Mana System Chapter 174: Infiltration (Patreon)

As soon as the portal vanished and Lord Vik’t was secure, Ashlam went to gather his forces.

The Lord wanted an all-out assault but Ashlam knew there were better ways to secure a city than attacking it outright. With that in mind, he headed toward the barracks and his infiltration team. He would still ready the army but that could take time, time his infiltration unit would need to undermine the enemy city and make it an easier target.

“Gol, Nalam, where are the others?” he demanded after entering the room.

The two jumped to attention and Gol answered, “they are on rotation duty, Sir.”

“Gather them up, I have a mission for the four of you.”

Gol hurried off to collect the others while Ashlam and Nalam waited.

“What sort of mission are we talking about?” the female Narmani purred.

Ashlam ignored the question of the beautiful Narmani woman. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was her superior and that feline kin were almost always extremely aggressive lovers he might have considered a romp with the woman but he put those thoughts aside as the other three returned.

“Good, sit down and I will go over the mission.”

After they were seated he laid out the objective.

“The Lord has issued a decree that he wants the city at all costs. I want the four of you to infiltrate the city, disrupt operations, and kill anyone that might get in our way. Leave the Mayor, the Lord wishes to personally teach that man some manners. If you encounter a man named Paul Fuller, secure him alive. Nobody else is of any value.”

“What sort of opposition are we looking at?” Kru’Ka asked.

Ashlam looked at the Golfin and barely repressed a grimace at the gelatinous being's appearance. Despite the difficulty of harming a Golfin, Kru’Ka was the most cautious of the group.

“We don’t know. The Mayor is level nineteen and who we suspect to be the guard captain is only level seventeen.”

“That isn’t much to go on,” Kru’Ka grumbled.

“No, it isn’t, you will need to do your surveillance while remaining inconspicuous.”

“How is it that this is all the information we are being provided?” Baline asked, “weren’t you in their city?”

Baline was another of this team he didn’t much care for. While he looked human he was an undead species called a Baykok. Ashlam had no problem contracting undead to fight for their armies, he just didn’t like personally working with them.

“No, that idiot Pu’v screwed up the destination and we appeared outside of the town. We were noticed as soon as we arrived so we couldn’t attempt a second jump inside.”

“I don’t like going in blind,” Baline grumbled.

“You will have to figure it out, or I could tell Lord Vik’t that you refused his orders,” Ashlam replied pointedly.

“I never said I wouldn’t go, I’m just voicing my disapproval.”

“Well, keep that shit to yourself. You were paid well to be here and all you have done is patrol a small human city. It’s time you earned your exorbitant pay.”

“Ohh, this should be fun,” Nalam crooned, her tail swishing back and forth in excitement.

“Keep it together, Nalam, this is a stealth excursion,” Gol chided.

Nalam hissed in disappointment but she settled down.

Ashlam had to give the half-elf leader credit, he knew his people and how to keep them in line.

“You have twelve hours to prepare, then Pu’v will teleport you inside the forest near their city. They have significant fortifications but it’s a port town with an open waterfront. That will probably be the easiest way in but use your judgment.”

Ashlam enjoyed the uncomfortable twitching that Nalam did at the mention of water. He had purposefully done it just for the show it elicited and once again contemplated enjoying a night with the flexible Narmani.

“Thank you for the information, Commander Ashlam. We will survey the situation and go from there,” Gol replied coldly.

Ashlam smirked at the hostile tone in the man’s voice, knowing full well what brought it on. It was no secret that Nalam was his woman. But if Ashlam wanted her, she would be his for the simple reason that Narmani, along with most feline kin respected strength above all else. And while Gol was strong at level nineteen, he couldn’t hold a candle to Ashlam’s current levels.

“Don’t screw this up, the Lord is watching. The army will set out two weeks after you do. See that our conquest of the city goes smoothly and you will be rewarded handsomely.”

Ashlam didn’t have to mention what would happen if they failed. Failing the Guild only had one outcome and the four of them already knew that.

***

Gol kicked a boulder, sending a spiderweb of cracks along the surface after the four of them had been deposited in the forest near their objective.

“Who the fuck does Ashlam think he is,” Gol growled.

“Calm yourself, let that idiot posture. Nalam loves you,” Baline said, laying a restraining hand on his shoulder.

“Bah, what do you know. If he challenged me, she would go to the victor without batting an eye, and there is no way I would win.”

“You don’t know that, but if you’re worried, we could make it look like he had an unfortunate accident,” Baline offered.

“No, they would look into it and with Lord Vik’t’s resources, they would find out. If it comes to that, I will figure something out. Let’s just wait for Nalam to finish scouting and we can come up with a plan for getting inside this city undetected.”

Gol knew why his team was chosen for this mission, they weren’t the strongest but they all had abilities that helped them hide from detection and move about unnoticed. Mainly they were used for assassination-type missions but infiltration and subversion were also in their wheelhouse. Both Baline and Nalam had the skills to charm others. Baline’s were more targeted while Nalam’s were more … unintentional. Although, with effort, she could control them. Though she chose not to for the most part, which frustrated Gol to no end.

