Chapter 142 Attack

Big Brother thought he must've misheard, as the advice Conrad gave was filled with a protective tone. He truly wanted as many people to survive

"I gave Sammy something that she could use to protect herself.. still, I fear the fall of night."

Conrad looked over the camp's protective wooden walls into the forest. Big Brother stared there as well, but couldn't see anything other than some trees. Seeing his good friend stay still, he went back to the group and made sure they all brought their meals into the cave.

It was cold and humid inside the cavern, but his leadership was strong enough to bring them along. Big Brother knew what Sammy must've gotten and if what Conrad said to her was correct, then if things go well, they might survive. He had high hopes for Sammy and Conrad's artifacts.

Conrad on the other hand waited until nightfall to move. The bright moon was high up in the sky, the complete silence interrupted by the sounds of bugs calmed him down. Everyone was asleep, perfect time for action.

'It won't be a lot longer before the bait acts.'

'Yeah...'

'Are you still angry about losing the cores, or is it that dude? You do realize this is our best bet?'

'Of course, I've just gotten tired of all this acting, I don't know how you can do it for so long.'

'Hahaha, well, that's simple, I'm not acting.'

'..We both know that's bullshit, and I still think that killing that dumbass should be a priority.'

'What can he do? He doesn't even know he's awakened, let alone how to fight.'

'He has information... forget it, this is the place right?'

'Should be, yes.'

Lucas had walked to a small wooden building on the outer edge of the camp. The camp was basically a giant circle with the mine in the north and the rest was filled with wooden houses. Most of the guards used the buildings as their own property instead of sharing, but that was besides the point.

Lucas waited patiently as the moon rose in the sky. Looking at the big bright moon he felt like it wasn't just a massive rock. Hypnotized by the moon, his mind played tricks on him by giving it a shade of red. Lucas could only frown as he stared at the menacing moon far out of reach.

Swish

The sound of air being pushed aside reached his ears. Looking to the side he saw an arrow stuck next to his head. The sound of the impact was completely gone, staring at the arrow, he got a bit annoyed he wasn't capable of convincing Eleven to teach him that spell. Reaching for the arrow he calmly took the scabbard that was tied to the arrow.

'Step 2 is complete, on to the next.'

Lucas had done his homework like always, there were 13 Rank 1 mages in the form of guards and 1 Rank 2, Brutus.

The fact that they didn't notice his magical prowess proved that most of the guards were only mages in name only. They didn't have a strong grasp on actually fighting as one.

Lucas employed a spell he learned from Eleven on his way here, making his presence light, almost unnoticeable. He creeped up to one of the houses and slowly opened the door. He lightly pushed it to make it seem like the wind was at play. Not only that, but he kept out of sight and waited a moment before looking inside.

Although his presence was gone, the spell didn't get rid of the creaking of the wooden floor he stepped on. If he had to move in complete silence, not touching anything was the best option.

A man was lying on a shabby bed, snoring loudly even if half of his body wasn't on the mattress.

'A trick?'

'No, he's just sleeping, stop worrying about every small little thing and just do it.'

'I'm in control, I decide the risks.'

Lucas waited a tiny bit longer before slowly moving inside and hiding in the shadows. The man stayed asleep, he only turned around for a moment, showing Lucas his back.

'This is a trap, he's probably preparing a spell in his hand right now!'

'How much do you want to bet it's anything besides that?'

Positioning himself not far from the bed, he slowly bent his knees. Lucas waited longer until he suddenly acted, he jumped silently and lunged his sword right in the man's neck. Even if the man woke up from the creaking in the floor from the jump, he would've been too late.

The spine was severed, not even a sound escaped the man's mouth as Lucas's hand covered it. Even so, Lucas already grasped the head and sent a bolt of electricity through it.

'Frying his brain? Really?'

'Not a word.'

Lucas moved on to the next building, finding a single person and assassinating them silently. He went outside and someone was awaiting him. His rough assassin clothing gave away who was awaiting him, but that wasn't enough for Lucas.

"Number or word?"

"Eleven."

"Good, let's get to work, there are 10 left, you take care of the left side and position yourself to deal with the advisor. I'll take care of the other five."

Eleven nodded before vanishing in the dark, Lucas was afraid to see that Eleven was capable of escaping his grasp, not that any of that was known by Eleven. Lucas was very careful in showing his emotions. Only when a variable is acting out can his mask slip a bit.

Assassinating the few men left was a lot easier than expected. There was hardly any trouble since most of them had absolute faith in their camp that stood tall for decades. Why would anyone attack now? With Eleven killing 5 and Lucas killing 6 in total, only two people were left to be taken care of.

Lucas was ready, he looked towards the center, the Boss of the camp should be located there. He had never seen Brutus, but heard enough about him from Eleven and knew that this wasn't going to be easy. He needed to preserve as much mana as he could to fight against a monster.

'The advisor and the boss, now it'll get rough.'

'Oh really? Why would you think that? For now, every single one of them was too arrogant and complacent since they have their barrier, why would the advisor be any different?'

'I do think he's different, he was the only one that had the capacity to actually think. Next to the boss, he's the most dangerous.'

Using the same techniques, Lucas got close to the advisor's house. He made sure his presence was as hidden as he could make it. Eleven's spell was great, but it needed more improvement, every noise he made was still quite audible. Eleven never had a problem with that since he was trained to be stealthy in his every movement, but Lucas didn't know any stealth technique.

