Chapter 42 - Busted
The group of five, Maikal, Elijah, Nerun, Silvester and Ailan entered the cave, which was illuminated by the luminous pearls. Nerun, Silvester and Ailan were fascinated by the pearls, but they had little chance to admire them, because time was short, and they had to rescue and flee with Eliana as quickly as possible.
Soon they came to an intersection. The three children and Elijah chose the left path into the cave that led towards the cells, where they had arranged to meet Roxanne. Maikal, on the other hand, took the other route, which was unknown, and would explore the cave, seeking to incapacitate as many of the mercenaries as possible and watch for Sagat's possible return to the lair.
...
At the same time that Nerun and company had entered the cave, two other people with strange characteristics were also infiltrating Sagat's lair with great stealth, from Rhodnius' territory. These were precisely the Beastmen of Rhodnius, Ren and Malo.
Ren was quite agile and the strength of his two upper limbs was almost equal to the strength of his legs, a talent he was born with and part of the strength he had as a Beastman. Malo on the other hand, had an almost impenetrable defence and his brute strength was 2 times that of a Qi Praetorian of the same level, which is practically the strength of a Qi Centurion. His agility and speed, however, left something to be desired, and in general, given his character, he disdained plans that required stealth, preferring to attack head-on. However, in order not to expose himself, he let Ren take the lead on this mission. It was important that Sagat not find out if Commander Rholand's plans were to be carried out. As military men, they were used to following orders.
The two found some mercenaries on guard, but Ren's great speed meant that none of the mercenaries could react in time, and they all ended up with broken necks given the Monkey Beast Man's great strength. Ren passed a door, not noticing that a mercenary was hiding inside and was about to raise the alarm, when a hand larger than the size of his grey head appeared in front of him and smashed his head against the wall.
Ren turned and saw Malo killing a guard he had missed. He shrugged as he said "my bad" and continued on his way to eliminate all the guards inside the lair.
...
Nerun and the rest had passed several junctions. They were going relatively fast, but slower than the two Beastmen, after all, their main concern was not to be noticed in order to rescue Eliana quickly. Otherwise, she could be put in danger and everything they had done so far would have been for nothing.
They were lucky to find few guards, most of whom were put out of commission by Elijah with great speed. On several occasions, Elijah wanted to separate himself from Nerun and the others, but in the end decided to accompany them for a little longer, to prevent them from encountering any mishaps.
After a few minutes they finally reached a room, which according to the map Roxanne had given them was the one just before the cells of the lair. In it there were 3 mercenaries at a table, playing cards while waiting for the mercenaries in the cell to change shifts. The shift would be in about half an hour, so they were killing some time meanwhile.
Elijah looked at Nerun and signalled him. Both of them at that moment used
They both looked at each other pleased with what they had achieved and Silvester and Ailan took the opportunity to go inside at that moment. So far everything had gone well, and they thought that the easiest thing would come next, which would be to meet Roxanne, eliminate the mercenaries in the cell area and the second and most important phase of the plan would be completed.
However, not everything always works out the way you want it to. When Sagat captured the woman in the Forest and brought her to the lair, many of the mercenaries were smitten by her and few were able to fend off her charm. However, the death of several of them made them realise that this woman was not a defenceless lady, but a rose with large and powerful thorns, capable of killing any of them, so no one bothered her again. This did not detract from the fact that in the minds of many of the mercenaries many desired the woman for themselves. Among them, the most powerful, curiously enough, was Ocelot, Sagat's right-hand man.
Ocelot had never said anything to Sagat, but he was one of the most vocal opponents of Sagat's deal with the Rhodnians as far as the woman was concerned, but his opinion on such a big deal was not worth Sagat's ears. In fact, he himself wanted to ask for the woman on the basis of the great merits he had accumulated for the Violent Tigers, but in the end all his dreams were nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Ocelot knew that today the deal with the Rhodnians would take place, and he stayed in the lair to watch and see that all was well until Sagat's return. So he decided to take advantage of the short time before Sagat's arrival to see the woman one last time, so instead of being in the main hall watching for news of his Boss's return, he was on his way to the cells to see the woman, possibly for the last time. He couldn't help but imagine that of the woman really took fancy of him, perhaps he would be tempted to leave it all behind and leave with her.
Nerun, Ailan and Silvester, all three headed towards the cell area, while Elijah stayed in the anteroom, where the three guards they had just pinned down were. Elijah was watching for any movement, when suddenly, he heard a door open at the other end of the room. Elijah immediately used
It was a short man with small eyes and whiskers like a mouse. The man curiously opened the door but stepped back after opening it. It was part of the cautious instincts that Ocelot had developed in his profession after several years, and he did indeed notice the person in great motion coming towards him. However, Ocelot did not lose his nerve, but calmly took several steps backwards at great speed, barely slower than Elijah's
CLASH!
