'First phase, completed?'
Holding the girl in my hands, I glanced at the men who tired themselves to resist their artificially brought desire.
'They're dead'
The fleas, and insects feasting on their innards, mailed all the proof I needed.
'Well, I can't exactly save them'
The action was not only risky, but also no need to do so when the empire sent its elite after me.
'They would save any survivors for me'
"Now"
Stretching the joints in my body against the wall, whilst holding the girl with one hand, I reached into my bosom.
Rustle
"Where is that exit that generous man told me about..."
Waving the map in my hand, I squinted to see the pathways sketched.
"So, this way...no if I am here...then right? No wait, what if it's inverted?"
It took a while, so I decided to stop thinking about it and retraced my steps.
"Apparently, according to the map, the area with all the subjects and experiments is the fastest shortcut to getting to that secret path"
He could have very well been lying, but not much would change even if he did.
"They are too busy dealing with those over the top guys above"
It gave plenty of time to get things wrong and learn as time goes on.
"Still, I should rush in case things get complicated later on"
I walked through the darkness, slinging the sleeping target onto my back. The motion rough.
"Now"
Under a breath, I muttered.
"What to do~"
Leisure tainted my voice, steps laced with a certain lightness that should not have been there.
For I, didn't deserve the positivity welling in my mind.
*
*
*
"Uhg!"
Spurt!
BANG!
In the entrance of the organisation, an all out brawl had commenced. The tremors reached all the way underground and out in the slums.
"Sir!"
A therianthrope saluted to Yujin.
"Have you found him?"
The therianthrope bowed to a 90 degree angle, his tail wagged wildly to the sides.
"No sir! I am too much of a failure to do so! Sir!"
"....."
The strange self-deprecated comment made Yujin frown.
'Is he making fun of me?'
Oddly enough, it more or else felt like Yujin had been mistreating his subordinates with the way they called themselves failures with no hesitation.
"What is the situation?"
Ignoring the strange behaviour of his subordinate, he asked a simple question to gauge how the battle had progressed, still at the rear to conserve stamina that was very needed if a fight with an Archmage remained a possibility.
"It seems the low-level fighters are swarming us with their overwhelming numbers"
Yujin leaned against the wall, scoffing at the obvious scheme.
'They want to tire us out by sending their weakest'
A plan that would work on a small, not powerful force. But there was no way that an elite team sent by the empire would get exhausted simply from this.
'But that isn't what they are aiming for'
Such a simple plan could not possibly be what they line their sight to.
'Their true goal is likely to make our guard drop while hiding their top forces to land a clean hit on us'
However, it couldn't just be any strong individual, to land the clean hit that would stop them dead in their tracks, it had to be someone special.
'If I were them, I'd pick the mage most stealthy out of all them'
In other words, an assassin with enough firepower to take one of them or severely damage one of the elite warriors.
"For a den of thieves, they have quite the fancy furniture"
"Pardon?"
Yujin patted on the therianthrope that looked like the pet dog he had at home sleeping.
"Nothing, just get ready to fight"
The therianthrope slowly blinked.
"Are you...not going to conserve your energy till the bigger fights come?"
Yujin looked back at him, slowly craning his head toward him and then to another figure at the adjacent wall.
"...."
There, a young mage worked tirelessly to map out the entirety of the complex underground vein.
"Are you done?'
Yujin asked, the young girl raised her eyes slightly and met his hazel starry eyes that burned like firewood.
"Almost, the mapping is done. But the individuals have not"
Casting the 7th circle spell 'Myriad Star Gaze' and pairing it with the basic 1st circle spell 'Detached Sight' that had been enhanced to the 1st star spell 'Clairvoyance', it became possible to accurately create a map without the opposing side ever even getting the chance to finding out.
"Alright, you"
A finger pointed itself onto the therianthrope.
"Protect her, she's just a kid after all"
To the words, the 'kid' raised a brow.
"I'm 16"
"Even worse"
A vein popped at her forehead, she didn't understand why the platoon commander made such a big deal out of this.
"It isn't that big of a deal..."
"Your father helped me out a great deal in the past, his request is the only reason you are here"
"Oh?"
She raised a corner of her thin lips, a bead of sweat trickled to her chin.
"Then why not get rid of me the moment you saw the opportunity, what? am I useful enough to make you not throw me out?"
"...."
While she seemed cheeky, credit where credit's due, he couldn't deny that fact.
'She turned out to be more helpful than expected'
Sighing, he pressed his fingers to his temples, pressing them down with weight.
