The one behind...

'I told you.' Mraz had expected this to happen, as he continued to mumble in Aiden's mind, 'With the mischievous imps, it would be very difficult to kill the dwarves and the trolls.'

'Can they resurrect the dead?' Thinking of such a possibility, Aiden couldn't help but worry a little. If they could resurrect the dead every time, wouldn't all their efforts be futile?

'Are you an idiot or something?' Mraz scolded him from inside, 'Can't you see dead bodies? Even if there are very few of them, there are still some who have died. Those imps can use healing magic.'

Only when Mraz pointed it out did Aiden realize that some monsters weren't even moving at all. And he wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"No, few of them are dead," Robin confirmed, looking through the scope of his sniper. He said, "Lieutenant, I think we should shoot again. Even if we're able to weed out their numbers little by little, it'll be better."

"Toggle between the guns and laser. Don't let them rest or recover. Concentrate on the places where the numbers are the densest." Cooper's order was clear and concise. And the operator of the guns didn't have any problems following it, but…

"Something is wrong." Those are the very words they didn't want to hear, but Robin continued, "none of the bullets hit them."

"And the Laser?" asked one soldier what all of them wanted to ask.

"It's effective, but they're recovering faster."

"What the hell are these things?" It frustrated Jake, and he wasn't alone. He asked, "Can these things be real?"

"These might be the monsters who had taken down those research posts and the outposts." Cooper's words were anything but reassuring.

"But what are we supposed to do? We can't wait here for them to come and kill us."

"Kill those blue ones first," Aiden repeated Mraz's words, although he didn't dare to use the term 'ice imp'. He said, "They were the one who healed the bigger ones, and they also created a shield that was stopping the bullets from hitting the monster."

"How do you know?" asked one soldier who was controlling one of the big guns, as all eyes turned to Aiden.

"Do as he says." Copper, however, didn't mind trying it.

"But Lieutenant…"

"Do you have a better idea?" None of them had an answer to this question and did as they were told. After a round of firing, they realized the biggest problem.

"Those little things were too fast." sighed all the operators.

"Then use the auto-locking and use the continuous laser."

"But, Lieutenant continuous laser will take too much power. And it will take too much time to recharge."

"Idiot." Cooper frowned, "Do I have to explain everything? Use only one laser. If it succeeds, then… Robin, you too, try to shoot those things."

Robin nodded and aimed at one of the imps. Before he could pull the trigger, he could hear the air buzzing as the laser energised everything around it, as it shot at the same target.

As the first ray of the laser was about to hit, the imp vanished from his scope, and no matter how much he looked around, he couldn't see it. With a distance of about 1 km between them, he could see without the scope. And what he saw with his naked eyes shocked him.

While others could only see that the laser was missing the target, the reason was much clearer in Robin's eyes. He could see that it vanished in the mid-air and reappeared behind the short hammer carrying the humanoid beast.

It took only a moment for the continuous laser to blow out the monster carrying the hammer, but the small one had already vanished behind the other.

'Can they teleport?' Robin wasn't sure if that was possible or not, but what Aiden said at the next moment was more shocking, "More ice trolls are coming."

"How many?" Cooper's face darkened a little.

"Approximately ten. One with a stone pillar."

"Should we try to break through?" the voice of the soldier was shaking. The number of the regenerative monsters was shocking enough, and now more are coming.

"That could be an option." Robin's thought was along the line, too, "but the question is in which direction?"

"Recover the shield module. We are returning to the stronghold." Others may not know, but Cooper knew the outpost #11f was under attack. Even if he wanted to support them, he knew that it would be impossible unless he had more men and, most importantly, more firepower.

"We will return to the stronghold to replenish…"

"Run," Aiden cried. It attracted all their attention, but Aiden pointed up rather than explaining it to them.

By the time they looked up, it was too late. A giant chunk of ice came crashing down right on them. They scrambled in different directions and *boom*

The chunk of ice pierced through one of the transport cars, blowing it in the process. Aiden didn't know the reason for the explosion, but the resulting blast was so powerful that it toppled all the surrounding cars.

The only person he could see as he stood up was Robin, who was still clutching his sniper. But he could see others moving in the cloud of snow. However, he had no idea who they were.

