Chapter 177 - 171 : Azure Dragon’s Frustration

Lu Zhen didn't notice that Tawaki had actually fallen moments ago. He couldn't be blamed though. Ignoring the fact that Tawaki had died, Lu Zhen didn't even sense Tawaki's presence. Part of this of could be attributed to the fact that Tawaki was a couple of metres away and another reason would be that Tawaki's stealth abilities were superior to Lu Zhen's. This was understandable after all, Tawaki was one of the best [Assassins] in Emperor's Might while Lu Zhen was just a slightly better player than most. However, no matter how good Tawaki was, he still died while Lu Zhen was still alive, well for now that is.

Back when the kobold chief infuriated at Lu Zhen's stunt, both Sato's team and the God's Retaliation battalion heard the intimidating roar. Sato's group could easily guess that this was as a result of Lu Zhen's actions but the Blood beast's squad, who had recently arrived to the 10th floor, were left with expressions of confusion. 

"That should be the boss right? Why does it sound so angry?" Flood King asked out loud.

Soran frowned at this. To have reached his post in Heaven's Angles guild and the God's retaliation battalion, strength alone wasn't enough; brains too were required.

Soran couldn't figure out why the boss would be so angry like that or what could have annoyed it but recalling the possibility that Emperor's Might must have moved ahead of everyone else, he easily reached a conclusion that made his blood run cold. They were not the only ones here and what's more, the other party had already entered into combat with the world class boss. Rather than getting frustrated, Soran actually smiled.

'It's been a long time since I played 'fisherman'.'

"Get ready boys, we might round up quicker than we thought." Soran said before heading to the place the roar originated from.

[[System : Incoming Audio call. 

Caller ID : Lu Zhen

Accept/Decline ]]

[[System : Audio call accepted]]

"What's up? Are you done?" Sato immediately asked.

"Yeah. The big dude is right behind and he looks a bit angry." Lu Zhen replied. "You guys are already there right? I've done my part so you guys shouldn't mess this up."

The plan Sato had set up in order to combat the kobold chief's forces sounded simple but was very difficult. Lu Zhen was meant to draw the kobolds over to Azure Dragon and Soran's side while he(Sato) would draw the boss away from the kobold horde and back to the settlement. This was because the settlement was the best possible place to battle the kobold chief. If they fought in an open environment, their chances of victory would be but 20-30% but at the settlement, it would shoot up to 40%-50%.

Logically, it would have been better for Lu Zhen to draw only the kobolds while ignoring the boss, that way Sato's team could move in and attack the boss at the settlement but this plan was scraped. The reason was because no matter how strong the Emperor's Might and Heaven's Angels' teams were, they won't be able to last that long against a hundred strong kobold army. Once the kobolds were done with them, they would return back to their encampment. If perhaps, Sato's team couldn't finish the boss in time, then they would die a pointless death. With such an obvious flaw that relied on luck, the plan was scraped.

Sato then made changes to the plan, having Lu Zhen also draw the boss' aggro. The reason for this was so that Sato and his team would move in to set a few traps and make the environment advantageous to them. This way, their chances of victory would increase to at least 50%.

"No worries. They are already in front of the settlement." Sato replied calmly.

"Okay. I'm almost approaching the destination." Lu Zhen said.

"Alright. I will be sending you the coordinates then. Good luck." 

Without wasting any second more, Sato hung up the call. Browsing through his system interface, he found a message Seiichi had sent him and forwarded it to Lu Zhen. 

In order to make sure that everything went according to plan and the position of their targets were certified, Seiichi was sent to monitor them and update the position of the group to him. When the team was exploring the 10th floor, they created a rough map for it which now turned out to be useful for this plan. All Seiichi had to do was mark the position of the target on a copy of the map and send it to Sato. Of course being one person, he could only monitor one group. Sato sent him to watch over Emperor's Might and ignored Heaven's Angels. It wasn't that he didn't want to pull them in to the plan but someone else would do so. 

