difficulties when exploring this tenth floor.

Usually the Explorers Union would re-sell the valuables that the Explorers obtained to the wholesalers at a higher price than when they bought them from the Explorers. However, the explorers had been tempted by the high price of the precious items they had obtained from the Labyrinth, so they chose not to care about the fact. Some of them may have known the terms when registering as Explorers, namely the Explorer's Association is not responsible for the death of the Explorers. However, most of them had no choice but to explore the Labyrinth and defeat monsters in order to obtain valuable items coming from monster limbs or other precious items such as rare minerals and such.

Sakuya calmed down as she imagined a terrifying minotaur, she said. He looked at the five Explorers girl and Nio who had yet to open his eyes, then scratched his head in confusion to determine his decision. The girls in front of him looked the same age as him, and Sakuya felt their strength was not very convincing. However, the faces of the five girls showed great sincerity, even though the danger they were about to face was huge.

“’Alright, but you guys have to help me earnestly and carefully.”

“We understand,” answer the five girls in unison.

As soon as they came out of the tree hole, the tense atmosphere they were facing increased into a feeling of uneasiness and fear. In front of them were dozens of minotaurs getting closer, and Sakuya walked in front of the five Explorers girls then clasped the katana in her right hand tightly while suppressing her nervousness.

Like monsters in general that have unique abilities depending on species and type, minotaurs can move quickly, and attack them with unsettling speed. Although the average height of the minotaur was two meters, but they were quite fast and their strength was equivalent to ten regular warriors. A pair of red-colored eyes glittered, and made the five Traveling girls almost tremble. Dozens of minotaurs surrounded them more than twenty, and all carried guns in the form of clubs. Their bodies were muscular and thin smoke came out from both bull noses throughout the minotaur as they snorted.

The five Explorers girls who were about to face the dozens of bull-headed humans wore sour expressions, especially Sakuya who was standing in front of them. The Minotaur is indeed big and scary, according to Sakuya.

A minotaur ran towards Sakuya while lifting a club overhead, then the witch girl uttered a few words of incantation then two magic circles appeared in both hands. From both his hands shot two fireballs at high speed, then hit the chest of the minotaur that was about to attack Sakuya. The magic that the magical girl was doing was basic magic, so it was not very powerful in the fight against powerful enemies.

Knowing that the impact of the magical girl's attack was not very strong, Sakuya swung her katana and slashed down quickly beheading the minotaur in front of her in a single slash. Sakuya's sword seemed to smolder with a hint of sparks, and the minotaur's body she had consumed turned to ashes, except that the head and the horn parts of the minotaur could be sold as valuables.

The two warrior-class Explorers fight against a smaller minotaur, and it takes them a long time to defeat it with the help of a magical girl. It exhausted them, and forced Sakuya to deal with the rest with the help of the other magical girl while the other magician almost ran out of magical energy. The magical girl who was about to run out of magical energy rested with the navigation girl who was still holding her arrow bow and hesitated to shoot.

Sakuya is an expert in the sport of ‘kendo’, and now she deserves to be the samurai girl she is today. He held the sword in front of the chest, and carried out a lightning strike that killed every minotaur that was within his attack range with his lightning slash skill. She has been practicing the sport of kendo since childhood, and uses her abilities as a female samurai in this world. When the four girls only saw Sakuya fighting, one of the magical girls cast a long spell.

The magical girl pointed her right palm towards one of the minotaurs that was quite large, and a huge fire vortex enveloped her, burning the minotaur that was targeted to a charred gosong. The great minotaur roared in pain, rebelled and wildly shook his club. Several slashes hit the minotaur colleagues until some of them died with the condition of the head broken, a few moments later the flame that burned the large minotaur turned it into charcoal. Within half an hour, ten minotaurs were defeated, mostly by Sakuya.

The five Explorers girls began to calm down when some of the minotaurs could be defeated, but some still surrounded them. Sakuya was seen performing several breaths, and sweat ran down her flushed cheeks. His sharp eyes stared at every minotaur that surrounded him and the five Explorers girls, then his grip on the katana handle grew tighter.

“Nona, your power is really unreasonable,” said the navigation class Explorers girl.

Sakuya smiled as she said something when the situation had not been controlled and said, “You better show your archery skills, and help us.”

“Sia-,”before the navigation girl finished her sentence, a three-meter-tall minotaur stood behind her and slashed its big bat into the girl's head. Fractions of the head spread in all directions, including regarding his comrades. The contents of the head and so on fell to the ground as small fragments, blood rushing from the headless neck of the dead navigation girl. Of course it made the four Explorers girls shout very loudly after seeing their comrades' heads scattered and hit the faces of the four of them.

