The Storm Kingdom's headquarters in the Crossroads Fortress in Western Frontier Province, the headquarters of the 23rd Regular Corps.
A fat black man in a lieutenant general's uniform clenched his huge fist, slammed it on the table covered with maps, and roared in a voice as low as possible;
"If we retreat further, we will retreat to the Xiquan Bridge! If His Majesty Wrynn knew the situation here, especially that incident... we would all be in trouble! Why is this bastard Vishak still there? If we don’t send reinforcements..."
He said and began to pace back and forth in front of the command table. A row of middle-level officers stood neatly aside, all silent.
"What's wrong, you're all mute? No matter what, I'm still the commander of the 23rd Corps now! Don't think about all the things that are there or not. If that thing is exposed, none of you can run away, we are all the same Grasshopper on a rope!”
Huntington continued to get angry, and stopped in front of an officer with short blond hair and a scar on his face, and asked, "Ferguson, tell me, what is going on? Why are those mud-legged people so concerned about our attack direction and troop deployment?" Do you know everything?"
Ferguson continued to stand up straight, looked straight ahead and said, "General, I think the intelligence has been leaked."
Huntington stared at him and then asked, "How did it leak?"
Ferguson was silent for a while and answered, "Interception of communications, stealth reconnaissance, and even magic divination... are all possible. But based on the accuracy and timeliness of the information the other party has, it is most likely that there is an informant from the other party in the command post or communications department."
Huntington looked around and said, "Did you hear that? There's a mole. Who is it, is it you, or is it you?..." He walked past the officers one by one, poking them one by one with his thick fingers. chest. The latter were all pale and did not dare to move.
Ferguson straightened his back and said loudly, "General! I don't think the mole is in the Corps Fortress command post. Because there are anti-magic alarm devices inside and outside, and there are demon hounds searching everywhere. If there is a signal from a spy, , will be discovered immediately. Moreover, no one here will betray, we are grasshoppers on a rope!"
Huntington stopped, looked back at him and said, "Go on."
Ferguson continued, "...However, in order to cooperate with the county guards, all our instructions will be copied to the Black Mountain Town Hall, and they will convey them to the various guards. And they have neither much actual combat experience nor counter-reconnaissance. Consciousness, so, I think..."
"I knew it!" Huntington interrupted him and slammed his fist on the table again, "Those idiots who have failed to achieve anything and failed more than they deserve! If it weren't for Ernest, the town mayor who talks about running things, he wouldn't be able to get the position of general. Tempt me, how could I be fooled like this! This is all for everyone. It has been more than ten years, and we are still a second-class corps, and no good thing can happen to our brothers..."
The fat black man leaned on the table and started mumbling, and all the officers breathed a sigh of relief. At the end, Huntington raised his head and said, "Ferguson, you go to the town hall immediately and bring the gendarmerie and engineering mages with you. Remember to strictly block the news and don't let the news leak out. Give the other party a..." He gestured with his hand, "Set; make sure to catch this nail!"
Ferguson stood at attention and saluted, "Yes, General!"
…
Half a day later, Black Mountain Town, town hall.
A female employee at the county magic communication office suddenly noticed something strange. After carefully examining the signal just sent, she found an imperceptible positioning magic in it.
In other words, it's a trap. It seems that after successive failures due to intelligence leaks, the regular army has determined that there are rebel spies either in their headquarters or in the city hall of Black Mountain Town. As a regular soldier who has been fighting in the north and south all year round, the opponent has extensive experience in forging encrypted magic communications, waiting for the informant to pass on the message to determine the opponent's location, and wait and see.
The woman immediately stood up, took off her uniform, put on her coat and hood, walked around the staff coming and going, opened the door and left. Maybe the military police who came to arrest him were already on their way. It's not that she didn't expect such a day to come, she just didn't expect it to happen so soon.
However, when he reached the door, he saw heavily armed soldiers blocking the door. The leader, an officer with short blond hair and a scar on his face, glanced in this direction, and she immediately lowered her head and stepped back. From the window, I saw a large number of soldiers wearing regular regiment armor blocking the passage. The situation was worse than expected.
Sweat broke out on the woman's forehead. The other party even delayed the positioning time in order to ensure the suddenness of the arrest. It seemed that he had completely predicted his approximate location. She thought for a moment, lowered the brim of her hat, turned and walked into the back alley. Climbing over a low wall, passing through the business district, and then entering a complicated slum.
However, dense footsteps soon came from behind. The opponent was not a rookie that could be easily shaken off, but a seasoned hunter.
The woman tried her best to speed up her pace, but the pursuers kept pursuing her, getting closer and closer. The woman gasped and opened her coat, revealing her curvy figure. She unbuttoned her shirt, and two huge balloons popped out.
Then the woman pulled off the deformed orb from her neck, and her figure quickly shrunk. Lifting up the skirt, there are two stilts under her tall figure.
A short figure got out of his coat and jumped down from the stilts. Then he folded all the camouflage items, pressed his hand on the magic circle pattern on the back of the coat and muttered something. As the magic took effect, a silent and smokeless flame ignited, burning away the disguise in a matter of seconds.
Not long after, officer Ferguson arrived with the gendarmerie. They had surrounded the area, but after searching everywhere, they could not find any trace of the target they were chasing. But Ferguson took his time, determined that his target would never fly.
At this time, Ferguson raised his hand to stop his men from making noises, pulled out the sword from his waist, and slowly walked towards the corner of the street. There, there was a figure wearing a raincoat, lying next to a dirty trash can, rummaging for something.
Ferguson stepped forward carefully, used the tip of his sword to fly away the tattered bamboo hat, then stretched out his hand to grab the opponent;
——However, what he caught was actually a little beggar who was only eight or nine years old, with his feet off the ground and half a rotten apple in his hand. After being stunned for a moment, he started dancing and kicking, while crying, "This is the apple I found, I won't give it to you! Give me back my hat!..."
Ferguson was disappointed. The person he was chasing was a tall adult woman and obviously not the dirty little girl in front of him. He was just about to let go, but as an experienced man, he noticed something strange again; there seemed to be a smell of burning magic nearby.
Ferguson's suspicious eyes fell back on the face of the little beggar in front of him, who was firmly grasped by him. The latter was looking at him with wide eyes in horror. With a gloomy expression, Ferguson clenched the hilt of the sword in his other hand, raised the cold-lighting sword blade, and aimed it at the little beggar's slender throat;
At this moment, there was a loud noise not far away, followed by the sound of broken bricks. A soldier yelled, "Rune bomb! She's over there! -"
Ferguson was startled, glanced at the little beggar in front of him again, threw her into the garbage pile in disgust, and then ran quickly towards the direction of the explosion with his sword in hand.
The little beggar who fell heavily into the rubbish heap wiped his face and started to cry loudly. The soldiers around him ignored her and ran away one by one following the commander.
As he cried, the little beggar turned his tears into laughter. Under the hands covering his face, a grinning face with one tooth missing was revealed.
Before Ferguson let go, he didn't see the little beggar secretly stick a small object into the gap of his gauntlet; the rune bomb that caused them to circle around was naturally a fascination array set up in advance.
After the soldiers left, the little beggar picked up the bamboo hat. There was a small crystal ball inside that was difficult to distinguish. After twisting a little, the voice of the soldiers from the search team on the other side came intermittently, "Damn it, why are there bombs everywhere!" "She should have gone over there...keep looking!"
The little beggar smiled broadly. This person was none other than the current leader of the Rebel Army—Marissa.
