"Great job, guys," Idan praised Leo and Felicia for their diligence before ending the conversation.
"We’ll have to figure out a way to account for their contributions so that we don’t forget about everyone’s achievements," Idan thought, making a note for the future.
Fortunately, he and Arabel were no longer poor, and they had some capital in the form of System Points.
Idan quickly put these thoughts aside for later, turning his attention to Aliya.
"Has her rank dropped from Platinum to Golden, and the random information indicates that the symbiotic Being of Light was taken away from her?" he checked Aliya’s information once more to make sure he understood everything correctly.
"What happened to her?" he wondered.
While waiting for the duel to begin, Idan sent Irina a message through the Soul Force:
"Tell me, Irina, is Aliya from your force or does she belong to that force?"
Irina turned to Idan, then looked at Aliya and quickly noticed the same thing as him. She understood why Idan was so interested in her.
"Aliya is not part of the same force as me," Irina replied.
"Hmm..." Idan was lost in thought, looking at Aliya, and soon she noticed his gaze.
Idan, without taking his eyes off her, suddenly heard her unexpected request, transmitted through the Soul Force.
The first group, consisting of Irene, Arslan, and Bera, along with five heavily armed men, finally arrived at the designated location five minutes before the scheduled time.
Irene and Arslan were very serious and careful. They already knew about the ambush that awaited them, thanks to the information from Bera and Arabel.
From the last message Bera received, they also became wary of the five men who were with them.
Bera, in the form of Elsa, the Duchess of Darkness, came forward and led the whole group to an open square. The men followed them, with Irene and Arslan bringing up the rear.
"Is something bothering you?" Arslan asked Irene through the Soul Force, noticing her thoughtful look.
"Isn’t it too risky?" asked Irene, expressing her doubts.
"Your brother and my sister did not plan to help these men from the very beginning," Arslan said. "They already suspected that it was a trap. Knowing this, they deliberately decided to play along and find out who harbored a grudge against them."
Irene took a deep breath, trying to get rid of her doubts and focus on what was about to happen.
Arabel had been watching Aurel intently all this time. She understood that he and his associates were aware of the movements of the first group and of Idan’s actions.
"Great, everything is going even better than we expected," Aurel told the man who led the armed men from Black Reach.
"The so-called Duke of Light is currently in the Association, and he won’t have time to get here. At the same time, the Duchess of Darkness and the baits are already on their way here and are about to arrive."
"What are your orders?" the leader of the armed men asked.
"I’ll take care of this notorious Duchess of Darkness, and you focus on the rest," Aurel replied. "Kill everyone except Queen Irene."
"And a descendant of the Morgan family too?" the leader clarified.
"He is one of the priority targets," Aurel clarified. "This is Caesar’s order: kill Arslan and capture Queen Irene."
"Roger," said the leader of the armed men and began to give orders quickly.
They didn’t even think about negotiations.
"As soon as the targets reach the target point, take action," the leader ordered.
Arabel, who was watching, clearly heard every word.
Deep down, she had already buried this Aurel and the one he called Caesar.
Arabel instantly disappeared from her seat and, taking advantage of the remaining short time before the arrival of the first group, decided to act. Her target was the snipers, whose location she had already found out.
Knowing what these people were going to do, Arabel didn’t stand on ceremony. Moreover, after hearing the orders, her mood was not the best.
Therefore, once she was behind the first sniper, who was carefully observing the square from afar through the optics of a sniper rifle with reinforced cartridges and a night vision device, Arabel cut off his head without hesitation and immediately hid the corpse in a spatial ring along with the weapon.
Arabel knew from Hailey’s words that these armed men were Silver-ranked creatures with the ability to regenerate quickly. To avoid possible problems, she decided to chop off their heads to be sure of their quick death.
After killing the first sniper, Arabel froze, realizing that she had just taken a man’s life.
Up to this point, she had only killed beasts and creatures from another world, and her hands had not yet been stained with the blood of people from her home world.
However, despite this first experience, Arabel did not feel anything unusual.
Was this killing something different from what she did to the beasts and creatures from other worlds?
To Arabel, it didn’t seem to make any difference.
Arabel pushed those thoughts aside and focused on her next goal. In a short time, she managed to eliminate half of the snipers.
And before the snipers’ disappearance became known, the first group approached the open square. Everyone who was hiding in the ambush focused on the upcoming battle, not paying attention to how the snipers disappeared one by one.
"Let’s get started," the leader of the armed men ordered over the comm line as soon as the first group reached the designated area.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Read complete versıon only at novel(ꜰ)ire.net
Almost immediately, a series of explosions rang out, and thick smoke enveloped the entire area.
All the fighters in black switched their devices from night vision to thermal imaging. However, to their surprise, they found no one. The instruments did not detect the slightest thermal radiation.
In the center of the square, meanwhile, as soon as the smoke appeared, Arslan instantly created a protective barrier around everyone, which completely covered them and protected them not only from the effects of smoke, but also from thermal imagers.