I Possessed a Broken Academy Instructor

Chapter 32

“Damn it… *cough!*”

Beneath the crumbled concrete.

With a low curse, a man with chestnut hair lifted his head.

“Ugh…”

Considering he was buried beneath a structure of rebar, reinforced concrete, and various alloy materials, he appeared surprisingly intact.

Of course, his shoulder ached, but for a superhuman, this was merely a scratch.

Kugugugung…

Moreover, what mattered now was not such trivial wounds.

“Are you okay?”

“Ugh, my head hurts. Don’t talk to me for a moment…”

“Short with your words, aren’t you?”

“Ugh, seriously. Is that what’s important right now?!”

Then John lifted his dust-covered head.

Like Miller, he bore no visible major injuries, but perhaps due to overexertion, his face was haggard, and he kept running his fingers through his disheveled hair.

It was an uncharacteristically anxious demeanor for him.

“…Hah.”

Silence lingered.

It was only natural.

Setting aside the injuries, it was all too clear what had become of the two soldiers trapped beneath the rubble, unable to escape.

‘How infuriating.’

Miller bit down on his lip.

Though his usual temperament was a mess, he wasn’t devoid of emotion.

“This isn’t the time for sentimentality. Stay alert.”

Yet, as John regained his composure along with his wits, he was right—the ambush was not over.

Swish, thud—.

John, with his characteristic dexterity, gripped his special operations kukri-style dagger in reverse, staring straight ahead.

At the same time, Miller nodded and pulled out two spare silver revolvers from his coat.

‘Damn it. I should have stocked up earlier.’

There were no extra rounds of enhanced ammunition.

He usually carried a surplus, but during the ambush in the hyperspace by the red hand, he had nearly exhausted them all.

Of course, the Atlas Colony had enhanced rounds for special operations officers.

However, Miller’s reluctance to request resupply had come back to haunt him.

Naturally, John was not oblivious to this oversight.

With a look of incredulity, John shot a glance at Miller and asked again.

“Does it make sense for a gunman to be out of bullets? If we survive, I’ll make sure to note this in the official report.”

“…Ugh.”

This time, Miller had no retort.

Among the common soldiers, firearms remain the predominant weapon, yet for the special operations officers, guns are a tool whose drawbacks far outweigh any advantages.

Especially the fact that bullets are consumables.

However, their conversation could not stretch any longer.

“…….”

“……Your life thread is long. Unnecessarily so.”

As the dust from the collapsing building settled, the special operations officers of the defense forces surrounded the two with grim expressions.

No, they must have been encircled from the start.

Yet, having suffered considerable losses themselves, they likely took a moment to catch their breath.

‘Twelve bullets left.’

Miller gazed at the special operations officers gripping their weapons, determined to end this once and for all, and quietly asked John, who stood at the forefront.

“How long can we hold out?”

“……At most, thirty minutes.”

“Damn it.”

At this point, regret was unavoidable.

If only they hadn’t been ambushed while sleeping, or if they had had a sufficient supply of enhanced rounds, they could have easily dealt with such petty nuisances.

‘The others wouldn’t have died either.’

His mouth soured.

He usually tried to suppress his temperament.

But with the sudden ambush and the overwhelming number of detestable foes, his usual restraint had slipped, leading to this unforeseen outcome.

“Kill them!”

Finally, the defense force’s special operations officers surged toward them in unison, and John bit down hard on his lip, spinning the kukri he held in reverse before letting it fly toward the advancing pole.

Then, he drove his knee into the gut of the one who aimed to pass him and reach Miller, releasing a breath of relief.

“Uaaah!”

Miller, too, refused to go down quietly, aiming the barrels of his specially crafted revolvers at the approaching enemies.

‘First, let’s cripple one of their limbs, then we’ll take them down with our bodies!’

Just as he thought this, and was about to pull the trigger—

Kwahwahwahwahwah!

With a sudden deafening roar, the body of the Atla Colony shook violently for an instant.

It was but a moment, yet gravity twisted, and they halted their attacks, turning simultaneously to gaze at the sky of the colony.

‘What is happening?’

“Asteroid?”

Though they were at odds, the fleeting thought that crossed their minds was not so different.

In a way, it was to be expected.

Collisions with small asteroids or space debris were not uncommon in the colony.

Yet their expectations were soon shattered by a scene so horrific, so unbelievable, that it was hard to accept.

—Kyaaah!

A roar echoed throughout the colony.

Instinctively, a chill crept over them.

Miller and John did not immediately grasp its nature, but the special officers of the defense forces were different.

“…W-why?”

“Ugh.”

“A-ah…”

They sighed, gritted their teeth, and despaired.

Their commonality was clear.

They knew all too well what the current chaos was, and what the roar of that beast signified.

And soon, the truth would be revealed.

Kwad-dadadak!

The ceiling of the colony buckled, and soon sharp spines, or perhaps protrusions, began to surge into the colony’s interior.

Those that simply fell were warped by the artificial gravity swirling within the colony, twisting grotesquely in their descent, and soon the sound of rushing wind could be heard from afar.

“What, what is happening?”

In the sudden turn of events, they forgot that they had enemies before them, staring blankly at the sky.

“…!”

But their gaze was diverted only for a moment; they soon rediscovered each other and regained their dazed senses.

“Profit!”

“Let’s finish this quickly!”

It was the special officers of the defense forces who grew anxious.

Determined to end it as swiftly as possible, they scattered psionic energy, prepared for a portion of their gears to collapse, while Miller, feeling the pressure in that fleeting moment, readied both revolvers to unleash the last of his bullets upon the beasts.

