“Sir, I have something to report. *Krshk*” Mario said.

Good thing the vehicles come with their own radios, but it would be better if every squad had one.

“Go ahead, over.” I replied.

"Sir, the old *Krshk* man was hit and was bleeding profusely moments ago. *Krshk* But the medics have already stabilized him." Mario said.

"I see, well we won't be stopping this operation for an old man." I said coldly.

"*Krshk* Roger."

"Just don't let that old man die, I'm still not done gathering information from him."

"Yes sir! *Krshk*"

I gave the radio headset back to Henry. We were now almost at the gates, "Henry, contact all vehicles and tell them to prepare for combat as soon as we enter the town."

"Yes sir!"

I did my final check on my equipment to make sure everything is ready. Main weapon, check… Extra mags, chek… Sidearm, check… Extra mags, check… Yosh, ready to go now.

"Sir we'll get past the gates in 3… 2… 1… We're now inside the gates!"

"OPEN FIRE!" I commanded and Henry manned the top MG and fired away, the mg on the coaxial also began firing.

The APCs also fired their MGs as soon as they were in position. The men dismounted and fired. Wait, why are there no monsters coming at us?

"CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!" I shouted as loudly as I could. Those who heard me immediately stopped firing and called out to the others.

As everyone ceased firing, the 2nd platoon had just entered the town followed by the adventurers and the heroes.

I got off the turret and surveyed the surroundings. The bombardment sure was effective, huh. Most buildings near the gates are all destroyed or too damaged to be fixed. I guess we've found the perfect place to set up our base.

Leah came to my side, "Sir, there are no hostiles in the immediate surroundings, should we create an FOB here?"

"Yeah, call the mortars and sturmpanzer too, but we won't be using them that much anymore." I said. "Assemble the men too, we'll retake this town the old fashioned way." I answered.

"As you command Sir!"

I'll need to summon ammo for my men. I’ll need 100 clips of rifle ammo, 10 boxes of 9mm ammo, and 10 belts of 50 round MG belts. My points should be enough for those things, if my calculation is correct.

“100 rifle clips purchased… Total cost is 500 points… 10 boxes of 9mm cartridges purchased… Total cost is 820 points… 10 50 round MG belts purchased… Total cost is 1320 points… Deducting total cost to total points balance… Remaining points is 57 points… Purchased items will appear in a summoning circle… “

Just like before, a crate appeared from the summoning circle and I had my men open it. “Get some ammo here before we continue our assault. I will also be giving specific tasks to each squad after you resupply.”

“” YES SIR “” My men shouted before getting ammo.

Time to go to the adventurers and the heroes. They were hanging around near the gates, a bit far from where my men are currently gathered. Marga was the first one to notice me and waved.

"Hey there kid, I want to tell you something." Maria said to me as soon as I got to them, "I know I said we'll help you, but I think the heroes would need us more. So I was thinking if we could help the heroes instead?"

"Uh sure, go ahead." I answered immediately since what she said is true. I mean, I have a bunch of ww2 era soldiers and vehicles, while my classmates only had swords, staves, and bows that they might not even know how to use properly.

Maria might not have heard me since she continued talking, "I know it's wrong to break promises but- wait what?"

"I said, sure, go ahead and help them." I replied.

"Wait really?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, they'll need you more than I do." I replied.

"Thank you kid." Maria said with a smile.

After talking to Maria I went to Carlo, I took out my flare gun from my Item Box and summoned a new shell, "Bro, if you ever need help use this. Aim it at the sky and pull the trigger, it's a flare gun."

"Aight Bro. Thanks." He said.

"Well then, we'll be beginning our operation now. I'll see you guys after this is over." I said to them before leaving.

+ + + + +

After Ian left, the group of adventurers and the heroes huddled together. "So where should we start looking for Marvin?" Rika asked.

"" I don't know. "" her classmates replied.

"Should we start at the town plaza?" Maria suggested.

"Yeah, the town plaza is located at the center of town so we can easily search other areas from there." Tristan added.

"That's where we'll start then." Rika said and her classmates agreed.

"Should we go now? Or will we wait for Ian's army to go first?" Carlo asked.

"For me, I think let's go after Ian's army." Richard suggested.

"Yeah, same with Richard. Let's go after them so they can deal with any monsters." Jose added.

"Does everyone want to go after Ian's group?" Rika asked again and was met with a unanimous vote. "Let's wait for them to move then."

+ + + Ian + + +

I stood up at the tank's turret and examined my men. "Sir, everyone has already assembled." Leah said.

"Good." I replied before turning to my men again, "MEN! THE FIRST PHASE OF THE OPERATION IS A SUCCESS. WE WILL NOW PROCEED WITH THE SECOND PHASE, WHICH IS TO CLEAR THE ENTIRE TOWN OF MONSTERS."

"" URAAA ""

"I WILL SPLIT OUR FORCE INTO THREE. 1ST PLATOON 1ST SQUAD AND THE PANZER 4 WILL FORM THE FIRST GROUP. THE REST OF THE 1ST PLATOON IS SECOND GROUP. AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, THE WHOLE SECOND PLATOON TOGETHER WITH THE STURMPANZER AND THE MORTARS IS THE THIRD GROUP." I explained, "FIRST GROUP WILL FOLLOW ME AND CLEAR OUT THE WESTERN DISTRICT UNTIL WE REACH THE DUNGEON ENTRANCE. SECOND GROUP WILL ADVANCE NORTHWARDS TOWARDS THE BARON'S MANSION. AND THE THIRD GROUP WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE EASTERN DISTRICT."

