High School Soldier
72. Against witches 1

10 September 2321, 12:24 WIB/1914 Luan Empire, noon.

**

The villagers wondered who they really were. They are not soldiers of this country or the villagers of this village.

Instead of using threats, these strangers used friendly smiles, although those smiles could not be trusted what the meaning behind them was.

They look very ‘hazardous’ with striped green clothes, and some mounted weapons. And one of them approached this village chief, he did not look dangerous at all, even though he had a sword on his back and he had a weapon.

The other members opened the dictionary to try to have a conversation with some of the villagers. Nio also occasionally saw his notes containing basic conversations using the language of this world.

“Ots aimi aksoiv? (what is the name of this village?)” Nio asked the person who he thought was the village chief that this Squad came to.

Everyone gathered at the place where Squad 1 came looked calm, as there was no need to hear any foreign language.

“Aimi aksoiv Uschod (the name of this village is Uschod),” Squad members search for the meaning of the words spoken by the middle-aged man.

“Uschod?” Nio repeated his question because to make sure that he did not misrecord the name of this village.

“Ya, right. Where are you guys from?” Nio was silent for a moment to think quickly.

Nio turned around to discuss with the Squad members regarding their identities. All members agreed to give false identities to the village chief's question. If they don't lie, something bad might happen. Even a small unnecessary clash might be possible.

The attributes that the entire members of Squad 1 wore did not indicate if they were not from the kingdoms that stood on this continent. After all, this kind of information in the world depends only on what is seen directly, not with recordings for TV broadcasts and interviews or coverage for news in newspapers.

“We are from a distant country,” the answer Nio gave made some villagers just wonder.

“Are you from the neighboring continent?” Nio immediately answered the village chief's question without further ado.

This was the first village that Squad 1 met, after a journey that was like there was no stopping. However, fuel for vehicles and personnel logistics is sufficient for a month's supply.

Villagers told me they were afraid of otherworldly forces slaughtering the combined forces of the five nations of the continent, as well as the forces that controlled the Gate. No Imperial warrior is sane after returning after fighting with the otherworldly forces.

The entire members of Squad 1 simply smiled at each other wryly, hearing that they were in fact greatly feared by the residents living in this Empire. Even if the TNI forces can fight rough, if in certain situations they can be friends and companions.

“Don't be afraid, they won't hurt you,” Nio tried to appease these villagers who still looked pale when he heard of the otherworldly forces that controlled the Gate.

There was no reason for the villagers to believe a single word from this army, because they were not necessarily where it came from.

Moreover, the attributes they used were very much different from those worn by the knights of the Luan Empire. No iron armor was worn, swords mounted on the waist, spears held or horses as mounts. For the military of this world, fighting without armor is the same as fighting while naked.

No one even knows if the weapon every soldier carries is a rifle, they call this weapon with ‘long black steel stick’.

It was quite ambiguous for some people who had just heard the term, even when Nio translated the sentence, all the male members immediately laughed out loud. While the female members only stared at the male members cynically. Even so, most of them were still at a young age, so this kind of joke was commonplace.

Although the present situation was still dangerous due to the war, the soldiers tried to laugh to relieve the stress.

**

Defending the Gate is the reason the TNI is here, because the place behind the Gate is their homeland. By using military and political power, they should be able to conquer the land around the Gate, this is the task of the TNI. Mapping out the area around the Gate by taking aerial photos and deploying explorers is a TNI plan.

In addition, building a fortress, which is considered a relic of an ancient civilization, was included in the plan. Already a few weeks after the TNI took over the land around the Gate, now the fort became an impenetrable defense.

When a civilian becomes a TNI soldier, they will read a history book on warfare, and discuss how to defend and attack the same-cam building.

But there are some secrets stored in this world, namely the existence of magic. That's right, most Indonesians will assume if magic is part of shamanic science that covers witchcraft, witchcraft and so on. No one knew anything about magic, but that was why explorers were being spread.

For now, let's change the point of view.

Squad 1 after coming out of the village previously had not encountered anything dangerous, such as a herd of monsters and bandits.

