XIX

After nearly three days of travel, the group arrived about a kilometer away from the stronghold.

Their goal was to infiltrate it, and prepare to sabotage it from the inside.

Once they had settled in, a large force would be sent to attack the stronghold. Being assisted by the group inside, it should be fairly easy to overtake.

The common rumor amongst the other officers was, that these three were chosen due to their stealth skills.

However, many were confused why Dirk of all people had been chosen.

He was a well respected officer.

Sure he was boisterous, but only really got out of line when you said his name wrong.

Sending such a large, tank-like man on a stealth mission seemed like suicide.

But, it wasn't their decision to make. Apparently, the king requested them specifically.

No one questioned the kings word, it was absolute.

-

Dylan had decided to make the other two stay behind, while he used Darkness to scout ahead. Hoping to find a way to enter undetected.

They had left the Griffins back when they were a kilometer away.

Luckily, they were trained to go back to the Dawn Guard once released, and if need be they could call for them to escape.

They only had a few days, before the army would arrive.

Then, it wouldn't matter if they kept their cover.

Dylan was sure that once a fight broke out, his only real obstacle was keeping Emily safe.

Since Michael had basically told him to kill Dirk, he would just let him get caught in the crossfire.

Worst case, he just end him when no one was looking. In the heat of battle that shouldn't be a problem.

He wouldn't have to worry about Emily seeing, since Michael said he chose her due to her loyalty.

'That must have been code for she's in on it,' Dylan thought. 'Why else would he mention that in the first place.'

This led him to believe Emily's survival was his only real task. Other than that he was free to proceed how he chose.

-

After deciding on their route, Dylan made his way back to Dirk and Emily.

"Alright," he started. "I'm going to cast my Darkness over you two, after that we'll sneak in through the sewers."

"The sewers?" Dirk asked in disgust. "I don't think I can crawl through shit Grain!"

"They're abandoned idiot," Dylan responded. "I already checked, and as far as I cant tell no one has used them for years. We may find a few weak beasts, but other than that, this is our best way inside."

"I think it's a good idea!" Emily resounded. "I think Grain knows what he's doing Dirk, so just go with it." 

Giving him a stern and demanding look.

"He single handedly took out a mid-tier ancestor beast. He could probably take the stronghold himself!"

Dylan was embarrassed by the sudden praise, but it got the desired effect. He still hadn't noticed the weird air between his party members.

Dirk just nodded, he decided to remain quiet and follow Dylan. If he was really that strong, he deserved respect. Plus, he didn't wanna upset Emily any more than he had already.

The group made their way towards a large grate on the furthest side of the strong hold.

Dylan had entered it previously and found no trace of security.

Once they arrived in front of the grate, Dylan led them inside. He had previously cut the lock with concentrated lightning mana.

"This place stinks," Dirk whispered.

"SHHHHH!" Emily responded by smacking the back of his head and telling him to be quiet.

Dylan only shook his head.

Luckily his Darkness ability also masked their sound, if not they may have been caught already.

Violet was about thirty meters ahead, when she alerted Dylan to a fork in the path.

Turns out, his SoulBond companion was a fantastic scout. Her stealth skills out ranked his own, and she could defend herself. or escape easily.

Once they arrive to the diverging paths, Dylan began to examine the tunnel they were in a bit more.

It seemed like it hadn't been used in at least a century, not to mention they hadn't seen one beast, and this place was deemed a low-tier dungeon.

"Grain," Emily said quietly. "I got a bad feeling about this."

"Why haven't we seen any beasts? Or even animals, its almost like nothing alive can be inside of here."

Just as Emily was making her statement, Dylan was alerted to a life-threatening attack headed his way!

"Devour!"

A huge pillar of earth and mana came hurtling towards him.

With the mana being drained, Dylan was able to bisect the large pillar of earth and avoid any damage.

"Berserk!"

Dylan knew a fight was upon them, so he decided to couple the boost of intelligence from Devour, with a boost of strength from Berserk.

