144 Ch. 138 - Illusion is the best tool in strategy

"Awoooo!" Hearing the howls of the wolves, the soldiers cautiously looked around, using their thermal visions to see at night.

It took them almost an hour just to get to the shack, so that also means it would take them another hour to go back to their choppers.

It's been 30 minutes since they encountered the traps and so far so good, they haven't encountered any on their way back, mainly because they're using the same path that they took, so it's already safe.

Unfortunately, the constant howls and sounds of moving bushes keeps them very much awake and alert at all times. Never giving them time to rest due to it.

"Spread the rations." The soldier in charge of their rations dropped down his huge bag and started handing out rations to the soldiers near him who passed all the rations to those who are far away from the soldier who has the rations.

"I feel like something is wrong, Jeff." One of the soldiers approached the unofficial leader of the platoon, the pilot of the Bravo 69 whose name turns out to be Jeff.

"It's just a gut, soldier. We don't use our guts to dictate our decisions." Jeff said while looking at the soldier with stern eyes.

"Y-yes sir." The soldier gulped his saliva in fear and saluted before walking away and went back to his camp.

Because of so many losses with him.being unofficially in charge, Jeff felt responsible for the loss of three soldier's lives and the injury of almost half of the entire platoon. Because he wanted to prove himself to he superiors and get a high chance of being promoted as the president himself was the one who approved and initiated this mission, Jeff thought that if he does good enough, he would be noticed by the president and get the credit that he deserves.

However, after experiencing such defeat from the traps alone, Jeff knew that his goal of climbing in the rankings would be null after this, it's like climbing a ladder but the ladder is already very old and on the verge of breaking down the more he stays. Unless he does something good that is enough to erase the mistakes that he made. Unfortunately, that would be impossible as the traps alone gave them such pressure and almost on the verge of being completely eradicated.

So, Jeff made a decision to abandon the mission lest he makes more mistakes and he would get demotion instead of promotion.

After setting up the camps and all the tents, the soldiers who were previously famished but now their stomachs are full thanks to the rations, took turns in guarding the camp and serving as a night guard. They're in the middle of a deep jungle so they can't afford any risks.

Unfortunately for them, they're moving exactly as Jin planned and soon they will experience true horrors of invading the territory of the monsters.

***

It was late at night and there were only 8 night guards patrolling around, aside from them everyone was already fast asleep.

Just as everything was going fine, the night guards suddenly heard another howls of the wolves. However, there is something different this time as the howls were much closer to them, as if they were sitting right beside them.

The patrols quickly pointed their flashlights forward and saw nothing but darkness thanks to the lack of the sun's presence to give them light.

Just when the patrols were thinking that one of them should step forward and patrol the area further away from the camp when several red eyes suddenly started appearing in the dark.

What scared them even more was the fact that these red eyes that blinked out of nowhere in the dark are surrounding the entire camp.

"A-alert everyone!" Everyone's blood ran cold immediately as soon as they realized that they were being preyed on by the wolves.

One of the soldiers quickly ran back towards the camp to wake up and alert everyone in the camp.

Meanwhile, the remaining patrols just pointed their rifles forward, maintaining cautiousness as they watched over the red eyes surrounding them.

Once one of them moves, they would blast the area around with their bullets. However, they must prevent doing that without the remaining soldiers from the camp giving support. So they could only wait for the remaining soldiers to grab their rifles and eradicate the wolves that had surrounded them.

Back in the camp, everyone quickly jumped out of their ground beds and grabbed their equipment, more importantly their rifles.

Soon, all of them spread out and noticed that the camp was being surrounded by red eyes that weren't moving an inch but instead, they kept watching over them as if playing with them.

"Sir, do we shoot?" One of the soldiers asked Jeff with a loud gulp of his saliva, an indicator that despite being prepared to shoot the wolves that are surrounding them, doesn't mean he's not afraid.

"Hold. We'll wait for them to attack first." Jeff said while squinting his eyes at the wolves that are blending in the darkness. If it wasn't for their red eyes, perhaps they would have failed to perceive them in the first place. Just so you know, their thermal visions have limited batteries, so they can't use it at all times.

"Yes sir." The soldier nodded his head and said, though he didn't salute in return as he had to steady his aim on the wolves. A single mistake can cost him his life.

However after 5 minutes had passed, there were no reactions from the wolves. So they decided to use their thermal visions to see why they aren't moving.

As soon as Jeff put on his thermal vision, his eyes widened in shock at seeing nothing except for bushes and the trees!

It's like the red eyes that were giving them terrors were nothing but illusion!

"How is this possible?" Jeff muttered with shock and confusion in his voice.

***

Up in the air, Jin was laughing his ass off while Tigress simply just rolled her eyes at him.

"Alright, this is really fun. I might get addicted to it." Jin even wiped off the tears under his eyes just from laughing at the soldier's reactions.

"I feel like this is cowardly. Aren't we supposed to deal with them head on?" Tigress complained with a pout.

"This is a strategy, my dear kitty." Jin said while giving her a side eye.

"A strategy?" Tigress tilted her head and repeated.

"Yes, this is called an Attrition Strategy. The goal here is to wear them down over time by consistently applying pressure and minimizing their ability to rest." Jin diligently explained that even grade school students would be able to understand.

"I see. So we're tiring them out and then deal with them head on at the end?" Tigress finally understands Jin's plan and can't help but be amazed at him for being able to create such a cunning but genius strategy.

Unknown to her, this strategy is well known to humans as they were the ones who created this strategy in the first place. It's just that his way is more effective than the humans could achieve after all, they can't use illusions unlike him.

How was he able to create illusions you may ask?

It's really simple. Telepathy, as someone who is training his telepathy, this is the best way to train it. By constantly using it and challenging himself by using hard techniques such as illusion created by Jin by manipulating through their senses.

As Jin has expected, the soldiers soon let their guards down and sighed in relief. Though it is unusual to see many red dots which they thought were red eyes at first. However, they just blamed it on their lack of sleep and focus.

[A/N: Plot, what can I say?]

After seeing that they were back at their camp and were about to sleep again, Jin grinned and decided to manipulate their other senses.

Since he's already done with their sense of sight, now it's time for their sense of touch or feel.

***

Back to the camp, aside from the soldiers who quickly went back to sleep so they could still wake up in the morning with vigor, Jeff was the only one who stayed awake.

He was staring at the ceiling, inside his mind. He was thinking about what they saw. There's no way that's just a hallucination from lack of sleep and exhaustion.

However, before he could further think about it, he suddenly noticed that his surroundings were shaking. He even saw his ration plate and canteen shaking and falling down on the ground with a thud.

The first thing that came to Jeff's mind was that an earthquake is suddenly occurring at such a critical time!

Soon, Jeff heard the patrol shouting outside his tent once again.

"Earthquake! Everyone there's an earthquake!"

Soon, every soldier is once again outside their tents, trying to find a wide space that they could stay in so no trees or rocks would fall on the top of their heads.

However, just as they found a large space with the help of their night vision providing them with direction, the earthquake suddenly stopped much to everyone's dismay.

Although some of them sighed in relief, most of them are irritated and annoyed that they couldn't get enough sleep and the exhaustion is once again taking a toll on their bodies.

If this continues any longer, they might not survive the night.

Just how long will these nightmares end?!

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 139 - Fear the monsters!]

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