Chapter 236: Where Are They?
Bree proposed a strategy.
She proposed that instead of beating the entire Ichor Legion, they should simply aim for the one they needed to hurt the most. Chester. Ignore the other students and simply attack Chester with all their might.
Cripple him together, and then fight their way to flee with Abigail.
Defeating that many students would be hard, but taking out one and fleeing is easy.
No matter how strong Chester was now, he would have no chance against five of them. Just Kai alone would probably give him trouble. Added to four more into the mix, there would be no chance for failure.
It was a good plan.
"Just putting it out there," Bree added nonchalantly.
She crossed eyes with Kai and decided to add that in case she sounded forceful.
"No," Kai’s voice rang. "It’s plausible. It’s a really good plan. Anyone have a better plan?"
"..."
Nobody answered.
Or at least, Kai thought nobody had a better plan until Matilda spoke up.
"I mean, we could go to the Fire Swamp right now and hunt Chester down," She proposed. It sounded safer to attack Chester on their own terms. "I’m sure the Ichor Legion is hunting like a maniac right now—thinking that we’re also doing the same thing. We can catch Chester with his pants down."
Kai crossed his arms and contemplated the plan.
Her plan was also enticing, as Chester wouldn’t expect them to attack before he did.
Chester’s bloated arrogance would most likely make him blind to an ambush.
After all, he was always the hunter, not the hunted.
"But we have zero idea where he was, and we also didn’t know the layout of the Fire Swamp’s inner area as we’ve never been there. It’s too risky." Kai shook his head as he had already made his decision. "Let’s go with Bree’s idea."
Dorian and Bryan stood up and stretched.
Since they were going to go with Bree’s plan, they would need to go to the transit cloudlet.
Learning the layout, placing traps—do everything they can to put an edge against their enemies.
Both of them walked out of the cave and headed straight back to their mounts.
Matilda followed, but she stopped beside Kai.
She glanced at him and gestured toward Bree behind her with her eyes—signalling for Kai to make use of this moment to say something. And before he could say anything, she already headed out, giving them space.
Right behind, Bree followed, oblivious to their exchange.
Just as she was about to walk past, Kai caught her wrist.
Her body stiffened up almost instantly, and Kai could feel it through his palm.
Bree turned to look at Kai.
Even though she was trying to remain composed, the stiffness in her movements and the water in her eyes showed that she was anything but composed. "Kai?" Her voice trembled a bit. "Do you have something to say to me?’
"Yes."
"Is it about the plan? If it was, then we should talk while the others are around, no?"
"No, it’s not about the plan."
"..."
"It’s about what I said to you in the Second Sk—"
Out of nowhere, Bree pressed her index finger against his lips, silencing him.
He already gathered the words he wanted to say, but they were now stuck in his throat.
"Let’s talk about that—after we deal with this," She whispered with a shaky breath, and then lowered her index finger again. A faint smile crept to her lips. "Let’s keep our focus on dealing with the problem right in front of us first, okay?"
"Okay." Kai nodded firmly and then walked out of the cave. "Come on."
For the entire night, Kai and the others mapped the layout of the transit cloudlet.
It included all the buildings, not only the storage building. Possible attack sequences. Possible escape routes. The workers in the factory—and the handful of grey-masked Angels who were stationed to guard the factory, and also their habits.
Since the meeting is at night—they could assume the grey-masked Angels’ positions right now would be the same as tomorrow. Of course, they also made sure that there would be room for errors.
Matilda was mostly the one who handled this.
As a Supernal of Athena, she has a keen sense of these things.
And the next day, Kai paid close attention to Abigail.
He mostly kept his eyes on her during the morning exercise—watching whether Chester or a student from the Ichor Legion would be approaching her. Other than her new friends, there was one student who wasn’t a part of her normal group.
This student said something to Abigail, and she grimaced instantly.
Even as he separated, her face remained the same and turned slightly pale.
Despite being obvious in looking at her, she didn’t once turn to look at him.
It seemed the plan for tonight would really happen.
Unsurprisingly, the group ranking result came out with the Ichor Legion in first place.
And the group points difference widened massively, which meant Matilda was right.
Last night, the Ichor Legion had gone hunting like a maniac.
Good thing they didn’t waste their strength to compete with them, but it was also a shame for them not to attack Chester last night. Then again, there was no turning back now. No point in dwelling on what could have been.
Kai went to Professor Kimberly to claim the rewards.
For second place, they would be getting two hundred legal mana ores, five mana vials, and healing vials—and also a Grade-1 enchanted gear for every single member. He saw the Ichor Legion had already gotten theirs earlier.
Since his group hadn’t gotten the rewards, he decided to bring it up to Professor Kimberly.
