Mercenary Black Mamba

Chapter 136: Chapter 17, Episode 5: Sahel’s Night Sky

Black Mamba stopped his snakehead 400 meters near the camp.

They, too, were praying hard for the happiness of their generation and the peace of their age.

His heart twinged at the thought of raining fire on the guerrillas who were praying their salat.

“Your freedom ended when mine began. There’s nothing I can do for you as an enemy. This isn’t about good or evil but survival. May you rest in peace.”

Black Mamba’s thoughts weren’t reassuring at all as he took out the soy grenades from his bag.

The main ingredient of a soy grenade was white phosphorus.

White phosphorus had a stronger adhesiveness and ignited on its own. Its fire didn’t die down once in contact with skin or clothes, despite buckets of water. The only way to stop the skin from burning was to cut it off. The kerosene which was added as a supplementary material spread the phosphorus further.

The white phosphorus was considered a forbidden weapon by the Geneva Agreement.

NATO was similarly reducing its production. It was a product, which shouldn’t have been released, but had been, to use against the FROLINAT. The French military revealed their two-sidedness in such a manner, with minor offenses like these.

White phosphorus acted as a weapon and a smokescreen at the same time.

During a battle, there were two actions to take to hide from sight. Firstly, to cover one’s own figure, and secondly, to hinder the enemy’s sight. It wasn’t difficult for Black Mamba to aim at unseen enemies since he had dimensional sight.

A soy grenade weighed around 700 grams in average.

400 meters wasn’t too far a distance.

Click—

The safety clip and safety pin were released. The twist which began from his ankle reached his shoulder, nearly twisting it 360 degrees.

His muscles, which were made of fine fibers, wound tightly like a coiled wire rope. The force which began from his sartorius muscle, to his quadriceps, and the femoris, exploded past the soleus, back, pectorals, biceps, and triceps, causing the grenade to streak through the air.

Voom—

The grenade, which turned into a far black dot, landed in the middle of the praying guerrillas.

Bang—

Bang—

The two grenades which landed without a pause had, unfortunately, exploded five meters in the air simultaneously. White smoke and white fireworks filled the ground, 20 meters in diameter.

The result was destructive.

“Aaaah! Save me!”

“Fire!”

“What’s happening!”

Surprised shouts and desperate screams rang throughout the wetlands. Those who were covered in white phosphorus rolled on the ground like mad, while others ran in search of water. No human could withstand the pain of burning flesh. The scene was unbearable to watch.

“Hm! This one’s too strong, not something to be used again.”

Even Black Mamba was surprised. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know the specifications of soy grenades. However, there was a difference between knowing and seeing.

White phosphorus heated to 3,000 degrees Celsius. He frowned at the sight of burning clothes and flesh under the gurgling fire. It was a shocking scene for him, who had made “killing without pain” his motto. Then again, he wasn’t in a position where he could pray for forgiveness.

“Namu Amita Bul! I’ll send you all quickly.”

That was all he could do to apologize. He took out the remodeled M24 high-speed grenades from the rear box. Jang Shin had prepared six.

The 1.84 kilograms were light to pick up but hard to throw. He calculated the weight and distance and decreased the distance to 90 meters.

“Jang Shin said to hit the red dot on its end, didn’t he?”

He smashed the red dot with his Kukri’s handle and threw it with all his might. His muscles had basically substituted the gunpowder.

Clang—

Woosh—

A mortar grenade, with a speed of 90 meters per second, crossed 310 meters and landed in the center of the chaos.

Bang—

Mortar grenades were incomparable to hand grenades. The six guerrillas, who were wrapped up in the center of the explosion, flew into the air from the explosive pressure. The aftershock launched shell casings and metal flints 30 meters into the air.

The remaining five grenades were thrown in a row. He narrowed his eyes and selected points of multitudes before throwing the grenades over.

Hadad’s army had gathered to uphold their salat. The exploding mortar grenades made it seem as though it was Gehenna.

“It’s an attack!”

“It’s the Kanma!”

“Hide, hide!”

