NOVEL NEXT Alicia Chapter 17 Extra 1: Phase ???, Assassination
Geron Yor
Year 1334
Sixteen hours.
Sixteen hours before the Yellow Deity's army lay their final battle against the Green Deity's army.
Hanz Huber and his partner, Crea Snows, saw the encampment a few miles from the Green Wall through their own binoculars. They're in high morale as the Fire Court Wizard assumed with their constant partying and drunken brawls even before sunset. These guys are attacking the last territory after the sun goes up and are way too relaxed. Heck, even the champion, Rei Furuta, was having a pissing contest with one of his companions.
"Crea, let's go."
"I haven't seen where the champion is."
"...We don't have time for that."
"Is there something wrong with the champion?"
"N-Nothing wrong. Let's just get over our mission and leave."
The night-sky haired maiden's innocence must not be tainted by the sight of some isekai'd Asian kid making a game out of nature's call with some topless tanned giant.
To Hanz, Rei Furuta was just another kid who got way ahead of himself after being summoned and pronounced a hero in the other world, and he was dense as f*ck. Just like that Wanderer. Thinking about that whiny brat pissed him off even further.
Well, it didn't matter. As long as the isekai'd champion does his job then that will be another job finally off the checklist.
According to Rose, some of the previous champions are worse: the last guy kicked the bucket literally a month after he got named champion when he spared a female-looking Spawn general and tried to get her on his side only for the Spawn to slit his throat.
When the Green Deity saw the first summoned champion to die by something similar to the previous sentence, he started to create more attractive female general Spawns and champions were felled by those Spawns unless the champion was female.
And so the Otherworldly Court had to make the decision to kill every female general Spawns on every opportunity - how very, and utterly embarrassing.
By the way, this was mostly what Hanz and Crea do in Geron Yor even before the current champion, killing a bunch of green-skinned whores. Well, there was one female general Spawn that was missed and reached the champion. Fortunately, Rei Furuta had the sense to kill her, so at least he knew what Spawns are at their core. So that's one relief.
Now back to the story.
Hanz and Crea, in their brown robes, foraged through the Green Wall. There weren't any monsters lurking inside the trees - at one point in time, a more competent champion at that time managed to make it so that the Green Wall was completely harmless but the shifting in position and corrupting living plants.
This served Hanz and Crea well as they don't need to worry about potential ambushes from the branches. They only need to be vigilant of scout Spawns, but there shouldn't be any inside the Green Wall right now.
Hanz, I spotted the Spawns. (Crea)
They saw another batch of sentry Spawns just outside the forestry their master set up. Another fresh sentry after the fifth time they were wiped out.
Right, circle around them.
They quietly rustled their way to the left of the Green Wall, away from the squad of Spawns. Once they got far away from them, but not too close to the next sentry, the two simply marched forward into the Green Deity's territory.
15.5 hours left. Half an hour has passed painfully traversing the uneven terrain.
CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP
It was Gra and his squad patrolling through the rocky hills. Well, he was probably just out for a walk because he likes it. Hanz heard the sound of the horses and pulled Crea behind the rocks far from the road.
"Gra is a very old general Spawn created. At least five hundred years old," Darc explained
"Older than you, Darc, Zenya?" Rin asked.
"Yes."
This general Spawn had been one of the earlier creation of the Green Deity and has been seen in most battles, at least according to the records held by the kingdoms of Geron Yor.
"So he fought a lot of champions." The black-haired girl commented.
"Yes," Zenya said, " and he is a problem for us as champions couldn't beat him. But he had made a name for himself, so we couldn't prohibit him from facing the champion or it would be too suspicious."
Many fell before the Spawn's greatsword. And when Gra had finally been defeated, he will only rise again, stronger than before. His infamy for killing many champions had earned him the moniker, 'The Champions' Rival.'
"Can you beat him?" Rin asked.
"...Yes, but it will be hard directly fighting him alone." Giving a pause, Darc gave an answer. "And a lot of maneg will be wasted."
Gra was not one to be trifled with, even for Court Wizards. Hanz remembered the time he got caught by the general Spawn, Crea wasn't recruited back then. Back then, Hanz underestimated the power gap between the common Spawn and the general, also he didn't know any powerful Orders. He opted to give him a full clip from his machine gun to Gra only for the Spawn to send shockwaves through the earth with his swings, and he can do that repeatedly!
"And his skin is tougher than average and has minor regeneration. Also, he has advanced acid-based magic."
His brown robe got hit by acid and started to dissolve. Fortunately, Rose designed it to be very tough, yet very light. Hanz managed to escape him and then threw his acidified robe before it reached his uniform.