Creeping in the advisor's home, he found him lying on a bed with the sheets covering him. Lucas inched closer, but his heart started to beat faster. Only a few feet away from the advisor he bent his legs a bit, making himself ready to jump. His instincts screamed out.

BOOM

Lucas was shot out of the room and landed on the ground. He recovered immediately and conjured an extra invisible shield.

"I wasn't expecting a guest this late at night, especially not one so stupid as to fight next to the Boss's room."

"Hahaha don't you worry about that. We've made sure that he won't hear a thing. How did you know I was about to attack you?"

The advisor squinted his eyes for a split second, 'We?'. He quickly adressed Lucas as if he didn't notice.

"You think I wouldn't notice the smell of burning flesh?"

The advisor looked to the side and detected a strange bubble around the main house of the camp. 'Is it keeping the noise out?'

"Where are you looking, dumbass!"

'Shit!', the advisor had barely a second to block a flaming sword aiming for his neck. The shield he preemptively put up broke in pieces and he flew back.

"Little brat!"

The advisor got up to meet the blade of the sword once more, the attacks of Lucas were relentless. But the advisor didn't get to his position by doing nothing.

His hand reached for the side of the blade and pushed it aside. His hand was covered in a strange blue light, but it managed to push Lucas out of balance. He was vulnerable, but Lucas was too paranoid to not expect something like this.

The advisor gathered the blue aura around his hand into a ball that turned completely dark.

Lucas's eyes widened for a second before countering with a sphere of pure light. They negated each other, but Lucas was at a disadvantage due to his position, he was about to have his back to the advisor.

BOOM

Damaging both parties, Lucas used his foot to create an explosion beneath both of them.

"Are you suicidal!", the advisor got out unscathed, but his shields were completely broken down.

An injured but already healing Lucas stormed out of the dust cloud swinging directly at his neck. The advisor held his hand up high once more covered in the blueish aura.

"What?!" A split second before the advisor would once again reflect his slash, Lucas forced his sword down to strike low. Caught of guard, the advisor had to sacrifice a large amount of magicules to protect his legs. The sword was blocked, but Lucas used that momentum.

"Oomph"

A kick right in the stomach propelled the advisor backwards.

"Do you think I would fall twice for such a stupid trick? You should've given up your leg if you wanted to live, wasting so much magic purely to defend was a stupid decision."

The advisor needed a second to stand up again. He immediately created a bunch of shields again, but there were fewer than in the beginning.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"And have you already forgotten what I said?"

"Huh?", the advisor didn't take a second before remembering that Lucas said he wasn't alone, he quickly turned around to check if anyone's gotten behind him.

BOOM

"I've made a mistake in thinking you were really smart.", Lucas had already prepared an explosive attack before the advisor even looked away. The shields of the advisor were once again in disarray.

"Hahaha, never have I been so toyed with by a slave!"

Waving his hand he created five sharp spike of pure ice. "You want me to stop defending? Good luck dodging these!", gesturing forward, the icecles flew forward all aiming for Lucas.

'Earth wall.'

'Will break line of sight.'

'Dark Magic.'

'High consumption, we need to spare as much as possible.'

'Fire spears.'

'...'

Taking but a fraction of a second, multiple calculations took place before Lucas decided on the best course of action. Stepping slightly to the side he easily dodged the spikes.

"And gotch ya!", the advisor grasp the air in front of him. The icicles next to Lucas exploded into a mutliple tiny shards of ice that shot out in every direction.

Crack

His own shields were broken through and a few scratches covered his body. A few of the spikes got stuck in his skin, but clenching muscles made them fall out. The shards froze parts of his body, hurting him a lot more than it should've.

"Hahaha, how do you like that? That's one of my special moves. You wouldn't like to know how many people died because of their carelessness."

Lucas was starting to get angry, the itch to start using dark magic and obliterate everything around him started to get more and more of his attention.

'Calm down. Now's not the time.'

'You're right, you focus on recovery, I'll have to sacrifice some mana, but we have to finish this quickly.'

'You're in charge.'

Fully trusting himself his core sent out multiple spells, both parts of Lucas were using the core as their tool to form their healing or attacks, it could barely keep up. Lucas rushed forward, using his muscle enhancements he closed the gap.

"You think you stand a chance!?", the advisor already had both of his hands covered in the blueish aura and his shields were up and running.

Stomping his foot right in front of the advisor an earth spike shot out of the ground, his right swung the flaming sword, the left hand shot out a ball of pure electricity.

Being barraged with three attacks at once, the advisor wasn't worried in the slightest, the aura around his hands countered his sword and electric sphere while his shields stopped the earth spike.

"Behind you!", Lucas yelled before jumping back.

"Like I would fall for such a stupid tri-"

BOOM

An arrow carved with an explosive array crashed right into the back of the advisor's neck. Lucas constantly set the advisor on the wrong foot. His face didn't look good and it just kept getting worse. The explosion barely just happened and Lucas was already lunging forward again.

The advisor couldn't react in time, with his shields broken his body was extremely vulnerable.

SLASH

"ARgh"

From his shoulder to his waist a massive slash was created, the wound was burning, but it didn't take long before the advisor caterized it. The advisor was about to get up when he saw the blade swing down one last time.

"NO!"

The sound of a head dropping to the floor filled the silence of the camp, a fountain of blood came out of the headless neck. Lucas used his sword to cut away the muscles to grab the core. He couldn't absorb it, but it still had its uses.