Clémentine watched as a gigantic explosion swallowed Aurora and her body was sent flying, hitting a building.
Her mind went blank, as if she had been disconnected from reality.
She could see the cloud of dust rising where Aurora had fallen, but she was not the first to react.
An intense killing intention that made Clémentine, Érica and Leslie tremble with fear was emanated.
Alice put on a cold expression and dozens of black arms were shot at the tank piercing through her thick metal armor, spreading the darkness of her arms as if she wished to devour them.
“AghhH!”
“UGHH!”
“Alice...”
Screams echoed from within, but in the midst of that, Aurora’s voice was heard.
“Alice, stop it,” Aurora ordered, and Alice, whose expression made Clémentine shiver, stopped.
Clémentine, Érica and Leslie were frozen by Alice’s strong presence.
That usual indifference had turned into a ruthless, murderous intent of someone who would not hesitate to kill anyone who stood in her way.
Aurora sighed, getting up as she shook out her clothes, shaking her head.
“Are you okay?” Clémentine asked with concern, approaching quickly.
Leslie immediately pulled out some potions and elixirs from her family while Érica started looking for a high-quality healing scroll.
Clémentine, using her psionic abilities, checked Aurora’s body to check for damage as best she could, even checking her mental strength to see if she was weakened.
However, Aurora was completely fine.
“I teleported in midair and couldn’t create platforms to resist the impact force,” Aurora comforted, and stretching her body, she muttered. “Also, the barriers withstood the full impact.”
Not caring about the look on the trio’s faces, nor Alice who still had her black spears sticking through the tank, Aurora approached the woman and her daughter.
“Are you okay?” Aurora asked with a serene smile, seeking to comfort the woman and her daughter.
Clémentine remembered Alexey’s story when he was saved and realized that was the smile he saw before he passed out.
It was the smile of someone who had been through so many situations, who understood that in this scary moment, it was best to reassure them.
“Thank you... Thank you... Thank you,” murmured the woman repeatedly as she hugged her daughter.
In a situation like this where a tank had fired on them that someone would protect them by risking themselves was too much to take in and all she could do was repeat those words over and over again.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Aurora asked, kneeling before them, looking to calm her down.
“You don’t need to ask, you know,” Alice interjected with a cold and angry expression.
Clémentine felt quite frightened by Alice’s indifferent tone... She was completely different from her normal attitude.
“GAhh...”
They heard groans of pain from inside the tank that was pierced by Alice’s black spears.
Aurora gave Alice a serious look and then looked at the woman with a smile, waiting for her response.
“They... They... They... They chased us... My husband ran away to get the attention of other militiamen, but... But we ran into a tank... They shot nearby... And then they followed us... They were playing with us,” stammered the woman in a trembling voice full of fear, she raised her head and asked. “Can you?”
“Yes, just tell me where your husband is. I’ll take care of checking the area and help him,” Aurora answered immediately.
“To the north... Near Nakuru Memorial Hospital,” murmured the woman in a low voice.
However, Clementine could see how tightly she hugged her daughter and could feel the hopelessness in her voice.
The woman did not expect to see her husband safe.
Anger... That’s the first emotion she could feel as she clenched her fist tightly.
Ever since she had seen the wounded in the hospital and heard their stories of how they were injured, she felt anger.
Reading a report and hearing a story was not the same as living it herself.
General Kavuri’s forces were lunatics... Who deserved to die, such an idea flashed through Clémentine’s mind and led to her being able to perceive how emotions exploded along with a dark desire that threatened to come out
Her gaze immediately went to the tank, where the moans continued to be heard.
“Liam, did you hear?” Aurora asked, using the communication network.
In response, space distorted as High Priestess Xaali arrived after teleporting in.
“I came as fast as I could,” Xaali replied after employing space magic to move along with some paladins.
She seemed to have taken only a few of the paladins beside her.
