Chapter 16: Little Bosses

So, these were the Little Bosses we were going to follow off into battle? Guess those old heads got a good kick from watching the kids clean up their mistakes. Tsk, I only came here to make a good impression on the Council, and 2 freak’in Gteju Breakers show up, and the church attacks. What the hell?! On the bright side, it had been a while since I had a good meal. Feeding on some clergy sounds delicious. Speaking of delicious, one of the Little Bosses looked in my direction. Her frosty voice quaked my body,

“What are you? What can you do?” They had been asking the same of each of us since we started our trek towards our enemies. The two of them seemed very calm about the whole thing, even opting not to take the transport offered by Big Boss. I guess they had some kind of plan in mind. At least, I hope they did.

“I am Vonev(Von-ev), a Weproti (Wep-ro-ti), an extraordinary one, my lady.” I gracefully bowed to Little Boss Nexi. I was always rather proud of my looks; these finely sculpted features were enough to make any target sworn, male or female.

“Oh, he’s a vampire… cool.” Little Boss Zac spoke.

“Vampire? That's a vulgar moniker humans have for us. We prefer Soul Eaters.” I corrected him proudly.

“Whatever, what makes you so special, Soul Sucker.” Little Boss Nexi responded with no regard for my previous words or pride. What a harsh mistress, how exciting!

“I’m the opposite of you, my lady.” Once I spoke, both Little Bosses stared at me with those powerful, intimidating eyes of theirs. Little Boss Zac chuckled and said,

“You’re a bottomless pit. Interesting.”

Weproti was born without Soul Source; some say we were born dead. He was correct. We must feed on the Soul Source of other creatures to maintain our existence, and we can only hold so much Soul Source at a time. However, the more we feed, the greater our capacity to hold Soul Source becomes over time. I was not born with such an inconvenient limit. I was a Breaker of my race, able to feed to my heart's content.

“Some might say we are quite the pair, Little Boss Vnexi, the perfect couple,” I smirked alluringly at Little Boss, hoping to garner her affections.

“I wouldn't. Fall back in line.” She said, dashing any further advances I could have made. Little Boss Zac pointed me to a spot relatively close to him and Vnexi. He undoubtedly felt my status as a Weproti Breaker far more helpful than the others here. Good, he was at least somewhat competent. That wasn’t to say the rest here were worthless.

On the contrary, the young ones gathered under their banner were all quite skilled. Maybe some were a bit sheltered, but that was expected with their talents. It would be a shame if they all died, but I doubt that Big Boss would let such a thing happen. Tsk, as if one could even begin to understand the complex thoughts that roamed that woman’s mind. Forget it, I’ll just play my role as well as I could, and the Little Bosses would do the same.

Zac held out his hand as we reached near the top of the gorge. This Moon had long been terraformed. However, this area was dead, for lack of a better word. There was no wildlife, just a precarious gorge filled with jagged gray and black ledges and deep crevasses. One of the many obstacles these Followers of the Light would have to go through to reach their end goal.

“I don’t get it. Why didn’t they just land closer to the mansion? Why go through all this trouble?” Someone behind me asked. I scoffed; the answer was obvious.

“Do you believe they could sneak a large force like that closer to the mansion? One or two individuals sneaking their way wouldn't be hard, but a whole army? Don’t be stupid.” Little Boss Vnexi answered beautifully.

“This isn’t something they're keen on either. That show they put on was a scare tactic, so they wouldn’t have to encounter this exact situation. Moving a large unit on the ground is the best choice since most defenses are anti-aircraft. I’m sure their tactic would have been somewhat effective if anyone but Big Boss. At the very least most others would still be busy arguing over what to do, giving them time to close in.” Little Boss Zac added, much to my delight. What a refreshing change of pace to have 2 more people with a brain to work with.

“They’ve walked themselves into a rather bad spot. Do we attack them in the gorge or at the choke point on the way out?” It was an intriguing question. The woman standing at Zac’s side this entire time, I believe her name was Aonani spoke.

“Both…” Zac said as he looked over his shoulder with a smile.

