Mercenary Empire

"Hurry up, we have to run faster!" I yell at Lina to quicken up her pace. As we were running I could hear soldiers shouting in the distance.

"The flare came from this direction! If we keep on running in this direction we'll be able to catch up to them!"

This situation Lina and I was at the lowest of the low. Even though we aren't caught yet. Who knows how many soldiers are swarming to our position. Plus we are on foot while they have a f.u.c.k.i.n.g helicopter that could fly at 250 MPH with two gatling guns attached to it!

"There they are! Shoot!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shit they found us! Moments later bullets were whizzing by Lina's and I's body. In retaliation we started shooting back aimlessly at the soldiers as we ran away from them with our back towards them. I don't know if any of my bullets hit anyone but I'm sure that it should've slowed them a little.

"Follow me." I said to Lina and started running faster and trying to stay in front of the trees so that it could block incoming bullets. As we kept on shooting and running back at the soldiers a whirling sound could be heard.

"It's the Pegasus!" Lina shouted out in panic.

"Keep on running!" I said trying to keep myself as calm as possible. We kept on running away from the Pegasus but it all for naught as it soon locked onto us and covered us with its search light. We stopped dead in our tracks since we knew that if we kept on running we would've got riddled in bullets in seconds by the gatling guns on the Pegasus.

As soldiers started surrounding getting closer, I pulled a circular device from my pocket as secretly as possible so the pilot doesn't notice and he luckily didn't. It was the device the old man gave me. He told to use it when I was in a life or death situation. Now was the time to use it. Now the only thing to do now is figuring out how the hell this thing works! There was no button or anything. There were no buttons to press and after looking at it a little more, there was nothing to turn on it either.

The soldiers were closing in on us while Lina and I were sitting ducks. As I was trying to figure out how to use it the device Lina saw it and showed a face of surprise.

"How do you have that?" she asked me with the surprised look that was still on her face.

"It was given this by my old man. Before he left, he gave this device and told me to use it when I'm in a life or death situation. They only thing he didn't tell me was how to freaking use it." I replied while I desperately was still looking at the device trying to figure out how it works.

Honestly! Who the hell gives someone something that could save them from dying but not telling them how to use it.

"Drop your weapon and raise your arms!" Red Dragons soldier finally encircled us and yelled at us.

Shit, I guess this the end huh. I then looked towards Lina and said with a resigned voice

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring you out of this trap."

"No need to say sorry, actually I should be the one to thank you" Lina replied back in a happy voice.

Is this girl insane? Did she break down knowing that she was going to die? I was really confused on why she was happy.

"I repeat again, drop your weapons and put your hands up" The Red Dragon Soldier yelled out again seeing that we didn't make any actions regarding what he said.

As I was about to follow their instructions Lina spoke out

"There's no need to listen to them." After speaking she immediately took the device and slammed it on my body and pulled me down.

"Fire!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Seeing that we weren't cooperating all the Red Dragons soldiers started firing on us. I guess what Lina tried was a last ditch effort, but it wasn't going to work once the soldiers notice us on the ground.

I closed my eyes awaiting for my death as I laid down on the ground.

"Wait, where did they go?" One of the soldiers spoke out in surprise.

Huh what happened? We're right in front of you, what do you mean you don't see us. What was going on? I couldn't comprehend what was going on and turned to look at Lina that was right next to me.

She saw my confused expression and explained in a hushed tone so that the Red Dragon Soldiers don't hear us.

"The device your old man gave us was a cloaking device."

"If it's a cloaking device how come I still see you?" I asked Lina.

"You're able to see me since the cloaking work in a special way where it would make the user appear visible, but to others we're invisible and the device is able to cover up out entire entity. Meaning that we won't appear on the Pegasus's heat sensor. And since I'm holding on to you, the cloaking was spread on to me as well preventing them to capture my presence. I'm amazed that you even had a cloaking device. The amount that existed on this world could be counted on a hand. Sadly though there's a battery so we can't use this indefinitely unless we find a replacement which is rare as well since the batteries have all been hoarded by those that have plenty of money to spend."

It seems the old man gave me a huge treasure. I'm going to retract everything I said about the old man and thank for the treasure, but why would he give such a valuable thing to me when he could've just kept it to himself. The old man in my mind now got more mysterious. Lina in my mind got more mysterious as well. Just how much does she know?

As Lina and I kept quiet the Red Dragon Soldiers started freaking out.

"Where are they?"

"I don't know sir. The Pegasus's heat sensor isn't picking any heat signatures so we can assume they left this area."

"What do you mean? Are you saying that they teleported out?

"I would assume so sir."

"Why would anyone teleport two measly mercs. The resources spent on just teleporting already cost fifteen power stones, not to forget the the cost of the distance as well. We were able to teleport our men into the military compound since we able sign a contract with Iron Nation since they had the power stones to spend. So which city would teleport them out?

It seems that my suspicions about the randomly appearing Red Dragon Soldiers were correct. They did teleport in the military building and it was made possible due to having a partnership with Iron Nation.

Iron Nation was a B-Rank Nation so they would have access to teleportation and the power stones to spend, but why would the partner up with the Red Dragon who was just only a D-Rank nation. Just what did they agree to?

"Well, since they supposedly teleported and have no idea we might as well head back and report in. Even though we didn't capture anyone, I've heard that some of the other squads have captured some mercenaries and will be transferred to Dragon City later this week.

What! Please don't tell me one of teammates got captured. I can only pray and hope that none of them got captured cause there was no way I could go back and save them. It would be suicide mission, the only thing I can do is regroup with the team at Treasure City and hope to see that no one was missing.

As we stayed silent while lying on the ground we watched the Pegasus first leave, then after ten minutes of double checking that we weren't around the soldiers started walking away. Of course we didn't move immediately when we saw the soldiers disappear from our vision.

We waited for another ten minutes and it was good thing we did. A pair of soldiers came back to check if there was anything amiss and soon walked back towards the military compound seeing that nothing was out of the norm. Seeing that they disappeared, Lina and I got and wiped off the sweat that was acc.u.mulating throughout the entire time we were surrounded.

I then took of the cloaking Device that was attached to me and even though I didn't notice any changes I knew that I was now visible to the n.a.k.e.d eye of other people beside myself.

"I really owe you big for saving me." I said to Lina thanking her. She was a big help and without her I would've died.

"I think we're pretty even. You had the cloaking device while I had the knowledge to work it. Without the both of us working together we both would've died." Lina replied back.

"Yeah, well either way, I still owe you for saving my life." I wasn't the one to not repay debts especially not a life debt. If the time ever comes, I will repay.

Seeing that I was determined to pay it off she didn't plan on arguing with me any longer. As we stood for a little bit longer to regain our bearing we then made our way out of the forest and started travelling towards Natsu City.