< Ramphil, the Vagabond (Part 2) >
Four days later…
This disguise is definitely effective.
Crack! Crush!
Ramphil ripped apart the monsters mouth and kicked the monster around. Then he murmured, I dont know about the Reavers, but this disguise is attracting only monsters.
Ramphil sighed as he finished off another group of monsters. The monster that Ramphil encountered was ten feet tall and had a mouth big enough to swallow a house. Many people would panic if they encountered such a monster, but Ramphil was as cool as ever.
[You are pretty monstrous. You finished off that monster so easily.]
You have a problem with that?
[You need to shoot the head of that monster to finish it off. Or else it regenerates.]
Ramphil had killed the monster with brute force instead of killing it by attacking the weak point. It happened so fast that Zin did not have any time to advise him properly. Ramphil had killed a monster without giving it the time to regenerate itself.
What can I do? Its the first time I ever encountered such a monster.
[True. You killed it, and thats what matters.]
Zin felt that Ramphil was a battle machine with extraordinary combat skills. Ramphil did not hesitate in engaging enemies and killing them off by exploiting their weaknesses.
Ramphils advantage was not only his outstanding physique, but also his calm during battle. He had the ability to calmly assess the situation and execute an attack without hesitation.
Zin was simply amazed at the way Ramphil was able to engage in a fight.
It was apparent that the stench of the mud coming from Ramphil was only attracting monsters. If the Reavers witnessed what Ramphil was doing to the monsters, they would not dare to come close to him.
And there were no Reavers to be seen yet.
Zin was extremely happy, as he extracted chips from the monsters that Ramphil was killing.
Ramphil continued to wander around the streets. Harbin was not a small town, and the search process was going to take a while. In the last four days, he was only able to kill monsters.
Ramphil murmured as he fixed the clothes that he was wearing, I am starting to doubt the effectiveness of this solution.
[Oh, Mr. Executor, you need to have more patience than this. Just wait a bit longer. Im sure well hit the jackpot soon.]
Whatever, man Ramphil was too tired to even complain, and he continued to wander around without talking. He continued to kill the monsters that were attracted to the smell.
——
The sun was setting, and the moon was rising. The lonely vagabond was walking through the darkness, and passed by a ruin where the apartments had collapsed and formed a wall.
The rubble seemed to be set up in a certain way, in the form of a guard post. Inside the rubble, there was a team of Reavers on vigil.
Hey, hey, over there.
Whats up?
Its a vagabond.
A vagabond wearing only rags was passing by the guard post. The Reavers were operating the guard post secretively, as they did not want to reveal their presence. They quietly loaded their crude rifles, and observed the vagabond who was walking slowly past.
That dude. He doesnt look good at all.
It seemed like the vagabond was about to change into a monster at any given moment. The Reavers did not hunt around their bases.
The Left Hand Reavers who controlled the Harbin area were eager to hunt down the other Reaver group. Starting a fight near their base would expose their location to the Left Hands, so the two Reavers did not attack the refugees that were passing by their secret hideout.
But things were different if a vagabond was passing by. The Reavers knew how much of a nuisance it would be if a vagabond turned into a monster near their hideout. The vagabond might pass by quietly, but if vagabond turned into a monster it might cause great trouble. The monster would continue to crave CP, and would sniff out any chips around the area. It was very probable that the monster would sniff the chips stored in their secret hideout.
It was smarter to finish off the vagabond before it turned into a monster.
Lets shoot and kill him.
Okay.
The vagabond was in the range of their rifles, and the two Reavers loaded up.
Three Two
They held their breaths, and were ready to pull the triggers.
Shank!
In a split second, someone slit the neck of the Reaver using a blade gauntlet.
Urrb!
The person covered the mouth of the other Reaver with his left hand, while ripping apart the neck of the other Reaver.
Arggh!
Snap. Crack.
The Reaver helplessly watched his comrade getting his neck twisted and ripped apart.
Kargg! Ngarrgh!
Crack. Crrraaack!
In a matter of seconds, the Reaver was dead with his cervical bone yanked out by the blade gauntlet. The other Reaver looked up at the man in terror.
Shhh. The man shook blood off his right hand, and started to speak as if nothing had happened.
Before the Reavers could count to three, Zin had overpowered them.
—
Ramphil had noticed the sounds of the Reavers ahead of time, and he alerted Zin to them. Ramphil could have attacked them directly, but Zin wanted to take care of things quietly, so he attacked the Reavers and overpowered them.
If they got off a shot, it would have alerted all the Reavers nearby.
One Reaver was dead, and the other was terrified and could not lift up his head. Ramphil went straight to Zin and said, My clothes, please.
Zin took out the uniform from the void storage and passed it to Ramphil.
You really look good on that outfit, are you sure you want to change?
Shut up.
Ramphil took off the rags and put on his uniform. His body still smelled bad. He had worn the smelly rag for four straight days, and the smell was not going to away so easily.
The Reaver realized that he had fallen into a trap, but it was too late. Ramphil changed into the uniform, and fixed his hair.
As the Reaver looked at the Wargrave uniform, he remembered the failed raid on the armored vehicle. His comrades who had participated in the raid were caught and killed.
There were still conversations going on within the other group of Reavers. Some had thought that the idea of attacking the Wargrave unit was crazy.
In the end, their plan failed, and the Wargrave did not attack the Left Hand Reavers, but now they had found out the real culprit of the raid.
Ramphil started to interrogate the Reaver. Now, you will answer only my questions. His voice was extremely calm. Are you the Reavers who acted like the existing Reavers and attacked the Wargrave armored vehicle?
