Chapter 108
Hiding in the Chaos
Chaos had fallen over the base, as alarms blared and soldiers everywhere scrambled to figure out what was going on. After the explosion, Erin and her companions had rushed into action, facing off against the soldiers that had been nearby and had come to the scene. Due to being taken by surprise and not carrying more than the basic weaponry they had on them, the group of infiltrators were able to quickly and efficiently take down the soldiers.
Now they were trying their best to find a place to hide and let the noise die down. This was proving to be quite difficult, as more soldiers were starting to make their way to them. Not to mention, they also had a bit of an internal conflict going on that was causing issues.
“Well, this all just went freaking swell, didn’t it, Erin!?” Lexton yelled angrily as he threw a vial at a group of soldiers that burst into flames. “How about next time we decide to sneak in somewhere, we bring an entire marching band with us!? I’m sure they’ll appreciate it!”
“Hey, what the hell was I supposed to do!? The guy had already seen me and started yelling!” the redhead yelled back as she cut down another soldier. “Since you seem to carry yourself like you know everything, would you tell me what I was supposed to do!?”
“For starters, how about just taking a slight peek instead of opening the whole damn hatch!?” the kobold yelled. “Do you just open the whole door when you want to simply take a look inside!? You dumb asshole! What kind of an assassin even are you!?”
“Would two mind and just shut the hell up already!?” Durge asked angrily as he threw two soldiers through a nearby window. “This whole thing is already enough of a mess and I doubt your childish bickering is going to really help us out with it!”
“Do you really have to stop them? I was having fun watching them argue,” Zeldana said as she sat on top of a small pile of corpses while drinking a soda. “These guys are like my personal sitcom! Let me have some fun while we’re here.”
Erin ignored the further bickering from her companions and began to look for a way out of the mess they were in. At first, there didn’t seem to be anything, as every hallway and staircase seemed to be crawling with armed soldiers. The laundry shoot was also not an option, as any places it led to was most likely already being watched over. It looked like their only option was to go down fighting to the end.
However, the redhead then realized something that might be a key for them to saving themselves, as her eyes fell on a nearby door.
“Lex! I need a smokescreen!” Erin yelled.
“Go it!” the kobold replied as he pulled out a new vial. “Everybody cover your mouths and hold your breath!”
As soon as the glass container shattered on the floor, the chemicals that were released reacted with the air and produced a large cloud of smoke that blinded the soldiers that had surrounded them.
“This way! Quick!” Erin called out.
Following the redhead, the group ran into one of the nearby rooms. As soon as the door was slammed shut, Erin and Durge piled some of the furniture against it, effectively barricading it.
“That should buy us some time. Not much, though,” Durge said. “What do we do next?”
“That’s actually something I’ll be needing your help specifically,” Erin answered.
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Outside the room, the soldiers were trying desperately to break down the door, but were unable to do so. Seeing as simple brawn wasn’t going to solve their problem, they decided to call in demolition experts to blow the door open for them.
However, as they were waiting for the special team to arrive with the explosives, they heard some very loud noises coming from the room. Fearing what the infiltrators might have been doing, they hurried the demolition team to set up their explosives. Once this was done, the door along with the furniture blocking it was blown away.
When they came inside, the soldiers noticed that there was no one inside and that the furniture had been thrown around, like a hurricane had come through. As they began to wonder where the infiltrators might have disappeared to, they soon noticed something. There was a large hole on the floor that led to the floor below.
“They escaped to the lower floor!” one of the soldiers yelled, as they all began to head downstairs. “Quick! We cannot let them get away!”
As soon as the last of the soldiers had left, Erin and her companions appeared from behind the furniture that had been thrown around the place. They had simply used the hole to lead their pursuers on a different path, while hiding themselves elsewhere.
“That should buy us some time,” Erin said with a small smile. “You guys okay?”
“I’m fine,” Durge replied.
“Same here. My ears are just ringing from that explosion,” Zeldana said while gently rubbing her ears.
“I’m… honestly a bit worried,” Lexton said.
“How come?” Erin asked.
“Well, the fact that such a simple plan actually worked kind of bothers me,” the kobold explained. “I’m honestly having a hard time believing that.”
“Hey, sometimes simple plans are the best ones, okay?” the redhead said, somewhat irked by Lexton’s comment. “Anyways, we should get going before they realize how badly they’ve been fooled.”
