Chapter 11 (Soldier's Capabilities)

Lt. Hernandez and his men had arrived earlier than us, due to their helicopter transport. He now had a total of 16 men around, some watching the entrance, and the others on lookout, in case there are some goblins wandering about waiting to attack.

'Welcome, this is the portal, big right? I will send three men with you; PFC. Miller, PFC. Johnson, and CPL. Kendrick, since that is all I can spare for the moment with the control I have at my rank.' Lt. Hernandez

"Do not worry, I think we will manage with or without them, but its better to be safe than, sorry. I will do my best to take care of your men" John

With the total of 10 people, one by one, we entered the portal with weapons in hand ready for battle. The visual was almost identical to the other portal, but the only difference was the size of the cave, it was two times bigger than the other, with more torches to cover the darkness.

The three soldiers quickly got into their own formation, getting in front of us in an arrow form, all crouching with their guns pointing towards the front, and shooting two shots each, to my amazement, I heard three sets of screeches and thumps. I could not even see the goblins, further in, but they could, I was surprised, these soldiers were trained with hundreds of hours in shooting.

'Clear' all three soldiers whispered while slowly standing up and proceeding towards the cave.

Everyone in my group all looked at each other surprised and continued to walk behind them. After they personally cleared another wave, the cave ended up having two pathways.

'You guys go to the right, and we will head towards the left. You good with that?' CPL. Kendrick

"Yeah, lets go guys, it will be faster if we split up." John

And just like that we split up, but if I knew what would have happened splitting up, I would have decided to stick together and clearing both pathways, the deaths that would come would hurt my pride and be a regret I would have for the rest of my life in the future.