The sun began to dip on the horizon. Alex took a moment to really enjoy it. He had been living so hectically all the time lately that he hadn’t had much of an opportunity to let it sink in. He was on a completely different planet than where he was born. He was likely the only human on this entire planet. Who knew how many light years he was from Earth right then.

Alex was living the life that many would dream about, at least to an extent. He had a hard time imagining that there were people who would willingly join a war, but the perks were nothing to scoff at. This was the first of, hopefully, many planets he would be able to visit. People got excited when someone made it to the moon and he wasn’t even in the same solar system anymore.

I need to do this more often. There’s always going to be another fight or another mission. If I don’t take time like this, I might go crazy. Heck, I am probably already crazy by Earth standards. If I told people the stuff I’ve gone through in the past few months, I’d be drugged up in an insane asylum or something. Actually, I wonder if people are being open about why they suddenly have super powers. There’s bound to be at least a few that have said something. Would the government try to round them up? Could they?

Again, Alex was asking questions that would answer themselves when he got back. Until then, he needed to focus. If the government was setting up concentration camps for the awakened on Earth, he would have to deal with that problem later. Worrying about it now would only distract him.

He took in the last bits of light with all the vibrant colors it produced, and mentally prepared himself for what was likely going to be a crazy night.

Just as the light started to fade Alex saw some problematic developments take place. A large number of soldiers had been placed into the area. Much more than had been there all day. What was worse, he identified some of them and most of them were much closer to his level. Some of them even surpassed his level. He couldn’t get a completely accurate feel for how strong everybody was. His identify skill apparently had a range limit and most of the arriving soldiers were out of range. The fact that most of those he did identify were high leveled did not bode well.

This is going to be much more difficult than last night.

Alex wanted to spend more time gathering information on the new arrivals, but the sun had finally disappeared leaving him in darkness.

Well, I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

He started creeping closer to the city’s outer edge. The clearing that housed the majority of the war machines wasn’t far from the edge of the city, but it wasn’t on the edge either. He would need to sneak through the city for about half of a mile and then he should arrive to the plaza. Whether the route he would end up taking would be half a mile was yet to be determined. More than likely, he would be winding through the city avoiding patrols again. He wouldn’t be surprised if he walked multiple miles before he made it there.

Alex made it the city when he realized that he had forgotten to cover up the glowing lines on his suit with the Eonsteel.

Not going to sneak up on anybody like that you idiot. Alex scolded himself.

Fortunately for him, it didn’t appear that anybody noticed. At least, he hadn’t noticed anybody noticing. He would have to be vigilant. If someone had seen his entrance into the city, things were going to get really difficult. They could be seething up an ambush right then, and the only way Alex would know was if he walked right into it. For now, he would just have to hope for the best.

He snaked through the city streets, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. It had suddenly reminded him of when he was roaming the streets on Morathis. He sure had come a long way since then. He could probably squash his past self now, literally and figuratively. At least there weren’t any of the two headed panthers roaming the streets right now. There was no way he would be hidden for very long if they were there.

Alex was walking for around fifteen minutes and had yet to run into a patrol. With every moment, his heart pounded heavier in his chest. He was getting an uneasy feeling about what was to come. He had seen the number of soldiers almost double just before nightfall. Where was everyone? He ran into so many more last night, but there weren’t nearly as many. Were they all in the plaza? Were they just waiting for him to step in the open so that they could pounce on him the second he was vulnerable?

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

There was no way that Alex was going to walk into the blindly. He knew he was likely close to the plaza by now, so he scaled a nearby building to see what he was walking into. As he reached the top, he peered over the edge of the building to see if there was a patrol on top. When he saw no one, he climbed the rest of the way and jumped onto the roof. A quick scan didn’t show anybody on the surrounding buildings either. He still wasn’t going to take any chances. With his best sneaky crab walk, Alex crossed the rooftop to the side that overlooked the clearing. He looked down and still he didn’t see a single soldier.

Ok. Now I know something is up. I may be dumb, but there is no way I’m walking into that obvious of a trap. They should’ve at least left some skeleton crews out. I would have definitely thought I had gotten lucky or something.

