Chapter 375: Freeing Hollomgad.

At 2: 10 a.m, a strike team of fifty people stood ready to roll out of the Beast Valley City. Some were excited, and some were nervous. Most were simply hoping to make it back home after their mission was accomplished.

Nero was one of the unfortunates who were not going for the mission. He had to remain behind as he had been assigned the role of head of security for the city. He was practically clinging to the door frame of the security room with a tragic look on his face. "I cannot believe that you guys are going without me!" he whined, but nobody listened. "Maybe I can follow you and be the look out."

The others laughed at him as they went out to the courtyard and entered the vehicles. Tessi and Yanxi stepped forward and ripped open a portal right in the middle of the courtyard. Without missing a beat, the heavy beast trucks revved their engines and rolled straight through, landing with a loud thud on the outskirts of Hollomgad.

"Thank God for Soul maidens." Bianca declared. A journey that would have taken days, or a week, was taken in a second. In her opinion, it was the most amazing thing Soul maidens had ever accomplished.

The system immediately did a quick ping in Zyra’s mind.

[Defense wall status: Completely empty. Watchtowers: Zero guards. Enemy alert level: Sleeping like lazy pigs. There five men at the gates though.]

Zyra scoffed, resting her hands on her hips. "Look at that. These Sanctum idiots actually think they’re untouchable. They’ve completely lowered their guard." Trinity probably couldn’t spare too many soldiers to guard every town she captured. The wild lands were vast and right now, at war with the settlers and beasts.

Hunter flipped on his helmet’s optical zoom, bringing the distant horizon into razor-sharp focus at the giant clearing between the tree line and the city’s main gate. "Yeah, but there’s zero cover out there, Zyra. The moment we drive across that open field, they’ll see us coming from a mile away."

"Not if we blind them first," Zyra smirked.

Zyra summoned Spice and the Drake. The two beasts settled in the comfortable chairs which were meant for maximum beast comfort.

"Alright, heavy hitters," Zyra instructed, pointing toward the city walls. "Spice, hop on the Drake’s back. Go hover over the town and rain down a nice, heavy storm of paralyzing poison mist. Make it thick!"

The two beasts nodded in sync, looking shockingly proud of their toxic mission. Spice coiled her thick, scaly body securely around the Drake’s torso like a seatbelt. They were let out of the car and off they went into the night sky.

As soon as the giant flying duo broke through the clouds directly above Hollomgad, the Sanctum guards inside panicked. Their beasts were making a ruckus, barking and crying. Each sound, a warning of danger.

A hail of heavy gunfire sprayed into the air. But the Drake simply folded its massive wings over itself like a giant leather umbrella, bouncing the bullets off without taking a single scratch. And Spice? Her armored scales were so hard the bullets just went ping-ping-ping and fell harmlessly into the dirt.

Then, Spice opened her fangs wide and let out a huge cloud of purple mist. Droplets of paralyzing poison began raining down over the entire city like a wet, toxic summer shower.

Within seconds, the gunshots stopped. Total silence fell over Hollomgad.

"And that’s our cue!" Zyra yelled. "Drive, drive, drive!"

The beast trucks roared across the empty field, smashing straight through the Iron gates like bowling balls hitting plastic pins.

The windows of the trucks were opened and weapons were stationed out, easily shooting the paralyzed sanctum soldiers stationed near the entrance. They were frozen in place, their eyes wide with terror as they watched themselves die helplessly.

However, a few sneaky Sanctum soldiers who had ducked inside the buildings when the poison rain started were still clear headed and furious. As soon as the trucks came into their eye view, they started firing.

Bullets whizzed out from windows and wooden doors.

"Behind the walls! They’re shooting through the walls!" Daniel yelled.

"Relax, I got this!" Bullet shouted, climbing out of the sunroof of the truck with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

The shooting maniac pulled out a ripper gun equipped with wall-scanning thermal scopes. To him, the whole fight looked like a glorified arcade video game. He aimed at a blank brick wall, saw three bright red heat signatures hiding behind it, and pulled the trigger.

The high-energy rounds punched right through the concrete like paper.

"Got one! Got two! Double kill! Triple kill!" Bullet cheered, as the truck tore down the alleyway.

That thrill was not enough, so he made Daniel stop the truck and stepped out. He rolled on the ground, ran to the porch and kicked the door open. He shot his way inside, taking out two more guards in the foyer.

"Hey! Leave some for us!" Gilby screamed, running after him.

"First come, first served!" Bullet laughed maniacally, taking out three more guards behind a metal door without even blinking.

Thus, begun the competition on who could take out more guns in a minute. No surprise, Bullet won.

Within five minutes, the shooting stopped completely.

[Ding!] the system chimed merrily. [Area clear! All hostiles neutralized.]

Zyra let out a long sigh, tossing her gun over her shoulder. "Alright, team. Hand out the antidotes to the civilians and get some answers on what happened here."

As the squad began spraying the neutralizing mist to wake up the townspeople, a pale woman stumbled out of the largest house. It was Nina. The moment her eyes locked onto Zyra, her face flushed with pure relief, and tears instantly flooded her eyes.

"Divine Maiden!" Nina gasped, dropping to her knees and bowing deeply. "You_ you came back! We have waited so long for your return!"

Zyra blinked, completely thrown off. "Uh... wait, who the hell are you?"

Nina wiped her eyes and stood up, trying to compose herself. "I am Nina. I am acting as the Crown Keeper of Hollomgad until my son comes of age."

Zyra looked around the messy courtyard. "Wait, where’s Tobias... the cocky guy?"

Nina’s expression darkened, her voice dropping to a whisper. "The Sanctum guards killed him. They came barging into our town, searching for you."

Zyra’s eyes went wide as saucers. She slowly pointed a finger at her own chest. "Wait_ hold on. "Are you telling me the Sanctum army is tearing up the Wild lands just to hunt me down?"

Nina nodded grimly. "Yes, why did you think that they were doing this. It is you they want; towns have been burnt down...those that have rejected Trinity’s rule. Apparently, Trinity is completely furious. She heard you were going around calling yourself the ’True Divine Maiden’ she lost her damn mind and now, we are all going to burn."