A Mercenary's War Chapter 10 - One Man's Fight

Chapter 10 - One Man's Fight

Translated by: Spot

Edited by: Isalee

After the walkie-talkie suddenly went silent, Professor Buck’s face was filled with shock. He held down the transmitter button and shouted out, “How are you right now?! Respond! Reply to me, Albert!”

There was no response from the walkie-talkie. A moment later, Professor Buck pressed the transmitter button once more: “Answer me Albert! Are you alright? Albert!”

Gao Yang grabbed ahold of Buck’s wrist with one hand, and yanked the walkie-talkie from the professor’s hand with the other. Afterwards, he sternly said to Professor Buck, “Professor, you must have realized already. Albert is already dead. Don’t waste his last efforts. What you’re doing is attracting the raiders over here. What you must do now is quickly leave this area.” 

Professor Buck howled out, “That’s out of the question! I must take responsibility for my men. I need to return. I have to go back to the camp.”

Gao Yang quickly bear-hugged the professor who was already running towards the car and yelled out, “You want to head to your death? What you must do now is to not go back to die. You must bring everyone alive away — the living are more important than the dead!”

Just then, a black bodyguard with a gun came running over. He grabbed onto Buck’s hand and screamed, “Leave here now! We’re leaving immediately. Quickly now! You’ve already heard about what happened, everyone at the camp is already dead. Listen to him. The living are more important than the dead. I can’t let you die here.”

Sorrowful, Professor Buck yelled, “We’re leaving. Make haste, Gao Yang. Tell your people to leave with us.”

Gao Yang turned towards the tribal chief and the others: “Come with me, get on this thing.”

Just when Gao Yang’s voice left his mouth, he felt his face heat up. He subconsciously reached out with his hand to touch his face. At the same time, he heard a gunshot.

After the shot was fired, Gao Yang was startled to find the black guard who was standing beside him a few moments ago on the ground. Then, another gunshot was fired and another armed black guard fell.

Gao Yang realized what was happening. He grabbed onto the professor in front of him, shoved him to the ground, and yelled out coarsely, “Sniper! Get down, get down!”

Right after Gao Yang shouted out, the group woke up from their daze and rushed to get on the floor. Gao Yang then rushed over and jumped on Ku’Sto to get him down. At the same time, he repeated his earlier warning in the A’Kuli language: “Get down, get down to the ground.”

Kathleen was on the ground, still a bit disoriented. Unperturbed, she said in a low voice, “They followed us here. Who are they?”

Gao Yang’s heart just wouldn’t stop pounding. He took a peek but didn’t spot anyone. Even though they could deduce the location of the sniper, it just wasn’t possible to find which direction the bullets were coming from, nor was it possible to find out how many snipers there were.

Gao Yang, who was still on the ground, shouted to Professor Buck, “Find cover and head over behind the car. Crawl quickly now.”

Gao Yang had to repeat the same words in the A’Kuli language. Once everyone was slowly crawling towards the car, Gao Yang reached to his side and grabbed the double-barreled hunting rifle. He then took the bullets from the black man’s waist.

Surrounding Gao Yang and the others was a vast field and it just so happened that they were hiding in a small trench. With the addition of the cover from the wild grass, if nobody stood up, they wouldn’t be found unless their opponents walked closer to them. Therefore, after they went semi-prone in hiding, the snipers stopped firing. Rather, they started shooting at the car’s engine. Thankfully, because the two cars were parallel, the sniper could only hit the outer car.

Gao Yang quickly glanced at the gun in his hand. It was a an older model of the 12-caliber double barrel. It had two triggers that were associated with the upper and lower barrels respectively. Moreover, the manufacturer was pretty good as it was a Belgian FN. The maintenance on the gun was considerably well done.

Gao Yang was already very proficient with these double-barrelled hunting guns because when he practiced shooting, he used to use a double-barrelled Italian Beretta. The biggest difference between the two guns was that the Italian Beretta had only one trigger, whereas the gun he had now had two.

Gao Yang opened up the gun’s chamber which already had bullets. The shotgun slug was a 00 type buckshot round. It was also commonly known as a “niner,” because it contained nine lead pellets inside. The shotgun slug was as its name implied — a big lead shell that could easily kill an elephant or rhinoceros thirty meters away. 

The ammo pouch contained twenty-two shotgun rounds, and were mostly sixers and seveners of lead pellets with only five shotgun slugs.

Now that Gao Yang had a shotgun which he was familiar with, it allowed him to have some peace of mind. However, shotguns were only effective at close range. If they were far away, it would be pointless. Gao Yang felt like he had to take the other black man’s AK-47 as well.

There was a bit of problem though with Gao Yang taking the AK-47. Not only was the body of the black man fairly far, it was also at very outer edge of the pit. If Gao Yang wished to take the AK-47, it was inevitable that he’d expose half his body.

