Chapter 155 Penalty

After the lightning panther died from an unknown reason, the surviving Infernai rejoiced at having survived an encounter with not one but two Elite tier monsters.

They questioned the reason behind the monsters death but ultimately it didn't matter to them. They had survived and that's all they cared about.

The healers got to work, doing whatever they could with what little Energy they had remaining. Only life-threatening or combat impairing injuries were being healed at this point.

This was Renes order to the others. She was concerned about what could happen if they came across someone who was dying from an injury but couldn't be healed because they used all their Energy on small cuts and bruises throughout the night.

Connor had been trying to focus his hearing for the passed two minutes, trying see if he was imagining things or if the fighting had really stopped.

He was laying on his back, staring up at the sky. It was quiet apart from the sounds of some burning buildings and the voices of people in the distance.

'I can't keep lying here, there are civilians that still need help and I'm in charge.' He sighed, preparing to stand up.

Before he did, there was something in the sky that was drawing his attention. A flickering purple light was streaking across the sky.

' What is that...? It almost looks like... Like a person? Wait, is it coming closer!?' Connor saw the vaguely humanoid shape encased in purple light change directions, heading straight towards him.

There was something about this approaching Energy that forced his heart beat faster as an immense fear to spread through his body.

It was a approaching at an incredible speed and all he wanted to do was get up and run away but his body refused to move.

He looked around and saw that nobody else had noticed the creature approaching. He tried to call out to them, to warn them, but his voice was caught in his throat.

The creature encased in purple light came to a complete stop about a hundred meters in the air above Connors location.

It hovered for a few seconds, seemingly looking for something, before turning to the side and flying away.

The fear and tension suddenly disappeared and Connor felt as though a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

The creature was too far up for him to make out many details about its appearance but two things stood out to him.

One, it had pure white skin with red streaks of Energy all over it. Two, and perhaps the one that frightened him the most, it was wearing an Infernum uniform.The uniform was very ragged and mostly torn off, allowing the red Energy across its body to be seen more easily.

'I... I couldn't tell what rank it was but... That was definitely our uniform...' Connors mind was racing, going through different possible explanations.

'A shape-shifting ability, maybe? But then how was it flying without wings... What was the purple energy? The cult could have someone like that... With multiple abilities... but then why did it have our uniform?'

His thoughts did nothing to help in figuring out this mystery. Without much to go on, he placed this encounter at the back of his mind and stood up off the ground.

"Listen up!" Connor shouted, getting everyones attention "We need to make sure there aren't any monsters left. We also need to help the civilians as much as possible. We don't have time to waste so gather yourselves!"

***

"...ere! He's over here!" Leo could hear a voice shouting not too far away. He opened his eyes, seeing the bright blue sky above him and having to shield his eyes from the sun.

'The sun? Wasn't it just night?' He looked around a bit and confirmed that was indeed daytime 'I must have passed out...'

He tried to sit up but instantly regretted it as immense amounts of pain throbbed throughout his entire body.

He could hear that someone was approaching him from the side somewhere but couldn't turn his head to look at them due to the pain.

"Leo!" kneeling down next to Leo with a relieved expression on his face was Leonard. "We've been looking for you for hours. Are you alright?"

"Ye... Aaarrggg!" Leo tried to answer but a sudden pain shot through his body as he spoke, causing him to wince.

"I'll take that as a no." Leonard said as he called over a two other Infernai. They picked him up, placed him on a stretcher and carried him to a cart they had brought with them.

As his body was lifted, the pain spread through his body again. It was a constant throbbing pain that would suddenly intensify during movement, like a concussion but for the entire body.

"Captain, I found something you should take a look at." An Infernai called out as Leo was being taking to the cart.

Leonard walked away, heading over to the Officer that called him. "What is it?"

"There's two corpses, one human and the other monster." The Officer said.

Leonard was lead to an area about thirty meters away from where Leo was found. There he saw a burnt human corpse and a panther corpse.

"That's the Elite tier monster that uses lightning... He managed to defeat it on his own?" Leonard was extremely surprised and impressed. 'That would explain why he's so injured... And why his uniform is so messed up.'

Leonard was about to ask who the woman was but knew it would be pointless to ask anyone but Leo. The body was completely charred, with no facial features remaining.

'Did Leo do this as well? I know lightning can burn things so maybe he was trying to save someone from the monster but was too late.'

He turned around and started walking back to the cart Leo was being placed in 'There's no point in guessing, I'll just ask him when he's able to answer.'

The cart Leo was placed in was big enough to fit a person on either side of him and then create two more rows of people above and below him. It was much bigger than it needed to be but he didn't really care about that.

After a few minutes, Leonard climbed into the back of the cart, along with the rest of his squad that were accompanying him.

The other squad members set as far away from Leo as possible, meanwhile Leonard had chosen to sit right next to him with his legs crossed.

The cart started moving, Leo wasn't sure about the destination, whether it was the city or their headquarters.

Every little bump that caused the cart to shake sent another bolt of pain through Leo's entire body, to the point where he felt like he would pass out from the pain.

Leonard was started talking about all sorts of things like how they had been searching for him all morning and that the monsters had been defeated at Drom.

Leo was struggling to pay attention, not just because of the pain but because there was something else that was distracting him.

Several messages from the system had popped up, telling him about his rewards and all sorts of other things.

[Quest - Defend Drom and save your allies] (Complete)

[Rewards]

- +2 to all stats

- 5 stat points

- 2 skill points

- Fire Ball level up

[Quest - Use your Transformation to defeat your enemies] (Complete)

- +1 to all stats

- 4 skill points

- Aura level up

- New Title

'New Title?' Leo navigated through the system until he came across a section that was named 'Titles'.

[Title - First of your kind]

(While active)

- all stats +10

- Health and Energy +50

'First of my kind? So there isn't anyone else that's like me...' Pushing this thought aside, Leo sent on to the other messages he received.

[Transformation has ended]

[Time in use]

(4:00)

[Penalty will apply for 4 days]

[Time remaining]

(3 days - 13 hours - 47 minutes)

Seeing the timer counting down, Leo opened the Transformation skill and read through it's capabilities and the penalty for using it once again.

[Transformation]

(While in use)

- All stats are doubled

- All skills gain 1 level

- Energy and Health are increased by 5×

(Usage Conditions)

For each minute the skill is used 1 day will be added to the penalty timer. The skill will automatically disable after 10 minutes.

(Penalty)

- All stats are halved

- All skills are decreased by 1 level

- Energy and Health are heavily reduced

[All penalties are only active during the penalty period. Once the penalty timer concludes its countdown all panalties will disappear.]

'My power increase was massive while using this skill... I guess it wouldn't make sense if there weren't repurcussions.'

'Four days... I'll have to rely on my friends a bit more for a while I guess.' Leo thought as he closed his eyes and fell asleep, finally finding some escape from the pain he was feeling.