Please spare my life. Urrb! Ramphil covered the mouth of the Reaver and snapped the Reavers finger.
Arrgbbbb! Urb!
I will tell you one last time. Answer only my question.
Huuurb! Hub!
Ramphil spoke very calmly for a person who had just broken another mans fingers. Are you the Reavers who acted like the existing Reavers and attacked the Wargrave armored vehicle?
The Reaver realized that the soldier in front of him was no ordinary person. The Reaver was not able to scream for help, and Ramphil was not going to let him live anyways. Ramphil was going to get the information that he needed from the Reaver and then kill him.
The Reaver had to choose if he was going to be killed without pain or get tortured to death.
The Reaver nodded, as he did not want to be tortured by the soldier in front of him.
When you pass the next apartment ruins, there is a big tunnel. The tunnel is sealed, but if you go through a small hole, there is a big underground area. All the Reavers are there.
.
.
They have basic rifles, but they also have chipbusters.
.
.
There are about a hundred Reavers in total.
.
.
The terrified Reaver answered all that he was asked. He told Ramphil about the location of the base, the size of the group, and the weapons they carried.
Ramphil snapped more fingers when the Reaver hesitated to answer, and the Reaver ended up answering in pain and fear.
How many guard posts are there in total?
There are five of them. Two Reavers are assigned to each post
As the Reaver was explaining things to Ramphil, Zin was checking the dead Reaver and retrieving their ammunition.
Tell me the locations.
The Reaver told him the location of the five guard posts, and Ramphil studied the dark ruins of Harbin.
I will take care of the guard posts.
Okay, Zin agreed easily.
Ramphil asked Zin to take care of the Reaver and disappeared into the darkness. He was going to take care of all the guard posts and attack the main base. It was critical for Ramphil and Zin to take down all the guard posts before the next shift.
The Reaver was trembling in fear as he looked at Zin. Ramphil was the person who had tortured the Reaver, but it was Zin who had killed his comrade in the blink of an eye.
The Reaver enjoyed killing other persons, but he had never seen someone kill others without any emotion.
Hmmm hey, I have a question, Zin asked the Reaver casually as he was cleaning up his gauntlet.
Yes, yes please ask me
Why are the Reavers eyeing Harbin?
Yes?
Why are you guys trying to take over Harbin? If you needed a base, there is ChangChun in the south, and there are many towns that are unoccupied by Reavers.
There were many ruined cities that no Reavers were living in. There was no reason for this group of Reavers to take over Harbin specifically. Even though a city next to a fortress was better, there was no reason for the Reavers to sacrifice twenty-some Reavers to take over Harbin.
Why are they focused on taking over Harbin?
I, I dont know. I am telling the truth
Hmmm
The Reaver did not seem to be lying.
Many of us were against this plan There was no good reason for us to be hiding like a rat. But our leader was so stubborn He insisted that we had to take over Harbin
It meant that the Reavers reluctantly followed the direction of their leader. There was a reason for this decision, but the underlings did not know what. Zin felt something fishy was going on.
There were many things that were unexplainable. However, Zin decided to finish what he was requested to do, since he had been paid. Zin did not like to leave anything unfinished. His main goal was to kill all the attackers, but he thought that it would be good to understand the motive behind the attack.
I should spare the life of the leader.
Zin did not have any other questions to ask, and at that moment, Ramphil came back.
I took care of them.
There was no noise, and it seemed like Ramphil had no trouble taking care of all the guard posts.
Good. Then, lets move on.
Huh?!
Snap! Crack!
Zin snapped the neck of the Reaver and stood up.
The Reavers was dead in a blink of an eye, and he still had his eyes open. Ramphil moved on as he didnt really care about the dead Reaver.
—
Ramphil agreed to Zins suggestion to capture the leader alive. They both wanted to find out what the real motive for the attack was.
The Reavers were hiding in a collapsed subway station of Harbin.
The tunnel was not connected to other stations, and the Reavers were using the confined area as a shelter.
There was a small passage under a sinkhole that led to the hidden base of the Reavers.
Although it was not visible from the top of the sinkhole, there were guards at the bottom. A battle would start right away if Zin and Ramphil went down the sink hole. The dead Reaver’s information might be inaccurate, but based on the map of Harbin, the sink hole area led to the underground subway station.
There was no real attack plan for Zin and Ramphil.
They were planning to attack secretively until they were found out by the Reavers. From that point on, they would attack in full force. Ramphil and Zin went down the sink hole as quietly as they could. Ramphil did not have any silencer, so Zin was in charge of any covert attacks. Ramphils laser gun would create a bright flash with a loud gun sound.
Although Zin didnt use it that often, he held a compound bow in his hand. A compound bow was more effective in killing enemies silently. Zin drew an arrow, and slowly walked down the passage.
In the darkness, he found two guards who were fooling around. They were probably thinking that nothing was going to happen that night, the same as any other night. Zin signaled Ramphil to stop.
The two guards did not spot the silent assassins.
Psshoot!
Karrggk!
As soon as the first arrow struck the head of a guard, Zin drew his second arrow and shot again.
Psshoot!
Ack!
As soon as the first guard fell to the ground, the second arrow pierced through the head of the second Reaver. In couple of seconds, the entrance of the base was overpowered, and Zin signaled Ramphil to come on down.
Great spot for a hideout.
The entrance was so small that only a single person could pass through at a time. It was probable that they found this underground facility first and blocked off the entrance in this way. In the guard post at the entrance, they found crude rifles and crappy grenade launchers.