A scarred-face man looking at a sphere ball. The red light in the ball dimmed and then died down.
He then looked at the dust from the high cliff.
"How is it, Klaus?" A black armored knight with a full face helmed appeared behind him from the forest.
"It lost." Klaus's face soured while looking at him.
The black knight looking in the direction of the fire. One can only see the dust and fire from here, not the people below.
The black knight sighed. "Your debt just increased. The pope will not happy to hear this."
"Bill the king." Klaus throws the sphere ball in front of the black knight. "I never expect Palladium adventurers to come. What a coincidence."
Klaus then walked away inside the forest, disappearing from his sight.
"Palladium eh? I wonder if Stroom can do that." The black knight ponders and gets curious.
He then takes out a small piece of paper from his pocket and tears it into two.
"How intriguing."
He looked once again in the direction of the mutated Gamaconda. A shadow appears from his feet swallowing his whole body to his head and then he disappears.
***** ***** *****
(Reis POV before mission)
It was a direct request from Shawn early in the morning. A special request from the guild, a platinum-ranked mission. No one in the town is a platinum-ranked adventurer besides the three of us. Klim the Swordsman, Farlon the Thief, and me a priestess.
It should be a reconnaissance mission, to survey the monster and the condition of the villagers. The monster is a famous rare serpent Gamaconda four meters high.
Of course, our party can defeat it. We fought a Gamaconda once. It was a fierce battle but we won.
However, the mission was so unsettling. Shawn warned us only to survey not to engage. Survey and back with a report.
It was the monster's description from the requestor. The description is off, even Shawn pondered for a long time before giving us the paper.
"I am not feeling good about this mission," I said to Klim.
Klim is the leader of our party. He is not a haste leader, even a bit slow in taking a decision.
"What do you mean? This is a Gamaconda, the material fetches a high price." Farlon on the other hand insisted on taking the mission.
Farlon is a thief role in our party. His eyes are always set on gold and reputation. In the past, he is not like this. But when we raised our party to the platinum rank he changed. Gold and reputation have already poisoned his mind.
"Klim, we already fought a Gamaconda before. Do you already know how we got all those gold? Do you want to go back to being poor like in the past?" Farlon persuaded Klim.
I frowned. I prefer to be poor rather than die a meaningless death.
"That was a normal Gamaconda, didn't you hear what Shawn has told you? This is not normal." I interjected him.
"That's the more reason to go. The Gamaconda is already a rare monster, which means this monster in the Anderhall is rarer. Klim! you can live without worries with your sister, take a pension, and no more dangerous mission!" Farlon persuaded Klim again.
"If we are back in one piece." I scoffed.
"What do you say?!"
"Enough!" Klim shouted at us.
We both got silent. Shawn just sits on his chair frowning at the paper mission.
"We will take the mission." Klim decided.
Farlon smiled widely.
"But not to fight the Gamaconda, only to survey the situation and report back." Klim eyes on Farlon. Farlon's smile faded when he heard that.
"Fine." He grumbled and walks out of the room.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you sure you want to take this mission?" Shawn asked us.
"Yes. It is just a reconnaissance right?" Klim asked again.
"To be honest I also not feeling good about this mission. I planned to go to the Capital asking for help after my day's off."
"This is not like you guild leader." I smiled.
The guild leader in the past is always gung-ho in every mission he gives.
" I guess I am getting old." Shawn laughed. "Anyway. Be careful"
***** ***** *****
(Reis POV)
The situation is worse than I thought.
The three of us reached Anderhall Village. It was empty. No one can be seen across the street. Some of the houses were broken and the wagon was scattered everywhere.
Our horses suddenly neighed hard and once we gets off they ran away together outside the village.
"Help!" A man suddenly leaped out from a house.
What surprised us was the Gamaconda. It was not the ordinary Gamaconda we encountered before. It was straight from hell.
I could feel the blood draining from my face. Without hesitation, it munched the man.
"Aargh! No! No!"
Blood came out from the snake's mouth.
"Urgh." I fell and vomited.
"Reis! Farlon! Prepare yourself!" Klim shouted.
That was a hard fight without a probability of winning. Not an attack from us can damage the mutated Gamaconda. We were like a plaything in front of its eyes.
***** ***** *****
(Reis POV)
We were hiding inside one of the villager's houses. A lot of us including the villagers themselves.
In our fight, a boy successfully ran away to ask for help.
Klim got hurt slammed on the house wall after the Gamaconda tail lash. I was tired and I believe my mana ran out.
Farlon was scared and getting impatient. The villagers are tired and can not think rationally. A fight almost broke out. Then the snake found us due to the commotion.
Is this it? There are no more things we could do.
Until many fireballs hit the snake's head.
They were young, charging without worries.
Is it bravery? Or they have not yet fought Gamaconda before?
But what I saw was a miracle. That young teenager was able to hold the Gamaconda slash to protect the little girl behind him.
His movement was so nimble, avoiding right and left, jumping side to side, and casting a lot of fireballs. A blue flame.
It was so beautiful.
"Are you alright?" A teen girl comes at us while grabbing a little girl on her shoulder.
She gave her potion to us and distributed it.
"Are you guys the help from Shawn? Palladium-ranked adventurer?" I asked while throwing the potion to Klim.
Klim groaned while his wound touched the potion liquid.
"Shawn is still asking for help. We are Silver-ranked adventurers."
Just when I will drink the potion, I stopped my movement.
"What?!"
I saw the boy still fighting the mutated Gamaconda fiercely.
If you guys are Silver-ranked then we are a clown.
That time was a miracle. I saw grand magic and a lost art from the boy fighting the Gamaconda.
Who are they?
----- ----- -----
Name: Cory Grieves
Skill: Whirlwind slash sword, Mana sword
Mana cap: 10X Dark Turquoise
Magic: Fireball, Blue Fireball (Divine Flame), Healing, Air-suspended magic, Multicast, Whirlwind, Tornado, Fire Tornado,
----- ----- -----
Name: Nia
Skill: Auto body repair, body adaptation, auto mana regulator, extreme body battle mode.
Connection skill: Full Connection
sub-connection skill: Partial connection, non-human connection
Movement: Blood medium, Water medium