Elsewhere, Nio tried to open his eyes slowly, as he felt his eyelids ache when moved. He woke up after hearing the clanking sound of clashing swords and the roar of heart-shaking ferocious beasts. His face still showed an expression of pain, but actually the pain he was suffering from started to disappear. Sensing his legs were already usable, Nio stood up using his rifle as a stick. He looked around, and realized that he was inside a hollow tree trunk.

His sight was then diverted to the outside where he was, and he saw the flames and the smell of charred flames that disturbed his sense of smell. Nio shook his head vigorously to get rid of the bothersome dizziness, then put his backpack on the ground and walked outside. A moment later, he heard the sound of female roars and shouts, he felt the source of the sound not far from where it was now and Nio ran with the rest of his energy to get there.

With better body condition, Nio can run quickly while carrying a rifle in front of the chest. He did not know in advance about the existence of people in this place, even he himself still did not know its current location. He kept running until he finally saw dozens of bull-headed monsters surrounding five – girls and a headless body lying on the ground with blood rushing down from his neck.

He saw three girls carrying swords, but the head fragments scattered on the ground indicated that the man had lost his head not by slashing a sharp object but was killed with a blunt object. This was the first time he had seen a dead person in a state of head smashed to pieces, yet he had gotten used to seeing the death of someone before his own eyes. Things like a headless corpse seemed to have become a common sight for soldiers who were assigned to this world, like him.

Then, he saw the four girls were extremely frightened with a minotaur of enormous size in front of them, and it was the biggest monster Nio had ever encountered since the assignment in this world. Nio knew what would happen if the monster carrying the big baton attacked the four girls, so Nio activated his rifle in full automatic mode. This was not the first time for Nio to fight monsters, so he was quite used to seeing the creepy looks of these world creatures like minotaurs or orcs.

Nio reflexively stood up while aiming at the monster that had raised its huge baton, then fired dozens of bullets in a split second. The sound of an explosion made the four girls instantly close their ears tightly, and dozens of bullets shot out at a speed of nine hundred meters per second then pierced through the head of the poor giant minotaur. Small vibrations are created when the large body of a bull-headed man is uprooted with the condition of the head bleed a lot.

Nio shuddered in horror as he moved closer to the four crying girls while crouching down and closing both of their ears. Carefully, Nio patted the shoulder of one of the crying girls until his body trembled.

“Hei, quickly run and find shelter!” said Nio with a loud tone.

“You, help them to find shelter!” Nio pointed and ordered the samurai girl he saw.

“No, I'll help you fight them out. We can protect them until we find a hiding place.”

Upon hearing that, the four Explorers girls ran over crying and left the headless bodies of their comrades. The tree hole that became the place to secure Nio was made by them a hiding place when dozens of minotaurs were still besieging this area.

Katana Sakuya re-ignited with a smoldering red color, then flames enveloped the curved sword accompanied by a diagram that began to cover part of the girl's body. Seeing that, Nio still thought of it as the magic phenomenon of this world.

Nio aimed his rifle muzzle towards a minotaur that was about to attack Sakuya, but quickly the girl spun around and slashed at the huge body of the monster. After performing the action, Sakuya showed a smile to Nio, but the man's reaction was normal and remained wary of the dozens of monsters that surrounded her.

Since his target had been snuffed out by someone else, Nio shot a minotaur running towards him while raising its baton. Just by pulling the trigger, he could kill a monster in a matter of seconds. What Nio did was cheating, but it was his way of fighting by utilizing the existing equipment. He will do anything as long as he does not cheat and guarantee victory he can achieve.

“Indonesian people, protect me!” sakuya said as she ran and slashed down every minotaur in front of her.

The girl spoke the language of this world eloquently, and she was forced to obey what the girl asked for.

“From the clothes and weapons he used, the girl is from Japan, right?” ask Nio inwardly.

Nio followed the girl's movements, and shot at every monster that was about to attack Sakuya. Similarly to Sakuya, she slashed down with a lightning strike that split the body of every bull-headed human before her, and handed the others to Nio. Although he kept many questions about the girl, Nio still protected her with bullets that had to be saved.

“Burn all that stands in your way,” Sakuya chants her mantra and makes her katana shrouded in a huge blaze.

Every time he slashed at his opponent's body, instantly the entire body would turn into ashes. Nio who was busy restraining every monster that kept moving towards him shuddered after seeing the magic belonging to the girl he had just met a few minutes ago.

“Hey, how many of these monsters?!” shout Nio.

“Very many, but maybe some of them have already run backwards!” answer Sakuya.

After Sakuya turns a minotaur to ashes and Nio shoots a minotaur with the last bullet in the second magazine, all the bull-headed men flee in every direction to save themselves.

