Chapter 105
A Party Split Apart
Erin, Lexton and Durge were being led by Zeldana, whose hearing was able to pick up on the sound of the approaching truck. They made their way towards a cavern, where the vehicle was apparently going to appear from. The group soon hid themselves behind some rocks and waited for their target to appear.
“Are you sure that the truck is coming here?” Erin asked Zeldana. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Do you think these ears of mine are just for show? There’s a reason why they’re so damn big!” the elf replied, pointing at her ears which were a signature characteristic of elves. “Remember that I heard the fight you guys were having with that puppet master from within a house that was still pretty far away. With the noise carried by the echoes within these caves, picking up the sound is a piece of cake for me!”
Despite still having some doubts, the redhead decided to trust her companion. It was too late to regret her decision now, as they had already left Ryle behind to fight against two assassins at the same time. The only thing she could do was make sure that the blonde risking her life wouldn’t be wasted.
However, upon thinking about the friend they had left behind, Erin noticed that someone else was missing. A certain cat boy to be specific.
“Guys? Where’s Arnie?” the redhead as she was looking around frantically for their missing comrade. “He’s not here. Did he turn himself invisible at some point?”
“No, he didn’t do anything like that,” Lexton replied. “He stayed behind with Ryle in order to help her fight those two.”
“What the-!? When did that happen!?” Erin asked. “More importantly, when did you find out!?”
“Pretty much as soon as he made the decision, I noticed it,” the kobold explained. “When we were running away from those elves, I noticed that he suddenly stopped. I turned to look at him and saw that he had a determined look in his eyes, before he ran back to where Ryle was. It wasn’t exactly hard to figure out what he was going to do.”
“Why didn’t you say anything!?” the redhead asked angrily. “We need to go back and-!”
“And do what!? Waste the opportunity that Arnie and Ryle gave us!?” Lexton shouted. “If we go back, those two will have risked their lives for nothing! How about instead of acting on every emotion you get, you think things through for once!?”
Erin was taken aback by the kobold’s sudden outburst. While she understood what he meant, she still didn’t feel right about leaving anyone behind, whether Ryle or Arkay. In all honesty, she was just looking for any excuse to go back and help her friends.
“He’s right, Erin. We can’t go back now,” Durge said. “Both Ryle and Arnie were ready to face those two, despite knowing the danger. They did it for our sake and going back to them would be the same as us spitting on their faces. The best way for us to help them now is make sure we don’t fail our job.”
“...You’re right,” Erin said, steeling her resolve. “Sorry about that. Let’s focus on our job, so Ryle and Arnie won’t have anything to worry about.”
“Glad to see that you’ve finally come to your senses,” Lexton said with a smile. “Anyways, I have an idea on how to get inside the base.”
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Meanwhile, the truck transporting supplies to Gotzmeyer’s base was making its way through the caves. Due to the importance of the delivery, the truck had two people in it, a driver and a guard. Both were armed, just in case anything happened on their way to the base. Not only were there numerous creatures that would make a lone delivery truck their target, but there was also the possibility of bandits and other such people attacking. Even if they had a relatively safe route that they could use to get to their destination, there was always the chance of things going wrong, so having armed guards was a necessity.
The truck came to a sudden stop, as the driver saw something strange up ahead. It was a thick cloud of some type of smoke that was blocking their path. Since there could be traps placed within the smoke or something could be waiting behind it, their best option was to stop.
For a moment, both the driver and the guard simply sat in the truck, waiting to see what would happen. The truck itself had a strong armor and the windows had been made bulletproof, so they weren’t in any danger at the moment. However, simply sitting around without knowing what was going around would rattle the nerves of even the most hardened guards, which is why they felt the need to do something.
“Wait here. I’ll go see what this is about,” the guard said to the driver, as he exited the vehicle.
The guard readied his rifle, in case something jumped out of the smoke or his surroundings. He slowly walked closer to the cloud of smoke, while looking around for anything that could be an enemy of some kind. He stopped a few steps away from the cloud and stayed there, rifle at the ready.
However, nothing came out at all and there were no sounds of living beings either. Eventually, the smoke began to disperse, revealing nothing but the same road they usually taken.
Confused by this, the guard wondered what could have been the cause of the smoke. He then decided to check their cargo, in case someone had broken into it while they remained still. Yet even then, nothing out of the ordinary could be seen. The door to the back of the truck was closed and the lock didn’t have any signs that it had been tampered with.
