Shattered super-soldier

The endless western wilderness spread out as far as one could see, according to the historical records locked deeply within the great Willmir palace archive not only the entire Willmir empire's territory, but all lands on this continent had once been united under the ancient empire of Uldar, how any single governing body could hold control over such a large amount of lands was still beyond Klara’s imagination

‘...The sheer amounts of paper pushing required makes me want to vomit’

Klara suppressed her compulsive nausea for paperwork, she knew a person in the line of inheritance of the Willmir empire shouldn’t be this single-minded, but knowing you were a muscle headed brute and doing something about it were two different things, she knew she couldn’t match up to her siblings in intellect, but in her mind she made up headway with her personal strength… Still seeing the seemingly endless western frontier that was spreading out in front of her had caused a slight change in her mind

“Grandfather… Is it really true that light dances across the sky in the far Northern territories?”

“...That’s true, the best view is a few days travel North of Saratheen’s manor, I plan to head there in winter, do you want to come along Klara?”

“...Sure”

Klara ignored the flustered look on her grandfathers face when she surprisingly agreed, he had invited her numerous times to this very yearly trip along others, normally if she were to dignify his invitations with a response, which was rare, he would get at most a “...Maybe” or a “...I’ll think about it after training” this was the first time she had actually agreed, Adam was aware he was dotting on Klara, but what else was an old man to do but spoil his youngest granddaughter?

The endless uninhabited frontier had over the 4 days of travel seemed to awaken something in her, a want to see the sights she had been taught about by her tutors

‘I need to keep my focus up’

Klara cleared her mind of the future and focused on the present, as much as she wanted to daydream the western fringes was a hostile place, their group had set out from the border fortress to scout the immediate area after weathering a prolonged Banshee ant assault, the giant white furred ants generally didn’t lunch these kinds of vicious assaults unless they had been provoked first, thus the task for the current expedition was to find out if the Banshee ants had been provoked deliberately to waste the lives of Willmir’s soldiers

‘...Something is here’

Klara stopped walking suddenly and as she was the front of the formation due to her sharp senses, so did the rest of the group, when she kneeled down so did the rest as they raised their vigilance, after a few moments of silence Duke Adam voiced a question

“What is it, Klara?”

Klara kept silent for a few moments and just before she was about to answer a person suddenly appeared stepping out of a treeline about 150 meters ahead of them, the first impression Duke Adam had of the figure was that he was a soldier, and most importantly, not one of Willmir’s soldiers

“Prepare for combat! Subdue that man at once!”

-

“...They don’t seem all that friendly”

Half of the group that had spotted Matthew moved towards him at once, from their brandished weapons and the fact that the other half was quickly putting on metal armor it was clear they had judged him to be an enemy at first glance

[Ready to for targeting]

Matthew selected the 60mm metal slug at high voltage as his eyes turned cold

“Nonlethal for now”

Then he brought up the coil rifle in a single fluid motion as he pulled the trigger, the high voltage mode accelerated the 60mm metal slug to around 1.7 times the speed of sound and sent it ripping through the air moments later it impacted the stomach of the closest person that was charging at him, Matthew’s perception of time slowed down so far that he could tell the expression of the young woman twist as the pain folded her mind

‘If you didn’t want to get shot, you shouldn’t have charged at me with a halberd’

The action cycled comfortably slow in Matthew’s slowed down world as he brought the coil rifle to bear on the next target, not bothering to let go of the trigger he timed the 0.2 second cycle time perfectly as another metal slug was sent zipping across the open ground

‘... I don’t like you’

Matthew had noticed a person moving weirdly in the backline, clearly not a baseline human the person had charcoal black skin and long vibrant red hair, she was clearly wielding some sort of Mystic power to unleash on Matthew, unfortunately the only thing they had managed was making themselves a target which he simply couldn’t go easy on

‘Nighty night…’

Matthew didn’t need to follow the 60mm metal slug in to know it had hit its intended point, after letting another 2 slugs fly he glanced to confirm that the possible Mystic would no longer be a threat as he saw the hole he had opened in the middle of their throat had its intended effect, 15 seconds was all it took, by then Matthew had brought down every single person in the group of 32

“...What a waste”

Matthew didn’t know what was a waste exactly when he thought about it, it had just slipped out as he took his hand off the dust cover and lowered the coil rifle down still keeping one hand on the pistol grip as he made sure none of the people in front of him was doing anything other than wailing on the ground in pain, showing aggression towards Matthew while he had distance and a coil rifle ready to fire had proved to be a bad choice all around for the Willmir Empire mystic knights

‘Could you call over Alina for me?’

[Confirmed, the mistress has been notified]

Matthew waited in the same spot for a bit, before eventually one of the unwise 32 tired to make a break for it, which resulted in another 60mm slug to their other shin

“Just sit tight for now”

After another 2 minutes passed, Alina suddenly appeared next to Matthew

“Matthew, I, I am here”

Matthew nodded and asked her while still keeping an eye on the group

“Could you make sure no one tires anything Mystic related when I get closer?”

Alina nodded and so Matthew kicked off the ground and sailed through the air for a few moments before he landed next to the first target that had gone down, the young woman seemed to be going into shock, Matthew brought his coil rifle to bare and only just managed to stop himself from finishing her off when as he got another idea and kneeled down next to her

“Prepare for searing”

[Cauterizing ready in 12 seconds]

Matthew placed a hand over the wound and made eye contact with the woman for a few moments before he spoke

“Grit your teeth”

Somehow the message got across, and she clenched her jaw shut before the nanites gathered on Matthew’s palm superheated and quickly cauterized her wound, seeing that she had passed out from pain Matthew unceremoniously rolled her onto her side before he cauterized the exit wound too, Matthew quickly treated another 10 before he began encountering casualties, by the time he finished a total of 18 had survived

‘...Now then’

Matthew kneeled down next to the charcoal skinned Mystic he had shot in the neck and closed her eyes before he laid a palm on the face of the corpse and commanded

‘Do your thing Aea’

[Orders received, harvesting neurological data]

“What, what are you doing Matthew?”

“Nothing much, it's Aea that is doing all the work right now”

Alina tilted her head to the side slight before she asked

“Should I, I gather the other corpses here?”

Matthew nodded

“If you would, could you also send the survivors back to Basecamp?”

“Sure”

‘Now then… The question is how valuable these people are alive… Those floating things certainly look important’

The 4 floating platforms that were hovering in place that had been situated in the middle of the convoy carried what at first glance looked like supplies for a extended trip, camping gear, armor and weapons and the 4th carried another elaborate piece of machinery which Matthew couldn’t discern the purpose off at one glance, either way, Matthew figured this group still had supplies for another weeks time

‘Which means if these things aren’t being tracked, the earliest someone will come looking for them is around 3 days from now… Time to set up a prison while Aea crunches the data…’

[Neurological data extraction completed]

Matthew removed his hand from the head of the corpse, this form of data extraction was possible on a person that was still alive, of course that was only if one didn’t mind turning the healthy brain matter into a nondescript ‘Well done’ mass of fat

‘There’s a smell I remember… Not that it brings happy memories of course’

Matthew continued to gather Neurological data for Aea to crunch while suppressing his increasing nausea