The heavy blast doors of the abandoned facility groaned shut behind them, sealing away the immediate danger.
Outside, the ruined streets of Chernobog offered little comfort.
Kai and the vanguard pushed forward, handling a maze of shattered concrete and burning vehicles toward Nearl’s coordinates.
The skirmishes along the way were brief—stray Reunion stragglers easily swept aside without casualties—but the treacherous terrain took its toll.
The Doctor, still adjusting to a body fresh out of cryo-sleep, misjudged a jagged slab of asphalt and twisted his ankle with a sharp hiss.
Kai immediately slung the tactician’s arm over his shoulder, taking his weight to keep the formation moving.
“I gotta say, old partner, you’re a bit too fragile for fieldwork,” Kai muttered helplessly, adjusting his grip.
Beneath the heavy visor, the Doctor let out a raspy cough.
“I’ve been asleep in a sarcophagus for years.
What’s wrong with being a little fragile?” After a journey of ‘friendly exchanges,’ the dynamic between the two had rapidly evolved into a strange sort of brotherhood.
Even though they barely knew more than each other’s names, their cooperation easily surpassed that of most lifelong friends.
Black diamonds of Originium Arts flared at the front of the column, silently dissolving a collapsed beam in their path.
Amiya lowered her hands, glancing back with a sympathetic smile.
“The Doctor has just awakened, Kai.
It’s perfectly normal for his physical conditioning to be relatively poor right now.” Up ahead, Dobermann suddenly raised a clenched fist.
The entire convoy halted.
“All units, stay alert!” the Perro instructor barked, her whip uncoiling with a metallic snap.
At some unseen cue, a dense, unnatural fog had begun to bleed from the alleyways, swallowing the rubble and painting the air a suffocating gray.
Kai’s eyes narrowed, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips.
“Finally here, huh,” he whispered.
It was the first mini-boss of the plot.
The designated punching bag of the Crownslayer Cup.
The soft, easily bullied assassin herself—Crowny.
“What’s coming?” the Doctor asked, his masked head swiveling toward the impenetrable gray.
“One of the ringleaders of the Reunion Movement, Crownslayer,” Kai answered casually, his gaze tracking the shifting currents of the fog to pinpoint her location.
Visibility plummeted to less than ten meters.
The Rhodes Island operators instantly collapsed into a tight defensive ring, shielding the Doctor, Amiya, Kai, and the non-combatants in the center.
Thanks to Kai’s careful rehearsals and advance warnings, there was no panic.
They were primed to face an enemy with highly unpredictable Originium Arts.
The mist surged.
A shadow blurred past the very edge of their peripheral vision.
“Watch out!” Dobermann pivoted on her heel, stepping into a blind spot.
She lashed out with her whip, the reinforced alloy catching a descending short blade in a shower of sparks.
The attacker—clad in a heavy hood and a mask—recoiled, her eyes widening in sheer disbelief.
It was as if the Perro had perfectly anticipated her signature strike.
Realizing the element of surprise was dead, the assassin melted backward, dissolving smoothly into the fog.
Facing Crownslayer, the Rhodes Island vanguard responded with chilling calm.
They neither broke formation to attack nor pursued her into the gloom; they simply held their ground, effortlessly deflecting her probing strikes, as if they were waiting for a specific signal.
Damn it, Crownslayer cursed silently, circling the perimeter like a ghost.
Why are these Rhodes Island operators so formidable?
Did they deduce a countermeasure the second they saw my Arts?
Her gaze drifted to the center of the formation, fixing on the enigmatic figure in the heavy coat.
Could it be because of that man?
Truly…
terrifying.
She scanned the rest of the group, searching for her true target, but came up empty.
There was a young Cautus girl who vaguely resembled the woman she hated, but that naive, soft expression clearly didn’t belong to Kal’tsit.
Back in the center, the Doctor rubbed his gloved hands together, shifting his weight off his bad ankle.
“Why do I feel a sudden chill down my spine?” he murmured to Kai.
Despite his physical weakness, the tactician’s mind was operating at a terrifying speed, constantly analyzing the terrain and the enemy’s movement patterns to break the deadlock.
Kai chuckled, keeping his voice low.
“I don’t know.
Maybe the little girl hiding in the mist has a massive grudge against Kal’tsit, and she’s decided to take it out on you.” The stalemate stretched on.
Crownslayer prowled the edges, a venomous snake waiting for a singular lapse in concentration to assassinate the hooded commander.
Finally, a microscopic gap opened in the vanguard’s rotation.
She lunged.
