"Old man, are you sure you saw that group of bandits go up the hill?"
Lillian asked the elderly man at the foot of the hill. According to Baker, this was the man who had filed the report. He was in his fifties or sixties.
"They went up!" the old man said, his voice shrinking slightly. "I saw them… carrying knives!"
"…"
Lillian studied the man's expression.
"Did you count how many of them there were? And which direction up the hill did they go?"
"There were nine… nine of them," the old man said. "The direction… I didn't see clearly…"
"Good. Thank you for the information."
Lillian turned, his eyes flashing with cold light. Clearly, there were too many oddities here.
Baker, who should have been off-duty, received the report.
There were no signs of smoking, drinking, or gambling in the vice-commander's office.
The old man could recite the number of bandits immediately but could not state the direction. And…
He stepped out of the wooden house and looked up at the small hill before him.
Strictly speaking, this wasn't a mountain—just a dirt mound about thirty or forty meters high. Coming from Eartg, where mountains often reach hundreds or thousands of meters, there was no real comparison.
The mound was covered in dense forest—a perfect place for murder and disposing of bodies.
One or two of these oddities might not have caught Lillian's attention, but combined, it clearly meant something was off. If he guessed correctly, someone—probably led by the vice-commander—had been planning against him for half a month and was finally ready to act.
"Captain, shall we go up?" Marlo, the squad leader beside him, could hardly wait. He gripped the long spear on his back tightly.
"Yes. Everyone follow me closely, and stay alert… watch the bushes and the trees."
He had no choice but to go now. This was his duty. If he ordered a retreat at this moment, the vice-commander would instantly turn on him, likely charging him with desertion or dereliction of duty.
At worst, he'd lose his captain's rank; at worst, he could be imprisoned. In this small fortified city of Stohess, the vice-commander held absolute power. Except for some nobles, no one could restrain him.
Rustle… rustle…
Under Lillian's lead, the group began climbing the hill. The narrow path was carpeted with fallen leaves, which crunched irritably beneath their boots. The view wasn't very open, but for now there were no places suitable for hiding, and no one was in sight.
If I were setting up an ambush…
Lillian looked toward a stretch of forest not far ahead. If it were him, that's where he'd choose. To go deeper into this large hillside, that area was an unavoidable chokepoint.
"When you hear gunfire later," Lillian said softly as he walked, "drop to the ground immediately. Don't hesitate."
The others nodded. They could all sense that this mission was different from the last one—far more dangerous. Most importantly, they had no idea where the enemy was hiding.
The only comforting thought was that the enemy supposedly didn't have many men. According to the old man at the foot of the hill, there were nine bandits in total. Of course, in Lillian's eyes, that information wasn't trustworthy at all.
By now, they had reached the edge of the forest. A sense of danger was quietly spreading through the air.
Seeing Lillian stop, Baker asked nervously, "Captain… aren't we going in?"
Lillian glanced at him, a faint, ambiguous smile on his face.
"Don't you think," he said, "that it's a little too quiet for a forest?"
A forest with no birdsong was indeed unusual.
To everyone's surprise, Lillian suddenly raised his gun and fired into the woods.
Bang!
The sharp crack echoed. Everyone instinctively dropped to the ground, Lillian included. His eyes, however, were locked on the forest as his hands moved without pause—reloading and firing again.
Bang!
"Captain! Where's the enemy?!" Marlo shouted urgently, gripping his rifle.
Lillian replied while reloading, "How should I know?"
"Huh?! Then why did you—"
Bang!
Another shot rang out—and in the very next second, a gunshot answered back.
This one came from inside the forest.
Lillian's pupils tightened slightly.
"Careful. They've got guns."
With that confirmed, he could roughly judge the direction of the shot—somewhere on the western side of the forest. He couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but that was fine. Someone on the team could.
Lillian turned his head and glanced at Annie on his left. She met his eyes and immediately understood.
"West side," she said. "About one hundred and fifty meters."
Among the entire squad, Annie had the best marksmanship. Compared to the others, she almost felt like a special forces soldier.
Having grown up receiving intensive military training in Marley, she was already a qualified soldier by the time she was sent to the island at thirteen. Add in her years with the training corps, and in terms of overall combat ability, she was unquestionably among the strongest.
"We'll circle around," Lillian said.
His initial random gunfire had been meant to draw the ambushers out. Anyone lying in wait would feel pressure upon hearing shots, assuming they'd been discovered. Even if some could stay calm, others would inevitably panic and fire back.
In Lillian's view, these were just armed bandits—not Navy SEALs. Their mental fortitude wouldn't be that strong. Now that he'd exposed them, it was time to act accordingly.
The group quickly followed Lillian as they began circling the forest from the right. The ambushers inside clearly realized they'd been exposed and stopped hiding altogether. One after another, figures emerged from behind the distant trees.
