After the academy hours ended everyone met up.
Standing around each other, Anastasia explained the plan to find and unmask the masked man.
We'd divided into three groups, Floyd and Jillton, Clair, who wanted to be by herself, and Anastasia and I. We would all search different areas of the Arena and try to find the masked man.
Right as she finished the train arrived and took us to the Battlers Arena.
"What are we supposed to do. How are we even going to find him with absolutely no leads or anything about him?" I asked Anastasia whilst gazing around the Arena grounds and back down at the Arena itself.
"Well, we already have Jillton keeping tabs on Floyd so we'd know if it's him or not right. So really all we have to do is find and question anyone suspicious." Anastasia replied.
Her pale white palm brushed her hair back, covering her black horns, as her eyes thinned and she leaned forward.
"There." Anastasia grabbed my wrist and dragged me along.
Grasping the shoulder of a brown haired boy whose unkempt appearance and slightly shaking arms were easily noticeable to the naked eyes, Anastasia started her intense interrogation.
"Do you know who the masked person in the Arena is?" Anastasia kindly and sweetly asked with a calming tone and beautiful smile that memorized the people nearby, except me.
"Yes, who hasn't heard of him. The unknown man who almost beat everyone he fought." The boy said in a sort of way that showed his admiration of the masked man.
"Nevermind." Anastasia's bright, radiant glow that seeped every part of her disappeared with her smile as she continued to drag me along past the many people onlooking the arena battles.
"What was that?" I murmured to myself.
Passing by multiple people me and Anastasia walked and looked in different places all around and in total only questioned around 15 people but every single one of them had no actually important information about the masked man.
Until Anastasia's phone rung.
Answering the phone, Anastasia listened and then hung up before explaining what happened.
"Clair told us to meet her at Arena A-1, the same arena I fought the masked man in." Anastasia explained.
"Ok, lets get going then."
*
After only a ten minute stroll we reached Arena A-1 and easily spotted and met up with Clair who was already standing with Floyd and Jillton.
"So what'd you find?" Anastasia
"You'll have to follow me so I can show you." Clair started to walk away and led us somewhere.
Floyd stretched his arms and yawned as we walked past many people and stopped in front of a door with the words "Teachers Only" written on it.
Clair grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it open before ushering us in and shutting it behind us, making sure no one saw us entering.
The room was much darker than outside with little to no lighting and stone cold gray walls that surrounded us from all sides except from behind us and in front of us, there were multiple metal pipes running across the ceiling and some on the walls.
Despite the decrepit feeling the hallway gave off we decided to continue forward into the dark ahead.
It didn't take long to be met by an elevator at the very end.
The elevator opened and Clair walked in, following her lead everyone else did too, and the elevator started moving down until after a few moments later it stopped and the doors reopened.
"Are you finally back.Took you long enough." A voice said in an almost overly dragged tone.
The chair in the middle of the vibrantly lit room with countless cameras spun around as the figure who spoke revealed themselves.
"Huh. Oh, right, you told me you were bringing your friends over or whatever it was."
The figure was a man with long silky hair draped over his face and shoulders, his blue captivating eyes peering at us without care, and in his mouth was a blackish lollipop that was the opposite color of his skin tone.
"Seems I have to introduce myself, again. Izaki Frank, that's my name. I'm a teacher and the head of the Battler's Arena."
Standing up he walked closer to us before tilting his head to the right as if directing us somewhere.
"I heard you guys came here looking for something ,who you thought was someone, they're over here. Follow me." He calmly said and gestured his hand.
Moving right, he used his right leg to bust open a door and reveal a wooden mannequin around the same height as Anastasia standing on it's on with it's head angled downward.
"This bad boy is what I was told, by Clair, you guys were looking for. Yes, the masked man you speak of is indeed this state of the ark wooden mannequin made of a extremely sturdy wood found in the Aquinox Realm.
That's not it. This mannequin is also equipped with an almost perfect body mimicker which allows it to look almost indistinguishable from a human in all parts except for the face. That's why it always wears a mask."
The pure dedication and admiration in the man's voice could similar be seen on his face that practically glowed with excitement upon explaining all the goodies the mannequin had to offer.
"So the masked man, the person who almost beat me, and the person who defeated countless others isn't even a person to begin with." Anastasia said with slight anger but mostly annoyance.
"Yep. You damaged it quite a lot I must say quite a lot, I must say, but by using a bit of magic here and there it'll be back up and running in a day or so."
"Anyway, since you all got your answer are you ready to leave. I've got a lot of work to do and I'm running low on time talking, so I'd ask for you all to kindly get out." He said in a chillingly cold tone that was a complete opposite to a second ago, but definitely got the point across.
***
"Welp. Plan: Figure out who the masked man is, is complete so I'll see you all. Also hope you all do well in the Aquinox Realm just in case we don't talk after today." Anastasia said with a smile.
"Yea, yea. As if any of us would die in the Aquinox Realm." I said.
"Yawn...Yea, I agree. I'm out." Floyd slumped over and walked away after stating.
After Floyd left everyone else went there own ways.
[---Azriel Viala - Demon Child of misfortune,death,and suffering
Age:16
Demon Shadow:Medium-Ranked(Evolution 5%)
Potential:Supreme(Superior)
Abilities:Not Lucky(20% of luck gained becomes misfortune.)
Luck is increased through interactions with people or by preventing world ending events and everything in-between.(Summary:There's a nigh-infinite way to gain more luck.)
Status:
Strength: 10 Speed: 13
Stamina: 11 Intellect: 7
Misfortune: 2666 (9999 is the max)
Instinct: 17
Demon Shadow Assimilation: 23%
Items: Caved Crown, Crowned Double-Horned Goblin Core, Horned Sword.
Talent: Misfortune of Death(Lead those around you to death by Misfortune.)]
[Shadow Demon
Evolution:High-ranked (limited to Medium-rank)(Nerfed)
Assimilation: Child (27%)
Health:100%
Abilities: Quick Learner(Learns quickly)(Passive Ability)
Physical Features: Sharp claws, Bladed hand, tough skin, double-horns.
Talent: Pure Adaption ( Adaption is key)
Potential: Sentience, Supreme-rank(Evolution), Superior-rank (Assimilation), Devourer(19% Learned)---]