455 Gnome Settlemen (1/2)

”This is it,” Zero told the team. ”We need to start digging holes into the ground blindly to know where their hideout is. Be careful not to go too close,” Zero warned. ”They have defence mechanisms in place. Bob, you go with Jermine. Don't go too deep. Truen and I will act separately.”

Truen and Zero's jobs were to imitate the presence of monsters in the area to trick the traps into activating. Once they activated the traps, they would be able to trace the origin of the attack. At least, that was the plan they had in mind.

Who was to know that the gnomes had been watching them ever since they entered their territory a week ago?

Jermine was the first to fall for the gnome's trap. Bob didn't have time to send a message back to his master before they were both put to sleep with sleeping gas. The mole girl had dug straight into a metal capsule and the dragon was too busy trying to pull her out when he was shoved into it together. The door closed on them and the chamber was filled with gas that put them both to sleep before the capsule was retrieved by the waiting gnomes.

Two down, two more to go.

”Where are the other two rats?” a gnome asked, keying in a new coordinate into the system's panel.

His colleague frowned and zoomed in on the camera image. He could see the archer but not the shorty.

”One of them is missing. I can see the dangerous fellow though...”

”What?! You dunderhead! How can you lose sight of them? The small guy is their party leader, he's the most dangerous one. How many times do I have to remind you not to judge a long-ear by their colour?!”

”Gah! Shut up you tedious gnat! My ears are going to fall off tomorrow with your yapping. Why don't you do this yourself and stop complaining about how I do my job?”

The former gnome growled. ”I'm the head technician here. There are only six of us. If I do your job, who is going to invent new machines to automate the more important tasks?”

”Right,” the other gnome snorted. ”You've been doing that 'important job' for more than ten years and the portal still isn't fixed. Who's the one eating and drinking for free without pulling their own weight?”

Slamming their bald heads together and growling while staring each other down, the two gnomes refused to give way until the sirens rang out.

”Leader! The small one got through our wall and the archer is on his way! What do we do?”

At once, the two loggerheads called a truce for now. ”All hands to the intruder command centre now!”