I'm finally back guys. For now anyway; although my summer class has so far proven to be easier than expected in some ways, it still moves along pretty fast and requires us to have an exam roughly every 4 or 5 days. But so far, so good and really I'm not too worried about it; after all, I just need to pass the class to be finally done with college for good so that I can finally go out and get a job.
And to the guest reviewer known as king, thank you for your words. My family and I are just happy that my grandmother is no longer in anymore pain.
Chapter 24
Just a little more than a week has passed since the 'talk' that was had with Roman, Adam, and Neo. And during that week, all of the ancient magi, Ozpin, Glynda, and both teams RWBY and JNPR had a lot of thinking to do with what Roman had told them.
Ultimately, he hadn't really told them all that much. Yes, he had informed them all of the Holy Knights' ultimately goal, along with their codenames and some of their abilities, but beyond that there was nothing more. He couldn't tell them how exactly they planned to go about achieving their goal, what their next big move would be or anything else of that sort.
But he had told them one very important thing: where the Holy Knights' new base was at. And while he couldn't exactly promise them they'd all be there at any one time, the forces of Beacon Academy decided it was now time to act on such information.
"Everyone ready?" Naruto asked, dressed in his casual clothes as he looked over everyone that was there with him on the rooftop several kilometers away from the Holy Knights' base. On that note, he had to keep himself from shaking his head; for the base was in an outwardly decrepit warehouse that was nearly in the middle of the more unsavory area of Vale. Truly, talk about hiding in plain sight; from such a place, the Holy Knights could easily walk right under their noses for the most part.
"Yeah… more or less," Jaune spoke, trying to sound confident. He and the rest of his team along with team RWBY were there and dressed in their usual battle outfits, all of them double and triple checking to make sure everything was in order.
The teens all remained remarkably quiet and not without reason. They may be able to go up against lesser Grimm with a certain lack of fearlessness, but now they were going to be running straight into the base of the Holy Knights, where they would be backed up by who knows how many members of the White Fang. Members of the White Fang, that, for all they knew, were enhanced just as Roman, Adam, and Neo had been. The only real comfort was that they wouldn't actually be engaging the Holy Knights themselves in battle, at least in theory.
There as well were Miki, Hanako, Ryuichi, Mari, Takehiko, and Daisuke, all of them dressed and ready for battle. With the exceptions of both Masami and Yuko, both of whom had other duties to still fulfill in their respective home kingdoms, virtually all of the ancient magi still alive today were gathered here in this one spot, itching to get inside the base to deal with the Holy Knights.
"Let's get on with this," Takehiko said, folding his arms across his chest in a show of slight impatience. He in particular looked ready to fight personally, a surprising thing to see given how his magical weapon wasn't directly a frontline fighting type weapon, even in spite of its powerful conceptual magic.
"I'm with him, Nami-yan," Daisuke spoke, his usually carefree attitude gone and replaced with a quieter and more serious one despite still calling Naruto by the little nickname he'd made for him so long ago. "We can't just sit here forever."
Naruto nodded, understanding the not-so-subtle eagerness of his two friends. Of all the ancient magi, both Takehiko and Daisuke had perhaps been the closest to Katsu, the three having formed an odd yet strong friendship over the centuries. It's only natural that they'd be the most eager to get a move on this, especially after he had called them up to inform them of what Roman had said.
"Oh man…" Jaune muttered, feeling nervous as everyone now seemed ready to get a move on this.
Over the past week, a 'plan' had been devised for this dark afternoon. It was called a 'plan' with such quotations about it because in practice, it wasn't really much of a plan, but rather a simple outline on how things should proceed.
First, all of them would gather on this rooftop and wait for night to fall. Once night did come and it became dark enough, Naruto would use Die Walkure to bring about Ai Space, covering the entire area. He'd be suppressing the usual theatrical light and sound effects that always came with summoning forth Ai Space so that once it appeared, no one at the base would notice them being dragged into the dimension.
