System's POV
chapter-492

"Who among you wants to raid the Ratmen's camp with me?" Thirteen asked.

All the Wanderers, whom he had gathered for an emergency meeting, looked at him as if he had gone crazy.

"No takers?" Thirteen inquired.

Everyone was truly speechless. In their point of view, it was as if the teenage boy was asking, "who wants to die with me?"

Obviously, no one wanted to die, so no one raised their hands and only looked at him as their leader in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Sean asked. "You plan to raid the Ratmen with only us?"

"What's wrong with that?" Thirteen blinked innocently. "I raided the Brain Beetle's Lair with a butler and three members of the Valkyries. All of you had heard how I managed to retrieve Evuvug's corpse, right? Compared to that, isn't this more of a walk in the park for me?"

"But we're not like you, Sir Zion," a teenage girl replied. "We're not as brave and heroic as you."

The corner of Thirteen's lips twitched. For him, being called Heroic or a Hero was the greatest insult someone could give him.

However, since he understood that the teenage girl didn't know of this, he just sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"So, no one is coming with me?" Thirteen asked.

Just as he thought that no one was coming with him, Sherry raised her hand.

"I'll go with you," Sherry replied with determination. "But tell me one thing. We will be able to return alive, right?"

"Of course, we will," Thirteen replied. "We will just do guerrilla tactics, and that's it."

"Okay." Sherry nodded. "I'm in."

Although she had volunteered, no one else did, which he had already expected to happen.

"Try to sleep for four to five hours, Sherry," Thirteen said. "You will need it. We will be up all night."

The teenage boy then shifted his attention to the other members of his party.

"To those who are going to stay here, you can't remain idle," Thirteen stated. "All of you will be chopping down trees, removing their branches, and sharpening the bark like a stake meant as ammunition for a ballista. Choose trees that are as thick as this log that I am sitting on.

"Those with Avatars will drag these logs to the location I will tell you guys later. That's all. Those with axes, follow me. We don't have time to waste because the Ratmen may attack tonight."

Knowing that their lives were in danger, the Wanderers cooperated and followed Thirteen to the place where he wanted the logs to be taken.

Some of them even thought that the boy was planning to have them build a ballista as well, which was something that they had never done before.

Thirteen understood that the teenagers were confused about his order, but he had no plans to explain anything to them at this point in time.

Exactly five hours later, he left the camp with Sherry while riding on her Blade Panther.

Tiona had already scouted ahead and managed to locate the location where the Ratmen had made their camp.

It was only three miles away from the Lizardmen's new camp, which was too close for comfort.

"Don't worry. You won't be fighting directly," Thirteen said as he held onto the handle of the saddle that he had equipped on the Blade Panther's back.

Sherry, who was seated behind him, held onto his waist to prevent herself from falling off as Mors ran in the darkness of the night.

"So you brought me along as your taxi driver, is that it?" Sherry asked, feeling relieved and annoyed at the same time.

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Did you bring your horn with you? You will be blowing that a lot tonight."

The teenage boy then glanced behind him and saw two teenagers who were riding Wolves, following them from behind.

It was none other than Sean and Heidi, who both decided to follow Zion at the last minute.

Thirteen asked Mors to slow down his running speed so that the two wolves could catch up with them.

"What are you two up to?" Thirteen asked. "Are you planning to take a night stroll together?"

"I will not participate in fighting against the Ratmen," Sean replied. "I just want to see what you plan to do."

"Same," Heidi commented. "At the first sign of danger, we will leave as fast as we can."

"I don't mind, but can I ask the two of you a favor?" Thirteen smirked. "You see, I want you guys too…"

Sean and Heidi listened to what Thirteen wanted them to do, and both thought that doing what he asked wasn't too difficult to do.

Because of this, they agreed to it. After all, their lives wouldn't be in any danger by doing it.

***

Ratmen Camp…

Tiona slithered quietly into the night, making sure that none of the Ratmen was able to detect her.

She was currently undergoing an infiltration mission, with Zion sharing her senses.

The first thing they wanted to confirm was the presence of humans in the Ratmen Camp.

If there were humans there, they would try to save them during the commotion Thirteen was planning to create.

