Del and Anna were looking at the pictures of the security details thoroughly to assess what kind of strengths and weaknesses that they had. One of the major advantages that those security details had while Del and Anna didn't have was their ability to hover or fly in the sky. It might be the basic skill of being a special force soldier.

"It looks like they use a regular rifle, but I wonder why they'd need a cable attached to the back of the rifle," Anna wondered.

Del looked at the picture. The special security details were wearing backpacks on their back with a cable attached to the stock of their rifle. There was no scope on their rifle so Del suspected that it might not be an illumination device. What was it then?

"I really wished we can call Cassandra right now," Del scratched his head to figure what the cable would do.

"Del, do you think this is some sort of magical rifle?" Anna asked.

"I've never seen magically enchanted rifle, but it might be possible," Del commented..

The cable might be used to transfer magical energy from the backpack into the rifle itself. However, what would the effect be to the projectile? If the projectile turned somewhat explosive, then Del would have a big problem.

If the projectile had an armor-piercing ability, it would be bad for his armor. The interceptor armor might be able to block a regular bullet coming from 7.62x51mm NATO, but not some sort of magical hibbie jibbies rifle. Right now, stealth would be the most efficient choice.

"Del, thinking about it, do you know what a magical device or a magical staff would do to a magical spell?" Anna asked.

"It is basically a magical amplifier, making you able to use a magical spell with more strength with less magical energy cost," Del answered.

"Yeah. It also means that the magic spell would be more powerful with less magical energy. Now, what if that rifle can both aim magical spells more accurately and to enhance its peformance?" Anna asked.

"Thinking about it, it might be some sort of special force weaponry, but to be honest, I don't know the exact mechanism of it, moreover, an air-to-air battle is not going to be as convenient as we think," Del said.

"Yeah, I think so, I'm not going to lie, warfare in this world isn't exactly something that I can get my head around with," Anna said.

"You can say that again."

For Del, conventional warfare consisted of ordinary things that he expected from what warfare would be on Earth. However, airships, flying soldiers, magical spells, and everything that Del had seen so far was not conventional and he was still surprised why he hadn't died yet? Sheer luck, perhaps? PIDMA played a huge part in this.

However, it seemed that not many people were able to fly while shooting their rifles. So far, neither Cole nor Cassandra had shown their flying skill. It was the first time that he saw a flying soldier after all. It looked like the advantage of special force was in their flying ability.

"Does Elbanian has something like this, Anna?" Del asked.

"No, well, as far as I'm aware of, there is none. Perhaps, there's something that I don't know at all. You know how many lies that Elbanian had spewed out, right?" Anna asked.

"Well, they were burning you, so I'd say yes. Anyway, back to the topic, we should assault them at night. We'll use our NVG, judging from the look of the mansion, we can easily stay in the darkness," Del said.

"I agree with your plan, we should kill the patrolling flying soldiers first, to be honest, we are really charging blindly here, but I don't care, we'll get this job done, don't worry, any wound that you have, I'll heal them," Anna said.

"Thanks, but I'm not exactly positive about your spell would be able to fix internal injury which is the thing that I fear the most," Del said.

"If we are careful and don't make any stupid mistake, we might be able to pull the job off, don't you think?" Anna asked.

"Well, we are just high-school kids suddenly turned into combatants and they are hardened combat veterans that had gone through so many battles that my fingers wouldn't be able to count. What could possibly go wrong?" Del commented on his situation. "I should have taken an easier quest."

Anna commented, "C'mon, you have always been through several dangerous situations, you can handle this, Del."

"I can, but can you?" Del smirked.

"Ah, you dummy." Anna just shrugged.

"Anyway, we need a plan in case everything went haywire and we need to get the f out of there, what do you have in mind?" Del asked.

"We need some distraction, do you think a smoke grenade will work?" Anna asked.

"It will work to distract them, but we still need a way to deal with them in case they turned out to be stronger than we expected. We need something that will surely kill them while we can run as fast as we can, I'm thinking of buying a SAM launcher in that regard," Del commented.

"SAM? Surface-to-air missile?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, a stinger missile, at the very least, it would hit one of those pesky flying soldiers and killed them," Del said.

"Fair enough, it should be able to kill a flying soldier at the very least, but how much is it? A stinger is a missile with a lot of complicated parts, the sensor on the missile alone would cost more than a grand, how much would it cost for the whole missile?" Anna asked.

"Wait, let me browse for it first," Del said as he opened his tablet.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

[Showing Available Surface-to-Air Missile]

[Tech Level: 56] [Total Balance: 127,870$]

[9K18 Igla] [40,000$]

[Mistral] [45,000$]

[FIM-92 Stinger] [50,000$]

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"Well, fifty grand, I think it will be worth it though," Del said as he pressed the button to buy the FIM-92 Stinger.

[Purchase Confirmed. Remaining Balance: 77,870$]

The missile launcher appeared on top of the bed. The missile launcher was huge, probably only a little bit shorter than Anna. The missile launcher itself was unique, Del didn't know whether it was intended or not, but there was writing on it.

"Shipped to Afghanistan?" Del read the writing.

"Ah, it's probably just a unique touch, don't you think?" Anna asked.

"Well, yeah. Anna, can you carry my machine gun? You can use it, and I am sure as hell can't bring the missile launcher with the machine gun, don't you think?" Del said.

"Yeah, sure, it means that I will also carry all of the box magazines that you always brought, right?" Anna asked.

"Correct."

"Anyway, do you need anything else that we might need later?" Del asked.

"Nothing, I guess?" Anna said.

"Alright, let's talk about the operation."

Del showed the location surrounding the mansion. There was a forest on the west and the north side. It might be a good blind spot to start the assault from. It might also be the most heavily guarded area. Still, it was better than assaulting from the open ground.

=============

Under the night light, they began crawling to the mansion with their heavy gear. They used the cover of the bushes and the trees from the flying soldiers. As far as his NVG could see, right now, there were four flying soldiers.

All four of them were holding a tube. It was a flashlight, they immediately shined their flashlight at anything suspicious. However, they were not actively using their flashlight either. It wouldn't be easy. It seems even a slight movement would catch their attention.

Even the military has set up a checkpoint around the road going to that mansion to keep civilians out of that place. The security details were ordered to anyone on sight. That was what the soldiers told them when they went through the security checkpoints. Even from afar, Del could see a bunch of dead bodies from the previous assault to that mansion.

"I have a visual on a bunch of dead bodies, some of them were rotten. Interrogative, how should we proceed? Over." Anna asked.

"Stick to the plan, out," Del said.

Del and Anna were separated for a good reason. If one of them got spotted, the other could deal with the spotter if everything went to plan. However, they were dealing with special forces here, it would be hard.

"Del, I see a patrol, should I engage, over?" Anna asked.

"Could you profile the target, over?" Del asked.

"Target is on the west side of the mountain and moving towards the north. I have ten seconds, should I engage or not?" Anna asked.

Del spotted the flying soldier, he was hovering above the ground while looking at the forest. He "Wait until it comes to the north section and I will engage him, out."

Del aimed his rifle at the flying soldier. He then pulled the trigger of his M16. The bullet hit an energy field and created a spark, but the flying soldier immediately held his chest once Del managed to shoot him. Something dripped out of his chest.

"CONTACT! NORTH DIRECTION! COMMENCE BOMBARDMENT!"

Del sighed, "Shit…"