The First Casualty

The night air crackled with tension as the team crept through the skeletal remains of a bombed-out village, the Nine Dragons’ stronghold looming like a jagged crown on the horizon. Floodlights swept the barren fields, casting long shadows over the makeshift cages where civilians huddled. Bintang signaled silently, his gloved hand slicing through the dark. Felix and Kiran flanked the left, their rifles low. Thalia trailed behind, her fingers brushing the pendant at her throat—a habit when the visions clawed too close. Mayang and David circled wide, their footsteps swallowed by the howling wind.

The first shot rang out.

A muzzle flash lit the night, and the world erupted. Grenades tore craters into the earth, screams mingling with the staccato of gunfire. Civilians scrambled as Nine Dragons soldiers poured from hidden trenches, their black armor glinting like beetle shells.

Kiran roaring. “Ambush! Fall back to the ruins—now!”