+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Fort Sagrada

"Well, the parlay terms are quite simple," Hans declared as the Viceroy entered the room. She seemed quite interested in the proposition, perhaps because it would be an easy way to de-escalate the situation briefly. At least, until Hans dropped the bomb. "In exchange for his withdrawal from your principality, we must give up Adelyn."

"...What?" she muttered. She then turned to Adelyn, frowning. "Absolutely not! She's a good person, and one of the few people we have capable of fighting them."

"Yeah, it's a useless deal to negotiate about," General Ercole said. "As such, we'll be ignoring this. It is…nonsense."

"Indeed," Hans nodded. "On the other hand, this is going to complicate our offensives. We won't be able to liberate your southern lands as fast as we hoped we could."

The Viceroy sighed after hearing that, clearly displeased at the fact that the second calamity appeared, and dropped an unreasonable request. Not that it wasn't to be expected.

"It is what it is," Emilia said. "We'll just keep working on fighting him then. I just hope there's no third calamity roaming my lands. That'll be the true problem…if that happens."

"Indeed," Hans nodded. "Anyway, I do have some plans available. Captain Wittenstein, try guiding the rest of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit to quickly recover for another hunting operation. On the other hand, I'll detach from the rest of the unit for now to support our troops at the front."

They seemed a bit shocked.

"What?" Adelyn replied. "I…I mean, that's a bit dangerous, don't you think?"

"It's not like I'll be fighting that monster head-on," Hans chuckled. "But, I'd like to make sure his minions don't touch our troops so easily. I'll buy time for the rest of you all, in collaboration with General Ercole."

The general himself stared up at Hans, before taking a sip of his warm coffee, an impressed grin on his face.

"The grey knight's service would certainly be of great use to my soldiers," he said. "I welcome this. No, I would even say—I'm quite grateful for this."

+++

Hans's Wanderfalke booted up after he entered it. Already, he had trimmed more than half of his available AP, which was at 1400 points after the battle with the Calamity of Recklessness. He checked his available munitions, now filled to the brim with standard APFSDS and MPAT rounds for his usage.

Alongside that, was his most prized valuables—the ADI MG24 belts for his double coaxials. With a bunch of rations already readied, alongside the rest of the supplies and munitions he'd need for his solo expedition, Hans cracked his knuckles and readied for the battle ahead.

Certainly would be an ambitious one. Hans thought. I better raise my levels to twenty at least, in the span of a few days. Perhaps a few monster-hunting and demon-hunting missions would do just that.

It would be tricky though, as raising his levels was now starting to become harder and harder as time went on. Still, Hans chose this mission, and thus, wouldn't back down from it.

A communication link between him and Adelyn opened up briefly. She was also preparing to leave Fort Sagrada to head to La Veridad, where the rest of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit would rearm, reorganize, and hopefully, regain some of its lost strength.

"Hey, Lieutenant," Adelyn muttered over the comms. "Don't do anything silly, please, and keep careful. I don't want to lose you if you try challenging that guy alone—"

"I won't," Hans calmly replied as he fiddled with the buttons in front of him. "I have a plan. I'm just going to largely provide fire support with the regiments that are advancing or are on the defensive. That's all, nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully, I'll gain a few levels of it too. I'm hoping to uptier my mech's barrier upgrade."

"Is that so?"

"Yep," Hans nodded, smiling a bit. "I believe it would be very useful this time around while facing that guy. The way he acts, it unnerves me. Better get a shield between me and his attacks, is what I'm thinking."

"Makes sense," she sighed. "Alright, Lieutenant, good luck—"

"Sir Hans! Be careful, okay!" Alizée suddenly chimed in, her cute voice seemingly a bit annoyed. "I heard that you keep searching for fights. I think it's quite silly, hmph."

"I'm not searching for a fight for no reason," Hans replied. "I'm just…going to trim the grass, so to speak."

"Really? But why don't you just wait for the rest of the team? Then we can kill more demons together!" Alizée's voice almost turned into a bloodthirsty pitch. "We can win better that way, right?"

"Alizée, don't sound so pleased when saying you want to kill," Adelyn chastised.

"But they're demons. They should be killed and removed."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yeah but…"

"I don't disagree with her," Hans said, chuckling a bit. "Anyhow…goodbye to the two of you, even if it's just for a few days. Be safe, and do your best. I'll do the same."

"Bye, Sir Hans!"

"Good luck, Lieutenant."

"To the two of you two."

+++

January 15, 1539 CE

Nomosian Countryside

Fourteen musketeers from the 34th Holy Nomosian Regiment lunged forward, supported from behind by three more platoons of musketeers, their guns drawn. They dropped to their knees as they formed a staggered firing line. Their guns, unlike the old matchlocks, were now newer and improved.

It wasn't a weapon usually used by all frontline personnel. It was only issued to specialized musketeer units, now called 'Grenadiers' due to the explosives they carried. With disciplined precision, they took aim with their guns after throwing lit-up ceramic grenades at the monstrous elk in front of them.

Explosions blanketed the creature, before cracks of gunfire scattered through the cold night, the smoke from their guns blanketing the battlefield. Their bullets however shone through the night, as fires were lit up on the monstrous elk's body. The demon screeched, charging at one formation of soldiers.

