Chapter_6 - Lantis Shows His Might. - I

Ting!

//You are entering a hostile area!

//Guards are on high alert now!

//Enemies may now attack you on sight.

You have reached the extraction point!

A mission will begin now.

//Being detected by more than one guard will break your stealth.

Lantis looked at the notifications, then at his HUD. Sure enough, he was right all along.

He found out his synch bar had disappeared, instead, two new bars could be seen at the top-left corner of his vision.

One was fully red, which by appearance looked like the “health” bar, the other one was another shorter green bar below the health bar which he presumed must be the “stamina” bar.

Since he knew nothing about magic or mana plus the fact that the system didn’t allow him to look at his own character sheet. He already saw it coming that he won’t be doing epic magic-related stuff this time. Thus, it didn’t surprise him much when he didn’t saw the mana bar at all in his vision.

“Kind of abnormal. I got elves but no mana, spell tomes or anything like enchanted weapons to compliment it.”

Lantis thought as he faintly looked at the timer.

-18:15-

Tick-tock

Tick-tock

Lantis took a calm breath and tried to review his plan that he discussed with Lllorva while coming here. Actually, it was a pretty simple strategy yet very effective at the same time. Since the system demanded that at least half of his men should survive the mission and he got 60 men to use for that. He didn’t want to take any risk, so he first divided his company into two equal squads. The first squad will be stationed 500 metres from the mission point that will be acting as ‘reserve’ and will be on the lookout for suspicious activities. By doing this he made sure of three things- first, he secured one of his optional objectives, second, he will able to get new Intel and third, should the enemy do something unexpected or stupid, he will have a trump card upon his sleeve all the time.

Now for the second squad, he again further divided it into three teams- each with 10 people. One of them was being led by Lllorva herself. It took Lantis much toiling to convince Lllorva for that, he just didn’t want to have any extra baggage. Till now, he was always used to doing stealth missions alone. The 3 teams along with Lllorva will use hit and run tactics to harass the enemy from 3 fixed directions. That way, they will be able to harass the enemy with the minimum amount of causalities, should they even manage to catch an elf in the first place.

Lantis had full faith on his team; after all, forests were domains of elves. This was his “Divide and rule” plan.

Now, the only direction his team was leaving for him was the eastern front. From there, he will attempt to infiltrate whatever the camp or castle the mercenaries had.

Since they were sorta-outlawed mercenaries, they should at least have hundreds of troops inside the castle.

“Something still doesn’t seem right to me.” Lantis wondered if he was missing something important.

Whatever, I just hope I am wrong.

He swiftly got down from his brown horse, pulled its lead rope towards a tree and tied it.

He patted the horse neck, “Janine, my good girl wait here. Don’t go anywhere, ok? I will come in a short while.”

Lantis pulled his long hairs together into a short ponytail reaching his shoulders and unsheathed one of his kukris, holding it tightly.

He looked ahead, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He tried to study his surroundings and found a camp not far away from him. He moved in a sort-of crouching way with silent steady steps to make as little noise as possible. The mission demanded stealth, so sneaking was a must for him.

When he reached nearby, he saw three humans wearing decent armour. Of them, two were tending the fire and one looking away.

Damn barbarians.

Lantis looked down at the ground and picked up a small pebble. He silently moved towards the third one who seemed to be out in his own world and hid quite a few distances away from him, camouflaging himself among the think bushes.

He threw the pebble near the man to lure him, but not with enough force to actually do any harm.

Tak!

“WHO’S THERE??”

Curiosity kills the cat.

Sure enough, the mercenary began to search for the sound near him wielding an iron sword.

As he saw the mercenary coming towards him just a few steps away. Lantis dropped his body into an offensive stance and waited patiently. The moment the mercenary came in his attack range, his fate was sealed. Lantis suddenly lashed out like a venomous snake. His legs uncoiled, he sprung towards the man with vicious ferocity. With his free hand, he covered the man’s mouth tightly while forcing him to fall down by making him stagger. His other arm moved like lightning and the kukri flashed through the air stabbing him from the side, right at his neck, where his vocal cord was located.

A heartbeat later- blood fountained from the mercenary’s neck, it gurgled and gasped dropping its sword to grab at its neck to try and stem the flow of its blood. He didn’t even manage to scream before his neck was forcefully snapped once again from Lantis hand covering his mouth.

One will wonder if he died from spinal shock, circulation or blood loss.

It was truly a bloody mess. A few moments later, when Lantis was sure that the man has died he removed his hands and pulled out his kukri.

He spit on the ground and kneeled down to examine the mercenary’s body.

If lady luck could help him get an OP item in his first kill like other players, that would be awesome, he thought.

