Empire of the Ring

“Jongil, at 10 o’clock, look through your scope.”

“Six guys. Alright, the one standing and talking to the others must be the leader. Including him, I’ll take the two on his left. Ready? One, two, three!”

A soundless bullet was fired after giving dull impacts on Youngho’s shoulder. He shot two more in a row and got up. He had just checked that every enemy had fallen.

The two ran about 500 meters of distance at once.

The scene of six people lying on the ground was an unbearable sight. After checking their belongings, they buried all of the weapons after dissembling them. They covered all of the bodies with leaves. Although they had to kill them, they wanted to pay respect to the dead ones, it was just to make themselves feel easy.

The number of people they shot was twenty-four. They had been hunting them down for the past three days. It was a lot of kill for only two people, but the number was not satisfying judging by their skills.

According to the group that they managed to capture on the first day, there were still thirty more special forces soldiers that were on the run. Since they found those guys only today after searching all day long for them, they concluded that the others left already and escaped the country. Some might be already wounded and waiting for their death in the mountain.

Youngho did not feel sorry for them at all since they would also kill him and Jongil right on the spot when they see them. They did not just come to Azerbaijan for a protest, they were ordered to kill anyone they saw whether they were soldiers or civilians. It was what came out of their mouths during the interrogation. That was why Youngho and Jongil were killing everyone they met with snipers.

The bitter coldness of the mountains bothered the two. As the wet season began, it had suddenly gotten cold. The early November’s night in the mountain was already below thirty degrees in Fahrenheit.

Eating combat ration, Jongil complained as he shivered in cold.

“We’d better run all night long.”

As Jongil was saying that, Youngho gestured him to lower his voice.

“Shhhh… Get away from the fire. Put on your helmet and bulletproof vest. Something doesn’t feel right since a while ago.”

The ring’s spirit was stimulating Youngho for some time. The two naturally got up and went away from the fire as if they were going to relieve themselves. When they were away from the fire, the cold sensation in Youngho’s head went away. That meant some of the remnants of the special forces were aiming at them nearby the fire with snipers.

Since the targets that were near the bright fire had disappeared, the enemies’ muzzles were aiming in vain. Probably they were about to see whether the two were their friend or foe through the scope because they had not shot them yet. However, a scope without night vision function was useless in the dark.

Jongil took out a night vision goggles and tossed it to Youngho. From now on, Youngho’s side had the advantage. The two already knew that the Armenian special forces did not carry any helmets or night vision goggles in order to decrease the weight they carried.

Most of the soldiers that Youngho had captured only carried snipers, ammunition, combat rations, and sleeping bags. Even if they had night vision goggles in the beginning, they would have thrown them on the run since they were quite heavy.

They had entered Azerbaijan’s territory with a plan to obtain necessary supplies in the field but their plan had gone wrong from the start the moment they were detected by Hong Sungki at the Serbian ranch.

Jongil tapped his helmet. His Morse code was saying that the enemy was at one o’clock at about a hundred meters of distance.

When Youngho looked at them through the scope, three enemies were using hand gestures. They must be discussing to approach close to the fire. Since they were cold and hungry, they just wanted to knock the two down and take the supplies in order to survive.

Jongil gestured Youngho to get closer to the fire. It was to set the enemies at ease.

The rationale behind it was that any chaser or runaways would not set fire recklessly despite the coldness. If there was anyone setting a fire in the mountain at this hour, it must be a hunter who did not care about war but only their living.

Hunters around the mountain range did not really care about territories, and they go anywhere to hunt for desired animals.

To relieve the enemies, Youngho became a decoy. Since the ring would let him know about the potential danger, he did not mind going to the spot.

The Armenian soldiers who were approaching Youngho looked extremely exhausted. They did not have any more strength left it seemed that he could subdue them with one finger.

There was no need for the two friends to stain their hands with blood. They would die in hunger and coldness if they were left alone.

They had guns but since they neither had been sleeping or eating well, they were not even soldiers anymore. Their thin faces could make one believe that they were beggars. However, their eyes were still alive. It seemed that they were only moving, possessed by vengeance and hatred. The nationalism had enchanted the entire Armenian soldiers.

***

The Caucasus Mountain Range is divided into two distinctive ranges, Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus.

The Greater Caucasus is about 1,500-kilometer long. It begins from Southwestern Russia in the Black Sea coast and went through North-central Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea coast. The Lesser Caucasus, which is about 600-kilometer long, is located parallel to the Greater Caucasus at about a hundred kilometers south of distance.

As for Azerbaijan, it is a very unique country that had nine different climates with both Greater Caucasus and Lesser Caucasus in the West and East.

The plateau stretches from the west of the Lesser Caucasus to Anatolia, Turkey. Thus, Armenia, which was located in-between the plateau of the Lesser Caucasus, highlands with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters occupied the most part of its territory.

Now, Youngho and Jongil were crossing the highlands on the Western side of the Lesser Caucasus within the Armenian territory.

