[Kitsuna POV]
The Federation backed away the same way they had come in.
That was annoying.
Not because they were alive. Well, that too. Mostly because it meant the normal way out was now fucked. They knew the passage. They knew we had the box. They knew we were still inside. Even a drunk donkey would know to wait outside the exit with weapons ready.
Rin looked at the passage after them and clicked her tongue. "We can't go that way."
Brit glanced at her. "That was obvious."
"I was saying it for the room."
"The room does not care."
Brenda did not answer them. She had already moved to the opening and crouched near the stone, listening. Chinada stayed a step behind her with her rifle raised. Sirone was besides Chinada, looking at the bodies we had left in the room and then at the path the Federation had used to run.
Two were dead inside. The first one, Chinada, had opened up with a headshot. The second one I had smashed into the floor after his little flash trick. The other three they had dragged out.
They would be back on their feet soon enough.
Dead stayed dead unless someone had disgusting magic and worse hobbies.
So the first squad had come in with a small intel team. That amount could not have been their entire unit. There was probably more outside.
I looked down at the box near my boot.
It was wrapped now, tied tight with cloth and Apricot's cord, but that did not make it less suspicious. It looked like a bad decision someone had packed for travel.
Brenda looked back. "We need another route."
Rin lifted a hand.
Everyone looked at her.
She looked offended. "What?"
Brit stared at her. "Why are you raising your hand like a child?"
"Because I found another way."
Silence sat there for half a second.
I turned my head slowly. "You found another way."
"Earlier."
"And you are saying this now?" Brit asked with a raised eyebrow, sounding quite annoyed.
"We were busy not dying."
"That is not a good excuse."
"It is a very good excuse."
Brit closed her eyes for one second. "Where?"
Rin pointed towards a broken recess near the far side of the side room. It was half-hidden behind a leaning slab and some old debris. Not a proper door. More like a mistake the ruin had forgotten to hide properly.
"There. I saw air moving through it when we were setting up. It goes up, I think."
"You think?" Brenda asked.
"I was going to check it, but then people started shooting."
I stared at her.
Rin shrugged. "Again. Busy not dying."
Brenda stood. "Ava, lamp. Mia, check the floor. Toma and Sarian move the slab. Apricot, puppet first. Chinada, watch the passage. Sirone, with her. Everyone else is ready."
No extra arguing. No long thinking while the enemy got clever outside. Brenda had heard the option and turned it into movement.
Maybe yelling at her had done something useful.
I crouched and pulled the box up. The moment it left the floor, the cold pushed through the wrapping and into my fingers.
I actually liked the box more for that.
Sirone glanced at my hand.
"Don't start," I said.
She did not say anything, which was somehow worse.
I tied the box to my back with Apricot's cord and a second strap from Olivia's pack. It sat high between my shoulders, cold through the cloth and pressing into my spine like a smug little brick.
Wonderful. It just made me miss my tree even more.
I drew my longsword and kept it low.
Brenda noticed.
"I thought you were not joining the fight."
"I'm not. I'm making sure no stray idiot shoots the box on my back."
"That is joining if you kill them."
"That is just self-defence with extra steps."
She gave me a look.
I smiled.
She ignored me and turned back to the recess.
Toma and Sarian moved the slab enough to reveal a narrow stair climbing up through the stone. It was ugly. Broken in places. Too tight for comfortable armour. Old dust fell from the upper cracks when Ava raised the lamp.
Rin leaned in. "See? Way up."
"That is not a way," I said. "That is a stone throat for desperate people."
"We are desperate people."
"Sadly true."
Apricot's puppet went first. It climbed with little clicks and stopped twice to test bad steps. Nothing tried to bite it. That was already better than most of the ruin.
Mia marked the safest spots with chalk.
"Looks clean," Brenda said. "Brit first. Rin after. Toma, Sarian, help anyone who slips. Kitsuna is in the middle with the box. Chinada and Sirone rear until we clear the top."
"No," Chinada said softly.
Everyone paused.
She pointed at the passage behind us. "I can hold my rear from here better. If they come back before we are up, I delay them."
Sirone nodded. "I stay with her."
Brenda looked between them.
That was a command choice. Let the sniper and healer hold the rear, or keep everyone together.
She chose fast.
"Fine. Thirty seconds. Then follow."
Chinada gave one nod.
We climbed.
The stair was worse than it looked. Half the steps were cracked. One had a gap big enough to swallow a boot. The walls scraped shoulders and gear. The box on my back bumped stone twice, and both times I nearly cursed loud enough for the Federation outside to hear.
Rin, ahead of me, whispered, "You good back there?"
"Yes."
"Box being rude?"