"Emily!' Dylan shouted. "Take Dirk, and prepare a layer of defense behind me!"

With the dust from the attack finally dissipating, Dylan could see two giant worm-like beasts, barreling towards them.

"Inspect."

-SYSTEM DATA-

Name: Earth Eater

Category: major-beast

Level: 20

Skills: ???

Strength: ???

Agility: ???

Intelligence: ???

Dexterity: ???

Threat lvl: A

Description: The Earth Eater is a large majestic-level worm-like beast, that can reach lengths of 100 meters! These two specimen appear to be rather young, only in the hero-realm they reach around 10 meters long. They have control of earth and fire mana, allowing them to shoot pillars of earth at high speeds. They also have iron-stomachs, allowing them to eat tons of dirt with out slowing.

'This might actually be a fight,' Dylan though. 'The sewer walls have crumbled from years of erosion, so there's so much dirt here.'

'Maybe I can use that to my advantage?'

"Dirk!" Dylan shouted. "Can you use earth mana?"

"Yeah?" he answered in a confused tone.

"Great," Dylan continued. "When i give the signal, create the hardest dome you can around you and Emily."

"Don't release it unless you hear me tell you.'

'You'll be able to hear me, don't worry"

Without further explanation, Dylan charged towards the Earth Eaters.

"Braver!"

Dylan's power quintupled, as he practically teleported behind his opponents.

The two giant worms where surprised by their preys disappearance, but continued to charge at the remaining humans.

Dylan had gotten behind the two beasts and prepared his assault. Channeling his mana for a Focus Burst, he jumped as high as the sewer ceiling would let him, sending a line of white mana at the earth above the giant worms.

"Now!" Dylan screamed.

As Dirk erected a dome made of fiver meter thick earth, a giant explosion above the Earth Eaters caused the entire ceiling to fall on top of them.

If it weren't for Dylan warning them before hand, the two would have surely been crushed by the tons of earth falling from above.

One of the Earth Eaters was still alive, and managed to pull it's body from underneath the rubble.

It tried to burrow it's way to escape, but not before Harbinger bisected it, leaving behind a green mist, created from the foul creatures blood, and a young man clad in black and white, standing laxed with a slight grin.

-

"Dirk!" Dylan shouted. "It's all good, you guys can come out!"

Dirk lowered the dome and Emily came running towards Dylan.

"Grain!" she cried. "Don't do something like that again!"

"I was stuck in there while all I heard was explosions , and all I wanted was for you guys to get along, and I wasn't sure if you were alive, until I heard you yell, and Dirk was acting like I didn't really hear you but I finally mange to..."

"Alright, alright," Dylan interrupted her. "I get it, I'm sorry I worried you. Everything else should go smoothly from here."

He turned away and began making his way towards the two beast corpse's.

"Okay," she responded defeated.

She had hoped Dylan would console her, but he just waved it off and got back to focusing on the mission.

Not even noticing the weird concern Emily had for the two guys to get along.

-

They beast's didn't net any worthy materials, so the group chose to just leave them.

Dylan had told them that even though the beasts were powerful, their actual bodies were useless.

Basically, the only useable bones or meat on the Earth Eaters, wasn't worth the actual risk fighting them. That's why most people or groups, would use them to excavate and help build different structures. This still not being fairly common, due to the lack of knowledge around beast taming.

After travelling through the sewer's tunnels for hours, the group managed to find a way to enter the stronghold.

They would enter a store house, where they would have to sneak in and take uniforms from soldiers.

Dylan planned to scout the base, and procure their swaps himself. That way he could gain the EXP by killing the soldiers.

It was shameless, but he knew this mission wouldn't garner him much EXP, so he had to get it where her could.

After going over the plan a few times, Dylan disappeared into the stronghold.

Emily and Dirk would wait for him to return with their disguises. They would then replace the soldiers one at a time, as not to raise to much suspicion. This could require quiet a few hours of watching the whole settlement to chose the correct targets.

A job that was perfect for Dylan and Violet.