'Like the mad father, like the damn daughter'
Just like how her father was a famous mage, she also relatively stepped with her bare toes to the spotlight dubbed 'fame'
"Come on! I swear I won't get in the wa—!"
Her mouth snapped shut, the mana emitting from the platoon commander made her almost choke on the air she breathed.
"Shut it"
That was all he said, the words simple and straight, unbendable from outside forces.
"...."
She couldn't speak when the man before her emitted such rage it would make all living beings shudder at it.
"S-sorry..."
This one apology clattered to be the only thing she could force out of her frozen throat.
"Stay here, and you"
Yujin looked at the trembling therianthrope.
"Protect her with your life, she is the only here who can provide us with constant visual on the base, understand?"
"Y-yes sir!"
He stammered his words, but who could blame him when the 'Magi Purger' himself spoke with authority.
Step
Steps recoiled on the neat and tidy floor, his figure faded into the flickering lights that turned normal the moment he calmed.
*
*
Meanwhile.
"Don't let a single one of them go!"
"Kill them all!"
The elite warriors slaughtered all the fodder and weaklings slamming their flesh onto them in attempt to lacerate even just a scratch on them.
"Kugh!"
But, them paying with their lives only bought milliseconds.
"D-Damn it! They are too damn strong!"
The lowly thugs prayed for forgiveness for the atrocities even the elite warriors of the empire winced at.
They were all met with a gruesome fate, no mercy has handed out like charity.
"Look! I may have killed a lot of people, but! it was only the elderly I kille—!"
Thud
A head fell cleanly off, the head of a baron's whose knights and mages were all obliterated under imperial law.
"Wait, I kno-w! waht you are looking for!"
Another man in the distance screamed out for a plead, being so scared that he miss-pronounced 'what'
Thud
His head naturally crashed into the brick when attempting a sneak attack.
"Uuuooo!!!"
A 6th circle mage multi-casted a plentiful of spells.
Launching javelins of ice from every direction, a blizzard to tailwind his projectiles and to hide the ice boulder dangling above within the violent storm of ice and condensed mana.
Fwoosh!
They were all dismantled by a 4th circle fire mage who had more experience in fighting than the old man whose spells were textbook. The blessings from the Saint played the biggest role in this however.
"Yo! New recruit! That was some good spell there"
A senior patted his junior on the back, engaging small talk in the heat of battle.
The junior could only ruffle his head in embarrassment his senior that was also his guarantor put him through.
"Knew you had that potential in ya"
He rubbed the back of the junior more, growing tired of it, the junior broke from his grasp.
"We're fighting! why not take it seriously!"
The senior only grinned at him more.
"Oh come on, unless the Archmage Gaia himself comes, the rest are small fries"
He rubbed his trimmed beard.
"Us seniors also get the fun in watching our juniors, as well as our successors fight an actual battle"
The junior narrowed his eyes to a glare.
'Having fun watching your stressed out junior fight his first ever serious battle of life and death'
"But wasn't this a really important mission? why do us the newbies get sent here along with you?"
The senior chuckled slightly.
"Well, you are supposed to take over us the old fossils in the future, so isn't it appropriate to sent you to a place dangerous to keep the title 'Elite' close to your pillow?"
He still didn't understand much, but got the gist of it.
Rattle
"...!"
The circuits in his body flared wildly, blasting the horde of crates where the sound came from to smithereens with the 3rd circle spell 'Burn Wave'
Clap Clap
Behind him, his senior clapped while munching on a snack using a mana woven hand to feed him.
"Kurg!"
A man winced, his eye lids hiding his bloodshot whites splayed open, groaning in pain.
"My junior, seems like you need more practice if you missed your shot like that"
"...I can see that"
He walked at a safe distance, taking out a bundle, he unfurled a scroll to save his mana for further battle.
It was a low level spell, but still a steady option nonetheless.
The scroll, unfurling glowed wildly, the parchment burned with the circle.
With patient eyes, the senior watched from the sidelines.
At first, serene as a lake.
But then. As if a boulder catapulted itself onto the tranquility he held inside.
"...!"
His eyes widened in realisation.
"Newbie run!"
"Huh?"
He reached out, his mana woven hand already snatched his disciple by the nape and a body woven from mana hastily formed to protect him.
Bang!
It exploded, the scroll malfunctioned and blew right into their mugs. The shock ripped through the battlefield in an instant.
...Filling it with dust, and—
Poison gas.