Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit
Chapter 216: Anima(Part 15)

Chapter 216: Chapter 216: Anima(Part 15)

"Allow me to introduce you. These two are fellow S-Ranked Adventurers, Ryla Lop and Bering Pand, they’ll be helping with the raid on Anima Shield tomorrow," Remarked Antel, as he gestured to a pair of Adventurers behind him.

"Hi, I’m Ryla, it’s nice to meet you," Smiled one of them, stepping forward and holding out her hand.

"Yes, nice to meet you too," Replied Jules, as she took hold of her hand and shook it politely.

Ryla then turned to Aster, holding her hand out before she suddenly let out a startled yell as she tripped over her own feet, over-balancing before falling forward.

Aster’s eyes widened in alarm as her face slammed onto the middle of his chest and knocked him over, the two of them collapsing in a heap, Ryla landing on top of him.

Jules tensed at the sight of her breasts pressing against Aster’s chest, her eyebrow twitching slightly as she clenched her fists. She bit her lower lip as she tried to calm down, quietly taking a deep breath.

"I, uh...I’m very sorry about her. While she is highly capable in battle, she’s incredibly clumsy when she isn’t fighting, this happens a lot," Antel sighed in exasperation, as Ryla quickly got off Aster, an apologetic smile on her face.

"I’m so sorry about that, are you okay?" She remarked, before reaching down to help him up.

"Yeah, uh, I’m fine, no worries," Aster nodded in bemusement as she helped him back onto his feet, before glancing at Jules as he felt her gaze on him, tilting his head slightly in confusion as she averted her gaze with a slight huff.

"I really am very sorry, I’ll try to be more careful," Smiled Ryla sheepishly.

She appeared to be in her late-teens, with short, fluffy white hair, rabbit-like ears on top of her head, red eyes, a pale complexion, a short, fluffy white tail, and she was about average height, with a curvy figure.

"Hahaha, your clumsy hijinks never fails to amuse me, you sure keep things interesting! I’m Bering Pand, a pleasure to meet you all," Grinned the other Adventurer cheerfully.

He appeared to be in his late-twenties or early-thirties, with thick, messy black hair, bear-like ears on his head, dark brown eyes, a brown complexion, he had sharp teeth and claws, and was towering in height, with a heavy, muscular build.

It was the next day, the 9th of June, 1920. The attack on Anima Shield was set to take place the next morning, and preparations were well underway.

Wistari had ended up returning to Sylph, along with Feno, while Nero opted to stay behind and help the Knights avenge Lloyd’s death and take down Anima Shield.

"Likewise, it’s nice to meet you," Smiled Jules politely.

"Their Mana signatures are quite intense, they’re pretty strong, at least as strong as our best First-Class Knights," Raven noted thoughtfully.

"We’ll be right outside if you need anything, you can rest easy. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure no suspicious individuals enter any of your rooms," Antel assured them, before the Adventurers stepped back out.

"We should go check on Tacitus, see how far along his progress is. We don’t have a whole lot of time left, after all, we should make sure he’s on track," Pointed out Aster.

"Yes, that’s true. Alright, then, let’s go take a look," Nodded Jules, before the two of them headed out of the room and made their way towards Tacitus’s room.

He was in there alone, so that he could work on his task without any distractions or interruptions. Aster knocked on the door as he and Jules stopped in front of it, but there was no answer.

"He better not be asleep," Muttered Jules with a frown.

"No, not even he would slack off in a serious situation like this."

Aster took hold of the door handle and twisted it, opening the door and peering in, Jules doing the same.

Tacitus was seated on the bed, dozens of strips of parchment all around him, a look of deep focus in his eyes as he rapidly scribbled on one of the strips. He didn’t even notice the other two, deeply engrossed in the task before him.

"Wow, is that what he’s like when he’s formulating Spells? I’ve never seen him so focused before," Whispered Jules in fascination.

"Actually, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him like this. He usually only gets like this when he’s seriously challenged by a Spell-related task, which hasn’t happened lately thanks to how much he’s improved. So, this enemy has given him his first real challenge with Spell formulation in a while, it seems to have lit a fire in him. Let’s get out of here, we don’t want to interrupt him while he’s in the middle of his groove," Pointed out Aster.

"Yes, good point."

...

...

"What a pain. I managed to disarm all the detection traps, but there were so many of them, talk about exhausting. There’s also the illusion barrier, but we don’t really need to take that down, it could end up alerting the enemy. At any rate, they shouldn’t know that we’re here," Remarked Tacitus as he stifled a yawn.

"Great work, man, we couldn’t have pulled this off without you," Smiled Raven, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, I’m going to need a long break after that," He replied with a strained sigh.

"You can have a week at most," Responded Jules dryly, before shaking her head and adding, "No, now is not the time to discuss this. We need to focus."

"Looks like everyone else is in place, so we’ve got the place surrounded. It’s in your hands now, Commander. As soon as you sent the signal, we’ll all rush in simultaneously and attack," Remarked Aster, as he cracked his knuckles.

It was the day of the attack, the 10th of June, 1920. The forces made up of the APF, Adventurers and Knights, plus Nero, had split up into four groups.

The enemy hideout was an old, abandoned warehouse, with an illusion barrier cast over it to make it look empty and more rundown than it actually was.

The four groups were cloaked with stealth barriers that Tacitus had created, its effects included invisibility, anti-detection and sound dampening.

Tacitus had also created a number of other Spells to counter the enemy’s Spells. He had worked through the night to create the Spells, and was pretty exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes darker than usual.

"Alright, Tacitus, you’re up," Remarked Jules, as she glanced at him.

"Yeah, I know. Here goes," He replied, taking out a few Spell Cards and activating them, before adding, "These should prevent them from escaping. The usual Teleportation Jamming Spell won’t work on the advanced Teleport Spells the enemy uses, so I created a barrier than blocks teleportation instead. I utilized the same concept as the barriers they used at the hotel, and I secured it to make sure they won’t be able to nullify it."

"Perfect, we can’t let so much as a single one of them escape. Excellent work, Tacitus, you’ve outdone yourself," Jules nodded in approval.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess. Oh, one of these barriers also jams that explosive suicide Spell. If any of them try to use it, the Spell will drain their Mana and life force, but the energy will simply fizzle out instead of exploding," Explained Tacitus.

"Good, we’d all almost certainly die if several of them activated that Spell in unison. But with this, they’ll reduce their own numbers while doing no damage to us if they try to use that Spell," Responded Jules.

"That’s certainly a relief," Replied Akila, as he tried to compose himself.

He’d been shaken ever since he killed the pair that attacked him, struggling to come to terms with what he’d done. Jules had considered leaving him out of the attack, but she decided not to do that since she figured the best way to help him get over it would be to make him face it head-on.

"M-Maybe you should sit this out," Suggested Kia, as she tugged on his sleeve.

"Huh? N-No, I...I’ll be fine, I can handle it," He assured her with a smile, not all that convincingly.

"Hm, did I make the wrong decision? Maybe I should’ve excluded him, after all. No, I’ll just have to have faith in him and hope he can do this," Jules thought to herself, feeling conflicted.

"Raven, how many people do you sense in there?" Inquired Aster, as the group began getting ready to make their move.

"A little over two hundred. They’re all underground, there must be some kind of hidden entrance inside the warehouse," Raven informed him.

"I see. No matter, we’ll just bust straight through the floor instead of wasting time looking for the entrance," Responded Jules, before adding as she took a step forward, "Alright, then, it’s time. Let’s commence the attack and bring this matter to a close."