That Time an American was Reincarnated into Another World

Chapter 210: Baby’s First Belt-Fed

August 8th, 625

I got back to the Treehouse with Boris in tow and we had about a week to settle in. Polly and Jasmine caught me up on all the recent happenings, and through them I learned that the Scourge continued to pick up the pace in my absence. 

The front was under constant attack. That intestine was snaking its way further in and as it got closer, so too did its endless armies. The frontlines was being hammered and the Treehouse was frequently receiving reinforcements that they quickly sent to bolster the line. 

The Snow Doves had gone out there for a few missions and had returned a few days after I arrived. A few days after that, they went right back out, me in tow. 

I hadn’t been out there yet but I heard it was a shitty place where nobody wanted to be. Now I’d get to learn that for myself. As for Boris, for now the poor bastard was required to be next to me whenever he could be, so he was coming with. 

It was a good thing I spent some money to make sure I’d be at least somewhat comfortable. Even Boris had to dust off the old armor. 

The boots on my feet were much more powerful than the ones Talexia gave me. I wasn’t denigrating her gift but I had spent nearly 8 million coin on boots that could do everything short of fly. They could make me levitate above the ground and make me accelerate to speeds upwards of 80 miles an hour. Most importantly, I could maintain those speeds and utilize bursts of power indefinitely. It wouldn’t run out of juice because the Crystals they used in it pushed Authority 10. 

I also got a special pair of pants, costing me almost 10 million coin, that provided far more armor than the other bulky armor-plated ones. They could connect to the boots, providing me stability, and used barrier magic to protect against attacks just short of Authority 10 in strength. They were also very comfortable, with self cleaning properties and temperature regulation. The boots were the same, especially when combined with my Warm Socks. 

Not long before I had left, Sawn had closed the deal with the Kingdom, signing an 800 million coin contract with the military. All of it was for aircraft related services, and that meant I was set to receive nearly 250 million coin. Not all at once, but over the course of a year as Sawn Industries fulfilled their quotas. 

Still, I got a 50 million coin deposit first thing. Even after buying those pieces of armor I was stashing away over 60 million coin with 20 million coin coming in every month for the next year just from the contract, not to mention the desperate orders from nobility throughout the Kingdom and from Families in the Holy See. 

It seemed Sawn had been talked to about that last point, but that wasn’t my problem for now. 

All I cared about was the mountain of cash I was sitting on. Sawn was pricing the smallest planes at over a million coin a pop, and the bigger ones were being sold for eight figures, especially the ones for the military. That meant his profit margins were over 95%, all thanks to the efficiency my Mana Engine was able to squeeze out. The price of Crystals rose exponentially with power, and the fact that these could be run with two or four Authority 6 Crystals meant one plane cost even less than a Steed to make. 

Sawn had told me that he was more than happy to pay me as stipulated because of all this. I was projected to make him billions of coin. He could spare a few hundred million to pay his golden goose. 

Despite all that though, I still ended up in the back of a Steed barreling toward a warzone. That was good at bringing me back down to Earth. 

We arrived at FOB Steel as the sun started setting, just one FOB among many in the surrounding lands. Before we could even find our camping ground we were called into a war room by a Colonel. 

I marched in there with Nonnen and Boris. Nonnen enjoyed letting me take the lead on these kinds of things. I was his filter by which he ensured the quality of his missions and safety of his soldiers. That and he could be lazy.

The Colonel dispensed with the formality when we arrived, going over a map of the area. 

I could hear some yelling coming from Aerials that other intelligence agents sat behind in the room as the Colonel pointed, “We’re getting hammered from a hill to the northwest. We just got a report of 4 Bombardos that started pounding a company we sent out to intercept a Scourge force. We didn’t know about it beforehand and now they’re in trouble. You will be their relief.”

“Why weren’t those Bombardos seen beforehand? Where did they come from?”

“I have no idea. We’ve had no room to scout beyond this set of hills because there seems to be Scourge on every inch of fucking land. Plus, teams are scared to venture further because the density of those fucking Scythers is increasing with every day that passes.”

“Right. Where’s the thick of it?”

“Right here,” He pointed to a passage between two large mountains, “They usually stream through here but those bombardos flanked around and caught our men off guard. Regardless, we need eyes on what’s coming in from behind these mountains. Unfortunately I need to ask you Snow Doves to do that for me. After reinforcing 2nd Company, move along the west flank and report back what you see up to this ravine.”

I frowned, checking out that portion of the map. It was almost entirely blank. They really needed recon, but had nobody who could survive the trip to bring back intel. 

