"What?" Laufey widened his eyes in shock when Hailfa came to him, informing about the ambush and their current condition.
He realized that everything he found earlier was fake.
Laufey gritted his teeth. He never thought he would lose this miserably.
Without hesitation, he came with Hailfa to the place where they were ambushed.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they found Fil and Gargan on the way. Gargan was covered in superficial wounds and his left hand was severed. It was clear that his strength would decrease and his status as a Devil Bishop might have to be revoked after this mission due to his injury.
Meanwhile, Fil should be able to recover after some time, which was fortunate for him. But Laufey still needed them for his plan.
"Kh." Laufey was biting his lips while Hailfa tended their wounds. It seemed that Hailfa was also tasked to inform the pair to regroup with them.
"I'm sorry, Sir. Everything was my fault. If I was strong enough, I could protect all of them." Gargan lowered his head. There was no excuse since Laufey had told them that he wouldn't hold back even if they were another Devil Saint's subordinates.
Laufey wanted to berate him, but when he heard about the ambush, he realized that Dimitri's strength was in the assassination. In other words, this kind of ambush must be his doing.
But there was something that confused him.
'A man with an ice spirit? That man was the one who caused all this?' Laufey frowned. 'I have never heard of anyone with this kind of ability… The only Ice Spirit user from the Ardagan Family who was a Spirit Grandmaster was Luke's wife, Leysha. Then, who is that man?'
'His strength might be not less than Dimitri. Is he from Luke? Does that mean aside from Dimitri, Noel is being protected by this ice spirit user? But why would he be the only one to appear instead of Dimitri? He was someone I didn't know about… shouldn't he remain as a trump card that would only be revealed when he wanted to take me down?'
Laufey fell silent for a moment before widening his eyes as though he had just realized something.
'Don't tell me, the one who created that fake trail was Dimitri? By luring me to a deeper region, they could separate me from the rest of the ground.'
'At the same time, the Demon Relief Squad would escape and enter a city for more protection. Meanwhile, the ice spirit user would come to me and defeat me with Dimitri.'
'In other words, their plan was targeting me…' Laufey's expression turned grim.
He realized that the situation was more dangerous than he originally thought.
On the one hand, he could still continue his mission with the help of the pair. In fact, he was planning to kidnap Noel with only his group. On the other hand, he couldn't ignore the additional power that Noel had hidden this whole time.
'Should I continue then? The pair and Hailfa should be strong enough to buy some time from that ice spirit user. And I can take on Dimitri. In the meantime, Gargan and Fil will kidnap Noel. But there is still Paul and the rest of the members… Because of their injuries, their strength is the same as the Demon Relief Squad.'
'There is also a possibility that Faust would have known about this and ambushed us from behind. There is also a chance of the reinforcement arriving…'
'This is annoying. What should I do? If this mission ends in failure, my standing in the organization will take a hit since I can't even handle a brat who is only a Spirit Master.'
'But I'm still wondering who was planning all this? Its scent was like Luke's plan. Noel is his son… a tiger cub is still a tiger… Or is it Dimitri? Although Dimitri is not as clever as Luke, he should be able to replicate some of his strategies after following Luke for a long time.'
Laufey became more and more frustrated the more he thought about it. Gargan and Fil's injuries were truly the ones that caused all this problem.
This was why Noel didn't really mind letting them go. After all, even if they didn't retreat, they still had enough strength to stop Laufey.
Laufey thought for a moment and said, "They might be covering their tracks so that it will be hard for us to know their direction."
"So, we will split up into three groups. But this time, we are going to be more careful. Hailfa, you are going back and making sure Faust is not leaving his base. You bastard pair will go to Hansville City and observe the situation. Try to see whether they arrive there or not."
"While going there, try not to go near the main road. It's fine to take a longer time. We don't need more injuries."
"The rest will follow me to the other city. If they are not the city of our target, we will move to the other city to regroup. After that, we will formulate another plan to ambush them. The time limit is two days. More than that, the reinforcement will surely come and I'm afraid it's going to be another captain."
"Also, I have to remind you that… another injury will cause the mission failure. I hope you don't disappoint me any further." Laufey stated with a cold tone. Even his entire face was dark.
He threatened them that he would be releasing his wrath on them if they failed the mission.
The group nodded furiously.
Although Gargan and Fil were still injured, they could only endure their pain and follow Laufey while making sure that their wounds didn't reopen.
The pair and Hailfa split up, doing their own jobs.
It seemed that the battle between the Demon Relief Squad and the Supreme Devil Organization had yet to end since Laufey insisted on continuing the mission.
Nonetheless, both sides knew that the Demon Relief Squad had a big advantage.
Would Laufey find out about Dimitri's absence and turn around the situation?