“Send the woman and her daughter back to camp. Also take Clémentine, Érica and Leslie,” Aurora ordered with a serious expression and, looking at Alice, stated. “Alice, don’t kill them. I don’t want to get blood on my hands.”
“Aurora,” Érica was the one who interrupted with a cold expression, looking at the tank.
Leslie also had a hand on her gun holster and Clémentine, in turn, revealed a solemn and icy look.
They couldn’t let them leave alive.
And how could they? Those bastards were playing with the lives of a mother and daughter, chasing them in a tank, enjoying watching them run in despair.
There was no way they could be allowed to leave them alive.
They had to be eliminated so that they would not perform these horrible actions again... Such was Clémentine’s thought, and from the expressions of the other members of her group; it was likely that they thought the same.
Aurora’s expression turned solemn as she realized their intentions.
“They don’t need to get their hands dirty with blood, believing that killing one will be able to wipe them all out. Things aren’t that simple. It’s preferable that they cross that line when necessary, and today it’s not,” Aurora said, and looking at the tank, she asked. “Besides, I’ll send them to the Lord of Mombasa’s camp. What do you think will happen to them?”
That question gave the trio pause.
“It’s simple. They’ll be hanged or shot. After all, they have to show a strong hand against heinous militiamen like these,” Aurora answered her own question and with a serious look, she ordered. “Now obey orders.”
******
Aurora watched as Clémentine, Érica and Leslie left with complicated expressions on their faces, but her mind was focused elsewhere.
—There are no reports of this situation on General Kavuri’s network.
Her system quickly informed her of the situation.
“Chief, I have located the hospital, but...” Liam reported without finishing his words.
The woman herself knew what had happened, that was why, although she asked hopefully she didn’t have the strength to come to terms with what had happened.
In the time she had been running away, the other militiamen already... Aurora clenched her fists and hid each of her emotions.
“Alice, take them out.” Aurora ordered in a serious tone.
She wasn’t lying when she said she would hand over the tank crew to the Lord of Mombasa’s forces.
It was true that she didn’t want to get her hands dirty with blood, but that didn’t mean she was naïve about what happened to prisoners of war in this conflict between warlords.
The Lord of Mombasa had his faults, however, he was someone who was very straightforward in dealing with war criminals like General Kavuri’s forces.
Was she hypocritical to let others do the job?
Perhaps, even so, Aurora had no need to act and would do so when necessary, as she always had.
Alice, however, was very different.
She after damaging the tank enough that it could not be repaired or used again, with her black arms pulled the crew out by throwing them with enormous force against the ground.
“AGHHh...”
“Ughh...”
“Gahhh...”
Every time they hit the ground, her bones cracked and spat blood, aggravating her puncture wounds that Alice had inflicted on them.
Aurora didn’t stop her friend.
At this point, she couldn’t stop her.
Just as she could jump in the face of tank fire to save a stranger, Alice would do as she wished, with no one to stop her.
Her indifference extended to very vast areas and her image of a gluttonous young woman who didn’t care about her surroundings was very different when she was angry.
“Better?” Aurora asked as Alice stopped at the sight of five severely wounded militiamen bleeding on the ground with their broken bones.
Alice looked back.
“You think I’m better off for leaving some idiots alive who injured my friend?” Alice asked with a serious expression that she very rarely gave.
Aurora sketched a soft smile that let out a bit of her hidden weariness and didn’t answer.
She too couldn’t control herself if something happened to her friend, though that case would be rare, as Alice had too many strengths and too few weaknesses.
“Xaali, take them to the camp of the forces of the Lord of Mombasa,” Aurora ordered and seeing Xaali look at her pointing to one of her paladins to accompany her, she shook her head and added. “We’ll just check the area.”
“Let me know if you need backup,” Xaali replied, nodding as she cast a space magic spell, disappearing.
If something had happened when he was facing Aziz, it was a pretty sure thing that Xaali would arrive with Akira using space magic.
“Let’s go,” Aurora said, starting to run toward where the woman had pointed, following the traces of combat.
