CHAPTER 176: THE FOG

Lukas had a good rest in his room.

When he woke up, it was already evening, he came down to the ground floor for dinner.

And as Hazel had promised them, the dinner was a feast compared to what they had before.

There was a whole roasted chicken, a lobster, seafood and steaks.

Rex, who was already there with Riley and the others, rubbed his hands at the spread in front of him.

His arms that had been healed by Margaret were now as good as new.

"What are you waiting for? Let’s dig in." Rex said after Lukas sat in one of the seats.

But before he could start, a familiar voice could be heard.

"Ho ho. Having dinner? That looks great."

It was Kevin with his teammates at the entrance of the dining room.

Beside him was Terry and Terry’s teammates.

Terry frowned at the small dining room with everyone seated so close together.

He instinctively took out his handkerchief and covered his mouth with it.

"Heh. Of course it’s a great dinner," Rex said proudly.

"You guys are late to the party." He said and grabbed onto the drumstick of the roasted chicken and tore it out from the roasted chicken.

"Late? What do you mean?" Kevin glanced over at Riley and asked.

"We’ve managed to get into an encounter with the Shadow Lotus, killing one of them, or to put it more precisely, Lukas did," Riley replied.

Kevin shrugged and said, "We knew that. We are here for the new mission."

"New mission?"

It was Riley’s turn to ask.

Kevin glanced over at Lukas and said, "Our next target is to kill the Apex demonic beast that has been terrorizing the East Battle Administration Area.

"My team and I will try our best to ensure the mission is successful."

He knew that the success of the mission depended on Lukas and no one else.

It was best for him to try and get friendly with Lukas.

Terry wasn’t too pleased with Kevin taking the first move, and he chimed in with his muffled voice behind his handkerchief.

"I have gotten precious information about the Apex demonic beast. I suggest we go through it in a more spacious area," Terry said.

He was trying to showcase his value by virtue of him being in the Central Battle Administration Area.

Kevin frowned and crossed his arms.

It was true that he didn’t have as many contacts and resources compared to Terry.

Before he could say anything else, Hazel came to the dining room and said to Kevin and Terry, "Welcome. The staff will help you to your rooms."

Other staff of the hotel came, helped them with their luggage, and led them to their rooms.

Hazel then turned and faced towards Lukas and the others.

She proceeded to brief them on the new mission.

"Sherry has requested for you to eliminate the Apex demonic beast around the area. The details have been sent to you."

Hazel said and glanced over at Lukas, "She also said that she will try her best to come up with the cognitive dominion grenade you requested.

"A sample of her blood is definitely on the way."

Lukas nodded his head at the good news. With the cognitive dominion grenade, or Sherry’s blood, he would have a better chance of stopping Ashen.

They picked up their phones and looked at the message that Sherry had sent them.

It briefed them on the five million reward mission and there was a map attached.

The map showed the areas outside the walls of the East Battle Administration Area, marked with green, amber and red on the whereabouts of the Low, Mid and High Tiered demonic beasts respectively.

However, there wasn’t any marking on where the Apex demonic beast was located.

Lukas frowned as he scrolled through the map.

"The Apex demonic beast has been elusive, appearing in random areas.

"But one thing that’s confirmed is that whenever it appeared, it brought about death and destruction to us," Hazel said with a heavy heart.

So many of her friends and family had been taken away from her by the demonic beasts.

And what was worse was what came after it.

The gangs from the slums would take the opportunity of the carnage caused to exert more pain and suffering over the poor and helpless.

"I guess we need to hear what Terry has to say about the Apex demonic beast," Lukas said as it might be the deciding factor of the mission.

"She could have at least let us enjoy this meal first," Rex grumbled and stuffed the chicken drumstick into his mouth.

It was one mission after another.

He started to long for a break back home.

...

Nighttime.

After the dinner, the three teams gathered in the meeting room.

Terry stood in front and Lin helped him with the slides projected to the screen.

On the slides were reports over the years of the attacks on the East Battle Administration Area.

The data and graphs showed no clear patterns to it.

It attacked from different locations with different durations in between.

Sometimes it attacked within a short span of a month.

And sometimes it attacked once a year.

Even the sightings about it were different.

Some witnesses said that it was a demonic beast that looked like fog.

Others said that it looked like a huge lizard.

Lukas saw the slides and pondered, trying to figure out how to find the Apex demonic beast.

"These are all that was known about the Apex demonic beast," Terry said and he gestured to Lin to get to the next slide.

The next slide was a picture of a huge lizard-like demonic beast with half of its body in fog.

Lukas sat up and looked closely.

"It transformed from fog?" Kevin asked.

"Or the other way around, the Apex demonic beast was a huge lizard turning into fog," Lukas said.

Terry nodded his head at Lukas and said, "You are right."

"So, we have got to be looking for an area that is foggy," Kevin pondered out loud.

Terry gestured to Lin again.

When the next slide came up, it was the same map that Sherry had sent everyone.

But on it, there were few areas colored in gray, within those that were marked red.

"These are the few areas that were reported to be frequently filled with fog," Terry said.

Lukas frowned even more.