Heimat

CHAPTER 29

The silence of the night seemingly had a voice of it's own, and for the first time since they left the capital, the soldiers found themselves being thankful for the snow under their feet, effectively quietening their steps as they advanced to the enemy camp. 

According to their intelligence, a small camp was nearby and they set out late night hoping to nab them like they did twice before. This mission was largely unknown to most of them, the twenty participants being chosen by the higher ups themselves. 

Suho held up his wrist, all of them halting as the signal. A message passed between him and Namjoon through their eyes and Suho advanced forward, stepping down the incline slowly. All the men gathered, watching his path intently, their gaze moving to the tiny yellow dot at the bottom. After a few minutes, their leader appeared again, hurriedly walking towards them. 

"There are three tents like we thought, they aren't too big so one tents might only have three to four at most. Two of them just went of to the frozen lake nearby to get ice, finish the lone wolf by the fire first then you all wait for us while we knock out those two. Try to capture them alive if possible. Understood?", he asked.

It had been more than a week since the injury and Jihyo had confirmed that Namjoon was fit enough to resume his activities. Hence, he had insisted to be a part of the mission, missing all the action. Being one of the most valuable commanders, Suho had agreed immediately. 

They had planned this for days, checking and rechecking incase there were any major chances of it failing. It was decided to keep this under wraps, letting minimal amount of people know about it. The men participating were carefully selected and it was decided that the troop would leave when everyone was asleep and the operation would be carried out and completed before the sun rose.

On confirming that his message had been passed, the trope made their dissent. When they were close enough, their archer peeked out from behind a tree, knocking an arrow in his bow, pointing it towards the man beside the fire. Just as he was about to shoot, another head popped put from a tent, the man coming and sitting beside him. 

The archer looked towards Namjoon whose palm was spread. Not yet. And so they waited with drawn breaths, growing increasingly paranoid and hoping that the two others wouldn't show up before they had rid themselves of the first one. 

To their relief, his companion stood up and left back to his tent. They waited for a moment after he had disappeared and Namjoon gave the signal. The arrow was shot, slicing through his neck, the body dropping with a low thud without a sound.

As expected none of the sleeping ones noticed it, Suho motioning Namjoon to get moving to do their part. They crept across the boundaries, careful so their shadows wouldn't be cast on the tents and disappeared among the trees in the darkness, leaving the others in their wait. 

It didn't take them long to find the two men, who were so busy with breaking the ice with their axes, that they did not notice the two soldiers closing on them until it was too late. Suho placed his dagger on one's neck from behind, one slash enough to put his to sleep forever. 

The other noticed him, revealing his own weapon from the folds of his cloak only to be smashed on his head with a log of wood by Namjoon from behind. Nodding to each other, they lifted him up and sped back, surprised to hear cries and yells as they neared their destination. Dropping him behind a tree, they jumped into the flare.

It wasn't long enough that the rebels realized that they were at the losing end, a lot of their men fell to the skilled warriors, chaos reigning due to the absence of their commander. "Retreat!" one of them yelled at last, the other following the cry without hesitation.