"The box is a lovely comfy thing."
"Should we name it?"
"If you name it, I will throw it at you."
"No thank you."
Brit's voice came from above. "Please do not give her ideas."
"I don't need help getting ideas," Rin said.
"That is the problem."
We reached a small break in the stairs where the air changed. Cooler. Moving. Outside.
Ava dimmed the lamp.
Brenda lifted one hand, and everyone went quiet.
Above us, Chinada's boots scraped softly as she and Sirone caught up. Chinada moved past us without pushing, quiet as a shadow with a rifle, and climbed the last few steps first.
She reached the top and lowered herself flat.
Sirone slid besides her.
Neither spoke at first.
That told me enough.
Brenda climbed up next and looked over the broken edge of the ruin. I came after her and kept low, the box pressing into my back.
The top of the ruin was not a clean roof. It was cracked stone, half-collapsed ridges, old carved blocks, and weeds growing where weeds had no business growing. From up here, the normal entrance sat below us, half-hidden by broken pillars and scrub.
And around it, the Federation was getting ready.
The bastards had pulled back from the passage and reset like people who knew exactly what they were doing. The three wounded were already sitting up while a field healer worked over them with a blue-green crystal. The dead bodies were not there. They had not been stupid enough to go back for those.
The shoulder-shot one rolled up his arm and stood.
I clicked my tongue.
"Of course."
Brenda's eyes moved across the ground below. "Count."
Chinada already had her scope up. "Twenty-eight living. Three just healed."
"Positions?" Brenda asked.
"Eight near the main entrance. Six around the left rocks. Five behind the broken wall. Four with the healer and supplies. Five spread wide near the trees."
Sirone spoke quietly besides her. "One signal man. One field healer. Two are giving orders near the back."
Brenda's face changed.
They were all watching the normal exit. Rifles, charms, cover, and even a small shield are framed half-set near the entrance. If we walked out there, they would chew the squad apart before anyone got ten steps.
Rin peeked over the stone and grinned.
"Oh, they are so stupid."
"They are not stupid," Brit said. "They are looking at the wrong door."
"Same thing in my opinion."
Brenda lowered herself behind the stone. "We hit them first."
She pointed at Chinada and Sirone. "You two stay here and give us covering fire from above. Chinada, give Sirone your backup rifle and get on your sniper."
Chinada nodded. "Understood."
Sirone adjusted her position and checked the distance. "I can also snipe."
"Chinada needs a spotter more than we need another sniper looking for targets."
Sirone nodded.
Brenda looked at the rest of us. "We go down the side. Toma and Sarian open a path through that broken section. Brit and Rin hit the left rocks. Apricot, Nekro, you cut off the trees. Olivia, watch for devices. Mia, Ava, get eyes on the ground and hidden shooters."
Then she looked at me.
"Captain".
"I am staying here. You guys will be able to kill them all. You won't need me for low-level soldiers."
I stared at her.
She stared back.
The squad began moving.
Toma and Sarian led the way towards a broken slope on the side of the ruin. It was not a stair, but it could work if everyone used their legs and did not complain. Rin complained anyway, quietly, until Brit elbowed her.
I stayed on the upper stone with the box on my back and my sword drawn.
It was a stupid position. Too exposed if someone looked up. Too far to hit anyone unless I threw myself into the fight. Perfect for watching Brenda do her job, which was the whole point of this annoying assignment.
Below us, the Federation kept waiting at the wrong exit.
Brenda reached the side slope with the others and held up one hand.
Chinada breathed once through her nose.
Then she fired.
The field healer dropped first.
No shout. No warning. One shot, and the healer folded besides his half-open kit.
Sirone fired a second later. Her shot hit the signal man as he reached for his crystal. He spun, hit the ground, and the crystal rolled into the dirt.
The Federation froze for a beat.
That was all Brenda needed.
She dropped her hand.
Brit and Rin came out of the side ruins first.
Brit's shield hit a soldier hard enough to throw him off his feet. Rin went low besides her and cut the next one across the throat before he could turn his rifle properly.
The start was a bloodbath. No mercy from my squad.
I liked it.
This was not a tournament. It was a shadow war in a dead ruin with an artifact on my back. If they wanted mercy, they should have stayed home and farmed potatoes.
Toma slammed his palm into the ground, and rough slabs of stone rose besides Brenda's group, ugly and quick. Sarian shoved them outward, turning them into cover as shots started cracking from the Federation rocks.
Mia grabbed Ava's sleeve and pulled her away from a patch of ground.
A half-buried charm sparked there a second later.
Ava stared. "Thanks."
"Move," Mia said.
