Chapter 156: It's Cardinal!
In the gloomy night, the fortress stood like a forgotten gem in the barren desert. There was dull lumination inside the walls, signifying human presence. Leo leaned against the surface of the land and said, "System, the attribute panel."
'Ping: Here, host!'
Name : Leo Cardinal
Age : 24
Level : Intermediate Father
Strength :12
Stamina : 14 (Permanent Augmentation)
Intelligence : 10
Speed : 11.5
Talent : Ceramic Artisan. Hairstyling, Nurti-Chef, Piano Maester.
Items : Tears Of Athena.
Buffs: Horse Stamina, Calm In Chaos and Brave In Need, Three Vital Recovery chances, Danger Perception.
Leo looked at his side, and found Snow gazing at him, and the couple nodded to each other, Snow pressed the button on the walkie and said, "Reckon on."
There were seven positions where other guards were present to watch out for enemy sentries, they reported, "Clear."
One after the other, reports came and Snow gave a thumbs up to Leo. The young man dashed ahead quickly. He kept his body low, but even then his speed was quicker than most of the people in the hit squad.
One of the scouts said, "Beta, there is a camera system around the Fortress."
Snow frowned and said, "Milo, jam the signal."
Milo gave a clear on the comms and took action and Snow mumbled to Axel, "They are sure well prepared for many things."
While speaking she kept her binoculars aimed at a specific point which was supposed to be Leo's entry point.
Axel replied, "The camera system is sensitive to motion, and will only react when it detects something. Thankfully we are moving from the back of the fortress, the front is loaded with proper posts. They were in the middle of the fortification process when Hector was removed from his position."
Snow nodded, and clucked her tongue as she wondered out loud, "I wonder what the old coots of the house would think if they realized how much money had their loyal hound embezzled over the years. Losers."
Axel didn't reply on this, and he saw a shadow moving along the wall, a sentry was patrolling the wall, and if he continued further, he would notice Leo and that would alert the forces inside the Fort. He was about to say something to Snow, when he saw the lady putting down the binoculars, and picking up the sniper rifle, Long Dart X3.
She quickly adjusted the scope and took aim. Then within a blink she squeezed the trigger, letting a bullet fly and claim the head of the sentry. Snow just made the first kill from a distance of seven hundred meters, and it was a headshot.
She picked up the comms and said, "Wall clear, keep moving."
Leo replied, "Roger that, Beta."
He didn't like the idea of codes earlier, but Snow insisted on this, so that even if the enemy picks up their chatter, they would not be able to recognize them. Goto Desert was a small territory of a big barren empire which stood on the foundation of crude oil.
Here, money was everything and Pinnacle Securities happened to have a subsidiary that was a major fund injector in this place. This is why Leo chose this location as the corner where Hector would suffer and die, because here none could stop Leo.
…
Leo reached the wall of the fort, it was around thirty feet tall, and there happened to be a door as well. Leo carefully leaned closer to the ten feet wooden door, and then he said, "The door is sealed, scaling the wall."
He took out a pair of knives from the holster on his thighs, and jumped high before stabbing one of the knives through the centuries-old cement alternative. The stab was smooth and the hold was good. He pushed his feet against the wall and began to pull himself up with the other knife stabbing through again.
The guards who could see this were shocked at the sight. Leo looked very delicate but the man was scaling a rough wall with almost no holding surface like he was a lizard.
Snow smirked at this and asked in the comm, "What else have you been hiding from me?"
Leo chuckled and said, "I was offered a position in the special forces but they were too beneath me."
Snow replied, "I never knew you could boast this wildly, also, focus on the climb, I won't carry you if you broke a bone."
Leo replied calmly, "How cruel, but I like it."
The guards sighed and one of them said, "Sir, I used to think that only the people like us, who walk through bloodshed and death are crazy, but you two are flirting so casually right before a big battle, your nerves are unsettling."
The couple chuckled light but didn't reply. They couldn't say that it was their way of calming their minds, while Leo had the skill to boast, Calm in chaos, Snow was curious about the things he hid from her.
The young man finished scaling the wall, and said, "I will head over to the generator, and then the doors, be ready."
"Roger."
That said, Leo first moved along the wall quickly and he used his suppressed handgun to take down guards and hide them in the dark shadows. He was quick, smooth and ruthless. After a few minutes, he approached the place where the generator was kept. This place was covered with solar panels, and batteries were connected to the main circuits.
Looking around, Leo found no guards, and he frowned, this didn't seem right, he sat down in his position, hidden in the shadow. After a few minutes, he sensed that something was really wrong in this place.
The generator panel was placed in the center of the court, which was surrounded by a few pillars and Leo sensed people behind those pillars. He frowned, from his position, it was impossible to get a clean shot at the hidden enemy, and without that, even if he was super strong, he wouldn't be able to withstand the attack from all sides.
As he was thinking about something, he jolted up and said, 'System, open the store.'
'Ping: System store open.'
Leo looked at the holographic list of items and then he used his mind to type the words in the search bar, 'Night vision.'
The list was sorted out and then Leo saw a few items, one of them was called, "Night Eye: After the purchase the system will augment the normal eyes of the host and provide it with a night vision power. The process will render the host blind for a week and then the vision will gradually restore. Note: It is extremely painful to go through the physical augmentation process."
Leo canceled the idea of buying this skill, and all the similar skills were removed from the preference, leaving only two consumable skills, one was the technology for a small night vision drone, while the other was a pair of contact lenses. The price for the latter was about ten million Yuan, and Leo sighed, it was even more costly than a unit of military grade contact lenses.
He looked at the accumulated balance that had been set aside by the system and decided to purchase it. The system replied, 'Ping: The purchase has been made and the item is placed inside the host's pocket, please check.'
Leo checked his pocket and he found a small case of the night vision lenses inside, he quickly put them on, the description mentioned that the lenses were dust repellent and smudge proof. Not only that, once placed on the eyeball they would move around to find the perfect positioning as well.
Leo had to kill his curiosity on how they worked, and blinked a few times to adjust his eyesight. He looked around and found no difference in his sight, the colors and everything else looked normal. However, when he focused on the darkness behind the pillars, he found two people leaning against one pillar, and there were around nine such pillars.
He smiled and mumbled, "Your bad luck."
He took out his handgun and stretched his body and using the max of his abilities he vanished from his spot. The speed attribute was let loose, and Leo moved like a specter, before anyone could even react, he shot two hidden guards, and moved on to the next pair. After thirty seconds, Leo had an erratic breathing but he had killed eighteen guards with ease. The time could have been shorter, if he hadn't reloaded his gun.
He took aim at the batteries of the generator and then shot them all before he charged up his fist and dashed forward to punch the generator panel.
Bang!
Followed by the sound, a loud buzz echoed through the fortress, and the guards realized that something was wrong.
"What happened!"
"Someone check the generator."
All sorts of calls were being made, and Leo smirked as he used this confusion to sneak around the fortress one more time, taking the same way back and headed toward the sealed door.
At the same time, Hector was roused from his brief sleep. His expression wasn't good. Steven came over, and said, "Someone has attacked us."
Hector clenched his fist and said, "It's not someone, it's Cardinal! Get all your men, and bring me his head!"