Chapter 030. Taking matters in their own hands

Because they were pressed on time, Ayla had to make use of all the extra pair of hands with her to come up with the correct explosive in mind.

Thus, the delicate and time consuming task of creating explosives by hand was shortened by a good chunk of time under Ayla’s strict guidance.

Normally, they wouldn’t be allowed near the place without any safety clearance from the lab manager. But no person would be smart enough to seek shelter in an area filled with volatile substances at this moment, so they confidently break in the room and took liberty in taking everything Ayla listed to find.

“Sodium...and Po-pot—tassium? What are you doing with these?” Hika read the label in the glass bottles in confusion. Individually, these chemicals were pretty common and relative nonvolatile. It’s hard to think of any explosive that contains both chemicals together.

“I got the kerosene.” Hamal suddenly sounded, carrying a large black container with the Summer tide emblem plastered at the center. Everybody wisely held back from asking where he got them.

“What the fuck? That almost killed me?” Yael whispered, clenching his frightened heart as he scurried away from Hamal after reappearing behind Yael like a ghost.

“Oh, good job. Just put it there.” Ayla muttered vaguely without looking away from the mixture in front of her.

“Kerosene...Ah, are you making sodium bullets!?”

“Sodium bullets?” Satty piped up after hearing Neil’s intelligent guess.

“It’s something that I have read mercenaries made as an alternative weapon during their raids,” Neil started, “since military weapons were strictly monitored by the Church and imperial family, the black market and private guilds had to come up with their own way of dealing leviaths. Although it’s not as efficient as the tyrfings.”

Listening to Neil’s refined manner of speaking made it seem like he was doing an academic discussion. “How come you know so much?” Yael exclaimed in disbelief. They all looked at him with an added respect.

Neil paused, scratching his chin sheepishly. “Ah...I just read a lot of books as a hobby.” He shrugged.

Yael laughed with his chest, patting Neil’s shoulder happily. “HAHAHA I knew I wouldn’t regret dragging you in the team.“

Neil’s face look exasperated and half dumbfounded at Yael’s shamelessness. They resigned on letting him go on about having the greatest insight in choosing the best people.

All of this was happening unbeknownst to Ayla. Due to her tendency to become extremely focused in the matter at hand as is her second nature the moment her mind got caught in something important.

The familiar rhythm of handling various substances didn’t falter even with weak tremors happening under her.

“It’s done.” She released a huge sigh in relief and relaxed her shoulders. It was a bit difficult to maintain focus in this stressful situation but she fortunately pushed through.

“Huh? That doesn’t look like an explosive to me.” Yael muttered. In his eyes, the container in Ayla’s hand look very harmless and almost unremarkable.

It didn’t look something of a military class weapon or even close to incapacitating an ordinary leviaths.

The liquid inside the clear glass container was colorless with a spherical metallic gray substance the size of an infant’s head sat quietly at the bottom.

The metallic ball only jiggle softly along Ayla’s small movements.

“That’s because we don’t have enough time to make the mechanism to go with this.” Ayla was the one to answer.

“It would be better if we can have a contraption to mechanical trigger the reaction.” Neil muttered softly to the side. He had a general idea of the reaction that will happen and was apprehensive.

“Then it seems like we can only use this once.” Hika supplied with a look of concern.

From Neil’s words, they can only pick the perfect time to set off the explosive without any mistakes.

Ayla took off her lab goggles and nodded. “You’re right. The plan has a lot of opening in my opinion, thus we can only adapt to the situation as best as we can.” She said that yet her face didn’t have a tiny bit of concern like they have.

It’s the best they could do in this situation especially when they are all limited to the situation. Of course, Ayla also wanted something more out of this situation created for all of them.

What is trouble without a dash of drama?

“Here’s the dung beetle extract.” Miroh finally went back to them after working hard in boiling a lot of dung beetles at the other work station.

His face was pinched in disgust, tilting his nose up in an awkward angle in a desperate attempt to put more distance between him and the spot.

The smell instantly assaulted the group rudely as soon as Miroh placed the pot in Ayla’s station.

“What the fuck is that smell?” Yael squeezed his nose and took several steps away.

Miroh went away to take huge gulp of clean air, wiping his misty eyes after taking off his goggles. The smell could be describe as godly since it even penetrated into the glass.

“Honestly, my nose hairs probably disintegrated because of this god awful smell.” Miroh stated nasally.

There’s a hundred percent chance you can find fresh dung beetles in any lab since their body contains a lot of naturally occurring ammonia that they secretes in the solution when boiled.

However, the smell can really make even the most strong hearted people shudder in disgust.

“You worked hard, the both of you.” Satty gave them a nice gesture for encouragement. Unfortunately, they can’t help with the task since Ayla feared they might cause a freak accident.

Miroh covered his grin with a weak smile. “Eh, this wasn’t so hard like you make it to be. Ayla did the crucial work for everyone.”

“Guys, you think the quantity is enough to create a strong explosion?” Neil asked doubtfully.

Ten clear flasks sat quietly in front of them. Every body made sure to steer clear of the explosive’s line of fire, although Ayla had reassure them countless times that the mixture will only react actively in the open air.

Miroh glanced at the wide distance between Neil and the table and wanted to laugh.

