Chapter 98: Conceal

"You overlooked one thing," Chen uttered. He was now pressed on the ground with Allen's metal boot placed on his chest. "I told you it was the Second Coming of the Fire Dragon. You think there's only servants here?"

Allen narrowed his eyes to process everything the man said when it finally registered to him. "They revived the Fire Dragon."

"They what–"

Jeremy wasn't able to finish his speech when Gary shouted at the top of his lungs. The man fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around his head, his eyes bulging from their sockets. "No. No. No. Please, no…"

"Gary," Gwen called out, placing her hand on the man's shoulders. "Wake up, Gary."

Gary looked at Gwen, and then his eyes went to Jeremy. The veins on his neck appeared as he pushed Gwen off and gripped Jeremy's collar. "This is all your fault!"

"W-What…" Jeremy trailed off. "Gary? What do you mean? I-I don't understand."

"If you didn't stall my interrogation, my teammates wouldn't have suffered that awful fate," Gary growled. "C-Claudette was pregnant. She was going to give birth in six months and you took that away from her!"

"Gary," Jeremy called out. "It was an accident, you know that!"

"It wasn't!" Gary yelled. "You're at fault. You're a monster!"

the ground started to crack and red light pierced through it. Lay and Antoni nodded at each other before taking the injured with them, leaving Chen for Allen to handle.

"Here," Lay threw an iron chain to Allen. "Use this to tie him down. Meet us outside. Antoni and I will make a hole right by that corner. Follow us after you're done."

"We'll be back as soon as we evacuate them," Antoni added, but Jeremy removed the man's hand from him. "We can take care of ourselves. Please help D– The Wandering Trader with Chen."

"Fine," Lay said and kneeled. They looked at him with curious gaze, baffled as to what the man was doing. Their questions were instantly answered when Lay positioned his gun and pointed at a wall. "Blazing Inferno!"

The man pulled the trigger and a beam twenty times the size of the regular shot was fired from the gun. The beam destroyed the wall he aimed at, creating a hole fit for a person to go through.

"Use that hole to escape and call the police, tell them that the Fire Dragon had returned," Lay said. "We'll hold it for as long as we can until then."

"What if they don't believe us?" Sarah asked. "We have two police officers by our side, but we know how they are." 

Lay sighed and threw something towards Jeremy. "Use that."

The latter looked at the item that was thrown at him and he was surprised that it was a badge. He then looked at Lay who has a smirk on his face, "W-Why do you have this?"

The item was a metal badge that had a crow seal on it. The crow had its wings open with a pistol above on its right wing while a sword was above its left wing. Under the crow was a ribbon that has the title Crow Officer on it.

"I'm former Hunters Marine Corps Admiral, the Crow with Nine Eyes, Lay Wu," Lay smirked. "Tell them, "The crow needs more eyes"."

"Okay," Jeremy said, nodding a couple of times. "We will go."

The group didn't waste any more second and left, leaving the scene as quickly as they could. More cracks started appearing, meaning that they don't have much time before the best that lies underground appear.

"Hey," Jack walked over to them with the tail of the lizard in his hands. He threw it in front of Chen who was currently getting tied up by his men along with Allen. "What the hell is this? Why did one of the zombies have a tail?"

Jack then pointed at the ground that had already been filled with cracks. "Tell me, you stupid moron!"

Chen shook his head slowly, looking all around the room as he pretended to act clueless. This angered Jack, making him punch his own son in the face.

"Boss," Lay stepped in. "Calm down first."

"Get them," Jack sighed while he massaged his forehead to try and calm himself down. "Whatever that thing with the tail took down the others. They might still be alive, I don't know anymore."

"We're still alive, you know," Rourke said, approaching the group with an unconscious Franco behind him. He was piggybacking the smaller man while the others followed behind him closely. "Also we took down that thing that you cut the tail of. It's a humanoid lizard that's similar to the Fire Dragon."

"Like…" Jack trailed off while scrunching his face in disgust. "Like its baby?"

