Hero
Everyone at the military department knew the reason why the battle of Kesou was able to end so quickly. Morrison had been the head contributor at this military campaign.
For this war, the military department had in addition to the standing army also dispatched special forces and Morrison had volunteered for the mission.
The standing army first rushed to Kesou to provide assistance. By the time the special forces were put into action, the situation on Kesou was already dire.
The large scale and vicious attack took place in the urban area of Kesou. The city sky was lit up by raging flames and thick black smoke rose from the widespread destruction. The sounds of the bombing and blasts hardly stopping for even a moment.
For the time being, neither side had the advantage. The battle had come to a deadlock. The city was suffering. In just a short few days, the city had already been destroyed beyond recognition.
When arriving at Kesou and witnessing how it had been reduced to this devastating state, even the soldiers, with their sturdy psyche, could not help but slightly change expressions. If the enemy was not annihilated as soon as possible, the number of innocent lives lost in the city would rapidly increase at a terrible speed and the enemy trying to create terror in the interstellar would have achieved their goal.
After familiarizing himself with the battle situation, Morrison decided, based off of the intel, to lead the special forces in a sneak attack coming up from behind the enemy.
As one could well imagine, it was a rather risky operation. However, according to the intelligence they received, the leader of the enemy would be at the rear at that time and with the main force of the enemy army temporarily restricted by their side, Morrison did not hesitate to go through with the operation.
The special forces was an elite group. All members of the group possessed variant abilities. With the help of another member’s one minute invisibility ability, Morrison at last suppressed his breathing and stealthily snuck into the room the enemy leader was in.
Tightening his grip on the dagger in his hand, Morrison waited for the others to draw the firepower outside and lure some of the guards away from the room.
After sneaking into the room, Morrison’s invisibility was already down to the last seventeen seconds.
But his comrades did not fail him. Seconds after he got into position and was prepared to assassinate the leader, a commotion could be heard outside the room.
Five seconds.
He was nearly at his limit. Aiming at the neck of the man in the chair, Morrison found the largest gap between the remaining guards in the room and rushed forward in a fierce and swift manner akin to a cheetah.
The air he had been holding in until now escaped his lips and in an instant, the prey’s throat was slashed by the dagger in his hand. The next second, Morrison inserted the blade of the dagger into the other’s heart.
His invisibility lifted at this moment and gunshots almost immediately ensued.
He had looked for a good escape route as he snuck in. Now that his objective was accomplished Morrison immediately broke through the window. None of the erratic bullets fired from the hurriedly raised guns was able to hit his body.
Signaling for his comrades to retreat, Morrison also made his escape in the direction the enemy defense was the weakest. He had to run to the set coordinates of the teleportation circle, which was nearly 2000 meters away from his current position.
“What?” Morrison immediately asked as a voice sounded from the communication device in his ear.
The words coming from the communication device sounded very urgent. In between panting the other said, “The pursuers aren’t chasing us. It seems they are all going after you. They may want to catch you alive. Hurry up and get to the circle.”
Sure enough, the number of people chasing after him seemed to be gradually increasing. Morrison turned off the communication device and focused on evading the attacks from the rear.
The ones chasing him were getting closer and closer. He estimated that they would eventually catch up to him. Morrison still kept calm. As long as he reached the teleportation circle, it didn’t matter even if the enemy sent an entire army to surround him.
But things didn’t always go as planned.
“Gu… Gu-Ji, Gu-Wu…” While dodging bullets, he heard some weak and tender cries coming from his left. Morrison looked for the source of the sound and saw a laili cub trapped in a narrow space under the rubble of a destroyed building. The cub looked very scared and helpless. At this moment, the baby was instinctively calling out.
But apart from Morrison who was passing by at this time and his dying mother who was lying not far away, no one was paying attention to this cub’s cries.
To save or not to save.
If he didn’t take the cub away now, the cub would either be trapped alive and die in that small space or possibly be killed after discovered by the enemy.
But to save the cub, he would need to be ready to directly face the pursuers.
