It would have been easier to just abandon the mission now.
Just like I stated multiple times, Andoain is far from weak, he could give really strong people a run for their money, because of that, I'm not too sure abour who could just randomly pop in and out this fast while not alerting either me or the 3 girls behind me.
Considering the Sarkaz mercenary, I would say that the Confesor are here, but even a normal Confesor member should not be able to do much in a 1v1, at least without noise.
Well, if there were noise cancelling art involved, maybe, but then again, Andoain's art is light based, we should have been able to see it from a mile away.
...
Is it Confessarius ?
...
Yeah no, he wouldn't move from the king's side, not when Thersias isn't dead yet, unless he want his king to have his head choped off.
It's no secret that Confessarius is stronger than Thersis, being even older than him.
King Thersis is a... Strange individual. Honnestly, he is just a compleat idiot who doesn't know how to rule a contry, and only think that strengh is the answer to everything.
Confessarius is the actual danger here.
Confesor member are really strong, and if miss sword saint is here then it's even worse.
If I remeber correctly, she wasn't as nice as she's known now, which is to say, since she became one of the 'followers'. Because of that, if we fight her now, she'll try to kill us without somation, much less any kind of warning.
And the reason why I know she wasn't the one taking Andoain ?
Well, his beheaded corpse wasn't nearby, nor were any blood stain on the ground.
So he should still be alive right now.
...
Fuck.
It's been, what, 10 hours since then ?
We set camp here for a while, it's not too close to where we were so we should be relativly fine.
I didn't feel like we were trailed but even then I don't know...
It's night now, we're closer to sunrise than midnight so it shouldn't be long before we move from here.
...
I'll take charge and we'll continue the mission for now.
*crack*
Mhmm...
There are movement in the area.
A broken branch too...
So we were trailed I see.
I could just kill them all and go back to sleep.
Well, it's better to get some info out of them first.
"Hey, come out now, it'll be faster for the both of us if you guys decide to just reveal yourself and attack now. It makes it all easier."
"... You seems calm for someone about to be slaughtered."
"You see, I'll feel threaten when you guys actually are worth a damn."
"We'll see, you will change your tune soon enough. Guys !"
And then there were 10.
Only 10 ? The last group was bigger.
Maybe they are stronger ?
*swing*
Nope.
"W-what the hell ?"'
"The b-boss didn't tell us he was that strong !"
Well, after beheading 2 of their comarades, maybe they got the message a little early.
I wanted to let them think I was weak longer.
"Were are the reinforcement that we were prommised ?!"
"Fuck, just shoot at him until he die !"
"Not really interested in dying right now."
*swing*
And two more.
"Damnit, just kill him !"
*swing* *swing*
And then there were 2.
"W-wait, we're just following order !"
"Y-yeah, nothing more !"
"Can you tell me what those order were ?"
"S-sure man, we were supposed to find some kind of chalice here, appreantly it was a artifact used to by deity thousand of years ago, that's all we know, I swear !"
"Mhm. Alright, guess you guys can just dip out of here."
"T-thanks man..."
Well, at least I got some info out of them.
"*whisper* heh, dumb angel. Hope you like that gift !"
*sigh*
Those guys, seriously...
*BANG* *BANG*
They planted bombs nearby to detonate if things went south, they probably thought I didn't see them fiddling with a controller.
Well, tough luck.
"W-what is happen- WHAT THE FU-"
"Language."
"Seriously, what the fuck, what happened here ?"
"Sarkaz mercs."
"I can see that, when ?"
"I just shot twice now, when do you think I fought them ?"
"... Smartass."
"Yeah, I know."
"So, what do we do ?"
"We're getting the fuck out of here, they got bomb planted near here."
"What, w-wait, you mean this area is a mine field ?!"
"Yep, which is why we wake everyone up and get the hell out of dodge."
"Alright. I'll wake the other."
"Good, I'll tell you all what we're doing once we're out of here."
