LRAB Page 13
Page 13
With a deafening roar, a scorching pillar of flame blasted through the windowsill, shooting several meters away, and the spreading heat momentarily shattered the tranquility of the night.
Terra Blacksteel Temporary Worker: Chapter Twenty-Four - The Chosen Boy
"Huh...huh...huh..."
Heavy breathing echoed in the burning shop. None of the mercenaries and thugs around dared to make a sound, even though the burly figure in the shop was panting heavily, looking like he was exerting too much effort.
The fact that the leader has become weaker does not mean that they have become stronger.
To anger a demon who's bursting with rage is either to be an idiot or to be another demon altogether.
"Ash, you're being reckless. Your pointless rage proves nothing; it's just a waste of energy," Flamebringer's lazy voice rang out.
Ash turned his head and saw the figure leaning against the door, looking at him with a sneer.
Veins bulged, and Ash raised his greatsword to slash at Flame Guest, stopping less than five centimeters from his face.
"While I won't stop you from being willful, I will bring you out of this atmosphere." Yan Ke remained fearless, his expression unchanged.
Ash took a few heavy breaths, as if trying to vent his anger, and asked in a trembling voice, "Where are the hostages upstairs?"
“The absolution masters are more concerned than we are.” Yan Ke said, his gaze sweeping over the burning shop, lingering for a moment on the collapsed pile of books, before casually looking away and saying, “If the fire starts on the third floor, and it spreads to the fifth floor, those researchers who don’t have much power will not fare well.”
“Leave a few to put out the fire, the rest of you keep watch. I don’t want to see that guy sneak in again. If I find out…” Ash revealed a bloodthirsty expression.
After saying that, he turned and left. Yan Ke shrugged, glanced back, and followed Ash away.
The remaining mercenaries discussed and divided into several teams to put out the fire. Fortunately, their leader was a Sarkaz who used fire, and the mercenaries were quite skilled at extinguishing fires.
The fire was brought under control in a short time.
"The leader is here again. He's strong, but his temper... sigh." A mercenary holding a fire extinguisher sighed, "Poor guy, I wonder which one the leader will take a liking to next."
The other mercenary paused, then suddenly remembered his leader's peculiar taste, and his expression became much more amused: "Yeah, is it lucky or what? The leader likes delicate skin and tender flesh, and that Sakota just now happened to fit the boss's taste. If he had been caught later..."
"Hehehe..."
"Hahaha..."
The two mercenaries joked with each other as they approached the pile of books.
Suddenly, two arms emerged from the pile of books, snapping the mercenary's throat. They rolled away and concealed themselves, their movements fluid and graceful—truly worthy of the title...
"As expected of my excellent subordinates." The sudden voice startled the two men, but they quickly came to their senses.
Leaving Razer aside, even Franka glared at Bai Zhi.
"Hey, Captain, when did you learn to fly? Take me up for a spin sometime." Franka's words were barbed, alluding to the fact that Bai Zhi had been knocked out of the window by Ash earlier.
Razer was much simpler. She snorted and got down to business: "That Flamebringer just spotted us, but he didn't reveal himself. As for the information he gave about the hostages being on the fifth floor, its credibility is questionable."
"But we can't abandon the intelligence. The hostages are clearly on the fourth or fifth floor. The mercenaries will be more vigilant, and it won't be easy for us to break through... Captain, you really can't fly?"
Franka agreed seriously for a few moments, but then, unable to resist her curiosity, she asked again.
“Sarkota’s wings are just symbolic,” Bai Zhi rolled her eyes and explained. “I was just hiding on the windowsill, I didn’t fall down.”
“We can’t go up to the fourth floor. If Ash and Flamebringer block the stairs, we’ll be exposed,” Razer asked.
"How about it, Captain, to ensure the mission goes smoothly and also to stall a troublemaker, you just offer yourself up?" Franka said with a "you've hit the jackpot" expression, making Bai Zhi's eyebrows twitch.
“I’m willing to give you this precious opportunity,” Bai Zhi said decisively.
"It's a pity, Ash prefers handsome boys like you, Captain." Franka emphasized the word "boys."
"Shut up, are you even a boy? Do you want me to let you experience it for yourself!"
"a ha ha ha......"
Razer listened quietly to the two's playful banter; after it happened so many times, she became too lazy to stop them.
After joking around for a while, the group seriously discussed the matter and decided to risk going to the monitoring room. Razer and Franka put on their mercenary coats, bypassed the central courtyard area, and headed towards the staff area.
They saw an open door at the far end of the staff area, with light shining from inside. It was one of the few bright spots in the entire mall, and it was the monitoring room.
Two fully armed mercenaries stood guard at the entrance to the monitoring room. One of them, who was holding a crossbow, wore an infrared night vision device on his face—rare and high-quality equipment, which even the Ashes mercenary group didn't possess much of.
This sniper mercenary was the best sniper in the mercenary group, which is why Ash gave him this equipment.