Although he was ponding over it, Morrison still acted before thinking. Changing directions, he approached the destroyed building.
Racing against the clock, Morrison lifted the huge concrete slab that was trapping the cub with one hand and scooped up the cub with the other, bringing the cub into his embrace.
There were other extremely faint breaths among the rubble. Morrison spotted a woman lying in a pool of blood. The latter exerted strength to turn towards him and moved her eyes to the cub in his arms, feebly uttering what would be her last words, “….Laili.”
It was the cub’s name.
The faint breaths stopped. Her voice still in his ear, Morrison hugged the cub he had rescued from under the rubble and fled in the direction of the set coordinates.
Originally, the time should have been adequate. By the time those chasing him caught up, Morrison would have already reached the teleportation circle.
But in the middle of his escape he had chosen to go save the cub. Now, still a few hundred meters away from the teleportation circle, Morrison’s path was cut off by the enemy chasing him.
Even more rushed forth from behind, effectively blocking his path and turning it into a dead end.
He paid no mind to those standing in his way. Morrison kept going. Using his ability, the gravity affecting the enemy all at once increased by several times, immediately making it hard for them to move.
Adjustment of gravity, this variant ability had a limited range and couldn’t be used on a wider scale. However, when used properly like this, it could display a surprising efficacy.
The last 100 meters.
He was getting closer and closer, but before he had successfully escaped, Morrison didn’t dare lower his guard the slightest.
Still one minute left until the teleportation circle closed— Sufficient.
Calculating the time in his head, Morrison increased his speed to make the final sprint.
He could see the dim light of the teleportation circle hidden in the grass. It was only a few steps away, Morrison would be able to immediately run into it.
But the second he laid his eyes on it, a particle light beam, it’s speed making it hard to evade, surged past his side and created a deep hole in the ground. At the same time, a figure closed in, the strange weapon in their hand aimed at the latter.
That angle— He was at first going to evade. However, when facing the approaching enemy who had their weapon raised, Morrison suddenly realized he couldn’t dodge the attack.
From this angle, to evade all possible attacks, there was only one way for him to evade, and if he did, the cub in his arms would be hit.
Searing pain. Enduring the attack, Morrison seized the moment and fell down, rolling into the teleportation circle in the grass. Even though the enemy tried to interfere with the circle the moment they discovered it, Morrison was successfully teleported.
However, the enemy’s tampering did not have no effect at all. The instant the teleportation was completed he opened his eyes and was met with an unfamiliar scene.
Morrison knew something must have gone wrong with the teleportation, but he had no energy left to think it over. He didn’t know if it was the effect of the enemy’s special weapon, but Morrison felt his consciousness fade. The next second, he fell into darkness.
He was not sure how long he had been out. When he started to regain consciousness, the first thing Morrison felt was something sharp lightly pecking his face.
It didn’t actually hurt, it was more as if to wake him up.
As soon as Morrison opened his eyes, he saw a fluffy laili cub. The cub could not be more than a few months old. When that pair of small flippers hung along the sides of his body, the cub looked particularly round.
“Gu-Ji.”
Lifting his flippers, the laili cub called out to the adult who had awakened with a tender sound.
Morrison sat up and first took the cub back into his arms, he then began to take in his surroundings.
It seemed like a cave, it was by the sea.
After waking up, he felt severe pain radiating from the place he was hit on his left arm. Enduring the pain, Morrison stood up with the cub in his arms and walked out of the cave.
Their current location was, naturally, still on Kesou. He had lost his communication device in the battle earlier, Morrison couldn’t contact the troops right now.
He should have been unconscious for about a day at most. He didn’t know how the war was going. Morrison could only start by taking the cub to the nearest city.
Once arriving at the city, he unexpectedly received good news. The war had ended. The day after the enemy leader was assassinated, the enemy who were thrown into complete disarray, like a sheet of loose sand[1], was soon thoroughly wiped out by the Star Alliance Army with the power of a tiger biting down on its prey.
His taut nerves finally relaxed a little. Morrison searched for a hotel to rest and feed the cub.
The laili cub must have been hungry for a long time, but he never cried all the way here.