Like a knife cutting through silk, she bypassed the outer guard, her blade thrusting straight for the Doctor’s throat.
“Doctor!” Amiya screamed, her hands glowing with black Arts, but her position made it impossible to intercept the strike in time.
Clang!
A blinding eruption of golden light shattered the gloom, instantly burning away the fog.
A towering Pegasus Knight clad in gleaming silver armor plummeted from the sky, slamming into the earth right between the Doctor and the assassin.
The Radiant Knight’s heavy shield caught the dagger with a deafening ring.
The intense flare of light had erupted directly from her gauntlet.
Sensing immediate lethal danger, Crownslayer aborted the strike and threw herself backward.
But the knight was relentless.
She surged forward, leading with a brutal shield bash that sent the assassin crashing into the dirt.
Crownslayer tucked into a desperate roll, bleeding off the kinetic force.
She sprang to her feet and instantly channeled her Originium Arts, attempting to vanish back into the shadows.
The Pegasus didn’t even bother to pursue.
Crownslayer backed away, waiting for the fog to conceal her—only to realize the shadows were gone.
Elysium popped his head out from behind Nearl’s imposing frame, a messenger beacon humming brightly in his grip, completely neutralizing the stealth Arts with its pulsing light.
He spotted Kai in the crowd and threw up a hand, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yo!
My dear son, your daddy has arrived to pull you from the fire!” Kai didn’t miss a beat.
“My dear son!
Daddy didn’t spoil you for nothing!” “Operator Nearl, reporting in.” The Pegasus Knight planted her lance into the cracked asphalt, offering a formal nod to the tactician and the young Cautus.
“You must be the Doctor.
I hope I am not late.
After all, this is the first time I have brought someone down from the sky.” Realizing the situation had completely spiraled out of control, Crownslayer turned to flee while they were distracted by their greetings.
She barely took two steps before a heavy hand clamped down on her shoulder like a vice.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” a boisterous voice purred right by her ear.
Crownslayer whipped her head around, coming face-to-face with the feral, razor-sharp grin of a Feline.
Blaze effortlessly pinned the struggling assassin, waving her free hand at the group.
“Yo!
Elite Operator Blaze, reporting!
That aerial drop just now was amazing!
If I had known we were doing that, I would have jumped from the sky too!” Nearl sighed, her posture rigid.
“That was an extreme measure taken only under emergency circumstances.
It hardly aligns with standard operational protocols.” “Alright, alright,” Blaze laughed, expertly binding Crownslayer’s wrists with heavy-duty zip-ties.
“Honestly, how can such a gorgeous knight be so stiff?” With the assassin securely hogtied, Blaze hauled her over by the collar and dumped her at Kai’s feet.
Seeing Crownslayer in such a miserable state, Kai found the sight highly entertaining.
He squatted down, tilting his head as he inspected the glaring Reunion leader.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t our dear Crownslayer,” he teased, his tone dripping with mock sympathy.
“Haven’t seen you for a few days, and you’ve already ended up in such a pathetic state?” The Doctor limped over, leaning heavily on his good leg.
He looked between the smirking transmigrator and the seething captive.
“You two know each other?” “Oh, I definitely know her,” Kai said, waving a hand dismissively.
“Her real name is Ludmila.
Her father is Ilya.
Though, she probably has no idea who I am.” The bound assassin jerked her head up, her eyes wide with sudden, raw panic beneath her mask.
“Who are you?!” she snarled, thrashing against her restraints.
“How do you know me?!” Kai chuckled, the sound dry and entirely devoid of warmth.
“I don’t just know you, Ludmila.
I know all about your little vendetta against Kal’tsit.
I even know the ugly truth about what really happened at your father’s research institute back in Ursus.” Crownslayer froze.
The frantic struggling ceased, replaced by a cold, calculating stillness.
“Are you trying to bait information out of me?” she hissed.
Kai leaned in closer, his shadow falling over her.
“Why would I need to bait you?
I might be more familiar with your Reunion Movement than you are.” Crownslayer scoffed, turning her head away.
She clamped her mouth shut, utterly convinced this was just a crude psychological interrogation tactic.
Seeing that the assassin was giving him the silent treatment, Kai just shrugged, completely unbothered.
He stood up and leaned over to Amiya, whispering a few quick tactical adjustments into her ear.
The young leader nodded, raising her small hand to signal the vanguard.
The Rhodes Island convoy resumed its march through the ruins of Chernobog—only this time, they were dragging a very angry, tightly bundled package along with them.
[Rhodes’s Note: Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?
(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!
to use the links!)