Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I became aware of a slight weight on my shoulder. Anastasia had dozed off right beside me, her head leaning on my left shoulder and her body tilting in my direction. She was wrapping her hands around my arm for some reason, as if it was some hug-pillow or stuffed animal.

Oh, right. We spent the whole night and wee hours of the morning hunting through the underground pa.s.sageway of Azpire City, using the data to locate and root out the Goblin nests. Thankfully, there weren't any awakened Goblins and they were still slumbering inside their eggs. Without the twins to wake them up, they remained dormant.

Obviously we couldn't just leave sleeping monsters lying around underneath Azpire City, so we destroyed each and every one of them, demolis.h.i.+ng the rooms they were in and sealing them for eternity. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but at least we did our part to minimize the chances that someone would come along and resurrect them as an undead monster army to terrorize the poor city from below.

After we combed through all the locations specified in the data that Anastasia extracted from Mell and Nell's smartphone, we were too exhausted to return to the surface. We were literally running about the entire s.p.a.ce of the city, albeit underground, without any stop or rest. Our smartphones received no signal this deep down and we couldn't make a call or contact the people on the surface. We would have to report to Feng Hai at the very least.

But we were so, very tired…he would forgive us for taking a short break, right?

"Gah?!"

As it turned out, it wasn't a "short" break. The moment I looked at my smartphone to check for the time, I received a rude shock. We had been asleep for almost twelve hours. It was already past evening. We had stopped to rest at 9am and now it was almost 9pm. We must have exhausted ourselves to oblivion.

"Hmm?"

Anastasia was muttering something in her sleep, and then she s.h.i.+fted her head. Opening her eyes, she glanced at me for a moment, and then smiled.

"Good morning, Richard."

"It's already night, though?!"

"Eh? It is?" Anastasia calmly checked her smartphone and frowned. "Oh, you're right. We must have been more tired than we thought."

She stood up and stretched herself, creaking her neck from side to side to ease the tense muscles.

"We should hurry to the surface and report to the boss."

"Oh yeah…but even though we've eliminated the Goblin threat, we still have yet to find out what the a.s.sa.s.sin's target was, or who the a.s.sa.s.sin was…"

"We'll slowly look through the data once we get back to the hotel," Anastasia a.s.sured me. "But for now, the both of us could use a bath and a change of clothes, wouldn't you say?"

"Ah…"

She had a good point. After all that running around underground and fighting off hordes of Goblins (well, only the first time, but we still had to work hard in exterminating the nests and their eggs), we were pretty grimy and sweaty.

I hoped I didn't stink too much.

"Let's go."

Anastasia offered me a hand, which I accepted gratefully, and pulled me to my feet. As Anastasia cheerfully spun around to lead the way out of the underground tunnel, her dress flitting around her ankles, I was suddenly reminded of Alicia.

Of course the two girls were completely different, almost polar opposites of each other. Anastasia was a lot more aggressive, bolder and more confident, whereas Alicia was a lot more reserved and pa.s.sive. Aside from that first kiss, Alicia didn't really take the initiative. Obviously I also shouldered some of the responsibility for being pa.s.sive, but because the both of us didn't actively reach out, we didn't really start dating until pretty much later. Our personalities and mannerisms were somewhat similar. On the other hand, Anastasia was always openly clinging to me or seizing every opportunity to get physically close.

I wasn't going to start taking things for granted and a.s.sume, though. It was entirely possible that Anastasia had her own motives for trying to get close to me. It was also possible that she behaved this way to any guy, or was teasing me without any real intention of getting into a serious relations.h.i.+p. She was a former a.s.sa.s.sin, after all. She had been trained in the art of seduction and luring men to lower their guard around her.

She could possibly be behaving this way unconsciously without realizing the deeper implications of physical intimacy. I would feel so embarra.s.sed if I asked her if she was interested in me, and she looked at me as if I was an idiot before saying something along the lines of, "you? I like you, you're a nice guy, but I've never thought of you as a potential romantic interest before."

Yeah, if that happened, I would want to crawl into a hole and die.

We managed to get to the upper levels of the underground complex we were currently in, following the corridor toward a flight of utility stairs. We had already ascended a ladder and another set of stairs earlier, and if my memory served me correctly, we should be about one or two levels away from the surface.