It didn't take long before Tiona saw them, which confirmed Thirteen's suspicion.

'Sixteen teenagers,' Thirteen thought. 'This will be tricky, but it can work.'

Thirteen then asked Tiona to do her secondary mission, which was to find the location where the Ratmen were storing their food.

A large army also had high upkeep, so targeting their food supplies was one good way of causing them headaches.

The Ratmen kept their food supplies in the wagons that they had dragged along the way, saving Thirteen from the trouble of attacking several places at once.

Just as expected, the food supplies of the army were located at the rear, guarded by a single Ratmen Warrior.

Tiona was able to slip past the guard who was dozing off on his job, and dreaming of eating the meat of the Lizardmen, whom they had been fighting against for the past week.

After the black snake got into position, Thirteen asked her to communicate with the outside force that had also decided to join them in their mission.

This force was none other than the Apostles led by Erica, who had received Thirteen's message five hours ago.

'Are you ready, Erica?' the Black Snake that was now coiled up on Erica's neck asked.

'I'm still not used to having a snake on my neck like you, Zion—but sure, I'm ready,' Erica replied. 'I'll just wait for the signal, right?'

'That's right,' Thirteen stated. 'After you do your mission, fall back as far as you can. You are not going to engage the enemy no matter what happens, okay?'

'I'm not stupid,' Erica replied. 'But it will be hard to rescue the Wanderers with the enemy's numbers.'

'You don't have to worry about them,' Thirteen commented. 'All you need to do is do what I ask of you. I will handle the rest.'

'Understood.'

'Very well. Let's get this party started.'

Thirteen took a deep breath and nocked an arrow whose tip was covered by a piece of cloth.

He drew the bow as far as they could before giving Sherry an order.

"Light it," Thirteen ordered.

Sherry then used the lighter that the teenage boy had given her and lit up the cloth on the tip of the arrow.

As soon as the arrowhead was burning, Thirteen released the string and sent it flying towards the enemy's camp.

The Ratmen, who had sharp vision, saw the flaming arrow streak in the air before landing on a weapon rack, creating an explosion.

Earlier, Tiona had sprinkled gunpowder on the weapons rack, which was enough to create a strong explosion.

A moment later, another explosion sounded, targeting another random location in the Ratmen camp, making everyone stand on alert.

The Ratman who was guarding the food supplies hurriedly left his post because they thought they were under attack.

The moment he left the wagon, Tiona, opened her mouth and unleashed a mini Dragon's Breath, setting the wagon ablaze.

She then hurriedly left the wagon and dug through the earth in order to head to her next destination.

Sherry, Sean, and Heidi all placed their horns in their mouths at the same time and blew at the same time.

The sound of the horns reverberated in the night, making the Ratmen focus their attention in that direction.

Soon, more horns echoed in the night, making the Ratmen think that they were truly under attack.

The Apostles and Wanderers, who were part of Erica's group, were acting as a distraction by blowing the horns Thirteen had provided to them.

A minute later, four giant fireballs descended from the sky and landed on some of the Ratmen, killing them instantly.

The entire camp buzzed with life as the Ratmen all woke up from their slumber and started to take defensive actions around their camp, ready to drive off the Lizardmen who had decided to ambush them.

The sounds of horns made them think that they were fighting against many opponents, but truth be told, they were only facing less than twenty people.

While all of this was happening, the ground on where the human captives were located suddenly opened up, making them scream in fright as they fell into a sinkhole.

But before these Wanderers came to their senses, all of them were knocked unconscious by the sleeping spells of the Troll Shamans, who were waiting inside Rocky's Mobile Fortress.

After making sure that all the humans were rescued, Rocky left the scene without bothering to cover the hole he had created.

Thirteen wanted the Ratmen to feel pressured by an unknown enemy that could attack them from the ground at any moment.

His mission was only to cause chaos and destruction in the Ratmen's camp.

So after accomplishing his mission, he and the others left the scene in haste.

Tiona's subordinates, on the other hand, busied themselves in covering Thirteen's and Erica's tracks, preventing the Ratmen from following their trail as the teenagers all escaped to safety.