Austronesian Empire, Majapahit, Lahad Datu, Isolated Military Base, Fifteen Kilometers in the Outskirts of Lahad Datu

2000, 1, 1st Week, January.

The dawn of the new millennium brought dark days for the people of the Austronesia Empire. On New Year's Day, a sudden surprise attack from mysterious creatures swept across the nation, striking every city without warning.

At a massive military base surrounded by grassfields several kilometers from the city Lahad Datu, numerous Air Defense Systems engaged in relentless combat against a swarm of winged creatures in the sky. Dozens upon dozens of bright streaks of light beautifully lit up the dark, stormy sky as they launched missiles to strike down any airborne threat.

With the base's abundant resources, running out of supply of anti-air missiles won't be a problem for now.

On the ground, hundreds of soldiers from the Liberation Army were actively engaged in fending off and shooting down the invading monsters.

"More hostiles are coming, 2 o' clock!" one soldier shouted, pointing towards a horde of monsters rapidly approaching from a distance.

A sudden commotion erupted as a humanoid monster with wings landed on top of an armored vehicle, startling the nearby soldiers.

"Enemy contact-!"

Before the soldier could finish, the winged creature hurled a basketball-sized fireball at him with bullet-like speed, sending him flying.

The soldier next to him fired at the monster, and while the bullets had effect, it's not enough. In a flash, the creature leaped at the second soldier and slashed him down with a swift strike, then turning to launch another fireball at a third unlucky soul with fast movement.

"Grenade!"

Preventing the monster from taking any more lives, another soldier swiftly tossed a grenade at the creature.

*Boom!*

A violent explosion erupted in the area where the creature was, killing it instantly.

"Captain Morgan, we've got more enemies appearing a hundred meters behind our lines!" a female soldier reported urgently to her superior.

"How many?" Captain Morgan demanded.

"At least a few dozen, sir. Most of them are usually these fireball shooting sons of bitches," she replied without hesitation.

"Call an escort from the rest of the scattered teams to help us push these bastards back!" the captain commanded it a tense voice.

The soldier immediately grabbed her radio to follow his orders.

"This is Sergeant Cassie Juliet from the 75th Infantry Regiment. We need backup immediately. Multiple hostile threats have appeared on the north side of Lahad Datu! Repeat, more hostiles on the north side of Lahad Datu!"

[Copy that, backup is on its way,] came the man's response over the radio.

After concluding the radio conversation, twenty troops moved swiftly toward the northern part of the city, joining forces with a contingent of thirty troops escorting a huge battle tank.

The tank, known as the PT-101M Pahlawan Mark V, was a cutting-edge main battle tank that formed the backbone of the Majahapit Liberation Army's armored corps. The tank began development in 1987, after years of development, it entered official service in 1994.

Unlike the previous generations, the Pahlawan Mark V's advanced armor was capable of withstanding even kilotons of TNT, while its exceptional firepower, five times that of a standard HEAT shell, allowed it to decimate multiple older tanks with a single shot.

"Everyone, look up!" a soldier called out, pointing toward the sky.

The troops followed the soldier's gaze, spotting flashes of light, explosions, and abnormal screeches from the winged creatures, though its a common sight on the battlefield. But what caught their attention was a massive silhouette soaring through the sky, trying desperately to dodge the missiles launched by the air defense weapons. Eventually, it was hit several times and fell on the city, crashing near the two platoon's location.

Curiosity gets the best of him, Captain Morgan instructed the captain of the second division to investigate the fallen creature.

"Are you sure?" the second captain asked.

Morgan gave a nonchalant shrug. "Just in case it survives. If it does, use the Pahlawan to finish it off. Reports suggest that tank shells are most effective against these dragons."

"Understood. Let's move out."

--------------------

Arriving at the main street of the city, the rain pounded down heavily on the streets, intensifying the eerie atmosphere as thunderous roars reverberated through the surroundings. On either side of the road, fifty troops watched something in the middle of the street.

Standing on the opposite side of the troops was a massive, three-meter-tall humanoid creature. To the soldiers, even though they are brave and have been through wars and hell in their life, they couldn't help but feel an instinctive dread upon the mere prescence of this figure. Captain Morgan had to calm some of his men, preventing them from firing in fear without his command.

The creature was kneeling down, gazing intently at the fallen dragon's corpse. It appeared to mourn the loss, as though the dragon had been its long-time companion, while unbothered by all the chaos, such as gunfire, the final gasps of its kind, and deadly lightning striking all around, it seemed utterly indifferent. All that mattered to the creature was the dragon lying lifeless before it.

Observing its appearance, the creature's imposing presence unsettling the soldiers who watched from the opposite side. The creature's armor was forged from black metal, etched with sinister red bloodlines and studded with sharp thorns everywhere, giving it a fearsome appearance that it looked like an incarnation of violence. Twin demonic horns jutted from its helmet, framing a disgusting, deformed face. Its empty eye sockets pulsed with a malevolent red glow, radiating an intense hatred and murderous intent.

