28 Onyx Crew (1/2)
A boy with flowers scattered around his hair faced a sinister ashen grey carcass strewn with vines. It's flesh bubbled under the boy and a putrid stench surfaced.
Swinging his hand, the tendrils withdrew into the ground. Slowly shuffling closer, the boy examined the creature. A distinct indigo crystal was muddled within the gelatinous remains.
”So, what was it?”
(Yo mama.)
”Stop joking around.”
(How should I know anything you don't?)
Sighing, Jae approached the creature's remains in attempts to collect the crystal, but when he touched it, a voice sounded.
(I'll bet something bad will happen if you touch it with your bare hands. LOL.)
”Tell me that earlier!” Jae shouted, retracting his hand. The flesh on his finger began to sizzle slightly, however, it stopped after melting up to the bottom of his nail. It then healed to as good as new within seconds. Regardless, Jae decided to try obtaining the crystal again.
(Removing a bag from within his bag, Jae utilized that bag to bag the crystal in his bag.)
”You're really bored aren't you?”
(...)
The voice muted as Jae heard footsteps from a distance. Stealthily relocating behind a building's corner, Jae peeked from his hiding place to observe the interloper.
Under a violet robe laced with meticulous golden embroidery, a tall figure approached the corpse. The figure bent down as it channeled mana into the creature and corpse of the elven woman. Dissolving into ash, both carcasses disappeared as if they had never existed.
”A flower?” An androgynous voice sounded. The figure plucked the white lily from the soil and inspected it. From the shadows, Jae could see that the figure had a metal gauntlet on, hiding its hand.
Soon after, the mysterious figure departed from the scene with the flower in hand.
Jae confirmed that there was no one around before leaving his hiding spot. Once he returned to the front of the Adventurer's Guild, three familiar faces welcomed him as they all strolled merrily back to their new home.
A home they had finally earned.
-----
Affiliated with Alkbeastia, the Onyx Crew was the strongest mercenary team currently stationed within Belkchroma and ranked the thirty-seventh strongest in the world.
While their leader was human, most of the members of the team were of different races. Since the group had traveled across the seas to other continents, they became aware of the racial bias centered within the Central Continent.
Noah Campbell, the leader of the Onyx Crew, was on vacation in Belkchroma with six other members. One of the beastman members owned a house within the city, so they shared housing with that member.
At noon, the children arrived at the Onyx Crew's hideout as promised. Out of sheer coincidence, the hideout happened to be close to the children's house.
”They're so cute!” A human woman with curly brunette hair embraced Wendy and ruffled the poor cervitaur's hair.
”So, these were the children you mentioned,” a large hippopotamus beastman gruffed.
”Why do we need to babysit some strange kids again?” a human male glanced at Noah. Sticking out from his average appearance were blue and gold heterochromia eyes.
”Haha. Isn't it fine, Raven? I was getting bored of this city and its a nice change of pace,” an elven man laughed. However, unlike the pale elves of the Pherlorna clan, his skin was black and his hair, a light pink.
The last member, a pallid little girl in gothic white clothing, stood behind Noah in a daze. She was simply nodding silently to whatever the other members had said.
”It's fine to undo your illusions now. I doubt any unwanted persona would come into this area. Plus, I already told everyone about your actual races,” Noah told the children.
Melody flashed a look at Jade as the demoness signaled in response. Heaving a sigh, the fairy retracted her mist and the true forms of the children were revealed.
”Although I did hear that the children were of different races, you didn't tell me there was an arachnid within the group,” the human male called Raven glared at Noah.
”She's not the same as the others of the same race. If she was, the other children would have been dead before reaching this city,” Noah indifferently replied.
”Now, now. Don't start a fight, Raven,” the dark elf chided, ”On a side note, I haven't seen a dryad in years until now. Also, a sentient slime. Quite intriguing.”
”I apologize for their behavior. By the way, allow me to formally introduce everyone,” Noah said, ”The awful looking man right here is Raven, the lady who's overly friendly is Abbygail Hart, the beastman is Arban Talfe, the dark elf is Rhusirhe Oldarur, and the young lady behind me is Shannon. There's one more member in the city with us, but that one is out right now.”
In turn, Jade introduced her group.
”Why did children from all around the world group up like this? Oh wait, I wasn't supposed to ask wasn't I?” Arban spoke.
”You look really funny!” Scarlett charged toward the hippo.
”A lass from the lizardman race?” Arban stopped the girl by picking her up by her clothes. As he swung her around, she giggled.
”Yeah!” She smiled in the beastman's grip.
”Hm, I'm taking a liking to you. Noah, I'm gonna go put this lass under my wing.”