Becoming The Strongest Using My Would-You-Rather System!-Chapter 31 - Deaths And Strange Behavior

After resting for two minutes, Theo wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to Iris.

’’Are you ready to go?’’ he asked.

Iris nodded, heavy breaths still leaving her mouth.

Yet, she followed after Theo without complaining.

Ahead of them, soldiers rushed in and out without pause. Some carried stretchers while others dragged wounded men across the sand.

The closer they got, the louder the chaos actually was.

Soldiers shouted orders about required items through the tent, which were barely even audible because of the painful screams from the wounded.

Theo gulped once but still pushed the tent’s flap aside.

His eyes went wide as he froze in place.

The inside of the tent was far, far worse than he imagined.

Dozens of wounded lay across the floor, some practically shoulder to shoulder from the lack of space.

’This stench too,’ he thought, feeling his stomach turn. ’This is horrible.’

Theo forced himself to move again, swallowing the nausea rising in his throat.

Medics knelt beside wounded everywhere, some wrapping bandages or applying tourniquets, but all of them were clearly temporary measures.

Only one of them seemed to actually have a healing affinity, green light rising from her hands as she sat beside a person with a deep cut running across his chest.

As Theo spotted a large military computer towards his right, he moved further in, allowing Iris to come in behind him.

But the moment she stepped inside, her expression changed as her body froze.

She immediately raised a hand in front of her mouth and turned around, quickly leaving the tent.

Theo didn’t say anything, continuing towards the computer with clenched fists.

A large map flickered on the screen, displaying a few red and orange dots all spread out across their section.

’I assume those red dots are distress signals?’ he thought, glancing around.

But it was clear none of the medics or soldiers had time to point it out to him.

Theo looked back, finding a stack of wristbands with similar maps on them.

He slid one around his wrist and looked at it for a second before pressing one of the red dots.

It immediately turned orange with a short line of text under it.

’’Retrieval Underway.’’

’That’s it,’ he thought, spinning around.

Without hesitation, Theo grabbed two stretchers from a big pile and another wristband before dashing out of the tent.

Once outside, he spotted Iris only a few meters away.

She leaned forward with both hands on her knees as she forced herself to breathe, only looking up once she heard him approach.

"You good?" Theo asked.

Iris wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before nodding once.

"Yeah," she muttered, her face pale. "Just needed a second."

Theo didn’t question it. He simply tossed wristbands and one of the folded stretchers towards her.

’’Good,’’ he said. ’’Because we need to go.’’

Iris caught it instinctively and looked down at the wristband on his arm.

"You already picked one?"

Theo nodded. ’’The closest one.’’

Iris glanced at the map for a second, then her face turned serious.

’’Let’s go then.’’

Without another word, the two of them broke into a run across the dark beach.

The cold wind rushed past them as they sprinted along the sand, the ground trembling after every explosion.

Theo kept glancing down at the blinking dot on his wristband, adjusting his direction every few seconds.

’’There!’’ he said, pointing ahead.

Two figures appeared in the distance. One soldier was kneeling in the sand, pressing both hands against the chest of another who lay motionless on the ground.

The kneeling soldier looked up the moment he heard them approaching.

"Over here!" he shouted hoarsely.

Theo and Iris closed the distance in seconds.

The wounded soldier’s armor had been torn open across the abdomen, a deep wound running across his stomach as blood soaked into the sand beneath him.

’’He’s losing a lot of blood!’’ the kneeling soldier said, his hands already stained dark red. ’’He needs to be brought back immediately!"

’’Move,’’ Iris said, unfolding the stretcher beside the man.

Together, they lifted the man onto the stretcher, careful not to let his guts spill onto the ground.

’’Let’s go,’’ Theo said.

Without wasting another second, the two of them lifted the stretcher and began running back toward the medic tent.

The stretcher swayed slightly as they ran back across the sand.

The wounded soldier let out a few weak gasps, his body trembling every now and then.

Theo tightened his grip but kept his eyes forward.

"Almost there," Iris muttered.

As soon as they reached it and pushed aside the tent’s flap, a medic rushed towards them.

The medic leaned over the man, his face darkening upon seeing the wound. He quickly pressed two fingers against his neck, remaining silent for a few seconds.

Then he slowly shook his head.

’’Place the stretcher outside behind the tent,’’ he said, standing up.

With that said, the medic turned around and rushed towards other wounded soldiers.

Theo stood still for a few seconds, glancing at the man on the stretcher.

It took him a moment to realize the man had long stopped breathing.

’’Fuck,’’ he cursed, tightening his grip.

Only then did Theo truly look at the wound.

A large portion of the soldier’s abdomen had been torn open, leaving almost nothing inside to save. Even healing magic couldn’t fix something like that.

’’Let’s... go,’’ Iris said slowly.

Theo nodded once, biting down on his lip.

Together, they lifted the stretcher again and carried it outside the tent.

Several other stretchers already lay in the sand behind the tent, some covered in cloth while others weren’t.

Theo swallowed once before slowly lowering the stretcher into the sand.

As he straightened again, he took a deep breath as he took in the corpses all around him.

’All of these people...’ he thought. ’They would’ve been alive if it hadn’t been for these creatures.’

He felt his heart sting as he thought about it. They all had friends, family, pets, loved ones... yet now they were gone.

’If... I grow stronger,’ he thought, clenching his fists. ’I’ll be able to prevent these situations, right?’

Finally, after a few moments of silence, he turned around and grabbed another stretcher.

The next hours blurred together as they did everything they could to bring injured soldiers back together with other low-rank hunters and soldiers.

Sometimes they returned carrying wounded soldiers who were still breathing. Other times they came back with bodies that the medics barely even checked before pointing them behind the tent.

Stretchers went back and forth across the beach without pause.

Eventually, Theo’s legs began to shake from the sheer exhaustion.

When they returned with another wounded soldier, one of the medics waved them off.

"Take five minutes," he said hoarsely.

Theo and Iris sat down on the sand beside the tent, both of them breathing heavily.

A few medics nearby had done the same.

One of them wiped the blood from his hands and lit a cigarette, his expression hollow.

"There’s a lot more injured and dead than last time," he muttered between puffs.

Another medic looked toward the battlefield, nodding slowly.

"Are we sure this isn’t a level three beast tide?" she asked.

’’There’s been no S-rank creature yet,’’ someone replied. ’’And it’s not like there are tens of thousands of creatures...’’

It remained silent for a few moments amongst the group.

’’One of my patients said the creatures attacking seem to have lost all their senses,’’ the smoking man said, his fingers trembling. ’’It’s like they’d sacrifice themselves just to take someone with them.’’

Theo looked up hearing that, a strange feeling settling in his chest.

’This again,’ he thought. ’What the hell made the creatures behave like this?’

Theo stared out towards the dark ocean for a moment longer, completely worn-out mentally and physically.

The medics eventually stood up again, crushing their cigarettes into the sand as the screams from the battlefield continued.

’’Let’s get going again,’’ Iris said.

Theo nodded slowly, glancing at his wristband with a dozen flickering lights.

They returned to work without another word, carrying the wounded back again and again as the night slowly dragged on.

By the time the first light appeared on the horizon, the beach had finally gone quiet.

Theo stood there in silence, staring at the rows of stretchers behind the tent.