October 6, 2201, 1337, Operation Area, Inside the Cave I was facing off against five Lunarians and on the defensive. However, I wasn't fighting alone. This was a military operation, and my comrades, the people I could call family, were right by my side. I continued to evade the attacks of the five Lunarians, patiently waiting for an opportunity to counterattack. The situation changed two minutes later. A thin beam of light, characteristic of a handgun, flashed, and one of the Lunarians fell. “Captain, I’ll guard your back.” That was Kikyou, her voice calm. Another thin beam of light flashed, and another one of the enemies fell. “Enemy, destroyed. Rearguard, coming in.” That was Suzuran’s unique way of speaking. The head of the werewolf in front of me rolled off, and it crumpled to the ground, spraying blood everywhere. “Hey, wait. Is the captain still alive? I wanna stand next to him when we line up.” That was Saika’s cheerful voice. Kikyou, Suzuran, and Saika approached me in that order, making sure not to attack me. The 1111th squad had regrouped after being scattered by the surprise attack. “I’m glad you’re all okay. Status report.” “I took down four and saw two more. Not sure how many are left.” “I got four, too. From what I can sense, there should be five left.” “Six down. Five still alive, confirmed.” “I took down three. I need to catch my breath, so I’ll leave the last five to you.” “Understood. We’ll mop them up right away.” Kikyou answered for the group. Immediately, Kikyou and Suzuran fired their handguns, each taking down two more, while Saika closed in on a nearby enemy with her rifle, instantly beheading the Lunarian. “Captain, we’ve cleared the area. Please give us your orders.” As expected, there was a significant difference in basic combat ability between the natural-born and the accelerated Humans. Kikyou and the others, wearing only regular field uniforms and helmets without any enhancements, had easily dealt with the Lunarians that had taken Koizumi considerable time to defeat. If they hadn’t been caught by surprise and outnumbered, the Lunarians didn’t stand a chance against synthetic humans. They were designed and born specifically for combat, possessing five times the strength and agility of normal humans. I tried to check the status of the other squads, but it was difficult to get a grasp of the situation with all the thick dust. From the radio, I could imagine what was going on based on the sounds of combat. The vanguard platoons seemed to be holding their own. The 1113 squad on the right flank and the captain squad in the rearguard were not used to fight Lunarians in hand-to-hand combat, and it seemed like they were having a hard time. If that was the case, I would follow the Japanese Army’s rule of helping those who could definitely be saved first. “Kikyou and Suzuran, provide covering fire for the companies captain squad from here. Once we’ve taken control of this area, provide covering fire for squad 1113. I’ll go with Saika and enter squad 1113’s area. We’ll handle the close-quarters combat. Begin in five seconds.” I gave my orders via the squad radio. With this setup, we wouldn’t shoot each other by accident.

Kikyou and Suzuran equipped their handguns with assault rifles. Kikyou, who was also a sniper, sat down in a position suitable for sniping, while Suzuran took a kneeling stance. Saika wiped the blood and grease off her two swords, which she preferred to using a gun, with her combat uniform, restoring their sharpness. She then readied them in both hands. I attached the bayonet to my assault rifle, powered it up, and wrapped it in a high-voltage laser. The easiest way to defeat the Lunarians was with a gun. Their animal fur covered their vital points, acting like armor that deflected blades and punches. A gun could melt the fur with heat and easily penetrate them, but bayonets and fists were repelled. If I attached the bayonet to my assault rifle, I could use the abundant power of Iwakram to heat the blade and cut through the fur like it was paper. In close-quarters combat, the bayonet had become my main weapon as a natural-born human. As a Synthetic, Saika had augmented strength and agility, so she didn’t need to rely on the high-heat sword to defeat the Lunarians. In this chaotic battle, there was a high risk of friendly fire if I or Saika tried to shoot our way through. We had no choice but to resort to hand-to-hand combat to rescue our comrades. On the other hand, if anyone could shoot down the Lunarians in the middle of this chaos without friendly fire, it was Saika and Suzuran. “Two, one, go.” At my signal, everyone moved at once. Two beams of light shot out from behind us, followed by Lunarian screams. Saika and I silently approached the Lunarians attacking Squad 1113 from behind. I easily sliced through the hairy Lunarians with my heat bayonet, while Saika used her double-blades to crush the Lunarians’ heads with five times the speed and strength of a natural-blooded human. We flowed through the chaotic battle like leaves in the current of the artificial river of our underground city, mercilessly cutting down any Lunarians that entered our range. We moved with the agility and strength of beasts. Squad 1113 was putting up a good fight, but it couldn’t compare to us. They weren’t weak by any means. In fact, they were one of the best squads when it came to close-quarters combat in the entire Japanese military. However, the 1111 platoon under my command maintained an extraordinary strength in hand-to-hand combat that no one else could match. “Those goddamn mad dogs... Thank God they’re on our side.” Someone whispered over the radio. The voice was filled with fear and reassurance at the same time. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t care whether that was an insult or a compliment. There was no denying that to anyone else, I didn’t look like a human; I looked like a beast. My platoon members had come to the same conclusion, and no one batted an eye when we were called the mad dog squad. The code name meant nothing to us. After I had taken down several more Lunarians, the Lunarians around me suddenly collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. Apparently, Kikyou and the others had finished supporting the captain’s squad and had turned their attention to us. Immediately, I thought about what to do next and decided to switch to a defense-oriented strategy to conserve energy. A Natural like me wouldn't recover my strength as quickly as a Synthetic. It was time to take a breather. Before long, we exterminated all leftover Lunarians attacking squad 1113. The fifty or so Lunarians that had focused the middle and rearguard had had their heads and chests shot through, their heads bludgeoned with the butts of rifles, their necks wrung, their faces pounded in with fists, and their stomachs stabbed innumerable times. Their corpses were left in a pool of red blood. Only the Lunarians focusing to the vanguard remained. “Report your status!” The company captain barked into the radio after catching his breath. He must have been really scared when the Lunarians had gotten so close. He was probably barking orders to hide his fear, but his voice was trembling.