Amid her direction, she began to soar, using platforms that were created at her feet while the stealth system of her combat suit was activated.
Alice followed her, using a device to fly and hide.
—Two hundred meters north.
Her system gave another report pinpointing the location of recent explosions.
Aurora headed towards that location.
Neither Alice nor her system nor Liam, who was always connected to her network, mentioned anything about her action.
For many, she would be reckless, but Aurora acted, following her capabilities.
An old tank without major modifications could not hurt her.
With her suit and strong defenses, only an S-Rank attack could be enough to seriously hurt her or it would take consecutive attacks with A-Rank strength to cause some wounds to her powerful body.
As a former swordswoman her body was not very strong as she had focused on agility, however, as a fighter her body gained even greater endurance, covering that former weakness.
In the end, even if she were weaker, she would have acted the same way.
When they reached the area where the battle was, Aurora scanned the surroundings, looking to decipher any recent clues, and her expression changed as she smelled a recognizable scent.
“It’s coming from the building in the alley,” reported Alice, catching the same scent of blood.
Aurora immediately stepped forward, following the scent even though, at this point, they couldn’t pick up any presence.
As they entered the alley, she walked into a building and up the staircase, following the scent of blood that was becoming more and more intense.
“...”
Entering the room where the smell of blood was intense, she opened the door, finding a cruelly shot corpse.
No, at this point it was not shooting, he was riddled in such a way that the body at this point was unrecognizable to such an extent that anyone would frown.
The silence, the mangled body and the nauseating smell of blood caused Aurora to clench her fists and after a moment, she released her grip, releasing an exhausted sigh.
“What are we going to do?” Alice asked in a soft voice beside her.
What to do?
She had mentioned to Leslie that they were here to escort refugees and not intervene in the war... She had told her of times to act and for when to refrain.
However, this time, she shook her head.
“Come on. It won’t be ‘me’ intervening today,” Aurora said calmly.
“I understand,” Alice murmured, knowing her friend perfectly well.
Sensing the silent fury hidden in the response.
Clémentine watched as a gigantic explosion swallowed Aurora and her body was sent flying, hitting a building.
Her mind went blank, as if she had been disconnected from reality.
She could see the cloud of dust rising where Aurora had fallen, but she was not the first to react.
An intense killing intention that made Clémentine, Érica and Leslie tremble with fear was emanated.
Alice put on a cold expression and dozens of black arms were shot at the tank piercing through her thick metal armor, spreading the darkness of her arms as if she wished to devour them.
“AghhH!”
“UGHH!”
“Alice...”
Screams echoed from within, but in the midst of that, Aurora’s voice was heard.
“Alice, stop it,” Aurora ordered, and Alice, whose expression made Clémentine shiver, stopped.
Clémentine, Érica and Leslie were frozen by Alice’s strong presence.
That usual indifference had turned into a ruthless, murderous intent of someone who would not hesitate to kill anyone who stood in her way.
Aurora sighed, getting up as she shook out her clothes, shaking her head.
“Are you okay?” Clémentine asked with concern, approaching quickly.
Leslie immediately pulled out some potions and elixirs from her family while Érica started looking for a high-quality healing scroll.
Clémentine, using her psionic abilities, checked Aurora’s body to check for damage as best she could, even checking her mental strength to see if she was weakened.
However, Aurora was completely fine.
“I teleported in midair and couldn’t create platforms to resist the impact force,” Aurora comforted, and stretching her body, she muttered. “Also, the barriers withstood the full impact.”
Not caring about the look on the trio’s faces, nor Alice who still had her black spears sticking through the tank, Aurora approached the woman and her daughter.
“Are you okay?” Aurora asked with a serene smile, seeking to comfort the woman and her daughter.
Clémentine remembered Alexey’s story when he was saved and realized that was the smile he saw before he passed out.
It was the smile of someone who had been through so many situations, who understood that in this scary moment, it was best to reassure them.
“Thank you... Thank you... Thank you,” murmured the woman repeatedly as she hugged her daughter.