From there, with the exceptions of Naruto, Hanako, and Mari, everyone else will proceed towards the base as quietly as possible. Ryuichi, being the fastest and most versatile of the lot thanks to his own magical abilities, would take point and make a way into the base for teams RWBY and JNPR to sneak in and start trying to take down any and all members of the White Fang they encounter. Once that occurs and it gets the attention of the Holy Knights, the ancient magi that would be holding back until the teams are in will charge in during the confusion and start their own attack upon the Holy Knights.
As for Naruto, Hanako, and Mari, the three of them would essentially be pulling support duty. In the case of the latter two, they'd be using the great distance between this rooftop and the base to pick off anyone that tried to leave the building or general area – not that such endeavors would be successful given it'd be in Ai Space – and in general provide cover fire if or when the Holy Knights recover their wits and launch their counterattack.
But for the former of the three, Naruto's role in all of this was considerably more subdued. One would think that, given his immense power, he should just walk into the base himself and take them all down on his own. And while such a thing could easily occur, when they all had questioned Roman even further, the man had made it clear that the Holy Knights had a number of tricks up their sleeves that he simply wasn't privy to. And although Naruto's power levels were simply off the charts, there have been plenty of times in the past where some powerful warrior was felled because of something or someone that had previously been underestimated or outright dismissed as a threat. If such a mistake was made here tonight, then they, the force of Beacon as they'd come to think of themselves, would lose their greatest trump card should Naruto somehow be incapacitated.
Besides, in order to suppress the usually showy activation of Ai Space, Naruto would have to focus on maintaining Ai Space. And given the little Roman was able to tell them about the Holy Knights' abilities and some of their possible trump cards, there was more than a small chance that they'd have the capabilities of outright breaking Ai Space or otherwise slipping out of it. And having the fighting spill out into the real world, especially in a place as populated as Vale was an unacceptable risk. Thus, Naruto would have to remain here and maintain Ai Space no matter what should the Holy Knights try to focus their attention upon it.
This was the 'plan' that they had in mind.
And naturally, Jaune and his friends were very much worried. It all sounded quite good in theory, but as he's been told 'no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.' And that was something that really worried him.
"Will we really be okay?" Weiss then spoke up as she checked to make sure she had all of her Dust cartridges with her. "The margin of error for all of this is rather… high."
"As much as we'd love to guarantee the success of this idea," Hanako began in a firm, but not unkind voice. "There's always a chance that something can go wrong. The best any of us can do is to simply adapt to whatever happens and keep on trying."
Her words were simple, but got the point across well enough, with Weiss grimacing a bit but nodding her head anyway.
"O-Okay then, I think we're good," Ruby then spoke, pumping her fists as if to cheer on everyone around her. The usually fearless girl was clearly nervous, even after what Hanako just said, but she was doing an admirable job so far of staying calm.
Ryuichi, from where he silently stood on the ledge of the roof, turned to face teams RWBY and JNPR, smiling slightly at the looks of determination they now began to sport. "Alright then. Come on over here, you eight. Once night fully comes, just follow after me." He motioned for the two teams to come over to the ledge, which they did.
As this happened, his wife came on over to him and gave him a quick kiss. "Watch yourself out there," Mari said to him.
Ryuichi simply smirked with confidence. "You and Hanako are going to be watching over me and the others. I don't think that'll be too much of a concern."
Mari laughed a little in response. "Still so smooth with words…" she muttered a little huskily, a twinkle in her eyes.
Takehiko rolled his eyes at the brief interaction between the two, muttering 'subtle lovebirds' under his breath, albeit in good humor. The other magi – Naruto, Miki, and Daisuke – simply had a good, quiet little laugh at it, Ryuichi's and Mari's brief exchange somehow making things seem a little less serious, as if this was just going to be easy thing.
Although none of them wouldn't say, they certainly did hope so. Because if anything truly unexpected did occur, there'd be no telling just how things will turn out for anyone.
And so, the group of fifteen, now ready both physically and mentally, waited in a more relaxed silence for night to fall, which would soon be occurring.
Meanwhile, at the very place they were going to be attacking, Surtur couldn't help but feel a chill course through his very being.
