54 Mission 1

Woodgard and five other elves went down the cliff, using the ropes; quietly but quick. They secretly landed inside the prison.

Woodgard gave out a signal to the other elves to take their position. They nodded and scattered out.

There were five guard towers inside the prison and there were two guards in each tower. Each assassin in Woodgard's group will need to eliminate these guards and only then, they will be able to open the gate. But before that, Woodgard would also need to retrieve the master prison keys.

After his discreet discussion with Loreleia, he discovered where the keys were. According to Loreleia, the keys were located inside the barracks of the guards. It was an underground barracks, located a bit further from the prison itself. Woodgard need to sneak inside and retrieve the keys without being detected.

Normally, this kind of mission would be difficult for an assassin. But not for Woodgard, with his years of experience and skills. Additionally, the guards were easy to avoid since they knew only to sleep and drink. Hence, this should be a piece of cake for Woodgard.

As Woodgard was sneaking silently towards the underground barracks, he suddenly stopped and hid inside a rift on the cliff. He saw two guards walking around, patrolling the area.

"Ugh. Why do we have to do this? I want to drink!"

"Do you think I want to do this as well? There's no point keeping an eye on those pathetic slaves! No one would dare to even think about escaping from here. Why should we waste time looking after them?"

"True," the guard agreed, scratching the back of his head lazily, as they walked around. "Besides, all of them are shackled with an anti-magic collar. And all their weapons were taken away too. They are weak now."

The other guard scoffed. "Hah! Even if they have weapons or somehow managed to get that anti-magic collar out of them, they don't have the guts to go against us! We have their women and kids!" He smirked.

"..."

"These animals..." Woodgard thought to himself, scowling at the sight of the two guards laughing with each other. He felt angry for the prisoners, feeling rage building inside him. "I'll teach you a lesson."

When one of them walked to the other direction, leaving his partner alone, Woodgard quietly grab his daggers. After the other guard were out of sight, Woodgard used {Stealth} and moved behind the guard who had stayed.

"SLASH!"

Woodgard slashed the guard's neck with his dual ebony daggers. The guard fell dead, not knowing what killed him. Without wasting a single second, Woodgard quickly exchanged his clothes with the dead guard's uniform. He then dragged the guard's corpse to the rift and burned the corpse until there were no more evidence. Woodgard then activated his face-changing skill, his face now similar to the dead guard's face.

Woodgard fixed his collar and smoothen his clothes. "Alright, this should be good. No bloodstains."

He went back to the barracks and as before, there were no other patrol guards. Woodgard scoffed at their lack of security.

Basically, there were two areas in the prison. One area has a wooden path that was attached to the cliff wall, where the guards can see the prison from above. Another area was one where there was only the prison walls where the guard towers were located for the guards.

From what Woodgard could see, the prisoners worked on the area below the wooden path. So, meaning there were three levels. One level was above the wooden path, the other levels were the guard's towers, the mining, smelting and prison area and lastly, the underground barracks.

Currently, Woodgard was standing on the wooden path, where he could see the prisoners working.

His fists clenched with anger as he watched some of the prisoners being whipped with a rope and another were hit by a wooden stick. This was because the prisoners looked too tired to work, from the way their bodies had slumped.

"Hang in there! We will free you from this nightmare. Just don't lose hope," Woodgard said softly to himself as he gritted his teeth.

He walked along the wooden path and went down to the mining area from the wooden stairs. He continued on to the underground barrack.

Inside, Woodgard saw someone in the first room. He was mumbling to himself, saying that he wanted to grab a jug of ale. The man turned around and saw Woodgard on the stairs. "Hey, buddy!"

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Woodgard coughed lightly and replied, "Yes?"

"You're just back from patrolling, right? Come and join me for some ale!"

"Yes, sure. But let me clean up first. I want to get rid of this filth after patrolling," Woodgard said, feigning a look of disgust on his face.

"Sure, sure. Let's go."

Woodgard followed the man to the cafeteria. Woodgard kept nodding and keeping quiet as the man talked all the way to the cafeteria. Woodgard did not want the man to be suspicious so he could only agree to what the man was saying.

After they arrived at the cafeteria, they went on their separate ways.

The cafeteria was filled with guards, drinking and eating. They kept to themselves, minding their own businesses. They did not care what the others were doing.

Woodgard was relieved to see that there were signs inside the barracks. At least, he would not get lost inside.

"Okay, I'm inside now. The keys should be inside the control room." Woodgard thought to himself. He swiftly walked towards the control room. And inside, he saw that there was only one man sleeping inside.

Woodgard saw the keys at the corner of the wall. He activated {Stealth} and grabbed the keys.

"The prisons keys are in my hand. I should get going to the women's prison to free the women and children. Then I will be able to meet up with Loreleia."

He returned back to the cafeteria, still in his disguise. Because the guards inside the cafeteria were busy getting drunk, they did not take any notice of Woodgard. He grabbed some ales and went outside to the underground barracks with ease.

He quickened his pace to where the females and children' prisons were. And when he arrived, he sneaked a peek to see how many guards were guarding the cells.

There were two guards there, drinking. One was leaning against the wall and the other one was sitting on a chair, his feet were on the table.

Woodgard walked casually towards them and said, "Hey guys, I brought you two some ales."

"Woa.. hic! You are our hero, man! We just ran out of it, a minute ago."

"Thanks... hic!"

Woodgard placed the ales on the table and said, "Wow, you guys are so drunk." He turned to look at the one standing and said, "You should sit down before you get dizzy."

"Ah I'm okay... hic!"

"Come on and just sit… You will hurt yourself later," Woodgard cajoled, letting out a smile.

"Alright, alright..."

Just as the guard was about to sit down, Woodgard use {Stealth} and disappeared. He wielded his daggers and slashed the guy on the neck and disappeared again.

"Wha! Bastard! Who are yo-"

"SLASH!"

With an amazing speed, Woodgard had appeared again behind the other guard and then knocked him out.

"You should learn some discipline."

Woodgard sheathed his dagger and revealed his true face. Suddenly, there was a voice calling out his name.

"Mr. Woodgard!"

He turned and walked to where Loreleia was held. "Miss Loreleia," he greeted politely.

"Come and break this anti-magic collars!" She demanded impatiently.

Woodgard rolled his eyes. "Just relax and give me a second."

After he had told Ryth about the anti-magic collars, Ryth had taught Woodgard on how to break the collars. Since it was the same collar that Azalea had worn when she was captured by the Fang Bandits, Ryth knew the technique of breaking it.

According to Daedalus, there was a method of breaking it, without triggering its self-destruct functions. And luckily, he had managed to teach that to Ryth, who in turn taught Woodgard.

After a few minutes, the two of them had freed all the women and children. There were some women who volunteered to stay and protect the children. While the others joined Loreleia to open the gate with Woodgard.

Loreleia stood straight, as she faced the women with a determined look on her face. "O Warriors of Griefendell! In the name of Griefendell! We must bring down the fake Chief, Wildan!" she yelled out.

All the women placed their right fist on their chest, where their heart beats and shouted in unison, "For Griefendell! For Princess Azalea!"

"Let's go!" Loreleia said calmly, but her eyes were burning with anger.

"Finally!" Loreleia thought to herself. She then remembered that Woodgard had told her that Azalea should be sneaking into the castle right about now. "Stay safe, princess!" She said softly, as she headed off to the gates with Woodgard and the other women.