Assault

"One!"

I stood up, exposing my upper half to the enemy along with Four and pulled the trigger frantically.

I don't think I hit any of my shots, all of the shooters on the opposite side ducked as soon as our heads peeked out.

"Get out of there Nine!" Four cried out to Nine.

I emptied my cylinder quickly but Four's shots were calculated, he's playing whack-a-mole with a pistol in such a chaotic situation, thus preserving bullets as efficiently as possible.

Understanding our intentions, Nine starts dashing back with his subordinate until eventually they made it to us.

At the same time, Four's magazine ran out and he ducked down with me, followed swiftly with the opposition firing back furiously.

If Nine's subordinate was even one second slower, he wouldn't have made it.

"I'm out!" It seems Four didn't bring any extra ammunition, which would make sense, in a world where even food is scarce, resources like these should be preserved.

"I'm also out!" Nine's subordinate informed, probably just someone who volunteered in this expedition for more food.

Nine only has daggers, no guns, stupid idea as expected. So now it's only me who has six more bullets I brought along with me and my revolver.

"Just take mine."

"What?!"

"I said just take mine!" Forgot I had to scream over the sound of gunfires when communicating.

I thought Four was pretty good with the gun, certainly far more skilled than I am, it only makes sense that he's the one with the functioning firearm.

"Thanks!" Four took my gun and reloaded the cylinder smoothly, clearly experienced.

"Hey! Should we retreat?!" A group of three soldiers on our side behind another rubble not so far away cried out to us.

Four paused for a while to assess the situation, I think he's considering the option of retreating.

There's probably around seven Clubs soldier from my rough estimation. Although yes, all of us Diamonds as a whole definitely outnumbered our ambushers, but most of our soldiers are hiding instead of actually engaging in combat, reasonable choice though to be fair.

There's only around ten people that's within range to battle the ambushers, including us four, and there's already 3 or 4 dead, one severely wounded.

Retreating, letting the resources of the dead be stolen and regroup with the rest of our 40 soldier team is a good option.

Just when Four was about to answer the men behind the other rubble, he was halted by the sound of gunfire from behind.

It's Two of Diamonds with her assault rifle, walking confidently towards the enemy without cover, firing away with frightening accuracy.

"Oi Two what are you doing?! Get down!" Four cried, but received no response from Two.

She continued her steps forward, the way she pulls the trigger and reloads were smoother than the animation of every shooter games I've ever played.

Not long after, the gunfire from the opposite side ceased, with Two dropping her rifle soon after.

"They retreated." Two said with an indifferent expression, are we really here to protect her like Nine mentioned before? She doesn't seem to need any help at all.

"God I know you're good but at least take some cover." Four said after letting out a sigh of relief.

"Their loss this time, they didn't retrieve any resources from us and they wasted a lot of ammo. You killed any of 'em?" Four was definitely the most talkative of us all.

"No, they just retreated."

"Ah."

"We're regrouping now, go around informing everyone about that." Two commanded.

She then looked at the corpse of our sacrificed soldiers, her expression didn't change, but there was definitely a raging fire inside her eyes, maybe even a hint of pensive grief.

When we got up to gather the rest of our men in one spot as commanded by Two, Four returned the revolver to me with a "Thanks" while I sweep off the dust on my shirt.

"Is the fight over?" A man ran up to me and asks while nearly out of breath. It's the man from my group, or my subordinate, right, that's who he is, my subordinate, Four and Nine reminded me of that.

"Yeah it is." I answered casually, but I found something odd.

He had just arrived, but me, Four and him were searching the same building, in theory we should've arrived at the same time if we all sprinted.

Not just that, I didn't even see him in the building when I exited it with Four. He's awfully late.

Once everyone has gathered at the same place, Two looked at the crowd silently with a serious face for a few seconds before announcing, "That's it for today, we're heading back."

Compare that with how things were like when the expedition just started, we were lacking spirits, despondent.

The command to retreat makes sense to me, our position is exposed, Clubs may send reinforcements which could pose even more issues for our side, it's not worth the risk.

While we were marching back, I questioned my subordinate.

"You were late, why?"