Chapter 248: Operation Wolf Slayer. (Part 36)
The NVPD and BEO coalition chose three hero teams to participate in Operation Wolf Slayer. They were intended to be the spearhead of the raid, piercing through the enemy defenses and securing a position for the remaining forces to follow.
Due to the interference of the mysterious third party, however, the heroes failed to make the progress expected of them, resulting in the enemy receiving enough time to move their forces around and prepare to resist the invasion.
One of the three teams was Blizzard Force. With its members wielding powers related to ice and cold, they were the best counter against the Shirogane Sorcerers and their frustrating camouflage ability. In the end, Blizzard force was forced to take on a different challenge, including the next heir of the Romanos, Salvatore Romano, which led to the death of one of their members.
Just when it appeared like they were back on track, their main target, Klaus Stahlwölfe, wasn’t where they expected him to be, having vanished at some point without the knowledge of their informants who were supposed to keep an eye on him. The Stahlwölfe scion was seemingly aware that he was being watched and thus devised a plan to disappear without anyone noticing, using Giovanni Romano’s sudden death as a distraction.
Storming the banquet hall wasn’t the best of ideas as it led them to encounter more of the Romano executioners. Fighting them while trying to prevent any harm from befalling the other guests proved to be the most difficult part so far, and as if to make things worse, Silver Wind contacted them, demanding that they come handle their original target, which had fled to the collection room.
Of course, extricating themselves from their current predicament was going to be very difficult, which is why Cryonis asked the other team’s leader to handle things on their own. The message didn’t seem to get across, however, seeing as they were asked to capture some purple-haired woman immediately after.
Cryonis had no choice but to accept. Retrieving the relic was one of the top objectives the heroes were tasked with, so if said woman did truly steal the artifact, they needed to catch her right away. Looking for an opening, he left things in the banquet hall to his teammates and made a swift retreat, hoping to catch up with the thief before they could escape.
As he ran through the mansion’s halls, a few thoughts occurred to the cold hero. He wondered if this woman he was trying to catch belonged to the third party that had interfered with their operation, and if stealing the relic was her objective as well. That added to the sense of urgency pushing him, giving the matter much more importance than before.
The only way to leave the thirty-seventh floor was through the four elevators on the mansion’s third floor, but that didn’t seem like a good escape route, seeing as the raid force had turned the upper floors into a battlefield. Just as he began to think that the woman he’s after would be forced to slow down once she came across the coalition forces, he suddenly remembered the staff elevator connected to the thirty-sixth floor, prompting him to look out of the next window he came across, and his hunch turned out to be correct.