In a situation like this where a tank had fired on them that someone would protect them by risking themselves was too much to take in and all she could do was repeat those words over and over again.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Aurora asked, kneeling before them, looking to calm her down.
“You don’t need to ask, you know,” Alice interjected with a cold and angry expression.
Clémentine felt quite frightened by Alice’s indifferent tone... She was completely different from her normal attitude.
“GAhh...”
They heard groans of pain from inside the tank that was pierced by Alice’s black spears.
Aurora gave Alice a serious look and then looked at the woman with a smile, waiting for her response.
“They... They... They... They chased us... My husband ran away to get the attention of other militiamen, but... But we ran into a tank... They shot nearby... And then they followed us... They were playing with us,” stammered the woman in a trembling voice full of fear, she raised her head and asked. “Can you?”
“Yes, just tell me where your husband is. I’ll take care of checking the area and help him,” Aurora answered immediately.
“To the north... Near Nakuru Memorial Hospital,” murmured the woman in a low voice.
However, Clementine could see how tightly she hugged her daughter and could feel the hopelessness in her voice.
The woman did not expect to see her husband safe.
Anger... That’s the first emotion she could feel as she clenched her fist tightly.
Ever since she had seen the wounded in the hospital and heard their stories of how they were injured, she felt anger.
Reading a report and hearing a story was not the same as living it herself.
General Kavuri’s forces were lunatics... Who deserved to die, such an idea flashed through Clémentine’s mind and led to her being able to perceive how emotions exploded along with a dark desire that threatened to come out
Her gaze immediately went to the tank, where the moans continued to be heard.
“Liam, did you hear?” Aurora asked, using the communication network.
In response, space distorted as High Priestess Xaali arrived after teleporting in.
“I came as fast as I could,” Xaali replied after employing space magic to move along with some paladins.
She seemed to have taken only a few of the paladins beside her.
“Send the woman and her daughter back to camp. Also take Clémentine, Érica and Leslie,” Aurora ordered with a serious expression and, looking at Alice, stated. “Alice, don’t kill them. I don’t want to get blood on my hands.”
“Aurora,” Érica was the one who interrupted with a cold expression, looking at the tank.
Leslie also had a hand on her gun holster and Clémentine, in turn, revealed a solemn and icy look.
They couldn’t let them leave alive.
And how could they? Those bastards were playing with the lives of a mother and daughter, chasing them in a tank, enjoying watching them run in despair.
There was no way they could be allowed to leave them alive.
They had to be eliminated so that they would not perform these horrible actions again... Such was Clémentine’s thought, and from the expressions of the other members of her group; it was likely that they thought the same.
Aurora’s expression turned solemn as she realized their intentions.
“They don’t need to get their hands dirty with blood, believing that killing one will be able to wipe them all out. Things aren’t that simple. It’s preferable that they cross that line when necessary, and today it’s not,” Aurora said, and looking at the tank, she asked. “Besides, I’ll send them to the Lord of Mombasa’s camp. What do you think will happen to them?”
That question gave the trio pause.
“It’s simple. They’ll be hanged or shot. After all, they have to show a strong hand against heinous militiamen like these,” Aurora answered her own question and with a serious look, she ordered. “Now obey orders.”
******
Aurora watched as Clémentine, Érica and Leslie left with complicated expressions on their faces, but her mind was focused elsewhere.
—There are no reports of this situation on General Kavuri’s network.
Her system quickly informed her of the situation.
“Chief, I have located the hospital, but...” Liam reported without finishing his words.
The woman herself knew what had happened, that was why, although she asked hopefully she didn’t have the strength to come to terms with what had happened.
In the time she had been running away, the other militiamen already... Aurora clenched her fists and hid each of her emotions.
“Alice, take them out.” Aurora ordered in a serious tone.
She wasn’t lying when she said she would hand over the tank crew to the Lord of Mombasa’s forces.