But as it did, suddenly, a shot emanated from its left flank. Blood pooled from the creature, and a massive hole excavated on the demon's body as it collapsed face first on the ground. More grenades were tossed by the charging grenadiers, the enchanted bombs causing severe wounds on the mauled demon.

Like a second demon on the horizon, Hans' mech finally appeared. He pressed hard on his pedals, pushing his mech's legs into overdrive. His mech lunged upwards, engaging the razor-white blades of his forward legs. The metal behemoth immediately plunged those same razors into the downed demon's body, drawing blood as it screamed in anguish.

In a few seconds, Hans dislodged himself off the monster, his mech jumping away and driving out to create distance. Then, with a quick pull of his control sticks, his mech drifted and turned back on the demon, its cries on the night only punctuated by another volley from the scattered grenadiers that surrounded it.

As a final deluge to the skirmish, Hans pulled the trigger on his control stick, sending a 90mm MPAT round straight at the demon. As instructed, the grenadiers ducked down, even those that were nearly two hundred meters away, just as an explosion flashed in the darkness.

[1 DEMONIC ENTITY LIQUIDATED!]

[LVL UP! NOW LVL. 13!]

[PROGRESS TO LVL.14: 15%]

[AVAILABLE AP: 1150 PTS]

Silence—then cheers.

"Glory to the Imperium!" shouted the grenadiers as they celebrated another victory. "Glory to the Imperium!" they shouted again.

Hans on the other hand calmly drank the light liquor he placed in his canteen, a silent nod to another victory for the Empire he now served. He watched as the grenadiers rushed to the downed demon's course, already attempting to investigate and inspect the carcass, which was rapidly burning.

He smiled. This was already his second kill since he set out. The previous one, like this one, was done in conjunction with his allied Imperial forces. The Army of Nomos, which was more of a ragtag force when they arrived, was certainly getting its footing back in order.

He took another sip, before smiling to himself.

"You certainly are a fine officer, General Ercole," he lowered his head. "However, I wonder if this is all enough yet. My progress is starting to feel as slow as a snail."

Though, that was perhaps because he was only hunting weaker demons. He concluded then that the natural path forward was to hunt stronger demons, but that was harder said than done.

He soon drove out of the battlefield, straight into one of the towns that were previously liberated by Nomosian forces. It was, quite luckily, never attacked by demons, but was only truly threatened by goblins and orcs that tried to break in. When they arrived here yesterday, the town's guard force was barely functional, with many of its citizens dead due to constant raids.

But now, as he drove through the snow-stricken stone road, citizens immediately flocked out of their homes in jubilation, while the soldiers that occupied kept them off the road. Hans sighed internally inside—the news certainly traveled so fast. He didn't expect them to know that they had just killed another demon.

He soon managed to park his mech next to the town hall. Grabbing his pistol and his submachine gun, he opened his hatch, before smiling and waving at the crowds as he jumped off his mech.

"Grey Knight!" one of the women, who was already somewhat thin due to starvation like everyone else, shouted. Still, there was hope that shone in her eyes. "Is it true that a demon was killed nearby?"

Hans tried his best to once again smile.

"Yep," he replied. "The town should be safe for now. We haven't made any further sightings, but rest assured, if we do, I'll be a dead man before this town is razed to the ground."

The people naturally found his words reassuring, a surge of hope capturing the people again. It was weird to Hans how…utterly enthusiastic they were at meeting and greeting him even at night when they were mostly starved and weak. He supposed that, at the end of the day, being a liberator truly raised one's prestige.

He walked straight to the entrance of the town hall. In front of it, he was greeted by one of the officers of the 34th Holy Nomosian Regiment. The officer removed his cap after a brief salute, before smiling.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Hoffman," the officer said, smiling. "Congratulations on taking down that demon. A day of battle for us took you only a few minutes to conclude."

"Ah, you're too gracious," Hans waved it off. "Your men did good work. I just finished a badly injured beast, that's all."

"That so?"

"Yep."

The officer nodded, before leading him further inside of the town hall. Soldiers, officers, and the functionaries of the town were inside discussions bleeding through the rooms and halls of the building. Every topic, from food to security, to possible evacuations was the topic between the Army and the town's officials.

Soon, they reached a room straight into the town's mayor. The mayor himself however was gone, his chair and office now under the temporary use of this officer, as he already died a week ago to a goblin's rusty blade.

The officer went to the desk, grabbing a piece of letter from it, before handing it to Hans with his gloved hands.

"Lieutenant Hoffman, this is a letter from General Ercole," the officer said. "Tomorrow, you are to set out northwards, to the city of Asuncion."

"Asuncion?" Hans frowned, taking the letter for himself. "Didn't we just liberate that place?"

"Indeed, but it was attacked by two demons yesterday, with the defense garrison forced out within hours of the engagement. Casualties were heavy, and now…we have to retake it. General Ercole is thus organizing two regiments to retake it," the man frowned. "You've now been tasked to scout Asuncion early in the morning before the two regiments arrive by noon or afternoon."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.