"I believe Hanz almost got killed by him," Zenya noted. "Fortunately, he is not."
Although his death would make the Otherworldly Court become more proactive in Geron Yor, specifically Gra. Ironic since the Otherworldly Court would cherish their Court Wizards so much that they will avenge each of their demise's, specifically the problems they had to deal with that caused their deaths.
According to Rose, that gave one Court Wizard the bright idea to get herself killed to get the other Court Wizards, Rose included, to become more proactive with a specific problem festering in her world - and it worked. And unfortunately, the feeling of staying alive so others wouldn't drive was the only thing keeping this incident from happening again.
Alright, it's clear. move out.
Roger. (Crea)
Once the clip-clop sounds of the horses faded away, the two emerged from their cover and moved on.
14 hours left. One and a half-hour was wasted on avoiding patrols.
"I found the target, two o'clock two windows up." Crea had her binoculars gazing all over the fortress of very dark green that it could be mistaken for black. She stopped at a particular angle.
"Target sighted." Aiming the scope of his sniper rifle, an anti-material similar to the American Barrett M90, Hanz then grunted. "Blast, she left the window," he growled. He did not want to damage the building, even though his Cherished Armament of choice says otherwise.
Their mission was to assassinate a few general Spawns that the Green Deity recently created to combat the incoming army.
Hanz and Crea had memorized the general Spawns that had clashed the Yellow Deity's army before. So all they had to do is find a decent-looking Spawn that they don't recognize and snipe them.
"I spotted another one, on top of the west tower in front."
"Roger. I'll shoot that one first."
Slightly lifting his rifle, the scope shows a Spawn with armor that looked Mongolian with a long now strapped to his back. He was actually taking a nap.
This Cherished Armament - out of who knows how many, for Hanz was the Court Wizard with the most Cherished Armaments period - has a suppressor attached through maneg. The first shot wouldn't alert the Green Deity by sound nor the target's death as he himself was focusing his link with the commander Spawns outside - there are also too many commanders Spawns for the Green Deity to monitor alongside the generals, so Hanz could take out more of them in the meantime. The headhunt will be over when the Green Deity finally noticed, and he should simply send a bunch of Spawns after them and not attempt to activate the rigged magic circles.
Hanz held his breath and pulled the trigger.
13.75 hours left.
"After them!" Gra shouted while he ran, his horse had been killed.
Hanz managed to shoot seventeen general Spawns before Gra decided to wander right at the very edge of the cliff where the Court Wizards are!
Gra shot out two sickly green balls of liquid to disintegrate the two intruders.
PHSA PHSA
But a blue dome that cackled lightning from the clouds suddenly appeared, surrounding the brown-cloaked figures. The acid spell was instead the ones that disintegrated upon contact with the dome.
Keep running! We gotta find a spot to throw my flashbang without getting us spotted again! Using [Eject] will just announce us to the entire army!
Due to PTSD, Hanz's emotion suppression broke. He can't help it when there's a green-skinned muscle man sending shockwaves to the ground and shooting acid balls. And he can't kill Gra nor his entourage either because of reasons - he only shot the horse to slow the Spawn down.
Hanz, calm down. Archer Spawns to our front. (Crea)
A squad consisting of purely archer Spawns converged in front of them. With the commander, they numbered twenty...
RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA
Five.
And now it's zero archer Spawns left as Hanz materialized an SMG similar to an FN P90 and demolished the archers before they could fire of their second volley. Though the first volley simply bounced off from Crea's [Shield] while Hanz's bullets simply passed through it no problem.
There, we can escape safely there. (Crea)
The still level-headed Crea pointed a crossroad with many hiding spots.
"You have nowhere to run- Gah!"
PINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
As the Court Wizards stopped at the middle of the crossroad, with more Spawns coming out from all sides, Gra's speech was interrupted by a flash of light, blinding everyone.
"Where are they!?" Gra howled when the light faded. The intruders we're nowhere to be seen. "Find them! Find them!" he frustratingly growled.
13.5 hours left.
Emotion suppression off.
"Phew... They're gone," Hanz huffed, taking out his canteen of water and drank it. He then gave it to Crea.
After the flashbang was set off, Hanz and Crea jumped into a nearby trench hidden among the environment and hoped the Spawns wouldn't find them.
"Thanks." Crea took the canteen took a sip. "Were you that afraid of him?" she asked.
"What do you think? He's the first thing that almost killed me!" Hanz stood up and took Crea's hand to lift her up.
"Let's get out of here."
"Yes."