Before reporting back to the military department, Morrison first had to find somewhere good and appropriate to place the cub.
Not having fed cubs before, Morrison used an extremely unnatural position to feed the cub by supporting him against his hip.
Once he felt that the cub had eaten his full, Morrison touched the cub’s soft slightly bulging belly and lightly put the laili cub down on the ground, letting the other move around freely.
If he was going to place the cub, he would need to find a nursing club.
Morrison still had this much common sense. But the moment he stood up, Morrison saw the fluffy laili cub waddle over to him. The cub came close and suddenly raised his pair of small flippers to hug his leg.
“Gu~” Raising his head, the laili cub looked up at the adult he was hugging with his clear black eyes.
The cub’s voice was especially tender and clear, his dark eyes full of trust and dependence.
“…” Morrison didn’t respond for a moment. The cub’s black eyes were bright. Having his leg hugged by the cub, he suddenly felt a little like he couldn’t move.
Morrison couldn’t remember what he had thought at that time, when he saw the dependence in the eyes of the cub. When he came back to himself, he had already brought the cub back with him to Shilolin.
A cub bed, rations, and many cub toys. For the first time, Morrison’s ever-increasing crystal card balance decreased as he brought this for the cub.
The left arm hit by the special weapon needed to be removed, Morrison accepted the medical department’s judgment.
Ever since he found out that the cub was afraid of thunder, Morrison had asked for leave on rainy days in order to stay home with the cub.
Others took his frequent requests for leave as something he had to do because of his injury which had still not healed.
“Gu…Gu-Ji, Gu-Ji!” A strange smell came from the adult’s body. The laili cub, who would normally circle Morrison, waved his small flippers and called out to the other.
“…” Morrison carefully pondered on what was different about his body and finally could only come up with that it may be the smoke smell. Seeing the reaction of the cub, Morrison went to change his clothes and in passing tidied himself up.
The cub didn’t like the smell of smoke and wouldn’t let the other touch him. Morrison basically hadn’t touched a cigarette box again since that first time.
After taking care of the laili cub for more than a year, Morrison gradually started considering submitting a retirement application to the military department.
It was true that some things were inconvenient without his arm. Over the past year, the residual effects from being wounded by the special weapon had also only become more and more obvious.
Apart from these two points, Morrison actually thought that the cub was now over two years old and should stay at a cub raising branch. The cub would receive better education and care, he would also have a lot of playmates.
If he retired, he would have time to check up on the cub every week. He wouldn’t one day suddenly be transferred to a faraway place by the military department.
Once concern existed in their hearts, people would at once grow weak. Now when carrying out missions, Morrison felt he may not be able to do it without the slightest worry as before.
Retirement was therefore the best choice.
“I was sent to talk to you, can I ask, why don’t you want to adopt the cub?” Zarad, who was not good at playing word games, at last chose to get straight to the point.
No matter how you looked at it, the other seemed to care about the laili cub, otherwise he wouldn’t come here every week like the other parents did.
He reminiscing was interrupted. This was the second time Morrison had been asked about adopting the cub. He was silent for a moment then said, “I’m not qualified to be a parent.”
At present, not to talk about his injury, he didn’t even know how to coax the cub. His reputation was not good either, he couldn’t be a good role model for the cub.
At this time, inside the house, Xie Luan squatted down to look at the laili cub who was holding a coloring pen with his sharp beak.
Pressing the pen against the paper, the cub crookedly wrote “Papa” on the white paper in front of him. He then at once waved his little flippers and issued several crisp calls in a row. His black eyes were particularly bright.
Looking at the bright eyes of the laili cub, Xie Luan couldn’t help but think that, as Zarad had said, the cub had been saved and brought back by Morrison from that battlefield.
To this cub, the latter must be the most powerful hero.
———————
Translator’s note:
This is a very sad and serious chapter, my brain —>
“Lifting his flippers, the laili cub called out to the adult who had awakened with a tender sound.”
[1] – “Like a sheet of loose sand” is an idiom and means to be unable to cooperate.