The group made their way out of the room they had been hiding in, swiftly taking out the few soldiers that had been left to guard the area. They were now moving around the floor, trying to find a place to lay low for some time until things calmed down. As they did this, they came across a few stray soldiers, who were quickly taken care of before they could raise an alarm.
“So any ideas as to where we should go?” Durge asked as they were running through the hallways. “Right now, I’m open to any and all suggestions!”
“We need to find a place where either they wouldn’t think to look or where we can hide easily,” Lexton said. “The problem is that there aren’t many places like that around here.”
“What would those places be like?” Erin asked.
“Storage areas would be good ones, whether for food or other materials meant to be used by this place. The best option would be a weapons storage, as we could use the things stored there to defend ourselves,” the kobold explained. “However, if we really want to hide, the best place would be something so disgusting and repulsive that the people chasing us would hesitate to even look into it, such as their trash or sewage.”
“Okay, do you have some weird obsession with diving into some of the most disgusting things out there!?” the redhead asked angrily. “First it was the dirty laundry and now you want to go to even worse places!? What is wrong with you!?”
“Hey it’s not like I enjoy it myself! I’m just doing my best to survive!” Lexton argued. “If you think you can escape by hiding in a comfy lounge or something, you’re free to try that!”
Before the arguing could continue any further, voices of soldiers from behind a nearby corner reached their ears.
“Hey, did you hear something!?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Yeah, it could be them!” another replied. “Let’s go check it out!”
Hearing this followed by the sound of approaching footsteps, Erin’s group began to slightly panic and prepare for another fight.
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“Shit! Guess we’ve got no choice but to handle these guys as well!” Durge cursed as he readied his hammer. “At this rate, we’ll have to just take down everyone in this damn place!”
As the sound of footsteps was getting closer, Erin looked around for a place to hide. They might have been lucky with the other soldiers so far, but that luck was going to run out at some point. It was then that she noticed large double doors close to them. She figured it was better than nothing.
“Guys, this way! Quick!” the redhead called out to her companions, before she opened one of the doors and went inside, soon followed by the others.
Pressing themselves against the walls next to the doors, the group quietly listened as the soldiers arrived at the place they had just been at. All of them still had their hands on their weapons, ready to strike down these new foes, in case they decided to look inside where they were.
“That’s weird… I could have sworn that I heard something over here,” one of the soldiers said. “You heard it as well, right? It wasn’t just me hearing things.”
“Nah, I heard it just the same you did. There was definitely something here,” another soldier replied as he began to walk towards the doors. “Maybe they hid themselves in here?”
Hearing that one of the soldiers was approaching put Erin and the others on edge. They all grasped their weapons tightly, waiting for the moment they needed to be unleashed.
However, much to their surprise and relief, it seemed like luck was on their side.
“Wait, you moron! Don’t even touch that door!” another soldier yelled, stopping the one walking to the door in his tracks. “You know as well as everybody else here that we are not allowed to enter that room, unless given specific instructions to do so! Are you trying to get us all killed!?”
“But they could still be there!” the soldier at the door argued. “I’m sure a quick peek can be forgiven, right!?”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what the last dumbass that pulled that shit said to himself! You do know that his head is still hanging over the front gate, don’t you!? And you still want to take that risk!?” another soldier argued. “If you want to get yourself killed, do it on your own time! Don’t drag us into it!”
“...Fine,” the soldier at the door said. “Let’s go look for them somewhere else. They cannot have gone far.”
As they sound of footsteps from the leaving soldiers grew faint, Erin and the others allowed themselves to let out deep breaths of relief. For a moment, they had been certain that they would get caught.
“That was close,” Erin said. “I was certain that we were done for.”
“Same here. I think my heart skipped a few beats,” Durge said. “I hope I never go through that again.”
“I was honestly waiting for one of you to mess up and let them know that we were here,” Zeldana said. “It would have been hilarious, if one you sneezed or farted very loudly. I kind of feel like I got cheated out of a good laugh.”
“...Thanks for the confidence you have in us, Zel,” Erin said as she glared at the elf.
While most of the group was talking among themselves, one member was completely silent, as he was lost in thought. Lexton had picked up on something important and his mind was now focused on it.
“Hey, Lex. I something wrong?” Erin called out to the kobold, noticing the look on his face. “You haven’t said anything ever since we came here. What’s bothering you?”
