153 Reconnaissance

6 Months Later

The war between Delmar City and the Solaris Kingdom has been a long and arduous conflict. The soldiers of Delmar City have almost eliminated the magical beast horde. During that entire time, the Solaris Kingdom has been moving its forces deeper into Delmar City's territory. They have fortified their position by building over a dozen fortresses and small bunkers every time they moved forward. Delmar City restrained the Solaris Kingdom's advances by destroying their encampments all over. Since Delmar City was still restrained with the beast tied the whole time they could not send out a large fore and could only send out a handful of rank 3 combatants in secret to destroy any foothold the Solaris Kingdom may have.

While Delmar City may have been able to successfully destroy 3 bunkers without any casualties that was easier said than done. It took a long time for the brave reconnaissance agents risking their lives to find just one and to properly identify where the Solaris Kingdom was sending their troops. Among those agents was Derek Foster. Derek was currently a translucent blur moving in the treetops quietly at high a speed. He traveled a mile in less than 10 seconds it wasn't his fastest speed it was just how fast he was willing to go at that time.

After a while of traveling, Derek spotted the perfect location for him to observe the enemy troops. It was a densely packed group of trees with intertwining branches. It kind of looked like a naturally made treehouse that's why it caught Derek's eye. In that cluster of trees, Derek saw a family of monkeys but those monkeys were different from normal monkeys because they were a species that moved extraordinarily fast. Their movements can produce shock waves that can destroy almost anything in the area. These were the same kinds of monkeys that Desmond saw when he first entered the world and needless to say they are extremely loud.

Derek wasn't worried about the monkeys exposing his position because while the monkeys were fast he was faster. Derek didn't even think of it as a challenge he just wanted to end it all as fast as possible. With a small increase in speed, Derek disappeared and reappeared 500 meters away in the blink of an eye. Once he did two monkeys were severed into 6 different pieces. Derek used a long curved dagger with a serrated edge he handled it as delicately as a feather as he twirled it in his hands. The group of 20 monkeys which has now become 18 didn't know of Derek's presence they didn't even have time for their brains to register what happened before Derek got to work.

With a flick of Derek's wrist throwing knives flew out and impaled 5 other monkey's in their skulls. The monkey realizing what was happening were becoming jitter and were starting to move. All the monkeys except the children hanging on their mother's backs were the same rank as Derek and were capable of moving more than 500 m/s (over 1000 miles per hour). But Derek cleaved his way through the group of monkeys as if they were moving in slow motion. Within 5 seconds Derek severed the head and limbs off of every creature before they could make any noticeable noise.

As their bodies were falling onto the ground and blood spraying into the air Derek looked back at his handy work and took in a deep breath. The space around Derek distorted as he sucked in all the bodies and blood around him into his mouth before any of it touched the floor. Derek's stomach swelled up like a balloon that was ready to burst at any moment. After eating every creature around Derek tightened his muscles forcing his stomach back to normal. He then utilized a technique called [Iron stomach] that helps him digest food quietly and counteract any harmful substances like poison.

This Isn't the first time Derek has had to do something like this. Over the past 6 months, Derek has lived a frugal and almost savage lifestyle. He couldn't use any space storage items out of fear of the raid leader Nester Vargas discovering his position. He couldn't risk being discovered and didn't pin his hopes on the fact that prisoners of war can't be executed except under extreme circumstances. There were always people that didn't adhere to such a law and killed off the captive before there could be any witnesses.

Derek didn't like being as close to the enemy territory as he was but he had a job to complete so he persisted. He just hopes that his efforts for all the shit he's been through will take the form of a massive bonus in his check and some new magic gear.

Derek quickly got settled into his new lookout point and read his investigation. Derek found an anomaly in this area a week ago. He suspected that it was another base that the Solaris Kingdom was hiding. Its location was already reported by him a while ago but Derek still needed to try and gather any useful intelligence.

Derek was very cautious when he did such things he stayed the maximum distance that he could achieve and still monitor the place. That distance for Derek was over 20 miles which far outclassed most other people's abilities in the recon team. That foot was only achievable for him because he utilized a technique that he developed that allows the user to use the water molecules in the air as a magnifying glass to see far away. That technique of his does come with drawbacks. Which was the farther away from the target the greater the strain on your eyes. The technique can easily render the user blind if overused but Derek didn't care about the consequences and used his technique to the fullest.

As Derek was observing the anomaly from a safe distance tying to find someway to peek inside the barrier suddenly dispersed revealing what it was hiding inside. Derek was surprised by this development but he quickly got a hold of himself and used the opportunity to gather as much information as possible.

In the spot where the barrier once was stood a large force of rank 2 combatants 1000 men strong. Derek looked around for a bit but couldn't find a single rank 1 cultivator in that group of soldiers. The sight of that many powerful enemy soldiers made Derek sweat. But what made Derek lose his cool was when he saw what all those people were guarding.

It was a large long dark purple object with an open barrel shaped like a fork. The huge lines of soldiers were like ants next to its oppressive form.

Derek shivered as he said, "you've got to be shiting me they actually got permission to use an Arc cannon. Those things can completely change the topography of a battlefield. I can't let that thing fire who knows how long the city will last if it does".

As Derek was frantically looking around the area his eyes stopped on a single spot for a brief moment and was overcome with fear. What Derek laid eyes on was a small group of rank 3 cultivators. They were all minding their own business until one of them looked over in Derek's direction. That cultivator sensed someone watching him and Derek knew that he had been found. That person's eyes seemed to cross the vast distance separating them both just to look directly into Derek's eyes.

Derek's survival instincts kicked in his leg muscles swelled and he propelled himself away at top speed. That cultivator sensed Derek getting further away and said to his colleagues, "it appears that I've found another spy".

The other two rank 3 cultivators looked back at that man one of them said, "so, what are you going to go and kill him then".

The response he received was, "no way that's to much of a hassle just for some grunt. The cannon will do the work for us".

Without delay an order was issued, "FIRE THE CANNON".