Autophagy

After seeing that the enemy had fallen to their trap like a group of rats, Clark's crisp voice resounded across the forest once again.

"Take them down!" Clark shouted with all his might. His defeating voice gave courage to his allies all the while making his enemies shiver in fear.

As his voice resounded across the whole forest, all of the Section A trainees that were lying in wait jumped out of the trees. In less than ten seconds, all of the Section C forces that were sent after them were wiped out. Leaving a pile of unconscious bodies behind.

Getting the initiative, Clark made sure that this chance didn't go to waste. He ordered all of his men to charge back into the camp and take over the disorganized enemy units. Section C trainees were trying to put out the fire, so they were scattered across the camp.

Utilizing this fact, Clark and his mini-army of trainees quickly took out the remaining trainees from Section C.

This battle was a total failure on Section C's side. Although Song Lei had tricked them using all kinds of tactics, even he wasn't expecting it to be this successful.

After all the enemies were taken care of and the fire was put out, the higher-ups of Section A gathered together to think of what they could do from now on. Weirdly, Clark had called Aston and Song Lei to this gathering.

Sitting on a desolate corner of the camp, all of them looked at each other with weird expressions. The main tent of the encampment had burnt down, so they had no proper place to gather.

"Will we try to restore the camp?" One of the trainees asked. Clark helplessly shook his head, indicating that this wasn't an available option.

"It's too late for that now," Song Lei said. "Almost everything has been burnt to the ground."

"He is right. We can just relocate our forces into a better spot," Clark explained. "And if the enemy launched a desperate attack while we are recuperating, we may not be able to pull off the same thing again."

After Clark's words ended, all of the high-rank trainees seemed to go into despair. Fortunately, Song Lei's tactics had allowed them to strike back and beat the enemies. If that wasn't the case, they would be lying unconscious as captives in the enemy base. All of their plans would have been exposed to the enemy by now.

"So basically, we have to create a new base and recuperate," Clark summarized. "The only ones that were hurt are not us. The enemy has lost a huge amount of its forces."

Everyone nodded and relaxed a little bit at Clark's notion. Clark's charisma was too effective on these people.

After everything was ready, Clark and his teammates started ordering the low-ranked trainees. In no time, they gathered every remaining piece of intelligence that had been left in the camp and departed.

They now had to walk towards the nearest base.

While on the way, Clark approached Song Lei.

"Hey..." He muttered awkwardly. Song Lei didn't understand why Clark was acting in such a way. He had been thinking that Clark was fully under the control of the soul worms. However, that didn't seem to be the case. After all, why would such a cold-blooded being act this way?

"Hey..?" Song Lei responded in an equally awkward manner. He was really curious about what Clark would say.

"You know... You have helped us a lot throughout this ordeal," Clark said. Song Lei would normally feel a bit embarrassed if he were praised. Now, however, it just left a bitter taste in his mouth.

'This guy is going to want something from me...' He guessed. He was a bit surprised that the soul worms were this good at human relationships.

"Knowing that you are so capable, I need help with something," Clark said. Song Lei raised one of his brows and waited for him to continue. "Will you please become a general?"

"Huh?" Song Lei muttered. He felt a headache settling in his head.

'Now I understand why he is acting in such a polite way,' Song Lei thought. Normally, Clark could just try to blackmail him into doing this by using his authority over the soul worms. Now, however, he couldn't do such a thing. After all, they would probably lose this war without Song Lei's help. And if they were to lose the war, his authority would have no meaning left to it. So now, he had to act politely towards Song Lei.

"Well... Sure," Song Lei said. What he already wanted was to win this war. As long as he could keep the status quo between him and Clark, he and Aston would eventually come out on top. All they needed was to delay until Aston was able to produce soul weapons.

"Wait... Really?" Clark asked dumbfoundedly. He sighed deeply after seeing the genuine expression on Song Lei's face. "Thanks..." He muttered before walking away from Song Lei.

'Things will get interesting from now on...' Song Lei thought as a creepy grin smile appeared on his face. Not a lot of time passed and he felt a huge force crashing down on the back of his head.

"Hey!" Song Lei got angry. "What are you doing?"

"Don't get angry and stop making that creepy expression. You look like Clark," Aston said as he pulled back the hand he had just used to slap Song Lei's head with.

"Whatever..." Song Lei muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. Aston was really strong compared to how he looked. "Let's go now..."

...

"Was this the last one?" Song Lei asked while he tied up the few remaining trainees from Section C. Aston wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his hands and looked around.

"Seems like it..." He muttered. Song Lei threw the unconscious captive from Section C to a side and laid down on the ground tiredly.

"Well... I can't believe it's finally over," he said. It had been five hellish days since he had become a general in Section A forces. The enemies numbered much more than he had ever thought. Maybe thrice that of Section A's. However, because of uncoordinated attacks and defenses, they had lost the war.

"Good job," a cold voice resounded. Song Lei raised his hand and grabbed the canteen that was thrown towards him out of the air. The one who had thrown the canteen was Clark. He had been following Song Lei around for five days. Although Song Lei insisted on him going away, he wouldn't listen to his words. "That was the last one."

Song Lei and Aston didn't say anything and stared at the sky. If there was something to be learned from this seven days war, it was the fact that Song Lei was a military genius. No matter what kind of situation they had gotten themselves into, he was able to produce new and working plans that would save them.

Seeing them not answering, Clark sighed and walked away. From now on, he had to do his part. Song Lei might've been a military genius, however, that was it. He wasn't as good as Clark in being a leader. They had managed to win this defensive war.

"Let's go back to Section A and rest," Aston said. "You must be tired. Hell... I'm tired. Let's just go back."

Song Lei looked at Aston and nodded. He got up from his place in a single motion as they started walking back towards their dorms.

The next was the most important part of their grand scheme. If they wanted to properly take over Section A and free everyone from the grasp of the soul worms, they would have to craft those soul weapons. And for that, they needed more than planning, smarts, and skills. They needed luck.

Unfortunately, without luck, their whole plan would fail. Although they didn't want to leave things to luck, they had no other choices. After a long two hours of walking, they managed to reach Section A. During the seven days of the war, Aston had managed to run experiments on a lot of test subjects. So he was able to figure out a lot of things.

"God... For some reason, I have missed this place," Song Lei said. Aston looked at him with a smirk.

"That's pretty normal. After all, we have slept on the grass almost every night this past week," Aston said. After the main base of Section A had been destroyed, they had to sleep a few nights out in the forest.

"Probably. Is everyone okay?" Song Lei asked. In the last five months, they had managed to gather a good amount of allies and make them immune to soul worms. This war, obviously, affected them too.

"I checked them yesterday by going from base to base. Everyone seems to be okay," Aston said. Hearing his words, Song Lei sighed a breath of relief.

"That nice," he said. They entered their dorm room, room 1407, and laid down on their beds.

"Sleep now. Tomorrow is the big day...."