Ascension of the elder

Chapter 77: We will rock you

"This is going to be a long night."

As Kyle was dragging the downed men into the broken down house he was thinking of how he could get the leader to talk. While he wasn't squeamish as such, but the idea of pulling nails and breaking bones was beyond him currently.

He felt bad for the act of killing these men but not for killing them specifically as he knew they had kidnapped children and must have done much worse. This feeling of validation and regret was in part due to the things he had seen reported in his past life and the strength of his soul in this one.

Running through what he knew of torture techniques and interrogation (mostly from movies) he felt the best he could do would be water boarding. He had seen this used in movies and had heard things about it on the news so he knew it would work.

What followed was 30 minutes of torture with a confession as to location, relative strength and some facts about who the clients were. Kyle finished this with another stab to the heart. While he could dismember these men Kyle had promised the leader to leave their bodies intact.

Before he left the house Kyle organised a little warning for anyone who would have plans for the people of the slums before he set of to the warehouse district. As he approached the warehouse district Kyle began to see a few of his men getting ready on station a little way away from the zone. Kyle hadn't told them where to meet so he was glad that someone had the intelligence to give them a location.

Approaching the gathering Kyle saw both Ash and One had already arrived. All the guards were already present and 'shadow hand' was only waiting on 2 members including the man he used as a messenger. Dropping his 'illusion' Kyle greeted the gathering.

"Okay men I have the location and approximate number of enemies. We are in for a fight as the enemy is calling back all of his men. One do you have anyone who knows this area?"

"Yes sir Three used to run a small time gambling den out of here before they got shut down."

"Do you know who it was who shut them down?"

"Yes it was a crew called the 'silver sovereign'."

"Did that crew deal with slaves or kidnapping?"

"No sir they were mostly involved with drugs and gambling. They were more recreational criminals so unless they have expanded their areas of interest this is someone else."

As they were talking the last members of 'shadow hand' arrived. So the member known as Three lead them through the warehouse area. As a former thief and conman Three knew all the ways in and out of the district so they got around the few groups who were patrolling the outside.

Once the group had reached a relatively safe area Kyle began to issue instructions. Although he had no prior military training just the little he knew from history put him head and shoulders above everyone here, his people and the enemy included.

Looking over the warehouse Kyle saw that it was a large brick building with a small door on the side wall and a larger door at the end. There were no windows which made sense as why would they want people to be able to see into their illegal operations.

Looking for a way in Kyle noticed that there were skylights in the roof which should be his way in. Kyle wanted to get to the slaves/hostages first so they could either be released or protected when they stormed the building.

"Okay One you and Five will come with me, our purpose is to reach the slaves and secure them in any way we can. Ash you and the guards will storm the building when you hear the fighting start. The rest of 'shadow hand' will wait for 30 seconds after the guards attack the front before entering the side door. Remember this isn't a fair fight they outnumber us so don't get pulled into drawn out fights. Keep it fast and keep it dirty these men don't warrant honourable combat. I want no escapees and no survivors. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir."

The men wanted to shout their response but due to circumstance all they could do was to put their heart into their answer. Both the guards and 'shadow hand' wanted to prove themselves but they also didn't want to let Kyle down so they got into position.

Kyle climbed up a down pipe which was attached to the wall of the warehouse closely followed by One and Five. Luckily this world hadn't developed plastics so the pipe was metal and could support their weight without any problems.

They slowly moved to one of the open skylights and Kyle peeked his head over the top. With his strengthened senses Kyle was able to pick up around 40 men within. This wasn't fully precise as he was using his hearing to detect the men and if they weren't moving or were standing closely together his sense may be thrown out.

Looking down Kyle could see a catwalk about 8 feet below them. Unlike our world this catwalk was made of timber so if they dropped onto it the sound should be largely deadened. On the catwalk 6 men were patrolling.

These men appeared to be tired and bored so they had begun to let their guard down. Looking further within the warehouse Kyle could see stacks of boxes crowding around making small and obscured aisles which would normally suit the enemy as it would make it difficult to rush them but in this case it would give Kyle and his team ample cover to get where they needed to be.

In a corner of the building was a cage of about 3 meters by 3 meters and within were about 20 children of different ages. While the building had some light from some lamps around the wall there was almost no direct light in this corner.

When Kyle trained his senses on this patch of darkness Kyle was able to pick up maybe 4 different enemies present. Deciding it was time to move Kyle reactivated his 'illusion' surprising One and Five before dropping onto the catwalk.

