Blessing of Magus

I - Captain Devin & Chimera

There is no sound on the field that is usually filled with a lot of military shouts. The only thing that can be heard was the sound of the wind blowing. Every soldier on the field is holding their breath, their eyes keep looking at one particular soldier that is just standing on the field. He is holding a machine gun with a firm posture, his eyes are still wandering around, trying to find the strategic spot for the battle.

His name is Devin, a veteran war soldier from the Northern Alliance. However, despite being called a veteran, he is still 15 years old. He officially joined the world-war 3 when he was 10 years old because of the Northern’s loss against the Western Country.

The first time he came to the battlefield, he surprised everyone by assassinating almost every enemy that he met and rescued the intelligent unit from being backstabbed by catching a traitor in that unit. After that moment, the world has known him as ‘the shadow assassin’ for his ability to assassinate quickly in the middle of the battlefield without everyone noticing his presence.

After his first battle, the Northern military realized Devin’s worth and decided to nurture Devin as a perfect soldier. He was trained in several martial arts, different kinds of weapons, assassination techniques, and a lot of survival training to turn him into a perfect soldier. The result was shown on the battlefield when he massacred the enemy’s base and reclaim several important cities that fall to the enemy like Berlin, Vienna, and Prague.

His contribution was acknowledged by the higher-ups, and he was promoted to the captain position and had his own squad at 13-year-old, making him the youngest captain in history.

After his promotion, he keeps up his good work for the Northern Alliance by claiming a lot of areas in the continent that used to be called Europe in the past. When there was only Britain remaining for the Western Continent in Europe. The Northern’s higher-ups were very confident that after they conquer Britain, they will just have to wait for the surrender of Western.

However, the attack on Britain that should be easy turned out to be a disaster. The night before the battle, the Northern soldier’s camp in Bray-Dunes, the nearest city from Britain, received a sudden attack from the air. But that was not an ordinary air force. The fire from that attack was spread through the entire camp within a minute, and before anyone at the camp realized what happened, all of them were burnt alive. That disaster cost the Northern 5000 soldiers.

After that event, the unusual aerial attack from the Western side is not over. The land that Devin conquered in the past was lost once again to the Western’s hand. And just like the first time, they were all burned with no survivor left behind. The land of French, Belgium, and the Netherland were lost just from the unknown attack.

Finally, the Northern received intel about the unknown attack. It came from the lone survivor of the attack in the land of Luxemburg. Honestly, he actually died from that attack. However, he managed to run to the Northern base in the land of Switzerland just before he dies. The corpse was enough for the military to extract the information before he dies.

The Northern combined the last memory of the survivor with virtual reality to simulate the unknown weapon and to find how to fight it. However, the method was very dangerous because if the one who did the simulation test die in the simulation, he will also die in the real world. That is why the Northern military recalled back their best soldier, Devin, to do the simulation.

-- Back to the story –

The silence in the field is finally broken when the sound of a blown whistle came through his ears. Devin lies down quickly and tried to find a mound to take cover.

A moment later, a huge creature is coming from the earth. It resembles a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind. A chimera, one of the most dangerous beasts in the Greek mythological story.

Every people who knew a bit about the legend of chimera paled, knowing that the battle will be a dangerous one for Devin. Chimera may not be the most dangerous beast in the myth, but its power is not something any human can deal with easily. It can swim, it can fly, its speed is untraceable by ordinary eyes, and the most dangerous thing is it can breathe fire.

‘If the simulation is accurate, the unknown attack is probably coming from this beast.’ Devin thought

Devin is holding his breath now, waiting for the opportunity. He is a veteran, so he had a few experiences facing an unexpected situations. While chimera is definitely on the top of his list, he is definitely not going to be overwhelmed by it. He quickly calmed himself down and started to dig into his memory to find what is its weakness.

Chimera’s weakness is simple. It is the goat part of its body, which is the only part that can feel pain and have the slowest regeneration ability. However, that part is also the strongest point of Chimera, because it has an intelligence that is very similar to humans. A myth from Athens said, let a chimera walk around the human world for just one month, and the goat part will make the chimera adapt to how humans fight.

