Emil rushed to the main group from the forward scouts. The scene he saw almost shocked him to death.
A giant monster was lying over a soldier. It's body was red with blood and carcasses. The worst scenarios came to his mind. This may effectively be their very first fatality.
Emil didn't know what to do or how to answer for this to Erika. He thought that if she were here, this would've been avoided.
However, suddenly the monster moved. A voice was heard from the monster. "Hey, move this damn thing away from me or I'll choke to death under it."
Emil was relieved to see that he didn't lose anyone. For now that is. Two other soldiers helped him up.
"Keep notice of your surroundings and be on high alert. Don't let anything like this happen again." Emil ordered the troops.
The older veterans were mostly calm. They had previous experience inside the forest with these weapons but that was not the case for the newer ones. They were a bit anxious and looked everywhere even at the slightest of noise.
The other officer and NCOs tried to keep their troops under control and in formation. They were moving in three columns of 8s plus the cart pullers. Each group had an experienced NCO leading them.
The position of the scouts ahead of the main group was even more perilous. They were all new soldiers without any prior experience. Emil was worried about them as well.
The sound of gunfire kept coming from the scout position. Emil couldn't contain his worries. "Leutnant You will take control of things here. I am going to the scouts." He said and left.
Emil joining with the scouts eased their worries. "Don't fret too much and keep on the constant lookout. I will be with you." He assured them. However, keeping a constant watch was getting increasingly difficult.
Since they were the advance troops, they had to clear the road out for the main group behind them. Most of the times on or two smaller monsters would come out of the bushes to attack them but would run away fast in the face of bullets.
Suddenly a large wolf-like monster rushed out of a bush behind the scouts and ambushed them. It hit one soldier with its paw throwing him a few meters away, knocking him unconscious and then bit another soldier. The others panicked and couldn't fire at it.
Emil was quick to react. Without thinking much, he fired a burst of five bullets killing it. But the soldier in its mouth was severely injured. The monster's teeths stuck deep inside his left arm. He was bleeding.
Emil sent a soldier to fetch the Eugen. While other brought the fainted soldier back to sense. At that time another monster jumped at them from a tree.
It jumped from the highest tree falling directly above a soldier and almost crushed him. Then it attacked another nearby soldier knocking him down. In a few moment the scout group was down to 4.
Emil didn't know how long the bleeding soldier will last or if the one crushed under the monster was dead or not, but it was not the time to think about it.
The monster was jumping and running around a lot and they were having trouble to target it. But at the moment arrived when it rushed to attack another soldier who stopped firing to reload his gun, it was shot by a rifle fire from one of the soldiers. Before Emil could even think anything it was down.
He rushed to the soldier who was crushed underneath the monster while the others tried to help the rest of the injured soldiers. They dropped water on the unconscious soldiers while another soldier tightly held the arm of the soldier who was bitten by the wolf monster to slow down the bleeding.
Emil was relieved to see that the crushed soldier was still breathing but it seemed that he was severely injured because he was not moving. Emil was a bit worried. If Eugen didn't arrive fast the troops may die.
Eugen soon turned up with two extra sanitaters. Emil and all the soldiers were relieved to see them here. But Emil tried not to lose focus. He tried to make the soldiers focus on the monsters.
"Hey, don't lose focus on the situation. Keep on the lookout for the enemy. Let the experts handle the wounded." He shouted to the soldiers. They quickly realised what they needed to do and focused on the monsters.
Meanwhile, Eugen and the Sanitaters started to care for the wounded. Eugen tasked the checking of the wolf bitten soldier to a sanitater. The soldiers protested. But he insisted on it.
"His injury is visible, the sani can keep him alive with the herbs for now. But this guy seems to have a skull fracture and multiple bones inside him is crushed." Eugen said. He sat on his knees near the unconscious soldier.
He applied his healing magic on him to heal his injuries. While a sani started to operate on the arm of the bleeding soldier.
The sani immediately vomited from the sight of the deep wound in the soldier's arm. However the sani took hold of himself and started to operate according to training.
