Mercenary Black Mamba

It was soon dawn.

Dawn is the moment when the sunlight brightens up the sky before sunrise. The period between sunset and nightfall, when the light is at its most beautiful, is called dusk.

In December, sunrise at N’Djamena is at 06:09 AM.

Dawn in the desert was short-lived. In the city, dusk lasts about 40 minutes but in the desert it is an hour.

Darkness was an assassin’s friend.

Black Mamba had about 30 minutes remaining to move under the cover of darkness. There was no time to bicker with Mike.

“It’s always the insecure ones that make a fuss about rank. Whichever way I think about it, the lesson is not worth learning.”

Pieff’s face turned to stone. It sounded like he was saying this to him and not Mike. He had cold sweat running down his back.

“The commander will wait here with Sergeant Mike.”

“Look here, Black…”

Before Pieff could answer, Black Mamba’s body had already disappeared into the darkness. Pieff was taken aback. It wasn’t as if he could abandon the unconscious Mike and follow him.

“Damn punk, I’m never going to buy him another fine meal.”

Pieff expressed his disappointment passive agressively.

Black Mamba passed through the forest like a leaf in the wind. Not even his clothes made a sound. Once the forest ended, the dried wadi showed up in its place.

He checked his Beretta and kukri, then looked at the time. It was 4:33 AM. In 36 minutes, dawn would break. This was always the time when a human’s concentration was at its weakest.

He was 480 meters away from reaching the barracks, it was located outside his range of spatial awareness.

Whoong… The ripple spread through his body and shot outwards. When he concentrated on its direction, the range increased. There were 60 men in the vicinity and six who were awake.

On the right and left side of the camp, there were four machine guns, and two guards pacing back and forth continuously. Their defenses were solid, contrary to what they expected from guerrilla troops.

It was time to become an assassin.

Black Mamba took in every surrounding living thing, dirt and rock, trees and grass, and animals, into his body. His energy dissipated throughout the environment and the cells in his body were unraveled so that he dissolved into the air around him. It was his nature camouflage ability.

“What is that?”

Pieff had been using the moonlight to observe Black Mamba but upon seeing this he fell back in surprise. Black Mamba’s body slowly started to fade. Like a drop of black ink falling into clear water, his body melted into the environment.

The man that had been standing there moments ago had suddenly blown away like pollen from a flower, dispersed like ink in water. Pieff rubbed his eyes in disbelief and put on his night-vision goggles. Green silhouettes of humans could be clearly seen.

Pieff looked up at the sky.

From the West, the full moon rose above the horizon and lit up the sky. It was bright enough to differentiate between human shapes. Pieff focused his eyes to search his surroundings but he was unable to find Black Mamba.

“Are the guards all sleeping standing up?” Pieff muttered as he stared through the night vision goggles.

The green silhouette had approached them but none of the guards seemed to have noticed.

The green silhouette overlapped the machine gun on the right.

A shadow from behind extended its arm and gave the guard’s neck a sharp twist. Pieff flinched. He could practically hear the bone cracking. He got goosebumps.

Crack-… The neck snapped easily under the power of the metal like arm. The guard, who had felt a presence, turned his face, and immediately got his neck twisted. Whoosh-…

The sound of escaping air was heard. The esophagus and pharynx were both broken so that the guard died without being able to let out a scream.

Black Mamba leaned the corpse against the wall and hid behind it. Soon, another guard approached.

“What! Are they both sleeping?”

“If you fall asleep, don’t you know you’ll get in trouble with Tubilis. Do you want to be out in the gravel fields all day?” The sentry muttered as he shined his lantern on the dead guard.

Black Mamba’s hands were waiting for him. He shot up from below, puncturing the guard’s chest and blocking his airways.

“Ah!” “Ack!”

With his nerves shot, the air from his lungs leaked out. Black Mamba caught the two falling sentries and leaned them against the wall.

Pieff’s hands became sweaty.

Black Mamba was moving like a ghost. Having disposed of four sentries, the shadow slid to the right in the direction of the other machine gun. The two sentries slumped over onto the ground.

