This is the coolest one so far. I hope you enjoy it.

Cascachu noticed the threat of Wixin coming; he would obliterate them if he wasn't stopped. Therefore, they had to blast him out the sky.

Wixin saw they were preparing to shoot. He was prepared to change direction whenever necessary.

As he passed the trio whose descent was slowed by a bubble, General Ippe asked him if he was aware of them being a part of the Defence Force.

I don't know, bossman, Wixin was as clueless as him. I never seen them before.

"Zoom in on the uniforms. Let me see them." He wanted him to adjust his body camera. It was the size of a button and could easily attach itself to someone.

I can't bossman. I taking some dread fire so I have to touch down now.

Understood. "Everyone, get to work!" Ippe commanded the video specialists in the war room.

There were numerous rows and columns of white holographic screens under watch. Further from the centre, a slight curve was visible.

One of the seated specialists replayed and froze the image at the behest of Supreme General Ippe—his full title.

In a quick motion, many screens faded their borders and became one. The few lining the perimeter remained separate.

"Look at that." Ippe was intrigued.

"What, sir?" The specialist failed to grasp his statement. "The numbers?"

Annoyance got to him. "Yes, the I.D numbers."

They zoomed in more but they were still too vague. He demanded them to get even closer. "That's it. 0367...685978."

The realisation hit him like an oncoming freight train. Ippe needed those uniforms.

Another specialist wondered if he would ask Wixin to get it or another elite soldier.

"No. I'll do it myself. Call the Avian Division. Tell them to prep my favourite craft."

He took off his jacket, pulled up his sleeves, and removed his tie. Both articles of clothing were placed on a roundtable where many key military discussions took place before exiting the war room for the landing bays.

Once their general's footsteps faded into obscurity, ole talk passed from the subordinates' mouths. They were determined to voice their frustrations to each other.

A specialist grabbed his lunch bag to chew on some grilled meat covered in red sauce so he could listen to the behind-the-back insults as he ate.

"And the twelve hours shifts. Jeeeeezzz, that lifeform wicked." A rounded one at the far left got up to stretch, her body sore from prolonged sitting on her stool with steps.

"He does only be here eight hours a day, then he does go in his quarters,"

More threw themselves into complaining.

"Must be to play with himself."

Joyful laughter radiated from everyone, including the stuck-up head specialist, DooDao.

"Come on... everyone. Let... let's get back... to work." DooDao's laughter stalled his rigid demeanour that was usually highlighted by a bushy unibrow he bent sternly.

His charges shrugged him off before resuming work.

* * *

"Durin, what are we going to do now? We must have spent an eternity up here." Zazavin's words were clear despite holding onto them.

"I'll shake my fingers at them."

"You're going to attack to draw fire? What happens if one of them hits us?"

"That's not going to happen."

"I'm done talking to you for the day."

"Just do what you have to do, Durin." Teinova was exasperated by what they had gone through so far.

Globules fostered at his fingertips as Durin's eye sockets leaned back to gain better sight for his eventual attack.

He was prepped for shaking.

A flurry of globules flew out to interrupt the trajectory of their flares to cause balls of fire that faded once there was contact.

Why is he protecting me? I not even sure if they on our side. This more than intrigued Wixin.

"Redirect fire again. They protecting their own." Cascachu repositioned himself.

"Bossman, the ammo supply almost done." A random soldier indicated this to him.

"I vex we don't have more. The rest must be swimming in swamp water all now."

The flares were now unevenly divided between three targets. Even so, several snuck through the clash between oil and flares to create a fiery streak towards Leaflet.

* * *

"They going to start the second round of armaments," said Selsan, the military surgeon assigned to this crevice.

"Aaaaaahhhh!" A soldier cried out in pain at his external flesh sacs being reattached in live combat.

"It's okay, it's okay."

"I should've never sign up for the cause. My kin told me to keep my behind in the bush, but I never listened."

Hik, Jwaha, Uku, Baii, Atza-ka...

"What that be?" asked a nurse tending to the injured.

"I find it. It's a bomb and it's counting down in some language." Nie, a soldier, unearthed the explosive box with her bare hands. "Anyone know what it be?"

Everyone's response was of ignorance.

"We have to get out. Who knows how much time we have left?" Nie picked up her few belongings and was determined to get out.

"Moving the patients and them could result in severe injury or even death." Selsan took her role seriously, often to extreme lengths. "You want to dirty yourself with the death of an innocent life?"

"I could care less. They halfway there."

"Don't say that to the patients. You're scaring them."

"My point stands. Let's get out now."

Most of the wounded agreed.

Selsan then complied. They initiated preparations to get out.

* * *

"Our communicators aren't working." Janjako, a lifeform with beads and bangs, realised the crevice was hindering communications. Supplies were in short supply, and without a proper signal, beings would needlessly die.

He looked around to see everyone either saving lives or going through torment. When asked, no one would risk going outside for a better connection to call for supplies.

They could run to a neighbouring gash to get some supplies, but no one would attempt such an act.

"I'll do it." Lanky raised his two-metre arm.

"Do it quick."

"I will."

He reached the top of the gash with his chestnut eyes peering outwards. They so far away from us. I'm not sure I can make it back in time. I should probably leave them to die. A future war hero like me dying in a place as embarrassing as a hole? No way. I have to live to show the lifeforms in my dumb town that a klutz like me could be successful-that I can bring pride to myself, my family and my village.

"What the holdup?!"

"Sorry. I going now."

