"I like the taste of iron..."
The words rang out again, with barely suppressed volume. The estranged Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers realized that whatever was behind them had an appetite and was barely controlling its hunger.
First Lieutenant and Team Captain Itami Yoji had two choices: Fight or Surrender.
The former choice was difficult; even if they managed to kill whatever was behind them, the man in front of them would attack. If they eliminated the man in front of them, whatever was behind them would kill them.
If they decided to attack both targets at the same time, it would still be suicide. Also, there remained the question of whether they could pull it off.
The current environment proved problematic as well.
The hallway wasn't narrow, but it was still difficult to maneuver, and the target from behind was too close for comfort. The odds weren't in the JGSDF's favor for once; the soldiers were accustomed to their one-sided combat engagements with their sworn enemies, the empire, or at least the hostile cliques.
The latter option was logically appealing, but as far as Captain Itami knew, surrender wasn't an option. They haven't surrendered once to the Empire. They will not surrender here, either. The mere thought of surrendering to an unarmed Buddhist monk and whatever was behind them produced a bitter taste in his mouth.
"The JGSDF soldiers, the bane of the Empire, did not know defeat."
Captain Itami Yoji chose the middle option, negotiation. The Buddhist monk spoke flawless Japanese, complete with the local accent and intonations. A probing dialogue would suffice for now.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
Captain Itami said, his voice devoid of the creeping anxiety in the back of his head and dry throat, perfectly putting on the specialized operator's mask.
The Buddhist monk crossed his arms, tilting his head. "I go by many names; I frankly don't care what you would call me. As for what I want? Well..." The Buddhist monk scanned the soldiers, his eyes gleaming with calculating grace.
"You haven't been here for long, correct?. Wherever you soldiers came from, your entrance or doorway is most likely still active, meaning it won't be closing for some time."
The Buddhist monk loudly clapped both of his hands, showing a thin smile. He then let out a huge single exhale, as if the invisible weights on his shoulders had dropped significantly.
"I want to thank you, that is all, and since I am in a good mood. A transaction should be fair, right? You handed me something that I wanted, so I will give you something you want."
The Buddhist monk waved his hand, a single dismissive gesture, and the oppressive pressure behind the JGSDF soldiers instantly vanished. The soldiers then all looked behind, sensing and seeing nothing there now. Just the direction of where the soldiers had come from, the massive length of the empty hallways with doors that led to identical rooms.
"Ahhh!"
Leading Private Kurata screamed, the soldiers turned to him and spotted a worm, no longer than a meter and white in color, latching on to his bandaged wound. The soldiers then all aimed at it, but the Buddhist monk shouted stop.
"Let the worm do its function, please, it's my gratitude, and you don't shoot a gift. You watch and appreciate it." The man said with the experience of a stepford smiler.
Sergeant First Class Kuribayashi trained her battle rifle on the Buddhist monk; the monk merely hummed and smiled. She then switched to manual fire and pulled the trigger. A loud shot rang through the hallways, and the rifle let out a thin white plume of smoke from the barrel.
The Buddhist monk remained standing, his right clenched hand in front of his face. The monk then opened his palm, and the unmistakable bullet tip of a 7.62×51mm fell out of his palm, dropping to the carpeted floor, producing a muted thud.
The soldiers saw the bullet drop, gasping in unison. A dumbfounded Kuribayashi still trained her rifle on the man, she was intimidated but didn't back down. The arrogance oozing from the man reminded her of the upstart Emperor Zorzal and she simply hated that Emperor.
She switched to automatic fire and pulled the trigger with a soldier's conviction and battle-hardened bloodlust. Another tango felled by her.
She imagined the man before her collapsing instantly under the hail of bullets, his bleeding, lifeless form laid out in full view. The rifle roared in rapid fire, firing for a few seconds before the magazine was out of ammunition.
The Buddhist monk was still standing after the lead barrage, right hand in front of his face, then opening it again. The bullets fell, producing muted thuds after thuds as they fell to the carpeted floor.
"Eek!"
A small screech bellowed from the worm as it jumped out of Kurata's leg and then leaped straight into the Buddhist monk's wide-opened sleeve.
"Usually, at this point, I would kill all of you, and trust me, if you knew what was roaming around these halls, dying by my hands would be a merciful end. However, I have matters to attend to. Ciao."
The Buddhist monk smiled as a cloud of smoke appeared around him; He then disappeared, leaving only the faint scent of a horrid odor from the thick smoke.
"I can walk! It doesn't hurt!"
Kurata shouted, grabbing his injured thigh and pinching it, aggressively applying pressure to his now healed thigh. Sergeant First Class Kurokawa grabbed Kurata's thigh too, unwrapping the bandage in a hurry.
Behind the bandage was the unmistakable sight of clean, fair skin. The deep wound and the cauterized tissue were gone; the Buddhist monk had healed Kurata with that strange worm, although Itami noted that it was more like a caterpillar.
"Captain! What now!?"
"We follow that man! We have no reason to trust his words, but if what he said was true. The entrance to our world was still there, right in the very first room we found ourselves in! We should at the very least check it; it's a possible lead for getting out of here."
Captain Itami ordered.
The Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers immediately found their bearing, moving with the fluid grace of a cohesive unit. They didn't linger on the healing miracle or the impossible feat of a Buddhist monk catching multiple bullets with his hand.
The order from their trusted captain anchored them to their embedded training.
They rushed straight towards the location where they first found themselves in, past the hallways, past the collapsed corpse of the dead entity, past the wide, spacious, empty room, and past the broken and piled furniture.
They sprinted with hardened discipline, shedding their helmets and miscellaneous gear to reduce their load, breathing in through their noses and exhaling through their mouths. They moved with efficiency and speed.
They were now close to their objective.
They found the hallway with a sharp turn at the end and beyond that? It was the place where they had first emerged, dropping from the ceiling. However, the light at the end of the tunnel was blocked by something massive, something they had never seen before.
The moment they all took the sharp turn, a hulking figure of an undead stood in the middle of their path. The undead was massive, sporting a large serrated sword and a tower shield. It was an armored undead with a crooked body.
Captain Itami's otaku senses flared up. "A death knight? A death warrior? An undead paladin?"
The two parties stared at each other; neither of them had expected this. The armored undead was chasing something else, and the JGSDF was heading somewhere else.