1st Maelach of Ausiriel Year 1237

Lucy's POV

" Basically... we are doing a raid on a human hideout that is in the mountains," I asked Petrasha, to which she nodded.

All of us excluding Neo who went back, Jasai who went and tend to his own restaurant and wife, and Cyber who is currently dragged by Jasai to help him. The rest of us are inside Petrasha's manor in this town. Which surprised me as she even has a manor in this town in the first place considering the distance of this place to the dwarven capital. But then again, Petrasha often goes out on diplomatic missions so having a manor in one of the port towns might be reasonable...

But that is not the problem. The biggest problem here is that Petrasha has said that we will be raiding a human hideout inside the forest! Just when the hell did they even go there! I don't remember Petrasha talking about a breach in the Coast Guard! Not to mention, where the hell did you even get a hunting rifle in this world! And why is Bell so pissed off! There are just so many questions!

" Any other details except they're in the mountains? I don't think we all wanted to charge into that place clueless." I said which made Amy and May nodded together. 

" Should I explain it or you do it?" Petrasha said to Bell. Now, what does Bell have to do with this?

" Humans amount to at least 40. 4 of them guarding the main gate and 2 more on lookouts. Unknown shift change so we won't be able to hit them when they're changing shifts. All of them are equipped with anti-mana weapons, mainly melee weapons. Only the newer models that the lookout had is anti-mana, the rest are your typical flintlock with lead ammo." Bell said... really... out of everything that is kept from your previous life... this is kept the most... your crazy analytical mind.

" Other than that, within the cave is more than 20 rooms. Half of them can be ignored as they are barracks. The most important one is the room at the far behind which I am unsure what type of room is that. All I know is that it is the only room that is guarded. Before you ask, it's not an office. The people inside there guard it as if they are guarding some sort of device. Again, I am not sure what device it is, but I felt that I sense something similar back at the demon port town and back at the human continent. If I had to make a wild guess, the thing they're guarding would either be a communication device or a teleportation device. I prefer it would be the former, but judging by the situation it would be the latter." Bell explained... this is annoying... everything this side of her activates... she won't listen to others and would just continuously explain until there's nothing more... sure it's effective in telling us what is needed, but at the same time... it's annoying.

" Wait, at Des-" Petrasha tried to say, but once again, was cut off by Bell.

" Not to mention, there are other life signs within the caves that aren't human. Though judging by their signals, they would be either weakened or is already at death's borders. I think there are around 20 of them in each room. While I am not sure due to their weakened signal, but if we are going to judge this by this situation, they would be elderly and children. They are all located within the 2 rooms in front of the guarded room. That's all." Finally... but captives? What would the humans do with captives? Wait...

" How do you even know they're not humans? You didn't even go inside there!" Petrasha said it out. Yeah, that was my concern too. You haven't gone into the cave, yet you know how many people are there and could even tell their race...

" Look," Bell just said one simple word. We look at her and I realized one thing... her ruby-like eyes... now have a dark red shade in them... just.. how?

" Don't ask me, I just somehow knew I could do this... with this, I could see the color and shape of everyone's soul. The reason I know why they're not humans is that a human's soul would be blue in color, while a demon is in purple, judging by those inside I think that they're beastman or beastkin with their orange color and is the same as May. Somehow Petrasha who is a dwarf and Christine who is an elf both have the same soul color which is yellow. Lucy has a light red soul would I think would be because that she is a vampire. I am not sure as I also saw others that have light red souls but doesn't look like a vampire, for example, Amy's soul is also light red. For shapes, I am not sure as I could only get the vague shape, but somehow, even if all of us have different souls, all of our souls have a shape similar to a 6 corner star or hexagram I believe. While the humans would have a shape similar to a tree." Bell explained. So... does the soul represent the race? But it cant be, cause if it is like that, it doesn't explain why does my soul has the same color as Amy as I am a vampire while she is an oni. The same goes for Christine and also Petry who are both different races but yet they got the same soul color... adding to that, the shapes, what does it represent? A tree for the humans while the rest of us is a hexagram. Hrmm...

" I don't think this is the time to think about this, but if it is true that there are other people being captured by the humans, it would be better if we could save them all together while we are raiding the outpost. We would need to keep the casualties at low as possible. " Petrasha said. Well, fine, but how do we do this...

" That is why I will be going in first. After all of us handled all of those outside, I will sneak in and handle those in the last room. You guys if possible please create a distraction outside. Remember, if you felt that they are using anti-mana weapons, hide or retreat directly. If the situation allows, sneak onto them and take them out. While I don't have enough materials to create protection, I could still create some mana-heavy shields that should be able to protect you from anti-mana weapons. Just don't force it ok?" Bell said as she continues to play with her inventory screen. Sometimes I wonder, why did they gave us these interfaces but doesn't let us see other people's interfaces. Is it for privacy purposes? Well, it is not like I would want to see Bell's inventory. Just remembering what its content is last time made me a bit nauseous... 

