Midair, Gao Fei hit a man. He wasn't sure if he had killed the enemy, but he knew for certain his shot had connected.
The instant his feet touched down, Gao Fei fired again.
The moment he leaped out through the air, the enemy had locked onto him, but an instant before the enemy could fire, Gao Fei dropped him, and the split second he landed, he took down another.
It was no accident—it was a pure gap in ability. It came down to a few mere millimeters of reaction time; the slower man was eliminated.
Upon landing, Gao Fei tilted his body and threw himself straight onto the dirt.
He lay on his side, unhit by bullets and untouched by grenade shrapnel. Recognizing that he had dropped right into an enemy nest, he simply rode the momentum of his dive and collapsed—more accurately, he hurled himself flat against the ground.
There was no finesse in picking targets. Gao Fei made his choices on reflex, shooting whoever entered his sights.
He had no time to survey the entire battlefield. When he leaped into this compact circular hub connecting the communication trenches, all he could see ahead of him was a single trench passageway, its entrance cutting away at a very sharp angle.
Having shot both targets in front of him, he had no line of sight on anyone behind him.
So Gao Fei started spinning on the ground.
Lying flat, he kicked furiously with both legs, pivoting around his hip bone to rapidly trace a circle in the dirt.
Doing this as a kid would have earned him a beating from his mother for coming home coated in dirt.
Doing it now, however, allowed him to catch sight—the very moment he rotated around—of a dumbfounded soldier lowering a rifle barrel straight at his head.
Rifle gripped in his left hand, right hand pressing down on the gun, Gao Fei fired first the exact split second their eyes met while he spun on his side.
No technique—just a raw, point-blank draw.
Nothing mattered except speed.
Seeing the enemy's masked face burst open with a wet crack while the incoming bullet plowed into the dirt inches from the top of his head, Gao Fei genuinely wondered why he hadn't been hit.
He could even see the tiny hole bored into the soil by the bullet, because as he kept spinning, it swept right into his field of view.
Then Gao Fei caught sight of Glaski's thoroughly stunned face.
After completing a full rotation, Gao Fei didn't stop; he spun another half-turn on the ground before flipping onto his stomach. Bracing his left hand against the dirt with the rifle held in his right, he sprang up in a textbook push-up rush and dashed swiftly to one side.
With no visible targets left to engage, the priority was to move.
It didn't matter what movement he made, as long as it was fast. Anything was better than staying rooted to the spot.
"Argh!"
Glaski couldn't hold back a yelp as Sokholov trampled right across his backside in a sprint.
Only then did Samir snap out of his stupor. He tucked his rifle in and lunged forward, eager to clear the congested mouth of the communication trench.
The space on the right had opened up, but the remaining soldier from Team 1 had already made his move. He planted a heavy boot squarely on Glaski's tailbone and leaped out right behind Sokholov.
"Ugh! Ah!"
Glaski let out another pained screech.
These were burly men weighing well over a hundred and fifty jin, clad in combat boots and laden with weapons and gear. To maximize their push-off, every step was a savage stomp followed by a desperate kick.
Glaski hastily rolled onto his side and yelled angrily at the men rushing up behind him, "Stop stepping on me! I'm not a springboard!"
Those behind him had no need to use him as a stepping stone anyway; the space ahead was clear, and they poured in smoothly.
Directly ahead lay a machine gun position that had pinned down the communication trench. Carved out on one side was a short entry trench only two to three meters long, fortified with overhead sandbags. Its field of fire was restricted to a direct line down the communication trench, but that had been enough to completely choke off the approach. How the two men from Team 1 had managed to go toe-to-toe with them earlier remained a mystery.
On either side of the machine gun position were two trench entrances that cut in diagonally before quickly angling away, concealing whatever lay deeper inside.
Five men had originally defended this spot.
Team 1 had taken out one machine gunner during their desperate charge, a barrage of hand grenades had killed another, and Gao Fei had flown in to wipe out the remaining three. Now, this trench junction was completely cleared.
They could only inspect the adjacent passages. Every trench followed identical standards, branching off at shallow angles so that if the forward trench fell, retreating defenders could fall back here and exploit the defensive layout to seal off the communication trench.
It was a convoluted maze. Determining where each trench led was impossible at a glance. They needed either guidance from drone reconnaissance or a pre-issued map.
With drones overhead, the enemy's surface layout was no secret. Sokholov and the others hadn't been issued such maps prior to the assault, but the penal battalion spearheading the attack was bound to have one.
If command hadn't even provided them with that, it truly would have meant sending the penal battalion to certain death.
"Penal battalion, over here!"
Bringing up the rear of 1st Squad was Andrey.
Andrey had already sprinted in with the rest. Right now, he was staring at Gao Fei in bewilderment, as though examining some rare creature.
At Sokholov's shout, the surviving men of the penal battalion hurried over.
"Do you have a map?"
"Yes! This path is just a communication trench, that one leads to the trenches behind the enemy's main position, and this one cuts across into a lateral trench. Beyond that, every line connects to other positions—we're back in the honeycomb sector."
As he spoke, the penal battalion soldier pulled out a printed aerial photo. Rushing over to Sokholov, he held the photo in one hand and pointed at two red lines with the other. "These are the objectives we must neutralize once we take this position. We can't stop advancing here!"
The penal battalion had to complete its mission. Unless orders to withdraw came from above, they had to fight to the bitter end.
Looking at the photo, Sokholov grabbed his walkie-talkie and said urgently, "This is Assistant Squad Leader Sokholov, 1st Squad. The squad leader is KIA. I am assuming command. Platoon Leader, what are our orders? Over."
If the platoon leader ordered them to dig in and hold, this assault was over. If he ordered them to keep pushing, they would have to fight alongside the penal battalion.
Static crackled through the walkie-talkie before the platoon leader's strained voice broke through: "Continue the assault! Continue the assault! Our push is stalled. Heavy artillery cannot provide support, but mortars are moving into firing positions. Mortar support will be available in three minutes. Over."
"1st Squad copies. Over."
Sokholov let out a breath and turned to the penal battalion men. "Two attack routes. Pick one."
"The firepower along both is identical. We'll take this one."
"All right, we'll take that one. Spread out first to avoid drone strikes."
Having swiftly settled on their axis of advance, Sokholov barked to his squad, "Set up a defensive perimeter and wait for mortar support. Collect grenades, double-time!"
With that, Sokholov glanced back at the squad leader's body and sighed. "Get me the recorder off the squad leader. I'm squad leader now—all actions follow my command."
As Sokholov assumed command and issued orders, Glaski, having finished swapping his belted ammunition box, found a free hand to rub his backside. Grimacing in pain, he called out to Gao Fei, "Don't go stepping on my ass again. Though I have to admit, those two midair shots of yours were pretty slick. There's just one thing I don't get."
Pausing, Glaski adopted an utterly serious expression. "That spinning-on-the-ground roll you pulled—is that an actual tactical maneuver? I've never seen it before. Is that really a tactical maneuver?"
Chapter 31