The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 171

Chapter 171: Alex [3]:The Devil’s Hand
Frozen and assuming the worst, Alex slowly turned to look at Timmy’s body only to find it completely lifeless.

His world seemed to be flipped upside down as the ringing sound continued. The noise from both primals and soldiers fighting and dying completely disappeared.

Even when the fight was over

Alex didn’t move. He knelt beside Timmy’s body, trembling, his own injuries forgotten. His mind replayed every second.

The decision to break formation. His greed for power. His lack of battlefield awareness. His mistake.

This was all his fault.

Alex watched as the medics carried the lifeless body of Timmy and the dismembered body of Tommy away.

He wanted to scream. To cry. To tear something apart but his body refused to move, his mind replaying what just happened over and over.

Even with all the chaos around, the battle field was eerily quiet for him. The ringing sound refused to stop causing him to drop to the ground and clutch his ears.

A shadow was suddenly cast over him.

Alex didn’t notice the person at first, not until the person spoke.

“You hate this, don’t you?”

Slowly raising his head, Alex finally regarded the person standing before him through his blurred eyes due to the unshed tears.

Commander Voss stood there, looking down at him with an almost pitying expression.

“You hate that you could only stand back and watch them die, don’t you?” commander Voss spoke again.

Alex didn’t reply, he couldn’t. He raised his trembling hand to wipe off the tears in his eyes but that did nothing to help as more was being formed.

“If only I was strong enough, then none of this would’ve happened” Commander Voss continued “is what you’re thinking right now isn’t it?”

At this point, Alex believed that commander Voss was only here to mock his mistakes, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

Not only was the commander a higher ranked, his strength also completely eclipsed Alex’s.

Commander Voss smiled seeing the expression on the kid’s face. He had watched the battle between the trio and the primals.

He could’ve saved them at any moment but he chose not to. Voss wanted to see how much these kids were worth.

He wanted to see how far desperation could push the kid. How broken he would become.

And Alex… Alex was perfect.

Although he might not know it yet, the kid was selfish enough to abandon his friend when he felt the bliss of gaining power.

Or that might just be Voss’s twisted view.

Voss crouched down to eye level, looking directly into Alex’s teary eyes before speaking again,

“I can offer you that power,” he said “a power that’ll help you ensure nothing like this ever happens to you again.”

Commander Voss stood back up and stretched a hand towards Alex.

“All you have to do is shake my hand.”

In any other situation, Alex might’ve reassessed the situation or straight up rejected but this situation was anything but normal.

He was currently not in the right state of mind.

Alex looked at the commander’s outstretched hand and without hesitation, he took it.

“If you really can grant me that power…” Alex rasped, his voice raw and barely audible, “then I’m willing to give whatever it takes.”

A triumph grin spread across Voss’s face.

“You’ve just made the most important decision of your life, Alex.”

As soon as their hand clasped, a small black goo that went unnoticed by even Alex moved from Voss’s hand to Alex’s, hiding within his military uniform.

Voss couldn’t risk the merging between Alex and the Voidspawn to happen with so many people around, as that would ruin all his plans so far.

To the soldiers moving around, the interaction between Voss and Alex seemed like that of a commander who cares about his underling but beneath the surface, it was a whole lot darker.

_________

On the other side of the military base,Reid and his team had just finished clearing the last wave of primals that sneaked to that side of the base.

It had somehow become a competition between Damien and Clara to see who’d clear up the most primals, an activity Dean didn’t appreciate since Commander Ajax was closely watching them.

“And that’s 30,” Clara said with a smug grin as she sniped down the last primal.

“40” Damien simply said, returning the smug smile.

“There’s no way,” Clara refused “you must’ve cheated.”

“Nope,” Dean was the one who answered “he actually took down forty.”

“What are you guys keeping count for?” Owen, as sleepy as ever, let out a yawn as he sat on the pile of primals he had taken down.

Dean’s jaw dropped in surprise, Owen was sitting on at least a hundred dead primals and he wasn’t even trying.

Reid patted the heads of his forged beasts’. He had chosen to let them all out since there was a whole lot of primals and their presence in the battlefield was really felt.

“How much did you get, Reid?” Marcus turned to him. His rhino and golem had returned to his inventory but he truly didn’t need them ever since he awakened the berserker’s wrath.

“I don’t know,” Reid answered “I wasn’t keeping count.”

“I counted!” Beel spoke up “papa alone took down at least this many.”

It showed his open palm, while putting up all five fingers.

“Five?” Ethan asked in surprise.

He could’ve sworn he saw Reid take down as much as, if not more than, Owen.

“No,” Beel shook its head “five hundred.”

This shocked the entire group, especially the ones from Damien’s team. Five hundred was basically half of the primals that had ignored Alex, Tommy and Timmy and chose to attack this different part of the base.

“The little fairy gotta be lying right?” One of the girls in Damien’s team said.

She was unwilling to believe that Reid was strong enough to take down more than half of the primals they were fighting.

“You think Papa is not strong enough to do that?” Beel turned directly to the girl and asked in a challenging tone.

The girl scoffed, folding her arms. “I just think it’s impossible, that’s all. No gold rank tamer could’ve taken down five hundred primals alone. Not alone anyway.”

“Ah that’s right,” Dean muttered “you’ve never seen Reid fight before.”

But before they could continue arguing, Commander Ajax cut them off.

“Enough,” his voice sliced through their chatter.

All heads turned. The playful air that had surrounded the group vanished instantly as Ajax stepped forward and silently scanned them all.

“This isn’t a damn competition. You’re soldiers—not kids bragging on a schoolyard.”

Everyone fell silent, including Clara who awkwardly lowered her raised hand that had been about to mimic Beel’s “five hundred” gesture.

Ajax stopped in front of Reid, eyes scanning him from head to toe.

“You don’t even look tired,” he muttered, half-impressed.

“I had help,” Reid answered calmly, gesturing toward his Forged-Beasts.

Ajax gave a short nod, then turned to look over the field of fallen primals.

The battlefield was quiet now, save for the distant hum of medics working and machinery moving debris.

That’s when his comms beeped.

“Commander Voss just left the east sector,” a voice said. “Status of Squad Nine is… two casualties. At least ten confirmed dead, multiple injuried and one—dismembered.”

The entire group stiffened. Reid’s jaw tightened.

Ajax didn’t react right away. His silence carried more weight than words.

“Let’s move,” he finally said. “I want to see it myself.”