Inside a military compound, Death was observing the battle on a large screen. He was currently standing behind two other observers. Other onlookers in the background noticed that Death had a fawning posture as he stood behind the other two figures.
"Why the fuck can't any of our assassins get the target to engage? Tell them to hurry up and take care of his two friends!" grunted the figure with an eyepatch on his left eye.
"Talrus, don't you notice that our forces are entirely outclassed by those two? Might as well put a bunch of sheep in front of two tigers. I suggest we order our forces to retreat for now, even if it means a demerit. Revenant Telaron will understand our plight when we show him a recording of this battle. We did succeed in getting this Kain to utilize his tentacles." said the one standing next to him.
"Solen, we have already lost half our forces. We won't just be laughed out of the room by the others, there may no longer be a chance to rank up for a whole year! We must record Kain fighting with his abilities, even if our forces get thrashed. Let's launch a sonic missile targeting Kain." said Talrus.
"Can you be any stupider? Don't you know that Kain is acquainted with the leaders of the opposing faction? If we use a sonic missile, Kain will find out that the military attacked him when he asks questions. After hearing the reports from those who watched Kain fighting in the War Consortium, it is highly doubtful that the sonic missile will kill him. If we provoke Kain to attack the military, it won't just be a demerit we have to worry about, but we may even lose our lives. Didn't you notice that even Revenant Telaron accorded a level of respect towards Kain during the debriefing?"
Talrus clenched his teeth in anger. He knew Solen was right. Following Solen's lead was always the right play because he was trained extensively in tactics and games of war.
"What do we do now? Should we order a retreat?" asked Talrus.
"Have our forces retreat, but have them head towards the Colosseum and attack the former Penta Girls that have pledged allegiance to Kain. Kill a few of them, but capture the majority so we can use them as hostages. We will use them to draw out Kain to fight under our conditions." replied Solen.
Talrus cursed himself for not thinking of that. He passed on the new orders through the comms link. Soon enough, they watched the surviving members of their forces beat a hasty retreat on the screen. Confirming the casualty count as 32 dead, Talrus vowed to take out his anger on the girls that were taken hostage.
---
The various fire clones of Barton howled into the air in victory as the survivors beat a hasty retreat. Desmond was about to lock down the retreating forces with his gravity ability, but Kain called out to him to let them go.
Kain walked up and assessed the battlefield. Barton and Desmond had not utilized their full abilities, but had steamrolled everyone nonetheless. He grimaced at the many corpses on the ground. That was basically more than 30 streams that had gone to waste. However, he had to make sure that his brothers were capable of standing on their own. Besides, he was quite sure this was just the start. There would be more to come and if not, Kain would seek them out on his own.
-They are from the military right, Mexxle? (Kain)
-Yes, they were trying to test your capabilities. It seems the military is being cautious about angering you. (Mexxle)
-They should have sent someone to talk if they were truly cautious. Looks like they still don't fear me, seeing that they outright attacked me. I will teach them a lesson they won't forget. Just when I was worried where I would get more streams to convert, they presented their necks out to me. They may as well have just gift-wrapped themselves before coming here. (Kain)
-I advise caution on your part. We do not know the true capabilities of the military and it is never wise to underestimate your opponents. (Mexxle)
-Don't worry, I won't throw down just yet. However, they have to pay a price for their miscalculation or they will try stupid shit again. I plan on tracking the survivors down to their bases and make them pay. (Kain)
-No need, I read their minds and they have a change in orders. They are on their way to attack your followers resting in the Colosseum. Their orders are to kill some and capture the others to use as hostages. (Mexxle)
Kain finally started to get really pissed off at the military. Looks like a little rampage is well justified now.
"I'll be right back. Stay here in case more attackers come. I will be sending some people through the void emblem. All of them will be women." said Kain as he teleported away.
Hearing that a bunch of women would be coming through the void emblem, Barton grinned and ran back to the house. He would be the first to receive them and wanted to show a good impression. While Barton waited in the void emblem room, Desmond went to explain to the girls what happened outside and that guests would be arriving.
Kain teleported to his bedroom in the Colosseum. His clone disappeared as it was no longer needed. When he exited the room, he saw that the women were guarding his bedroom door as well as various locations throughout the outer room. All the women bowed towards Kain and greeted him.
Kain noticed that a few of the women were outside patrolling the hallways.
"Have everyone come inside immediately. We are about to be attacked and I want to teleport everyone back to my mansion." said Kain.
A brunette started barking orders and a few of the women ran outside to gather the others. Kain guessed that she was the leader of this group.
"What is your name?" asked Kain.
"My name is Samantha. Leader can call me Sam for short." replied the woman.
Kain began to question Sam about how many women there were in total in the group. He found out that there were 18 in total. Scanning the room, he saw that 10 of them were here already. Kain expanded his senses outside the room and saw that the ones patrolling outside were heading back to the room.
When Kain expanded even further out, the assassins were still nowhere to be seen yet. Kain waved his hand and a void portal opened up in the room.
"There will be others waiting for you on the other side. I will make sure that everyone gets through safely. Go on through." said Kain.
Sam started waving the other women to head into the portal. The women didn't even hesitate and walked into the portal. Sam entered the portal last.
Just as the other women came into the room, Kain finally detected the assassins at the periphery of his senses. Kain waved the remaining women through the portal. When everyone was evacuated, Kain removed the portal. He turned on his camouflage and stood near the back wall of the living room.
After a few minutes, two hooded figures phased through the wall with weapons in hand. They scanned the room before phasing through the walls to the bedroom. Kain phased through the wall after them.
The two figures finally put away their weapons and started to converse over their comm link.
"The targets are no longer here. Looks like they were evacuated. Should we return back to base?" said one of the figures.
Kain heightened his hearing to listen to the voice on the other end.
"Damn it. Now we won't have any leverage over Kain. Hold on, we are going to do a thermal scan of the area with the satellite. Maybe they are hidden somewhere." said a voice.
Kain lowered his body's temperature using his ice power. Unfortunately, he didn't know if undershooting his temperature would still show an imprint on the satellite, so Kain teleported to his old VIP lounge. When he arrived in the living room, he heard the sounds of lovemaking coming from the bedroom. Kain placed a sound barrier over the bedroom so he could focus in on the conversation from his previous location.
Thankfully, he could still hear from this distance if he focused.
"Looks like the area is clear. No point in staying there. Come on back to base so we can regroup and think of another plan." said the voice over the comm link.
The two figures phased back out to the waiting group of six just outside. Then, all of them dashed away in a certain direction.
Kain phased through the ceiling and flew silently behind the unsuspecting group towards their base. It was time to show them what kind of mistake they had just made.