What A Disappointing Encounter

"Ah hell no, this ain't what we signed up for. We're mercs, not monster hunters. Hey Boss Lady, I'm pretty sure you're the only one here who can match these monsters," He Lin says.

"You know I can't do that here, just deal with it. Our contract ends in a month, so just try not to get yourself killed," Yin says.

"*Sigh* I just hope we can enjoy a vacation after this," Xu Kang says.

The three of them make there move as He Lin goes after Lia, Xu Kang to Wanjing, while Yin picks a fight with me. Sword in hand she jumps up to strike at my face with great speed, but just before her blade makes contact, she slows down and lowers the strength behind her strike.

In a low and barely audible voice, Yin whispers, "I know about the second group, if you're here for the Vice-Minister, then play along."

I want to question it but I hear Aurelia yelling to go along with it. The other guards are confused, probably thinking we are going to do something but the three hired mercenaries seem to understand what's going on as I relay the details to Lia. We continue the fight as Wanjing seems confused since she doesn't have a way to communicate telepathically like me and Lia, nor can she read minds like Aurelia, but she seemed to pick up the He Lin isn't taking their fight very seriously since he's about twice as strong as she is.

Since we've decided to play along with this fake fight, I direct most of my attacks towards the manor as a way to blow off some steam from the lacklustre fight, of course, these are aimed in Yin's general direction to maintain pretext of a fight, but it's nothing that she can't dodge. On one hand, I'm incredibly dissatisfied that I don't get to really fight, but on the other hand, I'm a bit glad that I won't need to kill Yin since she left a decent first impression and I think we could get along, considering our common... issue.

"Wow, you're not half bad," I say in a deadpanned voice.

"Is it just me or are you dissatisfied over something? Perhaps that's the reason why your attacks feel so empty," Yin asks while also covering up her intention with taunts.

"Then here's something with a bit more substance. You better run if you want to live," I say before spitting out two of Hakase's bombs.

Heeding my warning, Yin makes a runs at me both in an attempt to maintain the facade of battle and also to get away from the bombs I coughed up. She swings her sword into my side but pulls away right before contact and plays it off if my scales are too difficult to cut through. And right before she can say anything, the two bombs explode, blowing up the portion of the manor they had lodged themselves into. While not as powerful a blast as the previous use, it's still plenty powerful, having killed nearby guards and injuring others that were a bit further from the blast.

Having realised what I did, Yin says, "that was both unsanitary and dangerous. Regardless, I believe we are done here, that flare in the sky should signal for your retreat, correct?"

Ah, she's right, I didn't notice it at first since I was distracted by the explosion, but there is a red flare lighting the night sky. Just as Yin guessed, that's the signal for our retreat, meaning that Wei and his group have nabbed the target and are on their way back to the rendezvous point.

"I hope you deal with him properly, my position and professionalism doesn't allow me to so. Let us speak again soon," Yin says as she and her two companions retreat to organise the mess that was made as our group makes our retreat.

--

Meeting up with Wei and his team the first thing he says is, "just what the hell was going on out there? I beam of light almost fried us when we were looking for the target then on our way out we almost got caught in an explosion."

No one says anything, but Aurelia and Wanjing just look my way as I turn my head and begin whistling.

"*Sigh* I should have expected as much from the Bomber Dragon," Wei says.

"Hold up! What's with that name?" I ask.

"You didn't know? That's the name most people on the streets call you after hearing the description of your feats on your wanted papers, which mostly involve large explosions," Wei explains.

"Haha, that's such a fitting name for an explosion loving fool like you," Aurelia says, unable to contain her laughter.

"Seeing her in action, I agree, but we can poke fun out our explosion obsessed friend later, for now, we need to return before we're caught," Wei says, hanging a large beige bag over his shoulders.

The bag, being the temporary prison for Vice-Minister Hong Cheng, has some muffled sounds coming from the inside and the prisoner is squirming around endlessly. Surprisingly, this doesn't bother Wei at all as he ignores it on the way back to the base and since he doesn't have a problem with it the rest of us ignore the man suffering inside as well.

As we return to the underground base, we are led to another room where an iron chair is prepared as Wei drops Hong Cheng from the bag, revealing a red-tinted grey-haired old man who has his feet and hands tied together with a cloth ball stuck in his mouth, tied down by another piece of cloth around his face. Giving him a few smacks to the face, Wei ties the old man down in the iron chair to prepare for the interrogation.

Yue, wearing her Scarlet Feather outfit, enters a minute after the old an is tied down saying, "time for some torture and interrogation."