“If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong” was a quote that Gabriel had read in one of the many books he had acquired throughout the years and at this point in time he could only agree with it. They were still only in the first part of their mission and things had gotten wrong, very wrong.

But they didn’t start there, no, at the beginning of the day there were some signs which he should’ve identified before everything went so wrong. Let me rewind a bit to the start of the day so the situation becomes clearer.

Gabriel had been the first to wake up the two other days, as the time inside the building was extended by a full day, but this time three different members of his team were already awake, clothed and talking between each other. This was curious, but it wasn’t really anything too strange for it to call his attention too much.

They may just be nervous for the task they had to do, after all. And from what Gabriel could hear they were indeed talking about the operation, specifically on what to do on specific situations, such as if someone found them out. They decided that it was better to kill the individual before they let other people know, but maybe they could silence them in other ways.

At that point Gabriel greeted them and they greeted him back with a smile and told him that they would soon be off to prepare themselves for the night, when they would sneak into the quartiers of their enemies. Looking around the room and seeing that everyone else was still resting, he decided to accompany them because he believed that it’d be more interesting, and he would be able to learn from them.

They went to the training room and observed the other people, measuring their strength form a distance and commenting on it. Most of the people there weren’t really that strong, but there were some individuals which were clearly much stronger than the rest. And at the same time there were many other groups doing the same as theirs, observing the other members of the attack force and seeing who was dependable, who could be trusted upon and of which people they should watch their backs.

Gabriel knew that many people would be hiding their true strength as well, but he also realized that it would be a waste of time and energy trying to find them and figuring out their true potential. Not long after he and the trio he was with went to the casino to eat and to their dorms to prepare for their operation tonight.

Now, everyone was awake and two were already ready for the action, while the other four which had remained were doing some exercises without their weapons and armor as a method of preparing the body and mind for what they would need to do.

When the sun was setting and it’d be their time to go, everyone was already geared up and hiding on different alleys of the street near the cube, but not so close that they’d be found out by their guards which were doing their usual rounds.

The attackers knew that there were now less guards doing the same job, so they would be tired, and it’d be less likely that they would find out they were being followed, even with so many people doing so.

Gabriel and his team followed two different guards without being noticed and entered the cube when another two guards had left in their place. When they checked inside, they realized that everything was indeed going well, but one of his teammates proposed that they check further in in case they were expecting to be attacked and had hid inside waiting to surprise their invaders.

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This… made sense to everyone so they decided to go further in, following the person who had given this idea. Had Gabriel been a little more cautious, he would have realized that this man was one of the same people who had been talking about “being found out” in the morning and he could have also questioned him about it in the morning, but he was focused more into getting his revenge, his feelings getting in the way once more.

When they were quite deep into the base they were attacking, suddenly he was attacked, together with many of his team members. He managed to escape before the vines coming from the ground could hit him and he reached a roof from where he observed the situation.

He realized that only two of his allies had been successfully attacked but at the same time only seven people, counting him, had been targets of aggression. Looking a bit more, he realized that one of his teammates was also gone, while the two which hadn’t been attacked… had been casting spells and they were the ones who had attacked him!

Gabriel was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and aggressed one of his aggressors who was also fast on his feet, so he wasn’t really hurt. One of the other people which were attacked started questioning their now enemies for their reasons, but his queries only received attacks as an answer.

The two that had first been attacked were now fully knocked out and of the other members on his side two others had been hurt already. Gabriel had been targeted as well but he had managed not to get hit too much so he was still fine, albeit he had difficulties fighting back.

Over time Gabriel and his teammates started getting the advantage and even managed to incapacitate one of their attackers but as soon as they were going to defeat the other one, a swarm of people started coming near them and they soon realized that they were going after them.

Soon, they were escaping the multitude of followers, but these had been smart and put up a few guards on every exit of the cube, so they avoided them. Had they been more organized, they might have been able to escape through one of those doors, but in the current chaotic situation it wasn’t possible.

But they were getting tired as well and fighting the crowd wasn’t a chance. Gabriel had that clear, so he formed a plan while running around, but he got hurt as he wasn’t as focused as before. He managed to get into a seemingly empty house where he would stay until the sound outside subsided.

After two minutes of heavy breathing as his nervousness subsided in case anyone had followed him into the house, he managed to calm down and started looking around the house. It seemed quite homely, a family was probably living there but they had probably left with the caravan, as no lights were on.

So, he wandered around the house, looking at the different furniture and pictures laid around the house, soon walking up some stairs and entering a bedroom. There he was astonished to find someone… sleeping! It wasn’t weird that there was someone sleeping in a bedroom, what shocked him was that they managed to sleep during all the ruckus that was happening just a few tens of meters away from him.

Gabriel started leaving the room but the ground creaked and the man on the bed groaned a bit before yawning and laying on a sleeping pose once more. Gabriel believed that he would now be able to leave but before he put one foot out of the room, he was spoken to.

- What are you doing here? – The man on the bed said with his eyes still closed. – Why are you disturbing my sleep again? – Gabriel didn’t really know how to answer, because the man was clearly expecting him to be someone specifically with a certain voice, but if he stayed quiet there was a high chance that he would open his eyes and look at him, as well.

- Uhhh… Why do you dream of waking up? Dream something more interesting! – He tried tricking him into believing that it was a dream, alas it didn’t work, and the man changed his position from laid down on the bed to sitting on the side of it in a single move and then, suddenly, opened his eyes.