As Varik steps out of the shadows to confront the dreadful abomination, it reacts almost instantaneously, like it knew they were there and had just been waiting for them to come out.
The creature's mouth looks like a twisted version of a human smile, wide and unnatural, as if someone had stretched it too far. Its teeth are sharp, broken, and uneven, jutting out like cracked glass. It was drooling, spit dropping down from its mouth in thick strings. It looked hungry, like it hadn't eaten in days. But with the massive hole in its chest—two great rips torn open—it made a terrible kind of sense. The hole was so massive that its inner cavity was exposed, and inside that gaping wound were maggots. They were small, writhing and pale, but still a disgusting sight to behold.
If any normal unmaskless man had seen it, he would have immediately vomited or passed out from the repulsive smell that wafted out of the dreadful creature.
It locked its eyes on Varik. It had one long, massive head with six eye sockets, but only four eyes remained—two were missing entirely, and the remaining ones were in varying states of decay. One eye was barely held together, the surrounding tissue struggling to keep it inside the eye socket. It was apparent that the right side of the monster was weak. It couldn't see on that side. That made it the perfect angle for Nira and Eros to launch their combined assault on the foul thing.
But that didn't mean it was defenseless.
The three currently functioning eyes were locked on Varik with such intense murderous intent you could feel it just by looking at them. You could see the rage and hunger swirling in those orbs.
Varik was the prey it was looking for to satisfy its hunger.
Or so the dreadful thing thought.
But it was the other way around.
The mountain of a man was more of a monster himself.
Varik removed his helmet, revealing that he looked exactly like a man who has seen a lot of things in his life, with a well-kept beard and windswept dark hair, thick and slightly tousled like he had just run a hand through it. His face carried the quiet weight of someone who had seen too much. His sharp gaze hinted at both exhaustion and resolve. He was clearly in his 30s, still strong, but the edges of youth were beginning to fade away.
Riven knew Varik was older than Nira and Eros just from the way they treated him, but he hadn't expected him to be in his 30s. Eros looked like someone who hadn't even reached 25, and the same could be said for Nira.
Varik was about to put on his mask.
A veiled mask was different than that of a Firstborn.
A veiled mask was featureless. It had no eye holes. It was just a plain, smooth surface. It looked like an unfinished mask. How they could see under the mask was still unknown. How they breathed under it remained a mystery too.
The masks were strange objects that humans barely knew anything about in full.
But the featureless mask could represent something more.
Currently, all Riven knew was that a Veiled was exponentially stronger than a Firstborn.
Just like if five unmasked men tried to fight a Firstborn, they would lose, the same could also be said for a Firstborn trying to fight a Veiled.
They wouldn't stand a chance in hell.
Varik's mask was featureless, just like Eros and Nira's, but it looked like a crystal. And in that crystal, something looked like it was inside.
As he placed the mask on his face, Riven saw it. Flames.
They were burning brilliantly in the crystallized mask.
The flames weren't the only thing he noticed.
The air around Varik got heavy.
You could feel his bloodlust.
At this point, Riven couldn't identify the monsters or the humans that stood.
Riven couldn't just stand there looking. It was his turn to do his own duty.
He looked at his mask before placing it on his face. He let out a deep sigh.
The mask was black, so dark it seemed to swallow the light around it.
Sharp lines cut across its surface like scars, and thin cracks ran from the top down, glowing faintly like veins filled with what looked like lightning—but it was not.
Varik removed his bulbous shield from his back and placed it on his left hand. And with the massive greatsword in his right, he stood firm like a giant.