2 hours later in the forest

Belgrynd's POV

" Lucy, Petrasha, you two ready?" I asked them both. The current plan is that Lucy and Petrasha will be eliminating those outside the cave first. While I sneak closer to the entrance. Amy and May will be protecting them just in case anything happens, while Christine will be with the mayor's squad to provide moral support to the troops. She is an idol after all~ Also, the idea of letting Christine go there isn't mine but Petrasha's. Oh well, not my problem.

" Yeah, as ready as one can be," Lucy replied while Petrasha just gave a simple nod.

" Good, take your time to check the number of people in there. Also, aim at the lookout first. When you are ready, you can just shoot, I can hear it even if I'm far away." I said as I put on my cloak and start moving towards the cave. Yes, I made a cloak, it's similar to those ghillie suits except it's made of simple cloth and some leaves. It's not much, but at the very least, with their technology level, they shouldn't be able to notice me. After getting a nod from both of them, I start moving towards the cave. Surprisingly, there aren't that many traps in the vicinity. At the very least, traps that are targeting sentient beings. It seems that they think that nobody would find them and made their traps to trap down animals only. Cause from what I can see, all these traps contain some sort of lure to attract animals to step on them. And apparently... it doesn't work that often... I have passed through 5 traps that had their lure already gone, presumably eaten by their target 'prey' there are even 3 traps that are broken! Poor guys, let me relieve you of your misery.

*bang* *bang*

Oh there we go, the first barrage. That is quite fast. 

Hrmm, one died while the other one heavily injured. One of them missed huh, if I had to guess, it had to be Lucy. Strange... why is Lucy the weaker one... I can't remember why... Doesn't matter, the one that is injured is closer to me so I guess I will go handle him first. Getting close to the makeshift palisade, I immediately jumped onto the tower and directly cut off his head from his body. At the same time, I heard a second barrage. Both dead good. Time to move into the part inside the walls but outside of the cave. It really helps that they made a gate to separate the cave and the outside. Helps me that is.

Jumping down from the outlook tower, I used my wings to make my descent as quiet as possible. Hrmm? There are several guards going outside. So far, four have gone down, which means that in the outer compound there are still 6 of them left. Seeing that 4 of them decided to go out, I will stay here and ambush the other two, I trust in you Petrasha, take them down.

" Say, how long have you been stationed here?" One of the guards asked the other. Chit chatting huh, it's not good to chit chat during work time you know~

" Almost for a year already, damn I missed my family... every time I wanted to head back, the teleporter is either in use or in cooldown. Why can't I just go back and watch my kids... they should be coming of age soon..." the older one said. But teleporter huh, I guess that makes sense why that room is so heavily guarded. If it is a portal, you wouldn't want random people to just go through it.

" Really... I just came here because of the amount of money it gives... my family got hit hard when the damn demons bombarded our village..." the younger one said. Oh, a survivor huh, this can't do, if even after a bombard there will still be survivors, they would just continue to grow. You have to clear them all you know?

" Damn that's rough... I hope you ca-" " Wha-" alright, two down. Sorry for your family's old one, but this can't be helped. Plus, they're probably already dead too~ and for the new one, you survived the bombard, yet you come to such a risky job, you think you wouldn't use up your luck huh~ time to store these two first before someone came back and find... 

*slash* *thump*

If I had to guess, Petrasha killed two, while Lucy missed. Lucy oh Lucy, go train your shooting skill a bit more~ if I weren't here, the humans would have noticed us already~ Now, to the storage you go~

Now to the main stuff, inside the cave. Should I directly barge into it? Or wait until someone comes out. While barging in might sounds good, it might also endanger... nevermind I guess we are lucky~

" Hey, time to change shifts... Huh? Where did everyone go?" the clueless guard went out with his friend. Thank you two~ Ill be going in~

Somewhere else

" Seal the teleporter. We are abandoning this place." I told the humans in this base.

" Huh? Why?" Male human

" Just do as I told you. We have to leave this place as soon as possible!" I yelled frustratedly. Do you think I wanted to abandon this place? When I thought I could finally rest after the freaking long journey to this place...

" Just why am I assigned to this backwater system... can't they let me handle one with more clever beings such as Centauri or Antares... even the damn Terra with their weird tentacle fetish would be better than this one... I really don't know what are they thinking. It's not like Astrea is anywhere close to our place. OI you! Move! Stop lazing around!" I ranted.

" I swear, I will demand a pay raise after this job is done..." I mumbled as I dismantle the teleportation circle.

Benokelvin

We are finally raiding the place! Sadly... I had to leave this with part 2... I originally wanted to tease you guys with a cliffhanger, but decided that this place would be better to make an ending before going to the next stage!

I have to strongly remind you all. That this novel is in no ways sponsored by Raid Shadow Legend~ Despite including raidings~

Also, what do you think about the souls? What does the color represent? What does the shape represent too?