My Guardian System: The Trader

Chapter 55 - A Monster In Human Skin

After Jem took down the rebel leader, the three remaining rebels had bitter expressions, especially Mags, who thought their leader could not be beaten by a newbie level 1.

It seemed like he just ate all the words he said in his mind.

The three rebels glanced at each other. At that instance, it seemed like all of them understood what everyone was saying.

While looking down at the lying unconscious enemy, Jem noticed a spherical object rolled beneath him. 

He stared at it with question marks on his head. A second later, it erupted. Waah! Hope and the others exclaimed.

Whoosh!

Smoke enveloped the area suddenly. Everyone had their visions obstructed by it.

Though, after a couple of seconds, the smoke had finally subsided.

However, they could not find the rebels anymore. They disappeared along with their Airboats and their defeated comrades.

Jem blinked his eyes twice. He did not expect that those rebels had something like that prepared in case their plan failed. 

A few minutes later, after the eruption of smoke, about a mile away north from the road leading to the Mauve Town, Mags met up with the others inside the lull forest.

After crossing the forest entrance, he saw a familiar figure. "Hey, Gai, where's Dox and the rest?" Mags asked his comrade, who escaped ahead along with their injured comrades.

"Don't worry about them; they are currently resting in the temporary shelter. Dox already did a first aid treatment on the injured."

"I see. That's a relief then."

The person named Gai nodded his head and soon noticed something. "By the way, Mags. Where's the leader and the girls?"

He noticed a frown on Mags' face upon asking it.

Their plan at that time of escape was to use the smoke grenade to cover their motives. Gai carried one of their injured comrades and drove one of the Airboats. Dox also did the same. He carried one of the injured comrades and rode on another Airboat.

Since his Airboat was larger compared to the others, Mags was tasked to retrieve their captain and the girls.

There's a guilty expression on Mag's face at the moment.

"About that. I, I failed. I failed to retrieve the leader and failed to take away the girls."

"....."

Noticing the other person's silence, "Hey! Stop looking at me like that!"

"Then explain how you fail."

"CEH!" Mags clicked his tongue.

"....."

Gai glared at him.

Noticing it, he abruptly raised both hands, "Right! I get it," he gave up and continued telling Gai the reason for his failure. 

"When I entered the smoke to retrieve the leader and take away the ascender girls, my feet suddenly lost strength, I trembled. Then, I sensed an ominous aura that seemed like sucking me into the abyss. It seemed as though a feral entity was looking down at me. It seemed as though it wanted to devour me--"

"Uh, no."

Mags suddenly shook his head. Then he continued saying, "the truth is, it felt like I intruded in a dangerous realm that time."

"....."

"Hey! I'm serious!" He exclaimed when he noticed a doubt in Gai.

"That boy is not human! He's a monster in human skin!"

Gai sighed. "I know he's strong. Regardless, what are we going to do now? Since the captain is not here, we can't proceed like this."

Mags wondered if Gai believed what he said. Anyway, he's not lying. That kid is certainly not human!

"For now, let's try to contact the commander," he replied to Gai's question.

"I see."

"Mhm!" Mags nodded. "Let's go and meet the others."

"Yeah. Sure."

After the rebels escaped, silence had once again descended the road.

Some people wearing town guard outfits arrived at the site not long after. They were astounded by what they saw. A person was lying unconscious on the ground, and a boy was standing nearby.

Although Sister Ann was also in shock at Jem's strength, she reacted fast and explained to the guards what happened.

Fortunately, the guards knew Sister Ann. They greeted her and just asked minor questions without delving deeply. In truth, they saw what happened from afar using a scope.

"Honestly, there have been many cases about the sudden disappearance of young ex-humans for a while now. Maybe they were the reasons behind it," said one of the guards to the group.

"So, they are not rebels, but a criminal group?" Hope interjected with a frown after hearing the guard's words.

"Well, there are rebels whose main agenda was only to go against the government, but there are also those rebels whose agenda was more than that. We can't say for sure if they are rebels or not."

The guard replied.

Hope and Sister Ann nodded their heads. They understood that it's easy to disguise and hide one's identity.

"That makes sense," she said in a mutter.

"Don't worry; we will tell you about our findings after we interrogate him," the guard said while pointing to the unconscious person, who is currently tied in a bamboo stick. They are probably going to carry him to the town.

"Please do," Sister Ann was the one who said it.

"By the way, Sister Ann. Who is that boy?" The guard curiously asked while pointing to Jem, who was currently retrieving his knives.

They failed to witness the fight between Jem and the rebels because they were already on the run towards this place when the battle happened.

So they wondered how he defeated the rebels. Sister Ann stated that it was him who defeated the rebels.

"He's our benefactor. He saved us twice already. First is when he saved us from the monsters. The second is now. Aside from that, we don't know much about him."

It was Hope who replied this time. He also noticed the Sister nodding her head.

"Oh, I see."

The guard glanced at Jem. He seemed to be an ordinary boy, he thought.

"By the way, if it's okay with you, we can escort you till the town."

The guard offered help.

Sister Ann thought it was reassuring.

"Please. Thank you," she said.