The surrounding environment began to shimmer, as Elias' Beastial Qi began to do its work.
The thick fog, which had been swirling around them for a long period of time, giving them a disadvantage in battling, disappeared abruptly as if it didn't exist.
Elias' illusion merged with the real world, as Ren and Lily charged at the Viperclouds.
" Now we are talking. Eat this you fucking bastards!" Ren yelled, landing a massive punch powered by his red Beastial Qi on one of the serpent's heads.
Unlike earlier, his punch clearly damaged its body, as the serpent shrieked in pain, its body spraying green coloured blood.
But there was one problem.
The illusion Elias created was the road in front of the coffee shop – the shop where he used to meet with Celestia.
The illusion was well detailed that it really felt real.
The snake, which got hit by Ren, flew backward, rotating and crashed on one of the moving vehicle's windscreen.
The car's alarm rang wildly as it got off the track crashing to a nearby building.
" You didn't tell us about this!" Lily grumbled as she sidestepped to avoid a car running at a speed of 80 km/h.
" I told you, I can't control what illusion I can create!," Elias shot back, materializing a long sword made of light, " besides, we got what we wanted, didn't we? Look, how powerless they are without that fog!"
Yeah, they were fighting on an urban city road.
The only difference between the real world and Elias' illusion was…
" Wow, your illusion would be perfect, if there were humans too." Ren exclaimed, kicking another vipercloud's belly.
" Just focus! We have only 7 seconds. Oh now it's six!" Elias yelled, cutting another viper in two.
" Two down!"
" Three!" Elias turned his face towards Lily as few pieces of a vipercloud bathed in green blood raining around her.
" Four!" Ren chomped another vipercloud's head, with his feet.
After studying the attack patterns of the viperclouds earlier in their encounter, Elias observed how they shielded their bodies with the fog.
When they were inside the fog, the fog had concentrated on their body, forming a layered shield making every attack useless.
[ Remaining time for skill Luminous Mirage: 3 seconds.
Remaining time for the skill: Starpower infusion: 15 seconds.
]
The remaining monster tilted its head as it observed their comrades lying dead in various places.
One was inside a crashed car while another was inside a gutter. And another one was being chomped by every vehicle, ran on the road, while the fourth one- there was not even a body of it left. Just a pile of snake flesh.
[ Warning…
The illusion is being diminished…]
The system's melodic tone beeped.
" Kill it!" Lily yelled as she raised her katana.
The three of them jumped at the serpent from three different directions, as its body visibly shaking under their intimidation.
The entire world seemed to have stopped moving.
[ Beep…
The illusion has diminished.
Congratulations to the host for clearing a hidden quest: Together we die; together we win.
Reward: Calculating host's contribution…Done.
Report:
Host's role in quest:The mastermind.
Despite the fact that the host had dealt low damage, the contribution for the completion of the quest is 74%.
Without the host's planning, quick thinking and leadership, there had been a zero chance of winning.
And the system has detected a glitch showing the host's probability in winning this battle as a higher percentage. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
System's compliment: " Think of this as a part of the quest."
Reward: Halo of Lumina.
Do you want to receive your reward now? Y/N]
Elias blinked at the glowing blue screen in front of him.
' A weapon? The name itself is peculiar! I wonder how it will come though?'
Elias thought to himself.
" Huh! Finally we destroyed that bunch of worms!," Ren sighed in satisfaction turning his face towards Elias, he continued " without you, there was no way we could win this fight!" with an admiring look on his face.
" Agreed!" Lily nodded as she kicked the body of the last vipercloud they slayed.
The snake's head was smashed flat, and the body was cleanly cut into three pieces.
" Hah? It was nothing.." Elias waved his hand, his face not showing any emotion.
' Is this the feeling of getting acknowledged?'
Of course, deep inside he was flying to heaven with overwhelming happiness.
For the first time in his life he was acknowledged! There was nothing more happier than this.
Elias once again felt grateful to Celestia for helping him to choose the right path for him– becoming a beast tamer.
Elias sighed as he waved the system notification, keeping a note to himself to check that later.
' I can't just receive rewards in front of them' He side-eyed as he thought to himself.
" Since the fog has disappeared, how about taking some rest here?" Ren asked.
" Yeah, we should restore our energy before moving onwards. If we meet another group of fog beasts, there is no way we will survive fighting them." Lily agreed.
Both of them looked at Elias.
" Why? Why are you looking at me?" Elias asked, noticing that the two were observing him.
" Because, you are our leader!" Ren shot back, with a look on his face– a look which said, ' Is this a thing to ask even?'.
" What?"
" You are our leader, Elias. That's a fact," Lily said with a meaningful look on her face as she studied Elias' expression, " now don't try to refuse this. We have already made you our leader!"
Elias looked at both Ren and Lily in turns before sighing, with a defeated look on his face.
" Well…I don't know whether I'm good at being a leader. But I will try my best to help you pass this trial with minimum damage." He mumbled, shaking his head.
" That's it!" Ren cheered.
" You don't have to tell it, we know you are doing your best." Lily smiled while nodding.
" You-"
" I know what you are trying to say. Yes, maybe you wanted to save yourself by using us. But the important thing is you didn't abandon us. I know with that skill of yours, you could easily escape from there? Ain't I right?" Lily questioned, still a warm smile lingering on her face.
After thinking for a moment, he slowly nodded. After all, he wasn't that inhuman to abandon someone, because of how some shitty people treated him. He was not like that.
Lily's smile deepened.
" My dear leader, please tell me your decision now! Should we camp here or not?" Ren jumped in.
Elias smiled slightly before saying, " yes of course!"