He cut the wound open to check if there were any foreign objects inside. He saw two teeths stuck with a bone. He used a forcep to bring the teeths out and then put in some herbs inside the wound before pouring alcohol and bandaging it.
The soldier screamed from pain. But there were no anesthesia with the sani or Eugen. Such herbs are hard to find. So they had to perform the operation without those.
The soldier felt a little relief from the herbs and soon stopped screaming. In the meantime Eugen fully healed the other soldier and the other sani took care of the other soldiers who were previously knocked out. But Eugen was out of magic from healing intense internal injuries and couldn't heal the other.
Emil decided to join with the main group for now and halt further advance until Eugen recovered and the wounded soldier was healed. The group returned to join with the main group who were having a little tough situation of their own.
Emil could feel the weight of commanding troops in his shoulders. His respect for Erika was increasing as he thought how the ten years old girl handled this pressure effectively.
Two soldiers carried the wounded while a sani helped Eugen to walk back to walk back to the main force. They were tired but fortunate that the Monsters were not attacking them now. However, they were still lingering around trying to get closer and the soldiers were constantly firing at them. Finally they joined with the main group in the meantime.
During this entire time the soldiers in the main group were also having a little fight. Though Emil or the scouts didn't notice it because they were focused on their own situation. However, quick decisions from the Leutnant and the NCOs saved the situation from getting out of hand.
When the soldier from the scout group came and took Eugen and the sanis with him, the Leutnant immediately decided to set up a defense in their current position.
He ordered the troops to form a circle and set up the machine guns with the tripods Erika provided. The NCOs also helped him to put the troops into formation accordingly.
This hastily made defense seems to have become the right call because soon fearsome monsters started to attack them. These monsters were more robust and bigger than the ones they faced last time.
Giant monsters came out of everywhere to attack the group. The machine gunners quickly cut them off while trying to get closer to the troops. But dense forest was hampering their fire.
NCOs strictly controlled the fire. They stopped the soldiers from firing indiscriminately into the incoming monsters. Especially the six panzerjagers needed immediate attention.
The NCOs and their commander did all this while also keeping eyes up in the trees. Because the monsters were trying to attack them from up the trees.
Two of the three machine gunners were thrown of their positions when a monster attacked them from a large tree. An NCO neutralised the monster while remaining sanis tended to the injured soldiers.
At this time the monsters tried to get close but failed due to timely actions from the troops. An NCO ordered them to open fire on the monsters. To hold them off, while two more soldiers took charge of the machine guns. And the soldiers were ordered to stop again.
Soon some monsters appeared who were wielding primitive type of weapons and wearing thick tree barks. They run on two legs and had the face of a tiger. Their size made them a bit slower in the thick forest.
The machine gunners targeted them but the thick bark deflected the bullets. Even targeting their head was also useless. They were getting closer and closer to the group and the soldiers were horrified to see this unstoppable monster.
One of the NCOs quickly put his sense back into action. He clearly saw that many monsters were getting closer to the machine gunners. Other NCOs and the officer was taking care of them but it was a dangerous situation because everyone was focused on the ground and they could be attacked again from the tree. He shouted to put an end to this.
"Hey, everyone focus on the other monsters. The panzerjagers will take those armoured ones out." He then pointed to the panzerjagers and ordered them to use their panzerfausts.
The soldiers got their senses back and started to target the smaller monsters. The other NCOs and the officer also focused on their respective targets. It was close enough because some monsters jumped out of the tree at that moment, but were taken care of.
Once the armoured monsters were within 10 meters of the machine gunners and were about to attack them, the six panzerjagers attacked them. They took out these monsters with one shot each.
The troops seeing this cheered up. They started shouting praise to Erika and intensified their fire. The monsters failed to inflict any fatality to the troops and soon dispersed.
Emil, Eugen and the other troops and the two sanis joined with up the group and saw the scene. They were surprised to the tough battle the group fought and they failed to notice that such an intense battle took place. But Emil was also relieved that they also survived without fatalities. The soldiers were cheering and singing about Erika.
Soon Eugen regained his magic healed the other injured soldiers and the group continued in the previous formation of seven man scout group ahead of the main group.