God of Blackfield

Kang Chan couldn’t count how many enemies were squeezing out of the three trucks, but there had to be at least twenty people per truck.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

You motherfuckers! If you want to die so fucking badly, then be my guest!

Strangely, the more he pulled the trigger, the more venomous he felt. To see his enemies throw away their lives so flippantly made him furious. How could they lunge at him in the bright moonlight just to have a shot at slitting his throat with their gleaming blades?

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kang Chan killed one enemy after another, sending them falling backward with every pull of the trigger.

***

Enzo stood with his hand on the machine gun, staring at Kang Chan in amazement.

They were well over a hundred meters away from their opponents. Firing the three-kilogram FAMAS rifle in a standing position from here was no easy feat.

Although he was Asian, since North Koreans were not allowed to join the Foreign Legion, he had to have come from South Korea.

Even a sniper couldn’t keep shooting from that position. Enzo had never seen a monster like Kang Chan in his four years at the Foreign Legion. A man like him either died early or became a longtime legend. There was no in-between.

Clatter!

Kang Chan dropped a magazine, grabbed the one hanging from his waist, and slammed it in. He didn’t even look at what he was doing or put his rifle down.

Clank!

Right after, he resumed firing with machine-like precision.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kang Chan fired four more shots and then stared ahead. The enemies had taken cover, making it difficult to shoot them.

Look at those piercing eyes. Have I ever seen a soldier with such a fierce glare before?

Enzo wanted to save him. He didn’t want to leave such a man lying on African soil as a decapitated or mutilated corpse.

***

Kang Chan didn’t know how many he killed. Unfortunately, he couldn’t add more to his kill count since their enemies were now sprawled on the ground.

He glanced at Enzo, finding the man staring at him with a dazed look.

Did the two doses of morphine make him too high?

Amid the battle, the radio suddenly crackled.

Chhk!

“Retreat! Prepare for a rebel incursion! I repeat, prepare for rebel incursion!”

They must be mad. It’s like they’re trying to sell tickets for a bus that already left.

Kang Chan’s gaze at Enzo turned blank.

“That means we failed to negotiate with them. Rescue will probably come tomorrow morning.”

Kang Chan looked back ahead. Their enemies still refused to get back on their feet.

I guess no one in their right mind would stand up and walk over knowing their heads would explode. Their forearms would be pretty sore if they were to crawl all the way to our position, though.

“Are they not going to stay like that until this all ends?” Kang Chan asked.

“That’s up to them. You’ve killed about twenty, but there’s still no knowing what the remaining forty will decide to do. Now, stop acting like you’re the shit and get down low,” Enzo ordered.

There are so many nicer ways to say that.

For now, Kang Chan obediently took cover behind the table where the C-rations had been.

“HQ had to have made an agreement with them, but it was broken just a while ago. That’s likely why the rebels showed up here.”

Under the pale moonlight, the pale-faced Enzo looked as if he was telling a good war story.

“I’m sure they’d like to come here and slit my throat. As for you, they’d probably take you alive, mess you up, and then kill you.”

Kang Chan smirked in response, yet Enzo’s expression didn’t change.

“In the last three months, the biggest group I’ve seen consisted of around a hundred and fifty men. How many did you kill during the day?” he asked.

“The ones that got off the truck, plus the ones that chased us afterward…” Kang Chan trailed off.

“You must’ve not done well in school. How many of them chased after us?”

“About twenty.”

“So roughly thirty back there and sixty here. How many is that?”

And you’re saying I didn’t do well in school?

“Ninety, sir.”

Enzo glanced at Kang Chan.

Kang Chan didn’t want to make eye contact with him, so he just looked back at the trucks. Under the moonlight, somewhere in front of the three trucks, the enemies were crawling over.

One of them was foolish enough to move their bayonet wrong, causing it to reflect the moonlight.

The glint came from about eighty meters away.

“HQ was probably pressuring the rebels, thinking there’s something in the hills. It would be inconvenient for them to take it now since they have to finalize negotiations with the South Africans,” Enzo explained.

“So you’re saying they’ve just been pressuring the rebels with the sacrifices of the soldiers?”

“Yes, but that ends today.”

“How did the rebels find out about that and come all the way here?”

“That means someone in the rebel army is in touch with the South African government. HQ negotiated with South Africa, it fell through, and the information was passed onto the rebels,” Enzo answered.

As the enemies slowly inched over, the bright moonlight occasionally hit their bayonets, the momentary glint revealing their position.

Kang Chan could feel death silently approaching.

Enzo, who was starting to look like a dead man, was talking in a low voice, but it seemed he was just beating around the bush to say that negotiations had broken down and information had been leaked.

“Whew! Anyhow, we’re gonna have to kill those bastards.”

“That’s right.”

Enzo’s smile made him look like a ghost.

“You’re really not afraid in this situation? Even with so many enemies coming at us?”

Kang Chan turned his head and looked again in the direction of their enemies.

Was he scared of them approaching?

Were they any different from the bastards who had come at him with pieces of wood, chains, steel pipes, and damned paper knives?

Kang Chan supposed the blades were a bit bigger and smirked.

He wondered if they would also ask for his protection if he beat them up.

***

“We’ll drag him out by our hands, and he’ll receive some TLC from my subordinates all night long!” Abdul Janele shouted into his transmitter. “And then I’m going to hang him up, so why don’t we talk again after that?”’

Chk.

“It’s just Enzo and a new recruit there! We didn’t lie during our negotiations!”

