" Eyes on the prize. This time you guys were careless." Noah commented. He was standing where the wolf was with his body covered in red from top to bottom with his hands fully bloody.
Immediately, everyone understood what had happened. Noah jumped into action and punched the carcass away? it was hard for them to believe it but from what they had seen it was not out of the norm to think that he was capable to do such a thing.
" What are you looking at? Keep fighting!" Noah shouted again after which Tang, Milo and Jake woke up from their delirium noticing that more wolves were coming. With the crisis averted, they put the thought at the back of their head and began firing again.
After half an hour, they took care of most of the mutated wolves. They were surrounded by hundreds of dead bodies with everything around them stained red, from the trees to the tiny rocks, they were painted red with their enemy's blood.
Tang who was injured, didn't feel much pain but as soon as they finished dealing with wolves, she felt a surge of numbness from her knee. The constant electrifying pain was enough to make her groan as she feel to the ground unable to put any pressure on her knee.
" Argh." Seeing her holding her leg while suppressing her scream, Milo and Jake panicked.
" Why didn't you say anything when you were injured?" Jake squatted down to see the damage. The titanium knee pad that she was wearing had a huge gnash in it, from where the blood was overflowing dying her leg from the knee down deep red.
They were wearing black armour so it wasn't visible from the distance but Jake and Milo could see oozing blood along with some bone protruding out, that seemed to her kneecap.
" Why are you looking around without doing anything? What did I teach you to do in such times?" Noah called out to them seeing they were acting like bystander instead of helping their team mates.
" Sir?"
" I know." Milo jumped into action taking out a small pouch from his backpack. He first examined the wound seeing the damage, it was not life threatening but if she kept bleeding things could become serious.
" I am fine. I can walk it off-"
" No! Captain said that usually injured people wouldn't feel it because they are experiencing height of the battle but when it begins to wore off, they would start experiencing pain again." Milo remembered what Noah had taught him.
Noah couldn't go into details about human physiology because there was no concept of doctors in this world, at least not here so he had to simplify few things to get his point across. Even if they didn't believe some of his teachings, they have experience their first battle and could made up their mind if they remember what he told them. Tang fighting through such a injury for half an hour cemented his teachings in Milo's mind.
" What? Tang are you okay?" Julia and Cody also reached the basin to see Tang lying on the ground with injured legs. Julia ran to her side and began rummaging through her own small medical kit remembering what Noah had told her to do.
Fortunately they were able to administer first aid stopping the bleeding as well as proving her with a splint to temporarily disable her leg movement. But they knew that she wouldn't be able to fight for few days and had to recoup from her injuries.
" I can still provide some cover fire-"
" No you are out. Jake and Julia would transport you back to the village. Milo and Cody will stay with me for a while." Noah decided to interject them and take the lead. Tang was the temporary leader since she was out, there was no chance for them to continue.
" Are we abandoning the mission?" Jake asked.
" We have taken care of all the wolves. I checked for a while and didn't see any other in our general vicinity. They would have come since we have caused such a uproar in their territory." Julia informed. She did her due diligence before coming down the cliff.
" I also used the thermal sensor, there were only little animals. I didn't see anything larger than a rabbit." Cody said the same thing.
" But we haven't checked the cave yet. Our mission is eradicating mutated wolves as well as to secure that dreaded cave." Milo added. He could tell why Noah wanted to stay here.
" But...couldn't we deal with it after few days?"
" No, there is still a lot of daylight left. I will take the lead with Milo and Cody. We will go and have a look inside the cave in the meantime, you three will retreat and relay our position to the others. If push came to shove, we have to rely on Flame Emperor for the rescue." Noah knew it wouldn't come to that but he wouldn't be alone.
With two kids with him, he had to act in a restraint manner and not take unnecessary risks. He knew there was something wrong because his instincts were telling him which was why he wanted to squash his worries once and for all.
Others wanted to say something but they knew Noah wouldn't budge once he decided something. They nodded and started to pack their gear. Cody was restless but a while thinking about venturing into the dense forest on foot so he tried to calm himself down.
" We will discuss about this mission at night if Tang is awake or postpone it to next morning. For your first mission, it could be considered as a success." Noah didn't praise them extensively but even then they were happy to get his recognition.
During the past week, they went through grueling training with a lot of screaming and thrashing from Noah. He would compliment them sometimes with one word but he never outright said anything much less show a smile.
Noah, Milo and Cody said goodbye to the others. The surrounding area was peaceful with no large predators so Jake carrying Tang on his back could leave it to Julia to take care of any stranglers. It would only take them an hour to march back to the village so Noah wasn't worried about them.
He set his target to the cave that they could barely see from this distance. There were piles upon piles of bodies littered along the road which went to show that the sniper team made a huge contribution during this mission.
They had their firearms ready slowly creeping toward the cave. After exiting the narrow valley, they had to be mindful of everything around them, the whole three hundred and sixty degree awareness which was a little different from their earlier fight.
With jungles all around them, anything that moved could be a enemy in hiding. Noah was aware of this which was why he was fully alert. With superhuman strength, there was also a significant increase in his other five sense. If there was any lurking enemies, he was confident in dealing with them.
With their tactical SIG in hand, they moved forming a triangle formation walking step by step toward the cave. What they didn't know that hiding in the shadows, was someone glaring ominously at their three man team.