The creature gripped a tower shield in its left hand, the size of which covered nearly three-quarters of its body. In its right hand, it wielded a massive sword, approximately one hundred and thirty centimeters long, coated in swirling waves of ominous red and black mist, agitating the surrounding air like a constant heartbeat.



Just by looking at it widely baffled the onlookers from the opposite side, as the creature's presence seemed to have stepped straight out of a mythical nightmare.

For a moment, the creature's gaze shifted toward the soldiers, its blood-red eyes filled with murderous intent.

Just a mere glance, the weaker-minded soldiers trembled, some losing control and were about to run away in fear.

"Captain, s-should we shoot?" Cassie asked, her voice trembling.

Captain Morgan, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, replied cautiously, "The thing isn't engaging. Let's assess the situation before taking actio-"

Before he could finish, one of his men shouted in fear and frustration, "Forget this! It's an enemy and a threat! Take it out!"

"Wait!" Morgan tried to intervene.

But his words were drowned out by the deafening roar of a shot fired, echoing across the street.

Feeling the bullets slamming harmlessly against his armor, the monster let out an enraged roar that echoed for miles, instilling a deep fear in all who heard it. With astonishing speed, it charged toward the troops, nearly comparable of a warhorse.

"Holy shit! That thing's incredibly fast!" one soldier exclaimed.

Enraged, the Monster gave out a deafening roar that could be heard from a mile, which gave immense fear to whoever heard it.

After it roars, it then dashed towards the troops at shocking speed, nearly comparable of a warhorse.

"Holy shit! The thing is fast!"

"Keep shooting at it!" another shouted.

A barrage of gunfire lit up the area as the troops tried to stop the advancing monster. Bullets struck its armor and shield, but they barely slowed its advance. The creature reached the soldiers and swiftly claimed its first victims, slicing through three of them with a single stroke of its greatsword.

The soldiers froze in horror, providing the knight monster with an opening to strike again. It lunged toward another unfortunate soldier.

"What the fuck!" the man's scream was cut short as he was cleaved in half. The top portion of his body slammed into a nearby building, leaving a slick trail of blood on the wall as it slid down.

The Demonic Knight ignored the now very dead man and set his sights on the next closest. As it raised its long sword, it sensed an impending attack and turned toward the Merkava Mark V tank.

"Ahhh!" The soldier screamed in maddening rage, firing his weapon at the knight. But the .50-caliber rounds merely bounced off the knight's indestructible shield, absolutely did nothing.

"Shoot it down!" the driver of the Merkava tank yelled at his crew.

"Load!"

"On the way!"

"Fire!"

*Boom!*

The thunderous explosion roared from the tank's cannon echoed across the battlefield as a brilliant streak of light zoomed toward the Demonic Knight. But with astonishing agility, the knight leaped to the side, narrowly evading the tank shell capable of causing significant harm or even killing it.

After evading the tank shell, the Demonic Knight reformed from the black mist and landed gracefully on the ground. As the Merkava tank fired another round, the knight again transformed into a cloud of dark mist, allowing the shell to pass through without harm.

"What the?" The tank's gunner stared in disbelief at the phenomenon, unable to comprehend what he had witnessed. Before he could react, the dark mist moved with blinding speed behind him and reformed into the knight.

"Oh shi-"

The gunner didn't even have the time to scream once the Knight slashed through the gunner's helmet and skull with a single, precise swing.

Inside the tank, the crew panicked as the driver attempted to move the vehicle forward. However, they quickly noticed that the knight was holding the tank in place, preventing it from advancing. With a display of immense strength, the knight lifted and pushed the tank sideways, flipping it onto its side.

As the knight continued its rampage, it felt a barrage of gunfire striking its armor from the nearby soldiers. Turning toward the closest group of troops, the knight lunged forward and slashed them down one by one.

"Run! Provide cover fire!" Morgan shouted as he and the remaining troops retreated.

Many soldiers went inside a few nearby buildings while maintaining their assault on the knight, firing at it in a desperate attempt to slow its advance.

Just then, five humvees rolled in from up the road and their gunners opened fire on the Demonic Knight, providing a momentary reprieve for Captain Morgan and his troops. Morgan rushed to the lead humvee to give orders.

"I want you to flank the left side of the thing, and prevent it from killing more of our men!" he commanded.

"Copy that," the driver acknowledged before maneuvering the humvees around the Knight. Their gunners unleashed a barrage of machine gunfire, keeping the Knight at bay for a moment.

While observing the unfolding battle, Captain Morgan noticed something unsettling out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see one of the fallen soldiers' bodies, previously cut in two, begin to twitch. To his shock, the upper body of the corpse suddenly reattached itself to the lower half in a disturbing display, like it came from a scene of a horror film.