“The man has the skill of a god of death! How can a mere recruit pierce their target’s forehead with such precision from over a hundred meters?”

Chk.

“If we really wanted to, we would’ve sent the 13th regiment’s special forces! So stop trying to deceive us!”

“Even though he’s a god of death, we will still slit his throat! If you provoke us further, France will never get the Eye of Ndulele!”

Chk.

“I repeat! If you invade the headquarters, we will have no choice but to send the 13th regiment’s special forces.”

“Then your dearest special forces will find his head!”

With a scoff, Abdul slammed down the transmitter on his desk and turned the radio off.

He turned around to two men with AKs.

“I need a clean body and head. Do you hear me?”

“We will bring it to you, sir.”

Pulling a dirty rag from his waistband, Abdul Janele wiped his face as if washing it.

“A new recruit? Bullshit! Those motherfuckers are desperate for an excuse.”

Abdul Janele shook his head and smiled cruelly.

The French DGSE was scary, that was for sure. Even with all their resources blocked off, they had managed to put a god of death among their chicks.

More importantly, though, Abdul was now certain thanks to the conversation that they hadn’t discovered the Eye of Ndulele yet.

However, they had to have realized that they were on the verge of finding it, which was why they had sent a terrifying recruit.

The great god was on Abdul Janele’s side.

If the Foreign Legion troops had come before they discovered the god of death, what would’ve happened?

However, the morning they came in, their men found the Eye of Nduele. Naturally, they opened fire with RPGs to stop them, which was no different from a stroke of luck for Abdul Janele.

How could someone kill twenty men while escaping with a wounded person on his back?

Abdul Janele, who was familiar with the Foreign Legion, thought of who it could be.

Why didn’t they shoot at such a terrifying enemy?

Abdul Janele drew a wicked smile.

‘Because he’s the god of death.’

***

An enemy’s blade flashed again. They were only fifty meters ahead now.

“Why aren’t you asking me to man the machine gun?” Enzo questioned.

“They’re probably holding back from shooting us because they want our heads. Considering they’re still quite a distance away, there’s no need to provoke them into thinking otherwise,” Kang Chan responded.

Enzo looked at Kang Chan with an unreadable gaze.

“On top of that, if you start shooting now, you’re going to illuminate their targets for them,” Kang Chan added. He felt as if he was being tested, and frankly, he didn’t like it.

“So we’ll just wait for them to come at us?” Enzo asked again.

Kang Chan’s gaze flicked to where the enemy was. “Once they’re only thirty meters away, they’ll stall for time for us to abandon this place. Maybe a few are coming from the side now, though. We’ve got… ten minutes.”

Kang Chan sat down on a wooden crate on the floor and looked at Enzo.

“I don’t know why they want our heads so badly, but we’ll have to kill them to end this dirty fight, won’t we?”

“It’s not too late. Why don’t you—”

“I’d like one thing,” Kang Chan cut off Enzo, who looked like he had aged a decade in a day. “I hope you tell me everything before the enemy reaches us. We have about eight minutes left now.”

Enzo remained quiet as he glared at Kang Chan fiercely.

In this world of sticky darkness and cold moonlight, the stars strangely whispered of hope. However, they would all shine upon death sooner or later.

Kang Chan wasn’t one to avoid a glare. Otherwise, he would have already been discouraged and kicked out of the training center. He’d be wandering the back alleys right now or fighting in the streets of Korea.

Still, though he wasn’t afraid of Enzo’s gaze, Kang Chan turned away. He didn’t want to confirm that the man was hiding something before they met their end.

Enzo hadn’t requested to be saved.

Kang Chan didn’t want to ask Enzo to confess what he was hiding just because Kang Chan had carried him all the way here. However, he hoped Enzo would tell him if he knew anything about this stupid situation so that Kang Chan would at least have an idea of how the bastards would act.

Kang Chan cleared his throat. At times like these, a cigarette was the only thing that could make him feel better.

“My mission was to transport the new recruits to Point Alpha,” Enzo said, his words creeping toward Kang Chan like darkness descending on the ground. “They hadn’t attacked us with trucks in three months. I thought this time would be no different.”

“You told me to follow you around.”

“I was going to take you to check out Point Beta.”

“And after that?”

“I’d come back here.”

Enzo was looking at the shells of the machine gun.

“So I sent the wrong message. There was only supposed to be one person here, but I said there were two,” Kang Chan said.

Enzo didn’t respond.

“We have about three minutes left.”

“That’s all I know. I just liked the look in your eye, and you were the youngest Foreign Legion member I’ve ever met. I was just pulled to you.” Enzo looked up sharply. “Though in the end, you saved my life.”

“That leaves me with two questions. Why won’t those idiots shoot until the end, and why did they break the order that worked well until now?” Kang Chan wondered. He didn’t ask the questions expecting an answer, and Enzo didn’t reply either.

Flash!

Just then, a blade flashed in the distance.

Careless idiots. If you insist on surrounding us this late at night, you should at least make full use of the darkness.

Clank.

Kang Chan set his rifle on his knee and checked the magazine.

Click!

The sound of the magazine being reinserted shattered the silence of the night. It was loud enough for the creeping enemies to hear.

“Enzo.”

Time was running out.

“We’re up against forty, but let’s not get ourselves killed out of stupidity. I’ll fight as best as I can.”

Enzo smirked.

He probably thought it was a cool smile, but to Kang Chan, it just made him look like something out of a horror movie.