Supreme Magus

"A Skinwalker armor?" Red was amazed.

"Your family must be loaded!" He ran behind the crates to change. Red didn’t want to be the one slowing down the team.

"With the two of you, we can give the stealth approach a try. Change into something less conspicuous, so you can scout the building without drawing the attention."

A few minutes later, Lith was wearing his hunter clothes and studying the front door while pretending to be interested in the merchandise of a food vendor.

"Don’t try to be a hero. If you are not certain of your findings or don’t feel up to the task just say it." Captain Yerna’s voice sounded in his ear.

’Solus?’ Lith couldn’t use Life Vision without scaring the cr*p out of the vendor. He still had to find a way to activate it without his eye glowing like small suns. Solus’s mana sense was much more discreet.

’The front door is clean. No magic at all, if there is anything it’s mechanical in nature. There are no arrays active, but I can sense something magical and powerful on the third floor.’

Lith bought some of the food, going into an alley to circle around the building. It was his first time in a slum of a big city. The alley was full of trash, forcing him to dodge rats eating rotten food while he walked.

Now that he could use Life Vision, Lith detected that aside from the animals the alley was empty. He could see the people inside the building through the wall, and no one seemed to be alert.

Lith used darkness magic to extend the shadows of the alley. It provided him a cover while he studied the back door from a safe distance. It also masked his glowing eyes, preventing onlookers to notice him.

"The front entrance is just a regular door." He reported via the communication earpiece.

"The back door, not so much. It’s reinforced by some kind of earth spell, making it as hard as stone. The lock is booby trapped to turn into a skewer of ice whoever tries to pick it."

"Damn!" The Captain sounded really worried. "Not as easy as our intel told us. The front door is probably barred, if not even walled. Can you do something about those protections or do we need to abort the mission and request for reinforcements?"

"Didn’t you read my file, Captain? I’m the reinforcements." Lith grinned.

After months spent studying the boxes and the countless attempts in breaking their locks without meeting a fiery death, the enchantments in front of him were barely more difficult than beating a monkey at a tic tac toe game.

"I already finished disarming them while I was talking with you. I counted not less than three people from the windows on the ground floor." With the channel open, Lith could speak but not listen, missing all the gasps and swearing that filled the control room at those words.

Lith could see several life forces down in the basement. They were too many and too weak to be guards, making him wonder what kind of mess he was walking into.

’Either there is a Warp Gate in the basement and they are moving a small army or these guys do not smuggle just drugs.’

On his way back he kept looking for windows, grates, anything that could give him an excuse to share the knowledge acquired with Life Vision. Lady Luck didn’t smile at him.

When he made it back to the warehouse, Red had done his part. He was filling the blueprint on the board with red dots according to his readings.

"Your intel was completely off the mark." After listening to Lith’s report he had given his best to impress his teammates as well.

"The first three floors are almost empty. There are only three people on the first floor, five on the second, and four on the third..." Red stopped abruptly, wiping off a red dot from the board.

"Three on the third floor. Someone just died. There are also at least twenty people on the underground floor. Are you sure this is really a drug depot?"

At that point, the Captain was the first to question her superiors’ judgment.

"Not anymore. I need to call the Headquarters. No matter if the mission gets aborted or not. You both did great and I’ll make sure to write it down in my report."

’I can’t believe they flunked this so bad. We could have all died in there.’ Yerna thought while conjuring a silence spell to prevent the following conversation to be heard.

After a quick call with her commanding officer, she was pinching her nose with her eyes closed, trying to contain her anger.

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the HQ agrees with us. This could be too big for a small squad, so they are sending reinforcements from the Association in case something goes wrong. They’ll be here in a few minutes.

"The bad news is that since the hostiles are so few and there is such a high number of potential hostages, prisoners, slaves, whatever those people in the basement are, we have been ordered to continue the mission.

"They say our new objective is to prevent the hostiles from running away or get rid of the prisoners once they found out to be surrounded. The even worst news is that since the two of you have been so useful, you have to come with us."

’Still, not a big deal.’ He inwardly sighed. ’The ones on the ground floor were just humans, right Solus?’

’Positive. Red cored humans with slightly above average life force. Easy to catch, easy to kill.’ After spending so many years with Lith, Solus had little regard for human life. The only exceptions were those who she believed to be innocent or those she grew fond of.

"I have two more questions, Captain." Lith raised his hand again.

"Granted."

"Red, can you detect arrays? I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but I’d prefer to avoid any more surprises." Lith was cautious of the content of the third floor, from which Solus perceived a powerful force.

It wasn’t a problem for him since he was already on guard and his partner could warn him on time. What worried Lith was being the sole survivor of whatever threat they could find. It would raise too many questions.

"Yes. It’s one of the easiest and fastest spells of a Warden." Red nodded.

"It’s unlikely we’ll find any. A temporary one would imply the presence of a Warden and I can’t imagine a mage wasting their talent with these dregs. A permanent one would cost far more the whole building is worth."

"The same could be said for the back door." Lith pointed out. "I think..."

"Wait!" Red cut him short.

"Another person on the third floor just died and one of the two remaining life forces is fading quickly. What in the gods’ name are they doing there?"

"Weapons at hand, everyone." Captain Yerna took out a sword and a wand from her dimensional ring.

"We are about to find out."