Max heard the incoming sound of footsteps as he knew he had to do something and fast, so he grabbed Anna's hand and leapt out of the open window, holding onto the ledge with one hand and Anna with the other.
The traitor, Graham Rock, the new mayor of Dombivli City, walked into his personal library and clicked his tongue at the mess inside.
" Tch, I need to get this organised, it's a horrible mess in here " he said as he took a seat in the middle of lots of papers as he put his reading lamp on the table and began reading the book that he had left half read yesterday.
Max peeked very sneakily into the room to see Graham reading peacefully as he then looked at Anna below who had one arm to her mouth trying to not make a single sound.
The duo were in a tricky position now, since they could neither afford to fall down and make a muffled sound as that would alert Graham, nor stay hanging onto the ledge forever.
Having no better options, Max manned up and tightened his grip on the ledge deciding to stay there hanging for as long as it took.
For the first five minutes he was fine, but after that Anna was no longer pulling her own weight but rather completely limping onto Max as Max not only had to hold onto the edge with one hand but pull Anna's weight on the other.
After 10 minutes the blood in Max's right arm began to rush down and Max had to use blood manipulation to keep the healthy flow of blood flowing towards his palm.
After the fifteen minute mark Max began to loose grip, every second felt like an eternity and he started to bite his lips.
Finally at the 17th minute, Graham stood up to pick up another book from the shelf as he was done reading the previous one as with his back turned against Max, Max had the opportunity to use ' Wind Palm' technique to knock his oil lamp down, causing the documents nearby to catch fire.
" Oh, fuck me " Graham said as he tried to create a separation between the book that was on fire and the rest of the library, but when he was busy with the first fire, Max knocked a second lamp down causing a fast spreading fire in the other corner of the library.
Soon the situation grew out of Graham's control as he rushed out of the library to try and call for some help, as dust and smoke began to flow out of the window that Max was on.
When Max was assured that Graham was out of listening distance he dropped Anna and said " Burn the ceiling, and run "
Anna nodded as while she quickly pulled out a fire arrow and shot it towards the ceiling, Max rushed straight into the burning library and began stuffing everything into his inventory.
Max no longer had the luxury to pick up only the documents that he needed as he began stuffing everything that came into his hands into his inventory, while stealing all the keys that were hanging on the wall not knowing which key did what.
The temperature of the flames was high, but with the Agni Astra Max had a very high flame resistance and this magnitude was not enough to damage him at all.
After taking everything that he could Max used the fireball spell to set every piece of furniture and cabinet on fire before leaping out of the library before Graham returned.
By the time Graham returned with about 5 guards, not only was the Library completely on fire, but so was the rest of his mansion.
" This is a planned attack! There must be perpetrators somewhere" Graham shouted when he realised that it was impossible that two sections of his house caught fire independently at once as the house alarms were sounded and all guards began to search for the perpetrators in a frenzy.
By the time the alarms were blaring, Max was already long gone as he reached the motel to happily see Sebastian and Anna waiting for him already.
" You got the prints? " Anna asked, as Max began to empty his inventory and his keys as he said " I hope so "
Within seconds the entire room was filled with confidential documents as the group began sifting through the documents, hoping desperately that the ones they wanted were in there.
Max realised how close call this mission was once he reached back home, although he had thought of a good exit strategy and the three of them managed to get out unscratched, he needed to plan better on how to avoid Graham from the start.
If the tier4 warrior had discovered their presence then it would have become extremely difficult for him and Anna to escape with their lives intact.
After a nerve wrecking 15 minutes of sifting through documents, Max finally found the blueprint of the central prison as he had a big smile plastered on his face as he said " I got it guys "
The group sighed collectively in relief, although the mission was not perfect in the end it was a success.
***********
( A while later, the central prison )
Patrol guard one : You heard? The mayor's house was torched by some rebels today, do you think that the resistance is still alive?
Patrol guard two : Yes I heard, the entire city saw that fire, it's a slap in the face for the new mayor's reputation. Apparently his entire library was burnt down.
Patrol guard one : I heard he has put a bounty of 100,000 gold coins on anyone who can provide information on the criminals, but so far there are not many leads.
Well I for one hope they are caught so that we can torture them bastards here "
Patrol guard two : Well sooner or later they all get caught don't they, hahahahaha
Severus who through his superior hearing was listening in on this conversation had a bright smile plastered to his face.
' He's here ' Severus thought as he mustered the strength in his lungs and shouted to Asiva through the walls " He's here! "
/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone!
As informed before, I'll be on vacation for the next 4 days, I'll try my best to update atleast one big chapter a day, but let's see.
Regular updates and bonuses will restart from the 17th ///
