Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 138: The Trio

Kothar watched as the edge of a carved mask peeked around the corner of the staircase, and heaved a sigh of relief as he saw the now familiar hawk face mask.

"That you, Rufus?" Docara whispered as he stared at the ominous figure crouched silently at the top of the stairs with his blades drawn, he melded almost completely into the darkness. 

"It sure is, is anyone coming up behind you? We're going to need at least three of us up where to take on these fellows, and I don't think it's likely we'll be able to take them by surprise. I didn't scout to close because I'm sure they'd feel my mana, they're sure to have some sort of safeguards also." Kothar moved aside and Docara joined him at the top of the stairs.

"You're right. I can feel their mana fluctuations here myself. This'll be a three man job at least, we'll go ahead and take them out as soon as the next person arrives. Just because something hasn't gone wrong downstairs yet doesn't mean it won't. If anything, it means it's more likely for things to go to s***." Docara took in the surrounding corridor, the top floor only had one spacious wide corridor, the floor dominated by the four rooms that were hidden by polished wooden doors. 

Unlike the floors below, which were only decorated by suits of armor and the odd tapestry of a battle, this floor was far more opulent. 

There were small tables all along the corridor, some held vases with fresh flowers, others had beautiful enchanted sculptures that glowed every hue imaginable. One could imagine they were in the home of a healthy noble rather than in a remote military outpost. 

"Here comes the lucky winner." Docara whispered, as he and Kothar turned toward the soft footsteps coming from the stairs.

"Pony, you're a right vicious b*****." Docara muttered and shook his head, unlike Docara and Kothar, Pony was absolutely drenched with blood. His thick leather gloves and the naked blade held loosely in his hand both glowed a dull red in the slight amount of starlight that shone down. 

"Can't help if some of these ***** wake up, gotta keep them quiet somehow, right?" Pony shrugged and callously wiped his blade off with a scrap of cloth hanging from his belt.

"So, what the fuss, ladies, you really didn't have to wait for me." Pony continued to jibe Docara, he had guessed right, he could tell that his killing of the soldiers had ticked the self appointed Captain.

"Alright, no need for this Pony, let's get the job done and you can settle whatever this is." Docara shook his head in disgust and turned to Kothar, clearly not interested in Pony's ridiculous vendetta. 

"Rufus, what can you tell us?" He asked, and Pony also turned to listen attentively. Pony, as much as he wanted to antagonize Docara, knew that the man had a point, they would jeopardize the mission if they engaged in any needless bickering, and both of them had such strict loyalty to Tam they wouldn't risk jeopardizing the mission in the slightest.

"Farthest door on the right, Water Element. I'd say amongst our troop, he'd be in the top ten of fighters. Next, the closest door on our right. That would be an Elementless fighter, so that pretty much rules out it being a mage." Kothar was about to continue, before Pony interrupted.

"I'll take that one, please and thank you. I've no interest in tangling with any Mages." Pony said gruffly, not meeting either Kothar or Docara's eyes as he did so.

"Alright, then I'll continue. Finally, we've got the closest door on the right, that's got our Wind Element individual. I'd say whoever they are, they could easily go toe to toe with our strongest, theoretically." Kothar looked to Docara as he finished explaining, waiting to see who the odd man would pick as his opponent.

"What are you waiting for Rufus? Isn't it obvious, I'll take on the strongest fighter. Now go take care of that Water Element clown, should be quite a good matchup for you." Docara gave a soft chuckle as he clapped Kothar on the shoulder and walked off toward the door, unsheathing his pair of long curved blades with a soft 'schnick' sound. 

Pony nodded and did the same, his thin triangular blade now clean of blood, as he had been polishing it obsessively as Kothar had talked.

[He's suspicious. How on earth did you know you can use the Lightning Element?] Silane piped up as Kothar crept toward his target's door.

[I don't know. I did use it to take out the soldiers on the first floor, so he might have figured out from the pair of them. But surely they're still unconscious.] Kothar was equally confused as Silane, someone would have to be sensitive to Lightning Element Mana, or carry around the same type of crystal that Kothar had used in his lens to know exactly what kind of magic Kothar had used.

[I think it would be best if you didn't use your Spatial Element against this enemy. If Docara can somehow find out what element you;re using, then that would give you away for sure. A dual element Mage who uses both Lightning and Spatial element has got to be quite rare.] Silane sounded genuinely concerned, Krieg frightened her and she wasn't ready for them to tangle with him again.

[Alright, this shouldn't be too much trouble, anyway.] Kothar was right at his target's door knob, and he turned to Docara and Pony, who were both waiting. 

Kothar gave them both a nod, indicating he was ready and that there were no runic networks around the door, which was unexpected but nonetheless a welcome surprise. 

Docara slowly began to count down on his fingers.

'5'

'4'

'3'

'2'

'1'

The three masked and hooded soldiers slipped quietly into the polished doors in front of them, ready to wreak havoc.