The FROLINAT camp turned into a washed-out anthill from a naughty child’s urine. The ants couldn’t dream of biting apart the child’s legs. They were busy screaming and shouting, instead of firing back at the explosion’s source.

Black Mamba had used six mortar grenades in ten seconds, so he switched to smoke grenades. Even if his sight was blinded, it wasn’t a problem since he had dimensional sight. It was one of Black Mamba’s most fearful battle abilities.

Black smoke wrapped around the white smoke, which filled the camp. Covered in the smoke, Hadad’s army was unable to escape this nightmare.

The fragmentation grenades, which came strung out of his shoulder bag, slung around his neck, began to fly. Bullets flew in his direction after their explosions, as though the enemy had realized his location.

Black Mamba didn’t feel threatened.

It was impossible to aim an AK at distances over 300 meters. All the bullets were blind bullets.

“I should be going since I’ve dealt a blow.”

He roughly pulled his snakehead back. He had killed around 70 to 80 people, but that was like a ladle of porridge from a cauldron. They were bound to attack like a swarm of bees once everything had died down.

Sahara’s wind drew back the smokescreen.

Hadad, who had been hiding behind a BTR, jumped out.

“Im...Impossible!”

Hadad’s eyes grew wide that it almost tore..

It had been a minute. His army had been crushed during their few lines of chanting. At the sight of his dead soldiers, injured and crazed camels, and the flaming bikes and BTRs, Hadad felt as though he’d surpassed the level of great shock and could die from the lack of air.

There was no one but the Kanma who could produce such a large loss in a brief moment.

“Kanma, aaargh, Kanma that b*stard! Curse you!”

Hadad roared like a lion with a reddened face in the shade of a pig’s liver.

“Follow his tracks. We must catch him!”

Hadad grabbed his rifle and climbed onto a bike.

“Give chase!”

“Kill that damned heathen!”

People began to scream.

The BTR revealed its heavy form as it came out of the smokescreen. The other two were unable to move as they’d been broken by the grenades. Countless bikes jumped out after it.

“Let’s begin our hide-and-seek.”

Vrrrrm—

The snakehead raised dust.

Tutututu—

The 12.7 millimeters coaxial machine gun on the BTR released bullets with the thickness of a finger. The threat of a heavy machine gun was incomparable to a rifle’s.

“Eek!”

Surprised, Black Mamba raised his speed.

The sun peeked a foot over the horizon.

The Bodele wetland was covered in fog, created from the rising temperature. Hadad was in a rush. The further the b*stard ran, the harder it would be to trace him.

“Follow him!”

Hadad’s bike unit chased the snakehead like ants on their warpath. The BTR slowly fell back.

Black Mamba leisurely escaped into the Bodele, maintaining a 400 meters distance. Time was on his side, with the fog assisting him.

Hadad was about to go mad. He shot whenever the b*stard’s figure flashed in the fog, but the b*stard ran better in a zigzag pattern.

“Shoot, damn it, shoot! No, separate, separate!”

Crash—

He responded with a grenade.

“Kanma...I’ll curse you!”

Hadad’s eyes turned red. If it was possible to kill with one’s gaze, Black Mamba would have been killed a hundred times over.

“Allah, is he truly an evil spirit?”

Hadad lost his rationality. The distance between him and the b*stard was slightly out of range. Every time he closed the distance, a grenade flew in his direction, and every time a grenade landed, he lost one or two of his soldiers.

He lost two of his subordinates once more. This was the fifth time. They had been giving chase for 40 minutes, but were unable to catch him.

“Is there a grenade with a 400 meters range?”

Hadad was unable to understand. He had heard about the Kanma’s fearsome abilities until his ears bled.

Still, this wasn’t possible.

The b*stard was riding across rough terrains on a bike. Was it possible to hit a moving target, 400 meters away, while doing so?

Hadad wouldn’t have thought of hand thrown grenades even in his dream.

“You f****** dogs, speed up! Step on it!”

Black Mamba could hear Hadad screaming at his subordinates. He would have gotten as mad, had he been in Hadad’s situation.

