The Soldier 1

by Donald Ha

  Marie-Louise applied force a second time.

  Whenever she applied any force, Jackal’s body curved like a tightly strung bow.

  “Ugh!”

  The third time she pressed down, Jackal coughed up a black clot of blood.

  Drip drip.

  Looking at the size of what Jackal had coughed up, which now stank of iron and blood, Marie-Louise pressed down once more. Almost like she was squeezing a rag dry.

  “Ugh…..”

  All that was left was blackened and watery blood.

  Marie-Louise stopped putting force on Jackal and checked his pulse.

  Jackal’s pulse was weak but beating regularly.

  It was only then that Marie-Louise began to smile.

  “You have a strong will to survive, Jackal.”

  They had at least dealt with their biggest fire.

  She had gotten him to cough up the blood congestion and had calmed his inner energy.

  Now, there was nothing left to do but let Jackal carefully heal the wounds he forged while overextending himself.

  All that was left were Jackal’s external injuries.

  Jackal had shrapnel stuck in his back, waist and legs, as well as a bullet wound in his right leg.

  Looking at his wounds, Marie-Louise couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You’re a very lucky person. It’s a miracle that the bullet missed all of your important arteries and pressure points.”

  It was unbelievable how lucky he was.

  It was almost like God had been on his side.

  Marie-Louise pressed an acupuncture point on Jackal’s legs to numb his senses, and used a knife she had disinfected with hot water to dig out the fragments, closing the wounds with a needle and thread.

  The surgery lasted a long time.

  Once she had dealt with all the injuries, Marie-Louise was worn out, but she merely sat at the edge of the bed and sighed.

  Jackal was still unconscious and on the floor.

  But he was looking less pale and his breathing had gotten easier.

  Though he wasn’t back to perfect health, Jackal had healed a fair amount.

  Taking a short break, Marie-Louise stood in front of Jackal and glared down at him.

  Clang! Clang!

  The sounds of banging on the hatch still rang throughout the room.

  “Come out! Jackal! Before we blow the place up!”

  Someone began shouting.

  Amidst the noise, Marie-Louise’s soft voice rang out.

  “Nothing in life is free, Jackal.”

  Her small and pale hand lightly touched Jackal’s muscular chest.

  Slightly left from his solar plexus.

  The place where his weakly beating heart was.

  Marie-Louise had a faint smile on her face while she collected her strength and had it flow into Jackal’s heart through her hand.

  “Ugh….. ugh….”

  Subconsciously, Jackal began hallucinating.

  He saw a tiger, so big and grand he could never win against it, pressing down on him with its giant paw.

  When he opened his eyes, the light from the incandescent lamp blinded his eyes.

  Jackal got up from his spot and looked around.

  When he sat up, he could feel pain ringing out in the lower half of his body.

  "Um….”

  A small whimper escaped his lips.

  “Are you awake now?”

  From across the hallway, Marie-Louise approached him.

  She was supporting her body with a single crutch. The bandages on her right leg were loosened.

  Jackal looked at the ceiling and grumbled.

  “It looks like I was able to survive somehow?”

  “You almost died. But I revived you.”

  Jackal turned his head to Marie-Louise before showing his gratitude.

  “I owe you one.”

  “No problem. All I did was repay a debt. But how did you end up like this?”

  At Marie’s question, Jackal’s eyes darkened.

  “….I was betrayed. By a man I had gone around with. He tried to sell me off.”

  Jackal frowned and closed his eyes. His hands were curled into fists.

  “Wow, that’s surprising.”

  “What is?”

  Jackal opened his eyes and glared at Marie-Louise.

  “I never knew someone like you could be betrayed. Aren’t you someone with a lot of distrust and someone who doesn’t believe others easily?”

  Jackal glared at Marie for a while before sighing.

  “…Even I can’t explain why I became friends with him. It might be that I thought of him as family. It was the first time that someone treated me normally despite me being an Asian.”

  “Now what are you going to do? Are you going to seek revenge?”

  Marie-Louise spoke, almost egging him on.

  Jackal didn’t reply for a while. Staring into space, Jackal bit his lips and became lost in thought.

  It was a while before he answered, and his answer was unexpected.

  “No, I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to let it go.”

  “Why?”

  “He has a younger sister. She followed me well. If I kill him, that girl will be doomed to a hell-like fate. That’s not the revenge I want.”

  “Wow, you’re so warm hearted, Jackal. I didn’t know you were that kind of person.”

  Marie-Louise almost sounded petulant as she spoke.

  Her lips were curved in a smirk, as was the rest of her face.

  “But if he ever crosses my path, I’m going to beat him. Just to the brink of death.”

  Clang! Clang!

  The sound of a hatch being hit could be heard from close by.

  “You don’t have to worry about that. It’s the people who are chasing you.”

  “The Huiziga clan.”

  Jackal’s eyes filled with bloodlust. Seeing this, Marie-Louise’s eyes filled with surprise.

  ‘Wow, is this the kind of person he is?’

