The stench of iron pierced my nose. No, this wasn't just a metallic smell. It was the reek of "war"—the scent of ruptured intestines, scorching flesh, and urine mixed with muddy water.
"Fuck, where are the reinforcements?!"
Chul-soo screamed, clutching his severed leg. Fresh blood spurted between his fingers, soaking the cold mud. Yeon-woo tried to wrap a tourniquet with trembling hands, but her white sleeves had already turned a dark, sickening crimson.
"Lieutenant, Mr. Chul-soo... he won't stop. The bleeding won't stop!"
At the sound of Yeon-woo's whimpering, child-like voice, I swallowed hard. In the distance, the magic artillery of the Aran Union split the night sky again. They looked like beautiful shooting stars, but the moment they touched the ground, this place would turn into a meat grinder once more.
"Yeon-woo, let go. It's over."
"No, I can do it! I saved someone last time too!"
I grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back roughly. Stupid girl. If you cling to him any longer, you'll die too. Death isn't fair. There are no heroic sacrifices here. Only rotting lumps of meat and the cowardly guilt of the survivors.
"Wake the fuck up! Instead of holding onto a dead man, grab a shield for the ones still breathing!"
At my roar, Yeon-woo's pupils trembled violently. I shoved her aside and adjusted my mud-caked rifle. The sky was falling. No, this was just the beginning of the end.
The shells raining from the sky knew no mercy. The defensive shields cast by the Hwan-guk mages were already at their limit. Every time a crack spider-webbed across the translucent blue barrier, the murderous intent of the Aran Union poured down upon our heads.
"Motherfuckers... they really never stop shooting."
I grabbed the scruff of Yeon-woo's neck and shoved her roughly into the inner trench. With a dull thud, her knees sank into the mud. It probably hurt, but it was better than being dead.
"Lieutenant, Mr. Chul-soo... his body..."
Yeon-woo's gaze was fixed on the 'lump' that had been Chul-soo just moments ago—the man who was cracking jokes. A shell fragment had sliced through his upper body diagonally. At the fact that a human body could be disassembled so easily, Yeon-woo retched. Yellow bile scattered over the blood-stained mud.
"Don't look. Turn your head."
I covered her eyes with my palm. My hand reeked of iron too. Whose blood was this? Was it from the signalman who died earlier, or was it from Chul-soo?
"All units, fix bayonets!"
The war cries of the enemy echoed from beyond the trenches. The cessation of the bombardment meant they were coming to mix blades personally. Aran's infantry were charging through the mist. They weren't human anymore. They were 'Augmented Soldiers'—monsters who had lost their sanity to the power of the Holy Relic.
"Yeon-woo, listen to me carefully. From now on, you're not a medic. You're just a beast trying to survive. Understand?"
I forced a blood-stained dagger into her hand. Yeon-woo's pupils shook, lost and searching. She was a lovely girl. Only six months ago, she was a bright-eyed student at a nursing school in the capital. The thing that dragged such a girl into this hell was a giant killing machine called 'the State.'
"If you want to live, stab them. Before they slit your throat, you drive this into their eye sockets first. Do you fucking get it?!"
At my roar, Yeon-woo flinched and gripped the dagger tight. At that exact moment, the shadow of the first enemy soldier loomed over the trench.
The Aran augmented soldier leaping over the trench was less a man and more a giant boar. Contaminated by the magic of the Holy Relic, his eyes were rolled back, and yellow bile leaked from his lips. The axe he held sliced through the air, crashing down toward my head.
"Aaargh!"
I threw my body to the side. The axe bit deep into the muddy floor, and the resulting splash of muck blinded me. Fuck, I can't see. I swung my bayonet instinctively. A sickening, squelching sensation traveled up my wrist. I'd sliced his thigh, but the augmented soldier, incapable of feeling pain, lunged forward and grabbed me by the throat.
"Khhk...!"
The pressure felt like my neck was about to snap, making stars dance in my vision. His grip was like a steel vice. My air was cut off, and my lungs began to burn. That's when Yeon-woo, who had been collapsed beneath me, charged with a scream.
"Die! Just die, you monster!"
The dagger in Yeon-woo's hand hacked frantically at the soldier's flank. But the bastard didn't even flinch; he swung his other hand and backhanded her across the face. With a sickening thud, Yeon-woo was sent flying backward.
"You... piece of... dog shit...!"
I pulled my pistol from my vest and shoved it under his jaw. Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
His head burst like a watermelon. Brain matter and hot blood splattered across my face. The heavy corpse collapsed on top of me. I violently shoved the body aside and crawled toward Yeon-woo. Her lip was torn and bleeding, and her left eye was already beginning to swell.
"Yeon-woo, snap out of it! Look behind you!"
Inside the trench, it was already a total clusterfuck. The air was filled with the dull thuds of flesh hitting flesh and the bone-chilling sound of snapping limbs. One soldier collapsed over Chul-soo's corpse, only for another enemy to climb on top and strangle him. This wasn't combat. It was just a slaughterhouse where starving beasts ripped out each other's entrails.
I grabbed a rifle off the ground and smashed the butt into the face of an approaching enemy. The sound of his nose collapsing was bizarrely loud.
"Don't trust anyone! If it moves in front of you, kill it!"
My hands had already lost all feeling. My gloves, soaked in blood, were so slippery I could barely hold the weapon. This disgusting logic—that we must kill to live—was turning us into demons tonight.