He deserved the respect; he raised an eyebrow under his helmet, as if he had just seen something.
To prevent any accidents, he took out his communicator, ready to report, when a dark shadow flashed through his infrared night vision goggles, and his hand was violently dragged and slammed into his throat, leaving him unable to move.
The excruciating pain in his hands and throat, the smell of blood, and the slick liquid told him he was done for. He looked up to warn the mercenary beside him, but all he saw was his companion with a crossbow bolt piercing his head. Then everything went black, and he died.
The faint sound of running approached, and Bai Zhi and the other two figures reappeared.
They took out a mirror to reflect the image in the monitoring room. There was no one inside, and the three of them breathed a sigh of relief. Razer went into the monitoring room to check the surveillance footage. All three of them were experienced operators, and Blacksteel had received special training in the simple electronic operation.
"We almost got caught." Franka took off her infrared night vision goggles and put them in her bag. Infrared night vision goggles weren't cheap, and the money she got from selling them to the company would be enough for her to have a good time for a while.
Franka glanced at the focused Razer on the monitor, then leaned close to Bai Zhi's ear and whispered, "If you get a share, remember to keep it a secret from Razer. After the mission, we'll go shopping together, and I'll give you your share of the profits~"
Franka, of the Volpo tribe, with animal ears, large breasts, knee-high socks, a tie, a uniform, and high heels.
Even the oversized black steel uniform couldn't hide her voluptuous curves; in short, she was a beauty.
Such close contact was a considerable test for Bai Zhiyi, a Sarkaz who came from the rigid country of Lateran.
"The mission is the priority; we can deal with trivial matters later." Bai Zhi said righteously. Franka snorted and went into the monitoring room to check the hostages and mercenary patrol routes with Razer.
Bai Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the shared memories of Greek Bai Zhi increased his experience, which allowed him to get through it with a straight face.
Huh? Why do I feel like I've lost out?
Bai Zhi was puzzled.
Terra Blacksteel Temporary Worker: Chapter Twenty-Five - If Not, Let's Start Over
"The situation is worse than we thought."
The surveillance footage showed the scene in the fifth-floor restaurant in front of the three people.
The researchers were all in the restaurant. Not only that, Flamebringer and Ash were also drinking. What was even more troublesome was the black-robed absolutist in front of the hostages.
The decapitation operation has failed, unless they want to confront the enemy boss head-on. However, based on the performance of Ash and their strength comparison, Razer and Franka are not confident of gaining the upper hand.
The patrol team in the corridor consisted of a mercenary and two thugs, and they proceeded along a prescribed route. The entire mall would soon be searched, including the monitoring room.
There are more patrol teams on the fourth and fifth floors. There are people watching over each stairwell and the water pipe connection outside the wall, checking them one by one.
Time is running out for the three of them.
“We’ve been exposed. Let’s change our plan. First, create chaos among them and take them out one by one. If we attract the attention of any of the three, we’ll focus our fire on them and eliminate them.”
Bai Zhi quickly changed her plan and took out more than a dozen sealed Originium bombs from her bag.
"Razer, mark the support pillars of the mall. We're going to blow this building up."
Precision work should naturally be left to the serious Razer, and as for the off-screen voice saying "Huh? I don't know anything about architecture?", just ignore it.
"The hostage..." Franka asked instinctively, then realized, "I see. The employer also mentioned that if the mission objective cannot be completed, the hostage will be dealt with. Captain, you considered this."
“That’s right. In terms of our relationship, especially regarding the hostages, we’ve switched places. We’re not the rescuers, and the other side isn’t the kidnappers. Therefore, the other side will care about the hostages more than we do.”
Bai Zhi pointed to the surveillance footage from the fifth-floor restaurant, which showed that three enemy generals had been protecting the hostages the whole time, which was evidence of this.
"It's clearly stated beforehand that I'm not an expert in architecture, and I can't guarantee what this building will ultimately look like."
Using the printer next to her, Razer printed out a map of the store's location, marked with more than a dozen red dots, which she considered to be the support points.
Bai Zhi and Franka picked up the location map and looked at it. The latter glanced at it and lost interest. The fox wasn't interested in civil engineering.
As for Bai Zhi, if he were to come and guess, he probably wouldn't be able to mark as many points as Razer.
After all, the Greeks lived in the age of gods, where buildings were either ordinary huts or royal castles, and no one stipulated that princes needed to study architecture.
Heavenly Realm Bai Zhi, a roaming gunslinger in the lawless zone, where would he get the money to build a house? At most, he infiltrated and took part of the Kallet family's wealth recently, but he is still a wandering rogue.
Honkai Angelica is still relentlessly training under the honest Durandal, unable to extricate herself.
As for him personally, choosing sniping positions or tracking and counter-tracking are his strengths, as the Lateran sisters have specifically taught him. However, when it comes to things like building, he is truly helpless.
but.
'Judging by the time, tonight is the assembly day.' Bai Zhi thought to himself, waiting to steal a moment from his busy schedule to go and borrow some equipment.
