Strangely enough, there wasn't as much activity today, and the outskirts of the base were largely empty. Mainly because the cargo was all transported yesterday, and so there wasn't much on today's schedule. Nonetheless, we could still see a few robed sentries here and there, enduring the heat stoically despite how sweltering it must be to be dressed in those dreary black cloaks.

"Is your team ready?" Feng Hai asked Brown, whose recon team had a.s.sembled near one of the larger trees that served as sufficient cover. The sentries weren't staring in our direction, their eyes stoically glued forward, but even if they had turned to glance this way, they probably wouldnn't be able to spot us.

"Yes, sir. We are ready to move out anytime."

The rest of her words went unsaid, but it was obvious what she meant to imply. They were just waiting for Feng Hai's orders.

The mercenary leader took a deep breath, his eyes still fixed on the newly constructed base below, and then he nodded once.

"Move out."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

The scout team saluted, and then they disappeared. Like, literally. One moment they were standing there, and the next they were gone, their silhouettes melting away into the surroundings and vanis.h.i.+ng from sight.

"As impressive as always," I murmured. Stealth wasn't my thing…and before a few of those readers inevitably say it, NO. There was no such thing as a stealth spirit. Even if it was, it wasn't something I could conveniently summon just because I wanted or needed one at hand. Summoning magic wasn't this super convenient, omnipotent magic where you could summon whatever you want or need.

When I was injured? Summon a healing spirit! When I needed to sneak into someplace? Summon a stealth spirit! What the f.u.c.k!? These readers evidently had NOT been reading my account properly. I took pains to a.s.sert that summoning magic wasn't omnipotent and had a lot of restrictions, yet these juvenile, edgy readers kept coming onto my story demanding that I summon healing spirits, spirits that could buff, and now…stealth spirits. No, summoning magic did NOT work that way. Besides, if I wanted to buff myself, why the h.e.l.l would I go in such a roundabout method to summon a spirit, and then ask the spirit to buff me? Wouldn't it be more efficient, faster and smarter to just learn buff spells and buff myself directly instead of introducing an unnecessary middleman? Same with healing magic – if I wanted to heal myself, why the f.u.c.k would I go in such a roundabout method and summon a spirit to heal myself? Wouldn't it be more efficient and faster for me to learn healing spells and heal myself directly right from the start instead of wasting time and mana on a middleman?

Sometimes these readers didn't use their brains. And they had the audacity to insult me as stupid or r.e.t.a.r.ded. Perhaps they should look at the mirror first, or at least refrain from making a.s.sumptions about what I could do. If I didn't do it, then I had a good reason not to – because I simply could not.

Sorry for the rant, but if I did not do this, then I would have to deal with comments on the right side insulting me as stupid or r.e.t.a.r.ded, and asking why I couldn't just summon a stealth spirit. Seriously. I was getting sick and tired of that bulls.h.i.+t, with these readers bringing their own preconceived notions of how my summoning magic was somehow this G.o.dlike, convenient, omnipotent ability that allowed me to summon whatever I want or need. NO. It was NOT.

"What do we do now?" Adrian asked, craning his neck to look past the leaves and down at the base, while remaining cautious enough not to reveal himself. Unfortunately, his caution was outweighted by curiosity.

"We wait," I replied simply, and then went to a tree root and sat on it, leaning against the trunk. "The only thing we can do now is wait."

*

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long.

Unfortunately, the infiltration team returned with some…friends.

"Contact!" Brown's voice fizzled over the communication beads that the mercenaries were equipped with. "We have pursuers on our tail! We can't shake them off!"

"Is it the Dark Church?" Feng Hai demanded, already springing to life and conjuring his multiple swords. The blades hovered around him fiercely, their sharp tips pointed in the direction of the base. "They caught you?!"

d.a.m.n. That wasn't good. If the Dark Church caught the infiltration team and was chasing them, then it meant we were pretty much in for an all-out war. We couldn't turn and run, not with the Dark Church in pursuit. Not because we couldn't outrun them or couldn't shake them off, but because we couldn't afford to let them know that we were here. We had to prevent them from reporting our presence to other Dark Church subsidiaries, otherwise…

…well, I don't know. Otherwise the Dark Church would bring their entire force here and launch a search and destroy mission. We would be forced to escape the Yao Cai Mountains, and that would terminate in a mission failure. Then again, with the Dark Church here in force, it was extremely unlikely that Ling Dan would continue to hang around in the mountains, so we most probably had already failed our mission to begin with.

"Well, not exactly." Brown sounded a little miffed. "We didn't get caught by the Dark Church themselves, but apparently their pet monsters sniffed us out, broke out of their cages and chased after us. The Dark Church might have suspected that there are intruders, but they didn't get any visual or ident on us. For now."

"Pet monsters?" Redwood repeated, bewildered. "I thought monsters can't be tamed?"

"That's exactly why we didn't get caught." Brown wasn't able to mask the bitter amus.e.m.e.nt in her voice. "They can't control the monsters, and had to stay some distance away. Actually…they are currently being attacked by their own monsters that had broken out of captivity. It will take them some time to exterminate the monsters a.s.saulting their base and recover or restore order. So we are pretty safe for now."

"What are the monsters pursuing you, exactly?" Feng Hai asked, his tone all business. He was already a.s.sessing the threat level of the monsters that were following his scout team and running through multiple scenaros, his swords vibrating violently in tandem with the strategic flows in his mind. "Rank, number, size…"

"Barbaric Baboons," Brown replied immediately. "Rank D, larger than human-sized, and about thirty in number. At least the number of those chasing after us, anyway. There should be twice that many attacking the Dark Church base right now. But for you guys, it shouldn't be a problem."

