The welcoming party for the Scholar of the West was what Meomi needed after the gruesome exploration she did in the past few days.
Along with Nightingale and the ace team from the Southern Stars Organisation, they had found a series of underground training facilities and the memory of those facilities were deeply imprinted into her mind that she would rather keep herself drunk to erase those memories off.
Initially, the scouting team thought they were merely warehouses or storage facilities since the various scouts observed the amount of inventory the Demon Rats brought in were numerous. Meomi thought that it was sufficient info until Nightingale stopped the werecat in her tracks to return back.
“Why stop here when we have the ability to sneak in?” Nightingale grinned as she said that.
“You are kidding me, right? As a werecat, I probably have better stealth than you and I have seen how guarded the place is. If not for the mission, I would have gone ape shit against them right at this moment.” Meomi said, and Nightingale giggled without a sound.
“Looks like you did change a little.” Nightingale shook her head and showed the way the Southern Stars Organisation did their missions. Without revealing much, her ex maid told Meomi to follow her until they were at least 25 metres away from the four guards in front of the cave.
They were actively guarding the cave with a Brute Demon Rat guard in the midst of their group. (If the scouting team had not known any better, it was the same kind of guards with the power suit that was doing patrols where they kept Weslie.)
With a whisper to the little magpie sitting on her shoulder, the information was passed to Nightingale’s team members too. The magpie somehow knew that secrecy and silence were utmost important, and thus it sent information via its long range chi transmission technique which initially surprised the members of the Southern Star Organisation.
But after the second usage, they were used to it, which made Meomi impressed with their adaptability to the situation.
“Go.” Their Team Leader said, and Nightingale immediately threw a dart simultaneously with the rest of the team. The Demon Rats who were hit by the darts did not notice it immediately and continue to talk loudly among themselves in order to stay awake. Unfortunately for them, the effect was instantaneous as the rats felt drowsy and immediately fell to the ground asleep.
“Nightingale, you and Meomi go in check and be out in ten. No more, no less.” The Team Leader said as he and the other members appeared and took the darts out from the rats before disappearing into the shadows of the forest that was surrounding the cave.
“Understood,” Nightingale said as she dashed in immediately, followed by Meomi who did not hesitate a single bit at all. However, as they went further in, Meomi took the lead since she thought possessing dark vision would be safer for the group.
Yet, there were instances where Nightingale was able to spot some concealed traps which Meomi nearly stepped on to. Even though the scout assassin was only following Meomi based on her other senses aside from sight, Nightingale’s past scouting experiences came in handy too. Some of the trap activations were things like a fake pillar or faintly scented location.
After one or two of those close calls, Meomi decided to be more vigilant as they walked further in and found that there were even more patrols of Demon Rats.
The duo decided not to do anything too drastic if possible, and hide until there was an opportunity for them to past through the guards. It did not take long, and eventually, they caught a glimpse of a spacious cavern where they had been hearing constant yelling and screaming.
Upon closer and careful inspection, they found that young Demon Rats were practising vigorously on their basics in handling a weapon. All of them were given various weapons and grouped as such to perform their training.
“At least a hundred in this cavern,” Nightingale noted as the magpie appeared from within her bosoms and started to relay whatever it saw to their Team Leader. While observing from afar, Meomi also noticed that they were using slaves or prisoners as training materials too.
She saw how the prisoner was being tied up as target practice for the Demon Rats to practice their archery. And they were not a single bit merciful at all as Meomi could see the prisoners were stark naked and bleeding from all the arrow piercing.
However, she held her anger as Meomi knew that any drastic action would jeopardise Nightingale’s safety.
“You damned rats…I will get you all. I will flush you all down to hell.” Meomi whispered with her fists trembling, but Nightingale tapped on her shoulders, indicating her to move back to the surface.
As if it was mere coincidence, one of the prisoners shouted for help extremely loudly when they were leaving, and it grabbed the duo’s attention. He was being stabbed continuously to the gut by a spear rat trainee who was testing his strength.
Meomi could not contain her fury anymore, which Nightingale quickly responded upon sensing her wrath that the scout assassin hugged her close to the chest as she whispered to calm her down. “Meomi. Not now, please.”
“Not now. Then when?” Meomi grabbed tightly on Nightingale as she turned her body abruptly while holding on to the Sniper Whip. With a silent click, a bullet came out of the rifle without any sound and flew towards one of the stalactites from afar.
The Sniper Whip had a modified silencer that was equipped with an anti acoustic inscription, perfect for a quiet shot and thankfully, the sound of the bullet hitting the stalactite was muffled by the Demon Rat’s shouting.
One might think that the bullet would not do much, but what if it was a bullet packed with explosives? Because of the anti acoustic inscription that was installed into the gun’s silencer module, the explosive was considerably quiet, but it nearly lost the inscription’s power the further it went.
Still, that minor explosion alone was enough to break the stalactite, and it fell down to the human slave that was screaming for mercy as well as the Spear Rat Trainee who was having fun poking him.
When Nightingale turned to see it happening, the end result of Meomi’s action made the Demon Rats stopped their training to aid the victim. At that moment, Nightingale quickly grabbed Meomi and ran as fast as possible back to the cave entrance. Regrettably, the guards that were patrolling within the tunnels heard the commotion too, and made their way to the cavern, causing the duo’s escape to be a lot trickier. Yet it was nothing too difficult for the scout assassin.
Eventually, they got out safely, and the Team Leader had already prepared their horses in advance for a quick getaway. Nightingale was not entirely pleased with Meomi’s act, but knowing her for a long time, her attitude to obtain justice for her people did not change at all. It was frustrating that it nearly cost the secrecy of the mission but figured since they did not get caught, it was better to just let the matter rest.
Despite that lucky break, Meomi was nowhere in the mood to let go until Gold specifically ordered her to come back and have a drink. He too had received images from Que Er’s magpie with regards to Meomi’s exploits and decided to use the party as an excuse to get her to relax her nerves.
It was a temporary solution, but something that worked effectively, allowing Meomi to rest sufficiently to be ready for part two of Gold’s operations.
