Chapter 70 - Entering The Execution Ground
Anna was standing in the execution zone while the guards were preparing for her execution. Eric was long gone, he told the guards that he didn't have time to watch the traitor's death, but he did keep a message to make sure that Anna's death was as miserable as possible.
The soldiers had poured pitch all over her body, turning her into a flammable piece of meat. All they had to do was to light Anna up and burn her up. Anna was tied up on a rope that would burn as she would be burned alive.
"Sir, preparation complete," one of the soldiers saluted the superior officer who was holding Anna with a rope.
The pitch that covered her body should keep Anna burn long enough. That black tar would make sure that the flame stuck to Anna and would only be extinguished if someone deliberately extinguished it. The only thing left was to burn her.
"You traitor, do you realize that death isn't enough for you?" The soldier asked.
Anna stayed quiet. All that she knew was she was going to be burned alive and that was it. The details didn't really matter for her. Unless someone was going to rescue her, her chance of surviving was quite little.
One of the soldiers throw a fireball at Anna and burned her alive. Anna screamed in pain as the fire started engulfing her. The soldier kicked her to the ground and left her to her demise. All of them walked away from that execution ground. They were all sure that Anna would be dead.
Anna immediately rolled over the ground to extinguish her flame, but it failed. The pitch stuck the flame onto her skin and she felt as if someone was peeling her skin while a thousand needles were stuck on his skin.
Anna screamed. The soldiers just smiled in satisfaction, looking at the traitor that fell to her own demise. Anna didn't give up yet. There was something that suddenly appeared. The collar that kept her in restrain fell off. She could buy herself some time by applying healing spells to herself. Hopefully, it would be enough.
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[00:30:20]
"So, it took us eleven hours just to reach this place, huh?" Del commented.
"Yeah, more or less," Cole commented.
The road was bumpy, consisted of large rocks and boulders that oftentimes needed to be moved or blown up to let the car get past. Overall, it was really a hard drive and not a smooth one. Still, they managed to arrive there.
They were on the road located on the sides of Indio River, on one of its river banks to be exact. In front of them was the forest bordering between the river itself and the execution ground. The forest should be infested with Elbanian soldiers at that point. One wrong move and they could encounter one of those SSU on their way to the execution zone.
"What's the plan?" Cole asked.
"Cole, you and I will go to the execution ground quietly, making sure that no Elbanian soldier notices us. Cassandra, I think you can head to that area that you point on my map, do you have any map with you?" Del asked.
Cassandra showed Del her map, "Sure, I have one, that's why I pointed the location to you in the first place."
"Alright, you should be safe then, you can go now. Don't fire a shot until Cole and I get out of the forest, understand?" Del said.
If everything went according to plan, all of them should be able to pull a surprise attack against the Elbanian soldiers and rescue the victim unharmed.
"Be careful, alright?" Cassandra walked away from the car.
Now, the challenge was to get pass a forest filled with soldiers that would kill anyone on sight without any hesitation. There was no way that Cole and Del could get past all of them without any help from their good old friend, technology.
Del opened his tablet and he browsed [Killstreak] menu. There was something that could help both Del and Cole to get through the forest undetected. Del only needed to search for it first and he would find it.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Killstreak Menu]
[Tech Level: 6] [Total Balance: 345,700$]
[Sentry Gun] [5,000$]
[Precision UAV] [20,000$]
[Precision Airstrike] [50,000$]
[Juggernaut Suit] [60,000$]
[Cluster Strike] [80,000$]
[Cruise Missile] [120,000$]
[Chopper Gunner] [150,000$]
[Escort Helicopter] [180,000$]
[Gunship] [120,000$/Hour]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"I thought some of these Killstreaks are free, right? Well, I remember AC-130 was not this expensive" Del asked.
[The previously told price that I told to you around four months ago is the price of calling it. The price of logistic and ammunition was not included on that one.]
"I see," Del nodded, "Call an UAV then, I need to know the position of the current enemy."
[Precision UAV Has Been Called. Open Map To Display Enemies. Remaining Balance: 325,700$]
Del observed the map and several red dots appeared on the map. There were indeed a lot of soldiers. There were several groups of them scattered around the entire forest. The UAV was flying high so the range of that killstreak was quite large as well. It covered the area of the entire forest.
[Predicted Number of Hostiles: 89]
[Predicted Number of Friendlies: 5]
[Terrain Difficulty Rating: D]
[Predicted Combat Chance: 75%]
"Cole, Wolfie, follow me, ok? If one of you get lost, I don't know what I will do," Del said as he entered the forest quietly.
"Sure thing boss, we will stick to you like a glue," Cole said.
"Ok, follow me," Del said as he entered the forest while looking at his tablet.
Thick bushes and the abundant amount of trees in that forest made the infiltration to the execution ground way easier than Del previously expected. As long as Del could keep crawling on the ground, he was safe for the most part.
He made sure that he wouldn't cross path with any soldiers that was patrolling the forest by keeping at least a distance of fifty meters away from the patrolling soldiers. The tablet really helped Del in measuring the distance to the nearest soldier.
"Damn, this is some next-level infiltration bullshit, this is way above my paycheck as a chemical engineer," Cole whispered.
Des shushed him, "Quiet, if anyone hears us while we are in this forest, we'll be dead."
Cole replied with a nod.
Del wasn't lying though. The SSU was specialized in guarding a high-value-target and their way of attacking was usually ambushing their enemies. Although Del had taken off their element of surprise, he still had to be careful since SSU was still dangerous with their throwing knifes and their ambush tactics.
"Is rescuing whoever we are going to rescue is trully worth it?" Cole asked.
"I think so," Del said.
"You think?"
"Well, yeah, I really can't say. Let's just get to the execution ground, I really have a bad feeling about this forest," Del said.
"Well…"
BANG
Suddenly, the dots on the map went awry after that gunfire. The dots moved from one place to another rapidly. The soldiers were put on high alert after hearing that gunfire. It looked like that gunfire really alerted them.
"Damn, Cassandra, what has gotten into you?" Del asked himself, "Change into Plan B!"