Assuming that it was just some sort of a natural gas that had leaked from underground, the guard returned to his seat next to the driver and they continued their journey. Little did they know that they were now carrying extra cargo, but had failed to see where it was.
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Back with Ryle and Arkay, the battle they were in with the two elven assassins was about to start. Both sides were locked in, staring down each other. The blonde and the cat boy had nervous sweat running down the sides of their faces, while the two elves were completely calm, certain about their victory.
“Hey, are you two sure that you have the time to be taking things so leisurely?” Ryle asked, hoping to get a reaction from at least one of their opponents. “Most of our group already got away. I doubt your bosses would be happy about that.”
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“Oh, there’s no need to worry about that,” the elf boy said. “This only makes things easier for us. Right, Aliza?”
“That’s right, Denzer,” the elf woman said. “We might have orders to kill you two and most of your group, but our boss wants your group’s leader alive. The fact that you decided to split your group only makes it easier for us to kill you two, without having to worry about her. We can catch her later with the help of Gotzmeyer’s people.”
“...Why is it that you people want Erin alive?” Arkay asked. “This has come up before with you assassins. Why would those who excel at killing people be sent to capture somebody?”
“Do you really think we know or care as to why our bosses want your redheaded friend alive? All we know is that we were told to bring her to them alive and we would be begging for death, if we messed that up!” Aliza said. “However, we still need to eliminate the bugs clinging to her, so we were the perfect choice for this job, don’t you agree?”
“I doubt you bozos are any good for taking us on! Haven’t you heard what happened to all of your buddies that took us on before you!?” Ryle boasted with a grin. “Looking at our track record, I’d say that you two don’t have the best of chances, so why don’t you piss off!? If you apologize now and promise never to come before us, we might just let you go…”
The two elf assassins laughed at the threat from the blonde. She was obviously not intimidating them at all.
“Do you really think that scares us?” Aliza asked with a grin. “We are well-aware that the only reason you’ve beat any of our colleagues is because you fought them together! Now that it’s just the two of you, it’s you whose chances don’t look good.”
“OH YEAH!?” Ryle shouted defiantly, as she took out her whip and swung it towards the elf woman. “WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT SOON, WON’T WE!?”
The whip was easily dodged by Aliza, allowing it to crash into a nearby rock and break it. Using this moment to her advantage, the elf assassin raised up her arm and brought it down suddenly. Before Ryle could react, what seemed like invisible blades seemed to cut through the ground and slice at her arm that was holding the whip. The blonde screamed in pain as her arm was now bleeding.
“RYLE!” Arkay shouted as he tried to rush to her side in order to help her.
However, the cat boy’s efforts were thwarted, as Denzer rushed at him, delivering a kick to the stomach and sending him flying back.
“It’s not fair to leave me out of the playing,” the elf boy said with a smirk as he pulled out a knife that suddenly extended into a spear. “Since my sister is busy with your friend, I get to play with you! Make this at least fun for me, would you?”
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Back at Gotzmeyer’s base, the delivery truck had just gotten past the last security check it needed to clear in order to gain access. With no further clearance needed, the guards driving the vehicle were able to take it to the loading bay, where their cargo would be unpacked by the people stationed there.
While the people working the loading bay area were busy with taking the supplies out from the back of the truck, no one was able to notice four figures suddenly crawl out from underneath the vehicle and disappear into the shadows. These were Erin and her companions that had come along with her to infiltrate the base. While the guards had been distracted by the smoke cloud Lexton had created, the redhead and the others had crawled underneath the truck and clung to the underside of the vehicle, allowing them to get through the security checks.
“Okay, so we made it inside. Now what?” Durge asked as he peeked around the corner to see the soldiers move around the area. “Where do we go from here?”
“We need to find where Gotzmeyer is, so we should look for his office or whatever they call the room he stays at,” Erin said. “We should probably grab a soldier who is on their own and force them to tell us where we can find him.”
“While that would be an effective way of doing it, it’s also a bit risky,” Lexton said. “Not only do we run the risk of the soldier not being alone, but they can easily alert others by simply screaming or making other loud sounds. Not only that, but once people realize that whoever we picked up isn’t at their post, it will become a race against time for us to finish our business here before it’s too late.”
“So what do you suggest that we do?” the redhead asked. “It’s not like we have a convenient map for us to use!”
“Actually, we do,” the kobold said.
