267 Chapter 267: Guerilla Warfare (1/2)
”What do you mean we lost contact with Shi Bai's group?!”
Ji Xuan slammed his fist against a nearby tree in frustration, splintering the bark and causing the poor thing to waver. Fortunately, it didn't topple over from his punch, but there was a faint groan that almost seemed to express its agony.
”Exactly what we said, sir,” the ninja dude replied coolly. ”They went into sector 23B thirty minutes ago, and we lost contact with them fifteen minutes later. I immediately dispatched squad Zhao Ta Men to search for them, and they…were gone. There were traces of a fight, and after a preliminary investigation of the mana signatures left behind, we are confident that they have been eliminated and kicked out of the Spiritual Road after having their blood tokens taken.”
”And I'm guessing the culprits are those two again?!” Ji Xuan demanded furiously. The silver-haired, handsome guy couldn't help but snarl in fury, his blue eyes almost sparkling with malice. ”This is the sixth squad we've lost to them!”
”…yes. It's those two again.” the ninja dude lowered his head, his tone almost resentful. Mostly because he knew what was coming next.
”Idiots! All of you are useless! Useless trash!”
Ji Xuan howled furiously, his mana erupting from his body and blowing up his surroundings. Despite being buffeted by the raging maelstrom of mana, the ninja dude remained kneeling calmly in front of his leader, unaffected save for his hair being ruffled by the violent winds.
Says the guy who does absolutely nothing but command us, he thought with a sneer. You call us useless, but what have you done other than rely on us to do our work? You have done nothing but sit there and give orders without lifting a single finger, and then blaming us when things don't go your way. Why don't you actually do something for once? See if you are more capable than us, if you will succeed if you were the one hunting them instead of us.
In the first place, the ninja dude wondered why this guy was so obsessed with Lilith Porter. He was essentially abusing his authority and position to get other people to chase his own girl for him. Actually, she wasn't even his girl. Normally, this would count as stalking, but with them all inside the Spiritual Road, nobody could do anything about it.
Once the Spiritual Road training camp ended, Lilith could lodge a complaint about his behavior, and he would get punished. However, given his status, Ji Xuan would probably get a slap on the wrist. Fortunately for Lilith, she would be able to get a restraining or protection order and he would be forced to stay away from her outside the Spiritual Road.
However, we had to survive the Spiritual Road training camp first.
”Fuck!” Ji Xuan continued to swear. ”How many more people do we have left?”
”Probably less than twenty.”
The ninja dude resisted the urge to say none. Even though they were mere trainees, they were still part of the Assassins Guild. It was just their bad luck to be contracted to this selfish, arrogant asshole who thought so highly of himself that he called himself the Spiritual Saint.
Ji Xuan was no saint. He was a fucking demon.
”Useless trash! How in the world did you Assassins get wrecked so badly by just two students?!”
”We're students too…and we are trainees. We haven't reached the full status of professional Assassins.” Even as the ninja dude informed his employer that, he knew inwardly that the reason wouldn't fly.
”Shut up! Just do what I tell you to do! I'm paying you guys for a reason! Your services don't come cheap, and seriously, you haven't earned back your money's worth!”
That was because Ji Xuan was using the Assassins for personal reasons not exactly stipulated in the contract. If it was the other goals, which was to gain control of the Spiritual Road and dominate the other students, then the Assassins had definitely achieved that goal. Unfortunately, Ji Xuan had completely overlooked that because of his…well, lust.
However, he did have a point. Despite taking control of the Spiritual Road, the Assassins were still unable to get ahold of these two people, who continued to be a thorn in their side. Worse, with their steadily dwindling numbers, the Assassins were no longer able to control the territory they worked so hard to obtain.
They were losing control and were no longer dominating the Spiritual Road. With the Assassins weakened by the constant guerilla warfare, the other students had begun to retaliate.
It was no longer possible to suppress the survivors through force. Worse, these survivors were the strongest of the participants, the best of the elite, and the most cunning. They were no less troublesome than me and Lilith.
”We'll withdraw our contract if you're dissatisfied with our services, and refund you in full,” the ninja dude finally spoke up.
”Running away now?!” Ji Xuan bellowed. ”If you've signed a contract with me, then make sure you see it until the very end! Useless cowards!”
The ninja dude shrugged indifferently. ”Since we're useless trash and cowards, then it makes no difference if we go all the way to the end or not. The only difference is that we'll probably incur more casualties. Therefore it's wiser for us to cut our losses before it's too late, and compensate you for not just getting what you wanted, but also for wasting your time. It's clear that you'll be able to handle this better than us anyway.”
”W…what…what?!” Ji Xuan stammered, taken aback. ”Don't you dare…!”
The ninja dude was about to retort when he suddenly paused and raised a hand to a com bead in his ear. It crackled to life and a panicked voice babbled from the other end.
”…squad Bei Da Bai just got defeated by those two again. They were ambushed by summoned Soul Beasts and were eliminated. We're down to fifteen men now.” With a sigh, he rose to his feet, cupped his hands and lowered his head. ”As I said, we'll cut our losses and refund you in full. The casualties are unacceptable.”
”It's not as if your comrades are dead!” Ji Xuan howled.
”No, they aren't,” the ninja dude agreed. ”But the blow to our morale is crippling. Any more attempts to fight and prolong this inevitable defeat is a waste of time.”
”Fuck! How are just two people giving you Assassins so much trouble!? We outnumbered them by fifty to two! By twenty-five times! How the hell did they turn the tables on us and reduce the deficit by so much?!”
”Guerilla warfare.” Despite himself, the ninja dude was thoroughly impressed. ”They made good use of the terrain and struck at our isolated forces. When you ordered us to search the Spiritual Road for those two, we were forced to spread out…that made us dangerously thin. They used the forest for cover to spring ambushes and take out our isolated groups one by one. Even though they were completely unable to fight our whole group head-on, by forcing us to split up into small groups to search for them, we ended up being the ones hunted down one by one. Even though we're trained in assassination techniques, we're not trained in jungle warfare or how to fight guerillas. Our targets tend to be…high-class and rich people hiding safely in urban environments.”
”Bullshit!” Ji Xuan roared. He balled his fists, and then took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he contemplated for a few seconds, and then smiled. ”If they're so good at ambushing us, why don't we set up a trap ourselves?”