“We’re rather close. I’m sure the Little Bosses had already set things up. Is it really ok for us to discuss this here?” A small male spoke with a nervous expression on his face. Clearly a coddled little boy.

“Don’t worry, with Zac, they won’t know we're here unless he wants them to know. He’s been covering us the entire way.” Aonani spoke again. I looked over at Zac, as I didn’t recall him casting a System at any point. How exactly was he covering us, several dozen individuals, without alerting anyone? Though it would explain their leisurely manner as we made our way here.

“What do you mean both?” I asked. I was pretty curious about what was on this little lizard's mind. He looked at me with a smile and then turned his attention to Vnexi,

“We’re going to lower their numbers and pick off the rest when they come out of the gorge. If things go as well as I’d like, we may not have to do much at all.” An almost evil smirk stretched across his face.

“Devin, hack their filter system, make sure they don’t notice. Also, get into their communications. Give me an idea of their chain of command as soon as possible. Vnexi…”

“I’m already on it. I’ll tell you when I’m ready” The Little Bosses seemed to be communicating with each other without sharing too much with the rest of the class. Zac turned around and looked at me,

“You’re coming with me.”

“Me? Why’s that?” I asked curiously.

“We’re going hunting.” He answered simply, and I felt a shiver run down my spine.

Hacking their filter systems and communications, getting their chain of command. Little Boss planned on causing absolute chaos and assassinating their leaders in said chaos. Magnificent! Those large numbers would mean nothing if there was no order to them. Little Boss Vnexi then looked at the Aonani girl.

“Take the others to the choke point. I shouldn’t have to tell you what to do, right?”

“Yeah, I got it.” She said while motioning for the others to follow behind her. She then looked back at the three of us and then said,

“Maintain contact at all times, even if you're confident the situation could change at any moment.” I was expecting Little Boss Vnexi to say something cold and snarky in return; the two of them didn’t seem to get along. However, she just gave a simple nod as Aonani left with the others.

The three of us looked down at the approaching army, and then a voice entered into my mind,

“Hello, my name is Devin; I am Zac’s AS. A pleasure to meet you. Zac has requested that I transfer the information that I have gathered.” After he spoke, the images of individuals flashed in my mind. Their faces were covered by those helmets, but there were symbols on the chest of their uniforms. There were 20 in total; I suppose these were our assassination targets. These symbols made it easy to separate them from the others.

“Those are arranged from top to bottom, so we start at the top and work our way down,” Zac said to me. I was still trying to get over his AS's having invaded my communications. At no point had I allowed this Devin access? AS weren’t supposed to have hacking functions now that I thought about it. What the hell was the deal with this, Devin? Everything around these two Little Bosses was so fascinating.

“I’m ready, Zac.” Vnexi finally spoke. She had been weaving a rather complex system for some time.

“I will ping the locations of your targets. Good luck, team.” I heard Devin’s excited voice echoing in my mind. I looked over at Zac, who smirked at me and then motioned over at Vnexi. Did that thing have emotions?

“Bio System: Dreamscape…” her melodious voice echoed in my ears. Oh, my beautiful lady, I will have you… eventually, hopefully... fuck'in hell, maybe. The more time I spent with these Gteju, the less confident I felt about myself. My blood was from the 11 Rulers as well. So exciting!!! Why did I feel so inferior in the presence of these lizards?

A small system formed in front of her person. The system itself was a work of art, but what spilled out was a sight to behold. A pale pink fog eerily flowed into the gorge and began to flow towards the army. This must be some sort of potent hallucinogenic poison from the name Dreamscape. Something like this was prohibited during battles for those part of the Rulers Pact. Most official powers within the Castle have signed. How fortunate for us that the Rulers are so intent on keeping us out of that Pact. This poison could possibly cause them to tear themselves apart without us needing to do much at all.

There was silence for a time as the fog covered the approaching army. No doubt they had no fear of the fog, hoping to bank on their helmets' filter systems. Soon the sounds of blaster fire and shouting began to echo from the fog-filled gorge. Vnexi looked on with no emotion and then tossed capsules towards Zac and me.