Unfortunately indeed that it was exactly why we were brought out here. 

I looked back at Nonnen, who nodded. 

“Time to get those fancy boots of yours dirty, Envoy.”

“Fuckin’ straight. Don’t worry Colonel, we’ll get your boys home. You’ll have your intel by morning.”

“I appreciate it. Stay safe out there, and take whatever you need from the supply drop.”

“Roger. Let’s get rolling before everyone climbs into a tent.”

Nonnen and I hurried out, rounding everyone up before they could settle. We quickly packed some supplies before deploying. We were on a clock, and I was rather excited to get out there. 

I had been busy, but I still managed to get my hands on some new toys while nobody was looking. 

……

“There they are! Under heavy attack! Weapons free! Weapons free!”

“Knights, dismount! Pick your targets and drive them back!”

The Steeds sped forward before skidding to a halt. Warlocks were already slinging spells and the knights jumped forward before the wheels could stop turning. My Steed jolted when Nonnen kicked off, stopping in line with the rest after a handful of seconds. 

Most warlocks got out, but some climbed to the turrets and started casting area spells from there. 

I, on the other hand, climbed to the roof of the vehicle and stood, Boris climbing with me, looking out at the entire field. It was almost midnight and 2nd Company, though having tried to retreat, was taking heavy losses. The Scourge force chasing them outnumbered the Company 5 to 1 and was attacking with gleeful abandon. 

The Chief leading 2nd Company was under attack by an Authority 9 Royal and an equivalently strong monster of the salamander variety. It spit fire that flashed in the darkness, making it painfully obvious. Still, the Chief did well to survive this long and protect the rest of his troops. 

I looked beyond to the rest of the Scourge force. Most of them were being held by a formation of knights while the rest fought scattered battles. I decided to jump off the Steed and flank that majority. Boris remained silent, simply watching me work.

I didn’t even activate my stealth, catching attention as I used my boots to glide over the ground and appear to the side of the line of knights and the monsters trying to break past them. 

Then I brought out my new toy. It appeared along with a backpack, and a wide smile grew behind my mask. 

“Baby’s first belt-fed. Let’s light these motherfuckers up.”

I swung around the barrel of my new M60, the belt of 7.62 cartridges feeding from a feed chute that connected to a large can of ammo on my back. I had found all the parts and mounted it on an ALICE frame in advance, letting multiple backpacks full of linked ammunition belts sit in my 6th Star. I didn’t think I’d get access to feed chutes but I certainly wasn’t complaining. 

I saw most of the monsters in front of me turn in my direction, some scrambling over each other to try and reach an easy target. 

I taped down the trigger in greeting. 

The machine gun kicked into my shoulder repeatedly, but all the Vigor in my body meant that I was more than strong enough to handle this thing like it was an SMG. My aim was true, fully empowered rounds tearing through the monsters in front of me and burying themselves into the bodies behind them. Holes were torn open and some lost limbs as multiple rounds grouped together. 

They were cut down where they stood, a cacophony of explosions tearing through the atmosphere and the fire from my barrel lighting up the night like so many flashbangs. I could see the faces of those monsters flash in my eyes with every plume of fire that came behind every bullet. With every fifth bullet a tracer flew, allowing me to see the line of carnage I was drawing. I didn’t even bother using the sights. 

100 rounds flew by and I continued to fire. There were over 2000 rounds in my oversized backpack and the only thing that could make me stop was a melted barrel. 

The barrel started glowing slightly after I had already slaughtered over a hundred monsters, walking myself forward through the bodies as I sought out more enemies. 

Before long all the monsters that were pounding on the shields held by those weary knights were dead. I went through over 1200 rounds and now 200 monsters were dead or dying. 

I moved on to other enemies, walking over to clusters of them and mowing them down while attempting to avoid friendly fire. I managed to pick off another 50 or so after walking across the open battlefield. 

After that though, the fighting stopped. All the enemies were dead, the Snow Doves having killed over 300 others before I could even join them. 

I found Nonnen, walking toward him with a glowing barrel. 

He smiled at me, “New weapon? It looks good.”

“It is good. This baby tears open 600 new assholes every minute. And with this belt, I can fire continuously for minutes at a time.”

“Yes, I could hear that. We need to go quiet now though. I’m sending 2nd Company back with third squad. The rest of us will move forward.”

“Hm, now would’ve been a good time to get a plane out here.”

“A what?”

We climbed into a Steed as I explained, the driver already rolling us to our next objective.