“It’s this room that’s bothering me,” Lexton answered. “Didn’t you hear what those guys said? Even though the doors can be opened easily, they wouldn’t dare come inside despite how likely it was that we were inside. Almost like there’s something in here that would kill them for daring to do so.”
“So? Isn’t that what we needed?” Durge asked. “You said it yourself that we needed to hide in some place that they would hesitate to look into. The way I see it, we got incredibly lucky and found just the right thing.”
“That might be so, but why were they so afraid that they wouldn’t even peek inside?” the kobold asked. “What’s in here that is so dangerous that you are sentenced to death over simply looking at it?”
Now that Lexton had pointed it out, Erin realized that he had a point. Getting inside hadn’t been hard at all, yet the soldiers were terrified of even taking a look inside, like the room itself was a horrendous monster. What could have possibly scared them so badly?
Taking a look around, the redhead realized that the room they were in was quite large, big enough to fit an entire house into it easily. In the middle was a long table with chairs set neatly on both sides. The walls were decorated with different types of weapons, ranging from swords to rifles. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that the weapons were damaged and some even had stains of blood on them, meaning that these weren’t just any normal decorations. These were trophies of war, taken from their slain owners after a hard battle.
At the opposite end of the room from the door, there were steps that led to what looked like a throne. The throne itself had the skull of a beast decorating it.
However, what quickly caught the attention of Erin and the others was the figure that was sitting on throne. Upon realizing who it was, all color drained from the redhead’s face.
Sitting there and looking down at them was none other than Gotzmeyer, one of the three warlords of the Western Continent.
“W-W-W-What the hell!?” Lexton exclaimed as he pressed his back against the wall as much as possible, almost like he was trying to disappear into it. “Why the hell is Gotzmeyer here!?”
“I guess this explains why those guys weren’t keen on coming here!” Durge said as he quickly pulled out his hammer. Despite trying his best to appear calm, he was obviously starting to panic from getting caught off-guard in such a manner. “Something tells me that this guy isn’t too keen on people sneaking into his private quarters! That’s why those who even peek inside get killed!”
“Wow, we’re really screwed now,” Zeldana said as she stared at the warlord with wide eyes. “I know this was the place we were trying to get to, but I don’t think doing it with the alarms blaring was part of the plan.”
Erin was grasping her sword tightly as sweat was dripping down her face. Her mind was racing in an attempt to find a method out of the mess they now found themselves in, but came up with nothing. They were supposed to locate Gotzmeyer and then plan for a surprise attack. Taking him on through a frontal assault was not part of the plan at all.
However, as the group was panicking, the redhead realized something strange. Despite all the noise, the warlord didn’t move at all. It was almost like he was frozen still on his throne.
“Guys. There’s something weird about this,” Erin whispered to the others, who turned their attention to her. “He’s completely still. Why hasn’t he moved at all?”
After having it pointed out to them, the others realized it as well. Despite everything that had happened, Gotzmeyer remained frozen in place.
“Hey, you’re right,” Durge whispered back. “What’s up with this?”
“Maybe that’s not a throne, but a toilet?” Zeldana suggested. “He could be in the middle of taking a dump. You don’t really move while doing that.”
“...Really?” Erin asked as she glared at the elf.
“It’s a theory. You got a better one?” Zeldana asked in return.
“Would you idiots mind and focus on the matter at hand!?” Lexton asked angrily. “The way I see it, this is our golden opportunity! So let’s use it to our advantage already!”
“And by using this opportunity you mean what exactly?” Durge asked with a raised eyebrow.
“To get the hell out of here!” the kobold replied. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not looking forward to getting killed by that guy!”
“Hang on! Wasn’t the whole point of us coming here that we were supposed to take Gotzmeyer down!?” Erin asked in a shocked voice. “What the hell are you talking about running away now!?”
“Oh… Right… That was a thing, wasn’t it?” Lexton said with a sigh. “Goddammit… The things I’ve gotten myself mixed in.”
“For the love of… Anyways, what Lex said did have some truth to it,” the redhead said. “This is a good opportunity for us. If he’s incapacitated for some reason, we can get the drop on him.”
“So we’re going to strike first and fast in order to seize victory?” Durge asked as he gripped his hammer. “Sounds good to me. So how do we go about pulling this off?”