Then my smartphone vibrated, notifying me of several missed calls and an urgent text message from Feng Hai, asking me to contact him as soon as possible. Anastasia also received the same thing, her pretty face scrunched when she stared at her incessantly shaking smartphone.

"They must be really worried about us," I remarked dryly. "I'm so touched."

"I wonder if that's the case." Anastasia frowned as she studied the list of missed calls. Okay, that was an exaggeration. The both of us only received about two missed calls each. "Something tells me it's not so simple."

"Well, I guess we're about to find out."

Swiping across the screen of my smartphone, I conjured a huge holographic screen as I began calling Feng Hai. It didn't take long for him to answer. After a few seconds, Feng Hai's worried face filled the screen.

"Oh, the both of you are all right!" he exclaimed, relieved, when he caught sight of the two of us. Both Anastasia and I exchanged puzzled glances.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Okay, that was a stupid question, but still… "We informed you yesterday that we will be proceeding underground to wipe out the Goblin nests, and that it might take quite some time. We also told you about the possibility that we would be beyond communication range because of the underground environment."

"Yes, yes. You did. Of course." Feng Hai nodded fervently. Anastasia and I continued to share a bewildered gaze at his reaction. However, Feng Hai turned serious and stared at the both of us intensely. "As of 10.16am, today morning, we lost all contact with the operatives we had in Azpire City. We also lost communication with the entire city…as if there was a communications blackout. There was also reports of monster attacks shortly before all contact was lost, and any reinforcements we sent toward the city have met heavy resistance on the way there."

"Goblins?" I asked, feeling deflated. Despite our efforts we were still unable to eliminate all the Goblins before they emerged to the surface and wreaked havoc.

"No." Anastasia shook her head. "Even if there were Goblins who somehow escaped our net and hatched, there is no way they would be able to cause a total communications blackout."

"Anastasia is correct," Feng Hai agreed grimly. "And more than that…before we lost contact, the monsters attacking weren't Goblins but h.e.l.lhounds and Bloodhounds. There were reports of Revenants and Grim Ghouls as well. Mostly rank D and C monsters, but there were no sightings of any rank B or rank A monsters, which makes this even more peculiar."

In other words, there wasn't any monster powerful enough to destroy a city's standing militia and security forces present. Theoretically, anyway.

Then what could have caused the total silence of an entire city?

"Ana and I will go investigate," I offered. "Since we're the closest operatives on hand."

"And the only ones," Anastasia added gloomily as she folded her arms.

"Be careful, the both of you." Feng Hai's expression turned very strict. "We don't know what's out there, and what caused this communication blackout. We're still sending reinforcements, but we'll have to break through the monster blockade that has surrounded the city."

"Understood." I saluted. "We'll send any information we can get as soon as possible. You should be able to get the data transmitted from my gla.s.ses once I get up there."

My gla.s.ses had a satellite function installed, which constantly beamed what I was seeing during missions. Obviously I turned it off when not during a mission or whenever I wanted privacy, but otherwise it would continue to stream visual and audio data that it recorded when I was out in the battlefield. That was how Jing Tian Academy monitored its students during missions in any case. It was only natural that mercenaries and the military also had similar devices.

They could be installed anywhere, on com beads, weapons, the uniform, a Swiss army knife or even backpack. I just chose my gla.s.ses as the recording device because it was the most convenient and offered the most accurate recordings.

"The top priority is for you both to stay alive, not to transmit intelligence, if you sense that you're in danger, or you meet an overwhelming opponent, retreat. Do not engage. Withdraw to safety. Contact me only when you're in safety."

"But if we believe we have a chance of defeating the enemy, are we allowed to engage?" I asked, just to be sure. Feng Hai hesitated for a second, and then nodded.

"I guess. If it's just low and mid-ranking monsters, then go ahead and wipe them out." He scowled. "I know you're capable of defeating high-ranking monsters, but still…be careful."

"Yes, sir." I snapped off a salute.

"Don't worry, Leader." Anastasia was smiling. "I'm a former a.s.sa.s.sin. If all it takes to save the city is to cut off the head, that should suit my specialized set of skills. It doesn't matter whether it's a high-ranking monster or the head of the Dark Church himself. Unless they have immunity to poison, I should be able to eliminate them without too much difficulty."

