Aldin's heart tightened. "No! That's a Calamity-Rank Strong One!"
He was certain of it from the strength of that Psychic Energy fluctuation. His face went deathly pale, and he clenched his teeth as a look of resolve flashed through his remaining eye.
The operation's been exposed. There's a traitor! The thought flashed through Aldin's mind. He quickly concluded that the traitor was either among his subordinates or in the village.
Personally, he hoped it was the latter, but reason told him the former was more likely.
They had been there less than half an hour. If the traitor was a villager, there was no way the enemy could have been notified and acted so quickly.
But this was no time to investigate whether there was a traitor, much less whom they were working with.
The enemy was already upon them. What mattered now was how to escape.
Aldin glanced at his trusted aides and barked, "Go outside and see what's happening!"
In truth, Aldin's men had little revolutionary fervor. They were just trying to make a living. Serving the Revolutionary Army was no different to them from following some noble or fighting in a church's army.
So although Aldin appeared to value them, he did not think much of them. At most, they were tools.
"Yes, sir!" The men had no idea a Calamity-Rank Strong One was among the arrivals. They assumed they were facing the same sort of worthless enemies as before. Far from afraid, they rushed outside, eager for a fight.
Left alone in the room, Aldin glanced toward the door and suppressed his Psychic Energy fluctuation as much as he could. This was a secret technique Modi had personally taught his trusted subordinates for escaping in a crisis. It could fool even a Calamity-Rank Strong One.
But