But,

“Fuck, was this guy a beggar? Only 8 gold coins? I am sure my underwear costs more than this shit.”

Lantis took the coins and stood up. He looked around and found the sword that the mercenary dropped.

Mercenario Sword Type: Short Sword Damage: 8/Slash Rarity: Common Durability: Moderate

“Not bad, I guess.” Lantis picked up the sword and kept it. It was his first kill in this game, so going empty-handed was not his style.

He once again moved towards the two mercenaries tending the fire. Hiding once again from the shadows, he observed them from afar.

This time, he pulled out his Mongol bow. This bow, if he was not wrong was one of the deadliest bows in the real world; it was easy to use and could shoot arrows quickly as far as 300-500 yards, provided you were skilled enough.

But it had its drawbacks- it was a cavalry-bow, the method to draw it was a bit different and most importantly for Lantis, he can’t try to fire two arrows at once with this bow now.

Lantis had used bows before, both in real life and of course in games. Composite bow was a first for him though, it helped that he had heard about it a bit. Can’t blame a history student for curiosity, can you?

He quickly put the thumb ring that came with it, took out an arrow and began to draw the bow with his index and thumb finger, unlike the three-finger “Mediterranean” method of western bows.

Lantis carefully aimed the arrow at one of the mercenary’s fucking head.

"Let's see if you are, indeed that deadly as they say."

He let out a soft breath and released the string.

Twang!

The string snapped forward like elastic. The arrow moved like a guiding missile launch towards the mercenary and digs into his head deep inside. The mercenary fell to the ground with blood leaking from his head.

//Headshot!

//Accuracy. 85%

Lantis didn’t have the liberty to feel proud of his abilities. When the arrow hit mercenary’s head, he already saw the other one coming towards him.

Since there was only one left alive now, Lantis thought he shouldn’t make this young man late for his next life by not giving him an opportunity either. He at once put his bow away, took out his kukri and tomahawk on each hand and lunged himself towards the opponent.

The mercenary didn’t expect Lantis’s offensive approach at all. But he seemed quite skilled, as he dodged Lantis swing and decided to perform a thrust towards Lantis himself.

The only problem was he didn’t saw Lantis hideous smile looking at him with mockery. Lantis quickly stopped the feint attack he was throwing and blocked the enemy’s swing with his tomahawk axe. He parried the attack, the opponent’s guard exposed- Lantis didn’t waste any more opportunity. Lantis horizontally thrust the entire kukri into the enemy’s belly with force tearing apart the leather armour and then made a rotation cut throughout the area.

“AHHH!!”

The mercenary screamed in agony. The pain unbearable to him, the mercenary didn’t want to lose his life here, not at this place, not now. The thought of dying made the pain even more miserable.

“Take it easy, bro. I am not having a nice life here either, think about the people you have killed and raped with the same amount of pain. And you will feel much better. You can trust me on this.”

Lantis decided he should deal the finishing blow now. With his tomahawk raised, he hacked the mercenary’s face with one firm slice.

The poor guy couldn’t have been any more dead.

-16:57-

Lantis moved over to the previously dead body to retrieve his arrow and to see if he could find something useful in there.

The arrow went deep inside the mercenary’s head; he tried to pull it back up with a bit of resistance. Fortunately, the arrow ripped free, although the tip seemed a bit dull now.

He re-nocked the arrow and stood down once again to check the dead bodies’ pockets.

“Come on…You should have something useful when you were alive, right?”

Unfortunately, all he could found was a few more coins and arrows.

Damn it.

He went over to the other one and found a bunch of keys along with more coins.

His hopes shattered, Lantis observed the keys closely then at the castle. He sighed and put it back into his pockets.

“The number of times I am sighing today should be equivalent to two days already. I won’t put my hopes up but it will be great if this leads me to something interesting.”

Lantis scanned the whole perimeter and found a thin trail narrowing down, leading towards the castle.

Stealthily he walked over to the trail, approaching the castle. Within few minutes when he reached the eastern gates, there was no one in sight, in particular. The gates seemed rotted and in need of repairs but nonetheless were open.

“At least the game tried to make my job easier.”

Lantis made his way inside the castle courtyard. Moving silently and quickly as possible but otherwise seemed not to care much about being seen.

The area was filled with boulders; all of them roughly round in shape and seemed new. When Lantis peered at the walls, he immediately understood. Probably, they were brought in here to repair the castle.

The only thing Lantis was worried about were those tall archer towers but since he didn’t saw anyone up. He surmised his strategy was working correctly as he had originally intended.

As he got closer to the inner gate, he pulled out one of his arrows from the quiver and nocked it on the bow to ready to pull and fire at a moment’s notice.