However, at that very moment.

「Charge: Treason Against the State」

「Verdict: Summary Execution」

“Execution: Impaled”

A youthful voice, ill-suited for the battlefield, brushes against my ear.

Yet, why is it?

In that moment, an instinctive sense screamed for me to flee.

“Get back!”

The one standing at the rear of the special forces unit shouted, but soon her voice was silenced.

No, it was not just her.

Crack!

From the earth, seven long spikes erupted.

Like elongated skewers, they pierced the bodies of the special forces officers before they had a chance to evade.

“Gah!”

“Ah, aaah!”

They floated in the air, each contorted grotesquely, gazing through the haze of pain and fading vision at an approaching figure.

“Haah.”

Each step taken was languid, sluggish.

At last, sliding slowly along the skewers, their dilated pupils captured the sight of a girl, her long hair cascading like a dream, yawning as she walked.

“I’m sleepy, Dido.”

“Just a little longer, Major.”

The girl in the black uniform walked through the bodies impaled by thorns, rubbing her sleepy eyes, followed by a line of military police.

Watching that scene, which seemed to belong to a nonsensical dream, John sank down as if his strength had drained away, and only then did Miller, feeling somewhat relieved, mutter softly.

“The executioner, Judith… Good thing she didn’t mess around.”

The monster from the northern special officer academy, as rumored, was indeed different.

Such reflections did not linger long.

It was only natural.

—Kiiiii!

—Kyaaah, kyaaah!

“So what the hell is that? Damn it.”

There was still much to resolve.

*

Disaster is said to come suddenly.

And the residents of the Atla Colony were acutely aware of what those words meant.

“Uaaah!”

“P-please, save me!”

Hundreds of erosion spires, having pierced through the thick outer walls of the colony, fortuitously aimed straight for the urban sectors of the residential blocks.

Kwahkwahkwah!

Those colossal forms crashed through buildings, embedding themselves into the earth, and began their relentless erosion of the surroundings.

And as if to escort those spires, a multitude of bizarrely shaped monsters followed in their wake, starting to butcher the humans nearby.

—Kyaaah!

—Kkiik, kkiikik!

“It’s, it’s a creature!”

“Run away!”

The federal troops might have been oblivious, but the residents of the Atla Colony and the defense forces immediately sensed the true nature of the threat, filling the air with screams of despair and terror.

“A-ahhh….”

Perhaps if it had been a sudden declaration of war from the Empire or a rebellion from the colonies, the shock would have been less severe.

But who were they?

Even now, some politician was downplaying the threat, claiming it was exaggerated, while the inhabitants of the planet Lemal had been entirely taken by creatures like these.

“It’s, it’s the end. It’s all over!”

“Hehe, hehehehe!”

The fear of facing those beings again was enough to swallow the civilians in the urban area whole.

[As of this moment, all defense systems of the colony are set to maximum. Civilians in the residential blocks, proceed to the shelters in your sectors…]

Of course, the colony’s own security system activated, immediately covering the outer walls with solid carbine alloy.

But the problem was that far too many erosion spires had already lodged themselves within the colony, and the federal troops had caught wind of the defense forces’ coup, leading to a chaotic situation with skirmishes against those defense forces who had not participated in the uprising.

“W-what should we do?”

“Colonel! Orders!”

“We can’t reach Captain Satra!”

With things having come to this, the most bewildered were the coup forces.

The remaining defense troops within the colony numbered around 100,000.

However, due to the arrest of officers and non-commissioned officers who opposed Satra’s ‘cause,’ the command structure had collapsed, leaving them with less than thirty percent of their operational forces.

What’s more, the special duty officers and elite units had all been deployed to incapacitate the federal troops, making the situation even more dire.

“Damn it.”

It was but a fleeting moment, yet the thought crossed my mind: could Captain Satra have aimed for this as well?

But soon I shook my head.

Surely, that could not be the case.

She spoke.

Rather than be forsaken by the federal government and become a refugee, she declared it was better to stand with the Red Hand for the sake of the inhabitants of Lemaal.

As proof, just before the uprising, she had played a recording for the officers, where the voice of General Regchaf casually spoke of factions, referring to Jin Crow and their people as “spoils.”

‘…But whatever it may be, it must be stopped.’

The doubt was but a moment, and the resolve was firm.

Though of a lower rank, it was a command she could issue, for she had genuinely followed Colonel Sahim.

“From this moment, all hostile actions against the federal forces are prohibited. And sweep those damned beasts away as quickly as possible!”

“B-but…”

The lieutenant murmured with worry upon hearing the order.

No matter the situation, joining forces with the federal army could lead to complications once the creatures were dealt with.

Yet the colonel, gritting her teeth, shouted back.

“Hey, you b*stards! Is that what matters right now? Go save the people!”

It was a statement filled with pent-up frustration.

*

Meanwhile, at that very moment.

“Cough! Cough!”

In the underground of the ruined city.

Beneath a massive sinkhole created by the erosion that had collapsed an entire building.

A man coughed, blood mingling with his sputum.

“Cough! Cough!”

His face, pale and devoid of color.

Tattered leather gloves.

His lips stained red, as if he had already coughed up blood several times.

His eyes, on the verge of closing.

With a slow motion—

After a long while of gathering his battered body, he finally rose, gazing down at the ruins beneath him, murmuring softly.

“Perhaps an alcoholic would be better off, cough! than this.”

Beneath that gaze lay the remnants of a building, collapsed into a sinkhole.

And…

– Kii, kiiiiii…

Dozens of creatures, their bodies torn apart, trembled as if they might cease to breathe at any moment.