Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 156: Bubbly

"Don’t!"

Kieran said without looking keeping Jake from speaking up.

He could feel the anxiousness radiate off the body of the recruit a step behind him.

’One more!’

Kieran wiped off the beads of sweat on his face as he tackled the last group in the first part of the traps.

They had been at it for almost an hour now and the silence was quite unnerving to anyone watching. Not to Kieran though. His full attention was on trying not to get blown to bits.

"Done!"

Kieran sighed, his shoulders slumping in relief!

"Finally, we can move the—"

"Don’t!"

Kierans voice broke through his dry throat, holding Jake in place by his shoulder.

He had just stepped past him and had a foot just inches above the second part. It that foot came down then a his hard work for the past hour was going to become cold and they could only be called lucky of they survived the traps going off.

Ba-dump!

Kieran could feel his heart beating violently in his chest like it sought to rip its way out.

"Sorry?"

Jake felt like shrinking in the spot as he felt Kieran’s intense stare on his face. He understood that he had almost fucked up just now.

"Stay like that!"

Kieran ordered coldly and Jake remained silent, unwilling to push his friend over the edge.

’I didn’t see it earlier, but we’re quite lucky!’

Kieran thought, fighting the pricking sensation that tortured his eyes.

Maintaining his ability, even if it was a part of it, for an hour non-stop had started to take its toll on him, but he had to push through. Those eyes of his were the only thing helping them now.

Jake’s sense of smell wasn’t fit for a situation like this.

"Move the foot a little bit to the right and place it on the ground, gently!"

Kieran said and Jake looked back with a raised eyebrow, Kieran hadn’t done anything unlike the previous times.

"..."

The silence that came with his stare was all the answers Jake needed as he followed instructions.

"Huh? How come?!"

His eyes brightened, filled with surprise and curiosity at the fact that nothing happened. He hadn’t gotten blown away.

Kieran let out a small sigh seeing this result, he coukdnt deny it. Although, he had seen it himself, he couldn’t help but feel nervous as Jake’s got landed on the ground.

Now that it was directly in front of him, Kieran could see it clearly, even with his bad, prickly eyes.

The arrangements of traps where wasn’t as tight as the one behind them, and the structure....

’I can do it once!’

His mind sharpened as he spotted several masses of light, bigger than the usual shape of a trap. The energy from those points was flowing into the traps around it, keeping them active.

’Anchor points!’

Those were the anchor points, holding the traps together. If he could get rid of them, then he could deactivate the traps without using as much time as before.

This section of traps were evidently less sophisticated. That made sense considering that anything which managed to survive the first part by some sort of miracle, could only pray to die without feeling too much pain the moment they took a step further unto this section.

"Remain this way. I figured out a way to get rid of everything at once. It’s gonna take a short while!"

Kieran said to Jake, taking a few calculated steps to the side and to his front, continuing his actions with the equipment he had in hand.

’Just how much further did you get?’

Jake thought watching the back of Kieran as he worked to get them out of this tight situation. He had no idea where he had gotten this sort of knowledge from.

He didn’t even know the name of the trap he was standing upon, talk less of dabbling in methods of deactivation.

Kieran had just pulled up with key knowledge and Jake was pretty sure he had more knowledge stored up in his head.

Unknowingly, the only commoner, an oddity that was first frowned upon had surpassed most of them. They just hadn’t realized it yet.

’I thought he lacked noble connections, but it seems like he even has that sorted now!’

....

BOOM!

CRASH!

"!!!"

"!!!"

Kieran and Jake’s heads shot up simultaneously, looking the the direction of the outpost where the sounds just came from.

Their eyes locked with each other and the could both understand what the other person was thinking.

"Don’t!"

Kieran said, slowly rising up from his bent position. He was a few anchors away from succeeding.

"In 3.."

Jake started a countdown. His patience to wait for Kieran had gone off with those sounds.

"Don’t!"

"2..."

"1!"

STEP!

BANG!

BOOM!

One step from Jake was all that needed to set the traps off, causing a series of explosions to go off, the flames, snake and dirt engulfing their figures as they all bolted towards the wall of the outpost.

"Are you crazy?!!!"

Kieran walked up to Jake with bloodshot eyes, uncaring of the soil and small rocks that had settled on his body.

"We made it didn’t we?"

Jake said, taking back his transformation.

Truly, they had made it through the explosion. Pretty unscathed at that.

But all that was thanks to Kieran and the progress he had made earlier. One additional anchor and they might have ended up on the verge of death of they survived.

"Tsss!"

Kieran kissed his teeth in annoyance, veins popping up on his head as he started at Jake who stared back with absolutely no intention of backing down.

"You’re lucky!"

He said, turning away from him.

They had finally managed to reach the walls of the outpost. A tall wall that easily went above their heads, crossing the five meters mark.

Jake wasnt exactly wrong to capitalize on that small moment of commotion the other team must have been in with the explosion.

Kieran could see the fog already at the first and second level of traps, and he understood why Jake was so anxious.

Being that immersed in breaking through, he hadn’t notices the ticking time bomb approaching him from the back.

"Let’s go!"

Jake said, digging his claws into the wall of the outpost before taking huge leap upward, latching himself on to the wall again.

A few more times and he had already reached the top and dropped inside, vanishing from Kierans view.

"Sigh!"

He stared at his hands and replayed Jake’s action in his mind, before going on to do the same, with a rougher edge to it.

TAP!

"Took you long enough. Scared of heights?"

Jake slapped the back of his palm across Kieran’s torso lightly, teasing him over his delayed appearance.

"Let’s go!"

Kieran ignored his words was they made their way further into the outpost, hoping that their breach through the back hadn’t alerted anyone.

.....

FEW HOURS BACK....

"What the hell is in this place?"

One of Orion’s teammates sighed, feeling the sweat flowing down his face, unable to do anything as he was stuck in a weird position.

Lira had just asked them not to move their body at all. He didn’t know of talking counted as moving, but he honestly didn’t care.

The front entrance was starting to feel less like the easier way in they had anticipated, even looking harder than the traps around the rest of the perimeter.

He didn’t doubt Lira’s words though and remained in the same position.

They had done several missions together and Lira’s actions, decisions and actions saved them from dying during the first part of these missions.

"How much more?"

Orion asked, it seemed like even their leader was having it hard.

"Almost done boss. Just as few minutes more!"

The struggle in her words was clear for them to hear.

She was struggling with her own devices over there. It really made one wonder what was present within an outpost like this for it to have such high level security.

"Done!"

"You can move now!"

Her voice came lighter, with relief as they all proceeded with their movements, the male receuit from earlier, groaning as he stretched his sore limbs.

"We can’t waste anymore time. Let’s move it. The fog is already too close for my liking!"

Orion said, leading the group into the outpost, while the others glanced at the approaching fog before rushing into the only place that could protect them from it.

"We are in boss!"

"It’s all clear!"

Lira said, taking the extra time to check for any traps she might have missed.

"Alright. Stay on guard, you guys know the drill"

Orion commanded, raking reins of the mission.

"Yeah, the Armoury!"

The two male recuits replied.

"Yeah, you’ve all got the map. There are 4 big armories in the place. We’ll split into smaller teams of two. You two will go with each other, while Lira accompanies me."

Orion turned around to take his leave along with Lira.

"Found anything?"

After a while they all regrouped at the same spot to report their findings before moving in to other parts of the camp.

"Yeah, they were pretty stoc—"

"Don’t you think you’ve looked around enough?"

A cheerful voice cut into the recuits words, sending chills down the group’s spines, as they all reacted without much thought.

BOOM!