According to the map markings, under the light operation and pseudo-stealth state, the three Black Steels moved through the area as if it were empty, without any obstacles along the way, and also ambushed and killed many patrol teams.
"Commander, thirteen brothers in the regiment have lost contact... *shush*... *beep beep beep*..."
As Ash listened to the report on the communicator, veins bulged on his forehead. The loss of more than ten members was already half of the mercenary group's strength, and he could not afford such a loss.
He got up, ready to personally eliminate the infiltrated rat.
"Ash, sit down." Flamebringer stopped Ash and explained, "The enemy is luring you out. If you go down, you'll most likely be surrounded and attacked. That would be unwise."
"Am I supposed to watch my brothers die one by one?!" Ash's voice was extremely terrifying.
"Does it make a difference to you? Mercenaries are desperate criminals who live on the edge; it's either the enemy or you. Once you've completed Theresis's commission, you can easily create a new mercenary group and start over. Is that so hard for us?!"
Yan Ke stated the facts calmly and skillfully, his familiar tone making one wonder what kind of hardships this swordsman had gone through in the past.
"After the Flamebringer mission is over, you and I will have a fight." Ash suppressed his anger and sat down again, but a fight between the two afterward was inevitable.
Despite Ash's volatile temper, his sense of responsibility as the leader of the mercenary group drove him to lash out at Flamebringer, who had made him sacrifice the lives of his men.
No matter how violent Ash's rage was, it had no effect on the three members of Blacksteel.
After burying the last Originium bomb into the support pillar, Bai Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. He was also tired from maintaining Originium Arts for a long time, plus the physical exertion of going up and down the stairs.
Razer and Franka ambushed and killed more than thirty mercenaries and thugs along the way, and their stamina was also waning.
The mercenaries in the mall received the news that an invisible figure was lurking in the darkness, ready to ambush lone squads. As a result, most of the mercenaries chose to stick together.
They intensified their efforts to clear out the remaining enemy troops, but it is true that their numbers were reduced by half.
However, what they didn't know was that Bai Zhi and the other two had already taken advantage of the chaos to leave the department store and were now resting in a small building next door.
"How much time is left?" While eating her dry rations to replenish her strength, Bai Zhi looked up at the crescent moon in the sky, the amplified moonlight nourishing her weary body.
"Three hours and twenty minutes have passed. To sum it up, we have one and a half hours left." Razer glanced at the time and took off his mercenary suit.
"How long has it been since those mercenaries showered? Their uniforms stink." Franka covered her nose and deliberately destroyed the mercenary uniform she had just taken off. "I really want to take a shower."
"Bear with it," Bai Zhi advised. "Take a break; the timer explodes in ten minutes. The battle ahead is going to be tough."
After saying that, he closed his eyes and pretended to squint.
On the surface, that's how it appears, but in reality, he entered the Angelica Space again.
Eyes closed and opened.
The familiar, dark space made Bai Zhi feel at ease.
"Yo, Andrei, you've arrived." Collapse Bai Zhi Paimon waved. Since each Bai Zhi is the original Bai Zhi, after the Bai Zhi Round Table Conference, in order to distinguish each person, it was decided to address them by their reincarnated identities.
Carbonsis was leaning back on the sofa, enjoying the hard-won peace and quiet.
The Baizhi Space is no longer a void. Since Baizhi from various worlds mixed together, they have all brought all sorts of things and stored them in the Baizhi Space.
This included the prey that Diomedes hunted and the herbs he collected;
Carbonsis stole weapons, equipment, and gold that the Kallet's lair could not carry with them;
The sofa, table, and other daily necessities purchased by Andrecher himself.
As for Paimon? We shouldn't expect too much from a Valkyrie android that's still under surveillance.
Terra Blacksteel Temporary Worker: Chapter Twenty-Six Two Adorable Creatures
"Is Diomedes still not here?" Andersel asked worriedly, glancing around. Diomedes had missed two meetings.
The flow of time is different in each world. Each Angelica has experimented and measured the flow of time in its own world, and calculated the gathering time. Even if it is delayed by external forces, it will come in later to explain. However, the Greek Angelica has missed two episodes and may be doomed.
“Who knew that his last message was to ask Hephaestus, the god of forging, for a divine artifact?” Paimon shook his head. He was the most well-informed person in the White Angelica Space: “When the Greek gods died, their souls went to the underworld. Diomedes should have been able to enter the White Angelica Space at that time.”
"Forget it, there's no use worrying. I have a tough battle tonight. Carbensis, lend me two revolvers." Shaking his head, Andercher ran to the weapons pile and found two Cross revolvers and a pack of special bullets.
"Hey, that's my spare revolver. I got a purple one from a lucky drop. Be careful, I only have a few purple ones left."
Carbonisti O Iliu Yishan 2 Erb9 woke up and said that he was just an unofficial wilderness gunman with no money to buy weapons. The only few purple weapons he had were stolen from the Kallet base. If they broke, he would have nowhere to cry.