4

Gabriella and I smashed the walls on both side and Ace broke down the door in front. The people inside didn’t look to surprised but I guessed they didn’t expect us to be this many. The first to attack me was a guy who had an extending spear. He slashed in front, which is one of the common mistakes in fighting. You do not attack forward as your first move, it’s the most predictable move you can make. I easily dodged it and used a balisong to cut his waist. Since I’m more proficient when it comes to long distance attacks, I had to train close combat and make myself prepared. I carry a balisong or a butterfly knife and an extra dagger attached to my calf in case I have to resort to close combat.

“What the hell?!” someone exclaimed. I turned and saw someone backing up from the back, but he immediately froze and fell to the ground, Marco appearing behind him. I felt a ray of light behind me and that’s when I saw the cabin being surrounded with crystal light.

“Get down!” Gabriella ordered. I looked around me and saw that there was no one else to fight anymore. One of them was being held by Gabriella who had his hands tied upward and his ankle broken. Ace continued stepping on his ankle and the man groaned.

“What do you want?!” the man angrily asked. We all settled down and hid our weapons. I stood beside the broken wall beside Josaiah while Marco stayed behind beside Snow.

“Why do you have men camping here? What does Causan Industries want now?” Gabriella furiously asked. The man looked around and noticed all of his men were down and that he was alone. During this time, it’s either you kill yourself to protect your pride or spit it all out to save yourself. The man looked determined and even eager to escape, but he was too injured to even move a muscle.

“To drown Aleris,” the man simply said with provocation. Gabriella, who was already annoyed, punched the man on the jaw. The man coughed blood and eventually lost consciousness.

I turned to Gabriella. “What now?”

“He already alerted the others. We need to move fast,” Gabriella said while holding up an alerting device. We immediately headed out and the house was already covered with a transparent blue color- to collect chemical traces, identify people who have been inside and to shrink the object.

“Red and Xy, you guys should head first and scout the camp from above. You give us the signal when you already cleared the path for us and made the first move. These guys were surprised, so let’s keep it that way. Marco and Snow will follow you guys and stay somewhere close. Ace, Josaiah, and I will enter the north gate of their camp. Are we clear?” Gabriella ordered and we all nodded.

Xy and I immediately ran to the west side of the city. The camp is usually at the center where it’s surrounded by the buildings for convenience. I plan to make a distraction to make the troops come out and then take them out one by one as Gabriella, Ace, and Josaiah make their way inside. As I sighted a cauldron lit up on a pole, I immediately entered an abandoned building at least 300-400 meters away from it. That was the north gate of camp. I headed to the rooftop and knelt dwon as I took out my bow. Xy laid down and took out a tablet.

“There are at least four people by the gate, twelve by the fire and three inside a tent. They seem to be cooking food by the looks of how they’re gathered and moving,” Xy whispered to me, continuously scanning the camp. I nodded and pulled the string of the bow, the string generating a silver ray from the limb tip and bottom limb and then meeting at the middle of the string, generating a steel arrow. I stood and immediately saw the people gathered by the fire. Behind them was someone cutting vegetables and there was a grill beside him. As soon as that person turned away from the grill, I aimed at its bottom and fired. The arrow broke the bottom of the grill and part of it hit the fire. The grill fell and the fire grew bigger. The people then gathered by the grill to help lessen the fire and pick up the things that fell. That was my opening. I pulled the string of my bow and aimed at the guards by the gate. As I fired, the arrow hit the head of the guard and he immediately fell to the ground. One of the guards looked around and the other went to the guard to check on him. As I pull the string of my bow, I saw Gabriella, Ace, and Josaiah running to the gate. I turned to the people gathered by the grill and they still haven’t noticed one of the guards dead, so it was my chance to fire at them one by one. As I heard the guards shouting at each other, the people looked, and I fired. Just when I was supposed to fire at the tent, I noticed a silhouette inside a building behind the camp.

“Xy, can you check the building behind the camp if Marco and Snow are inside it?” I asked Xy, not taking my eyes off the silhouette. I couldn’t visualize who it was because it was too far away, but I am sure that there was someone.

“W-what? Marco’s already inside the camp and Snow is inside that building beside us.” Xy pointed at the building at our right side and I saw a glowing light by the window. It was Snow. I touched my in-ear communication device to alert the others.

“Hey, Gabriella? There’s someone behind the camp who doesn’t seem to be part of the plan,” I called.

“A little- busy- here, Red! Take care of it!” Gabriella said through the in-ear, obviously in a middle of a combat. I immediately pointed my bow to the building, but then something shiny hit my eye at the same time. I unconsciously blinked but didn’t move my position. I forcefully opened my eye and fired. A few seconds after I fired, that’s when I noticed something shiny heading towards us.

“Xy! Come with me!” I exclaimed and pulled Xy up. I dragged and pushed him to the door just as a loud crash was heard from our previous place. I peeked and saw the cement completely torn apart by a steel arrow that was pierced in it.

“Ah!” Xy shrieked. I held him down to stop him from standing up as I carefully observe the arrow. It looked exactly like mine. Did it bounce back to us? No. I pointed it at an angle that will surely hit and break the window, my arrow would have hit the inside of the building. When I stood, that’s when I noticed the window of the building actually got shattered.

“Xy, can you check that building behind camp for any sign of life or movement?” I asked Xy and he immediately got up. Although he was stumbling, he raised his tablet to the building.

“N-none, Red. The building’s empty,” he said and even zoomed in the building. It’s either that person immediately got away or I was wrong, but if I was wrong, how could an arrow be fired at us at the exact angle I intended to fire as well?

Suddenly, Xy’s in-ear piece was glowing red. I didn’t have enough time to think but I immediately pulled it out. Xy flinched and turned to me. I stared at the in-ear piece and it was sparkling, like it was hit by lightning. That’s when I felt the tingle in my ear. Before I knew it, I felt the left side of my head down to my neck being electrocuted.

“Red!” Xy shouted. My vision blurred, but when I fell down, that’s when I noticed the arrow pulsing at the same time as the in-ear piece. The arrow was an activator. The moment it hit our place before, it detected the electrical activity in our in-ear and triggered an electrical pulse. It was delayed and I was grateful I took out Xy’s before it electrocuted him as well.

“Snow! I need you here!” Xy called to the other side of the building. I kept myself awake, staring at the arrow and the in-ear piece. Suddenly, a rope was fired to the side of building. I shifted my eyes to the side and saw Snow swinging by to us.

“What happened?” Snow asked. She got down and flashed a light to my eyes.

“H-he got electrocuted. Someone fired at us that messed with our in-ear piece,” Xy explained. Just when I felt myself blacking out, I didn’t remove my eyes from the arrow, because before I fired my arrow at the building behind camp, I was thinking of the same thing- to fire an electrically charged arrow, to instantly paralyze the person.