Quoted By:
[This wasn’t a banal promise, but one born of brain injury and the beautiful seed of doubt. Unlike you or anyone else in the Legion, I’m the closest to Caesar in his ability and scope. He sees me as his Augustus and just like Augustus, I’m eliminating my competition.]
You subtly maneuver your hands to the rear of your pants. Just a little more time…
Vulpes: Ah, I had a hunch you did something to rewire that mind of his. No matter, I’ll kill you and then Caesar.
He starts to signal to his entourage, but you have one last play.
[Humor me about something before you execute me?]
Vulpes thinks it over quickly before nodding his head.
Vulpes: I’ll do you this one favor out of mutual respect.
[Why did you choose to serve Caesar? Why betray him now?]
The Spymaster sneers.
Vulpes: I followed that maniac Edward because he brought stability and peace to these lands. I put up with his lies and delusions for years because he was effective. I even covered for his headaches and fetched you without second-thought. I didn’t betray him, he betrayed The Legion. Satisfied?
You pull the pin of the flashbang through your pants and shake it out of your pantsleg. The munition bounces across the concrete floor and skids to the center of the firing squad.
Vulpes: GREN-
The flashbang fills the dark corner with blinding light and a debilitating pop, but you’re already moving. The knife is unsheathed and in the neck of the closet Legionary in less than a second. You grab his 9mm SMG and pull the knife from his throat.
You roll off to the left just as a stitch of gunfire eats into the wood behind you. The knife flies from your hand and into another soldier's chest while you empty half a clip into three of the Frumentarii too stunned to react.
Vulpes and the remainder of his men are already diving beyond the cover of wheelbarrows, wood stacks or the concrete pillars holding up the crumbling roof.
[I’m going to wear your skin like you wear that stupid wolf pelt!]
That gets him rattled and you see a dark shape stumble from one cover to the next. You can’t peruse, however, as two more enemies rush from opposite directions. You don’t give ground and instead charge to the one on your left. That shocks him into letting off his trigger just for a fraction of a second, more than enough time.
You grab him and twist, turning your back to safety and exposing him to his friends. These “friends” don’t practice restraint and pepper him with gunfire in an attempt to reach you. All it accomplished is allowing you to reach your confiscated weaponry.
Safely behind thick wooden logs, you toss two more flashbangs out and vault over cover with Sleepytime on one hand and your 10MM handgun in the other. You quickly dispatch two more and cause the remainder of Vulpes’ men to retreat into the warehouse.
