Mercenary Black Mamba

He glanced at the clock attached to the wrist protector. The attack ended after 53 seconds. Even the most skilled snipers and gods themselves needed to secure their target first to snipe it. Some idiots praised him as a god, but Mu Ssang was one of the most skilled snipers from Légion Étrangère. He was but a human just like Sun, and how could this be?

"Wakil, did you kill all of them?"

Sun Woo-hyun, becoming awestruck, posed a useless question.

"Lackey, even if fighter jets and missiles continue to advance, the infantry is always responsible for concluding a war. Concluding a battle depends on your close-combat power. You could have been killed, putting all of your physical power to waste. Do you want to wander the afterlife as a ghost of an unmarried bachelor?"

"I underestimated their camouflage and mobility. I misjudged the battlefield."

Sun Woo-hyun, disheartened, lowered his head.

"I only understand half of it. You engaged in a battle where you were both ignorant of the opponents and yourself. The fundamental fault is laziness fed by being mundane in everyday life. Don't let any event sway your feelings. Other people are training with all of their might to gain what you already have. If you don't make good use of it, you should be ashamed of yourself."

Mu Ssang's criticism without playfulness sounded stern.

"I am embarrassed."

Sun Woo-hyun's face was flushed red. He himself thought he did poorly. In the Sahel, he was Mu Ssang's great aid. Now, he was a liability. He had nothing to say.

"Interrogate them. Don't they sleep? They were quite rude to disturb my sleep. They will pay for it."

The black man and a Pygmy dropped in front of Sun Woo-hyun. They were both intact but seemed unable to move and only their eyes moved. Sun Woo-hyun flinched. They reminded him of himself when he was knocked out after getting punched in the chin on a rocky hill in Tanga.

"Ugh. With such an incompetent servant, the master toils away on his behalf. I need more sleep!" Mu Ssang grumbled as he returned to the village.

"Is he even human?" said Sun Woo-hyun to himself.

Sun Woo-hyun was dumbstruck at Mu Ssang's indifference and how he considered the deathly battle as some trouble that disturbed his sleep. Even after disregarding the disparity in combat power, the grandness of their character was totally different.

"Sun, who are you comparing yourself to?" Sun Woo-hyun lamented.

The hurt confidence soon turned into cruelty.

"How shall I end this one's life?"

Sun Woo-hyun revised the 108 ways of torture in his head.

* * *

The Pygmy guide received two slaps in the face and returned to the village, but the leader of the Mbembe recon squad turned into a pile of flesh, bones, and blood even after confessing the name of his third wife. His life force, even after being enhanced with voodoo spells, couldn't last after his bones were crushed and entrails were sliced.

"Yawn! Did you get anything?"

Mu Ssang appeared after the morning sunshine lifted most of the fog. He shot a question, dabbing his sleepy tears with his fingertip.

"He was the leader of the Third Recon Squad of the Mbembe Special Ops of the Mai-Mai militia. Ntaganta sent them to aid the Soviet spies among others. The Russians protecting the said woman who escaped the American Army camp seems to be Ubiksa of the Seventh Division of Lubyanka."

"Ubiksa?"

"They are supposedly made up of ESPers and nothing else is known. I interrogated him thoroughly but he didn't have much useful information."

Sun Woo-hyun made a report with a stern face. He spoke differently and no longer flaunted his achievements.

"Is he in shock? A sudden change could mean that the person is soon to die," Mu Ssang wondered.

Indeed, the jungle of Ituri had a way of transforming people.

"They are pawns but quite numerous. It's going to give us a headache. What about the blonde woman?"

"Mbembe is also after her. Two days ago, an Ubiksa agent procured some corn flour from a village called Ndudu."

"All right. They lost their supplies. They are still here in Mambasa."

Mu Ssang seemed like he was pleased.

"Ubiksa isn't just some Soviet lackeys. Even tossed in the middle of the Sahara, they are able to provide for themselves without any problem."

"Hahaha! They will soon understand why Ituri is called the Dark Forest. The Americans cannot get to them because of the nature of the forest. Let's go!"

"Can we track them without a clue? The grass around here is quite hardy. When stepped on, they rise again, removing any trails."

"You are a brigade commander of the Novatopian army. You shouldn't complain. Did you get your recon colonel title out of a poker game?" Mu Ssang jested.

