Evolving Infinitely From An E-Class Hero-Chapter 43: Silence Breaks

"In that case..." Trooper said glaring at me, inspecting my physical appearance for any wounds or something of that sought.

His gaze met Dr. Grace who was still hunched over Metal Fist, she shock her head. The injury on the heros side was deep, but being a strong hero if her class she could very well suck it out.

"Metal Fist... Can you continue?" He asked as he strode to her side and descended with to one knee.

"Tch! The dirty High Orc got me good! If I wasn’t fast enough, it could have sliced me in half!". Metal Fist blurted out with her teeth gnashing against eachother as she riled in pain.

"You did good soldier! We won the battle but the war isn’t over yet! You have to get up and keep going". Trooper encouraged.

I see why he was chosen to be the strike team leader, he does possess some leadership trait like the one that portrayed itself at the moment— Team Encouragement.

Tank, Firebrand and Steel Python were in the background, high fiving and hugging eachother, celebrating their win against the High Orcs assault.

I stood there with my crossed and watched them jubilate with a slight smile playing across my face.

From my perspective, these High Orcs weren’t close to tough, that fact alone made me realize how much stronger I’ve gotten over the past few months.

If these High Orcs were tough shots for A-Class and B-Class heroes but fairly easy for me, that means the chances of me being an upper A-Class or S-Class is high at this point.

Finally, Metal Fist had gotten up. She shook off sand and debris from her gear and began jogging up and down to get the feeling back into her body.

Dr. Grace had done anything and everything she could do as regards to first aid and medical assistant. It did help her with her wounds but I was sure it would cause some hiccups to her if she was assaulted heavily again.

Dr. Grace approached Trooper with a determined face, having the look of someone wishing to say something important. I focused my attention over to them to see if I could hear what she was going to say.

"Excuse me, Strike Team Captain Trooper?" She called.

"Yeah?"

"When you were fighting against the aliens..."

Just then, her voice dropped below a whisper and I suddenly couldn’t hear what she was saying again.

I knew what she was very much likely to tell him based off what had happened before and how she started her message.

And that would be— The High Orc suddenly had two holes blasted into it like something with brute force hit it.

She carried a dead serious face too.

"..."

Trooper seemed utterly speechless after Dr Grace finished talking.

"I’m telling the truth!"

I found it funny, because I knew she knew I was the one behind that attack but she’s scared of some soughts. Is she thinking I would suddenly do something like that to her?

I could tell she was scared due to the way her face reddened after Trooper told her to focus and walked away.

Then—

She glanced at me with every bit of intent and held the eye contact.

I could barely suppress my giggles.

The heroes basked once more in the aftermath of their victory for a bit longer. Then, they gathered around for a brief discussion.

"Captain, will we continue on?". Firebrand asked.

"Yes, despite us winning this herd of Orcs, we could barely hold our own." Steel Python added.

"Isn’t this going to be too dangerous? We aren’t even that far from the gate, yet one of our own is injured and look how much High Orcs we ran into... Just this close to the gate!" Firebrand blurted out as he placed his fire lamp on the floor.

"How about a strategic retreat? Then we request for more heroes and take on these Orcs another day".

Tank scoffed with disgust.

"I say we push forward! Let’s take down this Orcs and share the rank points with ourselves! I don’t know about you guys but I am tired of being stuck in Rank 5..." Tank said, crossing his arm while protruding a stubborn aura.

"It ain’t that bad, that just because Metal Fist is weak. How can you get tagged by these little High Orcs? That’s no way a B-Class Rank 17 hero should be... " He finished.

Metal Fist squeezed her palms so hard I could here her gloves squeak. She tried taking a step towards Tank but Dr Grace held her back.

"What did you just say to me? You overgrown ground meat!" She yelled angrily.

"Come on! Let me have him!".

I noticed Trooper glance towards the road ahead that led to the space ship, and he grabbed his gun straight from his utility belt and shot it in the air.

Bang!

The gunshot immediately got everyone’s attention, even startling them in the process.

"Oi that would give off our location to the High Orcs!" Firebrand said.

"What are you talking about? They already know where we are..." Trooper scolded.

It was a drastic measure— firing his weapon. But he desperately needed to get his team in an orderly fashion.

He signed under the Silver Tiger Guild and is one of their leading prospects, a failure here was not going to sit well with him.

The Silver Tiger Guild had given him a huge contract worth a lot of money and he had to live up to that hype. If he didn’t succeed tonight as the strike teams captain, it might be the last time he would get to lead a team of heroes into a mission.

And to think, he’d have to retreat so quickly in his first mission as a captain.

Virtually anyone would be tempted to push forward and enter the High Orcs space ship. However, at the moment he was a captain and a leader first before a hero with huge shoes to fill.

"Ahem!"

"Listen to me comrades, for the time being, we will retreat and The Ghost Town Strike Team will be suspended." He said with a firm voice.

After how he had treated me with the heavy bags and undermining me because of my low class, I virtually had no atom of respect for him— until now.

Although I did want to fight more so I could evolve faster, the lives of my fellow heroes weren’t guaranteed even with my impact.

The choice of the captain to retreat for any reason whatsoever during a mission is absolute according to the Heroic Law. Fortunately for someone like Metal Fist, he exercised that right .

I could feel the huge sigh of relief coming out of Metal Fists chest.

"Whew - woo..."

"I was really worried you’d insist we’d go on till the end... Being the stuck up paper boy you are..." Firebrand said with a nervous laugh.

And for the first time since the beginning of the night, Trooper grinned and slapped Firebrand on the shoulder.

"I’m not a blind idiot you know... Haha".

’Hmmm... ’

’This Trooper guy might not be so bad after all... ’

"Tch!"

Tank hissed like an angry dog.

"No one told me I’d be going on a mission with a bunch of wussies!" He began making his way backwards towards the gate.

’And here I am, hoping to go in a little deeper... ’

As the lowest ranked hero in the strike team, my opinion was next to nothing so I didn’t waste my time giving it.

’Maybe I’d come back here on my own and finish this... ’

The heroes started to retreat towards the gate when something stop everyone dead in their tracks.

Whoooooshhhh.

A wave of killing intent.

Trooper raised his right hand.

"Everyone, stop!"

There was confusion evident in his voice.

We all turned to face the direction which the wave came from. The space ship came into view from the horizon.

"What the hell was that?..."

"What’s going on?..."

Frame the intensity of the wave of killing intent, I had already determined the threat level of what was coming.

Multiple high intensity Compass Needle notifications scattered across my peripheral view

Tti-ring

Tti-ring.

Tti-ring.

"What?"