“Ugh! My head.”

Mike shook his head and got up.

“Ah, Sergeant!”

“Did you sleep well?”

Pieff was in deep concentration with his face shoved right into the night vision goggle lens.

“Where’s Black Mamba?”

“He’s already got in after wiping out the sentries.”

Mike hurriedly got up.

“Commander, if there are no guards then surely we can make it through the open area and get inside.”

“What! You want us to just run over there?”

“Of course, the commander and sergeant can’t be sitting here with their hands behind their backs while the rookie is in there risking his life.”

Fireworks flew out of Mike’s eyes.

“That’s right. If anyone found out, he would have to bow his head in shame.”

“It would be the end of his life.”

“You’re right, I am Black Mamba’s commander.

Pieff shot up as if in a trance.

Mike and Pieff, not only had similar self-deprecating personalities but also suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder. With them, the logic of any given situation always surpassed the analysis of it. They were unable to accurately gauge their skills and became obsessed with their perceived outcome of a situation. In reality, similar situations had often arisen. Like those who put themselves up for election as if placed in a trance, it is a pathetic pattern displayed by many humans.

The guards and sentries were cleared by Black Mamba without a sound, and he melted into the barracks. Even in the Sahel, there was morning dew. In the middle of the barracks, the guerrilla troops were lined up in rows sleeping, with twenty men on each side. Although it was cold, all they had for cover was a layer of tarp.

‘You are soldiers and I too am a soldier. We met as soldiers so I hope you don’t think yourself too unlucky. Namu Ahmi tahbl!’

He took a moment of silence for the dead.

The nightmare attacked the sleeping guerrilla troops.

Slash slash… The sharp blade of the kukri went around slashing throats like he was slicing cucumbers. Within just six seconds, he had ended 20 lives. A gruesome scene lay before him. The smell of blood and the atmosphere of death filled the inside of the barrack.

The nightmare moved stealthily to the next barrack.

“Ddalgis ahl kwadiruh, ahmata kunta jjabanan!” [1]

Black Mamba flinched. The man who had been sleep talking suddenly changed his position and started snoring.

“Damned punk, you scared me. What an incredible imagination he has, Allah will look after him well.”

His cruel blade slashed through the neck of the sleeping men in an instant. The ones who got their esophagus and pharynx cut cleanly through couldn’t even let out a gasp before meeting their death.

Sun WooHyun’s eyes shot open.

His right hand reached under his pillow. He grabbed the handle of his trustworthy NR-2 bayonet.

“You punk from room forty-nine.”

Room forty-nine was in a North Korean mental hospital. The curse was referring to the patient as crazy or insane.

The two invaders deserved to be called lunatics. They had infiltrated the base with bated breath but they had not been able to stop the sound of their clothes and their footsteps on the sand. It couldn’t compare with the heightened senses of Sun WooHyun. Even the lowest ranking reconnaissance members had better skills than them.

Mike and Pieff targeted the barrack at the back. Their commander was their main objective. Pieff was hell-bent on trying to show off his skills and Mike was lusting after blood.

They came across a guard who was lying fast asleep on a tarp.

Pieff blocked his mouth with one hand and slashed his throat with his bayonet with the other. In that time, Mike quietly entered the barracks.

Mike smiled happily.

He saw a man sleeping peacefully on a bed, oblivious to the world. If he was sleeping on a bed, then he had to at least be commander level. Swoop… Without hesitation, the bayonet swooped down. It stabbed through the third and fourth rib and penetrated the heart.

“Hup!” Mike’s eyes grew so large it looked like they would pop out.

The man who had been lying down, suddenly spun in a half-circle and extended his bayonet to stab through the enemy’s chest. It was a movement as natural as that of picking up a spoon. Mike, whose vision was restricted by the night vision goggles, had missed his chance. The bayonet stabbed into him and the left side of his chest burned with searing pain.

“You idiotic punk!”