“...What? Where?” Erin asked. “I don’t remember us-”
Lexton didn’t say anything in response. He simply pointed to a monitor mounted on a nearby wall. After pressing on it, it showed the current floor they were in and all the rooms nearby. There was even a bright red spot that said “YOU.”
image [https://i.ibb.co/Jkrxcz3/Ch-105-Pic-1.jpg]
“...Seriously?” the redhead asked.
“It’s a large building. People get lost in much smaller places,” the kobold said. “When dealing with a place where you need be on time everywhere you go, I’d say these are pretty useful for people.”
After making sure that there was no one around to spot them, Erin and her companions went to investigate the map. They were able to quickly find the place where their target was most likely located, “Gotzmeyer’s War Room.”
“War room? Seriously?” Erin asked. “For some reason, I feel like this guy is trying to appear more impressive than he actually is…”
“Hey, with the type of power and achievements the guy has, I’d say he’s more than earned it,” Durge said. “Besides, I doubt it’s actually some sort of a low self-esteem issue that had the room named like that.”
“Nah, I think Erin might be on to something here,” Zeldana said. “From what I’ve heard, these warlords have some pretty fragile egos. I wouldn’t put it past them to name their personal offices in such a manner, just to make themselves feel bigger than they are.”
“Would you guys mind and focus!?” Lexton asked angrily. “Seriously, half the time I’m dealing with you all I feel like I’m dealing with a daycare center for the brain damaged!”
“Right, right! No need to get all upset,” Erin said as she rolled her eyes, before inspecting the map before them. “Let’s see… We’re currently on the first floor and we need to get to the top floor, which is the fifth one. So should we take the elevator or the stairs?”
“Stairs. There’s no question about it,” Durge said. “We’d be a sitting target inside an elevator. Not to mention, we could get easily spotted by someone else wanting to use the elevator.”
“And you think there aren’t people using the stairs or there aren’t security cameras?” Lexton asked sarcastically. “In order for us to get there, our best option is to pick a method that isn’t heavily guarded or used. That’s why I say instead of going up, we go down to the basement.”
“The basement?” Erin asked. “Why there?”
“Because of this,” the kobold replied, pointing at a specific spot on the map that showed the laundry room. “In buildings like these, there are often laundry shoots that people use to drop down their dirty clothing. We should be able to use those to climb up to the top floor. If nothing else, we should be able to get much closer.”
“How do you know this?” Zeldana asked.
“I’ve been to military bases before. Mostly selling some of the stuff that I had,” Lexton explained. “Even if you don’t get too deep inside, you learn a few things here and there.”
“Are you sure about this idea?” Durge asked. “Not only do I fear that I might not fit into a tiny space like that, but do you really think we can get that far with this method? Seems a bit too convenient…”
“Well, let me put it this way. You are either going to have to suck up your claustrophobia and climb through some dirty laundry or you can take your chances with hundreds of armed guards, lethal security systems and God only knows what other horrors this place might have in store for us,” the kobold explained in a sarcastic tone. “Now, which option would you like to go with?”
“...Maybe I’ll fit into that things just fine, after all,” the orc said.
“That’s what I thought,” Lexton said.
With their objective set, Erin began to look for the best route for them to make their way to the basement. As she was doing this, she noticed something that caught her interest.
“Hey, Lex. What do you think this is?” the redhead asked while pointing at something located on the part of the base that was facing the bedrock behind it. “Can there really be anything there? I mean, isn’t that just stone over there?”
“Good job picking that up, Erin!” Lexton said in a slightly excited tone. “That’s got to be the emergency exit for this base! In case of a natural disaster or them getting overrun, that’s their way of getting out of here.”
“You think we can use that once we’re done here?” Durge asked.
“Definitely,” the kobold said with a smile. “That path has got to lead either to the surface or to another city. Once there, we can figure out where to move forward.”
“But what about Ryle and Arnie?” Erin asked. “They don’t know about this!”
“You don’t need to worry about those two. Knowing how tough they are, those assassins are the ones in trouble,” Lexton said. “Once we get into action here, this base will be in complete chaos. During that, they can sneak their way in or we can get to them. Once we’ve reunited, we can figure out what to do.”
With their plan set, Erin and her companions started to make their way towards the basement in order for them to get to Gotzmeyer. They might not have known about the danger their friends were in, but what they also didn’t know was that they were heading towards a much more dangerous foe.