"Report your situation." It was Cooper's voice that came through the helmet. Only five voices replied as a result, and that included Aiden.

"Mark, Igor, Kevin…" cried a frantic voice through their helmet. "Don't you dare to fuck with me. Answer me." No matter how much Jake shouted, there was no response.

He was quick to run towards the wreckage, trying to find his men. The fire was still burning, and the chunks of ice had not melted yet. But that didn't stop him from pushing the heavy cargo boxes frantically.

And it wasn't just him, they all helped him. Everyone except for Aiden.

"What are you going to do?" With the question, everyone had turned towards Aiden, while Jake charged at him.

"You fucker. What do you think you are doing?" Jake's eyes were red as he pushed Aiden against the upturned car. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have stopped here, and we wouldn't have been attacked. If it weren't…"

"... For me, you would have died without knowing what had stuck you." Aiden put some strength at Jake's hand as his face winced in pain.

"I will go in that direction." After removing Jake's hand from his uniform, Aiden turned towards Cooper, "What are you going to do?"

There were six people in total. Cooper, Robin, Jake, Aiden, a driver and a gun operator. All of them, except for Jake, turned to Cooper for an answer.

"You can go and die." Jake cursed, "None of us will stop you."

"Shut up, Jake." Cooper had expected such a reaction, but he knew that their survival depended on the decision. Cooper sighed and added, "They have attacked outpost #11f too. I think it's better to go back to the stronghold."

"What? Outpost #11f as well?"

"How can that be even possible? We were there a few weeks ago. Everything was all right." The news was too shocking to them, but Aiden...

"It doesn't matter." Aiden didn't explain it to them, nor did he have the time. He just said, "Those beasts were closing in from all directions. If you don't break through soon, it will be too late."

"But there is nothing in direction. The outpost #11f is up north and the stronghold is on the way back south. Even if you could find an outpost in that direction, it will take too long to reach there."

"It doesn't matter." These were the last words before he vanished from the spot. He appeared twenty meters to the east the next second, and he disappeared again.

"That guy isn't simple." Robin put the sniper on his back and pulled out the semi-automatic Electromagnetic gun (EMG). "He moves like those monsters. I think you're right, Cooper. He could be a specially trained soldier. I think we ought to go with him."

"What?" Jake was already at the peak of his anger, and Robin's word added oil to it. "Go on, follow him, I am not going to die with you."

"Jake, I think it's better to stick together," Cooper said this time, but the result wasn't any different.

"You should tell him that. I am not going to die with him. I am going back to the Stronghold." He pulled out his semi-automatic EMG and went south. As a part of his troops, the other two followed him, leaving others deep into their thoughts.

Cooper wanted to believe that Aiden was a special soldier sent by the Federation and wanted to follow him. But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find a reason to justify Aiden's choice.

'Even if he can break through the beast, he will die of hunger before he can reach the next outpost.' And to him, going to the stronghold was the best path to his survival. Taking out his EMG, he too ran towards Cooper.

Uninterested about their choice, Aiden ran to the incoming horde of the beast. He pulled out his blade and *screech*

The blade could not penetrate the scale armour of the ice dwarves. And as soon as it failed, the big hammerhead came crashing at Aiden.

'They don't just have a lot of strength but they're also very nimble, however, I am faster.' Aiden appeared behind him and *screech*

'Damn,' Aiden cursed as he moved away. He thought if he attacked from the back, he could do some damage to the ice dwarves. However, not only was his back protected by a thin layer of mana shield, but another dwarf also attacked him.

"These bastards aren't simple. They fight like an organised unit." Aiden cursed as he reappeared a few meters away from them.

At first, Aiden thought it was a coincidence that half of all the recruiters had been attacked. However, today's incident could be anything but coincidental.

Not only did they attack outpost #11f, but they also attacked the convoy that was heading toward the outpost. They attacked while maintaining a simple strategy.

And even if he ignored the armour and the weapons of the ice dwarves, one thing he couldn't ignore was that instead of attacking like an instinct-driven monster, they acted like a proper army, helping each other to ease the pressure.

The more he fought with them, the more he understood, "They're not just mindless beasts, there must be someone leading them all." And Aiden had no confusion about that.