The classroom had a different aura this Thursday. The other students seemed to be very happy. One of the reasons was that tomorrow would be the end of their rigorous basic training. Tomorrow, all of them would be promoted into private while Dean and the others would be promoted to private first class.
"Hey hey," Scarlet approached Dean who was looking at the window from the far edge of the classroom.
"Hey, sup?" Dean asked Scarlet.
"You didn't read my text, were you sleeping last night?" Scarlet asked.
"Yeah, sorry," Dean scratched the back of his head.
"So, can you go to the park this afternoon, right before patrol?" Scarlet asked.
"Sorry, Scarlet, I can't. I am a little bit occupied this afternoon, you know?" Dean said.
"Dean, I really need to tell you something," Scarlet said with a serious tone.
"If you want to discuss something so important, let's talk here," Dean added.
Scarlet looked left and right as if she was worried about being seen by someone. Who was even hostile in this classroom? Orion posed little to no threat if that was what she was concerned about. Unless she wanted to do some major crimes, she didn't need to worry about anything. Of course, the content of the conversation also mattered a lot.
Dean absolutely didn't want to walk into any trap, ever again. If Scarlet was a trap, then the second assassination attempt would usually be better than the first assassination attempt. There was no doubt about it. Scarlet could be a bait for Dean.
He was now thinking about what he should do. Sure, there was an option to go to the park with the heavy ballistic vest and risk it all. No one would even think of ambushing him since the ambusher would be easily countered. It would also catch too much attention on his end.
No one would like to see someone in full-ballistic armor inside of a bus. They would think the island was under attack or something. Still, the sight of fully-armed men was quite common so it wouldn't be a big problem, to be honest.
"I can't. This is only between you and me," Scarlet said.
The wrongest response possible in Dean's opinion. Why would Scarlet say that in the first place? There were two possibilities, one was because Scarlet wanted to ambush him, or because this was some kind of love confession. Dean would downright reject it if the latter was the case. Scarlet was Orion's. Ain't no way Dean would overtake him.
"And what's it about, eh?" Dean asked, acting as if he was interested in the first place.
"Something that you might need to know and you need to know, what do you think?" Scarlet asked.
Dean sighed. Alright, he would take the bait. He decided to go all in. "Fine, when?"
"How about 3.30 P.M. today?" Scarlet asked.
"Yeah, it sounds good for me," Dean said.
========
Dean went to the park right according to his first plan. He wore his heavy bulletproof vest that was equipped with ballistic plates, alongside bringing the ballistic helmet with the ballistic face shield. He also brought his M4-EC alongside him. All was thanks to the permission of Adams. The moment Dean arrived there, Scarlet immediately noticed it.
"Damn, what a ghetto? If I may ask, why?" Scarlet stood up from the bench where she was sitting down.
"Adams requested it for today's patrol. He said something hard will come down and he told me to go to the armory to retrieve the heavy ballistic vest," Dean answered by using the excuse that Adams had given, especially since he was in the military woodland uniform instead of the academy uniform.
"Never thought the security situation would be that bad, but well, here we are. Anyway, no one follows you, right?" Scarlet asked.
Dean became even more suspicious of the setup. Why would Scarlet take him into one of the remote parks that had no visitors on Almara Island? It just didn't make sense at all, and that last question, Dean felt that he made the right decision wearing all of the heavy armor. If it was not ambush, he didn't have any idea what it would be.
"So, what do you want to tell me?" Dean asked.
"It's about your assassination, Dean, I know something about it."
Dean immediately went into his alert mode. He put his hand on his holster slowly as Scarlet said that. He knew one thing this park wasn't even safe in the first place. There was a lot of ambush point and fighting out of that place wouldn't be easy at all.
"What do you know?" Dean became even more suspicious.
Just before Scarlet continued her sentence. Dean saw a rustling coming from the bush. He looked at it and noticed the end of a gun barrel protruding out of the bush. Dean immediately covered Scarlet's body with his body and a bullet flew out of the rifle.
[AMBUSH!]