"a.s.suming they let you get too close to them." Feng Hai narrowed his eyes. "Remember that you're not invincible."

"How can I forget? My partner is the very guy who defeated me." Anastasia giggled as she lay a hand on my shoulder.

Feng Hai looked at the both of us for a few more moments, and then nodded. "I'll be counting on you two then," he said before he signed off.

The both of us then hurried upward, clearing the last flight of stairs. Yesterday, when we went through the same place, we weren't surprised that it was bereft of any human presence. After all, the Dark Church had been doing its work here, with the priest we captured yesterday being responsible for diverting non-Dark Church personnel away from the underground facilities.

But today, the emptiness seemed a lot more ominous. As if every other human in the city was gone. Granted, it could be the claustrophobia caused by the dark, enclosed s.p.a.ce. I was allowing my imagination to run too wildly. Even with my common sense trying to suppress the dread in my heart, I couldn't shake off a sense of foreboding.

"…"

Anastasia was more subdued than normal, her usual cheer gone and replaced by grim professionalism. She was faster than me, staying just a couple of steps ahead, and reached the door. In a single stroke, she kicked it open.

"…why so dramatic?" I growled as I followed her out of the door. "You trying to draw attention to us or something?"

If there truly was a monster attack, kicking the door open and making so much noise was sure to draw the attention of all those Hound monsters to us.

However, Anastasia nodded.

"That is exactly my intention," she said. "If there are any people out here, they would be drawn to the noise we're making. If there are monsters, then…" she raised her gleaming daggers, which she produced from somewhere inside the folds of her fancy dress. "We kill them."

I couldn't help but smile. "Works for me."

However, even as we stepped out into the surface and emerged in the open s.p.a.ce of Azpire City for the first time in over a day, we didn't see anyone.

Anyone human, at any rate.

There were dozens of monsters swarming the place. Just as Feng Hai told us, they were mostly Hound type monsters – fire-breathing h.e.l.lhounds and vampire-type Bloodhounds. There was the occasional wraith-like Revenant, their thin, almost skeletal forms gliding across the floor and the unnatural rattling of their freezing breaths.

Both Anastasia and I froze when we saw the scene of monsters – not just because of them, but also in the background.

There was evidence that a huge battle had just taken place here. Splatters of blood flooded the broken roads and sidewalks, buildings were wrecked, gla.s.s had shattered and crushed furniture were strewn about. Countless remains of humans lay about, the majority of them having chewed on or ripped apart by the prowling monsters that now inhabited the streets of aspire City.

It wasn't just the humans who died. Hundreds of monsters' broken and maimed carca.s.ses also lay scattered across the city, some of them intertwined with determined humans desperate enough to fight to the death and bring their enemies with them. The surviving monsters did not care about their deceased brethren, however, trampling over the dead of both human and monster alike.

"…kill them…"

Anastasia was trembling beside me, her voice cold. It wasn't trembling, it wasn't filled with any emotion like rage or hatred.

It was just a statement, almost mechanical and unfeeling.

"…let's kill them."

Then Anastasia disappeared. The next thing I knew, she was in the midst of the closest swarm of monsters, her daggers flas.h.i.+ng. Before they knew what was happening, they were cut apart. Those that recoiled from what seemed like shallow wounds dropped later, going into spasms as they frothed in the mouth, poisoned by Anastasia's weapons.

The other monsters in the vicinity raised their heads to stare in her direction.

"Good grief." Sighing, I proceeded forward to back my partner up, my hands on Gan Jiang and Mo Ye. A pack of Hound-species monsters pounced on me, but they never reached me. Instead, their heads and limbs began to fly off in all directions and their carca.s.ses dropped like a rock with a wet splat. I continued walking through the rain of blood and body parts to link up with Anastasia.

The surviving monsters shrank back, afraid of the newly appeared pair of humans. Whimpering, they exchanged frightened glances and began to retreat, fleeing from the real monsters.

"Do you think we'll let you go?" Anastasia asked frostily.

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If any of the fleeing monsters ever harbored any semblance of such thought, they found out how just how mistaken they were a few minutes later.