Lee Seng and the group stared at the strange markings. It didn't look quite like a rune and it didn't look like anything a witch or a hag would've made. Lee Seng scratched his head and shook his head.
"Nah, it can't be a rune," Lee Seng told the group. "We've touched it a million times and it didn't explode or trigger. Runes have to be messed with in order to react usually."
"Sometimes runes don't do anything until a specific time." Ritsuka added. "Or they don't go off unless the one who made them does this." Lee Seng spun on his heel and scanned his surroundings. "I think we're in the clear. We should just plant the flag in the spot and go." Ritsuka and the rest of the team's voices quickly disappeared. A familiar energy drew Lee Seng away from his group to the back of the forest where they had come.
The rune glowed strongly for Lee Seng to see. It was a rune of a bird.
'It couldn't be.' Lee Seng thought. He slowly lifted his hand up to the rune. 'If I could just…' The rune lit up, washing Lee Seng in a blinding light before magical energy soared through the air. Lee Seng pulled his arms to his face, following the light.
"What's that?" Manny asked. Lee Seng's eyes followed the bird. It was a small dove, circling overhead.
"A bird…?" Liz answered, unsure.
"It can't be…" Lee Seng whispered. Manny's eyes narrowed at the bird. There was some sort of familiarity with the energy, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Lee Seng shook his head and tried to dismiss it as the dove rained down flakes of energy. The forest began to heal from the fires. "The Earth Rune… Dove's Revival. W-what's a strong ability like this doing here?"
Manny looked over at Lee Seng. He looked more unsure of himself than ever. Manny snapped out of it.
'It's just a coincidence.' Manny told himself. He turned to look at the others. They were watching the forest heal itself with the energy dove. They could feel their own strength reappear. It was… odd.
"Let's… plant the flag and get outta here. I'm sure you all wanna rest, hm?" Manny spoke.
"Yeah." Evan answered, distracted. "Let's… do that."
"C'mon." Manny clapped his hands. He pulled the last flag canister out and clicked it. It grew into its full size as Manny lugged it over to the middle and planted it. "Done."
"Can a rune really be that powerful?" Olivia asked. She looked over to Ritsuka who was following the dove with his eyes.
- FARAGO GUILD, NEW ANGELES -
Lee Seng and the group warped back to the guild, appearing in one of the teleporter rooms. The group shuffled out and made their way down the stairs.
"That wasn't too hard, hm?" Ritsuka asked.
"I could've been worse." Evan answered. "We could've been more hurt… OR, or, or one of us could've died!"
"Don't say it so casually!" Liz elbowed Evan. "It sounds like you want one of us to die."
"That's not what I'm saying at all! It's just the worst of the worst!"
The group turned right at the stairs and entered a hallway that would take them to the reporting room.
"Third door." Lee Seng told Manny, who was about to walk past. Manny turned and backed up, standing next to the door. Lee Seng folded his arms and waited for Manny to knock.
Three raps came on the door followed by a voice telling them to come in. Manny opened the door, noticing a new set of faces were waiting around in the conference room. Two men and a woman sat together. The woman looked up for a brief moment. She acknowledged the group before turning back to her phone and typing away.
"Ah, it seems another group has arrived." A woman spoke behind the group. Team Zephyr turned and noticed a dark blue haired woman with a couple scales showing on her cheek. She wore a leather jacket and smiled at Team Zephyr. "Come in, let's brief with TRIo in there." The woman motioned. Manny and the gang filed into the room, pulling a seat on the other side and sitting.
The door closed behind the blue-haired woman before she made her way over to the chair at the end and sat in it.
"Alright, TRIo, since you got here first, why don't you go ahead and brief me?" The woman asked. The three pulled away from their phones, stuffing it in their pockets and turning to look at the woman. Jordan, the Japanese descent man, noticed Ritsuka and lingered on him for a second before looking at the woman. "You were supposed to secure points A4K2, A3J3, A5K2, and B3N1. How did that go?"
"Things went smoothly for us." Jordan answered. "We planted the flags like we were told. There's some monsters that need to be collected, but other than that, few scratches. Nobody got too badly hurt."
"Anything else to report?" The woman looked at the other man and the woman.
"Everything Jordan said is what happened." The woman nodded.
