Chapter 34: The Reveal
The man in the dragon mask turned to face his system and saw a red notification that stuck him in place.
[Penalty Quest time remaining: 5:35]
"Shit I still have five minutes or more, just go without me." The dragon mask seemed so persistent and would have convinced any other person, however...
The other person simply laughed and waved his hands in the air. After this the trees shook from below and three other men joined them at the tree top.
They wore similar uniforms and different masks, having varying Mana outputs that made the dragon mask individual skin crawl.
'They don't bother if I still have a penalty or not, they just want a meeting,' he grumbled running his gaze around to see distant disturbance headed his way.
Having more than enough time he considered the meeting a bit more.
"Today will be the day we recieve our objectives," one who was dressed in same uniform putting on a plain white mask spoke first before pulling out a bizzare scroll from his coat and reading it's content.
They knew him as a ruthless leader that took brutality as his hobbi. Some would call him the 'blank order', others would say 'physical none' because his power was not to be taken lightly.
BOOOM!
The tree beneath the dragon masked person tore apart from below making his footing discomforted as the tree slid to fall down on it's side.
"Ahhhkk!" At the last moment the dragon mask launched into the air to escape the attack and landed on another treetop.
'What sort of beast is this?' He asked himself grabbing his dagger and watching very mindfully at the dust clearing out groggily.
And it appeared, a large worm like monster projecting from the trees and twirling in the air with weird gurgling noises occuring from it's movements.
[White armoured worm]
*Level 34
*Skills: ground shred lv4, acid blast Lv6.
*Warning: poisonous body
The dragon mask narrowed his eyes at this beast searching it's skin cautiously.
[Skill activated: Eye of weakness has detected a fault in it's forehead]
'A weak spot!.....'
As the dragon mask was about to make a move foward the armoured worm was hit by a latent energy that tore it apart into pieces in a short duration.
'What a relief, they have my back,' The dragon mask exhaled in relief dropping his attention on his sneakers as he calmed his offensive self. That reminded him of his obligations somehow as a...
[Warning: You have recieved help from another force]
[Group announcement: Anyone that kills the dragon mask (Eri Luggard) before the time limits runs out will be awarded 100,000 coins]
Eri in the dragon mask stared at his colleagues with shy eyes, "guys?!" He could tell they saw the notification and were already eating him up with their eyes.
Common five thousand coins was not easy to come up with talkless of a hundred thousand.
Eri smiled within the mask, 'The true nature of humans, so pitiful.'
"After spending months in this team and I am still considered free rewards, what shit."
***
"Stop the horseplay Eri, use the spare rune you have, the mission is too important to fight over a few coins," the words of the white mask shook Everyone:
They never expected anyone to think a hundred thousand coins as belittled.
Eri's look fell, this made him question how stupid the system was, 'Whoever created this should be hanged.' Trying to turn this guy's against him would be suicide; well suicide was nothing compared to his situations in his past.
"Let's get concealed for what we are about to do," the white mask leapt from the tree platform down to the ground and so followed the others but Eri.
[Escape Rune: Escape a penalty without completing it.]
A green rune presented itself accompanied by this notification. Eri quickly smashed it with one hand and the penalty Quest ended in accordance.
He still had three more of this runes but Eri had been hoping for a bit of leveling up and new skillsfrom the quest he just escaped, however there was no getting it now.
Eri exhaled softly dropping from the platform to join the others.
He landed softly on his feet like a leaf, less of human and adjusted from the lights of the sun rays a bit, especially his forehead and eyes which were the only exposed part of his face.
After this the group waited for the white mask to break the silence which took a while.
Finally White mask spoke.
"I am Hidarashi Mahi!"
Eri's breath tightened up and he felt a knot develop in his gut, this was very unusual. For a member to simply present his real name so confidently, was impossible.
During his stay with them, he learnt they were a organization with unknown members; meaning all identities and background relation remained concealed. That was why they wore masks; this made the reason for white mask speaking his name more obscure.
White mask groggily raised his hand to his mask and pulled it from his face; this revealed a white skinned man, milky eyes with snake like iris, pale scar-filled face and a sinister grin.
"Now that I have shown my face, I would like for other members to do the same," Mahi Hidarashi pronounced to his surbodinate who were clearly still hesitating.
The next to move was another member with a wolf type mask raising his faltering hands to his mask and removing it to reveal; a blank face?
His face was like every other person, however he had no eyes, mouth, or even nose; seemed like a character a manga artist forgot to input face for. His head was bald so it rhymed with his features.
"I am Herto Alexander," he spoke without a mouth and everyone could clearly hear his voice strangely.
The next person to attempt this stunt fascinated Eri as it was the guy he called Obito for the past months, the person concealed by a wooden mask with only one eye hole.
He pulled down his mask to reveal a handsome male face, a huge scar on his right eyes which was missing, a very angry demeanor and an ominous amount of Mana exiting his one good eye.
"Sai Hakimoto."
Eri got a knot in his stomach almost hard to believe he stood before Sai, 'So he is Sai, we are doomed.'
The last person before Eri in the pig mask pulled his own down nervously, "beware the symbol, my name is Barnabas Riza."
Eri's eyes became gloomy, his look dried up as memories began to flood in.
'Barnabas,' he flashed back to the final moment of Barnabas eight months ago and tried to match their face, and they were exactly the same person. He turned to see Sai and he seemed calm about it. This made Eri question....
'Was that all a plan? But why? Plotting and killing yourself before your crew?' Eri was a brilliant mind and soon started to fill in the blanks until he came to a solid theory, 'Their target then.....'
'Was me.'