"Alright."
After getting ready to leave, we start walking towards the interior of the city.
"So, what now, vice-captain ?"
"Mhm... Right now, we're continuing the mission as if nothing happenend, knowing Andoain, he didn't croak just yet, so we shall see if he escape by himself and join us, if he doesn't, once we're done with the mission we stay for a extra day or two searching for him, if we still can't find him, well, we just leave."
"... Alright, so we just ignore the fact that our superior officer, someone that's supposed to be the strongest in the group, just up and vanished ?"
"Two things, little chick, one : between Andoain and me, I beat him by a mile. Two : we're not ignoring it, I have a plan, but I'm not acting up on it yet since I'm just hoping he can leave by himself for now."
"Why is he captain if you're, oh so clearly superior ?"
"Because I joined, like, 2 years and a half ago ? It's not upon strengh and more towards who has been here the longest, if not I would have been put as general of the army or something."
"Are you certain that you can defend everyone here if push come to shove ?"
"Are you asking me if you can put your life in my hands ? I'll protect you if that's what you're asking."
"..."
I don't remeber Fiametta being this paranoid. Well, you never know really, but the other two have been really silent up until now ?
"You two okay with that ?"
"Huh ? Uh, yeah sure."
"Something on your mind ?"
"Well, it's more like, what are Sarkaz doing here ?"
"Multiple reason, they are mercenary, so they could have been bought to defend this area. Could have also been here by order of the Sarkaz court. Unlikely, considering it wouldn't have been the lowest grade of mercs but the highest, and maybe even a Sarkaz noble would have come personnaly if that were the case. Honenstly, it's probably some group searching for something in particular."
"... You sure do know a lot about mercenary."
"I had two years of down time, can't blame me for reading a bit."
"Since when did the library of Laterano have any kind of info on the inner working of the Sarkaz court ? Or how they send mercs for that matter ?"
"Who knows ?"
"Not answering ? You got a secret to hide or something ?"
"Well, if you have this figuered out, why don't you state your hypothesis, little chick ?"
This ought to be good.
"You are actually a Sarkaz spy, that's why your a fallen !"
That's uncalled for...
"It also explain why you know so much, and that's why your trying to drag us into a clear ambush, and getting us in this city !"
"*sigh*, do you have any idea how much your explanation sucks ? Do you two think she's right ?"
"Well..."
"... You have got to be kidding me."
"I mean, you could just answer how you know so much, and why do you want to inside of the city so much ?"
"The info I have isn't some kind of revolutianry knowledge that no Sankta should ever have, it's just hyposthesis based upon pattern seen in records, if you looked it up as much as I did, you would see it too. As for why I want to go to the city, is because I heard there were a artefact in it, something pretty good."
"An artefact ?"
Thank god I got this info from the Sarkaz mercs right before...
"It's a Chalice with a lot of power, something used by deity of old, if you add that any kind of treasure that hasn't been unearthed yet, you could find some really good stuff here."
"That's the reason for us comming here ?"
"No, we're here because we don't want the Sarkaz getting them first, Gaul wasn't known for being the biggest contry on Terra for no reason."
"Yet, Gaul fell basicly overnight, and you tell me it was that great ?"
"You didn't follow much during your history lessons, didn't you ?"
"W-what does that even mean ?"
"It means exactly what I just said, if Gaul was known for one thing, it was that it normally could have fought againts Ursus and Victoria in a 2v1 scenario."
"Then, are you telling me the small contry of Leithania did most of the work ?"
"Actually, it wasn't really Leithania per say, just one guy."
Did none of those three ever took those history lesson or something ?
It's not some kind of state secret.
Their faces tell me they don't know about it...
"Do you remeber the title of the former king of Leithania ?"
"Wasn't it someting like, 'The Witch King' ?"
"Exactly, and if you must know, he is known as the strongest caster to have ever existed, period."
