He walked down another pathway as mercenaries stormed into the hall.
"F**k, what the hell??? 15 dead bodies? Where's the enemy?"
"It's only our guys."
"What the hell took down 15 enemies without suffering anything?"
"Damn it. Spread out and search."
More and more mercenaries began crowding the floor. He had entered the stairwells and jumped over the railing. He fell so fast that no one saw him. They entered the top floor while he grabbed the 8th floor railing, pulled himself over, and entered.
This floor was less crowded due to the 10th floor call. He even passed another veteran or two. When he saw a mercenary, he simply shot them in the head faster than they registered his appearance. He did find an injured veteran. She had been shot in the chest, not a vital point. Three choices. Bring her to a safe spot and hope she didn't get shot again. Share problems and help each other, which wasn't a choice at all, so two choices. The last choice was better.
He dragged her towards a window, opened it up, and tossed her down a cloth banner. She cursed him profanely as he closed the window. He saw some soldiers down below, eyes widened. Problem solved.
He guessed the target should be on this floor, but he didn't have an exact location. Should he cover the building in his aura? A hand gripped his shoulder as an illusory door appeared in front of him. There was a conversation between two ACEs, one youthful and one elderly.
"Brat. It's fine if you want to show off."
"Then, why did you stop me?"
"It's not alright if your going to be seen as unusual. This is a top secret mission. Do you want the incident to be traced back to the country, to you?"
"Senior… I was wrong and foolish."
"I only came because I value your potential."
As the illusory door closed and vanished, a brilliant light could be seen in his eyes. He put his mind into overdrive as he threw various calculations at the Holo-suit. Many points began to converge into a central point. These data entries were from hits and deaths reported through the radio. As he got more and more, the triangulation shrank.
*Error*
*Location does not exist*
He looked down, dumbfounded by the results. Each shot was fired randomly from a different point around the hotel within 5 seconds of the previous. No one could run that fast. 5 seconds was not enough to run from one side of the building to another and relay instructions.
It seemed like the target wasn't so simple, or at least their method wasn't.
As he was contemplating the results, more mercenaries appeared out of nowhere. He stepped behind a door as shots were fired. He saw soldiers rushing up the stairs, returning fire. It seems like they had more numbers ultimately. He still had to find the target though.
"You got here ahead of the rest? Any idea on the situation?"
"An accident happened on the 10th floor. They all rushed up there. The closest floors have less combatants thanks to that. It's a good place to regroup," Sikhail revealed.
"Understood. Stay safe."
"You too," Sikhail said.
"Anything else?"
"There's something weird going. They have some kind of scout that can see everything around the building, no matter where it is. This person is ordering the hits that are impossible, most likely," Sikhail advised.
"F**k. That idiot's been a huge headache for the leaders. When we came in, there was something weird coming from below. Maybe the basement has the answers you're looking for. I have to clear the building with my team."
"Thanks," Sikhail said empathetically.
He waited as the soldiers suppressed the mercenaries, then took the stairs down. He kept landing head shots on any mercenaries he saw.
"F**k, watch out. This one's a beast. He's downing us so casually we look like trash. The others are nowhere near as oppressive."
"Goddammit. How does he get a head shot so effortlessly."
"Aghhhh. Damn it. You jinxed me a**hole. My groin feels really warm now."
"Nooo!!! Guard your jewels with your lives."
"I don't have jewels dumba**. Owww!!! My lip was grazed."
"Will you guys shut the hell up. We're being insulted with the shots."
(Gurgle)
"Alright, for real, everyone shut up."
(Gurgle)
"Can't someone just f**king take care of him. How is one soldier so hard to kill. Aghhhhh."
"Well, now he's screwed. He can't even aim anymore."
"You can't walk anymore idiot."
(Silence)
They heard the shouts, but when they saw him, they were already crippled by his bullets. Just like that, a stairwell turned in a pool of blood that started dripping all the way down, forming a blood fall. There was a crowd downstairs, but making use of the cover and also incoming reinforcement, the mercenaries gradually lost position.
"Oh thank god!!! The military are truly the guardian angels of New Hope country!"
"Thank you my heroes!!"
Shouts could be from inside locked doors. The soldiers opened said doors, freeing the civilians inside. As Sikhail headed toward the basement, he knocked on any locked door he found. Either the civilians would come out, or if the door was locked, his fellow soldiers would open it up later.
He traversed the long and luxurious hall until he felt an odd sensation in his heart. It was similar to the aura he released to identify targets in an area.
The target was close.
The hotel had many intersections, and he looked left and right before continuing. Finally, he found a set of stairs going down and walked towards it. A mercenary appeared at the end of the hall and noticed him. There was an RPG, not reloaded. He blitzed at the target while the mercenary rushed to reload his weapon, cursing out loud while running. The mercenary was split apart when a fist landed on his back, overwhelming him before he could load the rocket.
Sikhail headed down the stairs as the sensation grew stronger and stronger. He had only embarked on the Supernatural Path. He had a sense on how to manipulate his surroundings, so he just let himself be wrapped in the feeling, get an idea on how it could work. Energy was transferred not into a battle-suit or weapon, but into the environment itself.
It felt like a relationship, an understanding. When the temperature decrease, it became harder to reach out, control. Exerting energy felt similar to pulling the trigger. It did something, just not what you specifically intended.
It was mostly maintenance rooms, where hotels put most of their machines. He walked through them as he made his way around. Undisturbed. If there WAS activity down here, it was a tight operation. Tight up there. Tight here as well.
(Bzzzz)
(Whoosh)
There was sound in the distance. A good place to begin. Sometimes the path led him further away and sometimes the path led to a dead end. Generators, water purification system, new furniture still in packaging tape, temperature control system. It was surprisingly warm down here, not cold like he was expecting. There were additional generators everywhere, active, not just on stand by.
Then he saw the rubble and dirt. Scuffed walls and splatter on the ceiling. Commotion. A drill. He followed the sound and discovered an underground swimming, no, pool. Water was shooting up like a fountain. The energy he felt earlier was strong here.
He focused on the water. It wasn't actually water. It was… a pool of energy? No waves or even a ripple. Looked more like a stream. The door was locked and he didn't want to open it. A vent on the left. Better choice. He got in it and crawled. It led to the inside of the room. A much better decision.
He didn't understand what was going on, so he activated the recording feature on his Holo-suit. He was prone for a bit before he assessed the situation.
Weren't the mercenaries just locking down the hotel? What was this? There were almost ten times as many mercenaries here compared to the floor he intruded on. All of them were guarding the pool, working on their laptops, or testing the pool.
Suddenly, an unknown battle-suit entered from the door on the other side. The unknown subject was wearing a trench coat.
(…)
What about trenchy? It was so odd and out of place that it felt appropriate. Trenchy walked into the center of the pool, analyzing it. A gun was raised and the trigger was pulled. Air bent, sucking the pool into the trigger.
(Whhhoooom)
Dozens of mercenaries were frozen on the spot. Trenchy threw something as intense heat waves assaulted the ice sculptures, melting the frost away.
"Mister. We can leave now right?"
"Our agreement is done. Money will be wired into your account. We appreciate your business," Trenchy replied, his voice gruff and scritchy scratchy as though modified by a computer.