Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

"It's no problem. In fact, we wanted to arrive a bit incognito," Archie signed, gesturing with his other hand for her to rise from her bow. "When we heard about what was happening in this sector of the wall, we wanted to see how we could help."

"I-I can assure you that I speak for all Border Guards when I say that the Young Master's and Young Lady's benevolence is truly appreciated. Tales of both of your benevolence are far and wide in the entirety of the Netharim Sovereignty," the gorgon squeaked out, bowing once more. The serpents attached to her skull mimicked her movements, attempting to bow along with her while remaining firmly in place. 'I hope all that you've seen was up to standard within the Southern Barracks.'

'Your words are appreciated,' Archie signed with a smile while quickly jabbing Aoife lightly in the ribs while the gorgon bowed once more to them and gave her a pointed look as if saying; Oi! I need some damn help here.

"Everything we have seen thus far has been up to standard," Aoife spoke, catching on to the flow of the conversation. "The only issue we have seen so far was the slovenliness of the Barracks. While we understand it might have been due to the ongoing battle outside, the Border Guards are no exception to the standard."

"My deepest apologies, Young Master, Young Lady," the gorgon bowed once more, this time, however, her hands started to tremble. "I shall see to it that this will not happen again."

'We don't blame you for it. We know that barracks cleanliness isn't under the purview of the Teleporter Operations Chief Officer,' Archie signed, offering the terrified gorgon a reassuring smile. 'We're not the type to place blame on those who don't deserve it.'

The tales of their benevolence rang true, the gorgon thought. "Is it your will for this lowly one to teleport you to the Barracks Officer's office?" she asked before panic overtook her features.

Her face turned stone-white, and the snakes that came out of her skull stilled before the majority of them fell limply while a few shot toward her ears and began to hiss at her, as though they were berating her.

"I-I d-did not mean to-" she stuttered before dropping to the floor and digging her head onto the carpet-covered floor. "Please forgive this lowly one for their transgressions."

What the actual fuck? Archie thought, struggling to keep his smile from twisting into a frown. Is she trying to get one over us by checking to see how Young Master they both were? Because this is going way too far.

Archie's unease deepened as her body trembled violently. She pressed her head further into the floor, while her serpents, seemingly distressed, began to nip at her own skin.

Aoife immediately closed the distance between herself and the gorgon, kneeling beside her. "You have done nothing to wrong us," she whispered, gently placing her hands on the gorgon's shoulders and softly guiding her upright.

"In fact, we appreciate how you immediately sought to help us with our concerns," Aoife softly spoke as she took out a clean white hand towel from her Pouch of Holding and placed it into the gorgon's trembling open hands.

Just how bad are the nobles here for someone to react like this just for offering to help? Archie questioned as his smile vanished and a frown overtook his face. Laer was a little shit, but he wasn… Yeah, nevermind, I can't think of anything that would make him sound not as bad as he was.

He owned slaves and tortured them, there was nothing he could say to justify that.

Archie was brought out of his thoughts as Aoife helped the tear-stricken Teleporter Operations Chief Officer up onto her feet. "I can only offer my deepest apologies for my shameful display," she murmured, her voice trembling. "I did not mean to offend or overstep."

'You've done no such thing,' Archie signed with a reassuring smile. 'We were intending to visit the Barracks Officer's office once the Dinomyrmex Gigasi were dealt with.'

"Yes," the gorgon said, covering her sniff with the hand towel Aoife had given her. "It shouldn't take long for the spawn of the traitorous Twin Dinomyrmex Mothers to meet their end and for General Crom and his attack squad to venture down into their tunnels and slay the Twin Dinomyrmex Mothers themselves."

Ah, so the ants and the border guards were allies, Archie realized. I guess it makes sense why they were left alone so close to the wall without being exterminated earlier.

Yeah, that made a lot more sense than his previous theory - that they were actually ninja ants who had somehow managed to evade the border guards for years. That is, until Aoife and he came along and exposed them, essentially doing the Netharim Sovereignty Border Guards a favor.

Yeah, what she says sounds a lot more realistic… I mean, how could ants even become ninjas? They don't even have ears, and some don't even have eyes.

"-How long do you expect it'll take for the battle to start to die down?" Aoife asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

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"Not for at least a week, maybe two, depending on how many eggs the Twin Dinomyrmex Mothers have cultivated over the past decade," the gorgon replied, timidly rubbing the hand towel she'd been given by Archie.

'Any estimates on their numbers?' Archie asked. He knew that ant colonies, at a minimum, typically housed around ten thousand ants, and judging by the sea of ant vital energy outlines he could see charging from the Greenpatch forest, ten thousand seemed like a paltry sum.

"Our scouts have detected around a quarter of a million ants within the Twin Mothers Dinomyrmex Gigas colony," the gorgon answered, color starting to return to her skin. "This is within the expected range for their species, however, we cannot be completely sure due to the vast tunnels they've created."

Around two hundred and fifty thousand! Archie mentally exclaimed. That's a whole fuck load of XP. I could reach the level cap for Nature-Attuned Pugilist before nightfall if we stick around.

"How deep would the tunnels be?" Aoife asked, taking a step back from the gorgon and putting a bit of distance between them.