"" URAAA ""

"MOVE OUT NOW!" I said before getting off the tank.

+ + + + +

“They’re moving out now.” Maria said as she watched Ian’s forces advance through the thoroughfare.

Rika stood up, “Let’s go now.”

“Yeah, we should.” Carlo added as he also stood up and placed his hand on his sword.

“I agree with them. We are heroes are we not?” Richard declared as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the sky, “

“Yeah we are, but we don’t even know what our ‘skills and statu’ are. Heck do you even know how to use a sword!?” Jose retorted.

“Urh- The skills are one thing, but the sword? How hard can it be? I mean, we did have several classes on martial arts right?” Richard replied.

"We did have arnis classes, but they only taught us the basics." Jose retorted again.

Mary Claire got in between Jose and Richard, "Guys, this is not the time to fight among us."

"If you guys want to train, then we could train you if that's okay with you." Maria offered.

"For real!?" Richard asked.

"Yes, it's the least we could do to help you heroes." Maria replied.

"Then we'll accept it, right guys?" Richard asked his classmates.

"Yeah, that's fine with us." Rika replied.

"Same here, it would be a waste to let my sword just be a decoration." Jose also agreed.

"Uhmm, how about me? I don't have a sword. Just this long stick with red and green gems at the tip." Mary Claire said as she waved her staff around.

"That's a sorcerer's staff, and the colors of the gem represents your elemental affinity. Red is fire, Green is wind, Blue is water, and Yellow is earth." Marga explained, "I can teach you guys what I know, but I only have 2 elements, Water and Wind."

"That'll be fine." Mary Claire replied, and the other staff wielders also nodded.

"Uhmm, what about me?" Cess asked as she pointed at herself.

"Huh? What about you?" Rika, who was beside Cess, asked.

"I don't have anything on me… " Cess replied.

"Oh."

“Don’t worry about it Cess, we’ll protect you.” Kelvin said to comfort Cess.

Cess didn’t like what Kelvin said, “That’s not what I meant you know.”

Carlo and Rika glared at Kelvin, “W-what did I do?”

“Urghh, this is why you’ll never get a girlfriend.” Rika said in annoyance.

“Wh-where’d that come from!?” Kelvin retorted.

As RIka and Kelvin were bickering, Cess already left and decided to go to Ian.

“W-wait Cess!” Kelvin shouted but was ignored.

“This is your fault.” Rika nudged.

+ + + Ian + + +

We were making our way to the central plaza while clearing every building we passed by, well every building that’s still standing.

“Breach in 3… 2… Breach!” A soldier said to the men stacked up behind him. One by one the men entered and the building with bayonets affixed to their rifles. I ordered my men to primarily use their bayonets since clearing a room  with a bold action rifle might not be very effective.

“Sir, 50% of the buildings along this road have already been cleared.” Leah reported.

“That’s good, but I wanna try joining one of the breaching teams.” I said.

Leah was shocked by what I said, “S-sir? You can’t be seri- oh, you are serious.”

“Hell yeah, I’m serious alright.” I replied before jumping off the tank. “Gather a breaching team, you take the lead and I’ll follow.”

“Yes sir.” Leah replied reluctantly. Leah gathered 3 more members from her squad before calling me. “Sir, my team is now ready.”

“Alright, lead the way.” I said as I inspected the team. I see Christina, Monika, and Karl. Christina was still armed with her MP40, but Monika and Karl didn't have their own weapons  but were instead armed with the standard Kar98k.

Leah led us to a building where the breaching team still hasn’t gone in. “We’ll take it from here.” Leah said to the soldier at the front.

The soldier saluted and replied, “Yes ma’am.” The soldier and his team left and went to another building.

Leah positioned herself at the door and we stacked up behind her, “Christina, breach in 3… 2… 1… Breach.”

Christina kicked the door open and went inside, I followed behind her. The first floor just has 1 room and a staircase so we easily cleared it, but the building still has three floors so we still have 2 more floors to clear. The rest of the team went in after Christina gave the clear signal.

“Proceed to the next floor.” Leah ordered.

We proceeded to the next floor only to find out that it was also clear. Each one of the rooms were clear. “I don’t like this one bit.” I muttered.

“The calm before the storm?” Leah added.

“I hope not, let’s proceed to the next floor.” I said.

“” Yes sir! “” 

After double checking the second floor we then proceeded to the next and final floor. We went up the wooden stairs  that creaked with every step that we took. The last floor looked like a storage room with a bunch of crates and boxes stacked everywhere.

“Some monsters might be hiding somewhere, check every nook and cranny of this place.” I ordered.

“” YES SIR! “”

My soldiers proceeded to check the whole place out, while I also looked around. Huh? Something just moved. I aimed my MP40 at the place where I saw some movement. I was prepared to pull the trigger when the figure suddenly leapt out of cover.

“W-wait don’t kill us!” It was a boy that looked a bit younger than me.

“We have a survivor here!” I shouted to my soldiers. “W-wait us?”

Another girl the same age as the boy emerged followed by another younger girl. “P-please spare us.” the older girl said.

“Multiple survivors.” I said to my men before turning to the girl, “We’re here to retake the town not to kill civilians.” Although our initial bombardment might’ve killed other survivors, I’ll leave a prayer after all of this is over.