God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World! Chapter 661: Thirteen of You...Not One Is Leaving [1]

Northwest of the Sacred Forest.

Less than three kilometers from the abandoned ancient altar, thirteen figures were moving at high speed along an ancient forest path almost completely concealed beneath enormous roots. They had already passed through the altar passage and entered the Sacred Forest, yet none of them used movement skills that would create noticeable mana fluctuations, and even their breathing had been suppressed to the absolute minimum through special methods.

Before leaving the abandoned altar, the silver-masked captain had remained behind for several seconds under the pretense of checking their tracks. Unseen by the other twelve operatives, he had pressed a small gray-black device into the earth beneath the altar and concealed it beneath a layer of fallen leaves and corrupted soil.

Once remotely activated, the device could not be stopped.

Whenever the group reached a fork in the Sacred Root Path, the silver-masked man at the front would pause for only a few seconds before accurately choosing a route that should have been known only to the upper ranks of the elven race.

It was too practiced. It did not even look like his first time here.

"The Fifth Outpost Sector has already begun requesting a second wave of reinforcements."

At the rear of the group, a man glanced at the black crystal chip flickering faintly in his palm and lowered his voice. "The elves at the Seventh Outer Outpost have also been pinned down. At least two patrol teams have been transferred toward the southeast. The defensive strength on the northwestern side of the core region has now fallen within the projected range."

The silver-masked man did not turn around.

"What about Veylor’s people?"

"After the Fourth Transport Point lost contact, Veylor’s Chain withdrew from the outskirts of the Sacred Forest. They’re only responsible for maintaining supply transfers with the goblins now."

"Useless."

The silver-masked man’s tone did not change.

One failed transaction. One captured cardinal. All eleven experimental subjects lost.

The Chain of Veylor members responsible for the operation had not even managed to leave behind a single valuable enemy.

If the goblin army were not still useful, those people would no longer have any reason to exist.

"Have you confirmed Matthew Grant’s location?"

"No."

"Gabriel Reyes?"

"He’s disappeared as well."

At the sound of that name, the silver-masked man’s footsteps stopped for the first time.

The other twelve stopped with him.

The forest was extremely quiet.

The explosions constantly echoing in the distance had become faint by the time they reached this place. Only the occasional tremors traveling through the underground roots proved that a war far greater in scale than any conflict of the past two months was indeed raging on the outskirts of the Sacred Forest.

The silver-masked man raised his head toward the interwoven canopy overhead.

"When was his location last confirmed?"

"At the Fourth Transport Point."

"And after that?"

"Edgar Darkmore returned to the elven settlement, while Gabriel took Matthew with him. Their exact direction couldn’t be determined."

The silver-masked man fell silent.

A person suddenly disappearing was not frightening.

What was truly troublesome was that someone who had just destroyed a transport point, defeated the Holy Church’s knights, and captured a cardinal had happened to vanish without a trace precisely when they began their operation.

It was too much of a coincidence.

"Change the route."

Several people behind him reacted slightly.

"Captain?"

"We’re not taking the planned route."

The silver-masked man raised a hand and pointed to the right.

"Bypass the Second Root Passage. Enter from the north."

The man responsible for perception immediately closed his eyes. An almost imperceptible psychic ripple spread outward, and only after confirming that there were no signs of life within several hundred meters did he open them again.

"Clear."

The thirteen figures quickly changed direction.

However, they had traveled less than a hundred meters when the silver-masked man stopped again.

He looked down.

A leaf was slowly drifting toward the ground.

There was no wind. None of the surrounding leaves were moving. Only this one.

The man raised his hand and caught the leaf between two fingers.

It was an ordinary silver-green leaf with nothing unusual about it, yet his gaze grew colder and colder.

"Fall back."

Almost the instant those words left his mouth, an extremely thin black line shot out from the shadows of the trees to the right.

Whoosh!

One of the infiltrators on the outer edge of the formation did not even have time to turn before the black line pierced his shoulder. In the next instant, a powerful restraining force locked around his body and violently dragged him deeper into the forest.

"Enemy attack!"

The others scattered immediately.

The infiltrator being dragged away reacted just as quickly, slashing his dagger toward the black line with his left hand, but the instant the blade made contact, a force far beyond his expectations erupted from the other end.

Boom!

His body smashed straight through a small tree.

Before he could hit the ground, a figure had already appeared in front of him.

That figure had red hair, dark battle armor, and a pair of blue eyes that looked exceptionally cold within the shadows of the forest.

The infiltrator’s pupils contracted.

Gabriel gripped the black line in his right hand while his left palm was already pressed against the man’s face.

Bang!

The back of the infiltrator’s head slammed heavily into a tree trunk, causing the entire ancient tree shook violently.

His consciousness blanked for an instant, but Gabriel gave him no chance to recover. His knee drove brutally into the man’s abdomen, crushing the defensive mana that had only just begun to gather. His fingers tightened immediately afterward, seizing the infiltrator by the neck and hurling him to the side.

Boom!

The man’s body struck the ground with enough force to break his spine, and the light in his eyes vanished.

[Ding! You have killed an enemy.]

Seeing the sudden attack, the remaining twelve completed their encirclement and counterattack in less than a second.

Now these looked like the people truly responsible for infiltrating the Sacred Forest.

The corner of Gabriel’s mouth lifted slightly.

Before beginning the ambush, he had handed Matthew Grant over to Edgar. The cardinal’s legs were both broken, part of his chest had caved inward, and the rest of his body was covered in substantial injuries. Even if his restraints had somehow loosened, he could neither stand nor move independently.

That left Gabriel free to concentrate on the thirteen infiltrators. Or rather, the twelve who remained.