“A plane. My newest invention at Sawn Industries. With the plane, I brought the power of flight to the world.”

“Flight? Only Sovereigns can fly. If you invented flight then you’d be rich and famous.”

“I am.”

We looked at each other silently, a smile slowly growing on my face. 

He narrowed his eyes, “You’re fucking with me again.”

“I’m not, really. Sawn Industries just signed an 800 million coin contract with the military. As the inventor of the plane, I’m both rich and famous. Just ask Boris here.”

Nonnen gave Boris a quick look before turning back, “I don’t believe you.”

“Heh, I’m being dead serious.”

I activated my telepathy, [My new boots and pants combined cost close to 20 million coin.]

“Bullshit.” He blurted out loud, making me laugh. 

I waved and sat back into my seat, “You’ll see, you’ll see. Once we get back I’ll be talking with construction warlocks who will be building an airfield at the Treehouse. It’ll be the first base to field these new craft and utilize them in open combat against the Scourge. It’ll change the face of warfare forever, hopefully giving us enough of an advantage to hold off the army at our doorstep.”

“I really can’t tell if you’re just that good at lying or you’re being sincere.”

“Seriously? It’s like I haven’t earned any trust in the last year.”

“Like you said, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Oh yee of little faith.”

……

After multiple hours of driving we managed to make it in the deepest parts of the frontlines. It was equivalent to No Man’s Land, a swath of land several miles in width dotted by craters and scorched biomat. It was the preferred line for fighting back the Scourge because the area lay at the bottom of a massive hill’s slope. 

Not far from us was the chokepoint the Colonel had told us about that went through said hill, but we needed to flank around that because it was no doubt filled with Scourge. The Snow Doves were strong but it was suicide to throw ourselves into an army alone. 

The only issue was that the land we wanted to tread was covered in traps and vicious monsters that lay in wait. Previous companies like 2nd Company had tried to test these areas multiple times and never got far. 

But that meant we had no intel about the area, which wasn’t good. As the Scourge started dishing out hits the Treehouse started falling back into its old ways, turtling up behind its walls and simply fending off the monsters coming at them. It was a good way to delay the inevitable, but the Generals in charge saw nothing wrong with it. General Viskar had some of my respect but he was an old dog with habits that had been ingrained over decades. He wouldn’t stick his neck out to do something he didn’t know would work or bring value. 

Unless it was just that easy, of course. That was why I wanted to field these aircraft as soon as possible. With them in the sky, we would have real-time, constant, uninhibited intel on every enemy movement from here to the Eastern Crossing. Nothing would escape our eyes and it would come at zero cost. 

Besides the 800 million coin the Kingdom was giving me, of course.

This recon mission could very well be one of the last conventional recon missions the Snow Doves and I ever conducted. Especially when Sawn fielded the Reconnaissance Aircraft I designed. With far more powerful Crystals it was capable of altitudes in excess of 40 thousand feet and had an indefinite fuel time with 4 Engines that could be run in 2 pairs, allowing one pair to recharge while the other ran. The only limit was what the pilots could handle.

After that the only downside was attempting to make it so that the Aerials could communicate as far as the planes could fly. That was another can of worms though and I wasn’t bothering with it at the moment. 

“Enemies left! Left tire damaged!”

“Sweep them! Cooper, go loud!”

“Roger!”

I punched down a side hatch, allowing me to stick my M60 through and unload as monsters attacked our flank. A few warlocks did the same nearby. Even Boris was participating. He was preferring to be quiet but this was his life on the line as well. I felt a bit bad, but he was proving to be a damn good warlock. 

A large row of dense spikes appeared between us and the advancing enemy, slowing them to a crawl. It allowed me to light them up with impunity, tracers flying as fireballs from warlocks lit up the night. 

I ducked right before a spit ball of acid slammed into my window. Some got on my coat but it was brushed off easily, the self cleaning mechanism repelling it and letting it fall to the metal floor. 

I went back to firing. 

“More monsters coming over the ridge!”

“Front left secondary tire out!”

“Keep us moving!”

“Shit!”

I turned right when a warlock cursed next to me. There was a scorpion like monster trying to crawl through his window, a talon piercing forward, and tearing his arm off at the bicep in one clean swipe. 

Those were the Scythers, and they were showing up left and right. The Colonel wasn’t kidding about their density increasing. They were taking out our tires too. 

Suddenly things weren’t looking too good. 

A pistol appeared in my hand, the barrel pressing against the scorpion and a bullet tearing through its weak body. It flew off the window with a few shots and I returned to firing. 

