355 Chapter 355: Reconnaissance (1/2)

”Any sign of Ana anywhere?”

”Nope.”

I shook my head bitterly at Redfield's question. I had sent my flock of Corvus out to scout ahead, but I had yet to find anything amiss. There was no sign of poison or withered plants – traces left by a poison mage passing by. I would think that I would at least find a few dessicated trees or a corpse of a monster that succumbed to venom, but…nothing.

It was entirely possible that Anastasia hadn't passed through this forest at all. Hell, it was very likely that Ana didn't come to the forest in the first place. In which case, where could she have gone? I knew for sure that she wouldn't stay in the city, but where else could she have gone?

”Viper reporting in. We found traces of poison in our sector. It's clear that the target has passed through here at least.”

Viper was the call sign of one of the fire-teams that had undertaken this mission along with us. By the way, the call-sign for the fire team comprising of me and Redfield was Stars. A sneaky coincidence, given that Redfield merely took the name because it was the acronym for the special operations police team he used to be a part of before Feng Hai recruited him into the Silver Wolves.

Life could be funny that way sometimes.

”She's here!” Redfield looked a little more optimistic than before, and he clenched his fists excitedly. ”You were right, Richard!”

”Yeah. I mean…where else could she have gone? So what do we do? Do we head over to Viper's sector?”

”No.” The veteran mercenary shook his head. ”We continue searching our area. Just because Viper found traces of Ana doesn't mean she's still in there. She might have passed through that area a while ago. Each fire team is to stick to their own assigned areas until we find more concrete signs that Ana is nearby.”

”Roger that.” That made sense. If all of us rushed toward a single sector, we might miss Anastasia entirely, passing by her as she made her way through one of the other areas within our search radius. He was also right that it was likely that she was no longer in that place. Anastasia probably wouldn't stay in one place for too long.

We proceeded through the forest, looking out for any signs of clues that might lead to Anastasia's whereabouts. Twigs crunched under our feet – there was little point trying to be overly stealthy. Even if we tried to navigate the treacherous terrain silently, the monster inhabitants had more than enough ways of sounding us out. Infrared vision, smell, mana sense, etc.

Speaking of which, we hadn't run into any monsters so far. I looked around the dense cluster of trees that we were traversing through, as if expecting some serpent monster to slither down one of those thick trunks. Every rustle of a branch, with slowly drifting leaves, put me on sharp alert, but I saw nothing. Neither did my Corvus.

Viper continued to report in sporadically, informing us of their progress. There were signs of Anastasia having passed through the area of the forest they were currently searching in, but they were not recent, and she evidently had gone long ago. Still, they were confident that we would be able to locate her eventually.

The other teams continued to silently sweep the forest, until one of the other teams reported in.

”Eagle here. Spotted some traces of poison. Very likely to be the target's spells. A couple of Blood Boars have died from venom, their carcasses are rotting here.”

”Might want to burn it,” his partner remarked over the com.

”Belay that order. We don't want anyone to know we are coming, especially the target. We also don't want to alarm the monsters and draw attention to us.” Feng Hai's voice came from the command channel, as calm and decisive as ever.

”Roger that, Wolf.”

”Stars to Eagle. How recent were those signs?”

”Um…relatively recent. A few hours old.” It was the female partner who answered this time. ”The target has most likely already moved on from here. But we'll continue sweeping the area. Maybe we'll find more clues.”

”Thank you, Eagle.”

”No problem.”

Lowering his hand from his com bead, Redfield sighed heavily before glancing around. He shrugged helplessly.

”It might just be our bad luck that we're not finding any signs here. Still, let's not discount anything and continue searching.”

”Affirmative,” I replied. Redfield raised an eyebrow at that, but chose not to say anything. Instead, he continued foraging ahead, occasionally glancing at me to provide directions. Gazing out of the eyes of my multiple Corvus soaring over the forest, I shook my head.

Still nothing. It sucked, but at least the other teams found the clues we needed. It didn't matter who found Anastasia, as long as she was found. What, you think me being the protagonist would automatically lead to us being the ones who located her? Reality didn't conveniently develop like that. The odds of us being the ones to find Anastasia were literally one in eight (since there were pretty much eight fire-teams sweeping the area right now). If I was a betting man – and I wasn't, because I would always lose – I wouldn't bet on such low odds.

Funnily enough, what my Corvus found wasn't Anastasia but someone else.

”Wait,” I told Redfield, holding up a fist to indicate that we should stop. Why did we bother with field gestures if I was going to speak anyway? Oh, for the readers' benefit. ”I see someone.”

”Ana?” Redfield eagerly asked. I shook my head.

”Doesn't look like it…” I paused for a moment, and then frowned. ”Those black hoods and sneaky movements…they seem like they are from the Assassins Guild.”