三个女人的秘密工作生活

Chapter 22: A secret weapon

After hearing Raul's annoying sermon, Rowan Starlight turned quiet as he began contemplating inside his mind.

On the other side, there was no way for both Kayn and Natas to tell what Rowan Starlight was thinking about right now. After all, they don't even have a single clue about what happened in this place. But, one thing is for certain, he will definitely not choose to side with anyone in the Starlight Family based on how the future events had developed.

Their guess is, Rowan Starlight is thinking of what to do with the addition of the souls that Raul has summoned.

Meanwhile, the six rookie Heroes didn't stop trying to destroy the door of the vault, evidently showing that time is running out for Rowan Starlight.

"I'll give you until the door of the vault is destroyed. Once it is destroyed and you still haven't picked a side yet, then I guess I have no other choice but to complete my mission," Raul reminded Rowan Starlight with a threatening tone in his voice.

"That door would probably last no more than two minutes," Kayn said in remarked.

"Indeed," Natas agreed. "Any time now, we'd have to move and help Rowan Starlight. Are you ready?"

"Been waiting all this time," Kayn said with an excited look on his face. Although he wanted all of this to be over so that he could take some rest, he still can't deny the fact that he also wants to experience something fun. After all, this was the kind of life he has been living in the future.

Time continued to tick, and while Rowan Starlight was thinking inside the vault, the souls that Raul had summoned slowly positioned themselves to prevent the former from possibly escaping away once the door is destroyed.

The Superhuman bodyguards were also not just dilly-dallying around as they also picked a good spot to stand guard right beside the souls.

Just like that, two minutes had passed.

BOOOOOM!

In the next moment, a loud explosion sounded as the door of the vault was finally demolished beyond repair. The last rookie Hero who smashed the vault's door immediately threw it away to the side so that it will not hinder their path.

In the meantime, a thick layer of smoke covered the previous location of the vault's door. Because of that, everyone doesn't have any choice but to wait patiently until it settles down.

Contrary to them though, Rowan Starlight chooses this opportunity to launch his first assault.

Bang!

An obscure figure of a man was suddenly sent flying away to the back-end of everyone.

Although there was no way for them to know who exactly was flung away just now, they have all the reasons to believe that it couldn't be Rowan Starlight himself. That's just impossible! After all, no one on their side dares to make a move without the command of their leader, Raul. As such, without wasting any time, they prepare themselves for what is about to go down.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Before anyone could react though, three more figures were consequently thrown away in the same direction as where the first one had landed.

Without wasting any more time, Raul immediately ordered, "No need to hold back! Attack!"

Following Raul's order, the remaining fortunate rookie Heroes in front didn't hesitate to charge towards the direction of the vault along with the souls that Raul had summoned and the Superhuman bodyguards.

However, because of the thick layer of smoke still covering their vision, there was no way for them to possibly know for certain whether they have really caught Rowan Starlight or not. The only thing they felt was receiving a kick, getting punched, being thrown, and other sorts of attacks directed straight towards them by someone they assumed to be Rowan Starlight. Every single time that happens, they'd just blindly return the attack while inwardly hoping for the best.

It was a complete mess.

And the main reason for that was because their leader, Raul, didn't give any detailed orders. He basically just commanded his men to charge and do whatever they want as long as they could catch Rowan Starlight.

As a result, things turned out badly. Moreover, Raul didn't even consider anything, such as the underlying factors that might or might not affect his intended goal, as if he is thinking that as long as he has all these men in his command everything would eventually work one way or the other.

Raul and Carlos who remained behind along with the latter's goons to protect them could only helplessly stare at the disorder in front of them, evidently realizing their mistake. However, it was too late for them to change anything.

"What the fuck is happening over there?!" Carlos felt dumbfounded at what he was seeing.

"No need to worry. This was something I expected," Raul still remained composed despite the current complication. Though, in reality, he actually didn't expect this.

"But…"

"Just stay calm," Raul glared at Carlos, thus instantly making the latter shut his mouth.

Deep down in Raul's heart, he truly didn't care about what is happening right now around the vault. Even though he knows that most of his men right now are attacking each other, that still doesn't worry him. The reason being is that he could easily replace them with the hundreds of souls that still remained inside the Sitan's Ring in his possession. What's important right now is he has successfully made Rowan Starlight use the stamina that he has been reserving all this time.

