388 Chapter 388: Toxic Tomb

While the tournament was going on, Anastasia floated in her stasis chamber, arcane energies stilling her life-signs and halting the rapid expansion of toxins within her body. Without the stasis spell, all the poisons in her body would have erupted and blown her apart from the inside out. It wasn't inaccurate to call her a ticking time bomb.

Fortunately, Glacia had managed to preserve her life by the thinnest thread, stopping all biological and magical processes within Anastasia's body before she could exceed the critical amount. It wasn't a complete cure, but it would buy the Silver Wolves enough time to search for a real one while keeping Anastasia dormant.

\"Still nothing yet?\" the silver-haired ice mage asked the entourage of healing mages who were busily working on analyzing the toxins found within Anastasia's body and trying to concoct an antidote or a serum to neutralize the poisons.

\"Unfortunately, we haven't come up with a working serum yet.\" An elderly healing mage, a thin man in his sixties, replied. He resembled the typical doctor, with a white lab coat over his shirt and tie, wearing large round glasses that perched in front of his wrinkled face. He ran a hand through his gray hair and sighed heavily, looking exhausted. \"This is quite the potent cocktail of poisons in her body. I don't know how the Veneneum Sect does it, but the toxins are too strong, resisting all of the antidotes we administered into her body.\"

\"I'm sure you'll figure something out, Doctor Dorden,\" Glacia assured him with a strained smile. Despite her frustration, she knew it wasn't the healing mages' fault. They had done the best they could. She cursed the Veneneum Sect for developing such insane poison magic and dangerous techniques. There was no denying their effectiveness on the battlefield, but at the cost of their operatives' lives? Like hell she could accept that.

Glacia realized just how lucky she and her colleagues were, working for the Silver Wolves. Feng Hai was a great man, ensuring that all of his subordinates were treated fairly and decently. He had never regarded any of them as tools or weapons to be disposed at his convenience. He had always watched out for their welfare.

The fact that he was spending so much money and resources into trying to save a single subordinate – Anastasia – was proof of that. Glacia was aware that Feng Hai would have done the same for any of the other Silver Wolves. That was why everyone, from Redfield to Brent to even her, was so loyal to him. He had earned their trust and respect.

\"Please…get well soon.\"

Clenching her fists, Glacia glanced up at the stationary body of Anastasia, and prayed fervently for the wellbeing of her friend.

*

At night, the medical staff departed. Even though they were trying to save a life, the healing mages were still human. They still got tired and needed rest. It would be unreasonable to expect them to work 24/7. Understanding that, Feng Hai had allowed them the usual 9 to 5 working hours, and by 7pm, even those diligent healing mages determined enough to do overtime of their own accord had packed up and returned home.

Of course there would be a few who would skip dinner entirely and burn their nights away, staying in the lab until past midnight, but Feng Hai put a stop to that and ordered them all to go home. Not because of security reasons, but because he mandated that the doctors needed their rest. It would do them no good to make remarkable progress at the cost of their own health and wellbeing. None of the doctors protested against his decision – Feng Hai could be very persuasive if he wanted to – and they obediently shut down their computers and put a hold on whatever they were working on.

By evening, the lights were all off and the lab was vacated. Even Glacia rose to leave, stifling a yawn before giving the unconscious Anastasia one last look. Her brow creased in worry, and she placed a hand on the glass chamber, as if hoping she could convey her emotions to her friend.

Even though Anastasia hadn't been in the Silver Wolves for as long as the vast majority of the mercenaries, she had proven herself during the short period of time, having saved many of them and carried out her missions admirably and efficiently. They had come to rely greatly on her knowledge of poisons and, out of necessity, her impressive arsenal of killing skills. The ex-Assassin had become an indispensable member of the Silver Wolves, particularly because of their vocation as combat mercenaries who visited a myriad of battlefields. Furthermore, her bright disposition and cheerful personality had endeared her to everyone, particularly the guys.

