I continue to move from one target to the next, moving as fast as possible to take out as many as I can before my invisibility is up. Once that happens, I’ll have to find a spot to hide until the reinforcements arrive

If we do have a traitor like I suspect, I’m sure they’ll have the warp pad surrounded on all sides. We just have to hope they’ll be ready for it, if not then we’re triple screwed.

After about twenty more minutes of sneak attacks, I begin my hunt for an adequate spot to hide. I’m hoping that wherever I find will also have one or two member of the group looking to hide there as well.

My masteries have also shown a nice improvement, and while I wasn’t able to get a full level, I feel like I’m close.

Traversing the building, I look around for anywhere small and inconspicuous enough to fit me. It would also be preferable if it was at a vantage point to be able to take stock of the situation, though I don’t suspect I’ll get that lucky.

After enough looking, I find it. A small storage closet with a window that faces the font courtyard. Inside the closet is a small locker with three small slits at around eye level that face directly to the window.

I wait in the room while my invisibility is active to see if anyone searches the room. Luckily and unluckily, a few soldiers stumble in and pretty much ransack the poor closet. Luckily, because then they may not check it for a while or see that it’s already ransacked and has been checked. Unluckily, because it means this closet isn’t as inconspicuous and out of the way as I thought.

‘Too late now though, it’s do or die in this locker.’ I say to myself as I begin my stakeout just as my invisibility runs out.

I carefully control my breathing and movements to emit as little noise as possible. I can never be too careful as who knows what kind of sensory abilities people have.

Surprisingly, this comes naturally to me. I think it may have something to do with my upgraded dexterity.

Either way it’s a welcome surprise. I watch outside the window through the locker for any movement.

Squads of soldiers weave through all directions, searching for any sign of us. While they seem to be patrolling aimlessly for now, with the invisibility worn off, it’s only a matter of time before one of us is found.

I can only hope that they are instructed not to kill on sight, or else a few of us might be seeing an early grave.

‘So much for our plan, no way we stood a chance against this many soldiers anyway, even if we weren’t locked in here.’

I continue my soldier watching.

After about five minutes, something interesting happens. I see a tall, important looking figure walk through the main gate like the barrier isn’t even there. Around him are several elite and professional looking guards and what looks to be some sort of assistant scribbling in a notepad furiously behind him.

I watch as soldiers seem to quickly follow wherever he points his finger. Several men come up to him and salute before he seems to barrage a mound of orders at the men. What those order may be, I haven’t the faintest clue, but they seem dangerous.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

‘Shit, he’s got to be some kind of general or something. That’s bad news.’

He continues to point in seemingly random directions, as his assistant furiously writes down system knows what.

Finally, after another five minutes, a somewhat meek-looking soldier comes up to him with some sort of flat looking device.

The soldier holds it up to him as the general, or whatever he is, considers whatever information is on the flat device. His face grows more and more solemn by the second, until his fist are practically shuddering in rage.

He turns to his assistant in barely contained rage, and gives him some sort of order. The assistant salutes and runs quickly into the building.

‘Holy shit he’s pissed, I wonder what kind of information would piss off someone that important…’

----------------------------------------

Empire Lieutenant Harvey’s POV

I watch from outside the warp pad building as the alarms go up and the barrier ward goes up. If all things go right we should have these guys either dead or caught before these so called ‘reinforcements’ arrive.

I mean really, how the hell did they expect to stack up to hundred of soldiers with a few puny Kingdom spies.

“Gerald, when we walk in there, I want you to take note of any abnormalities you may notice. Anything from a strange noise to maybe a passing shadow, anything. Use that skill of yours too, they’re obviously using some sort of invisibility, which is a bit unexpected, but besides that everything is going according to plan, let’s keep it that way.” I say sternly.

“Yes sir!” Gerald replies quickly.

“And you guys.” I say looking at the small crew of elite guards around me, “I want you guys on full alert, if they are planning on taking me down, shortly after I enter the ward is the time to do it.”

They all nod and salute.

“Good, now let’s move in and start getting some status reports on the situation. Time is of the essence here, so no point in wasting it.”

We begin to move briskly to the gate of the building. When I reach the ward itself, a system notification plays out in my head.

I click yes and a another system prompt appears allowing me to give my assistant and bodyguards access to leave and enter as they please.

Once we enter, we are immediately hit with a wave of noises. Shouting soldiers giving orders, sounds of banging, and hundreds of hurried footsteps.

I start taking charge almost instantly, guiding soldiers to more optimal posts based on the floor plans I saw. I use my skill Multmanage to even boost my own and the soldiers performance in completely their designated tasks.

Multiple higher level soldiers come up to me and salute looking for orders. I oblige them and immediately dish out a handful of orders, making sure to convey the seriousness of the matter in my tone.

Once that’s done, I wait for status reports from each squadron and for the logistical officer to give me a casualty report.

This takes a few minutes for the reports to come through, but the reports aren’t encouraging. Somehow no trace of any of them yet, even though their invisibility should already have run its course.

‘Unless he lied to me, but that’s not probable considering the circumstances…’

I’m broken from my train of thought by a young man holding a celestial tablet with a bunch of statistics on it.

“Casualty and status report sir.” The man says nervously.

I look curiously at the man’s reaction before turning my head towards the tablet. Immediately my face goes dark.

‘I can’t be reading that right. How the HELL did they manage to take out so many men so quickly.’

“Two-hundred and thirteen dead? How did this happen soldier?”

He gulps nervously,

“Well, sir, the number of missing or dead increased slowly at first, with only about thirty or so missing, but once the alarms and wards went up, we saw a drastic increase in the number of bodies we were finding. It seems that now that they had no need to worry about being caught, they went on a rampage of sorts.”

“And we haven’t found a trace of them? Surely we must have found one at least.”

“Well that the thing sir, they are constantly moving, employing guerilla tactics to keep us guessing. That combined with their invisibility spell made it almost impossible to lock them down. Now that the invisibility has run out, we hope that entrapping them should be much easier.”

“I should hope so, you are dismissed.” I say with gritted teeth.

As the officer walks away, I turn to Gerald.

“Gerald, I want you out there, you’re my guy when it comes to this kind of stuff. Find whoever you can, and bring them back to me, dead or alive.”

“Yes sir, right away sir.” He says as he puts his notepad away into his breast pocket before walking towards the building casually.

“Two-hundred fucking soldiers, dead in an hour. Unbelievable.”