Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"A-ahh..." Dmitri stuttered. His eyes were wide, his pupils trembled at the sight in front of him.

"Oh my gosh!!" Sierra gasped loudly, even with her two hands covering her mouth.

"Will! No!!" Caleb grabbed the hair on his head so hard a few strands fell off.

"W...Will..." The usually cheerful soldier fell down on his knees, unable to form proper sentences.

His eyes wavered between the bloody wall in front of him that was once a long, calm hallway a few seconds ago, and his hand that was holding another hand tightly.

"I-I'm sorry..." Dmitri muttered with a shaky voice while he held the severed arm of his friend.

He struggled to keep his breath under control. The smell of blood that filled his nose didn't help much, either.

"Big bro. Let go." Wolf came over and grabbed Dmitri's fingers, prying them open one by one until his grip loosened and the severed arm fell on the ground.

"Wolf..." Dmitri looked at the unfazed boy, in contrast to his horrified state.

"It's okay," Wolf grabbed his hand that was empty after letting go of Will's arm, "hold Wolf's hand. Not that."

"I..."

"Soldier Dmitri, snap out of it!" General Emilio gave Dmitri a smack on his head.

"G-general?" The soldier glanced upwards to find general Emilio standing behind him with a huge frown on his face.

"You were entrusted to guard the kid, not your teammate," general Emilio said, "why do I see the kid guarding you, instead?"

Dmitri's eyes widened upon hearing that. He turned his head to look at Wolf who was grabbing his hand. Wolf looked visibly uncomfortable, seeing that he winced every now and then, but he was able to keep it to himself.

Dmitri bit his lower lip and wiped Will's blood off his face using his other hand, "my apologies, general. And I'm sorry, Wolf. I was just a bit shocked..."

General Emilio observed the man who seemed like he was about to break just a moment ago, and noticed that the determination in his eyes was finally slowly coming back.

"Good. We still have a long journey ahead of us. I trust you'll not be a burden." Having said that, general Emilio turned his back and began walking to the front of the group.

"Yes, sir!" Dmitri answered. He then looked at the boy, and his lips formed a smile, even though his brows were frowning, "thank you for saving me, Wolf. I don't know what I'd do if you didn't help me there."

Wolf just nodded slowly, still holding his hand tight.

"It's okay, Dmitri. It wasn't your fault." Caleb approached him and helped him up.

"I..." Dmitri looked down.

"Yeah. He just didn't make it in time. Don't be too hard on yourself, okay?" Sierra chimed in.

"But I hesitated--"

"Quit your chattering. Stop grieving and focus on our mission if you don't want other casualties." General Emilio cut him off. He sounded stern, but everyone could see the angry expression on the general's face.

"Yes, sir!" Caleb responded.

"Tch. I didn't think they'd put a trap on both paths, but delayed the other so we wouldn't notice... I have to be more cautious," general Emilio clenched his fists, "those minotaurs... I won't stop until I wipe them clean."

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the long hallway, general Jeanne approached the wall that had just closed in on them. She was stationed close to the wall, while general Enzo was stationed a few squads behind them, and general Owen was stationed at the furthest back.

"Give me a report." She said to the squad leader who had just barely escaped his death.

"A-all members of our squad is safe... But... I think there were casualties... From the other squad..." He answered in-between his ragged breaths.

Jeanne frowned, but then said, "good job. You kept your members alive."

"Th-thank you... General..." He panted.

She reached into her collar and pulled out a small whistle that she wore as a necklace. After inhaling deeply, she blew into the whistle.

She waited for a bit until she heard the same whistle sound coming from the opposite side of the long wall. Then, the same sound came from behind her twice, making a total of four whistle sounds.

"So general Emilio's fine. That's good," Jeanne let out a relieved sigh, "I wish we won't need to use this life signal whistle, but I guess it's unavoidable, huh?"

"Um, general, won't the minotaurs notice us if you blow into that whistle?" The squad leader asked.

"We hope not. These whistles produce a sound of roughly 50.000Hz, which should be audible for most humans, but not for cows," Jeanne answered, "anyway, I'm pretty sure they have noticed us already even without these whistles."

"But... They have bull heads, right? Not cows?" He kept asking.

"That's why I said 'hope'. If you don't have a better plan, I advise you to stop complaining and start moving, because we still have a long way ahead of us." General Jeanne answered him and walked back.

"Fall back! We'll try another path!" She commanded, and the troops began to move backwards until they find another branching path.

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"Wolf, we're going to release a bird. Can you please tell it to guide the others to our place?" Dmitri said while he grabbed a birdcage.

"Yeah. But bird Juan wants bread. No bread no help." Wolf answered.

"Ah, sorry, bird. The bread are with the others. I'm sure they'll give you bread if you help them out, okay?" Dmitri said to the bird. For a moment, a frown appeared on his face as he remembered the sandwich he ate earlier, which was given to him by Will.

"Bird Juan says okay. But double bread." Wolf translated.

"Sure, sure. Now, off you go!" Dmitri opened the cage and let the bird flew away into the sky.

"Good. While we wait, let's advance." General Emilio interrupted.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others, general?" Caleb asked.

"No. Those minotaurs are most likely already aware of our positions now. Do you want to just stay here and get ambushed by 10 minotaurs?" The general answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"N-no sir. Let's go..."

The group continued their journey with utmost caution. They eyed everything around them, from the textures of the walls, the contour of the ground beneath them, to the moss that was growing between cracks.

They managed to avoid small traps like swinging axes and fallen boulders with ease due to general Emilio's heightened sense of perception and Wolf's extraordinary smelling capability.

"Great job, Wolf!" Dmitri patted the boy's head lovingly after the boy had managed to warn them about the oncoming pitfall yet again.

"Keep your guards up. We have to stay alive until we regroup," general Emilio said, "speaking of which, where the hell is that bird? What took it so long?"

As if right on cue, a whistle sound was heard from far away. General Emilio immediately responded by blowing on his own whistle. Then, another whistle sound appeared. But this time, it came from a different direction from the previous whistle.

"...They got separated." General Emilio said to the rest of the group.

"What happened during that short amount of time!?" Caleb said, panicking.

"Shh." General Emilio brought his finger to his lips, telling the squad leader to shut up.

Caleb immediately closed his mouth and nodded, even though he had no idea why he was told to shut up.

After staying completely silent for a while, general Emilio finally spoke.

"I could only hear 3 whistles."