"Viper 5?"
I opened my eyes as someone called out my code name. The noisy sound of magic bullets and the siren of the enemy base echoed. "Urgh..."
"Wake up, Viper 5. We have a mission to carry out."
I remembered that right now we were conducting a secret mission to eliminate the leader of this enemy fortress. I also remembered that the helicopter we were riding had crashed and I was thrown out of it right as Viper 6 managed to rappel down.
"Come on, quick, to those bushes over there." Viper 6 hoisted me up and helped me walk toward the bushes at the edge of the cliff, and the two of us descended by simply sliding down.
My visor turned back on, and my armour system rebooted, signalling that I had recovered.
[Armour: 58%] [User condition: lightly injured] [MP: 8520/8520]
"Looks like it turned back on. We can communicate via telepathy again," Viper 6 said to me. He checked my face and entire body. "Regis 5, Viper team here. We made it to the destination, but thanks to our helicopter crash, the enemy fortress is on full alert."
"Regis 5 to Viper 6, continue your mission," replied the commander of Region 5 HQ.
"Roger," Viper 6 replied, cutting off our telepathic communication line to Regis 5.
A map of the area around the fortress appeared in the corner of my visor. Upon seeing flashlight beams from above the cliff, I used my camouflage magic and stayed completely still.
"We only found the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot. No bodies of passengers were found. Please stay alert for any intruders entering the fortress," reported an enemy patrol unit.
My partner and I remained silent, not moving a muscle. We waited for them to leave and sweep their flashlight beams away from our hiding spot.
"All clear," Viper 6 said.
A marker appeared on my mini map. Viper 6 led the way, and the two of us carefully walked along the bottom of the cliff until we reached the edge of the fortress moat.
"We are going to swim across this moat. Last week, one of the iron mesh grate gates covering the water inlet filling the moat was damaged by a bomb from our bomber plane," Viper 6 told me.
We waited until the spotlight from atop the fortress moved away and stopped illuminating the moat area.
Several main objectives of our mission were displayed clearly in my view.
[Eliminate the enemy fortress commander.]
[Disable the enemy air defences.]
"Which one do you want to pick?" Viper 6 asked me.
"Disabling the air defences seems better, I think. But there is a risk the fortress commander might escape, and we would fail to make this place leaderless," I answered while analysing the map of the area.
"My final mission before retiring to work as a teacher at the magic academy. Who would have thought I would get such a heavy task?" Viper 6 cracked his neck. "I hope that after I retire, you can find a partner who fits you just like I chose you."
"Hopefully," I smiled and held Viper 6's cheek. "Thank you for choosing me, teacher."
We waited again for the right moment to dive into this large, wide, and deep moat. The beam of the spotlight atop the fortress could penetrate the moat water. If we were spotted, we could be shot at from above and killed.
"How about we just shoot the lights?" I suggested, manifesting my magic to draw my magical sniper rifle. "Time and time again, the intel given to us is incomplete. This was not in the briefing, right?"
"Hmm, if you want to be reckless, go ahead and try," Viper 6 replied, observing the distance from the moat to the wall. "If you can swim to the middle of the moat undetected, you can use your grappling hook and boosters to climb the wall, then disable the spotlight."
"I will give it a try," I replied, stowing my sniper rifle away.
"I will cover you from here. That spotlight can dispel camouflage magic, so be careful," Viper 6 replied. "I will create a distraction for you."
Viper 6 used his magic to create a magical clone. I understood his plan, he was going to send his clone to pull off a reckless move and draw the spotlight away from the moat toward the clone.
"3, 2, 1, go!"
As soon as his clone left our hiding spot and successfully diverted the spotlight toward itself, I dove into the moat and swam as fast as possible to the other side.
Brutal magical gunfire erupted toward the location of Viper 6's clone. I fired my grappling hook and managed to anchor it atop the wall, then climbed up and used my boosters to quickly reach the top. I pulled out my magical submachine gun and attached an advanced suppressor to the muzzle.
I unhooked my grappling line and scanned the area atop the wall. The red dots on my mini map were enemies, while the blue dot across the way was Viper 6. I activated my camouflage and carefully walked along the pathway atop the wall toward one of the installed spotlights.
There were three guards there. Two were operating the spotlight, while another seemed to be smoking alone. They were unaware of my presence. By chance, I noticed a cable connected to the spotlight right in front of me.