Just like with before, something was up and he couldn't pinpoint what it was. "Shit, now what?" he thought in a mix of both annoyance and genuine worry. It was a rare thing, for him to worry so much and the fact that he was experiencing this now meant that whatever had or will happen was something very substantial.
His very first instinct was to tell Vidar right away about his feeling, but he held back on that; the past week, Vidar hadn't been communicating with him all that often, no doubt his pride having been wounded a bit over the whole fiasco with Roman, Adam, and Neo being caught. That he was then unable to exactly locate them and get them out was another blow to his pride that Surtur had made a point to rub in a bit, in the hopes that Vidar would learn to start listening to him more often.
But alas, it looked as if that had had the opposite effect, with Vidar now ignoring him whenever he spoke. Surtur would call this a childish action that Vidar was partaking in if his own 'I told you so' comments to Vidar over the whole matter weren't done so childishly himself. Hindsight was twenty-twenty that way, Surtur had to admit. At least he was willing to acknowledge that possibility.
But there was more to this whole thing than just that; Vidar had continued his experiments throughout the week and it would seem that the captain of the Holy Knights had finally had a breakthrough, an event that would undoubtedly cause anyone else in his position to ignore everything around him out of excitement.
"Still, the damn brat could at least spare me just three minutes to talk with…" Surtur commented to himself. But on that note, there was very little he could do about that given his current living situation, as aggravating as it was. The only upside to said situation was that Vidar's current experiment would help rectify the whole mess and allow him to take a much more active role. As things currently stood though, he was stuck lending a helping hand to Vidar every now and then and very little beyond that. Such was his lot in life right now.
But all that aside, he was sidetracking himself right now. Something either had happened or was about to happen, something big and something bad and he couldn't even begin to fathom what.
He was only certain of one thing and it made his chills become worse: it had to do with the ancient magi.
"Fuck me…" he thought, his worry now creeping into his voice. "Just don't let things get too out of hand, you hear me, Vidar?"
Whether or not his words were heard by the man in question, Surtur didn't know. And that only made him worry more.
Contrary to his thoughts, however, Vidar wasn't so focused on his own tasks that he was blind to what was going on. Tunnel vision may be a common thing he gets while focusing on his experiments, but even he was still aware enough to know that something was amiss.
"This gut feeling…" he thought to himself aloud. He wasn't wearing his mask nor even his usual clothes, being instead dressed in more informal clothes right now. Nonetheless, that was something he was about to change, slowly going about the process of putting on his mask and coat. His intuition may not be anywhere near as good as Surtur's, but one doesn't get to live as long as he did without learning when things felt off.
But he could hardly imagine what felt wrong; he had used his magical weapon earlier to check on the ancient magi and their signatures had remained where they always were, so they definitely weren't on the move to anywhere.
So why was this sense of dread filling him now?
"I… I might as well go check on things before calling it a day," Vidar ultimately decided as night finally began to fall. Perhaps it was just nothing at all, simply his own nerves toying with him in some way.
So with an almost hesitant start, he left his room to go check on everything.
Back with the ancient magi and two teams, things were finally about to get started. Night had just fallen and the sky was simply getting darker with every passing second. It wouldn't be too much longer before night reached its peak.
And that meant it was time to begin the operation.
"Alright," Ryuichi spoke quietly to teams RWBY and JNPR, both teams to either side of him. The ancient magus known as Thor crouched a bit, preparing to leap off the rooftop and go on the move. "Follow directly after me. Try to follow my path as much as possible."
Those were the only words he spoke before leaping off the roof and onto a nearby building further ahead, done without any noise generated at all.
Suppressing the urge to gape at the flawlessly silent action of Ryuichi, teams RWBY and JNPR immediately followed after him as quickly as possible, with Ruby, Blake, and Ren, being the fastest of the teens being further in the lead of their friends.
The others watched patiently as Ryuichi and the teens moved further ahead, looking somewhat amused at how the two teams struggled to keep up with the man despite him vastly holding back his speed, a testament to his overall ability.
"Alright, let's not dawdle on this anymore; get this started," Takehiko spoke, his last three words spoken directly to Naruto.
