As all the dots on the radar finally got into the 25-meter circle, shots were fired from the front.
Not lasers, though. Bullets.
And they passed right over Henry and Jhonny's hiding spot, hitting right into the Tamarains. Those were semi-automatic rifles being fired.
As Henry wondered what was happening, a man came out of the bushes before them and crawled up to Henry. He stopped in front of him in a kneeling position.
"Are you alright friend?" the man asked, looking at Henry, who had his knife out before him.
Henry then recognized the man in front of him. He was one of the gate guards from Legacy Cave.
He was with nine other men, probably his unit, and they were slowly moving up while firing at the Tamarains.
"What are you people doing here?" Henry asked loudly, amidst the gun firing.
"We heard sonic booms all the way from town, and we came here to check what was going on. You're lucky you were on our path, friend," the man said.
"Yes, you're right. Sorry for being rude. Thanks for the help," Henry said, lowering his weapon.
"No harm done. You look in crappy shape. Are you going to live?" the man then asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Take care of the kid," Henry said to him, pointing to Jhonny.
"On it, chief," the soldier said.
"Back off!" Jhonny growled menacingly as he unholstered the second kukri from behind Henry's back.
"I'm not going anywhere as long as my parents aren't with me," he said with a resolute look in his eyes.
Henry sighed. He knew full well this could happen.
He swiftly raised his left arm and slammed the hilt of his knife on Jhonny's nape, rendering him unconscious instantly.
"No hard feelings, kid," Henry said in a low voice.
"Take him away from here. He's done enough. I'll make sure his parents are alive," Henry said, looking the soldier in the eye.
"Yes, sir," the soldier said, grabbing Jhonny's waist and throwing him onto his shoulder.
The man then scampered off with the kid, taking him off the battlefield. Henry picked up the kukri from the ground and sheathed it.
He knew he still had work to do. Thus, he shot out from behind the rock, going around behind trees and into the back-line of the Tamarains.
Once there, he started killing off anyone who was paying too much attention to the humans in front.
The battle lasted for half an hour before the forest finally went quiet.
Henry slumped down to a nearby trunk, out of breath. He had been passing that whole half-hour running in and out of combat.
Now that it was over, he could finally relax. With all this killing, his knives had gathered quite a lot of blood.
Now he could assimilate it.
'System, how much time have I gotten from their blood?' Henry mentally asked.
'Extracting energy from blood. Please stand by. Blood extracted. The host has gained four years ' worth of energy from killing ten F-rank fighters, five E-rank fighters, one E+-rank fighter, and one C+-rank fighter. Host now has four years, two months, and sixteen days left of lifespan.'
'Damn, that was worth it,' Henry grinned.
'How much time would it cost to re-attach my right arm?' Henry asked.
'Re-attaching the right arm and regrowing vaporized flesh, bone, skin, muscles, nerves, and tendons would bring the cost up to four months with a two-month convalescence,' the system answered.
'TWO MONTHS?!' Henry yelped, mentally.
'What the hell? I can't be down for two months! How much to shorten that to three days, system!?' Henry asked.
'Calculating. To shorten it to three days, the cost would rise to two years and six months,' the system answered plainly.
'What the fuck! Two and a half years!? That's way too steep a price, system. You have to be kidding me,' Henry mentally yelled.
'We never joke. We do not have that capacity,' the system said.
'Fuck!' Henry swore.
'Fine. I'll pay up. Just let me go get my arm back first,' Henry grumbled.
He walked back towards the spot he and Jhonny had hidden before. His arm was still there, on the ground, slowly drying up.
He picked it up and bagged it. A man came out of the foliage as he lifted his bag.
"You're going to need a doctor for that arm, sir. We have a good one back in town. He could probably build you a nice prosthetic to get you functioning again," the man said.
"Nah. I'm fine, man. You can all go back to town with the kid. I still have to free the prisoners before returning," Henry said, walking towards the Tamarain camp.
"Oh, you don't need to bother about that, sir. We have already sent a team there to free the people," the soldier said.
"Oh? Ok then. In that case, I still have to disarm my traps before leaving," Henry pointed out.
He wanted to be left alone so he could re-attach his arm without having spectators. The soldier quickly caught on to his need for solitude and saluted before leaving.
As Henry contemplated returning to the town hotel to do this, he knew we would never be left alone long enough for him to heal properly. Therefore, he decided to return to his hidden cave and heal there.
After walking for a while, he finally let himself drop down in his little piece of calm. He pulled out a small generator, charging back all his equipment, before pulling out his arm and laying down.
He laid his arm next to his body and ordered the system to get the healing started.
'Make sure it gets reattached correctly. I don't want a twisted arm. Shooting a gun with a fucked up arm would be impossible,' he said to the system.
'System is not programmed to make mistakes. Your comment is irrelevant,' it replied.
Henry huffed but didn't reply.
With a quick notification flashing through his mind, he lost consciousness when the healing started.