"Did you manage to get rid of the other magic toon?" I asked the lieutenant, who was also being treated as a chunk of her forearm waspletely ck and burnt.


    "We did… We''ll be in another stalemate shoot-out for another week. Magicians are precious, and closebatants are useless at this stage… So unless they bring out tanks or another magic toon, this battle won''t go anywhere… fuck… just how are we supposed to get out of this…." The liutennt muttered.


    Behind the lieutenant was Luna lying back with blood sttered all over her face and uniform.


    Her eyes had a thousand-yard feel which was to be expected, but obviously, she''s taken it much better than the other three when they first did something like this.


    Well, there is a chance she''s already experienced something like this…


    "You good?" I asked Luna before gentlyying Aisa down as she took a little rest with the help of a drowse-inducing mage.


    Somebody like her was dangerous, so it was good she was on our side.


    "I thought I was used to seeing corpses… but when they''re mushed, cracked, beaten, burnt, torn, and broken like this… I don''t think I could ever get used to this," She muttered, and despite her cold expression, she was a bit of a softy underneath.


    I chuckled a bit before tossing her some rations, but her appetite was spoiled, so she tried to push them away.


    "You have to eat something in order to retain some energy,"


    "I''m fine… Ugh… Lieutenant, what are we going to do now?" Luna asked the mage toon leader, who was currently having a conversation with my own lieutenant.


    "Shut the hell up for a second. I''m trying to figure it out as well," She immediately replied mercilessly, causing Cy, me, and Findir to snicker a bit underneath the sound of gunshots above us.


    A few hours had passed, and the lieutenants finally came back with a n.


    "Once all of my mages are healed, all of you will climb back through that tunnel and dig as fast you can. We need to reim that trench… We''ll cover you to the best of our abilities, so please regain that trench. We need to take that trench within a few days at least; otherwise, they''ll gain too much momentum, ultimately leading to our downfall," The mage toon leader said, and my toon leader added on.


    "For everyone on my team, we have half a day to rest. On Michelle''s team, you have one day to rest, but the ones too severely injured like the young miss over here will stay back,"


    "I-I can still help," Be muttered, slowly turning over.


    This rmed the healers helping her as now her wound was gushing blood once again; it was definitely going to leave a nasty scar once it had finished healing.


    "Shut the hell up and follow my orders. You''ll just get in the way of this important task… Also, you snipers. Cover us instead of helping dig through the tunnel. We''re notpletely imprable," The mage toon leader said as she shifted her eyes over to Aisa.


    They both locked eyes, and Aisa shivered under the woman''s cold and almost despising gaze.


    "I''m more than enough. She can still rest…." I said, but both leaders weren''t having any of it.


    "This is why kids shouldn''te to the battlefield! You''ll just be dead weight and a waste of ammo! If you''re really that scared, then go ahead and die. Shoot yourself!"


    "Tch… If you can''t handle the battlefield and adjust right now… I''ll shoot you myself,"


    Both leaders were frightening, and I could tell Aisa wanted to run away now, but that was truly impossible.


    The trenches behind us werepletely packed, and moving through them would be impossible…


    "You have two days to make your decision. Either you get your shit together, or you die by my hands," My lieutenant said before cracking open a box of cigarettes and smoking one right here.


    "Isn''t that a bad idea?" Findir asked.


    "It''s fine… There''s no way they''ll be able to tell the difference between a cig smoke and the smoke of a fire… Plus, it looks like it''s about to rain,"


    A heavy dark cloud suddenly shuffled over us, matching the tone of the trench as we all tried to contain our feelings.


    Everybody was stressed, angry, sad, scared… but in a matter of survival, you had to set all these feelings aside in order to achieve victory.


    …


    And so, just like that, an entire day had passed, and I only had about two hours of sleep in total as the rapid explosions in the distance shook the earth itself.


    As we didn''t have any earth mages, we had to dig the tunnel back out again and rece the framing, which my toon did while Aisa and I sat back.


    Then, we soon popped our heads out of the trench as the mage toon quickly shuffled out of the trench, charging into the battlefield with a few of the mages creating blue shields of magic.


    They were able topletely destroy any bullets and most spells that came in contact with it, so they were perfect for defending the mage toon as they did their thing.


    "Just breathe, Aisa… Your helmet will save you more times than you can count," I muttered as we both held our snipers so still you''d think we weren''t even gripping them.


    Then, I swayed the barrel slightly to the left,


    Pew


    "Got one," I muttered, and seeing me so rxed made Aisa ask a question.


    "I-I know I''m a sniper and all, but I can''t get used to the feeling of taking somebody''s life. It felt so easy when I tore through them with my daggers on the previous battlefield, but when we got back, I kept having nightmares and nightmares… It''s like their souls are trying to torment me even after death… So, what do you feel when you kill somebody?"


    "The tensing of their muscles as my de cuts through them… and my sniper… I guess the recoil… what else?"


    I heard Aisa chuckle a bit next to me, and even though I didn''t look at her, I could tell she was smiling.