“Tie his arm off! Nonnen, we’re attracting attention!”

I could feel it in my Aura. I hadn’t wanted to go loud but there were thousands of monsters in the area and we were making a disturbance. With this M60 I suddenly became the best at crowd control, especially with Boris’ help. He was good at funneling enemies not just for me but for other warlock area spells. He was controlling the enemy advance, which was doing wonders for our killing speed. 

But all that meant more monsters were coming, and soon, we’d be getting the Royals. They wouldn’t come without enough firepower to take on Nonnen either. 

He yelled back, “I know that! Snow Doves, halt tracks and hunker down! Knights, deploy!”

The Steed braked to a halt, other Steeds clustering together a bit before the knights jumped off and formed defensive lines. 

Nonnen grabbed me, stopping my firing for a second. 

“I’m covering the rest of the distance! I’ll get a look!”

“That’ll do! We’ll hold the line!”

“For honor!”

He smacked my shoulder before jumping through a turret hatch and launching himself off into the distance. 

I followed through the hatch, standing on top of the Steed and hoisting my machine gun, getting a full view of everything around me. 

My barrel was glowing red but it was holding for now. I had noticed nothing that affected my fire rate or accuracy despite the heat building. I hadn’t even had a jam yet, once again confirming that these spirits operated differently from normal guns. 

The other Chiefs appeared on top of the other Steeds. From another Turret hatch, our other Brigadier, Amira, emerged with two short swords. I had found out over time that she wasn’t as powerful as Nonnen who was pushing Authority 11, but she was more than enough to secure us against Brigadier level threats. 

Unfortunately, those threats just arrived. I could see a few Royals emerge over a hilltop, running toward us. 

I looked to the others, “This is where we make our stand! Hold them off until Nonnen gets back! I got the numbers! Protect us!”

“Hooh!” One of the Chiefs grunted before shooting off the Steed. Another two, warlocks, cast spells in response that lifted them slightly into the air so they could glide across the ground and intercept those incoming Royals. 

Amira was quiet. She never spoke much, and we had talked exactly 6 times. She preferred to just follow orders and do her thing. 

I pointed to the distance, “Help our Chiefs! I got the rest!”

“Roger.” The little lady shot off, ready to make quick work of those Royals. 

I turned back to the horde and opened fire again, the barrel continuing to glow as it breathed fire with every round I threw out. 

Then, I suddenly saw the barrel throw slag, melting. 

“Reloading!”

I called out, spells picking up in response as I knelt down. I threw off the red hot barrel, my gloves protecting me from heat long enough to put it back into my 6th Star. Then I plucked out another heavy barrel and slotted it on, locking it down. 

Then I hoisted everything and started firing again. Dozens of rounds went out in seconds, the built up hordes being cut right back down to manageable levels, my bullets sailing over the heads of my knights in an attempt to ease their plight. 

My accuracy remained true, another 800 rounds going by before the gun suddenly clicked empty. 

“Reloading!”

I called out again and threw off my backpack and feed chute, letting it disappear before calling on another one. 

I threw the heavy backpack on and yanked the feed chute over my shoulder, feeding the bullets in before shoving the feed chute into place. Then I ripped the charging handle back, adjusting everything to be comfortable, locked the handle forward, and took aim. 

More lead was sent over the knights. I occasionally spun around and hit our flank, making sure no large groups could overwhelm the few knights we had guarding those fronts. 

We held strong for several minutes, but the army coming toward us seemed endless. More Scythers came crawling from under the biomat. There were so many Auras clashing and mixing in the area that I couldn’t pick many out, and three of our soldiers lost arms or legs. Thankfully they were able to react somewhat and dodge a lethal attack, but it still took them out of the fight. 

“They’re zerging us! Warlocks, focus on area spells! Boris, get more walls up! Knights, converge on the funnels! We need crowd control!”

Boris followed my commands, five massive walls surging from the ground and dividing the incoming armies. They tried to destroy them but Boris reinforced them long enough for the enemy to stop caring and continue attacking the humans before them. Without the command of a Royal, they didn’t care about inert objects unless it was attacking them. 

The knights focused on the four paths that focused the enemies, shields raising and spears leveling flat. Another Earth Warlock created some moats and another water warlock filled it with fluid, the monsters scrambling over these barriers and slowing enough for the knights to comfortably kill them layer by layer. 

That allowed us to last another several minutes, but those monsters still surged in by the thousand and they were using their warm corpses to pile over anything we threw at them. 

Thankfully I soon felt Nonnen’s Aura getting closer. I looked over at a hill, and I saw his small figure run over it. 

