Where Is Your Rider (OFFICIAL WATTPAD UPLOAD)

Chapter 22

It was by the light of Charlie's funeral pyre that they discussed their next move.

"So good news and bad news," Punz said, tapping a diagram of Manberg he'd sketched in the dirt with a stick. "Good news, we know where Manberg is headed, so there's a good chance we'll be able to intercept them. Bad news? It's to their next target: L'Manberg."

There was a collective groan.

Tubbo grimaced as Corpse carefully cleaned the wound on his hand, wrapping it in bandages. "Stop squirming, damn it."

"I have these things called nerves in my hand, dickhead," Tubbo retorted.

Corpse rolled his eyes.

"We're down several planes, and we've got injuries all around," Bad said, fiddling with one of his knives. "I say we try infiltration again. Sneak in, plant explosives, get out. They won't be expecting the same thing twice."

"And get mauled by rad-rats again? No fuckin' way!" Boomer scoffed.

Bad wrinkled his nose. "Language."

"I like the explosives idea," Wilbur remarked, regarding them all coldly as he took a drag on his cigarette. "A couple metric tons of TNT would do the job just fine—"

"We aren't killing civilians if we don't have to," Bad cut him off.

"Where the hell would we even get that much TNT?" Tommy blurted.

Wilbur sneered. "I have my sources."

Across the fire, Techno huffed, his whetstone making a sharp noise as he dragged it along the blade of his sword. "For once in my life, I agree with Wilbur. I say we blow that place to hell."

Everyone quickly descended into discontented muttering.

Tubbo winced. He didn't like this, not at all.

Firstly, he had not been expecting Phil to get involved in everything. Neither him nor Techno had provided any kind of explanation for their presence except for Manberg being a threat, and it wasn't like Phil to embroil himself in a conflict without an ulterior motive, may it be personal or otherwise. He'd refused to get involved in the Manberg-Pogtopia shit—even though his sons' lives were on the line—for that exact reason, and he was notoriously slow to anger.

Technoblade, however, was another story.

The man was, to put it simply, nothing like his brother, despite both of them being aggressive and easy to piss off. While Wilbur was hot-headed and impulsive, Techno was the definition of cold and calculating. He was rather introverted too, however, usually rather quiet and non-confrontational, and while Wilbur was frustratingly stubborn at times, Techno tended to cave easily under pressure.

Tubbo managed not to scowl. The reminders of Techno's nonexistent backbone were quite literally burned into his face.

Techno also happened to be a devout anarchist. He had a reputation for tearing down regimes in violent attacks on government bodies—regardless of whether they were truly corrupt or not, and his methods usually involved explosives—so much so that he'd earned the moniker Blood God. The fact that he was agreeing with Wilbur, who'd always had an (arguably unhealthy) obsession with politics and power, was always disconcerting, to say the least.

"We failed pretty hard last time," Boomer said with a shrug. "It's extreme, but it might be our only option."

Gumi shot him a dirty look. "Seriously?"