Nalam appeared an hour later. “Did you miss me, lover boy,” she said with a wink, while seductively rubbing past him. Her tail curled around his body to tickle his senses.

Gol suppressed the urge to force her to the ground and have her now, thankfully he was used to her playfulness after being together for so long. She always got this way when a mission started. The rush of possible combat made her aroused state skyrocket.

“Always, what do you have to report?” He asked flatly.

She pouted after failing to get him to “rise” to the occasion. “Not much, there is a walled-off farming section to our south. Not much there but fields and a few workers.”

“No food we can destroy?” Kru’Ka asked.

“No, the fields are new. We could burn it on our way out but I suspect Ashlam and the army will do that for us. The city sits on a tall plateau and has only one road leading up to it. That is our first obstacle. The second is the earthen wall and guard towers dotting it. I saw at least a dozen guards patrolling the tops and they were very alert.”

“Not ideal,” Gol cut in, “what about the north or south?”

Nalam hissed at being interrupted but she continued. “The plateau eventually fades off far past the city to the north but there is no cover and that entire area is overrun with rock elementals. As for the south,” she said, hissing again, “that’s all water, seems like a large cove of saltwater but I didn’t get too close. The plateau ends in cliffs but the wall extends down the cliff and about a hundred yards into the water.”

“Dammit, it seems like these people prepared to prevent an invasion. There is no other reason to have that wall extend down the cliff face and into the water otherwise. Any ideas how to get inside?” Gol asked.

“Why not just phase through the wall?” Baline asked.

“That’s one option, but I assume if they went to all this trouble, they have ways to stop that. I think scaling the wall or going around it, oceanside is our best bet.”

“Why not try all three ways?” Kru’ka suggested.

Nalam nodded furiously at this, she hated water and would avoid the possibility of getting wet if she could.

“Fine. Baline, you try to go through the wall since you can hide better if it fails. Nalam and Kru’ka, you both scale the walls, I will go oceanside. We need a spot to meet up once we are inside though, any suggestions?”

Nalam nodded, “there are some piers near the waterfront. I could see them from the plateau. I didn’t see much movement down there so they should be safe to meet at.”

“Works for me. Stay safe and don’t engage if you are discovered. At worst, they may toss us back out or lock us up for a bit.”

The others nodded as they began moving off to find the best location to enter the city. Gol wouldn’t normally split his team up but they were used to working alone on many missions. Still, he didn’t like having so little information. It wasn’t usual for the guild to be so unprepared when assaulting a target. But he pushed his misgivings to the side and thought about the money he would make for this job. Maybe he would even push himself to level twenty on this contract, then he could quickly level up his new class and deal with that prick Ashlam.

***

Kru’Ka oozed through the rocky landscape as he approached the city wall. His body was stretched out for dozens of feet, not a common shape that he took but his body was flexible and could squeeze through many small cracks. It had served him well being that it was an innate ability of his race instead of a skill. This made it undetectable.

His eyes watched the city wall and his teammates as they made their own way to the wall. Nalam’s ability to hide in shadow was peculiar. She had explained it to him once as not actually hiding in the shadow, but wrapping it around her. He didn’t see the difference as they did effectively the same thing but she had assured him it was different.

Baline just used simple invisibility to mask his approach. Like Kru’Ka’s own racial ability, Baline’s invisibility was tied to his race as a sapient undead. Kru’Ka had only met a few intelligent undead in his lifetime. Most at the end of his weapons, but he liked the stoic Baline.

He was most of the way up the wall – unable to find a crack to squeeze through – when a siren went off. Thinking himself discovered, he oozed up under a small lip of rock near the top of the wall and froze.

Soon bright spotlights started tracking over the ground near where Baline had been. Kru’ka immediately spotted what had given the man away. Clear footprints in the dusty soil led toward the wall. Kru’Ka knew Baline preferred to work in cities, the man must have forgotten the difficulties of remaining hidden outdoors, and that lapse in judgment would cost all of them.

Spells began to rain down around that area and Baline abandoned stealth to sprint away from the wall. He didn’t get far as three blinding beams of white light speared out from overhead. Two of the beams missed Baline and the ground around their impacts erupted. The third beam struck the undead man in the torso and half his body was vaporized in an instant as the beam continued through and hit the ground, sending the already dead man flying through the air.

Kru’Ka wanted to curse at the man's rookie mistake but he didn’t dare move or utter a sound. He had lost track of Nalam during the confusion but if she were smart she would bide her time.

Hours passed as Kru’Ka remained hidden under the lip of the wall. He watched soldiers pour out of the city to check the body as well as look for more infiltrators. They didn’t find him or Nalam so she must have been hidden quite well as the soldiers scoured the area quite thoroughly. Gol needed to be made aware of this turn of events, it would make their job much harder.