Naruto in turn simply nodded once. He spread out his arms in such a way that it looked as if he was about to give Miki, who was standing a bit in front of him, a tight hug. Then he spoke. "Die Walkure."
Immediately, his words took effect as Ai Space came forth. As soon as this happened, Naruto's face scrunched up noticeably as he focused hard on the usage of his magical ability. Cutting loose was an easy thing to do, terrifyingly so; to hold back, even if only some part of just one thing, was considerably more difficult to pull off.
But he persevered nonetheless and to great success. Even as Ai Space was generated, the usual teardrop-like sound and blinding light that accompanied it ceased to occur. Even the usual surreal blue hue that dyed the world around them to signify its presence seemed much more subdued; even Mari, known for her incredible eyesight, could scarcely see Ai Space's signature spatial feature.
"You did it…" Miki said to her husband, linking her arm with his, a somewhat nervous smile on her face. If Naruto hadn't been able to pull it off, then everyone in the warehouse, who were pulled into Ai Space along with them, would've immediately noticed something was off and would've reacted accordingly, a scenario they'd much rather not deal with. So that Naruto was successful was already a pretty good as that was the main hard part thus far.
"Yeah," Naruto took Miki's hand into his own and firmly clenched it, but did nothing more than that. He remained rooted to the spot and even now his face remained with a grimace of effort to keep the usual bluish hue of Ai Space at bay. He wished he were able to create a whole new dimension without the usual traits that Ai Space possessed, but from his experience with his magical abilities, doing so always resulted in a rather theatric display when creating a new dimension. As such, Ai Space was really the only option here and since its 'settings' had remained unchanged for many centuries, Naruto was essentially mentally holding back nearly a millennium's worth of unchanged things. As a result, he couldn't exactly go around moving as he pleased, for if his concentration broke before they were able to get the jump on the Holy Knights, then that' ruin everything.
"Now to just wait and see how things play out," Hanako muttered, her hands gripping the front of her skirt tightly. The humanoid magical weapon, being a sentient weapon that could record things as well, had to keep a grimace from appearing. Knowledge was key to everything, so to just sit back like this and watch and wait while Ryuichi and the two teams infiltrated the base felt wrong.
"Yeah…" Mari sighed in agreement. But she knew that alas there wasn't much to be done about this and therefore could only prepare for whatever happened. "…Gate open," she then said and summoning forth her magical weapon, the bow called Ichaival.
With all the tenderness one could expect a weapons user to show to their weapon at times, Mari delicately fiddled with Ichaival for a minute or so all the while keeping a look out on her husband and the base that he was quickly approaching.
She and the others could only pray that things go off without a hitch.
As for the people in question, teams RWBY and JNPR found themselves in quiet awe of Ryuichi's speed. It was clear to them that he was holding back immensely, yet even then as they followed his trail through the now empty roads of Vale they had to move quite fast themselves just to keep up with him.
It was on that note that they also couldn't help but notice just how quietly Ryuichi was moving too. So far, he's yet to make a single noise as he's moved. This was a very stunning feat considering he was constantly jumping about from one thing to another, remaining hidden within the shadows so well that they were sure they'd lose sight of him if he ever decided to hide from them that well.
"Must be due to his shinobi training," Blake had muttered in between breaths to the others as they kept up with the man. It was a statement that the others silently agreed on without any hesitation and it was also something that sent a slight chill up their spines as they recalled being told that Naruto, Miki, and Mari have had such training as well way back when they were teens, though in Mari's case it had been much more an informal thing that she's picked up.
"There it is," Ren, surprisingly, said as they all neared the base of the Holy Knights, said base being the warehouse they've been viewing from afar.
From back on the rooftop, the warehouse, abandoned as it externally looked, had appeared quite large and now that they were much close and still closing in, it appeared that it was even larger than they had originally thought.
Ryuichi, being little more than fifteen meters ahead of the teens, slowed gradually to a halt as he eventually came within a city block of the warehouse. Moving closer towards the shadows, he motioned for the teams to come to him, which they did.
