Squall watched as Angeal tended to his men without further delay and nodded his approval. He watched as his men were restored at least to mobility as some of them were wounded more grievously than others and then it was his turn to be patched up. He didn’t doubt that they would encounter more resistance between them and their extraction point.
“Make sure you stay a half step behind me then,” he suggested. “I will set the pace, all you have to do is keep to it until we encounter hostiles.” At which point Squall doubted that the man would need to be given orders on how to eliminate the threat.
As a Second, he wasn’t too far off the First’s speed and strength but it was enough of a gap to be noticeable. Squall was also more accustomed to working with his team and knew how hard he could push them. If Angeal just stayed close beside him, he wouldn’t have to worry about moving too quickly. It was tempting to have the man clear the way ahead for them but Squall wasn’t about to risk leaving the rest of the column under-defended.
Once everyone was on their feet and those who struggled supported, Squall allowed himself to be healed too and then turned, making a mental note of the new extraction point. Their path would take them alongside but not into a wutaiian settlement, through fairly dense jungle and it put Squall on edge. He had no time to think about the soulmate bond any longer.
“Our route will be under threat of ground ambush from about half a klick from our current position, all the way up to the extraction point. I know we’re all hurting, but we need to stay alert. This is the last stretch, men. So sound off and eyes open. Understood?”
A chorus of ‘understood!’ rose and finally Squall turned to Angeal, nodding to him before striking off in the direction of their extraction point.
“Sounds good,” Angeal agreed, waiting for the brunet to pause for a moment so he could heal him. And then stepped back to listen to the other’s short speech, he nodded in quiet approval.
And then they were setting off, the pace was slow for SOLDIERs with the injured along, but that was more than alright. He had Squall as a good measure of how quickly to go.
They made it about halfway past the settlement before a small unit of enemy soldiers spotted them from the top of the hill, and Angeal stared in their direction.
“Continue on, I’ll catch up. I’d rather they not have time to get a good fix on where we’re headed and report it in,” the raven said before loping off towards the hill at a dead run.
His shorter sword came out deflecting a bullet back into a Wutaian chest, and avoiding a few others on the way up the hill. And they were starting to scatter, calling out over a radio. That one he killed first, before slashing into the others. It went quickly, they were far less adept than he elites he was used to handling, and all he sustained was a shallow scrape along his left arm before he was jogging back down.
“Hostiles eliminated,” he called out to Squall, sighing. “I hope they all show up at convenient distances for me to engage alone. But I doubt we’ll get that lucky.”
