Chapter 26

The Lord of Vermilion’s Test 9

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After eliminating the stragglers and recovering all of his gold coins, Theo rested for a couple of minutes in front of a glass wall overlooking the whole FNN compound.

About a hundred meters away the other FNN building where Theo could spot Diego going wild in his minotaur form.

With reckless fury, Diego turned his area into a disaster zone.

If you compared the state of Theo and Diego’s battlefield, it was clear who was having more fun.

While entertaining himself with Diego’s warpath, he thought of his next course of action.

He could try to assault the 40th floor alone, but he wasn’t sure what was up there.

He wouldn’t rule out the chance that a superhero waiting for him.

As such, he decided to wait for his ‘comrades’ to catch up.

And depending on the identity of the superhero, Theo might be forced to take drastic measures

Theo had to adjust his strategies depending on how many of his ‘allies’ survived and the identity of the hero.

While he was in a rush, he needed to be extra careful as well.

Haste makes waste, or so the saying goes.

For now, he decided to check the other groups situation using his spy drones.

As you’d expect of the news network that could easily ruin anyone’s life with a 30 minute news report, the police were quick to respond to FNN’s SOS

Vermilion City’s famed SWAT team had taken their positions and were ready to charge into the FNN buildings.

The only thing that kept them from charging in was the many hostages on the 10th floor held by the Smoke group.

The Smoke group used a loud speaker to announce that a single hostage would be thrown out the window if any police approached 10 meters from the building.

They even threw out someone just to make sure that the police knew that they were serious.

Just to be clear though, the Smoke group were only allowed to kill people that Lord specified

They were not allowed to inflict high levels damage to anyone else.

Some of the Mole group escaped before the police came while others mixed in with the hostages of the Smoke group in order to find misbehaving hostages.

The status of the 3 assault groups were the following.

Group 3, which was led by one of Lord’s men, has pulled back after all of his mercenaries have been killed.

Group 1, with Diego at the helm, was still active and was about to accomplish the kidnap mission.

It was really unfair how Diego punch through the floor above him and grab the target.

The only thing he needed to do was to clear any stranglers, head to the roof and wait for evac.

FYI: all the group 1's mercs died.

Some via MIBs and others died accidentally when Diego went on a rampage.

As for Theo, part 1 of 3 of his job was nearing its completion.

The door to the stairs slammed open and 3 tired mercs of Theo’s group shuffled in.

The leader’s temper flared the moment he saw Theo

“YOU BASTARD! We sent an SOS didn’t we?! Why the fuck are you chilling like nothing?! We were up against 20 guards down there! 10 of those came from the lower floors!” roared the leader.

“Werent you the one that abandoned me to fight 10 people all in my lonesome? What happened to sending 4 people my way?” said Theo in a calm yet cold manner.

The leader flinch

“T-that was because I had to change strategies because of the situation. I knew that you’d be fine without our help and from the looks of things, I made the right decision. We had to face 20 people and you were able to take out 10. You understand right?” said the leader in a passive manner.

“Then I’ll use the same excuse. Fighting 10 highly trained bodyguards exhausted me greatly. Since all 9 of you were together, I decided to rest up for the next part of the mission. I was certain that you’d handle the job properly. And I was right.“ replied Theo.

Naturally, Theo was lying.

Theo fought with energy conservation in mind, thus his exhaustion was minimal.

The mercs could only grit their teeth.

Theo’s words were logical.

The mercs had manpower, so fighting in a 2 to 1 disadvantage was less straining than a 10 against 1 battle.

But most importantly, after experiencing the might of FNN’s security detail, the mercs understood that Theo was a monster.

“Well then, let’s not waste any time. Time to head up and abduct our target” said Theo as he made his way to the elevator.

“Are you mental?! We lost most of our forces! This mission is a failure! We have to retreat!” complained the leader.

“You were in Lord’s briefing, right? We have the minimum number of people required to succeed. Retreating when the goal is so near is stupid. We keep going” said Theo as he pressed the button that called the elevator down.

“You crazy bastard! I already lost 6 of my men! We’re done here!”

In a fit of rage, the leader fired at Theo’s unprotected back

Big mistake.

Theo couldn’t help but feel proud of himself for putting cameras all over his body.

It was literally impossible to catch him by surprise.

Theo dodge the bullet and shot the leader in the shoulder.

He then shot the guns out of the hands of the other 2 mercs as he rushed towards the leader.

He drew his HF blade and sliced off the leaders legs and left arm.

He didn’t bother with the right arm because it was already immobile from the bullet hole in the shoulder.

The leader’s agonizing scream was surprisingly loud.

“I could have sworn you were the smart sort. I guess I was wrong.” Said Theo as he pointed his HF blade at the leader while keeping his gun on the other 2.

“I AM smart you dumbass! Why do you think I want to retreat?! This is a suicide mission damn it!”

The leader was surprisingly energetic despite having nearly all of his limbs cut off.

“Indeed, this is a suicide mission. But that’s kind of the point”

“What the hell are you blabbing about?!”

“Did you seriously think that Lord wouldn’t find out that you’ve been backstabbing him?”

Theo’s words made all the mercs sunder in fear.

Personally, he didn’t know or care about this ‘betrayal’ that happened between the mercs and Lord.

“This mission was a test from the very get go. Our orders was to monitor you mercs and weed out those who show signs of disloyalty.” said Theo

Before the leader could utter a complaint, Theo used his adamantium arm to smash the leader’s skull like a tomato.

With an intimidating presence, Theo faced the last 2 surviving mercs.

“I now give you a choice. If you run, you WILL die. If you surrender to the police, you WILL die. If you finish the job, you MAY live. Choose wisely.”

Truth be told, Theo’s previous statement was a lie.

One of his jobs for Lord was to make sure that the mercs perform one last merit before he kills them.

If they died in the line of duty, good.

If they survived until the end, Theo was to shoot them in the head.

All in all, half of FNN mission was pest extermination, and it was going according to plan.