CLANG!

A pair of thick, bronze doors squashed his head into a repulsive mess and decapitated it from the rest of his body. Lanky's body made a ripe thud as it landed.

"Lanky dead!" Janjako's remorse was futile. The countdown sped up.

Death was coming.

The mushy pulp that was Lanky's head slipped through the bronze doors and dripped to the ground.

They tried to escape every way they could: shouting for help, shooting their remaining flare rounds, and even the use of medical equipment to escape, but all proved useless.

Death was still coming.

"Like we screwed. Anyone have something to say?" Knarv, a scrawny soldier with decent aim, noticed words etched on the doors that said 'DEATH TO WAR TROOP SCUM'.

No one had the urge to say anything. Only the countdown spoke.

Knarv had to say what was in her mind. She knew these were her final moments.

"I... I..."

Take your time, Knarv. There's no rush. Janjako spoke too quiet for most to listen. He wanted to sulk over the death of Lanky.

She gave herself a moment and started over. "I wanna say that I love being a member of the War Troupe. All the friends I made and all the things I learnt. It was nice while it lasted."

...Cubdah, Waie, Desysa, Ghup.

A black beam enveloped them, touching hundreds of metres to annihilate their existence. Not even their ashes survived to scatter amongst the wind.

"Don't look back, soldiers. Keep firing!" Cascachu couldn't let them see what was behind them.

Sadly, one soldier broke his command. In front of him were pillars sprouting upwards. He absorbed all of its malevolence and exuded immense grief.

The others knew this feeling too well. They held back their emotions for future funerals and kept their focus on the task at hand.

Not long after grieving, they were out of ammo. Wixin was free to land with minimal pressure.

Cascachu's stress heightened but his assistant's four optical slants stared into him and said, "We in this together, bossman. Don't worry."

She took the blasters of two who fell in battle and released the last of what they offered.

He saw the commitment and intensity of Deeli, and this fed him for his fight against Wixin.

Wixin eased the helium in his feet and became a deadweight while keeping his eyes on Commander Cascachu. The impending collision of great forces neared. With their subordinates' flight responses heightened, there was a hasty escape from what was about to occur.

Cascachu's and Wixin's clash of arms birthed a thunderous roar so strong even the wind was pushed back, forming a dome. Their stamina deteriorated as each held their ground.

They seemed equal, but Cascachu couldn't hold back Wixin and was pelted out, breaking down the dome so the wind could violently refill the space.

Deeli braced for her superior, but catching him meant she ploughed chasms dozens of metres back.

Cascachu's soldiers attempted to halt Wixin's march, but his feet shooed them off as he tied the two stretched sides of his skull cap. They became ragdolls to him; each kick delivered disrespect and tumbled them through land and air. None could match him.

"Let me go." Cascachu had a fierceness to his tone.

"Are you sure, Cascachu?" Deeli doubted that he could push himself even more.

"I'm sure."

His lack of hesitation convinced Deeli that he could win. She let him go for Cascachu to get up and sprint towards Wixin. He needed to defeat him. To lose more subordinates would ruin him even more.

He didn't want to be soft. Being rough was what made him a true warrior. To be soft was to be weak, and to be weak equated to death. He melded that concept into each soldier he had, whether they were with him on the battlefield or departed this realm, they pushed him forward.

Wixin had to be stopped. He had to get vengeance... for ALL of them.

* * *

The stranger made it to one of the towns at Leaflet. It orbited an F5 twister with a massive, petal-less rose at its centre. Each petal instead orbited from base to peak along the exterior.

The town teemed with soldiers from the apartment blocks, to food stalls and the streets. They shot off their more conventional anti-air weaponry to blast him out of the sky. This signalled the Trim's duty end.

He bobbed and weaved through enemy fire until a nearby shockwave broke his grip. A letter was conjured beneath him and he landed on it with great discomfort.

His hands were swollen from overuse. The workload switched to his legs after he laid a sentence within eyesight. He trekked forward with artillery in earshot to make it to the town of Dagger's Log.

The stranger prolonged his nimble nature through repetitive fire to slot himself in a jumbo-sized garbage bag in an alleyway riddled with trash. He heard what seemed to be a group of soldiers coming to him. The fermented smell of foodstuffs like half-eaten rice bowls, fried chicken, and pizza was certainly not appealing.

He could hear talking. They were near.

"Shoot the bag here, nah." A soldier pointed at a bag.

"You don't have to tell me that." The other one fiddled with her weapon. "I was going to do that already."

It was most likely his bag they were talking about. He wanted to leave anyway, and he was thankful they would force him to do so.

Yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn!

A being stretched her mouth wide. She had an arm that wore a compression sleeve located at the centre of her scalp and a leg at the bottom of her body.

The subordinates were unaffected but the stranger's eyes suddenly felt heavy.
The energy to fight was depleting.

"You see him?" She struggled to keep upright. Her powers as a rookie still needed work.

"This is the last bag to shoot up. We shoot up everything else." The one who fiddled with her firearm gave her input.

"Shoot up this thing here, then."

The flare guns charged up to take out the hooded invader. His eyelids were nearly shut, but he had to fight back. There was a bet to win.

THANK YOU FOR READING IF YOU REACHED THIS FAR. IF YOU LIKE THIS AND OTHER CHAPTERS, FOLLOW, LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, AND ADD THIS BOOK TO YOUR LIBRARY FOR MORE BATTLES BEYOND. MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER STORIES AS WELL.