Sun WooHyun was about to twist the blade out when he let go of the handle and bounced out of the way. Clang… Pieff had come charging to stab Sun WooHyun but he easily avoided him. All of a sudden, in Sun WooHyun’s hand, was another bayonet. Pieff used his grounding skill from Krav Maga and pulled Sun WooHyun down by the back of his neck. Sun WooHyun charged into his lower body and kicked him. The two men rolled around until they became one mass.

Tu dadadak… Two more blows were exchanged before they both fell.

“Kuh!” A suppressed gasp escaped from Pieff’s mouth. He pressed down with his full body weight and started pounding but it worked against him. The enemy’s knife like hands swung at his ribs. It took his breath away and his vision blurred.

Swish… A spear the size of a finger left Sun WooHyun’s hand.

Clang… Pieff was able to block the incoming dart with his knife. He rolled once, then got up to get back into position.

Slash… With a flash before his eyes, Pieff felt a searing pain on the lower half of his body.

“Ack!”

The scream came out by reflex. His body squirmed like a salted worm and all his strength left his body. Distracted by the sword coming to stab him, he got kicked in the groin.

Thud… Sun WooHyun’s foot made contact with the back of Pieff’s neck. It was a scissor kick.

Pieff collapsed onto the floor and swung his knife as he gritted his teeth. Being a commander in Deuxieme Rep was not a position he gained from winning a game of poker. He was still a veteran who had endured many things.

As Sun WooHyun took a step back, Pieff rolled toward the entrance as if his life depended on it.

“Oh, are you leaving? I can’t let you do that.”

Swish swish… The two darts that left Sun WooHyun’s hands hit Pieff in the thigh and his side.

Thud… Sun WooHyun followed it with a round house kick to his temple. Pieff fell like a tree with a loud thud. The night vision goggles dropped to the ground and rolled away.

“There’s another one with owl eyes.”

It was the last thought that Pieff had before he fainted.

Sun WooHyun, who had easily dealt with the two invaders, jumped in surprise.

It was the smell of blood. It meant the assassin had penetrated their defenses. He checked his weapons and quickly ran out of the barrack.

“Assassin! Assassin!”

Once he had searched the second barrack, he heard screams coming from outside.

“Dela ddun!”

“Assassin!”

“Ip tide bee sura” [2]

Chaos ensued.

‘Darn, how did they know?’

Black Mamba clicked his tongue. There was no way anyone who could register his presence when he was using his natural camouflage skill. None of the 34 men who had gone to visit Allah had uttered a single scream.

‘Is there someone else with special skills?’

He would never have dreamed that the commander and Mike would have dug their graves. His curiosity did not last long though. A guerrilla he had not taken care of woke up.

“Denta muh shi nun?” [3]

The half awake guerrilla grabbed his gun. Flash… The kukri flew at him like lightning.

“Ack!” The guerrilla troops all woke up from their sleep.

Crack… It would have been better if they hadn’t. The kukri smashed into his face. The force of it was so strong, it twisted the guerrilla’s head completely around.

“Dela ddun!” [4]

Another guerrilla troop quickly got up.

“You fool! Of course I’m the enemy, do you think I’m your friend?”

Whing… An army boot stomped on the necks of the half awake guerrilla troops. Their spines snapped and their faces were crushed. In the second barrack, eight men’s lives disappeared.

“You punk! Run to the back of the boulders!” A scream echoed.

The guerrilla troops retreated like low tide and in an instant the camp was empty.

Black Manba’s judgement of the situation was surprisingly fast. The guerrilla troops were surprisingly smart. They were similar to the ones he had wiped out at Uldi Harmarl. The prospect of assassination was now gone but he could easily jump into the middle of the running masses and wipe them all out.

“Hmm, the leaders seem to be smart. I could have ended it in two minutes. It’s going to be a bit more trouble now.”

Including the guards, he had killed all of 34 men.

27 men had run up to the mountains for cover. Black Mamba moved the kukri to his left hand and pulled out the Beretta with his right. Adrenaline was racing through his blood. The situation had turned into a dog fight.

[1] Kill all the filthy punks.

[2] Get out of here

[3] What, who is this punk?

[4] Enemy!