“Well, I hope so. Worst case scenario, we’ll have to use ourselves as baits to lure them in the position.” Ayla discarded the gloves to the side, earning everyone’s frightened look behind her back.

It’s probably because of her matter of fact way of talking that made people’s imagination run this wild.

“Ah. That’s probably not gonna happen so ease up.” She kindly added with a pursed lips after noticing their blanched faces.

‘Your expression is not helping us, friend.’

…

Outside the second building, six towering leviaths of varying form trudge erratically around the open field. Even at the distance, people can hear the six let out animalistic growls ever so often, making the skin of those who heard it crawl.

“Ah..ah..testing, testing…Neil? Are you in position, over?” Satty muttered quietly in the communicator they stole from an officer’s room.

“Yeah, we’re in.” Neil’s muffled voice came out of the communicator, “waiting for the signal, over.”

Ayla quietly took deep even breathes. She was slightly exhausted after climbing by her own to reach the roof. Even the act of limbing without using aurora really burdens her chicken body that lacks stamina.

Satty thought Ayla was nervous because of her expression that is similar to a constipation and swallowed with an air of finality after gathering enough confidence to come closer.

“Ayla, don’t be afraid. I’m sure your plan will be a success!” Her intention of consoling to get a positive impression could be taken straight out of a scene of a dog blood romance novel except her tone accidentaly squeak at Ayla’s name breaking the supposed pink atmosphere into fine powder.

Well, nobody would write a heroine that wanted to piss herself in the middle of a life and death situation.

Ayla heard her words and was amused, not noticing Satty’s dishearted expression. “Well, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“Since you’re with me. I’ll surely protect you.” Ayla added as an afterthought with a lopsided smile.

Satty squinted her eyes pitifully because of the shining maximum face value of the person in front of her. She almost got carried away because of the deceptive sunlight that perfectly captured Ayla’s androgynous face.

Charismatic people can really make a living as a con artist because of gullible people in this world.

“My first love ended just like this.” Satty muttered sadly, nursing her maiden heart by herself. The youthful feeling of spring by having someone this handsome beside her evaporated into vapor.

Ah. Truly, the strong stands above the food chain in this tragic era. A handsome thigh can only be less than a real golden thigh.

Satty suddenly shook her head and slapped her cheeks, startling Ayla. She stared at Ayla passionately with clenched fists. “Don’t worry, Ayla. I will do my best to pull this off! Your face should be admired by many for years to come.”…so you only need to lie down as our muse TT

“Hmm, alright.” Thankfully, Ayla didn’t have the ability to read minds and she just accepted Satty’s outrageous words without much thought.

An explosion sounded all of a sudden followed by the shaking of the ground causing everyone to fumble. It was another cannon attack from the knights. The leviath blasted by the artillery cannon was thrown off several feet away, grazing the ground with the force of its weight.

A knight put down his binoculars with a terrified expression. “Sir, reporting! We must cease any attack to limit the damage to the shell covering.”

“Motherfucker, what kind of of shitty luck is this.” The senior knight’s lips quivered angrily. He spat on the ground as a form of habit and stepped up on the edge.

Below the leviaths were bits of human remains from those who dared to get through the leviaths at any means. Unfortunately, their will had directly led them to their demise. The dark red splatter in the leviaths’ hands and mouth was mocking them, daring the next to become the next addition to the mess.

They only had a vague understanding of the orders sent from the top. However, they made sure in keeping a close eye on the exoskeleton since the beginning.

It’s just that they are not in the position to question military orders no matter how dangerous it is.

The senior knight, who was assigned as the leader of the mission was silent for a second before raising his arm for everyone to see.

“All platoon switch to stand by!” He finally sent out the command.

“Yes!”

The senior knight took off his military cap in frustration. There is already a thin sheen of sweat forming on his head due to tension.

“Honestly, I doubt the common sense of the commander once in a while.” He sighed solemnly.

“Sir, you’re really amazing to say that openly.” The soldier beside him gave a small thumbs up despite the situation.

“Wait, for other students to move. At that time, send people—“

His words get lodged in his throat after another explosion set off which was far more explosive than before.

He whirled around angrily, watching a dark cloud of smoke rise up at a distance.

“WHO DEFIED MY DIRECT ORDERS?” He turned back to his men with a seething glare.

A lot of things can go wrong at this moment without their idea. He wasn’t even sure there were no humans along the explosions’ circumference!

“SIR, I RECEIVED A REPORT FROM OTHER TEAMS. IT’S NOT FROM OUR SIDE!”

“Then, who—“

“Fuck! What’s that smell?” A nearby soldier suddenly went into a coughing fit. Other soldiers with stronger stomachs just hold their nose with disgusted expressions.

Unfortunately, the awful smell seem to clung in the air that they can still vaguely sense the smell no matter what.

“Find out who did this!” The senior knight demanded grimly before sending an order to bring in respirators.

“Look at that! Students! I see students!” A soldier exclaimed excitedly behind his binoculars.

“What? Let me see!” The senior knight’s emotion immediately heightened for a different reason, taking the knight’s binoculars to use it for himself.

“Everybody make sure to assist those recruits!“

He gritted his teeth pensively yet he can’t help but hold up the binoculars to the running students after sending out his men near the students.