CHAPTER 25: Enemy in Disguise

Levi now had two options. Let the villain die or save him so he could cause further trouble in the future. Levi chose the latter. The villain would be the force that would push the main character to their limits. This way there would be some character development. 

Levi took out the bow and quiver full of arrows from his spatial ring. He loaded his bow and his trait came into action.

[

---> [Essence activated]

 The arrow will be 10% resistant to wind and other factors, 

Increase damage by 20%

 25% chance of a critical hit 

 25% chance of critical damage

 35% chance of a headshot.

 Will neglect awakeners's bad luck.

 ]

The arrow flew right at one of the Liontaur's ears and managed to scratch it. All of the beasts looked at him and growled. Levi loaded another shot and this managed to scratch the cheek agian of the same liontaur.

*Roar*

Liontaurs are creatures with big pride and ego. Just cause someone weaker than them managed to cut their skin would make their blood boil so much that they would ignore the prey they were only inches away from killing. The four liontaurs ran towards Levi.

Levi jumped from the tree and used the silk thread swing himself from one tree to another. Once all of the liontaur's were near him, he threw his smoke bomb and ignited it with a lighter.

*Boom*

The whole area was now covered in fire. Levi used the Ifrit mask and increased the amount of flames and their intensity. He started swirling the flames into a whirlwind, trying to pull the liontaur. Those ego-filled beasts didn't care and jumped straight into the fire and swung their claws.

Once the flames were near Levi, he dispersed the fire in all directions. Those flames blocked the beast's view and sense of smell, giving Levi a chance to run away.

Levi headed where the villain was. He approached the villain by reaching out his hands.

"Let me help you."

The villain picked up his broken sword and pointed it.

"Who are you and why do you want to help me?"

"If you recognise this mask then you know, who I am."

The villain closely looked at the mask and recognised it.

"Liam? I thought you died in the last mission."

"I am not Liam but one of his friends. He gave this mask to me while he took his last breath."

Levi walked further and the villain backed away at the same time.

"Why the fuck are you here then?"

"For the same reason, you are here. To find the relic."

The villain's facial expression changed. His suspicion and hostility increased.

"How do you know about that? Only me and our leader know about it."

"I was the one who provided the great with this information. I had my reasons for not getting the relic myself."

Levi's lies were working. By blending the truths with some lies, he had a hold of the villain's trust….well somewhat.

"If I was your enemy, I wouldn't have fought those liontaurs and tried to heal you, Brian."

The villain flinched hearing his name. He gathered mana to attack Levi.

"Don't think of attacking me, Brian. You can't kill me, not right now that is. Let me heal you before any other monsters attack us and then make your decision if you want my help or not."

Brian let go go the broken sword. Levi took out a potion from his ring and chucked it at Brian. He gulped the potion on swift.

"Tell me. How do you know my name?"

"Liam once talked about you and it is quite easy to recognise someone with distinct features like you. Plus the demonic energy oozing out of your body doesn't help you hide who you are."

Brian suppressed his demonic energy and asked further questions.

"Why did you not get the relic for yourself?"

"You see the relic doesn't match my own abilities and is useless to me. At first, I wanted to find it and give it to Liam. Liam was the perfect candidate but his impatience got to him. I was planning on getting the relic and giving it to the great one so he could choose the wielder but looks like the great one already sent you as the candidate."

Brian picked up his sword again and went into defence mode.

"So are you going to kill me?"

"Is your skull filled with shit instead of brain? Didn't you hear what I just said? The relic serves me no purpose and I was here to get it to give it to a suitable candidate but since now you are here, I could help you get that relic."

"Ok…..Why didn't you say it like that then?"

Levi could only shake his head. Brian was the definition of brawls over the brain.

"Let's go. It is going to be night time soon and we are near the relic." 

Brian didn't say anything and followed, Levi. After half an hour of jumping on trees and avoiding mana beasts, they finally reached the place where the relic was.

The cave was small and one could clearly see it lead to a dead end. Brain angrily looked at Levi.

"It's empty. Are you sure this is the right cave?"

Levi objectively looked at Brian.

'No wonder this guy lost to a bunch of kids.'

"If the cave was like this, then wouldn't anyone who had explored before find the relic already?"

Brian folded his arms and nodded.

"So it's a secret cave."

"Yeah, it is."

Brian jumped down from the tree and rushed towards the cave. He was so careless, that he scratched his palm on the tree. He didn't even feel the cut. Brian examined the end of the cave.

"It must open from some code."

Brian started banging the wall with his bloody palm. He noticed that his hands were covered in blood.

"Blood?"

The wall crumbled down, revealing a wide area. Levi couldn't believe his eyes. In the game, all it said was that the villain got his powers from a small cave in this forest. Levi found the cave but he had no idea how to open it.

'I see how he found it before. He must have found this cave when he ran away from the liontaurs and must have said the code word blood when he must have touched the wall. But isn't it stupid to have a code word as 'blood'? This guy must have a high rank luck to open the secret compartment this easily.'

Levi too could be considered lucky to stumble upon Brian, otherwise he wouldn't be able to open it.

Brian stood at the entrance and didn't go in. Levi walked to him and wondered why he wasn't going in. Once he got near, he knew exactly why.

An ominous aura was oozing out of the area. Levi could hardly breathe cause of high dense the mana was. He couldn't show his weakness to Brian and enter the area first.

Brian followed him from behind. As they were walking, they could see some creatures flying towards them. Levi pulled an arrow and was ready to fire.

Brian couldn't see the creatures yet but he stood in front of Levi and got ready. The creatures with the size of a football were rushing towards them. Their body was fully black with only an eye and two wings on their back.

Just from the looks Levi knew that these creatures were C-rank.

'This is going to be a pain in the ass.'

Levi fired his arrow and managed to pierce one of the flying eyeballs but the creature didn't stop and kept flying until it exploded. Its explosion affected the other flying eyeballs and soon all of them exploded before they got near.

'That was anti-climatic.'

Brian turned and looked at Levi.

'He is a lot stronger than I thought.'

Both of them kept walking and again those creatures attacked them. However, the monsters were different this time. The eyes were replaced by mouth with teeth like those of a shark. Levi fired his arrow and killed one but it didn't explode. Brian rushed towards those mobs and moved his broken sword.

Within one swift move, a purple aura formed on the weapon killing every mob. Brian turned around and smirked at Levi.

They kept walking and fighting those monsters. Brian would kill everything in a single shot and Levi would kill the left ones. They had never fought together but it looked as if they had known each other for a long time. Brian also felt that Levi's insight and commanding skills were top-notch.

"You know, if we keep on fighting like this, we might easily destroy everything in our path."

Levi didn't reply to anything and kept on walking. They fought the monster for two hours straight without sustaining any serious injuries but Levi was tired. Trying to match his movements with a high level like Brian in such a dense mana place took a toll on him. He was running out of mana as well.

As they were walking, the terrain around them started to change. The damp walls were now covered in dark bricks with cracks all over them. The smell of rotten flesh and smoke was permitting through the air. Levi used his Hunter Eye but it couldn't look further into a big hole in front of them.

'It must be the boss room.'

Both of them were now inches away from the big hole. Usually, a boss room would be behind a door but this one was covered by a black veil. Levi instead an arrow to check if the veil was dangerous but nothing happened. Brian was the first to enter the room, followed by Levi.

Brian and Levi looked straight ahead. Both were creeped out from the appearance of the boss. The aura it radiated also didn't help much to lessen their anxiety....only for Brian that is.

"I take back what I said back then. I don't think we can kill that easily."

Brain said as the both of them got ready for the battle.