“I guess this is enough.”

He had somehow passed Aodanga, 80 kilometers away from Tanga. It had already been 70 minutes. That was enough time for Jang Shin to fix the car. Black Mamba suddenly raised his speed.

Vroooom–

The snakehead suddenly sped afar with a loud explosive sound.

“Step on it, step on it, I said!”

There was sorrow in Hadad’s orders. He felt unjust and mad. He was losing the perfect opportunity to catch the b*stard.

Vroom vrooom—

The bike riders tried their best, but it was impossible for a flimsy Soviet bike to catch up to a 1,200 horsepower, in the first place.

The bike chasers looked like a dog chasing after a chicken on the roof. Hadad had lost 18 additional subordinates by simply chasing after the Kanma.

“The Allah wand, bring the Allah wand!”

Hadad personally slung the RPG over his shoulder and shoved the viewfinder onto his eyes. He was someone who’d been praised as God’s launcher. He could easily cover the distance of 450 meters if he aimed right.

The Kanma’s back grew wide before him.

“You’re dead.”

Bang—

A warhead sped 420 meters per second as it escaped the launcher.

“Ha, what the hell?”

Hadad rubbed his eyes.

The Kanma b*stard was flying in the air, firmly gripping on the bike’s handle. No, he shot into the air. The warhead passed through the gap between the Kanma and his bike. The shell, which landed 100 meters further, exploded on the ground.

Hadad tore his hair apart.

“Oh, Allah! If you have created the devil to show your holiness, then shouldn’t you be responsible for the devil’s actions too? Is it our fault for not serving you properly, or is it your mistake to have glanced away at this moment, Allah?”

Hadad had turned into a philosopher after meeting a nondestructive being. Hadad’s lament became a legend and floated around the Sahel for a long time afterward.

Black Mamba turned the chase away and returned to camp in leisure. When the dust began to rise, the mercenaries simultaneously poked their heads out and stared at the horizon.

“Black’s coming back.”

“Wow!”

Everyone responded excitedly at Emil, who surveyed the area with a binocular.

“What happened?” Valboir asked rapidly.

“My attacks have led to half-burnt corpses. I shoved all their bikes into Aodanga.”

“They won’t be able to regain their senses for some time while trying to organize the army.”

The Captain didn’t bother asking. Black Mamba was on the level of a catalyst. When he used hit-and-run tactics, not even regiments would be able to fight back.

“Let’s get going!”

“I’ll lead the way on a bike.”

“Ok.”

The Captain nodded at Black Mamba’s proposal. They were out of spaces due to the patients, anyway. There was no need to worry about sneak attacks with Black Mamba at the front. He worried about the enemy’s sniping, but Black Mamba wouldn’t step forward unless he was confident.

When Black Mamba’s bike went ahead, Ombuti got on the bike’s backseat as though it was normal. Sun WooHyun frowned as he gripped the M60 on the Gamma.

“Is that old man an Eminai or something? Why’s he jumping on the back seat?”

The Captain controlled the car.

“The pickups will go by Alpha, Bravo, and Gamma. Black Mamba will be Charlie. Charlie, you’ll be in charge of the 400 meters front. Two shots in case of an emergency or use a headset communication. Over!”

The headsets and night-vision goggles the camels had destroyed, had resurfaced through the supply line. The supply batteries and chargers which had been destroyed in battle had also reappeared. The supplies that the team members had been most concerned over weren’t the fire weapons but the headsets and night-vision goggles.

Not even God would have had the time to gather night goggles, headsets, and batteries in the Sahel. The Ratel team members had been unable to sleep peacefully at night, from the fear of night battles.

The enemies didn’t choose between day or night battles. If the FROLINAT ever attacked during the night, they’d be unable to handle it without night-vision goggles. Night-vision goggles were as important as rifles to snipers.

There wasn’t enough space to store things as one pickup had been given to the patients. Even without Black Mamba and Ombuti, the pickup was like a beansprout’s tangled roots with fuel tanks, water, food supplies, and weapons.

The Captain’s sigh grew heavier.