Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 838: The Reprisal II

CH838 The Reprisal II

***

The battlements atop the walls had already descended into chaos.

The archers loosed volley after volley of arrows as they did their best to hold back the insectoid beasts.

However, they were met with a shrill hiss of descending stinger artillery that rocked the battlements, forcing the soldiers to scatter for cover.

Each soldier barely found their footing, never mind keeping track of where any other soldier was located.

However, the unit captains, Novak and Jack, continued issuing orders to get their units back into battle as quickly as possible.

Soldiers ran back and forth to rejoin their units in the battle. So, the two captains didn’t think much of it when two uniformed individuals walked towards them.

Neither of the two captains spared them a second glance.

Another round of artillery-like stingers from the Vulture Bee Drones struck the walls, causing them to shake violently. The two uniformed individuals used this opportunity to stagger closer to the two captains.

Puchi! Puchi!

The two individuals stabbed the captains in the sides before either of them could react.

The captains looked at their attackers in shock, unable to comprehend why they had been stabbed by men wearing the Stronghold’s uniform.

The two uniformed individuals pretended to help their exhausted and shaken superiors, lending them a shoulder as they lowered them into a resting position against the battlements facing into the fort.

The archers, who were scrambling back to their feet to continue shooting at the bees, didn’t think much of the interaction and quickly resumed firing.

It was only after not hearing their usually boisterous captains shouting for several minutes that they looked back.

They discovered that their unit leaders had bled to death from obvious stab wounds.

When they looked around, the two disguised individuals who had ‘helped’ the captains to rest against the battlements had already disappeared into the chaotic scene and among the panicked troops.

After confirming their escape from the scene, one of them got on the comms.

“The Five and Seven of Spades, neutralised. Moving on,” he reported.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. All across the fort, masked or disguised individuals moved amidst the chaos to assassinate marked leaders of the Stronghold Army.

However, not all the targets of this secret group were marked for assassination.

Fabien Ingram ran for shelter within the Stronghold fort itself. As a non-combatant, all he could do was rush for cover.

He was on his way to lock himself inside his office, which, serendipitously, was sandwiched between neighbouring offices, away from the outer wall and the main corridor.

Combined with its thick walls, his office was positioned to offer strong protection from the bees firing their stingers from outside the wall or from above into the exposed corridor.

Fabien had just reached his office and had only just opened the door when…

Bang!

Thud!

He was struck on the back of the head and fell to the ground unconscious.

“Couldn’t you have been a bit more gentle?” a voice sounded from behind a Hound mask.

“It got the job done, right?” another voice replied. They too were donning a similar, though slightly different, Hound mask.

“Carry him. I will report in.”

The first Hound helped his partner hoist Fabien onto his back.

“White Joker in custody. Moving to secure location.”

Then he reported.

–

The masked and disguised group were none other than the Frontier March’s Military Intelligence Assault and Neutralisation Black Operations (ANBO) Unit.

The leader of the ANBO Unit, Eagle, walked through the shadows unnoticed by those around her as she searched for her target.

“Ten of Clubs, neutralised.”

“Seven of Hearts, eliminated.”

“Four of Spades, eliminated.”

“Eyes on the Queen of Diamonds… Engaging now… Queen of Diamonds neutralised.”

Eagle kept up with the reports over the comms as she continued closing in on her target.

When Udara informed Alex that she would be creating an assassination list for the leadership of the Stronghold Army, Alex jokingly suggested naming the targets after a deck of playing cards.

He even ‘came up’ with an entirely new deck of playing cards that didn’t exist on either Verdantis or Pangea. However, Alex’s deck contained fifty-four cards, whereas she had only thirty-five targets in the entire Stronghold.

At the top of the Stronghold Army were the Stronghold Commander and three Vice Commanders, corresponding to the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of Diamonds.

Under each Vice Commander was a corps, giving a total of three suits: Spades, Clubs, and Hearts.

The nine senior captains in each corps corresponded to the Two through Ten of their respective suit.

There were also two important non-combatant capture targets codenamed Jokers.

About ten of the targeted officers had already been killed during the Battle of Ashwell, including Baron Benn Stodge, who had been the Jack of Diamonds.

Of the twenty-three remaining, aside the two Jokers, not all of them were present at the Stronghold at the time of the drone-ANBO assault on the facility.

For example, the King of Diamonds, the Viscount’s strongest and most trusted Vice Commander, was out leading the one thousand five hundred men stationed throughout the Stronghold’s sphere of influence.

That left only the last remaining Vice Commander, the Queen of Diamonds, behind.

The very same Queen of Diamonds whose head had just been separated from his body by a Fox mask-wearing ronin swordsman.

It didn’t take long for the Stronghold’s forces to realise that their leadership was dwindling. They didn’t initially suspect the existence of a carefully planned assassination squad, but they soon began to put the pieces together.

“Sir, we have to move you to a secure location. We can’t guarantee what these assassins will do,” Viscount Dunhill’s adjutant said urgently.

The Viscount also wore a grave expression.

‘First it’s a swarm of beasts I have never seen before, and now such a dangerous assassination unit. A major organisation is definitely involved. But who…?’ Viscount Dunhill wondered to himself.

BOOM!

Just then, a stinger impacted the wall only a few metres away from him.

Enraged, Viscount Dunhill unsheathed his sword and retaliated with a strike of his own.

A colourless blade of sword energy, indicating his Combat Master rank, shot forward, cleaving through more than a dozen Vulture Bee Drones before dissipating.

“Keep fighting! Our predecessors before us defended this fort with their lives, and because of them it remained unbreeched for almost a century. Our time will be no different!”

“Men of the Frontier Stronghold! Pick up your weapons, fight with me, and push back these beasts, just as we always have!”

Viscount Dunhill rallied the troops.

His aura exploded outwards.

Combat energy attacks shot out one after another—each one taking down at least a dozen attacking drone beasts.

“Attack!”

“Kill!”

A surge of morale swept through the defenders.

Viscount Dunhill cut down another group of drones from the swarm, easing the pressure on this section of the wall.

He glared at his adjutant with bloodshot eyes.

“The commander should run away in the middle of a battle? If you have the time to spout such nonsense, either focus on killing these strange beasts or find those damned assassins,” he roared.

“As you command, my lord.” The adjutant quickly bowed.

“Hmph!”

Viscount Dunhill turned back towards the swarm, ready to continue his assault.

But just then, he felt a chill run down his spine.

***