Devin knows he needs a diversion for the lion and dragon part of its body. Their reflex and instinct to protect the goat part are very high, so a normal diversion will not work. Therefore, he covered his eyes with dark g****e and throw a flash-bang from his bag to the dragon side. One of the best ways to deal with an unknown enemy is to steal his vision.

However, before Devin can react, the dragon part surprisingly makes a quick decision by twisting its body to cover the goat part.

Not giving the beast time to recover, Devin raised his machine gun and aimed it at the goat. Unfortunately, the dragon part has already twisted its body to cover the goat.

‘So the dragon is responsible for the goat’s protection. At least it confirms its weakness now.’

Devin immediately threw his machine gun and rushed to the beast at a high speed. The lion part is growling at Devin’s sudden movement. Unfortunately for the beast, before the lion part can react, Devin is ready to attack.

He rolled in front of the beast, and throw a high kick to the lion’s jaw, shaking the beast’s balance. That attack threw the dragon part out off guard, creating an opening for Devin to attack the goat. Within a second, he draws a pistol from his belt and shot the goat’s part.

‘BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!!’

Before the beast realized, three bullets have already pierced the goat’s head. All three heads in the beast's body suddenly shrieked, and in the next moment, the beast loses its strength and disappears from the field.

After a moment of silence,

“WOAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!” The field was filled with a lot of shouts coming from the soldiers who watched the battle from the start.

“Did you see that? He is very fast!” Shouted one of the soldiers.

“I cannot follow captain Devin’s movement at all! Truly worthy of captain!” Said another.

“That’s captain Devin, our Northern’s pride!!” Added another one.

The excited shouts from the soldiers can be heard for a moment before one particular soldier enters the field.

“Soldier Devin! Report to my office, now!” He is Atalanta, the general of the Northern military.

“Yes, Sir!”

In General Atalanta’s office

Unlike all of the soldiers in the field, the situation in General Atalanta’s office is very tense. The higher-ups who watched Devin’s battle know the gravity of this situation. A mythical beast who can only be heard in a legend now appeared as their enemy. The situation is not good for them.

“What a mess..” One of the Lieutenant General sighed while rubbing his forehead.

“Is this possible that the simulation is wrong?” Ask another Lieutenant General to the head of the technology division.  The one who was asked just nodded.

“It is possible because of several factors. This simulation is created based on people’s last memory before he dies. It is usually used by the police to create a hypothesis for a murder case. However, the last memory before people dies usually got biased by fear of death, so it can be more exaggerated than the reality itself.” This answer makes a few people release a relieved sigh.

“However, the fact that there is a mythical beast that should not exist in the hand of our enemy will be a big problem for us. We have to wait for General Atalanta and Captain Devin’s assessment to know how troublesome our problem is right now.”

Not long after the last Lieutenant General gives his opinion, all of the higher-ups in the room can hear the door open, revealing captain Devin and General Atalanta in front of them. Everyone immediately stands up and gives a salute to the general.

“Give me a brief report on what have you discussed after watching Devin’s battle.” General Atalanta gives a command to one of his Lieutenant.

“Yes, Sir!” After hearing the report, General Atalanta just hummed and turn his gaze to Devin.

“Devin, you are the one who did the simulation. What do you think about our condition?” After having a moment to think, Devin gives his opinion.

“Sir, I am afraid that this will be the opposite of the Lieutenant’s opinion. I am a bit familiar with the simulation because of several spy cases in the military. Except for a poisonous death, the last memory that we use to simulate usually turned out to be more violent because it was people’s last moment. The focus on the memory will be the attack that got them killed.

However, in the last simulation, you see for yourself that the beast is just looking at me without malicious intention. That means the people that we use for the simulation did not die because of the beast. Moreover, the beast didn’t use its famous fire attack, so we still didn’t have any intelligence for the unknown attack. Is it really from the beast or does Britain have another weapon that they used against us?

And the most important thing is, if they have one mythical beast in their military, what is the chance that they or another country have a similar or worse, more dangerous beast in their rank? So I have to say our position is not very good right now.”

After hearing what Devin said, the atmosphere in the room is basically going down. Devin can see the grim expression on General Atalanta’s face, and he knows his general is aware of this situation.

“Thank you, Captain Devin, you are dismissed for now.” Devin gives his last salute before leaving the room. After closing the door, he sighs and muttered,

“What a mess indeed..”