Apricot's puppets spilled into the trees like little nightmares with limbs. Wires snapped around ankles, wrists, and rifle straps. Nekro's skeletons came after them, not fast, not pretty, but enough to make soldiers waste shots on bones instead of people.
Chinada fired again from the top.
The commander near the rear took the shot through the neck. He dropped with both hands at his throat, and the soldiers around him finally understood the attack was not coming from the entrance.
Too late.
Sirone shifted and fired at the second commander, who was ready but did not have a way to block a Black Ops bullet.
The rear group broke first.
That made the middle turn.
That made the front hesitate.
Brenda hit them in that ugly little second.
"Push left," she called. "Brit, hold them. Rin, cut. Toma, close that gap. Sarian, break the rock cover. Apricot, keep the trees busy."
Orders came fast. Not perfect. Fast was better right now.
Rin and Brit moved together. Brit took the shots, shield ringing, and Rin used every flinch to get close. One soldier tried to back away and raise a charm. Rin cut his hand off before the charm lit. Brit shoved him down with the shield and stepped over him without looking.
Chinada fired again.
Another rare soldier dropped.
Then another.
The Federation tried to answer questions.
One of them finally saw her.
He shouted and lifted his rifle towards the top of the ruin. More exactly, at me, the one standing in the fucking open.
The shot cracked.
I put my sword in its path and slapped it aside. The bolt skipped off the blade, bit stone near my boot, and died in a hiss.
The box stayed still on my back.
"Rude," I said.
The soldier looked up at me.
I looked down at him.
He decided to look somewhere else.
Chinada killed him anyway.
Below, the Federation were trying to form a proper defense, but they had been caught facing the wrong way. That was hard to fix while people were dying.
Their wide group near the trees tried to swing around Apricot and Nekro. That was a mistake. The trees were full of puppet wire now, and Nekro's shadow made the ground look wrong. One soldier tripped, another caught him, and a skeleton drove a broken blade into the second one's side.
Olivia stayed behind the main push, device in hand, eyes on the enemy charms. When one of the Federation soldiers threw a dull red stone towards Brit, Olivia twisted the dial. The stone sparked once and went dead before it hit the dirt.
"Nice, she is a proper support," I muttered.
Sirone fired again from the top, then shifted back before anyone could lock onto her spot. Chinada moved with her, changing position after every two shots. Good habit. Staying still got snipers killed.
The Federation had gone from prepared ambush to trapped mess in less than a minute.
Still, they were not weak.
One group near the broken wall got their heads back and fired together. Brit's shield took two shots. The third clipped Sarian's shoulder and spun her half a step.
She cursed, slammed her heel down, and kept moving.
Toma saw it and shoved another stone block up between them and the wall group.
Brenda snapped, "Ava, mark."
Ava pointed. "Third block from the left. There is a shooter behind it."
Chinada's rifle shifted.
The shooter died before Brenda could say more.
Ava blinked.
Mia gave her a quick look that was almost a smile.
The fight kept turning.
Brenda did not chase the fastest kills. She cut the squad into pieces. Left group pinned. The tree group tangled up. Rear group gutted by Chinada and Sirone. The main entrance team was useless because they had aimed at a door no one used.
The Federation started to pull back towards the outer rocks, but they had to drag bodies and step over their own failed setup. That made them slow.
Rin wanted to go after them. I could see it from where I stood. Her shoulders leaned forward. Her feet wanted it.
Brit grabbed her collar.
Rin froze.
Brenda saw it too. "Hold your place."
Rin looked miserable. "I hate that order."
"Good," Brenda said. "Follow it."
The box pressed cold into my back.
I shifted my shoulders and loved it more.
A shot cracked from the far treeside.
Not aimed at Chinada. Not aimed at Brenda.
No, aimed at me again.
I turned and caught it with the flat of my sword. The bolt broke apart and spat heat across the stone.
I looked towards the trees.
"Try that again, and I stop observing."
The Federation's group below was starting to lose shape fully now. Some were dead. Some were wounded. Some still tried to fight, but they had no clean order left. Brenda's squad had bitten into them from two sides and above, and it showed.
Chinada fired once more.
Then she stopped.
That was wrong.
Chinada did not stop when there were targets.
Sirone looked at her. "What?"
Chinada stayed low, and the scope turned away from the first squad and towards the trees beyond the outer rocks.
"Brenda," she called over the comms.
Brenda cut down a soldier with Rin and looked up. "What?"
"More armor. Tree side. A lot."
Everything in me went still for half a second.
Fuck, Veila did say there were two groups.
Then I looked past the ruins.
Movement slid between the trees. More grey armor. More rifles. More soldiers than the first group had left.
Of fucking course.
The day had been going too well for ten seconds.