Gulmira's defenses were sloppy at best. The barriers were little more than stacked sandbags, and the patrols were irregular and lazy. Liam smirked as he activated his Phase Shift, phasing into an alternate dimension for a brief moment. The familiar tingling sensation rippled through him as the real world faded, replaced by a muted void where time felt suspended. This technology was something Liam was able to wrap his head around, but it did allow him to be invisible and move for a few seconds. This allowed him to pass some terrorists easily without any problems.
Reemerging behind a crumbled wall, Liam crouched low and observed the main street. A pair of guards leaned against a rusty pickup truck, their weapons slung haphazardly over their shoulders. They were laughing at some crude joke, entirely unaware of his presence.
Liam moved with the precision of a ghost. He activated Cloak, blending seamlessly into his surroundings as he advanced. Crossing the main street, he used his Grapple to silently scale the side of a partially collapsed building adjacent to his target.
Soon Liam reached the rooftop from the blind spot where the leader was barking orders at his men. The terrorists in the room were distracted, shuffling weapons and maps. Liam knew he had seconds to act.
He threw a smoke grenade inside. The device instantly filled the room with smoke, but it was no ordinary smoke. The name of the smoke grenade was an electric smoke grenade, and once someone passed through it, they would receive a shock. This grenade was taken from BT, as it was an exclusive thing of Titans.
The militants screamed in pain, and all of them lost consciousness. Liam leaped through the window silently, his Pilot suit dampening the sound of his impact. The leader had already passed out. The screams were loud enough, and men started running toward the main building.
Liam hoisted the unconscious leader over his shoulder and phased into Phase Shift. Of course, the man couldn't enter the alternate dimension, but it did null the sound of his running. His HUD was fully functional, as the escape route for him was planned by BT.
Before entering the town, his HUD had already been analyzing, and BT from afar had been keeping an eye on the militants.
[
Duck under the rubble and wait for 3 seconds.
...
Go towards northwest for a distance before I tell you to stop
.....
Hide beside the broken car...
...]
It took him about 3 minutes to find his way out of the chaos. There were people too in the town, but BT made sure that none of them could see him. At one point in his escape, some children saw him, but they didn't seem to react at all. Seeing the children made Liam freeze, but seeing that none of them reacted, he continued to sprint and escape.
Thankfully, the guards in the area were too slow to react; by the time they realized something was wrong, Liam was already beyond their reach. They weren't even able to secure the borders of the town fast when their leader vanished.
[Welcome back. Congratulations on safely executing the mission.]
Liam was amazed that he didn't need to kill anyone in this small mission that he had given himself. He didn't have any goal to avoid killing, as he thought he might have to use the pulse blade, but the security was so slow and lax that it was not needed. But at the moment, Liam was huffing a bit. The stress and the weight of the man on his shoulders made him a bit tired.
Though Liam was at the peak of human ability, at the end of the day, he was still 16.
"Thanks." Liam sat down to catch his breath.
After a period of rest, he finally entered the cockpit of BT and then ran into the ridges and mountains with BT holding the unconscious body of the leader. Liam kept a very safe distance away from the town, and now it was finally time to work.
"BT, wake him up."
[Roger.]
BT proceeded to give him a small shock, which instantly broke his unconsciousness. The leader woke up with a start and then started screaming. He tried to get away from the hold of the mechanical monster's hand, but he couldn't. The look of horror and confusion on his face was apparent.
But after some time, tears started to roll down his eyes, and he began constantly mumbling, holding his hands in a prayer stance, and looking at Liam.
"What is he saying?"
[He is praying to us. He thinks we are Djinns.]
Liam just rolled his eyes.
[Ask him where Tony Stark is. Ask him for the exact location.]
BT spoke in the same language as theirs. And surprisingly, the man spoke out everything. BT specifically asked him for coordinates as he showed him a holographic map, and the man pointed it out.
"BT, isn't he speaking too enthusiastically?"
[Liam, he is in deep fear and thinks we are the evils of the world. He also has a deep fear of death.]
"Ugh... Just take him with us. We will dispose him once we confirm whether what he says is true or false."
[Will follow your command.]
The man didn't try to wiggle his way out and accepted his fate while praying to whatever god he believed in. Liam didn't care, and after an hour of running in sand and rugged terrain, Liam was sitting inside BT and asking about all the functions that could be done and what couldn't.
Soon they reached the place, and Liam could see a small circular mound, and from afar, one could tell that the surrounding territory was very well guarded. Unlike the previous town, this small place was filled with guards and even had small towers.
The only reason they weren't able to see Liam and the huge BT was because the wind was blowing at high speed, carrying sand with it. But this problem wasn't an issue for Liam, as they were using high-resolution cameras and lenses to look further.