[Survive] [0/1]
[Protect Scarlet] [0/1]
Rewards: +4,000 XP, +20 Skill Points.
The energy shield protected him from the first bullet and the bullet fell to the ground. However, the killer pulled the trigger the second time and the next bullet hit him right in the ballistic vest. Dean took aim with his M4 and shot the bush mercilessly.
"SCARLET! GET DOWN!" Dean pushed towards the bushes. He threw a grenade at the bush and it exploded.
Dean then pulled Scarlet out of the danger zone, into the maintenance building of the park. It had a wall and it should provide enough cover from a basic pistol round, which the killer might use. Scarlet was shell-shocked. She was hyperventilating. However, Dean couldn't even care about it.
He held Scarlet right by her uniform collar and threw her into the wall. "Scarlet, you just walk me to a fucking ambush, better start talking, or I'd personally kill you."
"It's Aveline, Aveline is involved."
"How about you?" Dean even became more confused.
"I swear, I want us to talk outside of the academy because of Aveline, I swear, I don't know about this ambush," Scarlet began to cry as bullet began flying towards the building.
"Fuck! Look, I will listen more about it, but we need to stick together to get out of here alive, are you ready?" Dean put another fresh magazine into his rifle.
"NO NO NO, this can't be happening," Scarlet succumbed to her fear as more bullets began to fly.
Dean slapped Scarlet, "LISTEN! GET BACK TO THE GAME IF YOU WANT TO BE ALIVE, GOT IT?" Dean shouted.
Scarlet just nodded as tears still fell from the corner of her eyes. Dean peeked from the corner of the wall and it seemed that a lot of people were shooting in their direction with small arms and magic ranging from mere fireball to a pistol.
Dean shot at the hostiles as he peeked through the wall. He threw another grenade in their direction and he began returning accurate fire with his M4. The hostiles began dropping one by one as they fought against Dean who was in the heavy body armor.
"What the fuck is happening in here?" Dean observed the hostiles. All of them were wearing uniforms resembling the SWAT teams, and all of them were using pistols and submachine guns alongside with the magical spell. "Why the hell are we fighting the SWAT?"
Dean threw another grenade and further provided accurate fire that put down three SWAT officers. He had no doubt, that this would put him in prison if this was a real ambush.
"KYAAAAA!" Scarlet was still stuck behind the wall of the maintenance building as Dean began pushing the SWAT team back. Dean then walked towards one of the trees in the park and took cover.
Dean shouted at the SWAT, "HEY! WE ARE FRIENDLY! CEASEFIRE!"
The SWAT team still fought them even after the shout. Dean fought through the gunfire and fireball barrages that the SWAT threw at Dean. The amount of training that the assaulter had confirmed that this was some sort of rogue SWAT team. No way a regular person would be this accurate.
One bullet then flew towards Dean's leg. The bullet pierced right through and it left a hole in Dean's feet. Dean immediately chanted his spell. 'Blitz Painkiller!' The pain went away, but the bleeding continued.
Scarlet screaming and crying were still loud enough. She was alive, that was good enough fpr him. Right now, they had to survive the onslaught from whoever this was. This rogue SWAT team must have the answer.
"RETREAT!" One of the SWAT officers shouted.
Dean took the opportunity and charged to the retreating SWAT officers with his rifle. He shot one of the SWAT officers and threw another grenade at a group of SWAT. It exploded them sky-high.
The gunfire died down eventually. Dean walked to the nearest SWAT officer that attacked him. No matter how many bullets were fired at him, his ballistic vest absorb them all. The SWAT team didn't wear any vest whatsoever either. Why were they so confident?
Dean slammed the back of his rifle on the SWAT officer and he turned unconscious. All of the rogue SWAT officers had been exterminated but one. Dean then observed his legs. He had three bullet holes in his legs. Dean sighed. Thanks to the painkiller spell, he didn't feel anything.
"DEAN!" Scarlet shouted from the back of the wall.
Dean ran in that direction.
Scarlet got shot.