Matthew felt the air on his air as the helicopter they were in darted through the sky. Looking at the ground he could see the troops moving into occupied territory and opening fire against the demons that came to meet them.

There were thousands of imps down there trading fire with the army. The tanks advanced forward but suddenly Cambions, human like demons with red skin, small horns and bat like wings, met them in battle using fire spells to hold off the armored advance.

In the sky was no different. All around Matthew's helicopter there were bullets and fireballs flying around. A jet passed about here and there using their missiles to blow up key positions on the ground while dodging heavy fire coming from the demons.

The closer to the Howling Spear HQ they went, the more resistance they found. That's the reason for sending a team in. They just couldn't get close enough by air to bomb the building. Even long range missiles were taken out before they could pose a threat to whomever was behind this invasion.

"We're getting close to the drop point." Job said making signals with his hands to the helicopters that carried the rest of the team.

"This is a war zone. We're deep inside enemy territory. And we have no plan for an extraction." Vasconcelos said looking at Matthew. "This is not an adventure." He added.

Looking around, Matthew thought to himself that his adventures seemed a lot like war then.

The assault helicopters escorting the transport helicopters leveled the park they were landing on with missiles taking out most of the enemy there were there. After that they landed and Matthew and the others jumped out eliminating any demon that was still alive after the onslaught from above.

"Vanessa!" Job called her after all the team was on the ground. "Show the way." He ordered.

Vanessa just nodded and walked ahead guiding the squad to the pluvial pipe they were going inside. The entrance was half covered by the park's pond and the metal bars shielding the pipe came out easily with a light tug.

"It's a straight forward path from here to our objective." Vanessa said getting inside the pipe.

The pipe itself was made of concrete and was wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

"It's unlikely that we'll find enemies inside, but stay alert." Job told his team while Vasconcelos and another soldier took the front of the line.

Matthew and Faynn were given the rearguard.

With flashlights on, they moved slowly, but constant trough the pipe in direction of the center of the city. The only company they found were frogs, cockroaches and rats.

"You came down here often when you were investigating them?" Matthew asked Vanessa who was in front of him shouldering Faralynn.

"Not very often. But many times." Vanessa said.

Matthew looked around and dodged a rat that sprinted through them. This is not a good place to be, he thought realizing how headstrong Vanessa was in bringing the guild down.

Vasconcelos made a gesture for them all to stop and knelt on the ground.

"Contact. 5 boogies. Seem to be demons." He said. He probably had the Sense Others skill.

"Imps." Faynn said, her ability being much better than the soldier in front.

"We can't reveal our position. Switch to melee combat." Job said drawing a dao sword from his back.

"Allow me." Mara said drawing two knives and sprinting forward.

Before the imps could understand what was happening, the small dark skinned woman killed all 5 of them with precise strikes.

The squad came forward shortly after.

"What were they doing in here?" Job asked Mara.

"For the looks of it. Eating rats." Mara said pointing to the half eaten rat on the floor the bones of other mice.

"They didn't come in from where we came from." Vasconcelos noted as the iron bars were in place when they all came in.

"There are other ways inside." Vanessa said pointing up. "There are storm drains all over the city that fall into this pipe. They're not big enough for us, but an imp can easily go in."

"Should we not assume they were sentries?" Job asked.

"Imps are too chaotic to serve as guards for anything." Faralynn said. "I doubt they would use them as nothing more than front line fodder."

"Alright." Job said making hand gestures for the men to fall back in line. "Let's keep moving."

They walked a bit more and after 15 minutes, they were under their target.

"Here." Vanessa said walking forward and showing them an opening that led downwards. "This will take us to the sewer gallery I mentioned. It's quite the drop, so be mindful when you jump." She explained and jumped down.

Vasconcelos set up a rope before going down himself and being followed by the others.

One of the soldiers complained about the smell when he went down and gagging from the strong pungent aroma.

"You're going to hate dretches." Matthew said while the man forced himself not to throw up.

"Why?" He asked with an ugly face from the smell.

"They smell just like this. And you can smell it from afar." Matthew answered.

"Here." Vanessa said pointing at a hole in one of the walls. "I dug this to get in" She said while removing a concrete slab from the wall showing the others the parking lot on the other side.

"We should enlarge the opening for all of us to go through." Job said looking at one of his men. "Do your thing Mark."

The soldier, Mark, extended his hands in the direction of the wall and concentrated. The concrete moved falling from the wall, the soil between the sewer wall and the parking lot wall soon moved too and, lastly, the concrete wall from the parking lot also gave way to a tunnel.

Mark was a Geomancer, he was capable of moving the earth with his mana.

"All right men, secure the parking lot. Laufgraan, stay put for a while." Job said signaling his men to go inside.

"Clear!" One soldier said after checking a sector of the garage.

One by one the soldiers combed the parking lot and the vehicles until Mara came to Job and said:

"All clear."

"Good. Either the offensive is doing its job or they weren't expecting an infiltration from below." Job says looking around himself to anything his men might've missed. "Let's rig the columns. Vas, guard the entrances." The Major ordered his squad.

"Rig the columns?" Matthew asked while getting closer.

Some of the soldiers took out explosives and started to strap on the columns of the parking lot.

"If things don't go well. We can at least bring the building down." Job said.

"Why not just do it right now?" Vanessa asked.

"Because our mission is to eliminate the Warlock. And someone powerful enough to conjure a gate that size, might not just die even if we drop a building on top of them." Job explained.

"Sir. All bombs are in place." Mara communicated.

"Great. How do we go up?" Job asked Vanessa.

"From here, I usually just used the elevators or the stairs, depending on the time I came in. But I have no idea how their defenses are." Vanessa said.

"You're right. Going in the elevator would put us as sitting ducks if they see us coming. Let's take the stairs. Vas, what's our intel on the Warlock?" Job said.

"He's likely on the top floor. It's a penthouse for the guild master. We believe that either Douglas himself is the Warlock or he is housing the Warlock in his home." Vasconcelos said.

"How many floors up?" Job asked looking at the stairs.

"54" Vanessa and Vasconcelos said at the same time.

Job sighed and moved his hands.

"Mark and Fabi, you two stay here, guard the bombs and our exit. If we lose contact, blow everything up. Vas, you take point with Kishino. Mara, you and Laufgraan get the rear. Let's move out." Job gave his orders and quickly moved towards the stairs.

They went up in formation with care and silently.

However, just on the second floor, they met a man smoking a cigarette on the stairwell. It was a human, most likely a member of the guild. His eyes widened when he saw the soldiers in full gear walking up the stairs.

Vasconcelos tried to silence him shooting his rifle, that was armed with a suppressor, but his bullets just grazed the man's face.

The man ran out of the stairwell screaming and pulling the fire alarm.

"They're here! They're here!" He screamed while calling for help.

"We've been found out." Job said through the radio. "We can lift radio silence, prepare for battle. Shoot to kill even if they're human." He ordered to his men.

"Things were going too well." Mara chuckled to Matthew who was standing beside her. "But we were expecting this. Lock and load kid. Battle is starting." She smiled at him.

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