15 seconds to go.
Ti was ticking.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
BOOM!
Once the tir hit zero, the entire auction house was caught ablaze by the impact from the explosion that made the entire structure collapse.
Walls fell down, the floor cracked, and chaos ensued.
Swoosh!
At the sa ti, shadows flickered in the smoke, their blades flashing as each of the guards felt an instinctive danger, making them react to the oncoming attacks.
But—
They were late.
Spurt!
Spurt!
Spurt!
Thud!
One after the other, bodies crashed against the cracked floor, as many of the guards couldn’t react to the attacks that were directed at them out of nowhere.
Though their instincts warned them, these guards were average soldiers and their bodies, being incapable of following up with their instincts, were split apart the mont the explosion took place.
Also, the surrounding chaos served as the perfect camouflage for the soldiers to subdue them instantly without giving away their own presence.
Clank!
But not all of the guards were dead.
So of them managed to dodge or parry the incoming attacks at the last mont, giving them a mont’s ti to breathe in relief.
But such relief lasted only for an instant, as more swords were directed at them from all sides.
The soldiers who had successfully killed their targets in the first strike quickly repositioned themselves to help their fellow comrades.
"Arghh."
No. 720 too was engaged in his own fight, as his opponent, being a Silver 1, had far better senses than the others and was able to fight back fairly well.
The strongest fighters on both sides kept exchanging a series of attacks, with neither being able to overwhelm their opponent.
But ti was on 720’s side.
His teammates had already cleared most of the guards, and now only a handful remained, all of them being too injured to fight back with their full capabilities.
The leader of the guards was trying his best to turn the situation, but deep down he knew there was no chance of victory.
Let alone defeating them, even surviving was proving difficult, and he couldn’t even expect any sort of reinforcents as the explosion had turned the entire auction house upside down.
This...
No one could have ever predicted such a situation, as an auction house under the protection and supervision of the authorities was one of the safest places in the empire.
That was why there were no ergency asures put in place, nor could any type of additional reinforcents be expected to arrive in ti.
"All of you are fucking stupid to attack an auction house under—"
Clank!
"No one cares who you are under. And I think you should worry more about yourself than trying to flex your re backing."
"re, you say?! Fools!"
720 sidestepped to dodge the attack and, raising his right foot at the sa ti, landed a kick on the guard’s neck.
Thud!
The guard dropped to his knees under the impact from the kick, but he wasn’t the head guard of the vault for nothing.
The guard was quick to move, as he rolled himself backward to evade the follow-up attacks that No. 720 was launching at him.
But—
Spurt!
A deep gash appeared on his chest, as he had failed to avoid a downward thrust that was aid at him.
"Ughh."
The guard groaned in pain, blood pooling under his body.
His mind felt dizzy, but he couldn’t afford to lose his focus.
"Give up."
No. 720’s calm voice felt like soothing ice in the chaos that had engulfed their surroundings.
The pressure from all sides had begun to lt down the head guard’s will to fight, as could be seen from his grip on the sword, which showed signs of loosening with every passing mont.
Though death felt like an easy way out of the pain that was spreading across his body, the guard didn’t want to die so easily without doing a single thing.
Was it loyalty?
He didn’t know.
But his pride sure had been hurt, and so—
The guard gritted his teeth and lunged forward.
He had already accepted his imminent death, but before that he would at least try to take down an enemy along with him.
***
"Bloody fuckers!"
Arnold’s enraged shout was followed by another huge explosion across the house.
Dust and smoke had enveloped their surroundings, and before it could settle down, new explosions took place all across the auction house.
The auction hall seed to have taken the worst hit, as many of the explosives had detonated from the areas that were occupied by the guests.
The thick scent of blood had enveloped the area, making it difficult for people to maintain focus on their imdiate surroundings.
"How the hell were such explosives placed without anyone noticing a single damn thing?!"
"Sir, I—"
"Huh?!"
"Calm down."
Remzi’s low voice made Arnold stare at him with an intense bloodthirsty gaze.
Normally, such a glare from an individual who was at Platinum 5 would be enough to send most of the lower-ranked cultivators to their knees, without being able to resist.
But Remzi, despite being at a lower rank, not only didn’t show any signs of dropping down, but from his expression it felt like the guy was casually disregarding the threat from an existence that could kill him with a single strike.
"What the fuck are you—"
"Calm down, will you?"
Remzi shut down Arnold’s outrage for the second ti.
Arnold too had co to realize the impracticality of his panic and cald down in order to listen to what Remzi had to say.
"How do you think they were able to achieve all of this?"
"..."
"They had infiltrated the house long ago, and all preparations had already been made, resulting in such a coordinated attack."
Remzi spoke, glancing at the hall below.
All around the place, the guards of the auction house as well as those from the empire could be seen fighting the invaders, who were dominating the battle with every passing mont.
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