The fallen soldier's eyes snapped open, revealing blood-red irises. Morgan's heart raced with terror as the reanimated soldier fixed its gaze on him, emanating a sinister aura of bloodlust and a maddening grin on his face.



"Rahhhhh!"

With its blood-red eyes fixed on him, the Fallen Soldier let out a horrifying roar and aggressively charged at Morgan's direction at terrifying speed.

*Bam!*

But before it could reach Morgan, a loud bang echoed through the air, and the demonized soldier was launched back by a powerful force with a massive hole in its chest.

Unfortunately, it's still alive as it was about to rose up, only to be shot again, and this time, in the head, bursting it apart and killing it at last.

Morgan turned to his back to see Sergeant Cassie wielding a Mossberg 500 shotgun, her eyes focused and alert. She had taken the shot that saved him.

"Thank you, Sergeant." The captain thanked her.

"No problem, Capt. But we should move, multiple of our fallen are starting to come back and attack us. Though they don't exhibit typical zombie behavior, it seems like they've been possessed," Cassie warned.

"What?"

The situation was growing even more perilous as the Captain Morgan noticed the fallen soldiers started to rise, their wounds healed as if they had never been struck down. They moved with a disturbing, unnatural grace and began attacking their former comrades.

"Take them out!" the Commander of the second division shouted as he and three other soldiers opened fire on the demonized soldiers.

The battle shifted as soldiers redirected their focus from the Demonic Knight to the new threat of their possessed comrades. Amid the chaos, one of the demonized troops charged a soldier and tackled him, then proceeded to maul him to death.

The Demonic Knight, sensing the shift in focus, felt the pressure on itself diminish. Seizing the opportunity to go all out, it unleashed a deafening roar and charged at one of the humvees, where the gunner on top continued to fire at the monstrous three-meter-tall humanoid.

The knight moved with terrifying speed, closing the distance with the humvee in seconds. The crew had little time to react as the Demonic Knight bashed its massive shield into the humvee, flipping the vehicle on its top and crushing the gunner to death. As the knight moved to attack another humvee, soldiers from all directions opened fire on it.

"Pull out your RPGs! Give him hell!" one of the commanders shouted to the team.

Five soldiers swiftly responded, bringing out their RPG and unleashed a barrage of rockets on the Demonic Knight. The rockets struck from all sides, inflicting significant damage and causing the knight to emit a blood-curdling roar that echoed across the battlefield. The roar terrified those with weaker resolve.

The soldiers worked quickly to reload their RPGs, displaying impressive speed and precision honed from years of training. Once reloaded, they unleashed another volley of rockets on the Demonic Knight, continuing to batter it relentlessly and denying it any chance to counterattack.

After being hit by its eleventh rocket, the Demonic Knight staggered back a few meters, but quickly regained its footing. However, it suddenly sensed an even greater threat was about to unleash on him.

Turning to face the source, it was met with the PT-101M Pahlawan Mark V battle tank, which the knight had previously pushed sideways, was now upright and had its barrel trained directly on the knight. The creature had inadvertently landed in the tank's line of sight, presenting the tank crew with a prime opportunity to strike.

"Fire in the hole!"

*Boom!*

The cannon roared with a deafening explosion as the shell shot out in a bright flash, zooming through the battlefield and aiming directly at the Demonic Knight.

The Demonic Knight lifted its enormous shield in a desperate attempt to block the incoming tank shell. But to its shock, the tank shell easily penetrated the supposedly indestructible shield, then penetrated the knight's chestplate with equal ease.

The force of the impact pushed the knight backward, its insides exploding into chunks of flesh and bone as it crashed to the ground. The creature's once menacing eyes were now devoid of life, replaced by an empty void.

With the death of the Demonic Knight, the possessed soldiers attacking the others suddenly collapsed.

The soldiers celebrated their hard-won victory, cheering as they rejoiced in the death of the enemy that had claimed the lives of many of their comrades. The threat was vanquished, and they could finally take a moment to breathe.

After the smoke cleared and the rain partially obscured the soldiers' view, they confirmed the Demonic Knight was indeed dead. The troops erupted in cheers, celebrating the end of the fearsome enemy.

However, they couldn't have had much time to celebrate as they needed to honor those who had sacrificed their lives to protect the lands of the Austronesian Empire. The soldiers removed their helmets, bowing their heads and placing their helmets over their hearts to pray for the souls lost in battle.

Of the more than 60 troops, 15 were seriously wounded, and they had lost over 24 killed by the Knight and 4 by the demonized soldiers, leaving 28 deaths, of which the total number of casualties reached 43, a heavy toll on the forces of the two different divisions.

As the soldiers tended to their injured, Captain Morgan stood apart, gazing at the lifeless body of the fallen Knight. He took a drag of his cigar, exhaling slowly and wearily as he reflected on the day's harrowing events.

"This day just got more and more fucked up."