  Jackal looked around him and asked.

  “Where are my weapons?”

  “You’re going to fight them, even when you don’t know how many people there are outside? I have to disagree.”

  “I’m not trying to fight them; I’m just trying to assess the situation. To see how much we have.”

  Hearing this, Marie-Louise pointed at a corner of the room with a finger. There was a blanket on the ground with Jackal’s weapons laid on top of it.

  Jackal stared at it before scratching his head.

  “We have no grenades.

  Saying this, Jackal remembered that he had used up all of his grenades while running away from the Huiziga people and laughed.

  “We’re also low on food.”

  Marie spoke up as she watched Jackal.

  “Food? How much do we have left?”

  “If we stretch it, maybe three days’ worth.”

  “Hm…”

  Jackal looked at his injuries.

  They probably wouldn’t heal in three days.

  He also felt like he had no energy, probably because he had bled too much. If he didn’t eat and replenish his body with nutrients, his body’s immune system would weaken and he might fall ill.

  If that happened, he might starve to death or get killed without a fight.

  “Let’s attack them in two days.”

  “In two days?”

  “We should take one day to rest, eating well and replenishing out energy, before choosing when we’ll fight.”

  Though his tone was light, he knew it would be a difficult one.

  With their only exit blocked by their enemies, not even Jackal would be able to do anything if their enemies decided to set up even a single machine gun at the exit.

  But their enemies didn’t have a machine gun. They were basically a group of thugs holding fire extinguishers.

  “That’s not enough time, Jackal. We should strike in three days.”

  Marie-Louise was star
ing at her nails. Her nails were long and well-kept, like the nails of any other girl.

  Jackal glanced at Marie-Louise’s nails as he spoke.

  “Why three days? There’s not much difference between waiting two days from three. Our opponents aren’t that strong. They don’t have proper training and even if they did, they would be like rookies. They’re basically like the Italians.”

  It was then that an unexpected sound filled the room.

  *Growl.*

  The sound had come from Jackal’s stomach.

  Jackal, who had been talking seriously, burst out into laughter and Marie covered her smile with both hands.

  “Look. Don’t you think we should eat first?”

  “….”

  Jackal blushed and said nothing.

  Marie-Louise glanced at Jackal before getting up from her seat.

  She soon returned with a can of food and biscuits wrapped in paper.

  The can was full of English baked beans while the source of the biscuits was unknown.

  Marie-Louise poured a decent amount of baked beans onto a plate and placed the biscuits next to the pile, handing the whole plate to Jackal.

  “To be honest, I don’t like British food.”

  Despite his words, Jackal gulped down the food in an instant.

  Marie-Louise narrowed her eyes and stared at Jackal.

  “Your actions don’t match your words.”

  “I can’t help it. I’m so hungry.”

  “Why don’t you like British food? Have you ever had it?”

  “I once followed my father to Great Britain when I was young. I lived there for about three years.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know that about you. Why were you there?”

  Jackal put down his spoon and stared into space. His eyes filled with the memories of his past.

  “My father…”

  Jackal stopped talking and started looking for water. Marie handed him a water bottle and Jackal took a few gulps before speaking.

  “He was a freedom fighter. But people hated my father because he was the son of a pro-Japanese man.”

  That was all Jackal was willing to say. It didn’t look like he wanted to add anything.

  “He was a great man.”

  Marie-Louise always knew what to say.

  Knowing this, Jackal smirked and kept eating the rest of his food. Marie-Louise stared at Jackal as he ate, not blinking as she did so.

  “I have a plan.”

  Marie-Louise began speaking once Jackal cleared his plate.

  “Plan? What plan?”

  When Jackal asked, Marie-Louise replied with her typical soft voice.

  “My plan is to increase our strength. For the next three days, you should learn Wugong.”

  “…. Increase my strength?”

  It was an offer Jackal hadn’t thought of.

  After collecting his thoughts, Jackal turned serious as he spoke.

  “Three days? I don’t think anything will change in just three days.”

  At Jackal’s distrustful question, Marie smiled and replied.

  “I’ll explain it in a way that’s easy for you to understand. Jackal, last night, you overexerted yourself. Because of that, your inner engine broke and fuel leaked out.”

  “I think I leaked a lot of my fuel.”

  Jackal smiled bitterly and nodded.

  “It was hard wiping it all off.”

  Marie-Louise smiled at him before continuing her explanation.

  “But luckily, we were able to fix you. But only because you met the talented repairman called Marie-Louise Lane. The strengths you had before the fix have become stronger, while you’ve also become more stable. You could see it as being upgraded to a whole different vehicle.”

  “Hm, so if we keep up with the armored vehicle metaphor, what kind of tank was I before?”

  At Jackal’s question, Marie-Louise replied with blinking an eye.

  “A first generation tank.”

  “….First.. First generation tank?”

  Jackal asked with a glum expression.

  He couldn’t help it.

  First generation tanks had been made even before the war, and were so poorly made that they didn’t deserve to be called tanks.

