Elijah stared back into Verayth's beautiful ocean blue eyes, he's Demon Lord Revival System still hasn't given him the notification for supernatural ability activation.
"Lieutenant". Elijah began, his voice course and exhausted but still high pitched enough to break the cacophony of noises from the battlefield.
"I have died and revived several dozen times, and this isn't the first time we have spoken.
Elijah suddenly yanked verayth to the side, pulling her graceful body away, several meters from their present location.
He pointed back at their previous position, a confident expression on his face. Moments passed, and nothing happened.
Verayth raised an eyebrow, but before she could speak, Elijah cut her off.
"No wait a minute, I swear a shell was supposed to drop right about".
Boooooom!
"Oh... there it is".
Elijah turned back to Verayth.
"As I was saying, I have the ability to revive to the exact time the battle began, I know it sounds insane, but I need you to trust me, so go ahead and activate your bloodline ability".
Elijah steadied himself, he knew he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without being able to influence the overall situation of the battlefield.
That was where First Lieutenant Verayth comes in, sure she tried to murder him once, but she decided not to, and to Elijah that was a winning decision from her.
"Elijah, I believe you... There's no need to violate your freedom of choice".
Verayth's voice was soft and soothing, Elijah never thought they would be a day, someone will actually care about his well being in anyway.
But that didn't assure him of anything, it only made The Demon even more uncomfortable with First Lieutenant Verayth.
"I have a plan". Elijah began, but he stopped and once more pulled Verayth to the side, he summoned the rose dagger and flung it into the throat of a Thalorian.
First Lieutenant Verayth's squad were protecting them, but they were still some hostiles that managed to get through.
A firm hand suddenly clasped Elijah's shoulder. He turned to meet Officer Ovarth's scowling face.
"Release the First Lieutenant this instant… creep," Ovarth snapped.
It was then that Elijah realized he was still holding on to Verayth's wrist, her soft white skin even started to bruise.
Elijah released Verayth but also shrugged off Ovarth's hand, he had no reason to play the fool anymore, and there was no way he was backing down to some rando that has a crush on his boss.
Noticing the tension, Verayth stepped between them. She opened her mouth to give a stern lecture, but her radio crackled to life with urgent orders from HQ.
"All units, fall back to the trench immediately! Repeat, fall back to the trench and regroup for defensive formation!"
Verayth's eyes hardened. She turned to her squad and barked orders, her calm and soothing tone replaced by the sharp authority of a seasoned officer.
"You heard HQ. Fall back now!"
Elijah followed her gaze toward the retreating soldiers and gritted his teeth with a pained expression.
"The trench again? That's not exactly my idea of progress."
"Then come up with a better one," Verayth said, already moving with her squad.
Elijah wasn't about to be left behind, he retrieved the rose dagger and trailed First Lieutenant Verayth's Steps.
Even the Thalorians were retreating, the sun was about to fall, and fighting in the dark will only promote friendly fire.
The battlefield was left littered with corpses, the mutated vultures flew in from the surrounding woods and settled for a long night.
The Thalorians received the least casualties, with the Umbral kins losing almost ten thousand men on the first day.
But Elijah was not sympathetic, that was what they get for charging at the enemy like a bunch of dumbasses.
... ...
Later that evening.
Elijah poured a barrel of water over himself and allowed the chilled evening air to hug his naked body.
After the bath, Elijah once more wore his uniform and threw himself onto his bed, Unlike the other men who were mounting the trench, Elijah had special treatment.
He came back to what was left of the camp, together with First Lieutenant verayth, apparently it's called privilege of rank.
Elijah never really got to enjoy stuff like that in his previous life, so he intented to do so in his new one.
But the privilege didn't last long, a man with a raccoon nose opened the tent and called on him.
"Come on kid, the First Lieutenant wants you at the meeting".
The man led Elijah to a secure tent, outside the reach of the Thalorian artillery unit.
The raccoon nosed man signaled for Elijah to go in, while he stayed by the entrance as a guard.
The moment Elijah walked into the tent, he nodded softly to the surrounding officers before walking over to First Lieutenant Verayth.
Elijah doesn't know it, but his calm and composed exterior earned him a few nods of approval from the high ranking officers and even from the Major himself.
But someone in particular didn't admire his uncouth entrance, it was a man with pigeon like wings on his back.
First Lieutenant Darvik glared coldly at Elijah.
"I realise three days isn't enough for you recruits to truly understand military discipline, but when a low ranking officer is within the presence of higher ranking officer, he salutes them".
Elijah was standing behind Verayth's chair, too busy praying she didn't expose his ability.
But First Lieutenant Darvik's yell sparked his annoyed side, so he retorted on instinct.
"Except we are not exactly officers are we, we only trained for two days and by that logic shouldn't be on the battlefield, let me ask you something... Did the army even bother registering our names in the official data base?".
First Lieutenant Darvik suddenly went silent, Elijah was right, the army was only using the so called recruits as fodder, they weren't actually soldiers in the army.
Dying here would mean being forgotten, they will not receive any credit nor rewards for anything.
"So using that logic, I am not required to salute anyone here". Elijah added.