As he got further into the courtyard, he finally saw the doorway that will lead him inside being guarded by two mercenaries. He silently lifted his bow, pulled back the string and released the arrow towards one of the guards head.

Twang!

The arrow flew and just in a matter of moments went directly deep inside the targeted guard’s eye socket. The guard instantly fell with shock being written all over his face.

//Headshot!!

//Accuracy. 83%

“Not good enough.”

Lantis sighed and felt his skills had gone to dust these past few months due to exams. There was a time when he was within the top 30 players within the country and one of the few players who had renown around the world for his gaming talents. Now looking at himself, even he thought it will be a surprise if someone actually recognised him within the Hit 500’s.

The other guard saw him and cried with sorrow. He took a nearby sword and began to move toward him frantically.

Annoyed, Lantis looked at the hostile guard coming toward him.

Was that guy his friend? His gay love? His father?

“Whoever the fuck he was. I am going to send you where he belongs anyway. ”

With that thought, he began to rush towards the enemy too, with his kukri and tomahawk on each hand. He managed to get past the mercenary and managed to turn around the same time the mercenary faced him. Faced each other, the mercenary growled and began to swing his sword towards him with force. Observing the incoming attack, he found it was aimed towards his belly.

Lantis quickly sidestepped to avoid the incoming swing and inserted a quick 'push' kick at the opponent’s stomach to stagger him, or was it her?

Lantis observed that the opponent’s chest was bulging for some reason. The way the dude was looking at him with rage and the chest bulge. He was pretty sure this guy was a girl.

Lantis decided to taunt her, “Don’t think just because you are a girl, I will give you any leeway; I am a man who believes in true equality unlike other hypocrites out there. That guy of yours died so according to the tradition, you must die too; two bandit lovers meeting together in the depths of hell by morning, oh how awfully romantic.”

The mercenary levelled her sword towards Lantis, possibly looking for a thrust. Lantis used his tomahawk to make a slash towards that pretty face of hers. The girl blocked the attack with her sword then stepped backwards analysing him. Lantis didn’t give her the choice; he quickly lunged towards her with his other weapon aiming towards her stomach for a lethal cut in her intestines just like the last time.

The girl seemed to sense the danger ahead of her as she dodged the attack and repelled with another sword swing. Lantis resisted the attack with a cross block of his two weapons. He grinned widely and continued his taunt.

“Will you two then kiss each other like one of those long-lost couples? Can you imagine how erotic it sounds? I am a very pious person but even I am wet in my pants. Tch, but…”

The girl who was now panting and full of sweat angrily looked at him and groaned.

“Don’t!…JUST DON'T FUCK WITH ME!! I will kill you, so bad…”

She went for an uppercut towards Lantis' throat. Lantis being the annoying guy, once again deflected with his tomahawk. He gave a sidekick and strike back with a counter of his own.

“But that’s all you are ever going to be, isn't it?. Oh, It hurts huh? All right, let’s end this now.”

The counter slash with the kukri managed to make a side slash in her stomach. Lantis quickly combined it with another thrust of his axe in her shoulders, which was once again followed by a block from his kukri to block another attack coming from the dying woman.

The slash missing, the mercenary lost her chance and with that, her hopes too. Lantis made a roundhouse kick in her left leg, finally staggering her completely. She bent down; her sword fell to her side. Lantis saw the opportunity and sealed her life with a deep side slash in her neck, followed by a thrust in her head. With his two blades, he made a 'scissors cut' in her neck separating her head from the rest of her body.

Blood flowed out of her neck like a fountain, her head and body fell down on the ground separately. Cold and lifeless.

//You have performed an execution!

//You have performed a combo!

//Player Lantis is brutal!

-15:59-

You know, you are really something when the normally silent system makes an effort to praise you. Lantis was feeling the exact same thing right now.

“I just…hah… don’t like to… give a fuck. God, I feel sick.”

Tired and panting, he looked at the notifications then at the timer. He then made a command,

“All right, helix. Stop the music. I know you want some cool stuff, but a tragedy background music is not the thing I need right now.”

He picked up the fallen corpse then disposed it to somewhere else.

“At least, you fought well and didn’t run away like others…..do. That at least was a plus from me, I guess.”

Lantis went into a deep thought, his eyes turned mystical, just for a slight moment and he muttered quietly, “Must have been a lucky guy to get a girl like that.”

These were the last words he gave her, shrugging his head he realised he had wasted 20 seconds disposing of the bodies.

A huge blunder!

Guilty of being irresponsible, he quickly took what he could get out of those two and went towards the door.

With a huff, he opened the door and entered the inner chambers of the castle.

-15:38-