"Do you seriously think I didn't notice what you were doing all this time?" Raul murmured to himself. He had already noticed a long time ago that Rowan Starlight was trying to tire out the six rookie Heroes that were destroying the door of the vault. He simply decided to let it be because he was also planning to do the same later on.

Now, once everything in front is eventually cleared out, he'd just simply summon another batch of souls to take care of Rowan Starlight. Supposed they still can't handle it, then he'd just continue summoning more and more until the latter is finally eliminated.

"I think there's something strange going on. The smoke doesn't seem to stop any time soon," Carlos immediately informed Raul of his suspicion.

"Hmmm…" Raul quickly pulled himself together from his thoughts as he then observed the smoke closely. "Indeed. It's as if someone is adding more to it… Wait!"

"Everyone, stop!" Raul immediately commanded as soon as he realized that something wasn't right.

As expected, it is now too late and futile effort to think of stopping Raul's men from fighting.

The infighting happening around the vault was so confusing and disorganized that it was next to impossible to hear what Raul had shouted, let alone think about stopping.

Although the souls had for sure stopped fighting, because they follow everything that Raul would order them to do because of the Sitan's Ring in his possession. Unfortunately, that only lasted for a short moment since the rest of the Superhumans and the remaining Heroes were still attacking, thus leading the souls to counterattack once again. In the end, the chaos continues.

"I should have taken this into consideration," Raul felt helpless at the current unchangeable situation. He had seriously forgotten that Rowan Starlight was the former holder of the Sitan's Ring due to his negligence, so the latter is naturally aware of the flaws of the souls it could summon.

"What do we do now?" Carlos turned to look at Raul.

"We'd have to look for where Rowan is?" That's their only way to stop him from continuously adding more smoke to their surroundings.

"Considering that this is the Technological Building plus the fact that this is his hideout, he probably prepared a fog machine somewhere nearby," Carlos assumed the possibility of Rowan Starlight having prepared everything already for exactly this kind of day to come. He might not be familiar with stuff related to technology, but that doesn't mean he is ignorant. He has seen plenty of instances where people used fog machines, and the type of smoke they spew out is more or less similar to what is surrounding the vault right now.

"Indeed," Raul agreed with Carlos. With that in mind, he inwardly ordered some of his souls to get out of the battlefield and look for the supposed fog machine, or any machine that can spew out smoke to the surrounding.

"They're quicker than I thought," Kayn can't help but remarked as he noticed Raul's action.

"Yeah, I initially assumed they'd take a bit more time to realize that something is wrong with the smoke," Natas added.

"I wonder what's Rowan Starlight's next move going to be," Kayn said as he quickly turned his attention to where Rowan Starlight was hiding.

While everyone was in a mess, Rowan Starlight had long already sneaked away. Currently, he is staying behind a group of wooden crates nearby the vault as he silently and quietly observes Raul and Carlos' actions.

As such, Rowan Starlight was easily able to notice Raul's next move.

"Just like what I planned," Rowan Starlight murmured to himself before pressing a button hidden under his right sleeve. This button was a controller that controls all gadgets he had installed beforehand around the underground warehouse. And that button he had pressed was a trigger to turn off the fog machine.

Evidently, Rowan Starlight doesn't want Raul to find the fog machine yet. Probably because he still has some kind of plan that needs their use later on.

With the fog machine turned off, the smoke surrounding everyone no longer continued to increase in size and become denser. Although it still didn't disappear completely as it would take some time before that happens.

Albeit that was exactly what Rowan Starlight intended to achieve.

As everyone is still busy infighting within the smoke, and Raul and Carlos are preoccupied with trying to find the fog machine without knowing that it was already hidden, Rowan Starlight, on the other hand, silently moved to another spot.

This time, Rowan Starlight moved towards another group of crates just a few tens of meters away from his previous location.

Unlike the other crates that were small in size, this group of crates was bigger. Also, even though they seemed to be a group of crates, they are actually connected with one another, it just seems like it wasn't because Rowan Starlight made it that way in order to secretly hide something inside — A secret weapon.