"Your meaning… Don't tell me… You killed everyone?!!!" This time, Rick was baffled by what Rick said. And with the latter's absence, he knew this was true, "how… You didn't consult me on this!"
"This is something I saw unfitting to tell you about," Rick didn't feel a shred of guilt or shame when he said this. In fact, his tone was cold like a glacier, "I took advantage of the current chaos, and disposed of any opposing name that may stand in your way."
"..."
"We don't fool around," Rick said the last words his dark master told him before sending him here, "once we appear at any place, then it'll fall under our control, one way or another."
"..."
Richard wasn't feeling the same. He wasn't the type to get attached to anyone of his age, but he had three brothers and sisters, those who he knew now were dead.
He looked at Rick, and seemingly the latter knew what was running in his mind. And yet, Rick never showed a single change on his face. Instead, he kept glaring back at Richard, as if he was telling him to suck it and accept the fact.
"Sigh! You should have told me," Richard finally realised that there was no point in arguing or regret, "anyway… Did you collect their rings and belongings? These are all rich folks for your knowledge."
"Don't worry, everything is taken care of," Rick nodded, "now let's focus on the last hurdle that we need to overcome. Send everyone towards Lara, let her die and then we'll celebrate our hard-earned victory."
Richard listened to Rick's words, while seeing this youth now as the real embodiment of a devil.
Lara was inside her Spar Arena supervising over the various efforts to fortify the place. She didn't hold back and took everything she got in her rings, and even emptied the entire vault of this arena. And soon enough, she spotted the early signs of incoming enemies.
[Watch out! They are coming for you!] And just as she was about to give the order to dispatch a small team to crush the incoming enemies, Stark's voice rang in her mind, stopping her from doing anything.
"Damn! Fine! You lead everyone and come here, and I'll hold them until you arrive."
[On my way! How about the portal area? It's filled with tons of fire…]
Lara recalled what she got from her last talk with William, "leave half of the forces there to control the situation, lead others to me."
[Half? That's not enough, not even close from crushing them]
"We have to work with what we have," Lara acted at this moment as a true leader, knowing what was on the stake, what mattered most, and accepted all the shortcomings she suffered, "just lead half here and let's pray we'll get reinforcements soon."
Lara put away Stark's Message Paper, then took William's out. She spoke there but got no response in the end.
At this moment, William was totally absorbed in laying the last touches over his weapon. When he didn't respond, Lara feared the worst. "Screw it! Can you find a way into the Lost City?"
[Now?! Do you want to escape there?]
"No, I want to save someone from there."
[You… You do know how hard it is to get access to that place. Doing so means we'll hit a force base, and that…] Elder Stark wanted to tell her this was impossible. They got short hands right now. And trying to open a new front was a grave mistake.
"Just do it! Or else we'll all die!" Lara didn't know why, but she got such conviction that her survival was related to William moving out from that underground city.
Stark tried to dissuade her but failed. In the end, he had to dispatch half of his forces running to save her, ending up losing much more of their numbers without a good reason in his mind.
He made sure to send a strict and clear message with the leader of this force to William. He asked him to tell this youth about what Lara risked getting him freed.
In Stark's opinion, this was the most foolish move Lara ever did since taking the position of the leader of the family. But there was no time to dissuade her to not do it. And their position was already bad to begin with.
Even if he led all the forces he got towards Lara, he wasn't that confident in saving her.
He could already guess the enemy's real purpose from doing this. And unluckily for them, the masters who rushed here were all tired and wounded and got most of their spirit powers depleted.
They weren't fresh forces, coming from hectic battles outside the city. At the same time, the enemy troops weren't that much better. Yet that wasn't going to balance things out.
One side just had to succeed in every single defensive attempt, and the other side had to just succeed once to kill Lara. it was clear how bad this entire situation was, and that was why Stark started to pray for a miracle.
The news of such sudden development, especially when the news of part of the Lara's faction forces attacking a merchant group all of sudden, reached Rick and Richard's ears fast. And when they realised the sudden development of the entire war, the two couldn't help but laugh.
"This idiotic girl… Hahahaha! I never thought I overestimated her!" Richard was this close from falling on the ground out of joy. He was deeply worried about the end result of such a risky move. And when he heard the recent news, he couldn't help but get shocked by how dumb she was.
"She is indeed a child," Rick could already see through Lara's plan, "she wants to risk everything just to save one useless master… What a lousy move it is."
The two kept laughing at such a terrible decision, while their masters arrived at last at Lara's place. And there everyone got shocked by what they saw.
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