Under the eye-blindingly bright light of the 'Starlight Shell' that hovered above the night skies like a newborn star descending from heaven itself.
In front of the wide hole in the middle of a crumbling wall located at the backside of Blackstone castle, where only one layer of wall separated them from the courtyard that led into the castle, a group of Stormtroopers led by Konrad himself assembled into a breaching formation as they rechecked their weapon conditions with fiery determination in their eyes. Their faces were covered in dust and dripping with sweat after a long day of battle. Their clothes were full of small cuts and dirt stains after sneaking up such a steep hill.
"Gentlemen, tonight we'll become a part of legend! We'll do something that none have ever tried before! Annex an entire city in just a single day!" Konrad declared, raising his submachine gun up high in celebration. Everyone around him did the same.
In that moment of exhilarating excitement, a brilliant blue firework was shot up from their temporary base, signaling the beginning of the assault.
The loud shouts coming from all sides of the castle, especially from the front gate where the White Company, led by Jane and Elena, were charging up the hill toward the battered gatehouse, acted as both the signal of attack and a distraction force to draw attention away from the real assault element, which were Stormtrooper squadrons attacking the flanks.
"Remember! The objective is to find and eliminate the Marquis! Let's go give'em hell!" he declared, then he led them through the hole in the wall into the courtyard, submachine gun in hand.
Behind the wall, no one stood on guard, as all the guards had likely already headed to the front gate. Clearly, the distraction force was doing its job really well.
And so they continued their way into the courtyard.
Inside the courtyard of the castle was the magnificent garden of a complex hedge maze full of alien-looking flora they had never seen before. Sunflowers whose petals were translucent and glowed faintly like spectral spirits, Vines which slithered their tendrils around like living serpentine beings, Hedges which changed their own position when no one was looking.
Even more perplexing was the lack of overall sound that logically should have been loud and noisy since the battle at the front gate was still going on. But this maze was shrouded in absolute eerie silence, where only the sound of their own breathing and footsteps could be heard, like they were in some kind of twilight zone.
Every step they took filled them with more and more anxiety, as the situation grew even weirder when a veil of dense, thick mist descended upon the area, making their field of view an absolute nightmare.
"Report our findings and stay vigilant." Konrad whispered quietly, as he could clearly sense that something was extremely off, while the entire squad of men carefully raised their rifles and submachine guns in anticipation.
In that moment, the earth in front of them seemed to bulge up and rush in a path toward them, like something big was charging toward them from beneath the earth itself.
Sensing danger, Konrad instantly pulled the trigger of his submachine gun as the spring went back and forth and the spray of 10 mm. rounds flew into that mound of approaching earth. Everyone in his squad did the same.
It took several seconds before that rushing mound of dirt abruptly stopped moving.
Konrad raised his hand, gesturing for the entire formation to get their fingers off the trigger.
They then slowly and carefully approached the mound of dirt, as one of the troopers carrying a rifle poked the bulging dirt with the muzzle.
In an instant, something slowly emerged from the underground. It was a grotesque, slender humanoid creature with blackish reflective moist skin like the wet surface of a black stone slab. It had two pairs of arms with unnaturally twisted long hands that extended outward with a set of scythe-blade-like jet-black claws big enough to slice a human body in two with just one strike. Where the legs should have been lay six or eight jet-black tentacles that were still wiggling around repulsively. On its bald head there was no mouth, nose, nor ears, but only one ginormous eye moving around in its gaping socket, shining with a brilliant neon green light. From every bullet hole on its body, tar-like thick black liquid poured out. Every time the liquid dripped onto the ground, the earth melted away with a sizzling sound, announcing its acidity.
As it thrashed its sharpened claws around powerlessly like a dying patient awaiting death's door, everyone looked at it with faces beneath their helmets that were as curious as they were fearful.
"What in the actual hell is this?" Konrad whispered in a perplexed expression, as the second and third mounds of dirt appeared and rushed toward them in rapid succession.
The entire squad immediately opened fire again with a slew of bullets. After witnessing its scythe-like claws, naturally no one wanted to get sliced in half.
The second and third creatures were dealt with in quick succession.
But, to the utter horror of the troopers, more and more of them started to show up.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth.
There was no end to their numbers, to the point where a machine gun had to be set up in a narrow hedge path while the mist started to intensify, blocking their line of sight.
The situation got even worse when some men were already out of ammo, but the tide of earth-burrowing monsters did not seem likely to stop anytime soon.
And in that moment, the earth itself erupted in front of Konrad as its scythe-like claws cut through his left arm like a hot knife through butter, blood gushing out of the wound like a raging torrent.
In that moment he had only one option left, as the situation had deteriorated beyond his control.
"Retreat!!!" he shouted, like his life depended on it, because it did.