The Legendary F Rank

"Thank you so much, sir. I thought we were done for. I heard that you guys were on your way, but I didn't expect you to get here so soon." The uninjured Chinese soldier said as he held out his hand and shook Haru's before walking back to the rest of Haru's Unit. 

"Is this all the men you have? I thought that you would have sent a whole battalion. What's up with the numbers?" The soldier asked as he followed Haru back to see a group of around ten people. 

"Not at all. We currently have three battleships on the way here. We heard fighting and decided to run ahead to see if we could help out in any way. But the rest of us will arrive shortly. There is currently another injured man on the beach.

If you don't mind waiting a while, our healers will be able to get your buddy back on his feet in no time." Haru said with a smile as the rest of his Unit looked at him in shock. 

They had been around Haru for a few months, but they never knew that he spoke Chinese. And from the looks of things, he seemed to be pretty fluent, so they remained silent for a few moments until Haru looked back at Jake.

"They are going to stay on the beach with the other injured man we found. We're ready to move on if you want to. You take the lead." Haru said as he patted Jake on the shoulder to tag him back into being the leader of the Unit.

All though Jake was the sergeant in charge of the Unit, he still trusted Haru more than he trusted himself, and he often relied on him with challenging decisions, and all of the soldiers had gotten used to it. They looked back at Jake for a second before the sound of scraping made its way across the sand behind them. 

'What's that?' Haru thought to himself as he turned around to see a speedboat had made its way to shore with a group of soldiers riding it. And as he looked further back into the ocean, there were more than twenty boats of similar size heading towards the beach from the huge battleships that were stationed in the deeper water.

"Sergeant Ainsworth. Tell me what's going on here." Captain Liegan said as she stepped off from the first boat and made her way over to Haru and Jake.

"Yes, ma'am. We arrived there to find a civilian man with serious injuries to his spine. He is currently with two of our soldiers waiting for a medic. But after that, we heard gunshots from a distance and ran towards them to find two Chinese soldiers under fire.

We took care of the enemy and rescued them both, but one of them was shot in the shoulder. He's going to need some healing too." Jake said as Captain Liegan raised her hand in the air above her head, and two men in dark robes ran over to each of the injured men and began to cast healing magic on them.

"Okay then. I take it as you didn't run into any trouble?" Captain Liegan asked as it seemed as though the whole Unit was perfectly fine.

"That's right, ma'am," Jake replied as the Chinese soldier spoke up again.

"What are they talking about? I can't understand Japanese." He asked Haru as he was a little bit confused as to what was going on around him since a whole army arrived on the beach behind them. 

"It's nothing important. There's no need to worry about it. That woman is our captain. She is just asking for a report of what has happened so far.

What do you guys plan to do next? Do you need to be escorted anywhere? We are on our way to the centre of the city to meet up with your main forces, and then we are heading to the evacuation point to help keep the civilians safe." Haru said as he explained their intentions to the soldier to see what they wanted to do now that they were safe.

"You can take us to the evacuation point? That's great. Our outpost is just past the evacuation point. If we make it there, then we can let the command know that we need more reinforcements." The soldier said as he looked over at his friend, who was still being healed.

"Han, are you good now? We're gonna join the JDF soldiers until we get back to the outpost." The soldier shouted out to his friend, who was currently surrounded by golden light.

"Is that so? Well, make sure that you thank them for all the trouble." The soldier who was being healed shouted back just as his healing came to an end. 

All the while, the soldiers from Haru's Unit had all stopped what they were doing and looked over at Haru, who had been speaking Chinese the whole time.

"Thank you again for saving our lives. There isn't anything I can do right now to repay you for the kindness, but I will always remember you as my benefactor. Once this whole thing is over, and if you ever find yourself in China, then come and find me. I will help you with anything at all. And I hope you don't mind us joining you until we reach the outpost." The soldier said with a slight bow towards Haru as he let his gratitude be known.

"It's okay. We are here to help. I was just doing my job." Haru said with a slight smile as he looked back at the rest of the soldiers to see that they were looking at him with confusion. 

"Captain, Is it okay if the two of them tag along with us until we reach the evacuation point? They are heading for their outpost to call for reinforcements." Haru asked as he still hadn't gotten permission to let them come along but seeing as though Captain Liegan was currently the highest-ranking officer present. She was quick to agree to Haru's request.

"Of course. The more, the merrier. But when were you going to tell me that you spoke Chinese? Aren't we friends? I thought that we all promised not to keep secrets?" Captain Liegan said with a sigh as she seemed a little disappointed that she didn't know that Haru could speak other languages, but she was glad that he could since it looked like none of the other soldiers could.

"Great. I'm sure they will be able to help us navigate through the city a little bit better than we could on our own. But as for not telling you… It didn't really seem that important." Haru said before turning back to the soldier who was still bowing. 

"Our captain said it's fine if you come with us. In exchange, you will be responsible for leading us there since we don't have any navigators on shore with us." Haru said as he held out his hand once again and helped the man stand upright.

"That's fine with me. I happen to be from Shenzhen, so I know every street like the back of my hand. But I have a question, if you don't mind?" The soldier asked as he looked at Haru with confusion in his eyes.

"Sure, what is it?" Haru asked in return.

"What is your rank exactly? Your captain seemed to be respectful when she spoke to you. It was almost as though she looks up to you, yet you said that she gave her permission which would mean she outranks you… I'm a little confused." The soldier said with a frown as he tried to make sense of the pecking order.

"I'm just a simple private but also an instructor for the rest of my Unit. So I guess I have a little more influence than the others." Haru said as he told the soldier half the story of why a captain spoke casually to him.

"I see… But from the way you fought earlier, I thought you might be one of your nations top mages. That was really impressive. I see why they have you as an instructor." The soldier praised Haru a little more before Haru was dragged out of the conversation as a whistling sound emerged from the sky overhead as it sounded like something was falling from above them. 

"Mortar fire! Get to cover!" One of the men shouted as Haru pumped mana into his legs and then jumped up into the air before grabbing the falling mortar shell from the sky.

'No one tries to bomb me and gets away with it.' Haru smiled as he spun around in a circle and launched the missile back to the exact location it had come from.

A large boom rang out through the sky as a flash of light emerged from behind a row of buildings in the distance, where a cloud of smoke began to form as that was the location of the enemy squad that had sent a mortar to the beach.

"Looks like we have nothing to worry about with instructor Kitagawa here to protect us!" One of the soldiers shouted out, which was followed by a slight cheer from Haru's squad until Captain Liegan sighed, and they all went silent.

"Thanks for that Haru, You saved a few lives just now for sure. And it seems like you took care of that nuisance. Now let's head out for the city centre immediately. I don't like being out in the open over here. There might be more attacks if we remain here." Captain Liegan said as she prepared the soldiers to follow her lead and head to the centre.