"I will rectify it."

"Huh? He's acting really weird," said Mu Ssang to himself.

Mu Ssang was quite concerned. For Sun Woo-hyun, acting up and babbling were the norm. The man who had changed, made Mu Ssang feel awkward.

"Ituri is the playground of the Pygmies. Olonge, lead us to Ndudu."

Mu Ssang didn't worry much. He ended up finding Kamuge and his friends hiding in Apadombe without any prior recon. The Russians had already shown their tail. It would be easier to find them. The only problem was that of time.

* * *

The village with a hundred homes, more or less, was dead quiet. Mu Ssang smelled a foul stench of blood. Ndudu didn't seem to have escaped the bloodlust raging across Ituri.

"Olonge, are you close with the villagers?"

"Ndaka is our friend."

"Sun Woo-hyun, let Olonge in and let us wait here."

He didn't want to stir the villagers who must be very frightened. Most indigenous people in eastern Congo were Bantu. Bantu encompassed all the tribes that spoke the Bantu language in East Africa. The more accurate term would be the Bantu-language family. The hostile tribes, Lese, Mamvu, and Budu were known to hunt the Pygmies, but the friendly tribes, Bira and Ndaka were friends with the Pygmies.

Sun Woo-hyun conversed with Olonge who had returned from the village. The pace of the conversation was mind-bogglingly slow.

"Wakil, ten days ago, Ubiksa exchanged a Sitatunga with corn flour, and two days ago, a boat with cassava flour."

"How much flour?"

Sun Woo-hyun, understanding the intent behind Mu Ssang's question, conversed further with Olonge.

"Grain is exchanged at twice the weight of the meat."

"That seems reasonable."

Mu Ssang nodded. An adult Sitatunga weighed 80 kilograms, more or less. They got more than a hundred kilograms of grain. There must be quite some Russians hiding among the trees and they seemed intent on staying here for a prolonged period of time.

"They won't last long."

Mu Ssang searched the outer perimeter of the village. Two days ago, there was a tropical rain shower. Special Ops agents wouldn't risk getting rained on in field warfare. When the temperature dropped, hypothermia came. When it was too high, muscle cramps came. In Ituri, a small mistake had grave consequences. They took shelter from the rain somewhere and it was close by.

Mu Ssang expanded the range of search, walking in expanding circles. His faculty of smell, on par with a dog's, analyzed the molecules floating in the air. Ituri was not some hill in a suburb. As he was sniffing out a wide area, time continued to pass.

"What is he doing?" asked Sun Woo-hyun inwardly.

Sun Woo-hyun was expecting Mu Ssang to succeed but was also doubtful. He wasn't prodding the ground with an iron rod or examining fallen leaves or branches thoroughly. He just sprinted through the forest. It was not certain what he was even looking for.

"A monster is a monster because it isn't confined to the bounds of common sense," said Sun Woo-hyun to himself.

Patience is a chaser's virtue. Sun Woo-hyun, becoming resigned, ignored his rumbling stomach and followed Mu Ssang around until the very soles of his feet began to sweat. When the sun was about to tilt west, Mu Ssang stopped in front of a large, old Lombi tree. Six hours had passed since he began the search. Patience was running thin.

His nose of a dog caught a whiff of blood amongst all kinds of odors in the muggy jungle. The smell was fishy but also had gone bad. It was not freshly shed blood but that of menstruation. Dimensional Sight scanned the ground. The soil was already firm but the spots that were stepped on were firmer.

"Lackey, one woman and four men. Five used this place as rain shelter."

"How do you know?"

Sun Woo-hyun's tired eyes shone momentarily.

"I just do."

"I was stupid to even ask."

Sun Woo-hyun looked tired again.

"Olonge, can you track them?"

Mu Ssang gave him a direction.

"No problem!"

Olonge led the way. Chasing prey was the expertise and routine of the Pygmies. Olonge felt the bent grass, smelled the whiffs in the air, tasted dirt, and strode through the jungle.

"He's distracted again!" said Mu Ssang inwardly.

Mu Ssang lightly kicked the butt of Olonge who tarried in front of a termite hill. Olonge smiled bashfully, revealing his black teeth. He was going to snack on the termites.