  Jackal had never even seen a first generation tank in person. He had seen the weak and feeble second generation tanks and extrapolated what the first generation tanks would look like.

  “Yes, you were a first generation tank, Jackal. A rookie and a poser.”

  “… What.. What level am I at now?”

  Jackal asked carefully, trying to hide his anger. Marie gave him a flat reply.

  “A second generation tank?”

  “What? You said I got better, and that’s it?”

  “Don’t rush into this. As long as you follow my directions, you’ll be able to become a Tiger tank, the vehicle you like so much.”

  Saying this, Marie-Louise put away the utensils and used her crutch to stand up.

  “Now, let’s begin since we don’t have much time left.”

  *

  When he first started his engine room, he couldn’t feel a difference. As always, it felt like a slowly turning whirlpool.

  But in an instant, the whirlpool became the eye of the storm, and the energy running through his body suddenly ramped up.

  “…!!”

  Jackal’s eyes filled with fear.

  He had felt this feeling before, when he had the Uncontrolled inner force.

  “Don’t freak out. Believe in yourself, and use your inner energy. I’ve got you.”

  But this time, Marie-Louise was standing next to him.

  The mysterious girl who knew so much about Wugong was looking after him.

  Jackal trusted Marie-Louise and put down his fear, starting his engine room once more.

  *Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!*

  It was almost like he could hear the sounds of a powerful engine, big enough to sit in a tank.

  A strong energy flowed through his body, something he’d never felt before.

  ‘It’s different from before. It feels refreshing and free.’

  “Focus on the circulation.”

  Almost as if she knew he was drifting, Marie-Louise made him refocus.

  She wasn’t even going to give him a moment to think.

  Jackal cleared his head and focused everything on what he was doing.

  The inner energy driving out from his engine room circulated throughout his body multiple times.

  Drip! Drip!

  Beads of sweat fell from his forehead, and steam like air formed and evaporated into the air.

  Marie-Louise crossed her arms and stared at Jackal as he did a handstand. She would place her hands on his back and stomach, blowing her inner energy into him.

  When his body overheated, she would blow cold energy into him to cool him down.

  Thanks to her work, Jackal was able to truly let his engine room run and got so lost that he even forgot who he was and what he was doing.

  “That’s enough.”

  Marie-Louise was now standing in front of Jackal. Her bandaged leg and a leg with stockings on, which looked like they belonged to two different people, were now standing in front of him.

  “…..”

  Jackal stared at the leg Marie didn’t have a cast on. Her thigh looked quite thin but had some meat on it.

  ‘It’s a pretty leg.’

  Though he hadn’t shown much interest in women in the past, Jackal knew how to appreciate a woman’s figure.

  “Stop staring at someone’s leg like a pervert, and loosen yourself from that position.”

  Hearing that, Jackal realized what he was doing and quickly moved out of his handstand.

  “Huh?”

  It was only for a moment, but his body felt completely different. Aside from the pain he felt from the injuries on his back and leg, he was surprised that his bones and veins felt like they were gliding.

  “Now, do you feel the changes in your b
ody?”

  Marie-Louise spoke softly as she handed him a water bottle.

  Her eyes were locked on the spot where Jackal had been holding his handstand.

  Looking back, Jackal was surprised.

  A significantly sized puddle of sweat and a bit of blood had formed.

  But his body felt dry.

  It was quite spooky.

  “How did this happen?”

  “A trance. It would take all night to explain the specifics. To put it simply, you’ve become much stronger than before.”

  Saying this, Marie-Louise began taking off the bandages on her right leg.

  Jackal asked her in surprise.

  “What? Are you completely healed?”

  “No.”

  Unlike the other, the right leg was greatly discolored.

  “Hey, it looks like it hasn’t healed at all?”

  “The bone has healed.”

  “But why did you take off your bandages?”

  Marie-Louise put down the crutch that had been propping her up.

  “So I can teach you a new form of Wugong.”

  “A new form of Wugong?”

  “Yes, the art of lightweight movement. It seems to be the form of Wugong you need most.”

  “Lightweight Movement?”

  Marie-Louise smiled and replied.

  “It will help you move as fast as a tornado.”

  A memory flashed across Jackal’s mind. The image of Wulin people catching up to him in an instant, before he had learned Wugong.

  ‘Is that what she’s going to teach me?’

  With that kind of power, would there be anything for him to fear? Jackal felt his chest fill with an unknown emotion and glared at Marie-Louise.

  “I’m going to show you just once, so watch closely.”

  With one beautiful leg and one grotesque leg, the girl began moving with grace.

  “….”

  Jackal’s two eyes were wide open and not blinking, trying not to miss anything.

  *Clang! Clang! Clang!*

  Though the sound of metal still rang out, those responsible would soon know, what their meaningless actions would result in.

  “Are you ready?”

  Rifle, submachine gun, knife. Explosives.

  All of his weapons were in top-condition.

  His body was fine.

  Energy like he’d never felt before flowed from his engine room.

  “Wait here. I’ll return with some delicious food.”