"Well that's one thing down," Yang said as she approached. She cracked her knuckles. "So what now? Did the professor already activate that dimension thing of his?" The blonde brawler asked this because everything around them certainly looked the same as before. Sure, the streets were empty and no longer had any noise anywhere, but this particular neighborhood was always a quiet place that became very much like a ghost town once night fell anyway, so nothing really seemed all that off to her.
In response to her question, Ryuichi smiled a bit. "Naruto did. I sensed him do so just a moment ago," he replied, having long since been able to feel whenever his friend used Die Walkure, no doubt due to how long they've been around one another, training or fighting. "All of you are locked and loaded?"
"Yep!" Nora exclaimed, albeit nowhere near as loud as she'd usually do. She may be a very hyperactive teen, but that didn't mean she was dumb or ignorant. She hefted her weapon, in its gun form, over her shoulder. "Now let's go in and break some bones!"
"But how will we go in?" Pyrrha then asked. The redhead peered out from the shadows at the warehouse and saw that aside from the main entrance, there didn't really seem to be a back one. And any side entrances were surely being guarded by members of the White Fang.
This was something not lost on everyone else either. "So we'll have to take care of any sentries first, right?" Weiss proposed.
"Kind of," Ryuichi answered as he approached a nearby dumpster. "The past few days, Ozpin looked into the history of this place rather thoroughly and from what he's learned, it looked as if there were a few things that the owners wanted built back when it was first put in place."
Slowly, Ryuichi hefted the dumpster and moved it out of the way.
As soon as he did this, the others could only stare.
"Is that…" Ruby began, only to trail off. Her eyes widened and a somewhat giddy smile began to grow on her face.
"A secret entrance?" Jaune finished for Ruby, albeit without the same sense of child-like wonder the girl showed. "Seriously, like in a movie?!"
"The owner was a bit of a paranoid man," Ryuichi said to no one in particular as he looked to where the heavier than usual dumpster had been. For there where it had been placed was now a hatch that was the same dull color as the pavement. Combined with the natural build up of trash that resulted from the alleyway and it was a rather well-hidden one, but it was still visible if one looked hard enough. "If anything were to happen, then he'd much rather have a way out in case going out the front door wasn't an option."
Crouching, he pried it open with ease. "Given when the Holy Knights moved from their old base into this one, chances are they themselves haven't bothered too much with looking for something like this given their attitudes. So we'll have an advantage here… Blake." He looked to the surprised cat Faunus, who hadn't been expecting him to just call her out like that. "There's a side door just around the corner of the warehouse here. I'll head in and go open it, so keep an eye on it."
"…Sure," Blake said after blinking in surprise, but now immediately understanding why she was told this. With the night vision she had from her Faunus heritage, she'd be much more capable of seeing anything going on outside the warehouse than the others due to how dark the entire area was.
"Great," Ryuichi replied with a smirk. "Give me about… one minute."
The instant he spoke, he immediately leapt down the open hatch, which he closed after him. Blake and the others in turn opted to move the dumpster back into place and moved away to where Ryuichi had indicated the side door to be, with Blake in the lead.
Turns out they didn't have to wait a whole minute though; not even thirty seconds after Ryuichi had left, Blake watched the side door open to reveal Ryuichi hefting two members of the White Fang over his left shoulder with ease. As he set them down outside the door, he gestured for them to come in.
Dashing quietly towards the entryway, both teams entered and closed the door, leaving the two very much unconscious White Fang members outside for now.
"Alright," Ryuichi began in a low voice. His ears were perked up, listening for anything or anyone that could possibly come this way. "The little tunnel I went into was much closer to here than I had thought and I lucked out in taking out a few more White Fang members aside from those two. I've already moved them out of sight, but it won't be long until others could start noticing."