Followed by tens of thousands of monsters sitting at Authority 5, 6, and 7. 

My eyes bulged, “Get the Steeds hot, drivers! Prepare for retreat! We got incoming!”

Many people turned and looked at where I was. We could actually feel the seismic advance of that army as tens of thousands beget over a hundred thousand monsters chasing Nonnen. 

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the little man a few miles away. He was waving at us, not in a welcoming way, but in a ‘get the fuck out of here’ way. 

Some of the warlocks were climbing back into the Steeds but we had to hurry. 

“Knights, pull back! Everyone board something right fucking now! Amira, get back here!”

“I’m back.”

She landed next to me, so I pointed, “Get them off us and let our knights fall back, just for a bit!”

“How long?”

“You all have 10 seconds!”

I yelled, Amira taking that as my signal and jumping down. 

I could see her Vigor coat her shortswords, coalescing with such density that I could see it drip like a liquid. The hair on the back of my neck raised. 

The superior stage for a Knight after Emission, the Coalescence stage. It was similar to enlightenment for warlocks and required Vigor to not only leave the body with Emission, but manifest so heavily that it took on physical properties. The properties it took on differed between knights but without exception, being able to do it at all meant that you had achieved a level unbeknownst to most. I knew Nonnen could do it but his didn’t manifest as obviously as Amira’s. I had briefly seen it once. 

After a second of charging Amira swiped out with both her blades soundlessly. Her Vigor swept through the entire battlefield, going from sharp to soft, turning into a wave of water that crashed over the soldiers and slammed into our enemies. 

And then, every monster within 100 meters was disintegrated. The knights were dazed for a moment but my screams snapped them out of it. 

“Get on the Steeds! Drivers, turn and burn!”

The drivers slammed their gas pedals and the Steeds started moving. I dipped back down inside just in time to grab an ‘oh shit’ handle. 

The rest of the knights jumped into open back hatches while we moved. Once the last ones were in they closed the hatches and the drivers were free to speed off. 

“Sir, Nonnen is still back there!”

“He can catch up! Keep going, full speed! We’re leaving this hellhole!”

I kept the driver from slowing down, and sure enough, given a minute or so Nonnen was able to cross the distance and catch up to us, landing on my Steed and denting the roof. 

“Hey, that’s gonna take half a day of repairs!”

“Eat a dick, rich boy! Before I make you buy me another Command Steed!”

Nonnen climbed in, settling into the passenger seat before we both looked back. 

There were some Royals coming. 

“Fuck! Fast motherfuckers!”

“No shit! Open the back hatches! Warlocks, get ready to fire!”

The tired warlocks prepared their Foci as the knights kicked the back hatches right back down. I stepped up and stood in the middle of the opening, hoisting the M60 still in my hands. 

My eyes narrowed when I saw one of the oncoming enemies. It was a mutated son of a bitch, which meant a Corrupted. This one had a massive muscled arm and a grotesque potbelly that oozed something from several wounds atop it. I had no idea who it could possibly be but it was sitting at Authority 9 and gaining ground fast alongside a few other particularly fast monsters. 

One of the Chiefs stepped up, “I can intercept-”

“No, stay put. Warlocks, focus fire on the Corrupted when it gets close!”

I said that before squeezing the trigger, fully empowered rounds draining my Psyka pool even further. I killed off the faster monsters, ignoring the Corrupted entirely. 

The Corrupted was alone, and once it got close enough, one of the warlocks called. 

“Fire!”

Several spells were launched at the corrupted, all of them hitting the same point and compounding on top of each other’s explosive powers. A huge fireball ignited, and the corrupted went flying backwards. 

With that, we were safe. The Corrupted probably wasn’t hurt all that much but it wasn’t going to catch up now. 

I went back to my seat as the knight closed the back hatch, sighing when my ass hit the chair.  

I was going to have a headache tonight, that much was certain. I hadn’t gotten good sleep the night before either, and that was nearly 24 hours ago. 

I looked over at Boris who seemed halfway to the moon, smiling, “Helluva first week back, huh?”

He shook his head, “I should’ve stayed with the managers. My ambition will be the death of me.”

“Yeah but now you’re getting paid the big bucks!”

“After this? A salary hit isn’t looking too bad.”

“Hah! Go ahead and give it to Nonnen then. Big guy will be begging for a new ride with another wheel blown out.”

“Says the guy who can’t get me one even with direct access to the General! It’s been months, you punk!”

I laughed at the tired knight, Boris shaking his head a few more times in exhaustion.

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