"This should be enough. We will now divide the raid team into two."
Gilhause announced as he looked at the destruction of the cultist hideout caused by him and his team. The two Expert-level cultists had already managed to run away. Gilahause wasn't focused on killing or capturing them anyway.
He also had a newly promoted Expert rank army officer with him. However, equal numbers didn't mean anything when it came to C-rank and above.
Gilhause knew that battling with two Expert-ranked cultists was detrimental to his mission, which only required him to destroy the hideout. And the cultists knew that battling with two Expert-ranked army officers from Edinburgh was detrimental to their escape.
This was a mutual act of disengagement. Thus, the C-rankers on both sides decided to play safe. They didn't aggravate each other and allowed the other side to carry on with what they were doing.
Things were easy to do once the Expert-ranked cultists left the hideout to their devices. The Adept-ranked cultists and below tried to put up a strong front against Gilahuse's raid team using various means available to them. But Gilhause's tried and tested battle strategies along with military-grade equipment assigned to the rankers ensured that the raid team stayed casualty-free in its endeavor.
Furthermore, Gilhause's golem summons played a huge role in serving as a flank for his raid team. Each of his summonses was like a near-indestructible tank. The rankers used summonses in their strategies effectively to achieve victory over their opponents.
When the situation came under Gilhause's control, he decided to split the team into two. The first team was assigned the task of finishing off the rest of the cultists and looting the hideout for its resources. The second team was supposed to chase the escaped cultists.
The first team would be led by the Expert-ranked officer that was with Gilhause. The Remus clan member would lead the second team. The purpose of this split was to check in on Eren and his team.
The split would ensure that the mission would be completed flawlessly and according to plan. It would also allow Gilhause to cover up his plan to sabotage Eren.
Gilhause was the one who had tipped the two Expert rankers about the raid in advance. He had assigned Eren, Arjun, and Lyon the post intentionally so they could get targeted by the cultists on their way to escape.
This was a surefire way to get rid of Eren for good. The cultists didn't need to cover his death either. This way, even if Eren had the backing of House Argas for his exit mission, it wouldn't be able to prosecute anyone for his death.
Additionally, Gilhause had chosen his trusted aid for the second team which was supposed to chase the escaping cultists. The rankers in Gilhause's faction knew that their real job was not to target the cultists but to ensure that Eren dies for good.
Gilhause and his team assumed that Eren would have died long ago from the constant barrage of cultists attacking him. This was regardless of how many Trump cards he could have used. Thus, this part of the mission was supposed to be like the cherry on top.
***
Tista had her body chopped into various pieces before she died.
She was missing her glutes and breasts because of Meera's wild attacks. She had her hamstrings pulled out of both her legs because of the way Meera used her sword.
Tista was not the only victim of the living undead. Meera kept on killing cultist after cultist without showing any signs of fatigue. Since she was a living undead, the mana she used from her mana core would get replenished in no time, allowing her to keep on casting spell after spell.
Meera had almost negligent heartbeats. She did not know of any muscle fatigue. She wasn't afraid of getting injured. Not that she could be injured by the Adept-ranked cultists using normal methods. Most of them became terrified of her as soon as she started fighting them.
By this point, the node Eren was supposed to man along with his two team members was riddled with the cultists' dead bodies. The stench of blood and gore had gotten so strong that the nightcrawler mana beasts had come out of the woodwork. They were growling at each other trying to claim the pieces of meat Meera had carved out for them like a buffet.
Tista and a lot like her did not even get to know about the summoner behind Meera who had sanctioned their hits. They died while trying their best to either get away from the living undead or engage in futile attempts to take down Meera.
Eren watched Meera's battle frenzy from a distance. She fought like she was angry at all the cultists for daring to fight against her or her summoner. The rage mana coursing through her veins and mana circuits influenced her actions and made her even more brutal than she already was.
The butcher had to acknowledge the fact that Meera's previous status as a special forces member wasn't for show. He could clearly see that she was a force to be reckoned with even without any living undead advantages she was now blessed with.
He didn't try to participate in the battle because he didn't feel the need to. He was already used to most of his newly learned spells. He didn't need to use the cultists as dummies anymore.
Meera finished her last cultist and put her sword in the scabbard behind her back. She then waited quietly for her next opponent.
Eren thought that it would be a while before the next batch of cultists appeared to battle Meera. He was about to say something to Alephee beside him. He stopped his actions when he noticed several figures approaching at a rapid pace.
Gilhause's team had arrived at the scene. It stopped right before Meera, maintaining a safe distance.
When Gilhause found numerous dead bodies of escaped cultists, he had goosebumps on his skin. They had all died horrible deaths.
"What… what the fuck happened here?"
