Chapter 26: Attack

Chapter 26: Attack

Second day of the trip.

There were many people who were on edge, and it was understandable. There had been an assassin in our ranks, so people became wary.

But when the convoy was stopped a couple hours before noon in order to give everyone some down time, a meeting was called.

Turns out, the assassin wasn’t someone of the Tavera Family. Apparently, all those of the Family were given a tattoo, and the assassin didn’t have one upon inspection of his corpse.

Apparently, he had killed one of the people of the convoy and managed to board without raising suspicions. This was in part due to a mask he wore, one that was constructed to look just like the victim he replaced.

Regardless, the assassin wasn’t a traitor, which eased most of the worries.

However, as a precaution, the entire convoy went through a small inspection.

There was a list of everyone on the convoy, along with the hired muscle like myself and Plex. And one by one, each member of the Family was called upon to inspect their tattoo.

Every tattoo was placed on the center of the chest. The symbol was of two sabers crossed between each other, the blades pointing to either shoulder. Each blade also had two different inscriptions written on them, while the hilts bore red ruby charms.

This tattoo was only given to members of the family who had sworn themselves after reaching a certain age and going through a trial by fire. And there was nobody besides Plex and I who wouldn’t have the tattoo. After all, this was a very sensitive mission. Nobody who wasn’t absolutely loyal or trustworthy to the family would be brought on this trip.

So with the Captain, Plex and I watched as everyone on the convoy was inspected.

Everyone passed with ease. Nobody who went up was nervous, because none of them were assassins or spies.

However, when everyone had stepped up and gotten inspected, the inspector ran through his list and frowned.

He walked up to the captain and reported.

“Sir, there’s one person who didn’t show.”

“Is it the victim who the assassin impersonated?”

“No.”

“...”

The Captain went quiet and looked back toward the convoy.

Then, he looked toward Plex.

“Can you find him?”

“Sure thing, friend. Unless he already bailed.”

Plex smiled and suddenly disappeared.

After that, the Captain and I waited. We saw the occasional door open on the vehicles, but otherwise, there were no sounds.

After a mere minute, Plex reappeared in front of us, shrugging.

“There’s nobody inside the convoy. So they either left last night or have stealth skills that surpass mine.”

“Let’s pray its not the latter.”

The Captain grumbled before turning back to the inspector and muttering some things.

“Mark him as dead, and if anybody finds him, he’s to be arrested on sight.” for new novels

“Understood.”

“Then let’s get rolling.”

With that, the convoy resumed its journey.

As we drove, I hung around inside one of the turrets. It was an enclosed extrusion on the top of the Hunker with a single narrow window that circled all the way around it, like a pillbox. This way, you could attack without worrying about getting hit. For the most part anyway.

I was in there for several hours, half sleeping and half enjoying the sights of the landscapes that we passed by. Being able to see miles of untouched land was a rarity on Earth, especially in America. It was always either farmland, towns, or cities. So a genuine wilderness was new, not that I hadn’t at least been to some national parks. I even saw some new animals that wandered around the road.

Was this why I was able to get as far as I did despite being new to this whole thing? Then again, I didn’t think other summoners were doing as I was. Perhaps it was just my luck, having something as expensive as my coat to help me break through that barrier with force.

Suddenly, I narrowed my eyes at Plex.

“How did you learn to control Aura?”

“Me? Well, I had shown talent for it in the military, and they imparted some techniques to practice it. After that I was trained by someone and I learned Aura concealment.”

“So it can be taught! You just don’t want to actually teach me.”

“Hey, they were very complex techniques. Besides, you couldn’t even use the practice technique. It was tailored to using Vigor, not Psyka. If you want something for you, go ahead and ask Maxwell.”

“I already have a practice technique. That’s why I’m asking about learning to conceal it.”

Plex’s eyes turned a bit wide in surprise. Seeing a hint of skepticism though, I decided to prove it.

Concentrating, I managed to write a few segments of my practice formation, the lines appearing in the air with a glow. I had gotten better after practicing, but there was still a long ways to go.

It was enough to prove my ability to Plex though. After gawking a bit, he scoffed.

“You’re a little monster, huh?”

“I think this much talent is necessary in order to survive the Trenches.”

“A little narcissistic too.”

I smirked at his jab, earning a sigh.

“Whatever. Look, I’m not gonna spend the next 5 years training you to conceal your Aura, but since we’re inside this damned hunk of metal and I’m bored shitless, I don’t mind throwing you a bone.”

“Thanks.”

“Just listen, and we’ll find out how good your talent really is.”

Plex leaned back into his seat, rummaging through his memories and lecturing in a way that seemed as if he was reciting lines from a book rather than from his personal experience.

I didn’t mind much though, because anything that could give me hints was good enough. I was certain that being able to conceal my Aura would become an invaluable tool as a ranged fighter, even beyond other applications of Aura like what Apocryon showed me personally.

Of course, Plex’s lecture wasn’t just a bunch of words that he spewed from that alcoholic mouth. He so generously showed off some spell formations, simultaneously warning me that they pretty much only worked for Knights as they were formed from Vigor, not Psyka.

Not that I could immediately use them anyway. The formations were incredibly complex, yet I still managed to guess that they were similar to the practice formation that Maxwell gave me.

I primarily listened to all the theory about concealing your Aura, how it involved not just a brutish method of containing it within your body, but obscuring it. Plex had long since mastered the method to obscure his Aura, and now, he was skilled in the art of truly erasing his Aura entirely, making is existence undetectable.

Of course, he wasn’t the best. Apparently, compared to some people that he knew of, his skills were barely adequate. At the same time though, these people he compared himself to were also the best in their field, and one of them was a rather legendary assassin. They were people who couldn’t be found unless they wanted to be.

Plex described the presence of that legendary assassin as fading. You could be looking right at them and your mind still wouldn’t be able to process that there was a person in front of you. He even spoke of another whose presence wasn’t fading, but so obscured that even a small glimpse at them would induce hallucinations and cause a small bout of hysteria and paranoia. Obscurity so great that it scrambled the minds of others, unable to be comprehended.

In a tangent, he continued to explain that the ways to manipulate Aura, despite their rarity, were incredibly vast.

There was one point he eventually led me to though, and that was how you can only utilize one primary path of controlling your Aura. For example, Plex could conceal his Aura, but because he had practiced and mastered that method so much, he would never be able to learn how to induce mind damaging hallucinations like Apocryon did.

You could basically only choose one ability, and so he urged me to deliberate carefully whether I wanted to learn concealment or not. Because at a certain point, it became a path of no return.

Of course, I didn’t think I would regret learning concealment regardless of that fact. It was too useful, even if only people like Plex, who could make themselves invisible, could capitalize on the ability to its fullest.

From there on, he continued to lecture. The talk only lasted a couple of hours since Plex didn’t feel like continuing into the night.

Eventually, the convoy settled for the night. The vehicles continued to roll, but all the bunks were filled as people retired.

We couldn’t settle for long though.

Only an hour after everyone had gone to sleep, I suddenly woke to an explosion.

An alarm went off, and everyone threw themselves out of bed.

“Enemy attack!”