Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 774: ANBO Unit Strike III

CH774 ANBO Unit Strike III

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Elsewhere, at the same time, a slender female figure wearing a cat-themed mask arrived at the walls of the Aulin estate.

Of the five ruling families, the Aulin clan was by far the most artistic—or perhaps, the most ostentatious.

Their buildings were larger and more lavish than those of the other clans. Expansive floor-to-ceiling windows were a common architectural feature throughout the estate.

Ordinarily, this extravagant display of wealth drew admiration from outsiders and lesser families alike.

Tonight, however, it merely made the estate an ideal hunting ground for the long-range predator that had set her sights upon it.

With some effort, Cat scaled the estate wall.

Though unnecessarily extravagant for a mere boundary, the wall had clearly been built with security in mind. Its rough stone surface offered poor footing, while rows of thorn-like spikes lined its crest, making the climb far more difficult than it first appeared.

Nevertheless, Cat slipped over the wall without incident.

Instead of heading directly towards her assigned targets, she made her way to the highest point within the estate.

It was a towering tree near the centre of the compound, serving both as a landmark and a decorative centrepiece.

Cat climbed it with feline grace.

Fortunately, the broad trunk and sprawling branches provided countless footholds and firing positions, allowing her to steady herself while remaining almost completely concealed.

Like several other ANBO operatives, Cat wielded a bolt-action crossbow.

Unlike theirs, however, hers had clearly received special attention.

Its frame was engraved from end to end with intricate runic arrays, far more numerous than those etched upon the other operatives’ weapons.

Once she settled into position, Cat slowly raised the weapon and sighted down its length towards a manor several hundred metres away.

Because the estate’s buildings were widely spaced and none rose higher than two storeys, she enjoyed clear lines of fire into many of them from her elevated perch.

Her first target was an elderly man in his late fifties or early sixties.

He was one of the Aulin clan’s senior elders—one of the very men who had lived through, and helped shape, the era in which the clan had deceived and manipulated successive domain lords.

The man was fast asleep at the centre of an oversized bed, a younger woman nestled in each arm.

For this shot, Cat selected a specially crafted bolt and slid it into her crossbow.

Then she took aim.

Beyond her naturally exceptional eyesight, the glyphs engraved around the eyeholes of her mask glowed faintly, magnifying her vision and improving her sights even further.

Having already zeroed her crossbow beforehand, she squeezed the trigger.

The bolt slipped silently through the night.

Runes etched along its shaft shimmered to life, subtly displacing the surrounding air so that its flight produced no audible sound.

A heartbeat later, it buried itself deep into the elder’s chest.

Upon impact, another set of runes activated.

These enchantments not only guaranteed a fatal wound, but also suppressed any disturbance the strike might have caused.

Not even the two women sleeping peacefully in the elder’s embrace stirred as life quietly left his body.

Perhaps only when the pooling blood finally reached them would they awaken and realise something was wrong.

But by then, Cat had already shifted her sights to her next target.

Two clan elders were conveniently sharing drinks on a balcony.

Two silent bolts... Two silent deaths.

Another target sat hunched over a desk, furiously drafting documents late into the night.

His diligence was ended with a bolt piercing cleanly through his throat.

Another elder happened to be taking a solitary stroll across the estate grounds.

A bolt punched through his chest, pinning his corpse against a stone wall where it remained hidden from immediate view.

Another was practising his swordsmanship beneath the moonlight.

He died standing, pierced through the chest and nailed to the very training dummy he had been striking moments earlier.

One after another, Cat’s flawless marksmanship quietly condemned her assigned targets to death.

Eventually, only one remained beyond her reach— The Aulin clan head.

His residence lay outside the firing angles afforded by her position atop the tree.

Left with no alternative, Cat slung the crossbow across her back, descended from her perch with practiced agility, and silently made her way towards the clan head’s manor.

Infiltrating the manor proved relatively straightforward.

After climbing onto the roof of a nearby building, Cat sprinted across the rooftops, leaping effortlessly from one to the next until she reached the roof of the clan head’s manor.

Fortunately, people rarely looked upwards without reason.

Moreover, Cat remained constantly aware of where the moon cast her shadow, carefully choosing routes that kept it from betraying her presence.

As a result, none of the guards noticed her.

Flowing silently from the rooftop, she slipped through an open window and entered the clan head’s bedchamber.

The scene before her immediately explained why she had failed to locate the clan head elsewhere.

The man was enthusiastically ploughing the carnal cave of a sultry woman who was most certainly not his wife.

Cat’s sudden appearance startled them both.

The clan head and the woman instantly erupted with Silver-ranked Combat Energy.

Though surprised to discover another Silver-ranked combatant within the Aulin clan—one absent from the ANBO’s intel—Cat did not hesitate.

She raised her crossbow and fired.

The first bolt struck the Aulin clan head squarely in the chest, hurling him backwards and pinning his body to the bed.

At the same instant, additional runes engraved into the weapon flared to life, automatically cycling its bolt mechanism and drawing back the string for a follow-up shot.

Just as the naked woman launched herself from the bed towards the intruder, a second bolt screamed across the room.

It slammed into her torso, throwing her backwards onto the still-warm corpse of the clan head.

Only after confirming both targets were dead did Cat lower her weapon.

She calmly searched the bedchamber, looking for anything that might reveal the woman’s identity or expose intelligence the unit had previously overlooked.

Before leaving the manor, she also searched the clan head’s private study, recovering several additional documents and records of potential value.

Cat silently slipped back into the night.

The entire operation within the Aulin estate had taken less than half an hour.

Ironically, most of that time had not been spent killing. It had been spent searching for intelligence hidden within the clan head’s chambers and study.

Still, the effort had not been wasted.

Among the documents she recovered was information that could prove monumental...

Depending, of course, on how it was used.

Cat wasn’t concerned about that.

Others might struggle to make use of the intelligence she had gathered.

She, however, never doubted that her liege would know exactly what to do with it.

***