CHAPTER 21

Battle to the death (Lolrenian front)

Nora’s part (lvl 60 assassin s)

I get into the restroom right after midnight has passed. I was to hide until now so that I wouldn’t bump into enemies by mistake. However, now I gotta stay in the men's restroom for many hours. Ace has chosen the men's restroom over women’s because Tal’s army is composed of 83% men and 17% women, so ye. It was the right call, probably. But not an exciting call. At least for me that is. I am waiting here in the dark, whispering to Ace about our first encounters as I wait for somebody, anybody, to wake up during the night to come inside the restroom.

“You remember the day we met?” I ask first.

“Ye, obviously,” he answers back.

“Well, what do you think?” I ask again.

“What do you mean by what you think? What do I think about?” he asks in a confused voice.

“What do you think about dangerous and strange things happening to us since we’ve met,” I clarify.

“Ohh… that… well I don’t know.” he pauses, then continues,

“There are pros and cons, some we feel and some we don’t feel at the moment.”

“Are you going to say what it is?” I ask again.

“Nope, too long, will just distract you from the mission right now.” he snaps and adds

“Nora, you gotta focus, we are talking so that you can be awake. Not for the distracting small talk.”

“Alright, I’ll focus.” I actually agree with his point. It’s just that I don’t know what to talk about with him. He is currently at the Lolrenian base camp #3’s control tower. He is using ‘mass observe’ on the enemy base while chatting with me. He is a little irritated because he can’t sleep today.

“Ace?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

“Well, this is middle of the night, so there are only 600 people awake in the post you're in, and they are probably guarding the outside and won’t come into the restroom inside.”

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask how many people are in this camp.”

“Well, there are about 80K in total, and there are 5 posts, so about 16K people, give or take 4K.”

Oh shit, that’s a lot of people. I think I’m really dumb, I went in this hell without any preparation. Rage can sometimes make people do dumb things I guess. Ace probably sensed my fear from the silence right then and there. He starts to comfort me,

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“Nora, you're going to be fine. They still don’t know your inside their base. They are as relaxed as ever.”

Let’s hope that is the case. If they know I am here, I have no chance of going out alive. Well, at least I got 2 lives left, so I won’t wipe instantly after I die. Gotta look up the current cost range of Dragon’s gift box. Like the skill ‘Dragon’s gift’ it gives one more life to the user. Unlike the skill counterpart though, it is a rare artifact. It is usually found in dangerous places like the Valahan cave we went into a couple days ago. Last time I looked up in the markets, which was about 2 months ago, its cost range was about 75K to 120K. Insane amount of money, but mmm… I guess it's a reasonable amount for a whole new life you could live.

“Oh, and for the case of you dying, I already have asked Raven if you could use one if we die.” Ace says something relieving at a tense moment.

“And?” I urge him to go on.

“She said we would only have to pay 25K for one, if you die on the mission.” he says with a hint of gratitude in his voice.

“Ah… thank god.” With this, my tension lowers significantly.

“Oh, and the bad news, we don’t have 25K at the moment, so please don’t die.” he adds, as if I would like to die in the first place.

“Nobody likes dying Ace, not even if it doesn’t decrease your life. Plus, 25K isn’t some money I can ask to a stranger you know.” I reply with a sarcastic voice.

“I know, sorry. Just was trying to make you tensen up for the upcoming danger.” he sounds genuinely sorry, so I will let it slide this time.

It has been over 2 hours, and nobody is coming in… I start to wonder if this was actually the right call. Then… I do something I should never do in the enemy camp. I start to get sleepy. I daze off into the…

“WAKE UP, WAKE UP NORA, NOW… THERE ARE PEOPLE COMING!!!” Ha??? What? Oh yeah, I am in the enemy camp. Why am I so dumb? I think to myself about what I should do when the enemy comes into the restroom. Mmm.. combo all my skills? Yes, that’s it. Don’t think after they come in, just aim and get it right. Also, I should use Asilent and buffed stealth, so I do just that. Then I ask,

“I am ready, how long till they get in?” I whisper into the transmitter.

“Only about 3 seconds, be ready.” Soon after Ace said this, a person comes in.

“Assassinate”, “Triple dagger throw”, “Dagger reap”, “Bane”, “Dagger parry strike”, Dagger throw”, “Silent strike”, he blocks it. “Dagger’s tip”, this breaks his block “Surge of agility”, then 3 basic attacks, he blocks the 4th. “Breakblock”, I hope he doesn’t run away and just fights me back. If he start to run, I am doomed. “Shoulder bash” he shouts, Ow, I think my ribs are broken. I haven’t seen his weapon because I was focused on comboing, but seeing it now, I realize he is a greatsword user. This isn’t going to be an easy battle. As my dagger parry strike’s cooltime gets to zero, I wait for the chance. “Dagger throw”, I use it again. Sadly my main combo skills are in cooltime right now. I gotta rely on my basic attacks and utility skills. He jumps in at me with a heavy attack. For greatsword, heavy attack is jumping to the enemy and full slashing the greatsword without any control. I gotta use this opportunity. “Dagger parry strike” I block his attack and then attack him. More like the skill blocks and attacks him, but I used the skill so who cares. I use this chance to basic combo him, he blocks the 3rd one. I am ready for this and use a heavy attack on him. Heavy attack for dagger is spinning my body while holding up a dagger. It breaks his block and knocks him back. I use buffed agility, which I saved up just for the times like this. I close the distance between us in an instant and slashes at him with a buffed attack speed. (buffed agility buffs both movement speed and attack speed). “Lethality”, sadly he doesn’t die with an epic lethality slain motion. Instead he gets knocked unconscious to the ground. This will do for now. I get his uniform, and identification key cards. I hope people won’t be suspicious.