Everyone would do anything to save her…and if their positions were reversed, Glacia was sure that Anastasia would do the same, using whatever means she could to preserve the lives of her comrades. No matter what heinous measures she was forced to resort to.

\"Ah…I should go.\"

Shaking the dark, gloomy thoughts out of her head, Glacia proceeded to the exit of the lab. If Anastasia could see her pondering over such pessimistic sentiments, she would surely laugh and tease her about it.

\"I should go home and get some sleep,\" she muttered distractedly. Wait, before that, wasn't there something she should do? Glacia couldn't remember clearly, but she had the distinct impression that she needed to do something before she went to bed.

Right. It had something to do with Anastasia, but what was it exactly? Rubbing her temples, Glacia sighed wearily as she racked her brain, trying to recall what it was.

\"You missed the live telecast!\" Ana whined.

\"?!\"

Blinking, Glacia spun around, but she saw no one. Anastasia's voice no longer rang in her ears, but she was so sure she had heard her speak. That couldn't be possible. Ana was still locked in stasis, unconscious and unmoving in the lab. How could she complain to her in the corridor?

It must be a hallucination, them. Glacia had the feeling that she might have overworked herself over the last few days, trying to save her friend. No wonder she was beginning to see and hear things. And it couldn't have been a ghost, because Ana was still alive. Close to death, yes, but otherwise very much alive.

Nonetheless, that phantom voice had reminded Glacia exactly what she had forgotten. A trivial promise that she had flippantly made with Anastasia before they took on a particular mission…what was it again? Right, the Silver Wolves were hired to serve as security for the national high school tournament held in the Federation.

Anastasia, Glacia recalled, had been so enthusiastic about it. A boy who was very dear to her had been slated to participate in it, and Ana was confident that he would made it all the way. She wanted to cheer for him all the way to the finals, and was ectastic when she learned that they would broadcast a live telecast of the matches. In fact, rather than the live telecast, she wanted to watch the matches firsthand, but was disappointed to learn that she would be dispatched to guard the exterior of the stadium and be forced to keep her eyes out for anomalies and threats rather than be allowed to watch the matches like the spectators.

Fortunately, Glacia reminded Anastasia that they wouldn't be guarding the stadium 24/7 but in shifts. All she had to do was arrange her schedule in a way that her shift wouldn't come in conflict with the boy's match.

What was the boy's name again? She should know – after all, she had met him before, particularly when they held that rescue mission to recover Anastasia when the ex-Assassin was on the verge of erupting. He also helped Captain Brent and Redfield in their mission to the tomb at the Black Underworld Swamp, and assisted Anastasia in eliminating the infamous Grim Reaper, one of the top killers from the Assassins Guild.

There was no way she could have forgotten his name.

\"You talking about me?\" I called out to her from beyond the fourth wall, startling her. She glanced in my direction, but I disappeared with a wave, leading her to believe that I was nothing more than a hallucination. Better that way…otherwise Glacia would think she was going crazy because of my ability to break the fourth wall. That was the problem with sticking to a first person perspective, but stick to it I fully intended.

\"That's right! Richard Huang!\" Glacia stared at me for a moment, dismissed me as a hallucination, and continued on her way, ignoring me. Fine, be like that. I rolled my eyes and retrated back past the dimension beyond, returning to my hotel.

While I did that, Glacia resumed her journey home. She stepped out of the corridor and exited the compound that served as the home base for the Silver Wolves. The moment her shoe touched concrete, she froze.

\"?!\"

Glacia glanced around, her eyes narrowing, but she saw no sign of anyone. Not even me – by then, I had fully retreated into the hotel and was not going to break the fourth wall again – at least not for the rest of this chapter anyway.

\"Weird. I could have sworn there's someone here.\"

The cool ice mage continued to look around, but to no avail. As her first impression proved, she was unable to find any sign of anyone. At first she thought it might have been one of the medical staff loitering aound the compound, presumably having forgotten and left something in the office. A cursory glance told her that she was mistaken.