"Seriously ?"
"That's not some kind of secret you know ? Did you girls really not pay any attention to class ?"
"Well, you see, my sister blew up our school multiple times, if we add that our teachers weren't the mose exciting people..."
"Wait, she did what ?"
"Eheh..."
I didn't Exu was known for stuff like that, blowing school up immediatly makes me like her, cause anyone who is a ennemy to school is a friend to me !
"Nice, tell you what, if you guys want to destroy more school I'm totally okay with it."
"What, seriously ?"
"Never went to one, my parents homeschooled me because I'm a fallen and all that jazz."
"Then, why do you hate school so much ?"
"All that I heard about it is that it's a place made for torture, I'm all for razing it to the groud."
Can't really tell them that University is a bitch and a half and that I'll shoot myself before setting a foot in any kind of school ever again.
"And your supposed to be our team leader huh."
"Yeah, I know, I'm cool like that."
"That wasn- You know what, forget I say anything."
"I'm glad to see you're learning."
"You fu..."
"Wait."
Is that between 7 and 12 people I sense ?
I guess we got company.
"Seems like they brought friends. Seriously, I'm thinking they have unlimited numbers."
"How many ?"
"Like, about 10 ?"
"Why the uncertainty?"
"They are kinda far away, not hiding or anything too... I'm thinking it's a trap."
"Or they are just confident ?"
"Yeah, that too, if it weren't for the fact we killed like, two platoon already."
"...You think you can let us try ?"
"Oh, you girls want to fight ? Be my guest !"
My, I wouldn't have thought it to be Lemuen asking me that, would have thought the fire chicken to be the one asking.
"Alright, then, I'll make sure there's no one hiding, you girls handle the one going from the front !"
"Got it."
Let's see...
Well, they sure are doing okay.
Lemuen is clearly ment to be the sniper of the group, she fight from a longer range and have a really good accuracy, Mostima isn't using arts yet, her fighting with her Scar-H is pretty good and Fiammetta and her grenade launcher, I still don't know if they are considered firearms or not, until proven otherwise I'll consider them as such.
They took care of those guys pretty well all things considered, not like those mercs were any goods, a real shame considering they are Sarkaz mercs, but I guess they are the exception to the rule ?
I still don't understand why they sent us those fodders ? They need to have a update on our position and think sacrificing their weak is a good idea for it ?
...
Wait, is that ?
It looks like...?
...
Oh shit, we're not fighting Sarkaz elite or some kind of envoy of the Sarkaz court-
That was why they were this weak, those guys really are just so weak they don't need them anymore, so they basicly sold them to those guys !
This mean that that Chalice they are searching for isn't some kind of art type of artefact !
Shit, we need to get the hell out of dodge, and fast !
*BANG*
"Hey, you three, we're running away now !"
"W-what ? We can deal wit-"
"That's not the point, we have bigger things to worry about right now !"
"What is it ?"
"Not enough time, I'll tell you while we're moving !"
*BANG* *BANG * *BANG*
And the last three mercs are dead, good !
"Follow me !"
"Alright !"x3
He foud it, I see.
I should have hidden that 'watcher' elsewhere, now he knows.
If other faction learn of the prescense of the Chalice, they would attempts at stealing it from us.
"It seems like you have some troubles, is your worshiping of a dead god really the best idea ?"
"Silence, as false angel worshiping a machine, I wouldn't put it past your primitive brain to understand our glorious goddess !"
...
"... I forgot that it removed itself from the memory of Sankta that learn of its nature."
"So, what's your answer, is your dead god really that great ?"
Talking with a puppet of a machine is truly tyreing...
"You four, the Abyssal Hunter may arrive in two weeks, you are to find the Chalice in a week, we shall depart as soon as you find it."
"Yes, Bishop."
Such a pain, keeping him alive only to use him as a offering, he seem to be suppresing it surpsingly well, but it won't last more than a couple days.
