Chapter 40: The Masked Man
[A few minutes after the zone break]
Nick was before the city gate, while people were behind him waiting for his order.
"Sir, we are ready. We are waiting for your command!", said a muscular man in an iron suit, while saluting.
Nick just nodded and started to run toward a direction, while showing the others behind to follow him.
Seeing the sign, the twenty or so fighters started to follow him closely from behind.
After running for 10 minutes straight at full speed, they finally arrived at their destination.
They were standing in front of a burning village, where people threw sticks with fire on their own home everywhere, turning the wooden houses into a burning bonfire with children or adults still in there.
Watching as chaos was everywhere, Nick pointed forward and shouted, "Everyone with healing and spiritual powers go help and rescues the injured. Those with combat capabilities come and follow me!"
"Yes Sir!"
Without any hesitation, the group separated into two sections. One started to rescue the people from the burning houses, while the others followed Nick closely.
Nick was running, while looking for something as turning his head here and there, but with each second his frown deepened a bit.
"Where is it? Where is it?"
While looking confused, suddenly a man jumped before him, which made him stop in his track.
Nick looked at the human before him, but a second later he squinted his eyes, and with an incredibly fast slash, he cut its head off.
*PAFF*
The people behind him seeing as their boss just killed an innocent human, made them instantly dumbstruck.
"S-sir?"
Just as the man in the iron armor wanted to say something, the corpse started to shine with white light and a half-transparent figure floated out of it slowly, making the man halt in his sentence.
Nick looked at the ghost with a calm face and took out a blue talisman from his pocket.
In an instant, a small blue hole appeared on the talisman and with a strong pulling force, it started to pull the creature toward him.
The ghost feeling as something was amiss, wanted to escape, but it was too late and was instantly sucked into the talisman.
Putting away the periapt, he put out his hand, and instantly a white faceless creature with four arms appeared on his arm.
Jumping down next to the corpse, it released a white light, and like reversing time the dead body came back to life, making everyone around dumbfounded.
"Let's go."
Without waiting for the response of the others, Nick started to run toward the village's center leaving behind the confused man and the dumbstruck fighters.
Coming back to their senses, the man in the iron suit looked behind and shouted, "What are you waiting for? Wake up and let's go!"
With a salute, all the fighters started to run toward where Nick just ran away.
As time went by, Nick still didn't find what he wanted, so stopped and looked around.
"If it's not here, then the only thing is left is...", as he was thinking about something, he looked at the forest in the distance.
"Sir, what are we looking for?", asked the man in the iron armor after catching up with Nick.
Hearing the question, Nick pointed forward and said, "We go that way. That will be there."
"Tha-, ah, wait!"
Just as the man wanted to ask something, Nick started to run toward the forest, while leaving behind the others.
"Damn!"
Cursing quietly, the man signaled to the others behind him to follow him and started to run again toward the forest.
***
Mila closed her eyes as the creature before her was about to touch her body, but suddenly a blinding white light appeared between her and the ghost.
*BOOOM!*
"Ah, Finally! Greg I tho-."
Thinking that the white light was Greg's ability which helped them, made Emma incredibly happy, but in the next second her happiness vanished in an instant.
Opening her eyes and looking up, Mila's pupils are constricted in shock.
What appeared before her was a stranger, whose body was half transparent, while his bones shined with a dim grey light.
To make things even more bizarre, the stranger was wearing a smiling black demon mask, which gave off a terrifying aura from time to time.
Joe looked at the man before him and didn't know what to do, but a second later his eyes widened in shock too.
The ghost before the stranger started to scream in fear, as it was afraid of him because of something.
The man only looked at the ghost and with a sudden move, it appeared next to it, while releasing a white light.
In an instant, like running onto a wall with full speed, the ghost got bounced off the white light, while its body faded away slowly.
"Who is he?", murmured Joe with a confused expression, but suddenly a creature appeared next to him, making his thinking stop for a moment.
With a fast jump, he dodged to the side and pointed at the creature.
*BOOOOM!*
With a huge explosion, the creature turned into debris, but a second later another ghost appeared out of the corpse, while it madly screamed toward the sky.
However, it's cry didn't last long, because the man appeared out of nowhere and with its strange power instantly made the ghost to vanish.
The other three creatures seeing as their comrades died instantly without any chance to fight back, turned around to escape.
But they didn't even run a hundred meters when suddenly, their bodies stopped moving and fell to the ground lifelessly.
Mila, Emma, and Joe looked at this scene with a dumbfounded expression, thinking that it was also the stranger's doing, but a second later they saw as a man walked out from the woods.
Nick seeing the familiar faces wanted to say something, but halted because felt something was not right and looked toward his left where a masked man with a half-transparent body was looking at him.
Feeling the threat, the stranger turned around and started to escape.
Nick knew, if he let that man escape, he will miss something very important, so he raised his hand and pointed at the man.
In an instant, a white circle appeared below the stranger and made it's body to halt.
Seeing this, Nick smiled, but just as he relaxed a bit, his face changed in an instant, because a strange power started to interfere with his, making his time trap to vanish in an instant.
Pointing again at the man, he tried to stop him, but this time, somehow his ability didn't work, resulting in the stranger escaping successfully.
Watching as his figure disappeared in the distance, Nick's expression was ice cold.
*Chatter...Chatter*
With heavy footsteps, the other fighters finally caught up with Nick, and the moment they stopped they looked around.
"Where is 'that' Sir? Oh, and who are t-Uh?!"
The man in his iron armor started to ask questions again but stopped in an instant after seeing Nick's ice-cold face.
After looking into the distance for a while, Nick turned his gaze at the three kids and walked toward them.
Arriving before them, he looked at them one by one and opened his mouth slowly.
"I want to hear everything... Now."