He continued to survey the area, hoping to find any indication of where they had all gone. After about twenty long minutes of looking, he had still not seen a single clue. His eyes were hurting from the constant strain of trying to make something out of nothing. He let out a frustrated sigh and massaged his temples.

“Any ideas?” Alex thought to his resident hitchhiker.

“I too am perplexed. I have no idea what they have planned for you, but I do know that they feel rather confident.”

“What makes you say that?” Alex asked.

“If they are willing to leave their war machines unguarded like this, that means that they believe they can dispatch you relatively quickly should you decide to make a move. That also means they are nearby. They would need to be to stop you before you could do any amount of damage. That is unless they are willing to sacrifice a few war machines to goad you into an even larger feeling of false security.”

Alex contemplated for a few seconds. Before saying, “Well, let’s show them how dumb they are.”

“Wait! Don’t do anything hasty. They could be inside the war machines for all we know. The second you step into one, the rest could be instantly alerted to your location effectively trapping you inside.”

Alex groaned. “What am I supposed to do here? I need to destroy as many of these as I can tonight. I don’t really have a choice.”

“You must really be struggling. You have never asked for my advice, and actively avoid it when you can,” Nagaar said smugly.

Alex just rolled his eyes. “I just don’t really see any options. If I move, they will probably take me down. If I don’t do something, I will probably have another punishment coming my way before long. I know my best bet is some kind of distraction, but I don’t have any idea what I could even do.”

“I don’t know what would be best for a distraction, but I can think of one thing,” Nagaar said.

“And that would be?”

“You could just load up one of your beams and blast one the towers.”

“That sounds like something I would come up with. Didn’t they teach you military strategy in your king school or whatever?” Alex asked.

“It was called the Royal academy, and yes they did. But, this isn’t a terrible plan. You will be landing a decisive blow onto one of their valuable structures. They will either have to show their hand, or allow you to continue your attack. You will lose the element of surprise and they will be able to track your location, but they will also be forced to reveal themselves. A known enemy is better than an unknown one.”

“We don’t even know how durable those things are. I might be able to do some damage, but more than likely it will just scratch the surface. It is a war machine. It is designed to be tough. If I could just blast through it, they would be pretty useless. That’s the whole reason why I need to get inside and plant the explosives,” Alex said.

“That may be true. However, your beams are great for one thing if not for their strength. They are an impressive show of force. They appear to do a lot of damage, even if they do not necessarily cause a lot of damage. With it being night this effect would only be increased. Imagine a sudden blinding light scorching through the air toward the very thing you are meant to be guarding. They might take a second to see if you caused damage, but they would probably be shocked into action. Seeing an attack so brazen and immediate would make them feel like you could actually do some harm. If they have any fear of what their superiors might do to them should they fail, they would elect to advance on your location rather than risk any loss. If you prove capable of puncturing the armor, all the better.”

Alex sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. It just didn’t feel like it would work. Sure they would probably come out of hiding to start chasing him, but that only solved his first problem. Then he would need to not only evade the multitude of assailants that would be chasing him, but he would also need to carefully backtrack and destroy the war machines still. That wouldn’t really solve his problem, it would just make things worse really. At least he had some peace at the moment where he could think. If he kicked the hornet’s nest he might find himself overwhelmed and trapped.

A distraction would be best, but he needed one that would lead them away from him, not towards. He was thinking he could set off one of the bombs further in the city. The Saxans had given him a couple of extra ones in case something went wrong. He didn’t want to use them for this though. If something actually went wrong, he wouldn’t have any way to fix it. Plus, there was no guarantee they would actually go to investigate. It would seem highly suspicious that a random explosion would happen in a random part of the city when there were much juicier targets elsewhere. They might send a couple of teams to check things out, but they would have to be morons to send everybody.

He tried to think of what else he could use as a distraction that would be enough to put the entire army in disarray. He smiled when he heard the familiar sound coming in from behind him.

That solves that problem. This just got a lot easier.