Chapter 61: Begin The Operation
Begin The Operation
Xander and co watched the recording in complete silence, the device having captured the entire meeting in complete detail.
Other than Mia, who was asleep, and Mary, who stood behind Xander, everyone’s faces were grim, while Keir seemed very curious.
When it ended, Falael scrubbed a hand across their face.
"Okay, so the good news is that our conjecture was correct." Hearing that, Curtis just stared into nothing with a slightly dazed expression.
"... The bad news is that we were correct. Maybe a bit too correct." They grimaced at that. Xander then glanced at Aubrey and Mary, asking with slight worry.
"You two are alright, right?" He was asking in regards to the close call.
"Yeah. Just got a bit of a fright." Aubrey nodded in affirmation.
"I am alright." Mary said concisely.
Xander nodded before rubbing his temples, and Falael spoke again, ear twitching in slight agitation.
"We have about 30 minutes before we begin the battle. So we somehow need to track all the people we saw in the meeting while also keeping track of the two traitors, while simultaneously ensuring the operation goes smoothly and, most important, not dying." They clasped their hands together. "Great."
"Yeah, this one is pretty complicated. I’m coming up short." Curtis also shook his head with furrowed brows. Aubrey didn’t say anything. Instead, she just glanced at Xander. After a few seconds, he said slowly.
"I have an idea, actually." This immediately drew the attention of the others, and after a few seconds, Xander relayed his plan.
***
Eventually, the time for the assault had arrived, and the different squads had gathered.
Except the people in charge of watching the catacombs and those halting the advance of the Azure Tree, almost all the soldiers had been gathered, leaving only a few to defend Landor.
Doing the math, the gathered forces reached roughly 3,000 soldiers. Other than that, there were several pieces of magical weaponry to aid in the attack.
No special speech was given. After being soldiers for so long, everyone understood what was at stake, and that was more than enough to bolster them as they all marched towards the ravine.
At the same time, some distance away from the main army, a group of 100 made up of 20 squads came in from another angle.
This was the elite force that was to go and secure the corpses of the beast leaders, and among them was Xander’s squad.
’Everyone ready?’ Xander asked via the link as they advanced. Also, Mia surprisingly came along, getting carried on his back. But the surrounding soldiers seemed incapable of perceiving her presence.
’Yup.’
’That’s right.’
’Of course.’ The other three gave their affirmative answers, and Keir flicked out his tongue like a snake, looking excited for the upcoming battle, which was a far cry compared to the mood of the rest, which was considerably dreary.
As for Xander’s taciturn maid, Mary, she was currently high in the sky and invisible, serving as a scout of the group by relaying relevant visual observation from her height to them.
’Xander, be aware, 3 of the traitor squads are already in position near us. They will most likely act when things get messy during the operation.’ Aubrey spoke, and Xander gave an affirming response.
After Xander’s squad was added to the elite force, 10 of the traitors were added to it as well, no doubt wanting to use the opportunity to enact both of their plans.
Which was exactly what Xander and co wanted.
’... You know, this is very surreal.’ Curtis suddenly said, sounding a bit wistful.
’Not sure if diving headfirst into a landform filled with bloodthirsty demonic beasts that are in the process of killing each other while also having ten groups of people who also want us dead would be considered wistful, puppy.’ Falael glanced at him.
’Not what it meant.’ Curtis’s brow twitched at the nickname. ’... What i was referring to was, well, the situation. We spent so long training to fight beasts in the military, and now we’re doing just that. So yeah, surreal.’ That made them all quieten for a moment. He was right, in a way.
Granted, they had assassinated three elite mage equivalents the previous night, but watching the advancing army, it was different from a quick assassination operation, but a true military advancement. It was no wonder Curtis described it the way he did.
So they understood.
...
That didn’t stop Falael from intentionally being a bitch though.
’You say we spent so long training, but realistically it’s only been a bit over a month since we joined Avoma. Perhaps your sense of time is skewe—’ "Oowwww!" Falael exclaimed outwardly as Xander very methodically twisted one of their ears, their body locking up from the pain.
This drew a few strange stares from the surrounding soldiers, but no one really said anything.
Xander finally pulled his hand away when Falael quietened, and a few seconds later, Aubrey asked Xander in a private channel with a strange tone.
’Why do you keep squeezing their ears whenever you want to discipline them?’ Xander avoided raising a brow and answered frankly.
