Chapter 416: The Truth Few Know
"GIVE ME A SIT REP," came the voice over the radio in Mark’s hand. He didn’t move though, just staring at the dead body in front of him like he had just seen death itself.
As the radio buzzed again, the commander drove up in a Humvee and stopped after noticing the body.
"What happened to the targets?" The commander barked, seeing their stunned faces.
Mark pointed out of the gate as the commander snorted, a look of disgust on his face. He ordered his men in pursuit and a column of vehicles followed him out the gate with air support in pursuit on tracking duty.
"Commander! Are we free to open fire?" One of the pilots asked.
"No.... We need them alive unless there is no choice," the commander responded through clenched teeth. While the numbers hadn’t been totaled yet, he knew he had lost several men while the targets made their escape. The information also include that some were knocked out while others had had their throats ripped out, as though attack by a large animal. Knowing the background information on the targets, the commander knew that the ones knocked out had been fortunate enough to encounter the most wanted suspect known as Laz. As for the others, there was only one other suspect.
’I don’t care if that bastard dies since he wasn’t in the briefing,’ the commander thought to himself, feeling like he would put a bullet between the weird, wolf like man with scales on his body if he got the chance. As for the kid, while he had shown his solders mercy, the commander had his orders. The body of the chosen was just chalked up to another victim of the wolf man.
Who could guess his reaction if he had known it was Laz who had killed the boy.
While they were in hot pursuit, Tommy along with the mobile command center arrived within the area that used to be the home grounds of the order.
Tommy emerged from the vehicle with the radio in hand and quickly approached the still stunned Mark who was now sitting on the ground looking off into the distance.
Tommy didn’t bother to speak, instead choosing to kick the man in the back and send him flying forward onto his face.
"YOU DARE TO IGNORE ME?" Tommy screamed as he charged forward, a knife made of purple ice in his hand that he seemed to want to burry into Mark’s head.
Several of the other chosen, rushed over at once and grabbed a hold of Tommy, trying their best to keep him from killing Mark. None of them liked being ordered around by Mark, but they knew they had a much better chance of surviving with him doing the ordering than if Tommy were to take charge. It didn’t matter where they were from, there were three names that you never wanted to find yourself working for if you wanted to stay alive.
First was Tommy, second was Annie and third... was a man named Jesse. The first two had pictures in every chosen database and their background and information was easy to find. As for Jesse, his name was all they had about him. As for why these three stood out among everyone else, well, they were the only ones who’s profiles included a title within the database.
Lord Tommy.
Lord Jesse.
Lord Annie.
Some saw this and questioned as to why she would call herself a Lord while being female? But based on the rumors they heard, there were better ways to kill yourself than to ask that woman that particular question.
Faster too.
With all the noise behind him, Mark snapped out of it seeing as how Tommy looked like he was going to kill him and stood at attention. While there wasn’t much that could change Tommy’s mood, he always appreciated this type of respect from those he had command over. The kind of respect that said ’I will listen to your orders no matter what.’ Perhaps this was a perversion of actual military salute since the way Tommy liked to be saluted wasn’t actually as military salute. Instead it involved crossing your fists over your chest with the left arm underneath the right arm and then bowing until being ordered to stand.
Seeing Mark bow in front of him, some of the rage left Tommy’s body and he stopped fighting. Doing so meant that the chosen who had tried to stop him would retreat and bow in the same manner until they were either punished or allowed to stand up.
Tommy kept them there a minute while fiddling with his ice knife before finally saying,
"Stand."
Each of them rose up with straight backs and eyes facing forward as Tommy stood in front of Mark, looking straight into his forward facing eyes and seeing if there was even an ounce of him flinching back.
Of course there was none. No one could make it to Mark’s position in the Chosen’s world without having at least that much backbone.
"Why didn’t you answer me?" Tommy asked, his words as cold as his blade.
"Sorry Sir. We didn’t know how to respond. We were stunned with just how strong the target was, leading us to wonder if the intelligence on him was mistaken," Mark quickly said, mixing in the truth with lies. While it was true that they were stunned with Laz’s strength, they were also scarred witless. That one quick act of walking through the attack and snapping the young man’s neck like a popsicle stick was enough to deter them from wanting to fight him anymore.