On behalf of Azerbaijan, the two were here to have a deputy war against Armenia.

The two was determined to move since the Armenian army had sent special forces, which was trained to be like human weapons, to Azerbaijan. It was the same as terrorism on many and unspecified persons. Not to mention, Youngho was furious that he had to separate his families and Serbian descendants to different places when the Serbian descendants were now gathered in one place.

“There are only marks for the boundary. I’ve never seen a borderline without any sentinels.”

“Who’d cross this harsh mountain range and high hills? There’s nothing to do here, it’s almost a wasteland.”

It was even difficult to walk in the area but if soldiers could pass the region carrying heavy military supplies and guns, their victory would be natural.

At the highlands at an altitude of 2,000 meters, no trees were there but only some grass. It was because the region was above the timberline.

Youngho thought it was admirable how people had put marks to designate the boundaries. There was no need to watch this rough and desolate region since it would be like a suicidal mission for a regular army to cross the region to invade the other country. Since the Armenian special forces had crossed the border from here, their spirits and strength were admirable.

If Youngho and Jongil did not have the rings and leather shoes, they would have given up a long time ago and returned home already. The ring’s power had put their bodies in optimal conditions, and the coldness did not bother them. Since it was colder in the mountains, it snowed frequently. Small-sized snowflakes were falling from the sky since the temperature was very low.

“In thirty more minutes, we’ll get to the city of Ayrum.”

“You’re changing the name of an Armenian region as you please.”

In Jongil’s ears, Youngho’s pronunciation sounded terrible.

He had learned the local language when he worked as the Armenian militia’s drill instructor, and Youngho’s pronunciation was laughable to him.

“Eh hem, you understood it anyway.”

“Phew, I shouldn’t even start it.”

As the little city near the border was getting closer, the two felt better to think that their mission would be over soon.

They had not been able to clean themselves for the past few days and they looked awful. Youngho wished for a Turkish bath and sauna but he had a more important thing to do for now.

From the special forces soldiers that they recently met in the night, they learned that a large-size mechanized troop was located at the suburb of the city of Ayrum.

It was where the Azerbaijani fighters had not bombed yet and the mechanized unit would launch a large-scale counter-attack in a few days. Hearing that, Youngho and Jongil had traveled to the region at once to strike terror into their heart, so that they would stop their military plans. They wanted to show that if Armenia successfully managed to sneak in their special forces to Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan could also do the same.

***

Many of Armenia’s military units were already desolate after Azerbaijan’s air force attacks. Azerbaijani government had not sent their special forces since it was well aware of the international opinion. However, Youngho and Jongil had a different idea. They did not want to let them off the hook so easily and in order to terminate the war early, they believed that they should warn the Armenian military. They did not fear since they were protected by the rings and had attained supernatural power from the rings.

Armenia’s mechanized troop at the suburb of Ayrum had about a dozen of full-size storage units at some distance away from their camp. They had disguised all of the storage units and hid their equipment to manage them. Since all of the sentinels were dressed as civilians, no one could tell that the storage belonged to the military unit. It was a perfect cover for them. The security was not so strict either since it would be weird to have armored vehicles around at civilian facilities. There were only two watchtowers and security lights.

The troop had put their equipment away from their camp to disguise their equipment as civilian properties but it rather acted as luck for Youngho and Jongil.

“Look, They’ve done some brain work. They divided their camp into small units and even their guards were dressed as civilians.”

“That means they’re fearing the power of Azerbaijan’s air force. Man, I’m relieved. We can just destroy heavy firearms and leave without sacrificing people’s lives.”

“Don’t get sympathetic. We’re at war. Look, how much do you think the Armenian army had invested to make a mechanized unit? They’re a source of trouble.”

Jongil’s words are a hundred times right but Youngho did not want to kill any more people. There would be no one in the world who would feel fine after taking people’s lives.

It was not difficult to jump over the shabby walls. Going through the blind spots of security lights, the two approached an oil storage tank.

They did not have any explosives to burn all of the heavy equipment on the camp and they were not specialized in explosives. So, they decided to use the oil from the enemy’s storage tank and make fire. It seemed to be the most effective way. This was what they had come up with after circling around the camp throughout the day and finding the oil storage tank.

There were no guards around the storage and only the main entrance was tightly guarded. It looked like they could easily slip in since the watchers at the watchtowers were only paying attention to the outside.

When Jongil opened the oil tank’s tap, Youngho watched for people. There were five large-size oil storage tanks, so it took a long time until all of the oil were spilled out. As if the heavens were helping them, the wind was coming from the direction of the entrance, so the smell of the oil did not blow to the side where the guards were.

Oils were soaking the ground going down the slope. If fire catches around the storage units, it would definitely burn the storage and the flames from the walls of the storage units would splatter to the heavy equipment sets. Since soldiers usually cleaned military equipment with oilcloth to prevent them from rusting, any sparks would make them scrap metal. Just in time, the wind started to blow more heavily.