Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Several feathered arrows precisely struck the ground two or three steps in front of the train conductor.
"Who's lurking there, being so sneaky?" A furious shout came from the tower of the fortress gate. A burly man, holding a bow with a constantly vibrating string, indicated to everyone that he was the one who had just fired the arrow.
"If you don't speak up, this arrow will be lodged in your head!" The man in the tower drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the train conductor.
At the same time, the overseers raised their laser guns and aimed at the miners in the tower. Laser guns, in terms of power and overall performance, were far superior to the cold weapons used by the miners. If it hadn't been for the train conductor's earlier command, these habitually arrogant overseers would have fired already.
"I am the train conductor of the High Tower! Now, tell your people to get back to mining!" The train conductor declared his identity.
"The ore our camp has submitted these past two days is already enough. Our leader has decided to let us rest for two days. You can go back now." The man in the tower sneered at the armed overseers below.
"Do you really think this castle, made of a pile of broken stones, can stop the High Tower's army?" The train conductor chuckled. He had just told the overseers not to shoot without orders, but that didn't mean he was completely helpless against these slaves.
The High Tower and the miners on Lycaeus had never been in a relationship of equal cooperation, but rather one of dominance and subjugation. If it weren't for the large scale of this camp, and the fact that it was usually troublesome to deal with, the whip in the train conductor's hand would have already been cracking.
"Who are you trying to scare? The High Tower's army mobilization requires the Tower Lord's command. You don't have the guts to escalate things now, and by the time the army is mobilized, it will be too late. With just a few broken guns in your hands, it's another matter entirely who kills whom." The man in the tower, with a few brief sentences, clearly explained the High Tower's situation and procedures.
"Other families have allied with this camp to overthrow the Tower Lord's rule?" A thought flashed through the train conductor's mind. Even he wasn't very clear about this information; clearly, the other party knew far more than he did.
"I don't know what the High Tower will do, but if you don't start working, I know exactly what I'll do." The train conductor issued a harsh warning, and the overseers behind him also disengaged the safety on their laser guns.
The atmosphere on the field instantly became tense.
Silence.
A deathly silence enveloped the overseers and the miners confronting them from the tower.
"I still suggest you be more patient and discuss what the miners need, then relay our demands to Agamemnus. It's just a strike; it's not serious enough to reach Akarin." A sharp dagger suddenly pressed against the train conductor's neck, as a voice spoke to him very gently.
At the same time, the overseers who were confronting the miners in the tower with their guns suddenly felt a chill on their necks, as sharp daggers were pressed against them. Shadow Assassin members emerged like phantoms from their shadows, their bodies exuding a strong aura of death, shrouded beneath dark cloaks, with only their eyes and their knife-wielding hands visible.
Swain casually picked up a communicator from the signalman's hand and connected to the administrator on the other end of the High Tower.
"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me clearly?" Swain called out to the High Tower's administrator using the communicator.
"Has the mission been completed or not?!" A very impatient voice came from the other end.
"Uh, you might have the wrong person. I am the leader of Camp No. 169. Your people have been captured by me. Now I demand that the High Tower must increase the exchange ratio tenfold from the original basis, otherwise, this strike will not stop."
"I want to see the exchange ratio changed before sunset, otherwise, we will relay the message to the Tower Lord. You can ask Agamemnus if we have that capability." Swain finished speaking and hung up the communication before the other party could respond.
"Then, esteemed train conductor, given your performance just now, I'll trouble you all to wait patiently here for now." Swain spoke to the train conductor very gently. The Shadow Assassin had already reported the train conductor's previous instructions to the miners to him in detail, so Swain merely disarmed these overseers and had people keep a close watch on them. They weren't even tied up; after all, the crossbows in the miners' hands were not to be trifled with. At such close range, if these people did anything out of line, they would be shot full of holes.
"Leader, a few armed overseer convoys are coming. There are quite a few people, it looks like no less than 100." Corax said to Swain. It was Corax who had used his Shadow Power to lead the Shadow Assassin members out of the overseers' shadows, thus taking control of the situation.
"It seems some people just don't believe in evil. Since they're rushing to their deaths, then let's send them on their way!" Swain's gentle expression towards the train conductor and his group instantly turned cold. He was just worrying about not having a chicken to scare the monkey; wasn't this just delivering one to his doorstep?
"Comrade train conductor, let's watch together to see if the reinforcements you have placed such high hopes on can bring you Saviors." Swain turned to the other party and extended an kind of invitation. Then, without waiting for the other party's reaction, two Shadow Assassin members escorted him, following Swain, towards a hill.
At the same time, the miners' bows and crossbows were once again aimed at the disarmed overseers, who were squatting on the ground with their hands on their heads.
Swain stood on the hill, watching the converging convoy, vast and mighty. The vehicles sped along the road, kicking up a sky full of dust, like an earthen dragon, rushing with unparalleled momentum directly towards the Saviors' camp.
"Did I not make myself clear enough in the communicator just now?" Swain turned his head, looking at this unknown train conductor with a puzzled expression.
Who commands an army like this? Shouldn't they first send people to scout, ascertain the enemy's strength, then devise various tactics to confuse the enemy, find their weaknesses, and then launch a surprise attack? But this chaotic scene, calling them bandits would be overestimating them. At the very least, Swain remembered that bandit suppression in an ancient country in the East of ancient Terra had caused heavy losses even to the most elite regular army.
"Am I mistaken, or do these overseers have high-tech support that has rendered those old military strategies obsolete?" Swain pondered the various military strategies from ancient Terra, feeling somewhat confused.
However, very quickly, the performance of these overseers showed Swain that he was overthinking; these overseers were simply incompetent.
"Boom..." A earth-shattering explosion sounded, and the troop carrier that was rushing fastest and most enthusiastically was directly blown into the sky. Swain even clearly saw several overseers thrown more than ten meters high, flailing in the air, and he could even clearly see the screaming expressions on their faces.