" Stop!" Just as they reached the cave, Noah lifted his hand as a show for them to become alert. His heightened senses were telling him that there was something far more dangerous inside the cave. It was like he was experiencing deja vu when facing the Flame emperor.
" Should we hide first?" Milo suggested. He too could tell something was wrong seeing the serious expression on Noah's face.
" I-i."
" It's fine. There is no need to be scared. It appears that there is a stronger monster inside the cave." He paused a thought for a second. They barely set foot inside the cave and the whole place started to darken.
With not much sunlight left, soon, it would be too much for them see anything with their naked eyes. Noah didn't want to fight just wanted to survey the place so in the end he decided to leave Milo and Cody at the entrance tasked with taking care of any stranglers.
Just when he was about to give orders, everyone heard a dampened crackling sounds. Milo and Cody were confused but Noah knew that it was gunfire. They had already cleared monsters on their path to this valley, did Tang and her team encounter more monsters?
He might have ignored it but the gunfire was constant which signaled that the problem was more serious than he anticipated. With Tang out of commission, Julia and Jake wouldn't be able to handle a monster tide.
" Let's go, we will come back tomorrow to finish this mission." Noah made the decision telling other two about his hypothesis.
It was about a five mile hike down to the village, from the sound of the gunfire they didn't even cover two miles. If they ran, they could reach them in few minutes. Cody and Milo knew how serious the situation was so they spared no effort in following Noah.
Instead of following the road they made a bee line straight through the dense forest. It was their first time seeing how to properly navigate these dense jungles. Noah was efficient not wasting anytime, leaping through the obstacle or even swinging his trusty manchette on some occasion to make just the right amount of opening to twist his body through it.
The gunshots became louder and louder and within few minutes they were in the vicinity but strangely they didn't find any dead monsters laying around. There were constant gunshots in the past few minutes so not seeing any monsters was strange.
Noah stopped right behind a thick tree not wanting to mistakenly come under friendly fire. Under heavy pressure, it would be tough for them to distinguish between friend and foe. Him surprising them could lead to him getting showered with bullets.
Noah peeked from the bushes to see Tang, Julia and Jake fighting ahead. They were right in front of him with their back to him so he didn't know what they were fighting. Tang supported herself over a rock firing her handgun while Julia and Jake would regularly empty their magazines taking cover behind some trees.
" What should we do? Should we go and support them?" Milo also saw what was happening and was eager to jump into action. Seeing the sweaty back of his team mates, he knew that they were struggling.
" We should but not from here. Cody would relay over the radio first and tell them our position so that there would be no confusion. You and me will hit them from right side, it would be more effective since who ever the enemy is would not expect them to have reinforcement." Noah haven't seen the enemies but he could faintly that they were not typical monsters.
He was aware that there were some humanoid monsters that used tools, maybe because of villager's attack they came out of their usual hiding place to make trouble. Nonetheless, Noah would need to wipe them out before sundown so that they could escape.
" A-alright." Cody nodded heavily. It was first time he was given such a important task. Noah also suggested that he should climb on the the trees and use his sniper rifle. The road which could be considered a small clearing became the no man zone for this small skirmish so Cody would be able to see the enemies they were facing if he was high enough.
There were no cliffs or small hill around this area that's why Noah asked him to climb a suitable tree. He could inform and coordinate with Tang first so that they wouldn't get spooked.
After making a general plan, Noah left with Milo and retreated back to make a wide circle to their right. Code perched himself top a tree and radioed ahead.
Tang and others were surprised to hear their radio buzz, they knew that these things could be used for long range communication. They thought that other had encountered some problems of their own and needed their support but they were dealing with an unknown enemy of their own.
But when Cody told them that he was just behind them and Noah and Milo were also there, they began to have some hope. With their captain in the mix, they could finally take a breather. The reason why they were having such a tough time was because of an unexpected situation which Noah would find out in few minutes.
Noah and Milo were in position, they slowly made their way ahead. Noah suddenly realized that other than obvious gunshots from Tang and her team, he could also head a different loud noise. It was muffled and different from gunshots so he didn't realize it earlier but there was also one reason because unlike rifles, the other sound was like volley then a long pause.
He had a feeling that he had heard it somewhere but he refused to believe that such a case would arise just few days he came to this place. What he didn't realize that his absent-mindedness had alert the enemy.
As soon as they exited the nearby bush, they were witness several people holding long sticks in their hand directly aiming at both him and Milo. Noah didn't have any chance to react before he heard the same noises completely enveloping everything in smoke!