Thanks to the knowledge gained from the fantasy novel, the troops can find a way to fight the hard scales of dragons and wyverns, compensate for the monsters' unreasonable strength, as well as learn the strategies of the royal era war.

“Liben, I was so bored nih,” Nio complained while covering his face with a helmet and leaning as quietly as possible on the seat.

“Hold for a moment, Commander,” Liben tried to bring up his Command who was completely frustrated with this boredom.

There are no radio signal transmitting towers in this place, no entertainment other than the beautiful scenery outside the vehicle.

When looking at those sights from outside the window, suddenly a blinding glint and a deafening explosion. The explosion was like this troop stepping on a mine embedded underground, after all it would not happen.

Nio and the rest of the members got up after bowing down to avoid a possible attack. Outside the vehicle, dust is still flying which reduces visibility. Nio broke out in cold sweat, wiping his sweaty forehead. Her ears still hurt from the shockwave she and her members got.

However, the vehicles that these troops were riding on would not be destroyed that easily. At least if hit by an explosion from a mortar, these vehicles will only suffer minor damage.

All members disembark from the vehicle, except for the gun operator attached to the roof of the vehicle. They prepared their own weapons, and advanced slowly through the flying clouds of dust. The blurry silhouette was visible and moved quickly, it hinted if something was approaching the forces of Squad 1.

The entire members moved forward slowly with anxious feelings, the members who were on standby on top of the vehicles alerted their respective machine guns to protect their advancing comrades.

They have no regrets for the bad things that befell them in the other world, TNI soldiers have prepared themselves for all the worst possible.

Sheyn has gained the help of her Wizard Squad, now the scouting force she leads has been reinforced with military magicians who mostly master fire element magic and lightning nature magic.

There are many types of magic that are divided into different types.

They did not need to estimate the location of the group of Squad 1 troops would pass by, as they coincidentally passed by them again.

The lightning and fire combination magic was a troublesome attack. Combining the two different types of magic would create a huge explosion and shockwave. However this kind of attack was useless when fighting against the troops that controlled the Gate, as the enemy had weapons that had a much greater explosive power than their explosive magic.

“The first strike successfully hit the enemy,” the yellow-haired female warrior, or by this troop was accosted with the Yellow Rose, reporting the resulting impact after their magician unleashed the attack.

Sheyn held her breath to think of the next course of action she would command her troops. His troops looked calm, because they felt sure if the attack just now was able to shake the enemy.

“We will not return before expelling them from the territory of the capital, let's go forward..!!!” Sheyn spurred her horse as fast as the beast could.

His army followed Sheyn quickly and was convinced that it could defeat the small part of the army that controlled the Gate. Ignoring the thought of the strength of the otherworldly army, the Barisan Rose army felt confident to defeat the troops they encountered.

The witches squads rode on the staff they used to unleash the attacks, with special magic, their canes could accelerate as fast as a warhorse.

A Commander was indeed responsible for what happened to its members, but they were also unable to predict what was happening in such a dangerous place like this. The TNI is the strongest living weapon in the origin world, with the right reason, they can fight for hours against the forces of this world.

Just how terrifying the magic that Squad 1 saw and felt the impact, the Cruiser Guilds had not been allowed to return to the headquarters before obtaining enough information. If they returned without orders, they would be moved to the headquarters and held up like birds. There, they will not see the field of action, and forget the results of training so far.

Nio heard a rumbling sound that was getting clearer and clearer, when it also saw a kind of sandstorm that soared high. Before knowing what happened, Nio had not ordered his members to retreat.

The female members began to show pale faces, while the male members started to get nervous because a large army could be approaching them. Before, a large army they had fought. But at that time they were also with a large army, currently Squad 1 was only a small part of that large army.

If the number of enemies is estimated to be thousands, Squad 1 is forced to retreat and report to superiors about what they went through.

Nio thought that if an attack was instantly unleashed in large numbers, it was just a trick of the enemy to get the TNI forces to deploy troops as well. When the two armies meet, great arms contact will occur again.

“How cunning this world army is..,” Nio muttered loudly enough that its members turned their heads towards it.

But by sending a great TNI soldier deep into enemy territory, it is a wrong and dangerous action. But why can this still happen?