"Alright, so what now?" Jaune asked, patting his currently collapsed shield to make sure it was still there. "Just start going crazy and attack them?" he asked, sounding unsure of himself. Now that he was here in the belly of the beast figuratively speaking, his nerves were beginning to get a little frayed. If all of the Holy Knights were here, then that meant there was a decent chance that the beast that beat him down was here as well…
"Not quite." Ryuichi pointed down the hallway, which split off into three different points. "The one on the left eventually leads to the workers' quarters from back when this place was still functioning. I imagine most of the White Fang the Holy Knights have under their command will be there. The pathway in the middle leads to the main work area, where the members I already took out came from, so there will probably be several more down that way as well. The pathway on the right is where I came from, but there was more over there that I didn't bother checking out personally. But from the schematics Ozpin saw, it eventually loops around back to the main work area and also has a number of offices over there as well."
"So then…" Yang began, her eyes narrowing in deep thought. "Then what? Just take our pick?"
"No, I imagine you'd like for us to hit either the workers' quarters or the work area," Ren spoke up, looking to Ryuichi to see if he was right.
He was, if Ryuichi's nod was anything to go by. "That's right. Given the Holy Knights' attitude, I'd bet they've claimed the offices for their own personal use; the offices are certainly big enough to function as actual bedrooms judging by the schematics. I'll be checking there personally to see if my hunch is right and remain hidden. As for you all, some of you should go to the work area and just start causing havoc. Even if there aren't many members of the White Fang there, whatever supplies and weapons they may have will lie in that direction as well, so hit them hard and fast."
"So the rest of us will actually go for the workers' quarters then," Pyrrha said, nodding. She could see the simple logic in that; one half of them hits whatever is being cooked up in the work area and the other half deals with the White Fang while they're probably lazing about, unprepared for an attack barring the ones that may be patrolling the place.
"Who does what, I'll leave up to you all," Ryuichi said as he slowly began to walk towards the pathway he'd come from. "I need to be fast here and stealthy if I want to keep the element of surprise before starting our ambush. So if we're to be successful, you're going to be have to start your attack and distraction as soon as possible. Decide quickly and start moving. Good luck," Ryuichi said in a firm, commanding tone before flitting off down the pathway, moving once again without any noise.
"Well, you heard the man. Let's get this started!" Yang grinned, itching for some action. She locked and loaded Ember Celica. "I'll take the work area!"
Before anyone else knew it, the blonde brawler already started to jog for the center path that'll lead to her chosen destination.
"Oh, I'm coming too!" Nora said, eagerly following Yang's lead without so much as a single thought.
"H-Hey, you two!" Weiss nearly yelled, but stopped herself just in time. "Ugh, battle-crazed girls…" she muttered, shaking her head.
"I'll go with them," Pyrrha said with an assuring smile.
Jaune's eyes widened at that. "You sure?" he asked his partner.
"Yes… I want to try and get some payback as well for what happened at the academy," Pyrrha admitted, much to the surprise of the others. The redhead was hardly known for wanting revenge, though considering the circumstances, Holy Knights or not, it was understandable why she'd feel that way. "Don't worry, I'll keep a level head," she said with a confident smile, hoping to reassure the others. She could tell that the reason why they worried about Yang and Nora is because in all likelihood, the two thrill-seeking girls may let their emotions get the better of them for a minute or two. And that could easily prove fatal given the people they'd be tangling with.
"…Alright," Jaune conceded. He smiled wanely. "Just be careful out there."
Nodding, Pyrrha then took off after Yang and Nora.
"Well, with that all decided, how about we go the other way instead?" Ruby asked, speaking to those who remained behind with her, that being Jaune, Ren, Blake, and Weiss.
"Fine," Weiss said with a bit of a huff to it. "Let's hurry though; if those three start causing a racket before we even get to the workers' quarters, then we'll have no chance of sneaking by anyone."
Everyone there nodded in agreement and without further ado, broke into a run after their main targets now. It was time to get things started.
Elsewhere in the base, Morgan was in one of the offices that the warehouse had to offer, which had been converted into an actual bedroom for her. She had just been in the midst of reading a book, but had been doing so without much enthusiasm.
Back when she was but a teenager, reading books, especially fantasy ones, would always fill her with a certain sense of excitement as the protagonists would go onto to triumph against their foes and achieve peace for the world over to enjoy. However, ever since meeting Vidar and becoming his Holy Knight, she's come to find such stories lacking a tad bit as she now found herself more or less living the stories, what with the Holy Knights' ultimate goal being to revolutionize the world and bring peace.
