*

  The battle lasted for, like, 4 hours or somethin'.

  By the time it was over, I was covered head to toe in Ripper-spine’s blood, ash, and sand.

  I looked around and noticed I wasn’t the only one decorated with Aggressors’ blood; it was so thick I couldn’t clearly see the faces of the surviving Mercenary-Guards covered in it too.

  I got off my ass, slowly walkin' through the battlefield with the little strength I had.

  I lazily looked around at the hundreds of Zipper-spine corpses mixed with the bodies of our fellow Guards – most of 'em torn apart – and battered and broken weapons of different kinds, under an air thick with smoke from explosions and shit.

  I walked to the area where tents were set up, which was very close to the path we used to get here. Some others and I slowly walked to the tents to tend to ourselves. As we walked, a certain Ripper-spine, with the bottom parts of its body completely blasted off, jumped ruggedly onto a Guard’s waist, makin' the Guard fall flat on her back (which ain't a surprise, since we were all extremely exhausted).

  But the Guard seemed to fight back and managed to end the Ripper-spine’s life. The odd thing was she didn’t seem to be gettin' back up herself.

  She was unfortunately surrounded by Mercenary-Guards headin' to the tents, and none of 'em seemed interested in savin' her.

  I just paced away too, keepin' one eye on her to see if she’d get up, but she didn’t.

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  She's good as dead then... Luckily for her, paramedics from Viper seemed to have noticed her from far away and rushed to her rescue.

  I watched the medics as they rushed to her, then I removed my gaze from that scene and focused on makin' it to the tents.

  As I got closer to the tents, I noticed 2 medium-sized tanks of fresh water a few meters away. I also saw Guards passin' around a long hose and washin' their bodies with the water comin' out of it; they did this with their armor still on.

  ‘This is a decent militia,’ was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the trucks and the Guards around 'em.

  None of the few private military companies I’d tangled with, or the ones people talk about on the streets, did somethin' as nice as this.

  It was a bit unnervin' for some reason, but still fuckin' cool. I went to the truck, waited for my turn, and washed myself and my armor. Durin' my wash, I once again realized how badly I was injured all over.

  After the wash, I walked to the tents, findin' where fellow low-lives like me hung out. I then noticed they were hangin' out in separate groups - didn’t know what the parameters were, nor do I fuckin' care - , but thankfully I spotted Daigo sittin' alone on the ground, restin' his back on a large wooden crate.

  I took a seat beside him and said, “Fuck… I thought you’d be fuckin' dead by now.”

  “Fuck you… I am… fuckin' unkillable,” he chuckled forcefully, tryin' to put on a brave front, but I'd already noticed his left hand pressed tightly to the right side of his stomach, and a bloodstain could be seen around his palm.

  “Shouldn’t you get that looked at?” I asked.

  “Fuckin' medics are takin' care of their own before payin' us any mind, and injured D-Grade fuckers will definitely shove me to the back so they can be treated first,” he commented plainly, with a tone that seemed almost annoyed I’d asked.

  “Fuck 'em.” I didn’t push it and simply agreed; it wasn't like he was wrong or somethin'.

  “It’s not that painful, though,” he said unexpectedly, just when I was thinking he didn’t want to talk about it.

  "Why wouldn't it be painful?... You’re fuckin' bleedin' out. It’s probably the most painless way to die,” I responded, tryin' to give him a reality check, not that there was much he could do to change his circumstances.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed, then went silent.

  We stayed like that for hours.

  I didn’t dare fuckin' leave his side until a medic with healin' powers came to us and helped both of us with our injuries (motherfucker still billed us, as usual; the fee would be subtracted from whatever we earned here).

  We have no way of tellin' the time, nor was the sky visible from inside the Gate, but I guessed night had fallen by the time we were done with our treatment. We just laid our heads on the crate and slept off.

  No food or water tonight, but that was the fuckin' least of our worries.