“You should be immune to the mist after you swallow those.”

“Should?” Zac asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You can never be 100% sure with these things. Not like it matters for you, though, right?”

Zac chuckled as he downed the capsule, and I followed soon after.

“Now it’s our turn,” Zac spoke to me as his gloves began to glow. He quickly rubbed his right thumb across his right fingertips and then the middle joints.

“Assassin System: Cloak and Dagger.” He said as he spread his hand, and an extensive system circle formed in front of him. My eyes widened as I looked on. Vnexi didn’t seem to be better off. That was the fastest Source Threading I’ve ever seen in my life. It was one thing if it was a simple system, but it looked anything but simple. It was a low Soul Source consuming system, but I could feel its complexity. Once cast, it could stay going as long as the user wanted. The drawback was systems like that took several minutes to complete.

People spent lots of money to have systems like this engraved on one-time-use items. However, he did it in a few seconds. I looked at those gloves once again; Vnexi was one step ahead of me.

“I need a pair of those gloves.” She said as she stared thoughtfully at Zac.

“I’ll let you know when Jun and I decide on a price.” Zac started to laugh and walked through the system. The system circle collapsed onto him; for a moment, I thought the system had failed, I hoped it had failed, for the sake of my pride. Spectacularly, the system's collapse was nothing more than a transformation. It turned into a hooded cloak of smoke that was the darkest shade of black I’ve ever seen. The cloak faded away into nothingness along with Zac himself, who had been happily twirling those strange daggers in his hand.

“I’ll take these 10; you take the others. Don’t disappoint me.” Is the last thing I heard as Zac’s presence completely disappeared from my senses, something I’ve always felt was impossible. If it had Soul Source, it could not escape my senses, regardless of who they were. However, the truth I had known my whole life was shattered instantly by this man.

“Incredible…” I mumbled to myself, more alive than I’ve felt in a long time.

The needed information was relayed to me at that moment, as the pings that Devin had sent changed colors. The 10 blue were Zac’s targets, the 10 red were mine. Just as I processed the information, 1 of the blue targets had already vanished. Little Boss had already begun his work and covered so much distance so fast. I couldn’t be too outdone by this man. Gteju, Dragons as most other species knew them. They had everything. Powerful bodies, with an innate understanding of Soul Source, so much so they were dubbed the living embodiment of it.

They sat comfortably at the top of the food chain. That did not mean we “lesser” species were without our own advantages or that I would not someday find out how Dragons taste. I gave one last look at Vnexi, and a telling chuckle left my lips as my body faded away itself. Blood Haze; while our bodies weren’t as robust as the Dragons or as durable as the Iwons, we could control every cell in our body as we wished. With a bit of Soul Source and a bit of practice, there were very few forms we could not take.

My body turned into a haze of mist as I flew into a crack in the ground. Moments later, I appeared out of a crack beneath my first target. At the moment, the target was busy shouting at their subordinates, fighting each other. The target still had some sense about them. They must have very high resistance, or perhaps they were smart enough to take extra precautions for such an event.

Regardless, all that preparation would be for naught at this moment. My mist form exploded from the ground surrounding my prey. Before the target could fully process what was happening, my hand reached out to grab them by the neck. The rest of my body formed soon after. They reached for their Firearm, but it was far too late. They attempted to pull their weapon up to fire, but all the strength had already left their body. My species feed on the Soul Source of our prey, and to do so, we needed to draw it from their blood. The most efficient way was via biting.

I needed to do no such thing. Just a touch was enough; not even armor could stop me. My target dangled in my grasp. The sounds of gunfire and the shouts of horror from the subordinates would drown out any cries for help. However, this person would not cry; they had already lost the energy to scream.

I tossed aside the dried husk, wrapped in armor. Such a pity I could not see the eyes of my target through that helmet. I couldn't even tell if they were male or female. Such a pity indeed. I looked to see where my next target was and saw that 2 more Blue targets had been taken care of.

“Damn you, Little Boss.” I cursed as I vanished into a haze of blood mist to quickly track down my next target. I needed to catch up.

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