Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The Edinburgh kingdom along with a lot of other establishments had heavily controlled the usage of transportation-related artefacts because of its potential to pose a serious threat to public law and order.

In the hands of the crazy rankers and even crazier cultists, even a simple thing such as the levitating platform could be used to cause mass destruction. There were cases in the past of cultists lacing these artefacts with explosives and creating a chain effect that led to mass panic. Afterwards, they used the same type of artefact to run away from the forces chasing them.

As a consequence, almost all cities in Edinburgh did not allow their citizens to use such modes of transport, even if they could afford them. In place of these modes, colt-hire was incorporated to keep things under control while creating employment opportunities for unranked citizens.

Even though it was technically not a flying artefact, it was pretty fast. Faster than standard modes of transportation. Plus, it allowed multiple rankers to be transported at the same time.

That's why such equipment was mostly restricted to being used by the army and kingdom-sanctioned personnel.

Eren and his team got onto the platform and imbued their unelementalized mana into the platform to confirm their identities. Their feet were secured by the runic lines that got on their skin right after they did that.

Altashia set up a simple energy barrier after ensuring that everyone was on board. She operated on the artefact and made it levitate off the ground. It ran on Extols as well as rankers' mana. But the Extols were usually reserved for emergencies.

Eren's team began moving forward. Despite the uneven terrain, they rode at exceptional speed, faster than any colt riding ranker.

********************

The raid on the orc tribe was going to happen at night when those monsters would be the least alert. Eren's team found what they were looking for soon after following the directions of the recon team.

A perimeter made of simple wooden logs had been created by the tribe and they had been placed on the two sides of the tribe's camp. There were huts made of wood, stone, mud, and dry grass. The huts were of varying sizes– hinting at the position of their occupants in the tribe.

There was only one one-story structure visible in the camp. The rest of the huts only had ceilings made of wooden logs and dry grass.

"Well, what is your assessment?"

Altashia asked Arjun and Dianna– the team's two rangers. They both looked at each other and decided that Arjun would brief them about the situation.

"The recon information checks out for the most part. Hate to break it to you guys, but there's indeed an Orc Lord present in the tribe. But his vital signs are not stable. Captain, should we proceed as planned?"

Arjun asked Altashia with a serious look on his face. Orc Lord was no joke even though he seemed to have been weakened. Even though Altashia was on the verge of breaking into D-Rank, she was technically not prepared to handle a monster of that level yet.

Altashia patted her black raven affectionately before looking at Eren.

"What do you think, Eren?"

This was Altashia's way of saying that Eren needed to be more involved in the decision-making process in the team. He couldn't just let Arjun handle all the duties of vice-captain for him and watch as a bystander forever.

"Presence of an Orc Lord indeed complicates things. We should keep our plan for kitting out perimeter security the same. But instead of prioritizing the small fries, I would suggest we go straight for the Orc Leaders. Orc monsters are known to exhibit strange spells. So it would be better if we took care of the leaders first for a change, instead of the standard military practice of prioritizing targeting the weakest link first.

Captain Altashia shouldn't show herself until the Orc Lord makes their presence known. We'll focus on the small fries right after we get rid of the Orc Leaders– leaving the Orc Lord to her entirely."

Eren didn't hesitate to state his plan. Altashia nodded after hearing him and making a decision.

"We'll follow Eren's way. You are allowed to use traps to keep the Orc Soldiers busy."

Altashia was a woman of few words. Those present agreed to her plan and waited for the sky to turn darker.

*******************

Two orc soldiers were playing a game of strange runic symbols on their makeshift table, which was just a wood log cut in half at waist length. The two orcs were seen conversing with each other in their monster language. At first, they seemed to be only a few steps away from turning their verbal spat into a physical altercation. But that was just how the monsters conversed.

The game of the runic symbols seemed to have reached its tipping point when both the sentries stopped playing and looked in a particular direction. They then looked at each other and continued conversing on a more serious note.

Bree!

One of the Orc sentries made a strange and high-pitched sound. This called out for a bunch of Orc soldiers stationed nearby the pair to come to their place.

Five Orc soldiers seem to be heading in a certain direction to investigate the disturbance. This was the team one of the Orc Leaders had decided to respond with after he heard the report of a strange mana pulse from the sentries.

The monsters responded to threats and strange phenomena in typical patterns. So the raid tactics were based on those responses.

Sweeeee!

Sweeeee!

Sweeeee!

Three green, ice-element arrows cut through the night. Two of the arrows lodged themselves into the eyes of an Orc Leader who had come out at the perimeter after the sentries' call. The third arrow pierced the space between his eyebrows.

The Orc Leader was dead before he could even respond to the life-threatening attack coming at him. His body crashed onto the ground as the last embers of his life turned cold all of a sudden.

An Orc Leader was killed within a few moments of the team's raid.

Suffice to say, chaos broke free into the monster camp the next moment.