"Well, lucky for me, she's not a mere sniper," Samur said as Tristan's legs were cleanly blown off.

  As Samur said, Ms. Childbeater here wasn't just a sniper. She was the Sniper Mk-II, currently using the Gauss Sabot Rifle Mk-VII.

  This particular rifle was strong enough to easily pierce through a Dragon's hide (unlike the Mk-III version which exploded and destroyed Samur's arm); Tristan's Aura defence was like a piece of paper in front of it.

  However, what was more interesting was that Neia seemed to have a heaven defying talent with guns. In fact, this was the first shot which hadn't killed someone; every shot before this had taken someone's life.

  It seemed that the healer had a talent in taking others' lives.

  Now, as Tristan groaned due to the excruciating pain (he just lost both of his legs, after all), he lost his focus.

  And as he lost his focus, the Aura he had extended to his subordinates using which they had created shields to defend against Samur's attack also vanished.

  "Needless to say," Samur said to Neia. "Kill the rest of them."

  ?…? Without uttering any other word, Neia pulled the trigger once again.

  At the same time, Samur instantly conjured several of his signature ice spears and fired them at the bitches in front of him.

  Of course, like those before them, their bodies were riddled with holes and fell down and stopped moving.

  A strong smell of blood wafted in the air, mixing with the cacophony of dying groans and painting this scenery of hell.

  'Fuck!' Tristan cursed.

  The tide of the battle had been turned in an instant. The 200 or so people he had stationed here had been killed just like that.

  He knew this duo was overpowered, but he didn't expect them to be such cheat-like existences.

  What were they, the protagonists of a shitty isekai novel?

  Everything had gone to shit.

  "Well, that was rather… easy," Samur shrugged as he commented in Azell's voice.

  Fuck everything else. Right now, using Azell's voice was the most important thing.

  Lecia should believe, without a doubt, that the one saving her right now was none other than Azell.

  That was the main requirement of completing his epic prank.

  Of course, this prank was not in his agenda when he first came here, but he was forced to improvise.

  His drone testing experiment had been nothing less than a disaster, so he decided that he might as well pull an epic prank instead. Lecia would be too pitiful, otherwise.

  Imagine being allowed to be kidnapped by your comrades for absolutely no reason. That's the type of shit that pushes people off the edge.

  Anyway.

  There were several bodies within this hall, but only three of them were breathing; Samur, Lecia and Tristan.

  The rest had been rendered non-breathing by the combined onslaught of Samur and Neia.

  ?…Is it over?? The Dragon muttered to herself.

  "Don't raise a flag, oi," Samur chided her.

  Was she perhaps not aware of the concept of jinxing things? Saying such things right after you had achieved something was but a speedrun to death.

  ?…? Suddenly, Neia wordlessly gasped.

  "…" Samur wordlessly sighed.

  ?…?

  "…Something happened, didn't it?" Samur asked as his spidy senses tickled.

  ?Uhhhh…?

  "Go on, tell me."

  ?There are people approaching this place.?

  "Nice," Samur rolled his eyes. "How many?"

  ?I can sense around a thousand presences.?

  "Come again?"

  A thousand presences? Wut?

  ?There are more than 1000 people approaching this place. And all of them are strong.?

  "I see," Samur slowly nodded. "Told you not to raise a flag, didn't I?"

  ?W-why is it my fault?? Neia protested.

  "Tch, how na?ve," he turned to Tristan. "Seems like you went all out in preparing a farewell party."

  "Hahahahaha," Tristan chuckled through the excruciating pain. "I told you we'd win."

  His confidence was all well and good, but one might be tempted to ask, 'Why?'

  After all, if Tristan had such a large force in reserve, he should have just used them to stop Samur and Neia from entering this place.

  Why bring them in AFTER they have achieved their goal, right?

  Wrong.

  The logic here was simple; they will attack the intruders when they have something to protect.

  Samur and Neia's goal was to reach Lecia and then retrieve her. To achieve this aim, they had to take Lecia back to the Guildhouse.

  And the only way to do it was through the entrance they had just come from.

  The hideout they were in was chosen because it had no secret exits or entrances. If someone wanted to enter or leave, they would have to do so through the main door which Samur had used.

  But the battalion that had appeared would surround this hideout, effectively barring all places of exit.

  Right now, the only way to leave was to pierce through their encirclement. However, that would be easier said than done. After all, they now had Lecia.

  The powerless Lecia was nothing more than a shackle that would tie them down. Samur and Neia would be forced to go on the defensive while the army could focus solely on destroying them.

  Such was the plan devised by Tristan and the battalion.

  From the beginning, Tristan knew that the New Dawn Guild would successfully infiltrate their hideout and reach the hall where Lecia was. They were more than capable of that.

  His initial plan was to use his rights as the kidnappers to force them to do his bidding by using the hostage aka Lecia, but that plan had already gone to shit because of Samur.

  So, this encirclement was his last hope.

  Of course, this plan was a bit weird in itself.

  Neia could just turn into a Dragon and fly away with Samur and Lecia on her back. The battalion had of course set up countermeasures for that, but it was possible to escape as long as Samur and Neia decided to make some sacrifices.

  The other option was teleportation. This entire plan was based on the assumption that the infiltrators had no way of teleporting; teleportation magic was a lost art of the Old World, after all, and could only be used through artefacts recovered from the dungeons.

  That's why the entire plan would fall apart if it turned out that they had a teleportation artefact.

  Tristan should have placed them in the final hall (the one they were currently in) and made them encircle and protect him and Lecia. That way, he could have forced the invaders to listen to him from a safe place.

  But he could not, and that was because this battalion was not his to command.

  This battalion was here for a single reason; to destroy the New Dawn Guild. And they had decided that the best way to do that was to weigh them down by giving them something to protect.

  Kind of a questionable decision, but hey, they were the experts.

  Of course, Samur being the bad boi he was, had already understood the full plan the moment he heard that there was a battalion heading his way.

  "Not once did you say that you'd win, though," Samur commented as he remembered the conversation he had with Tristan.

  "Doesn't matter," Tristan said as he panted.

  He had already stopped the bleeding using aura, so at the very least, there was no risk of dying from blood loss.

  Losing his legs was obviously not ideal, but that was still better than losing his life. He could figure something about his legs later.

  "But why are you so confident that you'll win?" Samur asked.

  "…" Tristan frowned. "Well, time will tell, no?" But he refused to fall into Samur's trap.

  If Samur was planning to use Tristan as a hostage (which he obviously wasn't), he would be making a mistake.

  Unlike him, the battalion outside wouldn't care if Tristan died.

  "Fair enough, I suppose. Anyway, Neia, please retreat to my position."

  ?What? To you??

  "Yup."

  ?I think I should-?

  "I have a plan."

  ?…Fine,? Neia decided to trust him for the time being.

  It was better than separating and letting their enemies hunt them down one by one.

  "Let me know when you've entered this place," Samur said.

  ?Alright,? Neia replied as she took the sniper and jumped down from the hill she was on.

  'It should take her around 1 minute to reach this place,' Samur estimated.

  "W-what are you planning to do?" Unable to handle his curiosity, Tristan asked.

  "Well," Samur smiled…… "Just wait and watch."