The collision between the two caused a small tremor in the area, and although Ocelot was knocked back a couple of metres, he was generally unharmed. Elijah on the other hand had to retreat at least 10 metres before he could eliminate the inertia of the blow. Elijah immediately sensed that the person he had attacked was indeed stronger than he was.
Ocelot was markedly angry at being attacked out of nowhere in his den, but he did not scream or yell. He placed a hand against one of the walls and activated his Qi, causing the cave to tremble for 300 metres around. The tremor caused all the mercenaries to stand at attention. This tremor was the code created by Sagat to announce that they had been invaded. Immediately one of the mercenaries standing near one of the exits of the lair facing Rhodnius took a cylindrical contraption with various markings and runes engraved on it, and threw it with full force after imbuing it with Qi into the air in the direction Sagat had gone.
...
Some time before, Sagat had gone out with two of his men to meet Roland in a clearing about 10 km from the entrance to his cave. Although they were close to the Lair, Roland was not worried about it being found, and preferred not to stray too far so that if something happened, he would be able to respond quickly enough.
Sagat was relatively happy. If all went well, they would soon be able to emigrate to Rhodnius under the tutelage of one of the Great Tribes, with abundant resources and opportunities to further advance their Warrior path. Although Sagat was a Qi General, his development had long since stalled, and in fact his previous rise was precisely secondary to the resources Rhodnius gave him for his betrayal of the Kingdom of Ansem. Little did Sagat know that Roland partially blamed him for his defeat and fall to Armand 8 years ago.
The truth was that Sagat was being unfairly blamed by Roland. Sagat had done his part in spying on Ansem's army as well as the city's defences, and it was precisely Sagat's invaluable help that allowed Roland's army to sweep through both cities so quickly and swiftly. The responsibility for that failure was really secondary to two things. On the one hand Roland overstretched his army by attacking two of the frontier cities at the same time in his eagerness for conquest and reconnaissance. On the other hand, and most important of all, Armand was simply too powerful and skilled and his army crushed Roland's army fair and square. Not for nothing, when he was still a Qi Emperor, had he already received the eponym of God of War.
Sagat met Roland and his men in the clearing.
"Sagat, old Tiger, I hope you have prepared all the goods. On our side everything is already arranged and if this goes well, your arrival at the Prairie of Rhodnius will be with full honours," said Roland with a false smile on his face as he looked at Sagat.
Sagat smiled likewise, as he said to Roland, "Of course everything will be fine. I have with me the materials you asked for, and when we get to Rhodnius the woman will be delivered to you as well." In reality, while Sagat wasn't sure what the "stones" at the bottom of the craters were, he didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket either, so he decided to only give Roland a third of all the resources he took from the woman. The rest were still hidden in his lair. Taking a ring from his hand he removed it and tossed it to Roland who could not hide his ecstasy at receiving it. Roland also passed a ring with items, gold and several resources to Sagat. After all, he had to pretend that the deal was gonna go through.
Roland suspected that Sagat might have hidden part of the "stones" which was also one of the reasons for sending Ren and Malo to the lair. Roland then set out to talk to Sagat and give him some benefits to hold him for at least an hour to give his men a chance to act. All these dreams, however, were dashed in a moment, when a great rumbling sound was heard a few kilometres in the direction of Mount Karol.
Sagat looked up and his pupils became pin pricked as he noticed a large, bright red explosion in the sky that could be seen several kilometres away. This was a Mana Device, known as Pyrotechnic Fires. Although it appeared to have great explosive power, its function was to create a light that could be seen from a great distance and was used in various celebrations. Sagat had had modifications made to his to make the explosion a little more conspicuous in case of an emergency.
Sagat's reaction was immediate. The first thing that crossed his mind was that Roland had betrayed him. Which was indeed true, but it wasn't Roland's men who had set off the alarm. Fate can be fickle like that. Sagat made two rounded contraptions appear from another ring he held in his hand and immediately activated them and threw them in the direction of Roland and his men.
Roland was somewhat dumbfounded and quickly understood that Sagat had discovered his men and could not help but curse Ren and Malo for being discovered so quickly. However, it was too late because no sooner had Sagat seen the light than he had already pulled out the gadgets and Roland and his men could barely react.
The gadgets used by Sagat were mana bombs, which activated immediately, forcing Roland and his men to escape, however one of them was caught in the blast and although he was not killed, he was seriously injured and would certainly not be able to participate in the fight to come. Sagat however did not stay to fight, but using all his speed, broke through the sound barrier and set off in the direction of his lair, which he would reach in the blink of an eye.