Adopted Soldier

Hektor was also having fun as he pounded away at Oliver, Niel, and Sayaka . Though it wasn’t really a one-sided fight, seeing as all of Hektor’s wounds were healing while the members of the Mercenary Club retained their injuries, it looked like a one-sided fight .

Hektor’s damage was only some bullet holes in his pants and a bit of his uniform, but no real damage to his body . On the other hand, the Mercenary Club members had numerous bruises here and there .

Emily who was not taking part in the fight, as she was fiddling with something . Everyone thought she was still trying to hack into the system to stop the missiles, but instead, she was doing something else . Emily then shouted to the group, "Everyone catch this!" Emily proceeded to toss something to the others . Hektor obviously didn’t want them to receive whatever was tossed, so he charged forward but was stopped by Oliver .

The thing Emily tossed were earpieces, upon getting them, each member placed the earpiece on the right ear .

"Testing, testing, does everyone hear me?" All the members heard Emily’s voice and responded . Once she got the confirmation she needed, Emily continued to speak . "I’m going to say this now, I won’t be able to make it in time . The only option we have now is killing that b*stard . "

. . .

When Kei heard what Emily said he inhaled and then exhaled deeply . After that, he started moving while looking for a better position . Once he got to higher ground Kei got a better look of the fight . He then proceeded to watch everyone’s movement without saying anything .

. . .

Rachel who was watching at the sidelines felt her body was now a bit okay . So she then forced herself to use RELEASE, she didn’t use full RELEASE since she knew that the moment she did that death was the only path from thereon . Still, after using RELEASE Rachel felt like she could only hold this state for about thirty minutes before she’ll once again be unable to fight for a duration of time .

’Doesn’t matter what happens to me next, I need to help now!’

Rachel who was inactive throughout the fight except for shooting now and then finally joined in the melee . The moment Hektor saw Rachel getting close to him, he felt a bit frightened . Even though he wasn’t the one who experienced it, he did see how Rachel pulverized his clone . Watching an almost perfect copy of him being beaten down by a girl more than half his age was a little bit frustrating as well as a tiny bit frightening .

Still, Hektor knew that among the members of the Mercenary Club, he shouldn’t let Rachel get a hit in . This person’s attacks were meant to be one-hit kill type of attacks . Among the current people here she held the strongest attacking power . Everything else she had was below him, but only her power outclassed even the original Hektor’s power . Unknown to Hektor Rachel wasn’t in full RELEASE meaning her power that he imagined wasn’t as strong .

Hektor didn’t bother to deflect Rachel’s attack and instead evade it, allowing Sayaka to be able to stab another dagger onto his back . Unfortunately for them, Sayaka’s strength wasn’t enough to pierce through Hektor’s armor nor his thick muscles .

. . .

Kei who was watching from afar was finally able to formulate a plan in his head . "Everyone please follow my orders from here on out . Please, guys, I want you all to trust me in this . "

At first, no one responded, so Kei thought that these prideful mercs wouldn’t listen to him . In truth among all of them he had the weakest presence, was nowhere near as good as them, and he was the least respected . Well, that’s what he thought .

"Hello Kei, why aren’t you saying anything? I thought you’re about to give us orders?" Emily’s voice could be heard in the earpiece, not only her the others started talking as well .

"So what’s the plan Kei?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Until that b*stard dies I’m yours to command . "

"What are your orders?"

Niel, Evangeline, Oliver, and Rachel all responded, which shocked Kei . He really thought that they wouldn’t listen to him, turns out they didn’t speak because they were waiting for him . He could practically feel their trust for him in their voices alone . Kei let out a small smile before he spoke .

"Sayaka, tell me how many daggers do you have left?"

"I’ve got about nine left . "

"Alright that’s enough, I want you to give three daggers to Rachel . "

"Roger that," Sayaka responded promptly .

"Evangeline I saw a sniper rifle in one of the dead bodies of an agent when we were running over here . I want you to go back there and pick it up . Once you checked if the rifle is alright, I want you to tell me how many bullets did the agent have left . "

"Okay . " After acknowledging Kei’s command Evangeline started sprinting away .

"Emily, I want you to support Evangeline when she gets back . "

"Sure," Emily sounded a bit happy as he heard Kei commanding her . This was the first time she saw Kei take charge, and it felt a bit nice .

"Niel when I give the signal, I want you to use all the wires you have to stop Hektor from moving, you just need to stop him for three seconds . "

"Sure, I’ll do my best," Niel answered with his usual carefree tone .

"Oliver, when I tell you so, I want you to get all of Hektor’s attention . Curse at him, tell him he’s crazy, I’m sorry to say this since she’s your mother, but if you can I want you to insult his sister, do everything in your power to irritate him and catch his attention . "

"Fine, I’ll do anything just to kill that b*stard . " Oliver answered with a voice full of hatred and anger, which made Kei sigh a bit . This was the first time he ever saw Oliver so angry . It felt a bit wrong, but Kei could understand why Oliver was this angry by the bits of information he gathered as they fought .

"What about me? Did you forget me? Even in my condition, I can still fight . " Rachel spoke, as she received the three daggers from Sayaka .

"Of course I know that . You, Rachel, have the most important role of all . " When the others heard what Kei had planned for Rachel, they all couldn’t help but smile . For the first time since the start of the whole fight, this was the first time that the group truly felt like they had a chance of winning .

"If everything goes according to plan then that would be the best . . . But if something unexpected happens, I’ll be changing the plan on the spot . We only got one shot at this, and I’m sure if you guys are the ones doing it, then even the impossible could be pulled off . "

Hearing the confidence Kei had in them, made the Mercenary Club smile . They didn’t notice it but all of them were smiling the same familiar smile as their departed teacher .