novelraw Chapter 170: Weird past
Chapter 170: Weird past
"8 A Ranks and 12 B ranks, this is a pretty strong party" Guilliman muttered as they moved through the dark tunnels.
His voice came out low. Almost to himself.
His eyes drifted forward across the group ahead of them. Counting quietly. Measuring.
(Not bad at all.)
Twenty people total. A ranks and B ranks packed into one moving column cutting through the underground dark. The tunnel smelled of damp earth and old stone. Torchlight from somewhere ahead threw long shadows across the walls.
Athen seemed to be a lot stronger than any single force in kong shi.
This team was only short of having an S rank to form a genuinely formidable force and this was only considered a team?
He let that sit for a moment.
Just a team.
’Either Athen has absurd depth or we’ve stumbled into something very special.’
He exhaled slowly through his nose and kept walking.
Either way it didn’t change anything. They were moving forward regardless.
"Mehh."
One of the other B ranks to the side of Guilliman and Eric made a dismissive sound.
"I’ve been on more terrifying lineups."
He stepped up slightly, closing the gap between them, smirking at the two of them with the easy confidence of someone who had been around long enough to stop being impressed by numbers.
"I’m guessing you guys are new here?"
He glanced between them once.
"I’m called the crimson jackal."
His voice carried that casual edge. Not unfriendly. Not exactly warm either. The tone of someone who had learned to size people up fast and had mostly stopped bothering to hide it.
They were officially a team for as long as this expedition lasted.
That was the reality of it.
Good relationships were key. Enemies at your back in a place like this were a liability you simply could not afford. Not underground. Not this close to contested territory.
Guilliman said nothing but took the measure of the young man quickly.
Confident. Mouthy. Probably very good in a fight. The kind of person who ran his mouth because he had the ability to back it up.
Useful.
"Heheh, I know you...."
Eric’s voice came out slow.
Leisurely.
Like he had been saving it.
"You’re that guy from the dark forest cleanup."
He glanced sideways at crimson jackal. A grin sitting comfortably on his face. Not a mean grin. Worse. An amused one.
"The one who embarrassed madam Chen."
He let that land.
"I’m honestly surprised you’re still alive."
The young man went red almost instantly.
Not the red of anger.
The red of someone who had spent years trying to bury something and just watched it get dug back up in front of twenty people.
Several years ago when he first started out he had entered a rather embarrassing situation with one of the S ranked individuals in Athen. Buried himself in her embrace out of sheer terror. One moment of complete and total weakness in front of an audience he could not have chosen worse.
That was all it had taken.
One moment.
The scene had burned itself into her memory and into the memories of everyone who had witnessed it. Her loyalists had started causing him trouble not long after. One incident leading into another. Pressure applied from multiple directions until going into hiding had felt like the only reasonable option.
He had spent months keeping his head down.
It still stung when he thought about it too directly.
"Please don’t bring that up in public."
The words came out faster than he intended.
He looked around immediately after saying them. Eyes moving through the group. Checking faces. Checking whether anyone within earshot had recognized the name or made the connection.
Maybe there was someone here tied to her circle.
Maybe not.
But he had survived this long by being cautious and he wasn’t about to stop now over a moment of carelessness in a tunnel.
The moment stretched out.
Nobody reacted.
He exhaled.
"Come to think of it...."
His eyes narrowed slightly as they came back to Eric.
"I recognize you too."
A beat.
"Furnace head?"
He raised his eyebrows. The smirk was back but quieter this time. More careful.
A lot of the people gathered here in Athen were exactly this kind of individual. Ultra talented. Unwilling to be bound by kong shi and its myriad forces and politics. People who had looked at what the stronghold offered and decided the cost was too high.
Each of them had a reason to be here instead of somewhere safer.
Each of them had a story they didn’t necessarily want brought up in public.
At least when they had first crossed paths these two had been ranked Red. That wasn’t nothing. That was a foundation most people never reached.
"In the flesh."
Eric smiled.
Warm. Completely relaxed.
Then looked away.
Instantly.
Like he had delivered exactly what he needed to deliver and had no further interest in the conversation whatsoever.
"You...."
Crimson jackal’s mouth stayed open for a beat.
Then closed.
He thought about it.
Weighed it.
Then chose to keep his mouth shut.
Just like him Furnace head carried his own complications. His own list of people in Athen who would smile a little differently if his name came up in certain conversations.
Bringing any of that into the open right now served no one.
This wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the place.
He faced forward and kept walking.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"We’ve reached the entry point, please come together."
The voice carried from the front of the column. Low but firm.
The movement through the tunnel slowed.
Then stopped.
Riverbandit and the other A ranks pulled the group in close. Bodies tightening into a cluster around the leader near the mouth of the passage. The air here was colder. A faint draft pushing in from somewhere ahead. The smell of earth giving way to something greener. Roots and decay and open night above.
They were underneath a hill.
A hill covered in thick forest. The kind of forest that swallowed light and muffled sound and made distances hard to judge. The kind that felt older than the settlements built around it.
The forest that surrounded wind devil valley.
Typically the stronghold maintained several layers of security across this entire area. Patrols. Checkpoints. Magical detection laid into the terrain at intervals. Preventing anyone from making uncontrolled contact with the valley below.
But Athen had been pushing.
Three full layers of defense had been cracked open through sustained pressure. Ground taken at cost. Ground that put them uncomfortably, usefully close to the valley itself.
"In the forest area kong shi has small outposts and patrols distributed throughout."
The leader’s voice stayed low. Controlled. Eyes moving across the assembled faces as he spoke.
"There are still monsters active in the area. But kong shi has established enough control over the terrain to create real risk for anyone moving carelessly through it."
A pause.
"The best thing we can do is push into the valley as fast as possible. Don’t stop for anything you don’t have to stop for."
Nobody argued.
Nobody spoke.
Seconds later shadows rushed out from the side of the hill. Moving without sound. Without hesitation. Wave after wave dispersing into the tree line in quick succession, swallowed by the dark between the trunks before the eye could properly follow them.
Gone.
They had split into teams of five. Two A ranks and three B ranks per unit. Balanced. Efficient. Structured to punch through resistance and keep momentum without bleeding out trying to hold ground.
The moment they dispersed they vanished into the forest completely. Like they had never been there at all. Threading through the gaps the advance work had carved out. Slipping past patrols in the dark with the practiced ease of people who had done this kind of work before and expected to do it again.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
As this was happening.
A different group entered the valley.
Through the front gate.
No tunnels. No dispersal patterns. No threading through the dark on careful feet.
They walked in through the front like the question of whether they were welcome had already been settled in their favor.
At their head moved a woman with silver hair.
She didn’t hurry.
The group behind her carried a different kind of weight entirely. A different temperature. Less like infiltrators and more like something that had decided to arrive.
They had a name.
They were called Burning Silver.