’Elf ears are sensitive. So it’s a pretty effective way of making them shut up.’ As he replied, he subconsciously thought back to the many examples of such discipline back on earth, some of which he hadn’t been spared from, and he suddenly felt his ear throb.
Aubrey gave him a subtle but unmistakably odd look, which confused him further.
He glanced at Falael who was tending to their reddened ear, looking indignant, but Xander didn’t sense anything amiss.
"...?" Avoiding the urge to scratch his head, Xander inevitably threw the issue to the back of his head as the ravine came into sight.
Due to their position, they obviously couldn’t see into it, but they didn’t need to for them to know that the situation inside wasn’t pretty.
The main army stopped as well, and for a second, everyone listened to the sounds coming from the ravine. Roars, snails, scratches, explosions, pained cries, tearing, chewing, and so on. It sounded both hectic and disturbing.
Dust mixed with blood mist constantly wanted out of the opening, filling the air with an unpleasant,metallic tang.
Xander heard the captain shout out a command, and numerous casters using earth magic worked together to erect a tall wall which gave them an effective vantage point, then several more spells were used to make the mouth of the ravine into an effective death trap.
Following this, the different magic weaponry which included, but was not limited to, mana cannons, flamethrowers, and bombs of varying attributes, were also fixed in place.
Finally, one soldiers ran and threw out several bags before quickly running back.
Abruptly, the chaos in the ravine ceased, at least audibly, from where the elite team stood. However, the ground suddenly began to rumble.
Then the explosions rang out.
Using the mouth of the ravine as a chokepoint, the mages on the wall immediately cast a barrage of various ranged spells, and while Xander couldn’t see the result, the sounds he heard told him that the mages in charge of this specific task were picked specially, as he saw many of the spells fuse midair before plunging into the mouth of the ravine.
The magic weaponry also activated, and he had no doubt that the traps set were reaping various lives.
The main force simply stood near the wall, waiting.
Among them, Xander spotted Sparrow. The older woman seemed to sense his gaze as she turned her head. Their gazes met across hundreds of meters, and they nodded at each other.
One might simply think of this as a greeting between the two before a large battle, but it was much more than that.
The elite team waited patiently, as the order was that exactly ten minutes after the initial assault began, they would begin their own advance.
They watched calmly as all sorts of attacks rained down into the mouth of the ravine, the captain in the back watching with his arms folded, expression unreadable. Xander calmly counted down in his mind.
Ten seconds... five seconds...
Thre... two... one...
Xander, who had been assigned the coordinator of this part of the operation, took a breath, and made a gesture to advance.
Without any hesitation, everyone drew their weapons and began to run forward at a quick yet controlled pace, everyone keeping up with each other.
’Things are about to get hectic.’ Xander thought to himself as they ran along the edges of the Ravine towards their destination.
As they ran, they encounter the occasional demonic beast that had crawled out from the ravine and was wandering around, but a barrage of attacks would always shred any apart before they could prove to be a threat.
The ravine was very long, so getting near the middle where the beast leaders had been would take them a few minutes, so Xander used that time to coordinate everyone with Aubrey’s help, but there wasn’t a whole lot to be done as they had been briefed before they were selected, so it was just adjustment work.
Soon enough, though, they reached their destination.
Peeking down, the sight that greeted Xander was one of utter carnage.
The ground was filled almost entirely with blood and corpses of different types, with beasts ripping each other apart incessantly, and anyone with a weak stomach would have retched on the spot.
However, Xander didn’t care about any of that. Rather, with Aubrey’s help, they quickly identified the position of the corpses.
The Void Raptor had some superficial damage on its body, and the chunks of meat that had been the Verdant Boa were scattered, while a hole was getting dug out in the spot of Big Neil’s main body.
Perhaps it was due to them fighting each other, but the corpses were largely untouched, and the hole incomplete, which was good.
However, it was obvious that this ’weeding’ process had been going on for a while, meaning that the weaker demonic beasts that had been vying for the corpses were already gone, and those that remained were the cream of the crop. Perhaps not quite at the level of the beast leaders, but unmistakably dangerous.
Taking a breath, Xander and Aubrey stepped back from the Ravine, and he turned to the soldiers.
"On my mark. Three... Two..." He drew his sword, and everyone stepped to the edge.
"... One." And they jumped down.
