Redefining Strategy

But that wasn't all too.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

Slow, but heavy footsteps were coming in my direction. They weren't alarming, to be exact, they were actually getting slower or quieter by the second, but I could feel that it was coming towards me as the sound got closer.

It was just like a lion slowly coming towards its prey.

Slow and steady.

My nerves were triggering and I was feeling very bad. It was just like my body was stretching due to overthinking much.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

It was getting closer. I had pulled my bamboo stick and got ready for any incoming creatures. Or whatever that was.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

It was so near, I could feel its presence. I aimed my weapon towards it and waited, eyes wide open.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

It was here. And now I was going to do something.

But to my shock, it was no unordinary thing.

It was the honorary knight that accompanied us along the way.

All the tension that I had accumulated in my body at that moment, like a flowing waterfall, quickly drained from my head to my feet and disappeared. Instead of a fear that covered me, I was embarrassed by the tension that my anxiety created in me.

To be clear, I couldn't stop smiling because there was someone else that I knew.

I quickly put back my weapon and started talking with him smiling,

"I'm so glad to see you are fine! Are you hurt?"

He was moving a bit weird due to he was hurt, but he brushed it off with,

"I'm very well. I just have to regain my energy, that I have lost due to not helping you two just in time."

"You shouldn't be this hard on yourself, Honorary Knight. We all have little itsie bitsies we do. So it is alright."

Then I looked at his face and added,

"I totally forgot! Where is Hiroshi? Did you see him?"

"Unfortunately, I haven't. I did not get in contact with anybody since the time I lost sight of you two."

"So you didn't too..."

*sigh*

"At least Ryuu didn't come with us. I don't know how messed up it would be if he did."

"What did you say...."

The expression on the knight's face had changed immediately after I said that.

It seemed that something very frightening had suddenly captured him. His eyes were wide open, and he started looking at me without blinking, as if he had discovered a very big secret. He took small and bits of breaths. And very slowly, turning his head to me, he began to speak.

"They already knew that we were going to come here..."

I was getting nervous by his mood too,

"What do you mean they knew? They have just got here and they are using all of their forces on the ships. How can they do such a thing in no time?"

"No, you don't understand..."

He then shook his head and made a clear explanation,

"They knew something like this would happen, before that we tracked them down and made any counter-attack. Capturing Princess Mila was the first stage that would have mobilized all of us and led them after her, but it is seriously scary that they know exactly where we will be. And the really bad thing is that this is her plan for Ryuu."

"Ryuu is far away from us, he should be tracking the enemy the other way around!"

"No, it's not something like that. Trapping us is not only to injure or kill us but to hone us into a weak position on the battlefield and use it as bait. Then it is to take Ryuu's life as well, while still leaving scars on us and having Ryuu weak both mentally and physically. That way, they'll set up a trap without any problems, and they'll get out of here before Princess Mila's exact location is known."

"But how... How do they know every single of our moves without any mistake?

"It is something related to their intelligence level. After all, that is the specialty that the Epics brag about. Also, it would be much more arrogant for us to think they would do less. This is a plan that has been prepared flawlessly and with great care. I don't think there is any way around before we find something else."

We already had a setback to our plan. Every single person that fell in or engaged through this plan was getting nervous or angry by the second. And I was much sadder too. Not finding Hiroshi, knowing that Ryuu was walking right into a trap and not being able to tell him.

There was so little time for us to rewind our thinking ability and fix that back.

There was no time left.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

My ears moved and itched a little. I heard something very striking.

Just like before, there was someone approaching us with slow steps. But milder and more cautious steps than before. It was someone's foot hitting the ground continuously. And every time it hit the ground, the steps felt like they were half as if their sound was getting interrupted.

However, before I thought it was Hiroshi or Ryuu, I heard another voice.

〰︎click〰︎

It was a sound that reminded me of a PIM.

But what did that sound have to do with it?

I didn't know who it was who was walking without creating any other sound. But there was something that gave me the creeps. It's as if the person approaching us is trying to hide his identity or voice.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

The person wasn't talking, it was just pure footsteps.

〰︎thump〰︎ 〰︎thump〰︎

But there was only one other sound I could pick out with my ear.

The breathing sound, of a gas mask.

And just before I knew it, gas bombs were thrown on the underground floor. Long, thin, bombs filled with poisonous gases.

Before long, they were rising, right beneath our noses.