Spotted

"Stick to the dark, we can pick them off easily, you two handle the ones outside. Me, Rin, and Zeph will clear out the tents," Clara gave her order, leading the team while they stayed near the side of a tent, hearing the soldiers come out and question what was happening. 

As the three left, Jacob and Ella set out to complete their new order, this time sticking together. With the new task, Jacob still hasn't forgotten the one given to him by the glitch.

'I need to find a person to rip from. Hope that soul thirst thing isn't so low right now,' He restrained himself from checking his system, afraid the snap may draw someone's attention.

'I only have one shield for this one, need to make it count,' Still crouched behind cover, soldiers in front of them began turning on their flashlights, forcing them to move away from the tent. 

"Pick them off one by one again huh?" Jacob asked

"That is the plan," Ella replied. Behind a stack of boxes, they listened to the footsteps of the soldiers, seeing beams of light shine through the area around them.

"Just like back at the facility," Jacob said. She led Jacob from cover to cover, staying away from the light and any nearby soldier. With each passing second, both were afraid of being caught and continued moving quietly but quickly.

Crouching behind a tent, they could see a beam of light shine on the wall next to them, a soldier was approaching them.

"I got this one," Ella muttered, holding her mace up. She moved ahead of Jacob, awaiting the soldier, hearing the footsteps get louder.

"Great, a blackout, this is reminding me of those stupid power outages back at home," The guard muttered, getting closer to the two.

A single slam to the man's head took him down, breaking through the helmet and silencing him. 

After hastily dragging him back, Jacob started to move ahead again, hoping to not get cornered again. 

Moving around, the two took down more of the guards, the camp became quieter with each kill, and suspicion started to grow, as Jacob noticed that the soldiers were moving faster than normal, waiving their flashlights more, as if trying to see something from the corner of their eye. 

"Where's that stupid power box!?" A guard shouted nearby, only to be met with silence.

"Where are the others," Peaking from the cover of a pile of a crates, Jacob could see the man activate his system, and talk into it, trying to see where his teammates were.

"It looks like they are getting more and more suspicious, let's speed it up," Ella advised. With just a few remaining, Jacob moved away from cover, staying away from the light of the guards and taking them out swiftly.

In the middle of the camp, the remaining guards stood in a circle.

"Looks like the others are silent, they won't respond,"

"Probably connection issues, City G gives us crap equipment anyway." 

"Whatever it is, this does not feel right, we need to find where they went," While they talked, Jacob and Ella approached them, hoping to take them out quickly like before.

On their way though, a twig snapped beneath Ella's feet.

Immediately a dozen beams of light shone at the team, blinding them.

'Crap'

"Freeze!" A guard yelled out, aiming his weapon at the two.

"Command, we found two hostiles, we will bring them to you," The screen vanished, and they started approaching the two.

The soldier at the front grinned widely, staring at Ella in particular.

"A city P defender, time to make you," 

From behind, Zeph cut down the first soldier in multiple strikes, all in just a second. The rest of the guards turned around, and he began cutting them down while Clara and Rin fired at them.

"You two alright?" Zeph swiftly removed his sword from a downed soldier, staring at the two.

"Yeah, thanks, I thought I was going to die, or something worse," Ella breathed a sigh of relief, wiping her eyes.

"Alright, we took out some of the soldiers inside the tents. Come, let's handle the re-" A loud gunshot deafened the area, and Zeph clutched his chest.

Jacob looked around hastily, managing to spot the shooter, a wounded guard holding up his rifle. 

He quickly threw his scythe at the man, just in time for him to fire another round. The bullet missed, flying upwards as the man was killed.

"Crap, there goes the whole quiet thing," Ella remarked.

A silver shiny object flew up the sky behind them. Without warning, a bright light spawned from it, lighting up the entire camp, they shielded their eyes, unable to handle the brightness of the device.

"What is that? Did they create their sun or something!?" Ella shouted. 

From all around, shouts and yells of anger erupted, and everyone started looking around to see the remaining camp guards aiming their weapons at them.

"I will draw their fire, Ella protect the others." Zeph hastily spoke, rushing up to the camps before anyone could say a word, but Ella understood the order and immediately put everyone behind her.

Gunfire rang out, soldiers fired at both Zeph and the team.

Jacob held up his hands, realizing that his scythe was not with him, it was still stuck to the dead soldier.

"Suppress fire!" A soldier yelled out. Immediately a group of soldiers left cover and fired at the team, their right hands glowed orange, activating an ability in their system. 

They managed to corner Zeph and push back the team, firing with no stop, as if they had infinite ammo.

Clara and Rin picked off anyone who tried to flank them, but they couldn't help with the hail of bullets from the front.

"Alright, show us what you flamers can do!" Another soldier yelled, causing a few more to come out. Their hands were covered in fire, and a familiar fear hit Jacob.

Ella's shield was cracking more and more while she kept moving back to nearby cover, hoping they could get behind them before the shield completely broke, but they were too far from it. 

"This isn't going to hold!" Ella yelled in frustration, looking back at the others with fear and worry in her eyes while struggling to keep holding up her shield after being shot at by hundreds of rounds. 

The City F guards moved forward, shooting orange flame towards Ella's shield, burning parts of her body as she continued holding up, 

Hearing her cry, the soldiers continued firing. With Zeph still pinned down in the other side of the camp, and their only protection nearly breaking.

Without a weapon, and far from cover, Jacob was terrified. But in his desperation, an idea came up in his mind. But just as he thought of it, he heard the dreadful sound of a shield shatter.