I have Nine Lives

Chapter 131: Attacking an empty nest

After making sure that everyone was looking at him, Landers opened his mouth for a speech:

"I know that all of you came here for one reason only, the same reason that you have joined the army in the first place, to expand the glory of the Lion tribe, and improve its infrastructure through war!"

"I know that some of you didn't join the army voluntarily, but would it have been better to rot in the tribe as healthy young men? Would it have been better to waste your life away without any merits to your name?"

Landers's speech started to stir up the crowd as they thought about his questions.

They realized that joining the army was the best way to grow in the lion tribe, but there were also problems with joining the army.

"I would like to say a few more words before we go to the designed battlefield."

A serious expression overtook Landers's face as the troops looked at him:

"I can't say that I will be able to get all of you back safe, but those that think they are not suited for this operation can choose a different deployment."

Then he introduced the two other villages' locations and told them to go there as reinforcements, the people that were too scared to go with Landers to the main operation stood around 300,000.

150,000 for the woodpecker's village and 150,000 for the hedgehog's village.

The remaining 3,100,000 were the troops meant for the most important operation up till now.

But they couldn't leave their first base alone, so 400,000 troops needed to be left behind as well.

Now they only had 2,700,000 troops left for the main operation.

This number was still an overkill considering the number of enemies they had to face wasn't even half the number of their reduced and scattered troops.

"Now that we got that out of the way is finally time to go!"

They couldn't wait for the troops to pass the bridge, so they would use the elevator that the humans lent them this time around.

The elevator was a transportation device they created to quickly get around the planet, getting the things they needed and/or wanted.

The elevator was very spacious as it could hold up to 5 million people at the same time. From the outside, it looked like it was just a small box. But the moment you would glance inside, you would see a gigantic space bigger than the average village!

Now it could also be used as a tactical military transportation device.

Siracha paid a hefty price, and the tribe's treasury had become a little smaller to have this device lent to the army.

Felix went ahead with Landers and the others as they entered first.

The interior of the elevator was smooth and futuristic. The tiles below were sparkly white, and it reminded Felix of the building he and Siracha first visited where they met Shima.

It was not a particularly good memory, but this current setup triggered it, making Felix frown a little.

Landers saw what happened but knowing about his past made him not question his frown as he understood.

The troops slowly loaded the elevator until it was a little above half-capacity.

Then one of the captain-level individuals from the army came over and told Landers how the elevator worked.

They had to introduce the location and some coordinates or how the location generally looked for the thing to work.

Felix knew how the location looked, so he was held up by Landers towards the pad they had to use to input their destination.

Felix learned how to use the pad as Landers instructed him, then used his paws to input the things he saw, immediately putting the elevator to work.

The doors of the elevator slowly started to close as a fluorescent light engulfed everyone inside.

It didn't take more than a few seconds before the elevator started shaking and then stopping.

Slowly afterward, the doors opened again, and Felix, Landers, Lindo, and Manitola found themselves in a different place.

To Landers and the others, the place couldn't be more foreign, but to Felix, it was very familiar.

The base of the foxes laid in front of them. Unprotected and, unguarded which was very strange considering only a few days passed since Felix had escaped.

Landers took a few steps forward, only for a strong hand to be put on his shoulder. Diorno appeared from behind his crimson hair slowly fluttered behind him as his aura activated.

He looked down at the empty base and snorted while he cupped his two hands together, creating a small ball of crimson energy that he launched directly at the opening of the burrow.

He was sure they didn't abandon the base yet. They only made it look like it was abandoned to confuse the future invaders that would attack, creating an opening for them to use their traps!

The small ball of crimson energy was his welcoming gift for those sneaky foxes that liked to play like this.

The moment the ball touched the bottom of the entrance, it started to expand quickly until it was around 5 meters tall and 3 meters wide, engulfing the whole entrance and creating a crater of the same height.

The explosion shook the lands around them as trees fell, and the local wildlife was scared away.

However, nothing came out of the burrow, now, a big hole appeared where the entrance was, and the troops could see that while though the burrow seemed to be outfitted for people to live in, it was currently abandoned.

Felix made a motion with his paw indicating that Diorno should stop bombarding the base.

He knew that destroying the base wouldn't help them at all, and it would be better to investigate personally. He was the smallest and nimblest in the current troops. Combined with his stealth, he was the best at investigating the current situation.

He activated his stealth as he made his way down the newly made crater courtesy of Diorno. He knew his way a little around the base as he already escaped from it once, and after making sure no one was inside it, he returned to the top of the burrow and shook his head.

Diorno was puzzled. He really thought that they wouldn't leave their fortifications this easily. Were they crazy?

He shook his head as he looked at Landers, indicating that he should know what to do in this situation.

Landers nodded and looked over the 2,700,000 troops before shouting:

"Make groups of 100,000 people each and search for the Foxe's location, if you find them, immediately report through the communication stone. So then we can regather and conquer them!"

The troops saluted as they shouted in unison:

"SIR YES SIR!"

Then, they started to disband into smaller groups as they broke their military formation, grouping up with people they knew.

The troops scattered into the surrounding forest as they tried their best to find the missing foxes.

But things weren't done, as Felix looked around before making a motion with his paw towards the remaining people. Which were Landers, Manitola, Lindo, and Diorno.

"Even though the foxes aren't here, could the moles have escaped as well?"

Felix's question was something that the others failed to ponder on after they saw that the foxes ran away, leaving their nest empty.

They knew that at this point, scattering the troops wouldn't guarantee that they could catch them, so they should at least get rid of the second most important threat!

Diorno face-palmed as he heard Felix's words and said:

"Why haven't you told us this before we had scattered the troops?"

Felix shook his head as he explained:

"More troops wouldn't be better for the mole's headquarters, they are infested with traps of all kinds, and the more people there is, the higher chance they would trigger a trap."

Diorno nodded as he stopped his antics:

"I see, then shall we go?"

He already understood that a small team of elites would be better suited for this operation and decided against making a fool of himself by berating Felix again.

Landers looked at Felix and told him:

"You should take the lead as you know your way around these parts better than we do."

Felix took the lead and started to run, not waiting for the others to follow him. After all, they were all very fast, so he didn't need to wait for them.

It took Felix and the others around 6 hours of running through the woods before they reached a small cave. Where Felix previously realized that it was the entrance towards the subterranean place of the moles.

They slowly made their way inside as they kept in the middle of the road, not getting closer to the walls nor too far. Who knew what kind of traps the moles put in their front entrance?

This time, Felix didn't take the lead anymore as he wasn't the most durable in their team anymore now, Diorno being first and Landers second.

Diorno made his way through the darkness easily as he used his night-vision that felines were blessed with. All of the people currently underground had night-vision, so they didn't have problems navigating down in the cave.

But when you thought that you had no problems, the problems in question would appear and start beating you on the head.

The same applied to this situation. Diorno thought at first that Felix had exaggerated the mole's ability to create traps. However, somehow he found himself stepping in a small mound of dirt.

The mound of dirt was rather simple and unassuming at first glance, but what would a mound of dirt do inside of a cave? It was unnatural, and Diorno immediately realized that he walked directly into a trap!