That being said, even now, there was something different. While books seemed a little less enjoyable for her than before, she still derived a good deal of amusement from them. But now her mind seemed incapable of focusing on the book for all that long now. Indeed, she'd only managed to read barely thirty pages in the past hour and a half that she's had the book open.
"I must be tired or something if my mind is wandering this much…" she muttered whilst trying to suppress a heavy sigh. Running a delicate hand through her long blonde hair, Morgan had to silently admit that perhaps tiredness wasn't the actual reason for her lack of focus.
No, it was instead a sense of worry that had kept her from reading her book. But worry for what? Aside from the capture of Roman, Neo, and Adam, the third seat couldn't think of anything else that could possibly warrant such attention. Yet here she sat reclined in her chair feeling a little jumpy now and for no immediately discernable reason.
"I… I need to get some air, perhaps," the blonde young woman decided, getting up slowly from her chair.
But as she walked towards her door and opened it, the entire building suddenly shook as a series of explosions went off.
"W-What?!" Morgan cried out, having nearly lost her balance from being taken off guard by whatever had occurred.
Now rushing out the door and into the hallway, she was much more prepared when another explosion rang out from elsewhere in the base, with Morgan watching in shock as the walls shook noticeably and her balance was marginally disrupted.
Those explosions were far too violent and focused to have been some random mishap and it definitely hadn't come from the captain's experiments either; given what he was working with, if – a very big if – something had gone wrong with the experiment, the explosion just now would've been far bigger.
"Morgan."
Roused from her thoughts, Morgan realized she had absentmindedly wandered down the hallway to where it intersected with another and now found herself staring at Apophis, who had just spoken to her. "Apophis, is the base-?" she began.
But the man cut her off with a curt nod and a grimace on his face. "It would seem… that our base is under attack by someone. Multiple someones…" He paused for a moment to listen closely to what else was going on. Due to how thick the walls were, it was hard for him to hear anything even with his heightened senses, but he could faintly detect the sounds of battle in the form of battle cries, guns, and swinging objects. He tsked. "Fighting has already broken out."
Morgan was now the one to tsk. "Then we have to go see what's going on. Even if the others have no doubt noticed it by now and are heading to deal with it, we should still see who is attacking us and why."
Apophis nodded. It certainly was odd that they'd suddenly be attacked like this in the night and by currently unknown enemies. And having once been an interrogator for his old mercenary unit so long ago, Apophis felt a sort of obligation to personally deal with the intruders and 'persuade' them to talk.
"Come, then. We can't dawdle about," the second seat commanded of the much younger Holy Knight.
Morgan nodded and quickly followed after the man, who wasn't jogging towards the sounds of fighting yet wasn't just walking leisurely either.
Neither seemed to notice Ryuichi approach them from behind until his right fist lashed out towards Apophis.
From afar, Naruto, Hanako, Mari, Miki, Takehiko, and Daisuke watched in silence as the sounds of battle erupted from within the warehouse, which was clearly signified by the sudden sound of a thunderous blow.
Without any verbal prompting, the latter three leapt off of the rooftop they had commandeered and quickly began to head for the Holy Knights' base.
The counter attack upon the Holy Knights had now truly begun.
It's rather incredible how approximately 6,000 words were able to fit within 12 pages for this chapter. Most likely because it wasn't a 'fighting' chapter, where I usually have things more spaced out between actions.
That said, with this chapter marks a genuine turning point for this fic. However, make no mistake; this fic still has a ways to go before it reaches the epilogue. In fact, I'd dare say that this is roughly the halfway point for the fic.
However, what with my summer class still being in full swing in addition to other personal things going on, perhaps my original goal of finishing this fic by this year's end may have been a bit too optimistic. As it stands right now, the next chapter probably won't be out until my summer class is nearly over and since I'll be looking for a job soon, if I do get one, there's no telling how much time I'll have to devote to this fic in between everything. Nonetheless, I'll be doing my best to try and finish this fic by 2015's end anyway.
Until next time, everyone. Take care.