To his surprise, she said that the rewards would be given in the next few days.
Only the group in the first place got their rewards instantly.
Kai called it a bullshit rule—but there’s no point in arguing when Professor Kimberly already decided to not give it to his group. And this also made it clear as day that Chester was getting help from Ragnar or even the academy.
No doubt about it now.
And soon enough, night came.
The storage building was a cavern of cold stone and stale air.
Its walls were hewn from massive blocks that sweat a faint, permanent chill. Dust and iron clung to the air strongly, scraping at every breath—despite the mask covering Kai’s face. The light was utterly miserly.
A handful of torches guttered the walls and candles wedged between wooden gear racks.
The only real illumination spilled from the rectangle-shaped glass panes on the walls near the ceiling that encircled the entire building, letting in pale shafts of moonlight. Normal weapons and mining equipment crowded the room in uneven rows.
Stacks of steel waiting to be claimed.
Kai stood a few yards from the back wall, directly across from the entrance.
He was motionless as a statue.
The Blood-phantom Scimitar was planted in the ground before him, his hands stacked on the pommel, and his eyes fixed on the door. Students trickled in and out, grabbing necessary gear for the night quota.
Some of them glanced toward the dark figure at the back of the room.
They looked. They recognized. And then looked away.
No one wanted to tangle with the Lesser Angel. No one wanted the trouble.
Above, hidden in the cramped second floor accessible only by wooden ladder—Bree pressed into the deepest shadowed corner. The Nigh-phantom Imprint molded her into the darkness, rendering her little more than a whisper and a pair of watchful eyes.
Even Kai couldn’t sense her had he not known that she was there.
From her perch, she was the closest to Kai.
Close enough to drop a membrane or attack Chester in case he entered the storage building.
Outside, Dorian leaned against the factory wall—draped in a threadbare cloak that obscured his odd legs. His woman-like features made him easily mistaken for another student. Dorian looked like any other tired student catching a breath of night air.
In truth, he was the nose of the plan.
His acute sense of smell would pierce through Chester’s invisibility.
He would be the one to strike first, to stall, to signal.
Across the storage building, in another rarely-used storage building that mostly housed all of the submitted carcasses, Matilda and Bryan watched from the windows. Few ever entered that place, and the stench kept the curious away.
They had a clear sightline to the ambush point.
Their role was to create chaos—anything to draw the other students away from the real fight.
Behind their building, three Pegasi waited, saddled and ready.
An escape route.
If not all of them could reach these three Pegasi, Bree’s Pegasus, which was larger and stronger, was stabled on the far side of the transit cloudlet, where some students placed their Pegasi. A second chance to flee after Chester’s fall.
The plan was Matilda’s entirely, and it was brutally simple.
Dorian would locate Chester and attack first to hold him in place.
Kai and Bree would quickly follow suit, breaking out of the storage building to help.
Matilda and Bryan would deal with the rest of the students until the battle was over.
Considering the treatment that a High Angel would get, Chester needed to be hurt badly. In fact, he would need to be beaten half-dead. And perhaps Kai would use Deep Slumber to the point of almost absorbing him.
That way, the wounds would stick until the day of the tournament.
Kai’s fingers tightened on the scimitar’s hilt.
He could feel his connection to the night growing stronger as hours passed.
Outside, Dorian looked left and right and then frowned.
’It’s oddly empty tonight,’ He thought inwardly and then walked to the side of the factory to check the grey-masked Angels. But he found none. ’No grey-masked Angels—too. Seems like someone was helping Chester set the area. It’s the perfect chance for the Ichor Legion to make a move.
’So, where are they?’
Inside the other storage building, Bryan also looked around.
"I don’t see them," He whispered. "In fact, I can’t see anyone. Not a single person."
"It’s the calm before the storm," Matilda replied. "Just be patient."
"No... I have a bad feeling about this. Did Abigail lie to us?"
"Stay calm. Abigail has no reason to lie to Kai—Not when Kai was treating her sister kindly."
In the main storage building, Kai looked up at the glass pane with a frown. It had been hours already, and there was still no sign of Abigail and the Ichor Legion. But Kai still believed that the meeting might be a bit later.
So, he decided to wait.
More hours passed.
At this point, Kai was already restless inside.
He looked toward the second floor and locked eyes with Bree, who was also confused.
"Just wait a bit longer. Maybe the meeting is at midnight after the students went back."
"No, she didn’t sound like she wanted to meet with me late in the night. Something is wrong."
Kai walked out of the storage building, ignoring Bree, who was calling for him.
He then snapped his eyes left and right, searching for anyone at all.
But there was nobody around other than them.
"Where are they?"