"Mistaken. I see. So the targets fought.... what was him name?"
"I don’t know for sure sir. He just liked to call himself Blaze," Mark responded, the normal tone coming back to his voice.
"Blaze. What a stupid name. And he fought and lost?"
"He... he attacked sir. He caught them off guard just like he had been taught to do and didn’t give them time to defend themselves."
"And his level?"
"He was a mid level four sir. He used his strongest attack from the beginning, a high level fire cone. He caught both of the targets in the direct center. No matter how strong the target’s were, that attack should have been enough to kill them. I yelled at him to hold back, but he had.... already started losing it so he didn’t hold back. But it didn’t matter sir. Neither of them were harmed in the slightest. The main target, he just walked forward through the fire cone, reached up and snapped Blaze’s neck like it was a twig. Just snap and Blaze was dead."
"Hmm... interesting," Tommy said, thinking to himself. While he didn’t know this chosen called Blaze, from Mark’s report, he wasn’t weak. But even then, he stood no chance.
"It seems he’s grown stronger in the weeks since the automations lost him. Well no matter." Tommy said, stepping back from the assembled chosen.
"You all were trained with one task in mind, complete your mission. You’ve been giving all of the luxuries that you desire while your also given all the help that can be offered to you. And now, you have a mission to complete. IF YOU CAN’T DO IT, THEN WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF KIEEPING YOU ALIVE?" Tommy yelled, throwing the purple ice blade.
The blade just missed the side of Mark’s head and struck the man standing behind him, burying itself in his chest. Before the man could even scream, his body was covered with a layer of ice and he was dead, just like that. Even without directly engaging with the target, two of them were dead.
Mark knew the only reason he was spared was because Tommy needed him to be the good cop, a role Tommy wouldn’t and couldn’t fill.
At the same time, if Mark proved incompetent, then Tommy wouldn’t hesitate to ice him next. There were always others waiting to take his position.
"FORM UP. WE GIVE CHASE NOW!" Mark yelled out, directing the remaining chosen to follow him, which they did with all their strength. They might have been surprised by Laz’s strength, but they were scared as hell of Tommy. And that was the point.
They loading into the vehicles, a few of them having to hop into the trunks since they were now short one SUV. As soon as they were in, they took off, the GPS in the vehicles wired into sat nav so they could get live feedback from the military troops ahead of them.
Tommy looked on with a blank face while agent Wallace walked up to him.
"You’ve got something to say, human?" Tommy spat out, annoyed. He didn’t like the agent, but even he had to admit that Wallace was not only smart, but also well connected and could make things happen.
"If what they are saying is true, than based on what the intelligence has told us, he may had broken into their next realm," agent Wallace advised.
"Heh, so what if he did? I’ll just take action myself. He’s not the only one whose grown in strength," Tommy laughed as agent Wallace felt all the heat drain out of the air around him, turning his breath visible.
"There is way to know for sure if your levels are the same as the realms the Jotunkind possess."
"DON’T SAY THAT NAME. THAT IS FORBIDDEN!" Tommy suddenly yelled at agent Wallace, knocking him back.
"They are infected, diseased humans and nothing else. Don’t act like they are actually a race of mystical creatures from this world and beyond. That is just bullshit and nothing more," Tommy spat out, clearly annoyed.
Agent Wallace backed off and returned to the command center, his back covered in sweat. While Tommy might not have believed the words of the bronze god Cormic, agent Wallace had no reason to believe he was lying back then. He had heard all the reports, even if he wasn’t right there and he felt that what was said was the truth.
’You can’t accept that they have just as glorious a background as you do, can you boy? Back before the final battle, both the Jotunkind and the gods lived in harmory, each respecting each other’s pantheon. It was the loss of the world tree and her people who caused you to war with one another. Thousands of years ago, Ragnorak brought the world to it’s knees and the only ones to survive were the weakest of the weak, the ones no one else bothered with. And while those pantheon’s survived that war, they all eventually died out. Why do I suddenly feel like the wheel of time is repeating itself, hmm? I wonder if that old man has come up with any more answers... assuming he hasn’t been killed yet for the answers he has given. Pity.’ Agent Wallace’s thoughts trailed off as he looked at the screen of the live feed.
The pursuit had finally caught up.
