BXBX NOVEL Chapter 257: It's a matter of leverage
While on my way to the dugout where he positioned himself, I tried to analyze every possible scenario.
From Princess Etaria deciding to go against the taboo and engage in the battle while ignoring the consequences of doing so, her trying to influence events without any direct involvement, all the way to the humans of this world proving a lot more resilient to the firearms than expected, their ability to raise shields ending up sufficient to block the shoots…
But as I got closer to the area where the slaughter was actually taking place, I had no other choice but to realize that things were actually far simpler.
\'They are running out of ammo… already?\'
I knew we didn\'t bring much in terms of supplies to this world. Basically, we only had as much technology, supplies, and ammunition as Makary\'s men managed to carry on their backs and in their hands while crossing the portal.
In other words, we didn\'t have much.
"I guess I underestimated just how much ammo modern warfare requires," I muttered to myself, already convinced in regards to my suspicion, several minutes before we reached Makary\'s place.
Makary\'s place, though, was nothing like what I expected it. Raised on more war cinematography than I could count, I expected some sort of massive trench, maybe some makeshift bunkers…
But the truth turned out to be pretty disappointing, for Makary\'s dugout… was just this. A little more than a foxhole, a lot less than a proper, entrenched firing nest.
Makary\'s dugout was surrounded by a circle of piled-up earth, covered with undergrowth someone cut from the forest and used to cover the excavated area to make it blend with the surroundings. Find adventures at m_v l|e-NovelBin.net
And it was from this dugout that Makary\'s face appeared when he took a glance to the outside.
"You are finally here," Makary called out, quickly ducking back behind the cover.
\'What are you hiding for? It\'s not like they have snipers or machine guns ready to blast anyone stupid enough to peek out of cover,\' I thought, mildly amused by the man\'s habits.
Nevertheless, rather than pointing that out loud, I put on a brave face before lowering myself down to my knees while tugging on Fay\'s arm to follow my example.
Crawling the last few meters that separated me from the dugout, I quickly reached the top of its elevated border before pushing myself over the edge and sliding down to the relative safety of Makary\'s hideout.
"We are…"
"Ammo," I cut Makary off, saving us from the few seconds of time it would take him to explain the problem. "I didn\'t expect we would run dry so quickly…"
Makary raised his eyebrows and gave me a baffled look in response to my words.
"Quickly?" He shook his head. "Do you have even the remotest idea how much ammo…" he hesitated, only to cut his words short, shake his head, and then turn towards the forest\'s edge and point his hand outside of the dugout. "Just take a look yourself."
I raised my eyebrows, surprised that this wasn\'t the end of the topic. Yet, curious about what Makary could see as a problem, I obediently followed his instructions and fell against the slope of the ditch before slowly, carefully climbing up.
Even as I peeked outside, I still couldn\'t figure out just what could be the problem.
We had guns, for fuck\'s sake! How could there be any problem when all we faced were pretty much defenseless masses?
Yet, as I peeked out…
"Oh…"
For a moment, I froze. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the sea of people desperately trying to escape the killing zone of Makary\'s guns, too panicked to realize that whatever happened before… was no longer the case.
The panic induced by the rapid onslaught of guns from before has settled into the crowd and kept its grip on those people, even when the constant stream of bullets turned into a single shot every now and then.
\'If not for the corpses at the back of the crowd, I couldn\'t really tell Makary\'s men killed anyone…\'
The crowd ahead only had one obstacle to cross if they wanted to escape the range of Makary\'s guns. The wetlands hidden within the shadow of the forest for the better part of the day, thus taking a long time to properly dry out after the massive, magically created storm from just a few days ago.
"I see…" I muttered, more to myself than to anyone else, before sliding back down into the ditch, turning around, and resting my back against the slope of the dugout as I took a moment to process all I saw.
It was impossible to estimate the number of humans stuck in the zone just ahead. Or rather, even if it was actually possible, it was a task that went beyond my ability to solve.
Still, it didn\'t take a genius to realize that a few backpacks worth of ammo would never be enough to eradicate all those people, even under the assumption of a single bullet taking several lives, and every bullet finding its mark.
There were simply too many people.
My earlier question on how modern guns could struggle to cut down a panicked and defenseless mass turned silly when I realized the scale of the mass said question included.
"That\'s indeed a problem," I muttered, once again, to myself.
"There no way in hell we can kill all of them," Makary pointed out now that we were on the same page.
"So?" I raised my eyes and looked at the man\'s face. "What do you suggest?"
Makary took a moment to stare at me with a mix of surprise and exasperation on his face.
"Why do you ask me?" he blurted out with the same, shocked look on his face. He then raised his right arm before striking his left hand against the nicely-shaped muscle of his arm. "I\'m just your muscle. You are the brain who decides how to use it. So rather than you asking me what to do, it should be me asking what\'s the plan!"
The air within the ditch instantly tensed up. To my side, Fay tensed up as well, yet after her body twitched as she nearly jumped at the man to counter his words… she calmed herself down and relaxed, for there were no words she could use to rebuke Makary.
After all, he was correct. And this situation was the fruit of my own schemes, plans and damn ignorance when it came to details.
Ignorance that now came to bite me in the ass.
"So I just need to figure out how to leverage our ability to kill…" I stopped for a second and cast a quick glance at Makary\'s face. "How much ammo, exactly, do we have left? Between your spot and all the others?"
Makary took only a second to think.
"We are down to about two hundred rounds left," he implied nearly instantly. "As for the other spots, I believe they are between twice that number and a half of it."
I swept my eyes across the ditch, counting a total of three fellow earth-born humans accompanied by just two elite celestials.
"That makes up six ditches in total, with an average of two hundred rounds per ditch," I quickly did the math, "so, conservatively speaking, around a thousand rounds left."
"That\'s right," Makary nodded his head. He then took a step towards the edge of the ditch and climbed up the slope, peeking just a few centimeters above its edge to take a look at the crowd outside. "In other words, even if every bullet strikes true, even if every round takes two of them out…"
Makary lowered his head before climbing down the slope a bit and then resting the back of his head against the very top of its edge.
"In other words, even in the best possible scenario, there will be still between two to three thousand of them left by the time we run completely dry."
I took a deep breath, taking my time to process this relatively simple information.
From one side, it wasn\'t all that bad. If we reduced the number of the human army to just those few thousand, our forest-based allies could easily wipe the rest of them up…
But that option only existed within the limited framework that didn\'t include all the other armies that have, by now, all gathered just beyond the crest behind the abandoned mercenary camp.
"Let\'s just say it\'s a matter of leverage…" I muttered the quote from ages old classic movie that randomly popped out in my head.
And to my surprise, Makary\'s lips twitched as he produced a small, slightly amused smile.
"Leverage, says you," he whispered in response, catching my drift and then following up on it. "I think I feel a change in the wind, says I."
I took a deep breath.
\'In that movie… The leverage was someone they could use. The question is…\' I closed my eyes, unable to withstand the satisfied look of Makary who, from our exchange, had to assume I already figured something out. \'
\'What can I use as leverage and against whom?\' I asked myself, opening my eyes and climbing up the slope of the dugout once again, taking a peek at the crowd outside in hopes I would find some inspiration in the chaos-infused scene beyond the forest.
Yet, as I peeked outside, my eyes moved past the chaotic crowd, past the abandoned mercenary camp, and to where Etaria\'s set up her tent right at the edge of the small hill beyond which she hid all of her troops but the golden legion that stood their ground directly in front of her.
As my eyes fell on her face, which I could somehow see despite all the distance that separated us, the corners of my mouth moved up a bit.
"I think I just found our leverage."