As Rein and his camp arrived at the forest area that are mentioned by the scouts, they becames tense immediately while other felt shock, as this part of the dense forest seems different from the forest that they have explored, Seems like it contains eerie and dark vibe as the trees and wild plants seems to be mutated in purplish colour while their roots became dark and much robust than the the normal one,
Slowly they throded inside, while being vigilant of their surrounding, everyone seems to be on their nerves, as they became more affected by the grim and dark vibe of the forest, it's became much more scarier as the only sounds they hear is their own footsteps echoing,
With this slow walks and pace, they arrived at the narrow area of the forest, they are now in a really bad predicament, as thousands of red eyes are now blinking and looks towards them, they seems to be awaiting for their next movements, when they thought that these eyes doesn't seems to concern about them, they suddenly shocked when a shriek upon shriek of monsters seems to be cast upon them as if they are taunting them,
Then it comes, thousands of monster comes towards them from every angle as if they already expected this kind intrusion from the soldiers, Before the monsters could approach any further, Emil just shouted as loud as he can,
" COUNTER AND DEFENSE!!!!"
With this everyone was already on their own defending position and now forming a big circle of soldiers, as thousands of corrupted goblin lunged and attack them furiously, this type of goblin seems to be affected by abyss star too, as they are don't show any fear but only feral could be seen from their side, Some lunged and immediately bite the soldiers it have targeted,
"ARGHHH!!!"
"Damn, whatsup with this monster"
"Help me, it doesn't want to get away"
When they were attacked like this, some soldiers began to panic and slowly lose their composure attacking randomly affecting the calm one, this corrupted goblin are much more menace than the previous they have encounter, as if they are born to devour, even if they have been split in half or beheaded, they still want to attack while dragging their decapitated bodies, latching towards the soldiers or even try to clawed them, little by little their soldiers number began to dwindle in numbers as more are being sacrificed either because of their carelessness or mistakes,
With this situation upon their camp, Rein just gritted his teeth in frustration as they cannot do anything and just move forward, as he watch his soldiers fallen one by one, while they cannot even managed to get back their dead bodies or properly buried them later, he just remain calm and continue with their plan, in which finally they managed to find a better place for more advantageous battle,
3 hours of battling nonstop, now everyone seems to rest a bit, sweats and breathing resounded on them, now their number only amounted to 640 soldiers now excluding the mages and the leaders. Before this battle their number could amounted to 800 soldiers but now, 1/5 of the soldiers have fallen. When everyone thought that the silence will continue, a commotion have happen in the far corner which two well known figure could be recognized easily, the squad leaders are arguing,
"What do you mean by its the Captain fault huh Machete!!!"
Miki shoved his questions to Machete while gripping his sword firmly but the one confronted also don't seems to retaliate,
"Isn't it obvious, if the captain doesn't make this decision to continue, our numbers won't decrease this much!!!"
"You bastard, is it our responsibility to take the order from the captain!!!" Miki refuted Machete,
And they continue to argue until a figure came upon them, which made both of them quiet down. Rein directed his gaze upon both of them, While Miki gives his greetings towards the captain but Machete just snorted towards the captain disrespecting him in front of everyone else,
"Captain Rein!!!"Miki saluted Rein
"Hmmphh"
Is the only responds Machete gave to Rein while not wanting to see him face to face,
Seeing this, Rein just voiced out his opinion, understanding why both of them fight, But he just direct his question towards Machete,
"Squad leader Machete, you seems to have dissaproval of my Order, why not take it directly to my face instead of fighting with someone else"
Hearing such responds from the captain, Machete just became more furious and intend to make him lose face in front of every soldiers,
"Captain, why would you still made that decision even though you know we will face such enemy and situation"
"Aren't you considering our soldiers life at all?"
With this opinion thrown of him, Rein just merely stare at him while saying,
"Why, don't you voice out your dissaproval when we held our meetings?"
With this responds Machete just stutter and can't say anything, but he still wants to get everyone onboard with him,
"This is....I know you are the person in charge but, we are not obliged to sacrifice our life just to make the mission complete, we have the rights to preserve our own life in a time of crisis like this, we have our own choice!!!" He shouts garnering everyone attention,
With this, some of the soldiers began to think and some decided to follow his suggestions and shouts at Rein,
"Yes, we have our own choices!!!"
"I still wants to live"
" This is a situation we can't win, so I just want concede and go back to Middle Main Camp!"
With every soldiers that have voiced out their complaint and agreements towards Machete, Rein just give them the gesture to stand down and be quiet while uttering his finals words,
"Seems like quite many doesn't want to continue this mission and I think I will respect those choice"
"Then from this moments, whoever wants to back out and concede, I will not force, your are going on your own, whoever wants to stay I greatly appreciate your commitment and I will do my best so we could return from this battle soon"
" Then, I'll just have the scouts to find a safe detour way and he will convey that to those who wants to go back"
With this words from the captain, some have a happy and relieved expressions, then Rein slowly moves towards the place he rest before as he have already given them the choices they want, while Emil just emerged from behind the masses while saying his own opinion,
"Me and the captain are fighting to the end even it means losing our life, it doesn't matter if there are only two of us stayed"
"Oh yeah, not to forget, for those who concede this battle, they are forbidden to join our camp again, you should find your own place when returning to the main camp" he says while gazing at everyone before moving away with a grin,
With this, every soldiers are now have a split opinion, some wants to back down but afraid that they are no longer welcomed towards this camp, while some made a firm decision to stand with their leader until the very end, Such as Miki, Tony and Luther,
While Machete just gritted his teeth in frustration as Emil have provoked him and made no way for him, as he knows that the other camp such as the golden stallion will not welcome ex criminal soldiers like them into their ranks easily, moreover the scarlet crimson camp, will surely not take them too, as the five mages of Lady Grace are already giving them the bad eye,
As he lost in thoughts, one of his underlings come to him asking questions,
"Machete, are we going back after they departed or as soon as the Scouts arrived?"
But Machete just grimly say his obvious answer,
"We will not be going back, we will follow through, because both of the other camp will not take us, considering if we have defied the captain order and fleeing from the battle"
With this words, his lackey just feels shocked and seems to be listening while thinking carefully, thus he just excuse himself after that and brought Machete opinion for the others to hears, which suddenly made them to choose the first option that is to continue battling,
Far into the corner, Rein is conversing with Emil,
"Aren't the things that you say contradicted with my decision"
But Emil just smiled and say,
"Not at all, we don't force them, it just I don't want to welcome such cowards and latcher into our camp"
"They are just hypocritical beings, saying they wants to protect everyone life but their just want to preserve their own life"
With that Rein just nodded and sit down,
_________________________________________
Early in the morning, as Rein gathered everyone and asked who wants to leave, no one responded while he remind them once again, if they do such rebel again, he won't retaliate because he have already given them choices to make,
With this they are now continuing their mission, walking towards the center of the forest which the scouted indicated to be the main sources of the corrupted monsters,
When they arrived at the center of the forest, once again, they hope are now being slowly detroyed as what confront and awaits them are monster that could not easily be taken even with their force or numbers, Moreover this one also seems to be corrupted in a much dense power of abyss star which it's surge of darkness, standing at 20 feet tall with large and powerful build but one characteristics that they all know is, its one menacing eye,
"It's an ogre!!!"
"We are doomed"
"This ogre seems to be corrupted as well"
With this, their bloody second battle for the day commenced,