"Da fuck".
Elijah was stunned, but before he could process what the Demon Lord Revival System was trying to imply by the term penalty.
A whistle came from the sky, Elijah instinctively raised his head, only to be greeted by a shell from the enemy artillery.
The shell remorselessly slammed into Elijah's face, and triggering a minor explosion in the process, both Elijah and the men next to him became mangled corpses.
[NOTICE] You have died, Triggering revive point.
...
Elijah's rifle fell to the ground as he anxiously clutched his chest, Elijah's face was covered in cold sweat and his body trembled violently.
Even the cat eared man was stunned by Elijah's sudden jolt. Elijah wasn't at falt though, he felt like he had just been ripped from one reality and thrust into another.
The pain was passionately familiar to Elijah, it was the same pain he felt when the system first awakened within him, it was the pain of death.
"Did... I, just die?".
Suddenly, the familiar whistle rang into Elijah's ears, but this time, he didn't bother to look up at the sky.
Instinct took over in an instant. Elijah's hand shot out, gripping his rifle firmly. Without a second thought, he hurled himself to the ground, the rough earth scraping against his skin as he tumbled.
With every muscle straining, he propelled himself forward, pushing through the mud and debris. In mere seconds, he reached the far edge of the trench.
The enemy shell once more slammed into the exact location as it did before, but this time, not on Elijah's face.
The explosion, wasn't too big, so it didn't get to the other side of the trench, Elijah was safe this time, but the other veterans weren't.
Elijah smelled the charred smoke coming off the cat eared mans dead body, and another veteran that was besides him, Elijah almost puked out breakfast, but resisted the urge.
The other soldiers stared at Elijah in awe, it was almost inconceivable to dodge a shell while being nestled into a trench, yet Elijah seemed to have pulled it off with barely any effort what so ever.
"So that's the kid that killed a duskmaw bear all on his own".
The whispers were consistent, but Elijah was more preoccupied with the fact that he just came back to life after getting blown to bits.
"No, the shell was the same, so did I come back in time?... so that's what a revive point does, but why does it still hurt so much?".
Before Elijah could figure the last part out, the radio communicator began to transmitt orders from the commander.
"Infantry, prepare to lead the charge! Lay down suppressive fire on the enemy's forward positions. Fix bayonets and hold your ground until the signal is given. All units, stand ready! Over".
The colour from Elijah's face drained.
"The fuck do you mean by stand ready, if we don't do something quick, the enemy artillery will obliterate us, and why isn't our artillery responding?".
Just as Elijah was about to freak the fuck out, artillery response began, it wasn't as large scaled as the Thalorians, but it was enough to give them breathing space.
The radio communicator once more crackled, and the order to charge was given.
Elijah followed the men as they went beyond the trench and into no man's land, the enemy wasn't in a trench and their numbers were lower than Elijah expected, but they had superior artillery and that made up for the numbers.
The battle officially commenced, with the Umbrals charging recklessly at the Thalorians.
The Thalorians were roughly three hundred yards away, but getting there in one piece was the challenge, they were armed with heavy machine guns that sprayed bullets like rain droplets.
...
With over three hundred thousand men running across the plane, artillery shells dropping and bullets flying across.
Elijah came to realise something.
After dodging a random shell from the sky, Elijah propped himself up and shot a bullet at the enemy, but ofcourse the bullet missed its target.
"This can't be all of them, clearly this is supposed to be some kind of distraction of some sort".
Elijah reloaded his rifle, his bright green eyes scanning the enemy before he rose and continued running forward, he couldn't risk being treated as a deserter.
Finally, both armies clashed, men became corpses faster than babies were born, blood and steel bayonets became one.
Elijah found an opportunity and stabbed a Thalorian in the back with his bayonet, he shot another dead, but before he could reload.
Another man struck his head with his rifle, he didn't die on impact, but he fell to the ground, blood gushing out from the wound.
The man raised his bayonet and was about to stab Elijah before a stray bullet pierced through his head, the man's body fell over, slamming into Elijah.
Moments later, Elijah pushed the body away and sat on his ass, he quietly surveyed the battlefield.
"The Thalorians are just trying to buy time with this pointless attack, they should be a main force further back, probably building a trench or something".
Elijah suddenly had an epiphany.
"If the Thalorians succeed in setting up a base close to the Black Ash battlefront, then they'll be able to force the umbral kin into a battle of attrition, clearly they have better resources and equipments, once they exhaust their enemy, they'll rush them and capture the battlefront in its entirety... I can't let that happen, I need to speak with the commander, there is definitely a better way to respond to this decoy army than to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of men in a reckless charge, with the hope that they somehow force their way to the artillery unit and disable them".
The cries of death rang out continuously, muffled by battle cries and artillery fire, Elijah finally stood up, his expression confident and his figure straight and bold.
For a moment there, he resembled a man ready and confident enough to take on the entire Thalorian army on his own.
"Time to go die".