Classless Ascension

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

Twenty mercenaries wearing MTA outfits were climbing the elevator shaft, their brows frowned in worry. 

They had been on edge ever since they had learned that the black smoke wasn\'t their ally\'s doing. Who was responsible? What was their purpose? It felt as if a predator was lurking in the dark, watching their every move. They shivered just thinking about it.

But, they were arriving at their destination: the top floor. Their leader instantly took control of the situation:

"We\'re almost there. Once we breach the entrance, quickly rush in and secure the area. Then we\'ll wait to know the correct vault and use the charges to blow it up. Afterward, we\'ll just have to evacuate. Are you all ready?" 

They all nodded as they stared at the exit of the elevator shaft. Normally, this place was choke-full of traps, but they were all gone now. Hopefully, their target would be as defenseless. 

It was time to breach in! A man built like a bull rose to the occasion. "Open sesame motherfucker." He whispered as he ripped the access doors apart with his bare hands, the metal creaking horribly. 

They instantly invaded the interior with great coordination. Their entrance was accompanied by a burst of smelly black smoke coming from below as it began rapidly filling the room. 

The mercenaries didn\'t waste any time. As soon as they entered, they set up an energy shield around the entry point, just in fucking time as projectiles were already flying their way. 

— WHOOSH! — 

What the fuck was all that?! There were gunshots, energy discharges, spells, and even melee weapons…Fuck, one guy even threw a table?! This whole thing was crazy, but it was to be expected. 

— ZOOM! — 

— BAM! — 

They clicked their tongue at the mismatched attacks that were raining on them. 

"As expected of an auction house, there\'s a private army. Talk about a rowdy bunch." But then they addressed the enemies: "Hey, stop firing. Can\'t you see our uniforms?! We\'re with the MTA!" 

A second later, a few gasps were heard. A few guards carefully approached to confirm it, only to jerk in shock. "Ah, sorry! That horrible smoke made it hard to see. Actually, why isn\'t it going away?!" a guard remarked, perplexed. 

"I don\'t blame you since we came with incredible momentum. We\'re here to help protect this place. As for this smoke, god knows what it is. But it smells so horrible!" The mercenary leader complained. 

The two groups were becoming blurrier by the second thanks to the smoke. They then smiled at one another. How nice that there were no enemies here! Each side seemingly lowered their defenses and....suddenly attacked! 

— Ta-ta-ta-ta! — 

— Fire!— 

— ZZAAAPPP!! — 

How naive! The fools had shown such carelessness!— or so they initially thought. But a second later, they could distinguish the glow of an energy shield through the smoke…on both fucking sides.  <br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

"A shame, the MTA impersonators are still alive." A guard grumbled. 

"Goddammit, how did they know?!" A mercenary shouted in anger. 

Normally this would have been the witty reveal of the famous: "we didn\'t know, but you just told us!"— except not this time. The MTA had already contacted the auction house with the newest info. 

—

Why did the mercenary believe that they\'d be able to pass incognito? The answer lay somewhere else. 

At the MTA dispatch center, a few key people were sweating. They had either been bribed or blackmailed into delaying the distress call incoming from the auction house area for ten minutes. 

Yes, that had been the plan. After all, cutting an entire area\'s communication could be pretty damn noticeable. It was one thing to opt for blocking the whole area with a physical barrier, but it would still be visible. 

But now the whole thing had blown up? What the fuck were they supposed to do?! It was far too late to be salvageable! That one guy would be angry, but what could they do?! 

Hell, their superiors had suddenly barged in and begun barking orders. Not just one, all of them too! How was this possible?! The order had to come from the very top, perhaps even someone very close to Markus himself! 

They didn\'t dare show any sign of sketchiness with their bosses there. They wanted to avoid an internal investigation at all cost! Feeling guilty, they even spent even more effort on resolving the situation as quickly as possible. 

They had no way even to fathom that this whole thing had started with a simple message from Josh. Then again, this wasn\'t too weird for him to impact this place. After all, he did have Markus on speed dial. 

That\'s how there was information warfare happening in the background— or could it be considered over already?

—

Back at the auction house, the two groups were attacking each other relentlessly as they threw insults. 

"Dumbasses! Did you really think that you could just cosplay your way inside our defenses?! Let me guess. You guys are nothing but a bunch of thieves! " A guard shouted. 

"Cosplay?! How dare they slander us like that! Goddammit, those guards are annoying as hell. Do they really take us for pushovers?!" an invader cursed. 

What happened next was akin to an EDM concert. There were so many projectiles flying all over the place that it looked like countless lasers livening up the atmosphere. They pierced the darkness creating amazing effects. 

Then there was the trembling of the floor as the shields they had brought trembled rhythmically and rippled. 

Sadly, no one but the two groups witnessed the spectacle, and none were in the mood to enjoy it. Both sides focused on taking down their opponent\'s shield but quickly realized that both were really high quality. 

How was this possible for both to be state-of-the-art equipment?! What kind of funding did this auction house [Group of thieves] have?! 

But it seemed like the invaders had the slight upper hand! But just as the auction house guys\' shield was about to disappear, they suddenly activated some kind of self-destruction measure. 

With a — Zoom!!— an energy ray appeared from this sacrifice as it took down the enemy shield. Both parties could only steady their resolve as they stared at their opponent with rage. 

This was going to turn into a melee…