I severed the cable and readied my blade to slash anyone who approached.
"Go check the problem!" one enemy shouted to his smoking comrade.
"OK!"
An enemy approached my position. As he drew near, I slashed his neck with my blade, then hid his body, using his uniform and voice to integrate into my camouflage magic.
"Please check, I am using an enemy uniform as a disguise," I reported to Viper 6.
"Roger," he replied briefly.
When the remaining two guards looked my way, they did not notice me at all. By the time they realised what was happening, I had already sent them to the afterlife. I dragged all their bodies and dumped them outside the wall into the moat.
I then took an enemy magical communicator and equipped it to check whether our presence had been detected.
"I am going to swim across now. Looks like we are splitting up our tasks. You focus on disabling the air defences, and I will try to eliminate the fortress commander," Viper 6 said.
"Understood," I replied.
We then executed our tasks and split up. My objective went smoothly, but as I was waiting for Viper 6, I was shocked by the sight before me. I saw Viper 6 being held hostage by the enemy commander.
"Teacher!"
I woke up from that nightmare, cold sweat pouring down my entire body. I hugged my pillow and cried, having dreamt of my teacher's final moments. I clearly remembered being tortured by the enemy and managing to survive, but my teacher did not.
I glanced at my alarm clock, which showed 4 AM. I could not fall back asleep. The scene of my teacher being executed right in front of me brought me to tears again.
A nurse entered my hospital room. She approached me and told me to show her my back. "I will fix the part regarding your memories for a moment."
"Alright."
After touching my back and soothing my memories, my restlessness and rapid heartbeat slowly subsided, and the image of my teacher's severed head flickered and faded away.
I noticed the halo above my head glowing normally again as the nurse treated me.
"All done. This soothing spell will suppress the remaining subconscious trauma so it does not overflow again. Your evaluation results are stable. You can be discharged today," the nurse said.
"Thank you, Nurse Lucy," I replied, smiling at her.
"You are welcome." Nurse Lucy stepped out, and I was finally able to rest again.
I had been hospitalised here for three months. My military career seemed to have come to a halt here. The results of my psychological assessment made me unfit to remain in the ACE 595 special forces. I was originally recruited by the government through an orphan program where children were trained from a young age to become soldiers.
Upon discovering that I possessed a rare abnormal magic type that could not be countered by other magic types, they placed me in a special program and conducted experiments on me. Losing Viper 6, who was my mentor in that special program, nearly drove me insane. He was a mentor I considered family...
"How are you feeling, Master Sergeant Yogiri?" asked Regis 5, also known as Brigadier General Thorn.
"The doctor and nurse said I can go home today," I replied to Brigadier General Thorn.
"Have you thought about where you want to transfer? Originally I wanted to keep you as the leader of ACE 595 to replace Viper 6. Unfortunately, when I presented your health test results again, headquarters did not allow it," Brig Gen Thorn said, sitting on the edge of my bed. "If you still want to be in action, I can write a recommendation letter to a specialist unit or the imperial guard. Today is the deadline for your request, and if you do not choose, I will have to honourably discharge you."
"Considering you are still young and have plenty of combat experience, it feels like a waste to release you back to civilian life," the old man said.
That was true. Today, if I recalled correctly, a member of the imperial family was visiting this hospital to meet injured soldiers. I remembered Viper 6's dream. If I was not mistaken, he wanted to become an instructor at a military academy, right?
My teacher was my role model. I suppose it would be fine if I followed his dream, right? I had no idea where else to go anyway.
"May I accept an offer to become a teacher or instructor at a magic or military academy?" I asked nervously.
"That sounds great. You can teach the young generation of mages in this country," Brig Gen Thorn beamed. "I can arrange that."
"That is my only wish. Also, may I adopt Viper 6's family name?" I requested, gripping the bedsheets tightly. "I know my teacher was unmarried and had no family, and I do not want his family name to just vanish."
"Of course. In that case, excuse me for a moment. I will return when Emperor Drachne arrives," Brig Gen Thorn replied.
"Understood, Commander," I replied.
Yogiri Klausmann.
I will build a great legacy to honour my teacher. If my teacher could train me to be strong, I will certainly be able to train a new generation of mages to be strong as well, even if I am not turning them into special forces soldiers.
I will fulfil my teacher's dream of becoming a great educator.