( 30 Minutes Later )
Meanwhile, with the Daggers, they reached the intended location, but the terrain proved challenging for them to advance further. So, they decided to plan their movements right there and then.
"The scent came from up there, sir. But how do we get up there?"
The reason why Josh was so confused was that he was faced with a steep hill, and there was no clear path in front of him. Some of the members tried to climb and jump with force, but their efforts were in vain.
'Hmm, we can't jump high enough to reach it, but we have the strength to make it possible,' Shadow, the bald man who led the Daggers, thought with a calm expression while watching his members trying to climb the hill.
"Cut down the trees around us and use them as a foothold for us to climb!" Shadow commanded, his voice filled with authority.
Because they were vampires, they didn't feel tired or exhausted. They had more than enough strength to clear the entire forest if they wanted to, but it was unnecessary. So, they only cut down the ones that were surrounding them. Roughly thirty minutes later, they had completed the foothold.
This wasn't the first time the Daggers had done such things; they had done everything necessary to complete their mission. At one time, the Daggers were forced to blend in with admirers of a Japanese idol in order to assassinate a rogue agent who had abandoned his mission just because he had fallen in love with the idol. So the conclusion is that the Daggers were professionals to their core.
"Sir, we're ready to advance," Josh reported to Shadow.
Shadow nodded at him and said, "Then let us continue!"
Josh and the members who heard his command nodded at Shadow, and they began jumping to the footholds that had been placed by their own hands. Around five minutes later, the Daggers could be seen checking their surroundings after they reached the top of the hill.
"I thought we would have difficulty when we reached the top, but I didn't expect it to be so vast, like a football field," exclaimed the woman with the crow mask in awe.
"It's more than a football field, but yes, I didn't expect this either," Josh said with astonishment in his voice.
"Report," Shadow said after he caught up with them.
"Sir, the smell was not far away, roughly about ten meters ahead of us," Josh quickly said, while the rest of the members awaited Shadow's order for their next move.
When Shadow was about to give his next order, suddenly the sky started raining snow. Shadow frowned and said, "We can't linger any longer, we have to keep moving before the snow becomes heavier and disrupts our vision."
"Yes, Sir! everyone, follow me!"
Josh shouted, and then he moved forward, following the scent. Shadow and the woman followed him from the side, while the others followed from behind. Just after they moved about three meters, the snow became heavier, but they still managed to continue. A few minutes later, when they reached the seven-meter mark, they could no longer see anything. So, Josh had to rely solely on his sense of smell, while the others kept looking down and following his blurry footprints in the snow.
Some of them were even shouting at each other to keep everyone in check. Meanwhile, Shadow had been frowning since the snow fell on them. It was because he was concerned that they would get ambushed by the enemy while their vision was disrupted by the snow. So, this kind of situation was the one he hated the most.
When they reached the nine-meter mark, the snow suddenly stopped. Some of them had expressions of relief, while others remained focused on their mission and maintained their stoic faces.
"Sir! the snow..."
One of the members shouted while pointing behind them. Shadow, who heard him, turned his head back and was surprised because behind them, the snow was still falling, but the area they were in was cleared from the snowfall, and only the snow on the ground was left.
Josh approached him and said, "Sir, is this normal?"
Shadow shook his head and replied, "I've seen this kind of thing before, and I want to believe it's normal, but look around us."
Josh nodded and glanced around him, immediately feeling surprised. It was because the snow around them was actually a curtain, covering their area like a dome. To put it simply, it was like placing a bowl upside down, pouring flour on top of it, and then lifting it up. The area that was once covered by the bowl remained unaffected by the flour, just like the area the Daggers were currently in.
"Someone created this," Shadow said in a grim tone, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Took you long enough."
Suddenly, a voice echoed around them, loud enough for them to hear. The Daggers immediately became alert and took their stance in order to guard against whoever might attack them.
"Sir! right there!"
The woman with the crow mask shouted, and immediately the Daggers turned their gaze towards the direction that the woman was pointing. Their expressions immediately became tense after they saw him.
"How? I didn't notice him the first time we set foot in this area!" Josh exclaimed in a surprised tone.
What they saw in front of them was indeed Mikael. Mikael was sitting in a meditative stance there in the middle of the snowy field with his back facing them. His expression was calm, and he was also closing his eyes. In front of him was his sword, thrust into the ground, ready to be picked up whenever by the owner.
"Let's approach him slowly and calmly with a careful step, our priority was to recruit him, so we don't want to make him wary of us."
Shadow ordered and walked slowly up to Mikael, followed by his members and the woman who was holding the device that broadcasted everything live and also recorded it at the same time.
When Shadow and his members closed in on Mikael, Mikael didn't pay attention to their presence at all and remained in his meditative stance without moving. Shadow frowned and signaled to his members and the woman to step back and wait until he gave them orders. He continued to approach Mikael.
Shadow went closer to Mikael, and the first thing he noticed was that,
"You... You're a human."
.
.
.
(Mikael's stance was just like on the cover, by the way.)
You can support me here and get more chapters in advance;
p@treon.com/tikuskecetit