Feng Hai sighed and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, a hand covering his face and rubbing his temple from the stress. I could tell what he was thinking, because I had the same question as him.

Why didn't they just kill the Barbaric Baboons? Even though they were not frontlne combat units, the reconnaissance team should theoretically be more than capable of dealing with a bunch of rank D monsters by themselves. Granted, thirty of them did sound like a bit too much for them to handle on their own, so maybe there was that.

Additionally, Brown probably did not want to get dragged into a fight in the open, and thus reveal themselves to the Dark Church. In the chaotic melee that followed, they apparently had not detected the intrusion from Brown's team…yet. I didn't blame them. They were too busily dealing with all the escaped Barbaric Baboons. But man, what the h.e.l.l were they doing, locking up about a hundred rank D monsters in their mountain base?

Ah, of course. They were insane. They didn't need a sane or rational reason for doing whatever the f.u.c.k they were doing. Besides, since their goal was to eradicate humanity and allow monsters to reign supreme over Earth, it made a twisted sort of sense that they were conducting research on monsters, trying to enhance their strengths or something. I didn't know. If they were researching on how to control them, however, then they had clearly failed.

These things never end well. They evidently hadn't watched the Alien movies and learned that messing around with monsters in a lab was never going to be a good idea.

"Fine." Feng Hai managed to grunt through gritted teeth. "Fall back to our position. Brent, take a team and bring them into position. I want melee weapons only. No ranged. Wait for the Barbaric Baboons to enter the forest before engaging them. I don't want anyone to shoot them while they're still in the open. Make sure everyone understands that."

"Yes, sir!"

I understood Feng Hai's reasoning. Obiously, if we shoot the Barbaric Baboons in the open and leave their carca.s.ses lying around in the gra.s.s, visible for all to see, the Dark Church would realize that something was up. And that was a.s.suming no one happened to be looking outside the base this very moment and watching the Barbaric Baboons get shot down by something in the forest.

As crazy as those fanatics were, they weren't stupid. Or blind.

"The both of you, stay here," I instructed Adrian and Melina. The fourteen-year-old guy looked up at me apprehensively.

"Brother Richard? Where are you going?"

I jabbed my thumb at the approaching Barbaric Baboons. The two kids could hardly see them from this distance, but thanks to the long-range and zoom functions on the lenses of my hi-tech gla.s.ses, I could spot the dark, furry monsters from a mile away. Like literally.

"Monster hunting."

"Can I partic.i.p.ate as well?" Melina asked, drawing her sword. I frowned at that and shook my head. Given how young she was, she shouldn't be so eager to jump into battle.

"No. They are rank D monsters, and it's too dangerous. Also, Instructor Feng has ordered against the use of long-ranged spells. Since I have not taught you anything regarding swordsmans.h.i.+p yet, I will not put you at risk."

"But…"

I held up a hand to silence her. "That said, I do have a job for you. Can I count on you for that?"

Melina straightened her back and nodded resolutely. Beside her, Adrian looked as if he was groaning inwardly, but credit to him, he kept whatever grumbles he might have to himself. However, he was also smart enough to realize that I wouldn't be a.s.signing them to anything dangerous or too tedious, so he continued to relax.

"You guys will be the rearguard. I don't want my back exposed to another monster from behind while I'm fighting those Barbaric Baboons coming from the front. Can I count on you guys to keep an eye out on the opposite direction, to make sure no other monsters backstab us?"

"Yes! You can rely on us!" Melina puffed out her chest proudly, and then she grabbed a reluctant Adrian by the arm and dragged him to the backline, to join the sentries. I sighed in relief, and then turned toward the edge of the forest, drawing both of my swords as I joined Brent and his team. He didn't look at me, but he acknowledged me with a grunt.

"Mmh."

"ETA, 10 seconds!"

Brown's fl.u.s.tered voice came from the front, and they slowly came into view. Honestly, if I wasn't wearing my gla.s.ses, I wouldn't have caught sight of them at all. They had enchanted themselves with camouflage magic and were almost invisible to the eye – the main reason why the Dark Church hadn't noticed them at all.

Unfortunately, the invisibility and camouflage spells weren't enough to cloak them from the acute, inhuman senses of the Barbaric Baboons.

That didn't matter.

The scout team plunged into the forest, and we allowed them to rush past us. Since they weren't a combat unit, we didn't expect them to turn around and fight.

No, that was the job left to us frontline units.

A few seconds later, the screeching Barbaric Baboons crashed into our lines. Brent's staff smashed into the face of the lead Barbaric Baboon, caving its skull in instantly and obliterating its brain. It flopped over, like a puppet whose strings were cut. A second was pierced and immolated by Redfield's spear. All around the forest, as soon as the Barbaric Baboons cleared the trees and rushed right into the shadows, they found themselves punctured by the waiting blades and weapons of the Silver Wolves.

I couldn't let them hog all the glory. Stepping forward, my swords flashed out in a deadly black and white whirlwind, decapitating shrieking Barbaric Baboons or cutting them into pieces. I didn't even bother with any summoning magic, just relying on physical reinforcement spells to strengthen my blows and activate the s.h.i.+mmering powerfields that shrouded my blades.

Within a few minutes, the corpses of the Barbaric Baboons lay around us, unrecognizable and in pieces. Breathing heavily, I leaned against a tree while kicking out against one of the carca.s.ses to ensure it was dead. Glancing around, I caught sight of the sullen Brown reporting to Feng Hai.

"Looks like we need another plan," I muttered, feeling the weariness suffuse my body.