Olonge, who was about to resume his chase, ducked down. Mu Ssang vanished. Sun Woo-hyun took out an MP5 from his backpack and jumped into the forest after Mu Ssang.

"Lackey, camouflage!"

Sun Woo-hyun rapidly dived into a sea of trees. Like a mirage, a group of people appeared in front of him. They had their faces covered with long pieces of cloth except for their eyes. About three dozens of people advanced, hacking off the forest with their jungle blades. Yet, they made no noise whatsoever.

Sun Woo-hyun suppressed the urge to ambush them from behind. They had to have some powers to be able to move stealthily like that. After the recent defeat with the Mbembe, he tended to act more prudently.

A black object flew toward him like a cannonball. It hit a low-hanging Abyssinia branch and dropped to the ground. Soon, black "rain" showered from above his head.

"Leeches!" said Sun Woo-hyun inwardly.

Sun Woo-hyun felt his hair stand. There was an echoing screech. A poor monkey got covered in leeches. Smoke rose and the smell of burning fur filled the air. The hostile leech called carnictis secreted acidic venom. The frenzied monkey soon became mummified as punishment for waking the leeches.

"Oh my!"

The monkey didn't surprise him. The Mbembe squad did. They ignored the leeches covering their bodies. They indifferently marched on, tapping away the leeches. It meant the leeches' fangs couldn't penetrate their skin.

"Did you see?"

"What happened?"

"Their skin is enhanced with voodoo spells. Let me show you how rickety those non-earned spells are."

Resonance Wave enveloped the Mbembe recon squad. Their skins resonated with Resonance Wave. The layer of spells covering their skins broke like a pane of glass. The simple maneuver led to a catastrophic outcome. The carnictises burned off their clothes with acidic venom and drove their fangs into the vulnerable flesh.

"Aargh!"

"No!"

Screams were heard. The Mbembe squad, no longer indifferent, jumped around in a frenzy. More leeches, sensing the vibrations, rained on them. Their struggle to get the leeches off proved futile. When they got one off, two more clung to them. Even when they ripped off the body of a leech, the mouth clutched on and continued to suck their blood.

"Huh..."

One leech was nothing but their power was in their number. Sun Woo-hyun, who had experienced quite some events, had to watch and shudder, suppressing the scream that crept up his throat. The dozens of people covered in leeches struggling and jumping was a scene from hell itself.

The screams let up suddenly. The leeches swarmed away after finishing their meal. On the ground, the 32 mummies were scattered around.

"Did you see?"

The voice came from just next to him.

"Huh!"

Sun Woo-hyun, who had tensed up, flinched away.

"Wakil, that scared me!"

"This is Ituri."

"What kind of leech could be that monstrous?"

"Only their form is that of a leech. As you reach the center of the forest, more outlandish lifeforms will appear."

"This would be a biologist's wet dream."

"If their dream is to die, it would be. There are cleaner ways to go through. That wasn't pleasant anyway."

Mu Ssang stared at the hellish aftermath. Ants and various insects had replaced the leeches. Dignified death was a luxury that could only be afforded in the human world.

Mai-Mai was led by voodoo fanatics mainly. Just like the cult led by Kamuge, there was a group that committed all kinds of crimes like murder, arson, rape, abductions, and cannibalism. He had decided to exterminate them, but still, it didn't feel good to see them go this way.

"Let us move. The jungle will handle their funerals."

Mu Ssang turned on his heel. The chase continued until dusk. Whenever they encountered an armed group, Mu Ssang and Sun Woo-hyun showered them with bullets. Two Mbembe squads that crossed paths with them were eliminated. Three unidentified groups met the same fate. They were going to interfere with their search anyway. They didn't serve them alive.

The next day, a tributary of the river running north of Mambasa blocked their path. The tributary didn't show on their GPS. No one knew how many tributaries flowed through the jungle of Ituri. The lush mangroves and narrow tributaries hidden by the canopy were not even visible from above.

"Wakil, I will prepare the boat."

Sun Woo-hyun dismounted the rolled-up rubber boat from the top of his backpack.

"You still haven't adapted."

Mu Ssang pointed at the black river that flowed leisurely and almost seemed to be standing still.

"Huh!"

He could see underwater plants with thorns that were longer than a finger. If he floated a rubber boat there, it would be torn and they would sink into the river swarming with venomous insects.