"…Around three to four thousand USUs," The gorgon answered, her vertical pupils widening slightly as they were tinged with longing as she gazed at Aoife, no longer holding her upright. The serpents above her head also reacted similarly, where they kept close to her skull, but their eyes zeroed in on Aoife.

"Would they not be able to tunnel under the wall and potentially allow our enemies to cross underneath?" Aoife asked.

"That would be impossible," the gorgon said with a nervous smile, her gaze fixed on the carpet, too uneasy to meet her eyes. "Two hundred years ago, your uncles, Masters Dolls and Whist Mistshore, created the alert arrays we use to monitor all vital, mana, and stamina signatures within a seven-thousand USU radius of the wall."

'But would it be able to detect it all that accurately with all the tens of thousands of vital, mana, and stamina signatures flickering all at once?' Archie asked. 'Say the ants were able to tunnel underneath and break into the wall, using their troops above as a distraction to slaughter us from within.'

They got through undetected just fine, so there was obviously a flaw in the alert arrays that Dolls and Whist Mistshore made.

"Tha- That is…"The gorgon stuttered; her smile gone as she became lost in thought.

Within seconds, she hurled herself to her many cabinet walls and yanked it open, revealing an Aetherglass. However, unlike the ones he'd seen Syllia and Xelgar use, this one looked more like a vintage computer from back on Earth.

The gorgon's serpents hissed, and Archie felt a pulse of mana radiate from them. A moment later, a small, U-shaped stone table, one by one in size, materialized just beneath the Aetherglass she held.

Aoife looked at Archie with a confused look on her face, wondering why he'd mentioned tunneling and effectively told them what they'd done.

Noticing this, Archie cast a glance at the gorgon, who looked both distressed and completely absorbed by the vintage-looking Aetherglass. Turning back to Aoife, he signed, "We're going to use this revelation to throw the Wall into chaos. Every Border Guard within and out of the Wall will be running around like headless chickens, scrambling to find the Dinomyrmex Gigasi that supposedly infiltrated their walls, while we use the panic we've created to make our escape."

'But wouldn't we be kept safe and hidden, because of our "identities"?' Aoife asked, her gaze flickering to the stressed-out gorgon before settling back on Archie. 'She believes us to be the Young Master and Young Lady of the Mistshore Dukedom.'

'Which is why we reenact the Young Master and Young Lady trope to prevent such a thing from happening to us both,' Archie signed, looking at Aoife as though it was the most obvious thing.

'Trope?' Aoife repeated, even more confused than before.

'Watch what I do and follow along,' Archie signed before walking toward the gorgon and tapping her shoulder to grab her attention away from the Aetherglass.

'I hope we haven't caused you any problems with our questions,' Archie smiled, snapping the gorgon out of her panicked state.

The gorgon blinked for a few seconds before sputtering out, "N-Not at all! It has been an honor for me to have met the Twin Mistshore Heirs. It is something that I shall cherish until I become one with the Main Link."

Main Link? What's that?

"Not to mention the flaw in the alert arrays that the Young Master deduced. That alone may have saved countless lives within the Southern Wall District - perhaps even beyond," the gorgon said with a smile. "To play even the smallest role in your journey is the greatest honor of my life. I only wish I could have done more to help."

"You are doing more than enough," Aoife chimed in, waving her hands toward her cluttered desk filled with documents and the wall cabinets that were filled to the brim with files and numerous other documents. "You have been performing your best, and we have seen that in your files when going through the list we were provided before we arrived."

The gorgon looked as though she were about to cry once more, but was swiftly interrupted by Archie creating a palm mana construct in front of her face, as though telling her to stop.

'Unfortunately, while we would love to continue our conversation, I've received word from… You can guess who, telling us that we need to hurry along,' Archie signed, tapping the side of his neck, reminiscent of how Syllia disconnected from her Aetherglass.

"Oh..." the gorgon muttered softly, fidgeting with the serpents growing from her skull before suddenly perking up. "Since there's no Teleporter console in my office, I can personally teleport you to the ramparts! I am a Spatial Mage, after all - which, of course, you already know," she added, her words turning into a slight ramble toward the end.

"We would appreciate that," Aoife smiled as both she and Archie stepped back onto the teleporter pad.

'Thank you!' Archie signed, giving a smile to the gorgon whose serpents atop her head danced.

Not a second later, both Archie and Aoife found themselves at the top of the ramparts, surrounded by a cacophony of noise, belonging to the hundreds of Mages, Healers, Archers, and many more, shouting, casting, and firing away at the horde of Dinomyrmex Gigasi below.

Seeing no one around them, Archie turned to Aoife with a growing smile on his face. 'Do you remember when I said I had a plan for us to get away quickly without being seen, but it would have to wait until we reached the top?'

"Yes," Aoife answered, following Archie as he moved toward the opposite side - away from the majority of the border guards - toward the side facing the Yndros Empire.

'Well then,' Archie signed before stepping back a few meters, glancing over his shoulder to check for any unwanted eyes. 'Do you trust me?'

"Of course," Aoife replied without a hint of hesitation or doubt.

'You're probably gonna regret that,' Archie shrugged before taking out his Mana Bike.