Where they dropped on side of the catwalk had 4 men and the other had 2 so Kyle sent One and Five to deal with the 2 while he went after the rest. One and Five were carrying some of the short swords that were found in the ancient armoury and dispatched their targets easily. One grabbed his target from behind and slit his throat. While he was doing this Five silently rushed past him and much like Kyle did covered his targets mouth and stabbed his target in the heart lowering him down.

Kyle moved through his side like a shadow, every strike went to the heart except for the last man who had begun to turn back towards Kyle so he accelerated and jammed his sword through his lower jaw directly into his brain.

One and Five who had watched as Kyle moved through the enemy and felt a cold rush down their backs. How could this man in child form kill with such skill and ferocity? Even Kyle had noticed the detachment he felt when fighting these men and began to worry for what this meant for him.

This was a worry for another time however and instead they should focus on rescuing these people first. With the catwalk clear Kyle and the others made their way along as quietly as possible.

They saw a few enemy guards sitting around talking and playing cards while they waited for any indications of intruders. In the opposite corner from the cage they were moving towards Kyle could see a well lit office with several men present who Kyle guessed were the clients and the leader of this little crew.

Ignoring them for the moment Kyle carried on leading the way to the cage to free their people. The spread of the guards was completely useless, except for a few places the guards were unable to see each other so on the way Kyle, One and Five were able to take out 2 more guards.

Kyle didn't try to hide the bodies as within moments all hell would be breaking loose. When they were close to the cage Kyle held up his hand indicating a stop as he looked around trying to find the hidden enemies.

Hidden may be an exaggeration as all they had done was sit on boxes slightly in the shadows. The most worrying thing was that all four had loaded crossbows but these were only held loosely with the tips aiming downwards.

Each guard was on one side of the cage ready to fire if any of the slaves/prisoners tried to escape. Kyle tapped One on the shoulder and pointed at one of the guards while indicating a roundabout route and did the same with Five while indicating they shouldn't move until he did. He could only hope they understood his meaning before he moved to his first target.

Keeping a watch out Kyle reached his man at about the same time Five did while One took slightly longer as he had a longer route. Once they were in position Kyle used his hand to give a countdown and on 1 he jabbed his sword through the enemy's neck essentially making him a meat shield while grabbing the crossbow and firing it at the last enemies head.

The last guard didn't get a chance to even react before a bolt took him in the eye dropping him instantly. Looking back Kyle was pleased to see One and Five had taken out their respective targets silently.

They approached the cage and could see many fearful eyes looking at them. Kyle had retrieved the keys from the guard he had killed so he opened the cage looking for his people.

Chad was sitting in a corner supporting another young boy. This boy was Theo the son of the guardsman. Chad was trying to calm the boy down as he knew that his big brother Kyle would come for them. When they saw the shadow men taking down the guards silently Theo became afraid but Chad knew these would be Kyle's men.

On seeing One both Theo and Chad were ecstatic as they knew he was the leader of 'shadow hand'. Kyle noticed them at the same time they noticed One so he quickly approached them. The other children shied away as this unknown man with a hidden face began to move through them. When Kyle reached Theo and Chad he ruffled Chad's hair like he had done before he spoke out.

"Well done now can you keep the others quiet while we sort out the bad guys?"

Chad on hearing his big bro's voice coming from this unknown figure was at first surprised but then like many others just chalked this up to being just Kyle.

"Yes big bro we'll keep calm and quiet."

"Good boy, One grab those crossbows Five see if you can find anymore nearby. I'm going to go cause some havoc." Kyle smiled as he said the last part before disappearing into the darkness.

One watched his lord go before jumping to action with Five following just behind while Chad began to speak to the other children in the cage.

"Don't worry these are the good guys they're here to save us."

While the others were sceptical they chose to believe in Chad's words because it wasn't like they could do anything else and when they saw One positioning the crossbows so he could fire down the aisles and Five returning with an armful loaded with crossbows and bolts they began to hope.

Kyle silently moved towards a location he had spied from the catwalk which had 6 or 7 people around playing cards and talking. It was far enough away from the cage it should draw the guards away so he decided to make an entrance here.

Climbing up one of the stacks of boxes Kyle got ready before he leapt of and landed right in the centre kicking one on the way down for good measure.

"LET'S ROCK!!"

This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com