Chapter 172: Bait

Instead of rushing out into the street, Kyle charged through the building, leading the elite squad and other soldiers through the alleyway where the sniper did not have a line of sight. The Ardent Cretins also had fortifications there, though the haphazard layout of the buildings ensured that they could not be sniped from long-range.

Kyle had an idea where the sniper was shooting from based on the deflection of his spear, but he focused on clearing out the alleyways between the buildings. Makeshift barricades and walls erected by the Ardent Cretins were easily demolished by his Spear of Defiance, allowing him to immediately flank the blockade.

The defenders were thrown into chaos the moment Kyle jumped out from behind them, his Seven Snakes soldiers immediately gunning down whoever was caught off-guard. However, Kyle and his troops did not expose themselves on the street, instead firing from the windows and the rooms of the adjacent buildings, unwilling to expose themselves to the buildings.

“Stay indoors – don’t let the snipers get eyes on you!” Kyle ordered, with the troops beginning to snake through the Cretin-controlled buildings. Many still had some civilians residing in them, workers who fled in panic into the open streets as Kyle cleared the buildings one by one, not leaving any stone unturned.

Some of the Cretins were hiding among the civilians, launching ambush attacks that killed a few of Kyle’s men. This made them far more wary of the civilians, making them kill a few innocent due to suspicious movements. Kyle did not care how many civilians die – only that he wins the battle against the Ardent Cretins.

To him, the civilians were the reason why the Ardent Cretins were still alive: there can be no power without supporters. Kyle intend to show clearly that the Seven Snakes were not to be fucked with, a display of power and force to carve into the people’s mind.

Kyle had his men form a semi-circle around the breach, expanding outwards and capturing defensive fortifications to prepare for the main force attacking.

[Sir, Section E is under attack!]

The other side of the frontline? “Damian, are you defending?”

[Yes, sir. But they are pushing hard. We might not be able to hold on.]

“Have a third of the main force split. We need to force the Ardent Cretins onto the defensive. Only the elite squad follows me in!” Kyle planned to pierce through the Ardent Cretins like a spear, diving straight for the heart in a decapitation strategy and hoping he could kill Ares and Sebastian.

However, he did not expect to be able to break in alone as well. “Sasha, bring two elite squads and reinforce me from behind!”

[Got it!]

Leaving the three hundred men behind to hold the breach, Kyle and the elite squad pushed forward through the buildings, taking great care to not expose themselves to the sniper. He calculated the location of the sniper from the previous two shots, aiming to sneak his way through. If I can take out the snipers, I can use their sniper rifle to take out the others in the area.

With the snipers in play, he could hardly expect his men to be able to advance faster. Soon, he reached a five-storey building where the sniper was expected to be. “Breach on my mark,” Kyle ordered as they formed up against a side entrance, listening to the voices inside of Cretins arguing.

Kyle counted down with his fingers before stabbing the door with his Spear of Defiance. The metal door creaked violently as it bent inwards unnaturally, shredding itself into pieces as an elite squad member tossed an arctech sphere in.

The arcia energy is flowing from high concentration to low – if I enter that coffin, I’m dead! Kyle instinctively grasped the purpose of the coffin: it was a tool to capture mages. He could already feel he was starting to lose control of the exosuit’s engraving. Even the impulse engravings were stuttering, with not enough arcia energy to power them.

The owner of the female voice appeared next to him, smirking as she twirled an engraving staff in her hand, her reddish gloves accentuating her dark purple suit. She looked like a professional hitman, and Kyle was sure that she was an assassin specialising in taking down mages. Or a player hunter.

“Not so hot now huh?” The lady used her staff to stab the helmet. “Interesting suit of armour you got there. I’ll be asking Sebastian to lend it to me. Might be useful in the next hunt.”

“You seemed well prepared.” Kyle spoke as his eyes darted around, looking for a way out. The ‘relic’ must be a Galactic Era tech – so was the directional speaker. ,

“Of course. You mages always walk around like you’re the cocks of the town.” The lady smirked. “I always say, the more arrogant they are, the harder they fall.”

“I like to think of myself as humble.” Kyle could feel something pressing against his back, his armour not exactly completely even against the magnetic shield. How many Detonation Spears have I thrown out of the five?

“Sure, whatever you say. By the way, nice spear you got there. Real innovative. You can hand it over now; you won’t be needing it anymore.” She whacked the Detonation Spear out of Kyle’s hand, causing it to clatter onto the floor. “Gave us quite a few headaches. Not many have.”

“Looks like you’re about to have one more headache,” Kyle smirked under the helmet, sending as much arcia energy as possible to the last Detonation Spear on his back, which was also magnetized, triggering the arcia crystals to explode.

The resulting explosion was far more powerful: a combination of both the basic arcia crystals embedded in the spear along with the added arcia energy of Kyle. The blast knocked everyone in the vicinity over, even the Cretin soldiers fifty meters away. The black coffin was caught in the explosion as well, knocked out of the way.

Kyle did not leave unscathed; his exosuit’s back armour was severely damaged but still working. The magnetic shield had been torn to shreds by the explosion, and the body of the owner was missing. He did not stick around to find out, immediately casting his impulse engravings as he raced back to where he first fell, picking up the Spear of Defiance and freeing his elite squad members who were trapped in the rubble.

The elite squad were battle-hardened, immediately starting a firefight as they blasted the nearby Cretins with impunity while splitting up to find cover around the collapsed building.

“Fucking shit!” The lady cursed as she rolled on the ground putting out the arcia flames that had engulfed a third of her face, causing her arm, shoulders and cheek to suffer from terrible burns. “You’ll pay for that, you fucking cunt!”

“We’ll see about that.” Kyle lunged back at the lady, intent on finishing her off. Before Kyle could reach her, the lady tapped her staff on the ground five times, causing a torrent of vines to emerge from the ground that whipped and lashed at Kyle.

Impulse! Kyle immediately dodged the vines darting in, pulling back as he unleashed a flurry of jabs, the implosion blasting apart the vines. Kyle realised he recognised the vines, having seen something similar before. The corpse catchers in the Keru Forest. They could strangle a whole baby mammoth hog, and Kyle was not entirely sure his exosuit was up for such a test after the close-range explosion.

The lady continued to tap her staff in a fury, her half-burnt face violent. “Thought I didn’t have a backup plan, huh?! I have the whole place seeded, idiot!” With each tap of the staff, arcia energy shot out from her body into the engravings of the staff, before lancing through the ground to a seed. The seed then glowed brightly, bursting in rapid growth while targeting Kyle.

The vines also targeted his elite squad members. However, they were no match for the more vigorous vines who crept around their armour and strangled them, releasing barbed spikes that injected poison into their flesh, incapacitating them within ten seconds. The lady grinned as a vine dropped off the unconscious squad members behind her as she pointed a burnt finger right at Kyle. “You’re next!”