Azure Dragon was waiting for Tawaki to update him when he suddenly noticed Tawaki's name having a gray shade.

Tawaki was dead.

"!!!"

Azure Dragon was stunned and wondered what could have happened.

'What could have happened? Was it the monsters? Or was it the unknown party?' Azure dragon frowned in thought. 

'If its the unknown player group, how many are they?'

Though he wasn't recognized for his brains like Chesces was, Azure Dragon was still a man of tactics and strategies. As a man of such qualities, if there was one thing he hated then it would be having an unknown element interrupt his plans. No one liked factors that were out of their control suddenly appearing and Azure Dragon hated that the most. 

Having been revered as one of the young generation player most valued by the guild, it would be a lie to say that he wasn't prideful and arrogant; it was just that he was a lot calmer than most. This was clearly visible back when Fudo had rejected his invitation. This time though, with such a huge mission in his hands and a large burden to go with it, Azure Dragon was unwilling to fail, both because it was a command from the higher ups and also because of his pride. Now with Tawaki suddenly dying without the cause being known, Azure Dragon began to have a strange foreboding feeling that things would not only go opposite of what he expected but might end up worse.

Azure Dragon wasn't the only one who noticed Tawaki's 'grayified' name in the team's interface screen. The others did too. With the terrifying roar from earlier together with this incident, putting two and two together, it wasn't hard for the players to guess that something might have gone wrong at the kobold encampment. As for what it was, they just like Azure Dragon, were confused.

"Captain, what do we do now?" Chesces faced Azure Dragon.

Azure Dragon didn't reply him but tried calling a player. From the display name at the Caller ID section, one would notice that the player's name was Riley. He was the main scout for this mission and was the only [Ranger] in the team.

Th call was received as a brown haired European male appeared on the other side of the video call.

"Riley, what's up with Soran's team? What action did he take?" Azure Dragon asked. With Tawaki sent to attract the kobolds, Riley was sent to monitor Soran's God's retaliation squad.

Riley replied him, "Soran looks to be heading to the source of the roar. I dare not say that I'm right but with the way he usually acts, I'm guessing that Soran plans to interfere with the event over there."

"As expected of that maniac." Azure Dragon chuckled as if he was mocking Soran. 

"Keep them on your watch. If he makes a different move, let me know. Also, mark his spot down for me." Azure Dragon said. Just like Sato had done before, Azure Dragon had made a rough map for the floor, only difference was that compared to that compared to that of Sato's team, theirs was a lot less detailed and complete. Actually, Azure Dragon's team had made a rough map for every floor they went by so far. This way, if the guild ever wanted to explore here again, particularly the low levelled players, they could have an accurate map based on the experiences of this team.

"Alright." Riley nodded.

Azure Dragon cut the call immediately. With Riley's update, he could at least make sure that he wouldn't end up being set up by Soran's team or fall for any unexpected traps.

'Soran, Soran. Your greed would be the end of you. Just when I was looking for a vanguard, you offered yourself up.' Azure Dragon grinned inwardly.

"Let's move guys. We are heading to this spot." Azure Dragon pointed at a spot on their map. It was a bit close to the settlement but was at a vantage point. At that spot, they could easily oversee everything that happened at the front entrance of the settlement.

"Alright." Everyone nodded in response.

Just as they were about to leave, Azure Dragon got a call from someone else. It was the second [Assassin] player of the team. While Tawaki was sent to draw the kobolds towards Soran's team and Riley had to supervise Soran's team, this guy was made to be the scout for the team. He was positioned a few hundred metres away from the main team to prevent any surprise attack from the kobolds or any monsters that may possibly exist here. Because of the importance of their roles, he and Tawaki were the only players that could call Azure Dragon directly; the others had to report through Black Tempest or Chesces.

"Ore[1], what's up?" Azure Dragon questioned.

"Captain, we have a problem. " Ore said hurriedly. 

"The kobolds, the kobolds are heading our way!"