Author's Note: The POV from this chapter on might change from 3rd person to 1st person.
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"What the hell happened here?!" said the general, looking at the soldier next him as if to inquire.
"I'm don't know either, sir. Maybe they were fighting earlier and someone hid their bodies here," the soldier replied, shaking his head.
"That's a plausible reason... Algir, order someone to take them to the medic and investigate what happened here," he said as he sat near the three men in the chair.
"Yes, sir!" exclaimed the soldier after receiving his command.
And the perpetrator of this event had already fled the moment they walked in.
A few moments before they walked in,
'They're coming!' Lax thought in a panic after hearing two people conversing outside and hurried to use mana to create an illusion to escape. With the little bit of mana he had left, he activated the illusion as his eyes once again glowed a rainbow hue, albeit a little faint.
He then rushed outside the tent, fearing that his illusion would end if he stayed there too long, after all, using it consumes a lot of mana.
He only stopped using illusions after he was far away from the tent and headed to the place where the new recruits stayed.
Four tents lined up in a row, and each of them was big enough to fit ten people inside. Lax entered the tent that only had nine people, and when he stepped inside, he was greeted by the stares of nine people.
But he ignored their stares and introduced himself with a smile, not wanting to be rude.
"I'm Lax, and I hope we'll all get along." Hearing no reply, he smiled wryly and walked towards an empty bed between two people who were flexing their muscles with each other.
'So, I'm surrounded by two muscle heads. Lucky me.' He sarcastically thought to himself and laid on top of the bed.
For the next few hours, the two people next to him kept flexing their muscles and laughing with each other as they conversed. And Lax was getting annoyed by their annoying and loud laugh, but he endured it for the next few hours by immersing himself in his head.
He was suddenly interrupted by a loud call from outside. 'It seems that dinner is ready.' He got up from the bed and headed out along with the other nine people.
As they arrived at the place, they were each given a bowl and a spoon and made to wait in line for their turn.
Nothing much happened except when he was once again approached by some girls from the medic department, but Lax left them after eating his soup by making some horrible excuses and headed back to the tent.
He was the first one to finish, so except for him, the entire tent was empty. Once again, he laid on the bed, and after a few minutes of silence, he fell asleep.
The others returned half an hour later, and seeing Lax asleep, the two muscle heads kept quiet.
And just like that, the night passed and the sun rose up in the sky, lighting up the whole world.
Lax had just woken up, but the others were already preparing their stuff for the trip to Los Angeles, so he did the same and prepared his stuff.
After an hour, they were ordered to head towards the airport near the camp and wait for instructions.
They waited for a few minutes until the same general from before arrived and announced something.
"We will be departing in T-minus 15 minutes, but there is a change of plans. Due to an unfortunate reason, the soldiers in Los Angeles City are overthrown by monsters, causing them to retreat. We will now be changing our destination to Las Vegas."
The words that left his mouth made most of the people that gathered shudder; after all, they didn't really know the situation in Los Angeles until now. And hearing that they would be sent to a city near a city full of monsters made them fearful for some reason.
But they weren't that weak-willed. After all, when they decided to join the military, they knew that there might be a chance that they might die, so even if they were afraid, they didn't back down.
Seeing the determined look in their eyes, the general smiled and entered the military aircraft, and the others naturally followed along.
The flight along the way was a little bumpy, but it was manageable, and after a few hours, the plane was now above Los Angeles City.
They heard a loud screech that was audible even in the sky, and then something crashed onto the plane that was flying at 500 miles per hour.
The crash smashed one of the jet's wings, leading everyone to be worried and the pilot to send mayday signals, but it didn't stop there since they heard something crash above the plane.
Above the plane, a scratching sound was heard, and a claw penetrated it. A monster was securing itself to the plane with its claws to avoid being blown away by the wind.
It advanced to the front, and then...
"KRAAAAA!"
A loud shriek was heard, and the beak of what appeared to be a bird cut through the pilot's seat and into the pilot's chest. It snatched the pilot with its mouth and ate him whole.
It was not satisfied with only one meal, and it attempted to board the plane. Fortunately, the strong wind pressure blew it away.
Well, it would have been a fortunate event if it weren't for the fact that the bird monster's body collided with the plane's tail.
The moment that happened, everyone inside knew that they were going to crash, so they hurried to grab parachutes and put them on. Some of them didn't know how to use parachutes, so they were together with a soldier who knew that, which also includes Lax.
As soon as all of them put on their parachutes or attached themselves to someone, they opened the hatch and jumped outside, free falling toward the sky.
Screams were heard, but those soon faded away and were replaced with the sound of rushing winds. And as luck wasn't on their side today, they once again heard a screech and looked in that direction.
They saw a bird-like monster with sharp talons that are three feet long on each of its feet, a neck longer than a man, and a face that looked more terrifying than a shoebill bird.
It hunted everyone of them one by one, either by piercing their bodies with its beak and eating them or by leaving them to die by tearing their parachutes.
Fortunately, some managed to survive and landed on the ground safely; however, the place they landed wasn't safe, and they were all separated in the city when they tried to avoid the bird-like monster.
Lax also landed on top of a house safely with one of the muscle heads on his back. He quickly removed the belt that was attaching them to each other and separated himself from him.
He looked around from his spot, and he saw buildings destroyed, homes on fire, and parts of a person's body that weren't fully eaten.
It was an awful sight, and the current state of this city was far worse than the one he was recently in.
Lax sighed from his terrible luck and the circumstance he was in, but wasn't this a great opportunity to train himself in life-and-death battles?
So he grinned and glanced at the muscle head in front of him, who was busy appreciating his muscles even in this situation.
'Just my luck...'