“You, Japanese girl, right?” nio asked without a second thought as Sakuya walked towards him.

After sheathing back the katana, the tattoo on Sakuya's body slowly disappeared. He walked towards Nio and smiled after hearing the man's question.

“If yes, what do you want?” answer Sakuya.

“Means you're one of the Alliance's heroes?”

Anxiety struck Sakuya, and it was impossible for her to tell the truth about herself. However, Nio looked very confident in his guess, and Sakuya felt unable to deny it anymore.

“True. But take it easy, even if I don't know why you got to this place, I'll protect you until your help arrives.”

“Can I trust you?”

“That decision is in your own hands, right?”

Nio had seen himself teaming up with the girl to defeat the dozens of monsters that had attacked them and the four girls earlier, yet it still did not make believing the girl just like that. Nio himself was also aware of how dire the situation was on his own, and he had to make a complicated decision quickly.

“Then, who helped me? You?”

“Yes, but the four girls helped me help you too. Actually they previously numbered five people, but one of them was killed by minotaur.”

Nio stared sadly at the headless body, aka one of the girls who helped him when he suddenly fainted in this dangerous place.

They could both deal with dozens of powerful monsters occupants of this place quickly, despite having to sacrifice one life that died in a terrifying manner. Nio tells Sakuya to return first, while she will bury the body of the headless girl who helped him.

After properly burying the body of the dead girl without a head and praying for her, Nio returned to where he had been hidden before. There were already four girls and Sakuya who would welcome him.

“Thank you for helping me,” Nio got ahead of the four girls to say thank you, and it took them by surprise.

“No, Sir. You have saved our lives, thank you it may not be enough,” said the girl who has a sword.

“My name is Nanaharu Sakuya. As you guessed, I am from Japan,” said the girl as she reached out her hand in hopes of Nio returning an introduction from her.

“Nio, from Indonesia,” answered Nio without suspicion at all, because he could see honesty only from the eyes of Sakuya alone.

“For Indonesians, you're pretty handsome, huh?” said Sakuya with a seductive tone.

Nio walked past him then carried his backpack back and covered his body with a coat.

“Thanks. Oh, if you're a hero, surely you know Rio?”

Sakuya was a little upset that the answer Nio gave was very ordinary, and did not impress her at all. But the last question Nio said made him quite surprised.

“Yes, did you beat that guy up almost dying?”

“It wasn't my fault, I was just doing my job to fight all the enemies. I actually have the right to kill you right now, but you helped me so I took my word about killing you. All I can give you is thanks for helping me.”

It might take a very long time to get out of this place, and Nio was sure that the four girls and Sakuya knew the way out of this place. During that time, Nio will continue to fight and survive until he gets help.

“You can explore this place with us,” Sakuya's offer is indeed profitable, and the four girls seem to want Nio to agree to the girl's invitation.

“But, where is this place?” ask Nio.

“Maze belongs to Duiwel Empire. It means that you are now in the territory of your enemy, “ replied Sakuya.

Nio involuntarily smiled with his body frozen, and his gaze blank upon hearing the answer from Sakuya. Meanwhile, the four Explorers girls continued to observe the figure of Nio wearing strange clothes, but it was seen that he was a soldier. Nio fell silent as if he had heard bad news.

Nio realized that he was far from the reach of help. If the center shows movement in the form of sending small units to help it, by the enemy it will definitely be considered a threat and war will occur, again. It was the worst possibility Nio could think of, there were still many worst possible possibilities that would befall him, including being held captive by the enemy side if they found out he was in their territory. His legs felt weak again, but still too strong just to support his body.

“Come away from here,” invite Sakuya, and the four Explorers girls nod to convince Nio.

Nio turned his head towards the five of them, then put on a grim smile.

Nio continues to reassure herself if the five – girls who are generally Alliance member countries and an ‘otherworld’ who sided with the – Alliance if they would really work with her to find way out. He had to convince himself if not everyone living in the Alliance member country hated warriors from the enemy country, like himself.

“Are you sad, Nio?” sakuya asked as if she could quickly get along with herself and show her empathy towards her.

“No need to worry. So, can I really trust you guys?”

“For me, it would be unfair to fight an enemy without weapons, and you are in that position. I will still help you to find a way out until you can return to your origin,” Sakuya's reply made Nio's heart move, she felt what the girl said was not a lie.

On the other hand, Sakuya sanga is attracted to Nio – who has made Rio, an Angry Hero – battered and unable to move out of bed for three days. However, the principle that he had built up long ago would not be allowed to collapse just like that. He was actually able to kill Nio now, but Nio's current position was completely disadvantageous. So, the real fair fight is to help your enemy before the real fight.

**

(minotaur illustration, image source pinterest)