Aftermath of Wendigo. 

In the forest that was on fire, Hitori was sitting on the ground and Reon was lying on the ground, the wendigo they killed was lying on the ground too.

The forest fire was increasing rapidly, if Hitori and Reon fail to make their way out of the forest, they will burn with the fire unless Hitori uses mana overdrive.

Reon had not noticed it yet but Hitori had noticed the missing portals which should have been in front of them. Even after killing the wendigo, the exit portals had not appeared yet.

"We did it…" Reon raised her hand in the air with a smile on her face. They both were panting after their breathtaking battle with Wendigo.

Suddenly, Hitori got up from the ground. Reon's smile faded, she looked at Hitori as he slowly walked up to the wendigo that was lying dead on the ground.

Reon pushed herself off the ground and stared at Hitori. Hitori raised his katana, standing in front of the wendigo. Flames of fire started dancing in the midair. With a powerful swing, his katana slashed through the wendigo's head, detaching it at the end.

"Now we have done it," Hitori said while looking down at the detached head, "we did it, Reon-san," he glanced behind him at the Reon whose mouth had dropped open in awe.

[you have completed the quest and cleared the Wendigo area]

The message flashed and Reon was convinced. The wendigo's body disappeared into pixels and in place of the body, shiny treasures and items appeared.

Reon got up from the ground with her mouth in O shape. She walked towards Hitori by taking slow, hesitating steps, "Ju- just who are you?" she asked in a low voice.

"A human, male to be precise," Hitori bent down to collect the drops.

"You seem so experienced, your combat skills are past the intermediate gamer skills, and it seems as if you know every secret of the game," Hitori did not reply, Reon asked him once again, "just who are you?"

Hitori glanced back at her with a smile, "your friend,"

[you have received a friend request from player Ryu]

She was again surprised, "s- sure," she accepted the friend request and walked up to Hitori, "what have we got here?'

"Money, fifty-fifty. Gems, fifty-fifty. Other than that, we have two quantities of each potions: swiftness, magic power, endurance and we have two status recovery potions."

Reon nodded, "let us divide them too," she suggested. Hitori agreed. After dividing the potions, Hitori stretched his hand to hand Reon a bundle of stakes.

"Iron stakes?" she gasped and looked at Hitori.

He had his smile on, "the boss," he shrugged.

"It should have been the other way though," Reon looked down at the bundle of iron stakes, "I suggest we divide them-"

"I do not have any launchers with me, keep them with you, and stay close to me during our battle."

"If you say so," she put them into the inventory, "let us… exit the forest?" she glanced around her, the fire indeed was trying to swallow the whole forest in it, "the fire is rising,"

They walked through a blue portal to exit from the fourth and the last checkpoint of the right path. Hitori and Reon were teleported to an empty area that had another portal at the end of the narrow path.

Reon equipped herself with her gun, Hitori held out his gun too while glancing at the map.

[entered the Pontianak's courtyard]

Hitori studied the map carefully, the courtyard they were standing in was an empty area where the right and the left path meet. Straight ahead was where the lair boss rested, after passing through the portal. And then, three dots glowed on the map's screen.

"Quick," Hitori pulled down his map and rushed forward, Reon followed him.

"W- what is it? Another monster?" she asked.

"No, it is our leader," Hitori rose up, pulled out his gun, and aimed it at a player in front of him.

"Huh? Stop!" Reon let out a muffled shout, "Ryu-san, stop! What are you doing?" she used her gun to push Hitori's gun down, "are they not with us?"

Hitori glanced at Reon and shook his head, "they are using us," Hitori pulled his gun down and looked at the three figures who were walking down the path to the portal.

"Huh? What do you mean they are using us?" Hitori glanced at Reon.

"Have you ever heard of the term 'The Guild or the party Traitor'?" Hitori asked while keeping up with the three players.

"How can you be so sure?!" she demanded, "what if they are with us and got here before us-"

Reon glanced at the three players, "boss, are you sure about this?" they stopped in front of the portal, "if the other players know about this, they will be really angry," his sidekick asked.

The man in gladiator suit looked down at his partner, "by the time they do, this lair will be ours,"

"Boss is right," another player spoke, "we will summon all of the monsters in this lair to kill them if it comes to that,"

"If they go against us, it will be considered as a raid on our lair." he chuckled.

Hitori raised his gun. The two players stood behind their leader to let him step through the portal first.

Reon raised her gun at them, "that explains why you were so eager to reach the lair boss before them."

"Both at the same time," Hitori ordered.

Before the boss would even step through the portal, Hitori and Reon fired their bullets. The two bullets followed swiftly through the path at 1,000 feet per second speed.

[critical hit!!]

[-80]

[-70]

The boss ducked down on hearing the sound of the bullets, he looked behind him and saw his two partners had already been pushed down to their last health point.

Reon fired another bullet, one of the players dropped dead. Hitori's bullets clashed against his metal armor as the boss rolled on the ground.

The second player took a leap through the portal and vanished to the other side. Hitori and Reon charged while continuously shooting at the rock behind which the leader hid.

The leader had taken a perfect hiding place where none of his enemies' bullets reached him. They had stopped shooting.

Hitori and Reon moved forward with care, Hitori had his gun in front of him, Reon had the same stance.

On the other side, the leader spoke, "well, well," he started, "I never expected someone to figure our strategy out though," he chuckled loudly before letting out a laugh, "at least not so soon, you know."

Hitori and Reon had stopped moving since they both heard the leader's voice, "you just were too predictable," Hitori spoke back.

"Hm-uh," the leader rose up from the ground, "I hope you are prepared to die here then… whoever you are,"

Hitori took a step forward, "Ryu-san," Reon called him but he continued moving forward, "Ryu– tch." She had no choice but to follow him.

The leader looked at his side, his dead player's drops were lying on the floor. He gritted his teeth and pulled out a grenade from his inventory.

He tried to look back but he could not risk making his head available for the two players who had unraveled his true intentions.

The leader pulled the pin of the grenade, got on his knees. He moved a little back, he kicked the wall and rolled forward on the ground, and threw the grenade at the same time.

Hitori and Reon began open fire but the leader's bulletproof armor helped him cross to the other side. He had grabbed his partner's drops on the way.

The firing stopped, Hitori looked down at a grenade that was dropped a few feet away from his feet.

"Reon-san! Jump!" he turned around and took a leap forward, Reon was a little late but she soon followed him.

The grenade went off, the floor blasted into pieces, it debris fell all over the place. Hitori and Reon lost a bit of their health on the way.

..

…

Will Be Continued…!