“Let’s move closer carefully and quietly. As we do so, we’ll observe him and see how he’ll react,” Erin explained. “Depending on how he reacts, we’ll get as close as we can and then launch our attack. The way I see it, we might be able to get a good hit in at least.”
With their plan set, Erin and the others began to move closer towards Gotzmeyer with their weapons at the ready. As they were getting closer, there were no signs of movement from the warlord at all. He simply kept sitting on his throne, almost like a statue.
Eventually, the group of assassins were able to get very close to Gotzmeyer. Both Erin and Durge were just a couple of steps away from the warlord. Despite being this close, there were still no signs of any activity from him.
Readying themselves for the attack, Erin and Durge looked at each other. Giving each other a nod, the two of them dashed towards their target. In their combined attack, they hit the warlord with everything they got. Durge hit Gotzmeyer on the head and back with his hammer as hard as he could. As this happened, Erin slashed at the warlord with her sword. Once Gotzmeyer’s body hit the floor, she continued the attack by stabbing him with her sword a couple of times to make sure that he wouldn’t get up.
After their attack was done, everyone stood still and silent, staring down at their slain opponent’s body. They were all in shock and surprise over what had just happened, unable to believe that taking down such a powerful foe would have actually been so simple and easy. Erin even poked at the body before them with her sword a bit to see if it would move, yet nothing happened.
As unbelievable as it was, the truth was that Gotzmeyer, one of the three warlords of the Western Continent that was feared as throughout the whole world, was dead.
“Holy shit… Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!” Zeldana yelled out in excitement. “You guys did it! You actually did it! You beat Gotzmeyer’s ass!”
“No way… Is this for real?” Durge asked out of disbelief. “We actually beat him this easily!?”
“I know what you mean, Durge, but the truth is looking you straight in the face right now,” Lexton said as he let out a small laugh from relief. “I honestly would have never thought that something like this would be possible, but here it is. I guess even the mightiest of warriors can be easily killed, once they let their guard down. Simple as that.”
As her companions were cheering over their victory, Erin just kept staring at the fallen warlord before her. As much as she wanted to believe that they had won, something about it felt wrong. This had all been just far too easy. She couldn’t help but feel like they were either missing something or that this was all just a trap of some kind.
“What are you spacing out for, Erin?” Durge asked as he and the others were already walking away. “Our job here is done. We should be getting out of here.”
“I know, but… Don’t you think that there is something wrong with this?” the redhead asked. “I mean, this guy was supposed to be a fearsome warlord that everyone feared, yet he was killed this easily? Doesn’t that seem far too convenient to any of you?”
“Hey, I’m all about skepticism and all, and this definitely seems far too good to be true, but the evidence literally lays in front of you,” Lexton said. “He’s the guy we came here to kill. You and Durge hit him with your weapons. He fell over and isn’t moving. I don’t think there’s really anything that needs further explanation. I don’t know if he was asleep or already dead or whatever that made this so easy, but I’m not going to turn down an easy victory.”
Erin still wanted to argue, feeling in her gut that there was still something very wrong. However, the kobold was completely right and the evidence was right before her eyes. There was no use trying to deny what had just happened.
After giving the fallen warlord one last look, the redhead followed behind her friends. Despite her doubts, she had to accept the fact that they had accomplished their goal, no matter how unbelievable it may have seemed.
However, just as they were about to get to the door, Erin heard the sound of something moving behind her. She turned around and her lone eye went as wide as possible.
“Uhhh… Guys?” the redhead called out to her companions. “I think you might want to look at this.”
“Oh, what is it now, Erin?” Lexton asked in a frustrated tone as he simply kept walking, not looking back at all. “Look, I get it that this seems unreal, I’m with you on that, but you have to admit that Gotzmeyer is now a corpse whose only threat is the smell of him decomposing! Why can’t you just accept that!?”
“Perhaps because the “corpse” just stood up and is looking mighty pissed off!” Erin yelled.
image [https://i.ibb.co/H4LQz2D/Ch-108-Pic-1.jpg]
Hearing this, the redhead’s companions finally stopped in their tracks and turned around. Much to their shock and horror, what she had said was true. Gotzmeyer was indeed standing and now moving towards them.
“Oh… This is not good,” Lexton said as he stared at the warlord in terror.
“No shit! What was your first clue!?” Erin yelled angrily at the kobold.