Chapter 951: The decoy battle (3)
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They entered a smaller, more secluded room. The clone pushed the ckguard into a chair, ensuring he was restrained before going behind the chair and keeping the man seated.
"What''s your name?" Amber asked, her tone firm but not unkind.
The ckguard red at her, defiance flickering in his eyes.
"Why should I tell you anything?"
"Because your cooperation might just save your life."
"Ah! Fucking rebel scum! I won''t tell you anything!"N?v(el)B\\jnn
But the truth was, the man hesitated, his eyes darted to the clone by the door before returning to Amber.
Usually, he would have a mask hiding his face and protecting his inner thoughts shown by his eyes, and his facial twitches. But he forgot the mask was not with him.
Amber noticed his hesitation and capitalized on that.
She looked at the defiant ckguard, her expression calm. "You know, the best thing for you right now would be to cooperate."
She gestured towards the clone, standing silently by the door.
"My friends here have not a lot of time to waste... So, it would be better to not make them mad because they lost time. Besides, I''d hate to ask them to persuade you."
The ckguard''s eyes widened as he nced at the clone. The man knew the white-dressed dude was able to make him suffer with a simple flick of his wrist.
At this point, the ckguard wasn''t fearing death, but rather torture. The man swallowed hard, his bravado fading.
"I... I know nothing."
Amber leaned forward, her gaze piercing. "Let me be the judge of that."
"I swear! Since Caelora city, our procedure on intelligence has been extensively changed; we don''t know a lot, I swear!"
"I find that hard to believe. You''re a rtively high-ranking ckguard, which means you must have ess to valuable information. "
The man shifted ufortably in his chair. "I... I can''t. They''ll kill me if I talk."
"And what do you think will happen if you don''t?" Amber''s voice hardened. "My friends here don''t take kindly to disobedience."
The clone gripped the man''s shoulder; his movements were slow, but the strength exerted made the ckguard wince in pain. The ckguard flinched, his eyes darting between Amber and the man behind him.
"Alright, alright!" he said. "I''ll tell you what I know."
Amber nodded, a small smile ying on her lips. "That''s a wise decision. Now, tell me everything about your bases here in New Alexandria."
***
Erik dodged a barrage of attacks. A chaotic battle raged around him, with the rebels struggling to gain the upper hand against the well-equipped ckguards and Volkov''s soldiers.
But they were holding their own and killed a lot of enemy soldiers.
There were few casualties on the ckguards'' side, but Volkov''s men and the rebels died in droves.
As Erik parried a rebel''s strike, he noticed a troubling development: some of the enemy fighters, the ckguards, possessed two brain crystal powers.
Erik heard that some people with multiple powers appeared on the battlefield in these past days, but he had never seen them firsthand; besides, the ckguards didn''t talk to him about that.
Most of these guys were ckguards who were reaping lives as farmers reaped wheat, but there were also some people within Volkov''s army who had the same ability.
These were likely the most loyal of Volkov''s officers. It couldn''t be otherwise. Though Erik wondered why the ckguards gave people outside their organization such frightening abilities.
The situation had be even more precarious for the rebels. He had to make more clones to at least equalize the situation, but he also had to provide them with equipment.
Back at Liberty Watch, his people were working hard, making weapon after weapon, armor after armor, vehicles, and many more.
Liberty Watch was full of ores, and the area didn''tck trees and fangeds to exploit.
Erik dove behind a wrecked vehicle, taking a moment to catch his breath.
He could hear the thunderous exchange of fire and the cries of the wounded.
The man emerged from his cover and rejoined the fray, avoiding killing whenever possible and never drawing too much attention to himself.
It was at that moment that a tremendous explosion rattled the area.
Erik didn''t know exactly what was happening as he was on another side of the battle, but whatever happened, the rebels must have received orders to retreat because they hurried back.
The blow to the rebel forces must have been significant, and Van Dyke decided to recall his troops. It could also be that Amber and the Chimaeric Demonspleted their attack on the enlistment center.
If that was true, it meant there was no reason for the rebels to stay here any longer.
The rebels acted wisely. They decided to blow up the vehicles that, in theory, should have held the weapons the ckguards were moving to another site.
They knew the vehicles were empty, but they wanted to make the ckguards believe they didn''t know it and that if they couldn''t have those weapons, then no one could.
Erik crouched behind a damaged car, shielding himself from the sts. The deafening sound and shockwave made his ears ring.
Debris rained down around him as the rebels pulled back, their retreat seeming frantic and disorganized.
While peering out from under his cover, Erik saw the ckguards scrambling to regroup and pursue the fleeing rebels.
Van Dyke''s people had escaped the kill zone, leaving only the destroyed vehicles behind.
Erik''s brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of the situation.
<I need to understand what is happening.>
Erik emerged from his hiding spot and rejoined his ckguard squad. Shatterfist approached
him.
"We got orders to chase the rebels."
Erik didn''t like that at all. The man knew Van Dyke, he felt the man expected this and likely
made a trap to kill those who were going to chase the rebels.
Regardless, he nodded, keeping his expression neutral.
"What happened over there? What was that massive explosion?"
Shatterfist shook his head. "I got told a big shot joined the fray, but I don''t know who the guy
is."