There was no one around. Glacia felt a chill crawl down her spine, and she tensed, but a few seconds passed with nothing happening. Was it her imagination?

\"I must have been working too hard,\" the silver-haired lady murmured as she rubbed her eyes. She smiled when she remembered this time that she was supposed to go watch my matches. Not because she particularly wanted to support me, but because she planned to tell Anastasia everything – right down to the last detail – when she finally woke up and was cured of her current poisoned condition. Glacia was certain that Anastasia would want to know everything, and would no doubt press her for details.

Shaking her head and dismissing her sense of unease as the consequence of overwork, Glacia left the base and headed for her home.

When she did so, a shadow crept out from around a corner, pressing itself close to the wall. Stepping out into the light, it revealed itself to be a hooded figure, a person clad entirely in black. Taking a deep breath, he gave the surroundings one last cautious look before he tried to enter the door that Glacia had just exited.

The double glass doors automatically slid open, relying on sensors rather than manual operation. The Assassin gratefully entered, infiltrating the Silver Wolves base. Sneaking past the lobby, he came across the main corridor that led to the labs at the back.

Casually flicking his thumb, he tossed several spirit stones into the corridor. The bright gems shone for a moment before they disintegrated in a rainbow-like shower, revealing dozens of ruby laser lights that formed an intricate web across the corridor.

Unfazed, the Assassin strode through the weaving red laser lights, spinning, whirling and twisting his body to avoid each of them by a hair's breadth. His graceful movements made it seem as if he was almost dancing, having fun as he waltzed across the extensive network of deadly lights, taking care not to trigger any of the sensors and set off the alarms.

He snapped his fingers and thumbs, hurling more of those enchanted jewels at the sources of the laser lights, destroying them soundlessly and deactivating them. The Silver Wolves would find out that their security system was being shut down eventually, but by then he would be far from their premises, and with his target.

Spinning around to avoid another sweeping laser sensor, which doubled as a killing trap that would slice through his body like a hot knife through butter, he practically pranced to the end of the room, a massive reinforced door that served as an entrance to the laboratory where Anastasia was currently being held in stasis.

\"So much for the airtight security of the vaunted Silver Wolves,\" he remarked with a laugh. \"I heard so much about them, and yet I didn't think I would be able to break through their security network this easily.\"

He grinned as he placed his hand on the security pad that controlled the door mechanisms to the lab, and then began to cast a basic hacking spell. It might take some time, but he was confident of cracking the security code and forcing the doors open. Then he would grab Anastasia and bring her back to the Assassins Guild…

\"It's like taking candy from a baby.\" As he typed on the number pad, he couldn't resist a chuckle.

\"Indeed.\"

\"?!\"

The Assassin tried to spin around, but before he could fully turn to face the speaker, a sword slammed into his hand, impaling it to the security pad. The hooded figure howled in agony, his expression of pain concealed behind his skull-like mask. Perspiration dripping down his face, he slowly turned around to face his assailant, his body trembling in fear.

Feng Hai smiled as he conjured a hail of wind blades, each of which vibrated violently from the wind spells that enhanced their speed, power and sharpness.

\"Who gave you permission to set your eyes on me?\"

That was the last thing the Assassin saw and head before the hurricane blades crashed upon him, tearing his body apart.

\"…nothing to fear, you said?\" he croaked, remembering what the Grand Master of Assassins said before dispatching him on this mission. \"I would be able to avoid conflict and sneak into the Silver Wolves' base unseen and unheard, you said?\"

The disbelieving words had just barely left his mouth when a huge sword smashed into his face, obliterating both his mask and skull. A red haze of excruciating pain exploded across his mind and flooded his body – he could feel the sensations of countless other blades piercing his stout figure – before darkness swallowed him completely.

Then…merciful oblivion.