At this point, Professor Buck and the others had already hidden themselves behind the back of the car and only Gao Yang was still in his original place. Professor Buck quietly called out to Gao Yang: “Come here quick. We must think of a way to leave here.”

Gao Yang shook his hand. He used both hands and feet to slowly crawl to the AK-47 beside the black man’s dead body. After pulling the black man’s leg, he used the body as cover, pulled it into the pit, and immediately laid down again.

Gao Yang could have just taken the gun and run without pulling the body towards him. However, Gao Yang saw an ammunition bag on the man and changed his plan at the last second.

Just when he pulled the body, bullets whistled by Gao Yang’s head. Even so, Gao Yang didn’t forget to observe his surroundings first. He dreadfully realized that there were at least more than twenty people in a semicircle formation coming towards him. Moreover, they were about two to three hundred meters away.

Gao Yang had to make a decision. He hurriedly called out to Professor Buck: “They have a lot of people, at least twenty or so. We’re going to be surrounded very soon. You guys must leave right now. Don't even bother thinking of driving. You guys follow my people to our tribe and I’ll stall them.”

“No, if we head there together quickly, we’ll still have a chance.”

Gao Yang was starting to get agitated and he angrily replied, “Do you think that’s possible? If no one stalls them, then nobody will be able to leave. Stop talking bullsh*t. Follow my people and go. Hurry!”

After shouting, Gao Yang used the A’Kuli language and said to the chief, “Take them back to the tribe. You must crawl away. Once you’re far enough, start running. You guys won’t be able to help me even if you stayed behind; I will return to the tribe to find you. If you guys encounter danger there, then ditch the tribe site. I can still find you.”

The tribal chief was still weak, but he still gestured for Professor Buck to follow him and they all started crawling. Being the tribal chief, he had the responsibility of bringing these people back to the tribe.

Professor Buck knew what Gao Yang said was true. If nobody delayed them, no one would be able to leave. Professor Buck helplessly threw the walkie-talkie over to Gao Yang.

“Kathleen still has one so you can use this to contact us. I presume you already know how to use it. May God protect you. You must return.”

After saying that, Professor Buck followed the tribal chief. However, Kathleen looked deeply at Gao Yang and said, “You’re very brave, truly brave. This bravery won’t die so easily. You will be able to come back.”

Once everyone started crawling, Gao Yang took the bullets for the hunting gun and strung it around his waist. The AK-47’s ammo pouch hung in front of his chest while the hunting gun was strapped around his back. After being fully equipped, Gao Yang placed the walkie-talkie in the ammo bag around his waist.

There were four magazines in the ammo bag. In addition, there was already one in the gun, meaning that he had about 150 rounds of rifle ammunition. Even though there were even more enemies compared to last time, he felt more relaxed than his last encounter since he had more bullets. He also wasn’t injured, making it easier to move around.

The professor and the rest had already crawled a small distance. Gao Yang took a deep breath and carried the gun while crawling to the edge of the pit. He then discovered that they were already very close — less than a hundred meters. He felt that even if he had all the courage in the world, it was the epitome of idiocy to face so many people at once at such a distance.

Gao Yang didn’t hesitate at all. He aimed at the closest two people and started shooting. Even though the AK-47 couldn’t be called accurate in the slightest, at this distance of seventy to eighty meters, an AK-47 in Gao Yang’s hand was akin to an accurate sniper rifle.

People started falling with every gunshot. After firing, Gao Yang immediately somersaulted over. Right after, a series of bullets struck the place he stood when he was firing his gun. Gao Yang had already run over to another side of the pit.

They were closing in. Gao Yang was lying down in the pit, yet he could see the enemies rushing over. They were now lined up in a row at least ten meters away, armed with guns and running towards Gao Yang.

Gao Yang aimed at the man who was at the very front and shot a round. After the man fell to the ground, Gao Yang didn’t move this time. Rather, he shifted his gun and shot another three rounds.

After firing four rounds, two people were down, proving the gun’s prowess. All the armed men stopped rushing in recklessly, and quickly dropped down to the ground.

Once the people all stopped, Gao Yang rolled to another spot. He wasn’t afraid of getting shot because the hit rate was extremely low while moving and shooting. Anyways, it all came down to luck. If they were able to still hit him in this situation, Gao Yang could only resign in having sh*tty luck. However, he could not stay in the same spot once the enemies found cover because he would definitely be an easy target.

Just when Gao Yang started to move, he heard someone yell out, “Don’t bother capturing them alive anymore. Open fire. Charge and kill them all.”

Gao Yang cursed aloud. He now realized that the enemy was moving slower than he had anticipated. It turned out that they had hoped to capture them alive. Since they didn’t care anymore, he was in a much more dangerous situation.

The enemy’s commander gave the order to do a full offensive, but after Gao Yang’s shots, nobody wanted to be the odd one out. Even though the exchange of gunfire immediately became fierce, nobody dared to run and jump in.

Chapter end