"I guess this is worth bringing up." The man leaned forward. "I felt a disturbing amount of energy at A5K2. It felt like something bad was going to happen even though nothing did. I'd be careful in case something does happen." The woman nodded, jotting it down.
"I'll let the next teams know. If there isn't anything else, I'll brief these guys." The woman motioned.
"Sure." Jordan smiled. His eyes went over to Ritsuka. Ritsuka rubbed his eyes as he yawned. Jordan pulled his phone out and unlocked it. He had a photo of Ritsuka currently pulled up.
'That's surely him… Should I let the cousins know?' Jordan thought.
"Alright, Team Zephyr." The woman cleared her throat. "This was your first mission with us; congrats on making it back. Now, reporting won't always be like this. Because of our current predicament with monsters, we're doing face-to-face briefing like this so we can relay the message to the other members that will be going to your spots later. Now, could you tell me about your points? It looks like you guys got… Outskirt zone C, points 2L1A, 2L2I, 2L4J, and 4LJ1."
"Well," Manny straightened his back out and scooted closer to Lee Seng from the back. "We were attacked by Wolfmen at 2L1A. The place was marked like the wolves had made their territory there. There was a two-headed Wolfman, though… That made things a bit rough."
"Wolfmen?" The woman raised an eyebrow as she jotted the information down. "Interesting."
"2L1A was the only point where we didn't really have any interactions with any monsters. That brings us to 2L4I…" Manny looked at Lee Seng. "I think J should explain this one." Manny patted Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded and looked at TRIo before looking at the woman.
"Well, we were ambushed with a horde raid." Lee Seng began to explain. "Goblins. There was a red hair woman among them. She could cancel out our abilities. WE were going to flee, but she stopped us from fleeing. My brother, thankfully, was able to stop the goblin horde for a moment while I tried to apprehend the woman."
"Red hair woman… She cancels abilities?" The woman asked.
"Yeah," Lee Seng nodded. "She vanished before I could get a hit in. She canceled out Oliver's hold on the Goblins and we were put into a corner. I decided to try to find the source behind all of this and managed to find them."
"But the Goblins strangely evolved before our eyes." Evan interjected. "They turned into Hobgoblins and Orcs."
"Just like that?" The woman asked. The group nodded.
"It happened to be the work of a Dei—" Lee Seng stopped himself. "A witch. She had the ability to summon monsters - Goblins - and used a powerful spell to evolve them. I managed to kill her, but in the process kinda blew her body to bits… The red hair woman appeared and I managed to kill her, but…"
"It wasn't a pretty sight." Keng finished. "I found him not… himself." The woman nodded and jotted all of this down. She sighed and looked up at Team Zephyr.
"And what happened to the horde?" The woman asked.
"Vanished when the witch was killed, I think." Keng answered.
"They suddenly vanished and we had no idea where J was." Manny continued. "Oliver's a good tracker, so he went to find his brother."
"It seems like you had a more interesting time than TRIo did." The woman smiled. "Alright, what about the last point? 4LJ1?"
"We saw a white dragon on the way to point 4LJ1." Manny informed them. "We… found it odd with the stories and information we heard beforehand about dragons. It's odd that a dragon came that close."
"Dragons don't come near human settlements, ever. That's odd." The TRIo woman spoke up. "I have friends who saw dragons and it was in desolate places where no human soul resides. They're very territorial. It's strange you saw one that close to the city."
"I agree." Manny nodded. "What's more strange is that point 4Lj1 was burning when we arrived. Trees and life were scorched with fire. I'm not sure who or what did it, but there was a rune carved into a tree. It exploded when Tommy touched it." Manny pointed at Ritsuka.
'They're using different names, too?' Jordan wondered. 'Is this really my cousin? Could this be a doppelganger?'
"There was also a strange Earth rune, too." Ritsuka added. He looked over at Lee Seng.
"Dove's Revival. A powerful Earth rune only wielded by a Rune Mage of high caliber. It healed the forest back from its fiery fate." Lee Seng said.
"Did you find them?" The woman asked. Team Zephyr shook their heads. "Alright. Anything else to report?"
"That's it." Manny shook his head.
"Alright, I will show this to the others. Thank you for your hard work Team Zephyr and TRIo. You're dismissed."
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