"Hiss—"
The soldiers all sucked in a sharp breath.
That was no group of nine. There were easily more than double that number.
"Don't panic!" Lillian barked immediately.
"You're either veterans who've served in the Garrison for years or top-ten graduates from the training corps. Taking on these bandits two-to-one is nothing for you. They have guns—don't hold back. Kill them all!"
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone understood the situation now. They crouched down at once and began firing into the forest. The enemy returned fire just as fiercely. With thick foliage blocking their view, neither side could easily land clean hits.
Bang!
Annie's shot rang out clean and decisive. She immediately shifted her aim, clearly having taken down her target. Lillian thought to himself that if given enough time, she could probably wipe out the entire enemy force on her own—even without Titan power.
But still…
Is this really it?
Did the Military Police really think they could eliminate his entire squad with nothing more than an ambush like this?
As the thought crossed his mind, chaotic footsteps suddenly sounded behind them.
Lillian turned and jogged a few steps to look—and immediately spotted more than a dozen men rushing up the mountain path. They also looked like bandits, but unlike the others, they carried no guns, only clubs and blunt weapons.
So that was it. They'd blocked off the rear as well.
"Captain! Behind us—!"
"You don't need to worry about the rear," Lillian said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.
"I'll handle them."
"What?!"
Before anyone could react, Lillian had already sprinted off. His movements were astonishingly agile—within moments, he had reached the edge of the path.
The bandits charging uphill froze when they saw him. The man in front sneered.
"Black hair, black eyes—you're Lillian, aren't you?"
"Mind telling me how much my life is worth?" Lillian asked calmly.
"You'll find out after you're dead!"
Several bandits lunged forward, swinging their clubs straight at Lillian's head. His gaze sharpened. He leapt forward and delivered a vicious kick to one man's chest.
The impact was visible—the man's chest caved inward, and his body was sent flying.
Yes—flying.
After tracing a brief parabolic arc through the air, he slammed into the ground two or three seconds later. His body twitched twice… then went completely still.
The remaining bandits froze in shock.
Lillian didn't.
He surged forward in a single step, dropped one bandit with a punch, then grabbed the man by both legs and swung him—
Whoosh!
The bandit in Lillian's hands was completely reduced to a human club, swung violently into the others. At last, his overwhelming strength had a chance to be fully unleashed—normally, there were hardly any legitimate opportunities to use it like this.
As for the bandits, they were utterly bewildered. They simply could not comprehend the sight of a man using another man to beat people. If it had been some hulking, muscle-bound brute, maybe they could have accepted it—but Lillian before them… could only be described as a boy.
Lillian, however, didn't care how shattered they were psychologically. Nor did he care how shattered the bandit in his hands felt. He swept through them relentlessly. More than ten bandits failed to get anywhere near him—every single one was sent flying.
Just as Annie had judged, in unarmed combat—or even when facing cold weapons—Lillian held an overwhelming advantage. Guns were still dangerous to him, of course. A headshot or a bullet through the heart would kill him all the same.
Meanwhile, higher up the slope, the firefight continued. Despite being outnumbered, the recruits' side clearly held the upper hand.
Everyone couldn't help glancing toward Annie. In less than a minute, she had already killed six enemies—every single one a clean headshot. Cold, precise, and utterly merciless. The others felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
Thank goodness she was on their side. If she were an enemy… that would truly be despair-inducing.
"I'll go support the captain," Baker suddenly said. He turned and walked to the slope, leaning forward to look down—and froze on the spot.
All the bandits lay scattered on the ground, their states unknown—alive or dead. Lillian was already walking back up.
Baker snapped back to his senses. His heart sank. He gritted his teeth and went down the slope.
"Captain… you killed them all—"
"Mm." Lillian glanced at him and continued walking upward, passing right by him.
Behind Lillian, Baker slowly raised the muzzle of his rifle.
"Pfft!"
The gun had just been aimed at Lillian, and Baker hadn't even had time to pull the trigger, when his throat was slit by a gleaming blade.
Clatter.
The rifle fell to the ground. Baker stared in shock, both hands clutching his neck, eyes fixed on Lillian as he calmly slid the blade back into his omni-directional mobility gear.
"I'm sorry," Lillian said quietly.
"I don't want to restrain you, then listen to you beg and talk about being forced into it. Betrayal is betrayal, isn't it?"
"I…"
Baker tried to say something—but no sound came out. His body fell backward, pain and unwillingness lingering in his eyes. Perhaps he regretted it now.
But there was no medicine for regret in this world.
If he had told Lillian about the threats and temptations he'd faced, there might have been a solution. But he chose betrayal—so this was the only ending left.
"You made your choice."
After saying that, Lillian rubbed his face, forcing a trace of grief onto it. He turned back to the others and said:
"Baker is dead. We continue fighting."