"Probably," Allen then hummed. The additinal Intelligence attribute that was given to him by the Snake had already taken its effects. After hearing everything from the people around them, he was able to dissect the entire event. 

"Those cocoons were actually eggs hatched by the Fire Dragon," Allen said. "The flesh and bones Chen mentioned weren't the ones that they used to create those cocoons, rather they used that to hatch another dragon. I could still remember the first casualty of the first Fire Dragon on Gary's team.

"A part of the Fire Dragon was left in her body, and the poison scattered, making her a zombie. Although I'm not so sure as to how the virus spread, I'm sure that the hospital room they were at looked exactly like the room filled with cocoons," Allen paused and placed his hand on his chin to think. "The same thing must've happened here.

"They created another Fire Dragon artificially, took a part of it and used it on people," Allen said. "And… the healers. They weren't taken because they could heal the poisoned. They were the ones who were created as zombies. As far as I could remember from Gwen's report, there were thirteen healers that went missing. Exactly the number of cocoons in the room."

"This boy is good," Rourke smirked. He place Franco on the ground while Antoni healed their fellow. "Take care of this twat. I'll deal with this beast."

"At your state?" Jack cleared his throat. "I don't think so."

"I can still fight, boss," Rourke argued. This made Jack smirk and shook his head. "But boss–"

The old man raised his hand and waved it in the air. "Golden Chain."

A bright golden chain appeared in his hand. The chain was about ten meters long and the tip had a blade that was similar to a spear. The old man swung the chain, wrapping it around Rourke and the injured gently. "You stay here. Boy, can you help me right now?"

Allen gulped. His eyes switched from Dante then at the cracking ground. He was hesitant to go after seeing how much power their enemy had. "I-I…"

"That's a yes," Jack said. "After this, I'll give you three Grand grade Codes. This will be our deal."

"Jack…" Allen trailed off. "I think I can't–"

Jack offered his hand. "Ten Grand grade Codes. Five will be my initial deposit."

The deal shook Allen to his core. The scenes when he fought the lion played in his mind, remembering how much effort it was to defeat a single Grand grade beast. He could only imagine how much hardwork ten times the chance of getting a Code would look like. That could be hundreds.

"Deal," Allen said immediately. He shoved his fear down his throat and walked closer to the old man, taking his hand. "Ten is ridiculously too much, but since you offered it yourself, I won't decline."

"And here I am thinking that you would decrease the number of Codes," Jack laughed lightly. "That's my boy."

"My teacher taught me well," Allen smirked. Jack then stopped their conversation and transfered the five Codes. "Five Grand grade Codes as promised."

"Thanks," Allen smirked, taking his hand off and inspecting the ones he received.

<Juvenile Hack>

<Bone Piercer>

<Iron Shredder>

<Kaleidoscopic Blade>

<Winter Blade>

"These are all weapons…" Allen trailed off, slowly feeling guilty. Weapon Codes are twice as rare as the skill Codes. The guilt from receiving so many had formed a lump in his throat. "Jack, I don't know…"

"Of course, you wouldn't know!" Rourke butted in. "You're a calloused face if you try to take those."

"Shut up," Jack spat to his ally. "Boy, don't miss an opportunity like this. It won't always come. When it does, don't hesitate to take it."

"Alright," Allen nodded. "Okay. I'll take it."

"Good!" Jack grinned. "Lay, cover us, especially this boy. He will be our key to defeating this beast."

"What?!" Rourke gasped. "Boss, what are you thinking? Entrusting this fight to a boy?"

"You haven't seen him fight before," Jack chuckled. "And he's been trained well."

"What?" Rourke scoffed. "As if."

Allen didn't mind the blatant disgust the man felt towards him. He only took a deep sigh before doing what Sebastian trained him to do. He closed his eyes and breathed. "Hide myself. Hide myself. Hide myself…"

When the boy opened his eyes, he covered his head with his hood. "Conceal.