It was true that she didn’t want to get her hands dirty with blood, but that didn’t mean she was naïve about what happened to prisoners of war in this conflict between warlords.
The Lord of Mombasa had his faults, however, he was someone who was very straightforward in dealing with war criminals like General Kavuri’s forces.
Was she hypocritical to let others do the job?
Perhaps, even so, Aurora had no need to act and would do so when necessary, as she always had.
Alice, however, was very different.
She after damaging the tank enough that it could not be repaired or used again, with her black arms pulled the crew out by throwing them with enormous force against the ground.
“AGHHh...”
“Ughh...”
“Gahhh...”
Every time they hit the ground, her bones cracked and spat blood, aggravating her puncture wounds that Alice had inflicted on them.
Aurora didn’t stop her friend.
At this point, she couldn’t stop her.
Just as she could jump in the face of tank fire to save a stranger, Alice would do as she wished, with no one to stop her.
Her indifference extended to very vast areas and her image of a gluttonous young woman who didn’t care about her surroundings was very different when she was angry.
“Better?” Aurora asked as Alice stopped at the sight of five severely wounded militiamen bleeding on the ground with their broken bones.
Alice looked back.
“You think I’m better off for leaving some idiots alive who injured my friend?” Alice asked with a serious expression that she very rarely gave.
Aurora sketched a soft smile that let out a bit of her hidden weariness and didn’t answer.
She too couldn’t control herself if something happened to her friend, though that case would be rare, as Alice had too many strengths and too few weaknesses.
“Xaali, take them to the camp of the forces of the Lord of Mombasa,” Aurora ordered and seeing Xaali look at her pointing to one of her paladins to accompany her, she shook her head and added. “We’ll just check the area.”
“Let me know if you need backup,” Xaali replied, nodding as she cast a space magic spell, disappearing.
If something had happened when he was facing Aziz, it was a pretty sure thing that Xaali would arrive with Akira using space magic.
“Let’s go,” Aurora said, starting to run toward where the woman had pointed, following the traces of combat.
Amid her direction, she began to soar, using platforms that were created at her feet while the stealth system of her combat suit was activated.
Alice followed her, using a device to fly and hide.
—Two hundred meters north.
Her system gave another report pinpointing the location of recent explosions.
Aurora headed towards that location.
Neither Alice nor her system nor Liam, who was always connected to her network, mentioned anything about her action.
For many, she would be reckless, but Aurora acted, following her capabilities.
An old tank without major modifications could not hurt her.
With her suit and strong defenses, only an S-Rank attack could be enough to seriously hurt her or it would take consecutive attacks with A-Rank strength to cause some wounds to her powerful body.
As a former swordswoman her body was not very strong as she had focused on agility, however, as a fighter her body gained even greater endurance, covering that former weakness.
In the end, even if she were weaker, she would have acted the same way.
When they reached the area where the battle was, Aurora scanned the surroundings, looking to decipher any recent clues, and her expression changed as she smelled a recognizable scent.
“It’s coming from the building in the alley,” reported Alice, catching the same scent of blood.
Aurora immediately stepped forward, following the scent even though, at this point, they couldn’t pick up any presence.
As they entered the alley, she walked into a building and up the staircase, following the scent of blood that was becoming more and more intense.
“...”
Entering the room where the smell of blood was intense, she opened the door, finding a cruelly shot corpse.
No, at this point it was not shooting, he was riddled in such a way that the body at this point was unrecognizable to such an extent that anyone would frown.
The silence, the mangled body and the nauseating smell of blood caused Aurora to clench her fists and after a moment, she released her grip, releasing an exhausted sigh.
“What are we going to do?” Alice asked in a soft voice beside her.
What to do?
She had mentioned to Leslie that they were here to escort refugees and not intervene in the war... She had told her of times to act and for when to refrain.
However, this time, she shook her head.
“Come on. It won’t be ‘me’ intervening today,” Aurora said calmly.
“I understand,” Alice murmured, knowing her friend perfectly well.
Sensing the silent fury hidden in the response.
