Jay moved forward and activated his stealth skill when he hit the shadows outside of the Vanguard guild building. He had been training his stealth since Tom had explained the plan to him. It was brilliant. It would surely confuse them and give their group some breathing room. So stealth kills had been something that he had pounded into the heads of the other rogues in his squad. He understood that their part of the plan was the most critical so he made sure to push the team extra hard to be ready.
During their original meeting, Jay shared what he knew of the skills for rogues and how to make sure they could be as stealthy as possible. Using skills like Stealth and Camouflage in combination would add additional bonuses to their ability to hide from the enemy. Then he moved to teaching about the Backstab skill and the bonuses Stealth gives to damage. He even managed to find a training dummy in the vending machine and bought it to train the recruits on striking critical areas for greater effect.
He had them learn about the different weapons and tools used in the art of ninjutsu to be sure they could climb walls, lay traps, disarm traps, and wield weapons that would be most effective in their stealth. Throwing stars for projectiles, smoke bombs for escaping, daggers, short swords, kama, and even punch blades were demonstrated as effective means to kill an enemy. One member asked about silencers on handguns, and Jay had been so impressed that he had them each buy one with their monster cores so they had a backup ranged weapon for assassinations.
Each one of them had put all of their efforts into the training. Staying out late for night attacks on monsters, getting up early to use the sun to their advantage, and training even in their spare time to be sure they were ready for their mission. Jay was proud of the dedication they showed to their craft and the experience each one gained from it.
Now, they were going to be putting all of their practice and training to the ultimate test. First up was the wall of the enemy's base. Each one pulled out their grappling hooks and began pulling themselves up over the wall after securing their ropes. The sun had begun to peek over the horizon casting amber and pink lights over the area. As time progressed the sun would shine directly into the compound in front of them giving them an edge with the bright lights at their back.
Dropping into a crouch as lightly as they could, they landed inside the wall and looked around for any signs of movement. Seeing none, they crouched to activate their stealth skills and moved away from the wall to the first set of buildings at the edge of the base.
Jay used the hand signals he had taught them to give his orders. Stay close, watch for enemies, and keep your eyes and ears open. Follow my lead, but don't group up. Nodding to show they understood, the other rogues spread out slightly to several buildings all within sight of Jay, and awaited his orders.
Peering around the corner of the building and scanning the area, Jay motioned for them to move forward and the team began their move toward the main building. Hopping over barbed wire and darting from cover to cover behind the buildings, they grew closer to their target. As the sun continued to rise, Jay could make out the shambling shapes of some zombies on guard as they reached the edge of the ramshackle buildings surrounding the main base. Making another set of hand signals, two of his team broke off from the group and moved to surround the zombies.
Striking with their daggers, one member stabbed a zombie in the back of the head and the eye at the same time, killing it instantly. Another slashed the throat of a second zombie, which didn't kill it, but kept it from being able to scream. With a second slash of their sword, the head rolled onto the ground.
Jumping quickly back into the shadows of the building, Jay congratulated them on successful kills through hand gestures. Another pair of zombies walked around the corner of the main building, noticed the zombies on the ground, and moved to investigate. Jay leaned around the edge of the building and used his silenced handgun to shoot both of them between the eyes, killing them instantly with nothing more than a muffled "pew" sound.
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Moving immediately after the last zombie dropped, the team approached the main building. The large wooden doors were shut with windows on either side. Crouching down beneath the window sills, the team waited for Jay to give his signal.
With a nod of his head, they breached the doors and Jay fired several smoke bombs from a small device on his left forearm into the doors.
"Stormcrushers say hello, mother fuckers!" Jay yelled as he followed it up with several shurikens to the heads of several zombies milling about inside.
The rest of the team moved to take their own shots and then began backing up from the main door. Zombies began pouring out of the entrance, followed by a man with glasses, whom Jay recognized from his original attempt at spying on the group.
"Mistress Shandra will rule this whole town in the name of Stormcrusher!" Jay continued laying it on thick to drive the point home.
"KILL THEM! KILL THE INVADERS THAT DARE ATTACK US!" The man with glasses yelled out to the hordes.
Jay and his team continued backing up as the zombies got closer and closer. They all began firing with their guns to kill as many as they could, before equipping their short swords and preparing to take on the enemies. Soon they met the first wave with slashing swords and smoke screens released to obscure the enemy's vision.
A shot fired off right past Jay's head and the zombie next to him went down missing half of his head.
"There she is," Jay commented quietly as he smiled to himself knowing Kiera was ready to help them out.
"Time for the strategic retreat!" Jay called out as he decapitated another zombie.
Beginning to fall back, one of the rogues got surrounded and the zombies piled on top of him as he let out screams from under the biting and clawing bodies.
"STEVE!" Another called out.
"We can't help him, there's too many. We have to get back or we will all end up like Steve!" Jay growled at the man.
His shoulders slumped as he nodded in understanding, and they all broke off and raced back to the outer wall. Zombies began to give chase, though they were slower than the rogues because of their decaying bodies. They easily made it to the wall before the zombies and used a second grappling hook to climb up to the top of the wall. They pulled the ropes up after themselves so that zombies didn't try to begin climbing after them.
"To the gate you fucking buffoons! After them!" The man yelled at the zombies, and they began to move to the gate.
Fortunately, Tom had warned Jay about having anything on them that might lead back to Vanguard before sending them out. Jay regretted the loss of Steve but knew that this was for the better good and when he reached the ground, they ran toward the gates and straight ahead to where Tom's forces were waiting.
Arrows began to fly from behind them as well and they had to begin running in a zig-zag pattern to avoid being hit.
"Where did a fucking zombie learn to shoot a damn bow?!" Jay growled as they ran back and forth.
Chancing a glance over his shoulder, he saw zombie goblins on top of the walls on either side of the gate, trying to fire arrows at them. One zombie tried to pull the string back on his bow, and accidentally released the string when the arrow had slipped off, and instead took its arm, which had come off from the force of the draw, and sent it sailing across the road in front of the walls.
The arm slapped one of the rogues running next to Jay in the back of the head and the man cried out at first, before realizing it wasn't an arrow burying into his head. Grabbing at the arm, which was still moving and had grabbed onto his clothes, he looked at it for a moment, then threw it away quickly in disgust.
Another sad zombie noise could be heard from behind them as they continued running. Ahead, Jay caught a glimpse of Tom waiting around a corner for them and as Tom nodded once, then pulled back behind the cover, Jay ran even harder to reach the corner. It would all be up to them from that point forward.