Chapter 375 375 Shortcut Out of Town
The auction guards looked horribly offended at the implication that the Demon was just going to walk out with their merchandise without letting it go to bid, but a quick look at the monitors showed them that there was indeed an army outside, and the building was not likely to survive this encounter if they started an assault before Wolfe was well away from the property.
Not that the Demon seemed all that concerned about it. He was casually counting the hands that went up and bringing them over to his group to prepare for their departure.
"Alright, there is one last thing to do, and then I'm out of here. Is everyone ready?" Wolfe asked.
"Anytime you are, sir." The nearest of the prisoners replied with a smile.
Wolfe focused on the Prisoner Chains that were binding the Witches who were working both in the Auction House and all over town, then overloaded them with mana, shattering them and setting the Witches free.
They could do whatever they wanted with that freedom, and it was time for him to lead his group out the back door.
"Everyone stay close. You don't want to run into the edges of the barrier spell. I can't guarantee that it won't set you on fire if you do." He announced as he kicked the back door open, and a hail of gunfire slammed into his armour spell.
As the rounds clattered to the ground at his feet, Wolfe drew out one of the pistols and aimed it at the center of the three APCs that were firing at him right now. The explosion threw them onto their sides, stopping the gunfire but not really damaging the vehicles themselves all that heavily.
A second shot imbued with gravity magic took out a tank that was blocking the road, and Wolfe set a brisk pace out of the building with a large barrier spell guarding the group of prisoners.
"Do not let him pass. His mana is limited; just keep firing, and you will take him down in seconds." A voice was shouting over a loudspeaker.
The amount of fire that was coming Wolfe's way suddenly tripled, but the accuracy rate was horrible. It was clear that many of the soldiers were firing blind from concealed positions, and Wolfe had kept the barrier close to the group, so a lot of it was hitting the building behind him.
The Auction House was rapidly disintegrating, and the barriers that had been activated in advance to protect the customers during the event were nearly ready to fall. No more had come up to replace them, and Wolfe smiled at the first signs that the imprisoned Witches were making good on their freedom.
Wolfe took a second to hurl lightning at a machine gun nest and then at a power transformer to take out the power grid in the area.
"He's desperate now. Keep at it, and we've got this." That same Commander's voice instructed.
"That's where you are wrong." Wolfe laughed as he set lightning arrays on the side streets ahead of him.
Anyone who tried to get into position to shoot at him would be in for a world of pain, even if they brought an armoured vehicle, and the casually destructive look was just what Wolfe was counting on to keep the Grand Dutchies afraid enough of his power that they wouldn't pursue him into the wilderness with a reinforced unit.
Wolfe and the former prisoners had just passed the intersection where he had set the traps when suddenly, the buildings around the intersection simply exploded. A massive dust cloud blanketed an entire quadrant of the city, and the barrier around the prisoners lit up with fire as it burned away the dust and flying rubble.
"What in the world was that?" John yelled up at Wolfe, who was still leading them on a fast walk through the city.
"If I had to guess, they sent a tank through the array that I set, and the lightning set off the munitions. That's about the only thing I can think of that would cause that level of destruction."
He picked up the pace a little bit so that they could make it to the edge of the city before the army recovered and found a proper way to start pummeling them with anti-magic artillery without levelling the city itself. At best, they only had a few minutes before the big guns came out, and the exchange of attacks would cause a lot of collateral damage once the fight really got going.
Wolfe felt the change as the light arms fire started to switch from regular ammunition to null stone rounds. That was his signal to stop holding back and start clearing out everything that might be shooting at him. His barrier would hold for a while as long as it was only a few automatic rifles, but even a bit of heavy artillery with Null Stone would burn through his mana pool at a fantastic rate and leave him completely drained.
Up ahead, people were running screaming away from the path that Wolfe was taking as the military commandeered their businesses and homes as firing positions. If they couldn't get the equipment into position to take him down while he was in the city, they would wear him down and then launch a full artillery barrage once he was outside the gates.
That was something that they were certain they could do. The army had already put the units in position for it in case the Covens came for their witches, and it could be focused anywhere around the city.
But it wasn't easy to hide large groups of artillery, so they had put them in a public park with a clear line of sight around the perimeter of the city. A park that Wolfe's direct line out of town was going to take him right through.
"What kind of horrible luck is this? Spread out and prepare to regroup on my order." The artillery Commander ordered as he realized that his unit was going to be directly on the Demon's route, with virtually zero chance that Wolfe would bypass them.
"Hold your position. He will keep to the main streets. There is no gate in that direction." The General in charge of the detachment ordered, halting all of the equipment that had just started to move.
That might seem like the logical way to the General who was watching safely from a bunker, but so far, Wolfe had just been going straight down the side street, not even trying to avoid being boxed in as he headed for the wall. The Colonel wanted to argue the order, but by then, it would be too late.
"Brace for incoming. I want everyone loaded and ready to target that street."
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