Kryse headed east to where he could find Shaa Kwira and take up on her training mission. Along the way, he suddenly stopped...a cold sweat drop trickled down his spine. Right in front of him was a huge number of Young White and Black Gobblies. If possible, the young Masqueraider wanted to avoid such a large confrontation. He knew that if he were to fight, he won't be fighting one or two Gobblies but more than five at a time at the very least. Shaa Kwira could be found just a few miles from here. He could try to go around, but it seemed that wasn't a choice. On the left side was the edge of the island and on the right side, was another edge...in other words...he was fucked. A battle will be unavoidable. But hey...how hard could a bunch of weak Gobblies be?

Kryse drew out his sword and charged in. Since the low-leveled monsters had not noticed him yet, he decided to use the element of surprise and kill a number of these Young Gobblies before they could register what was going on and retaliate. Hopefully, by that time, there will be a more manageable size left. However, Kryse had underestimated the processing abilities of the Young White and Black Gobblies. They retaliated almost immediately. Groups of five Young White and Black Gobblies flanked the young Masqueraider from the front and from behind. Kryse pulled out his Coward Mask and put it on. He could feel the power within him surging. The attacks of the low-leveled monsters began to feel slow in his eyes. He could easily dodge the incoming tackles, but his Coward mask was limited...it only allowed him to dodge what he can see...so, the things he couldn't see...well, let's just say he was going to ache a lot in a few hours.

The first tackle from behind smashed into the back of his leg causing him to stumble backward. A Young White Gobbly tackled towards his head as he fell down. With a sharp twist of his body, he was able to dodge that tackle. But, he had no time to rest as an Young Black Gobbly crashed into his chest. Kryse sprawled onto the ground and coughed out some blood. Oh...this will leave a mark. Kryse remembered his master, Struk'tohr Nhin's, advice that he should never get into a group fight situation because of the dangers of being ganged up on. Now that he had experienced the hard way first hand, he felt that he should have followed his master's advice from the beginning and find a way around instead of being arrogant and charge through like an idiot.

But this wasn't the time to dwell on the past, he needed to find a way out of his predicament. Kryse unprofessionally flailed his arms and legs all around him, hoping to land a hit...which he did. One of his arms and one of his legs had managed to knock two Gobblies away. Seeing an opening, Kryse dove out of the crowd of Gobblies and scrambled to his feet. Without a moment of hesitation, he switched his Coward mask with his Bling mask and equipped his sword and shield. Then, he teleported right in front of a surprised Young White Gobbly. With a swing of his sword, he one-hit killed the low-leveled monster. As the other Gobblies reacted and converged towards him, he switched his Bling mask with his Martelo mask and met the charge with a front flip. A flurry of heel kicks flew out and smashed onto three of the Gobblies at the front of the charge, crushing their skulls inwards and killing them instantly.

Kryse jumped backwards, borrowing the force of the tackles of the remaining Gobblies. Although it hurts, he was able to gain some distance from the Gobblies. With a grimace, he gritted his teeth through the pain and switched his Martelo mask with his Picada mask. With this mask on, he felt that his feet could move really fast...he felt air-type magic circulating at his feet. With a grin, Kryse ran to the side of the charging Gobblies. The Gobblies were able to follow Kryse's movements...but only their heads followed. Their bodies, however, were too slow to react and they all crashed into each other. As the heap of fallen Gobblies attempted to rise up, Kryse activated his Picada skill and kicked his leg out. A piercing spear of air soared out from his kick and smashed into the pile of Gobblies. A number of Gobblies screeched in pain before they collapsed, two bloody holes forming on each of their heads and each of their backs.

Even with all these kills, there were still about fifty Young White and Black Gobblies left. Kryse sighed...though he was getting the hang of it now, he was still aching all over from his injuries. He had bruises from the tackles, bleeding scratches and bite marks, and broken bones as well. It still would have been nice if he had played it smart from the beginning instead of foolishly charging in. He was like an Ecaflip pretending to be an Osamodas - a cat trying to be a dragon. Nevertheless, he needed to find a way out of this circumstance. Will he fight? Or will he run? No! He will fight. He must save face no matter what. After all, he must follow the Ten Commandments of the Masqueraiders. One, thou shalt mask thy true intentions. Two, thou shalt find salvation in fleeing by showing thy Cowardly face. Three, thou shalt adopt the profile of a psychopath to murder thine enemies one after the other. Four, thou shalt not fear change. Five, thou shalt extricate thyself from an embarrassing situation with a quick change of face. Six, thou shalt be two-faced to get thine own way. Seven, thou shalt never refuse an invitation to a masquerade. Eight, thou shalt wash thy faces every morning. Nine, thou shalt not hesitate to remind those around thee of thy split personality. Ten, if thou finds thyself in difficulty, thou shalt take all measures necessary to save face. If thou dost not follow these commandments, thou must wear the same mask for a month as a sign of penitence. Praise be to Sadida, the god with the crenellated mask! These ten commandments must be followed by all Masqueraiders or else they would face the penalty...and whew...that penalty was harsh. Masqueraiders love to change their masks frequently but to wear one mask for an entire month?...That was torturous. And one cannot forget to follow the penalty if one breaks a commandment...this was because Sadida is all-knowing and all-seeing. He will strike down any disobeyers.

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Now that Kryse was in a difficulty, he had to take all measures necessary to save his face. And those measures were...kill them all! Kryse roared as he switched to his Reinforcement mask and lunged towards the Gobblies. With a couple of swipes, he knocked back ten Gobblies. Not giving them time to recover, Kryse lunged forward and swiped again. He repeated this attack over and over until finally...the fifty Gobblies became twenty-five Gobblies. Kryse could have used Martelo instead but that was too taxing. That's why he had used a less tiring and less damaging move. But anyways, Martelo or Reinforcement, at least it had done the job. Kryse surveyed his surroundings. Twenty-five Gobblies left. Seeing half of their numbers dead, the Gobblies did not needlessly charge in anymore. They cautiously edged closer towards the young Masqueraider. Suddenly two Gobblies charged in, one aimed at his head and the other aimed at his legs. Playing it smart now eh? Didn't know these creatures could think of a strategy like that...must have been instinct. Kryse jumped forward and twisted his body sideways in order to thread through the two monsters.

Kryse switched back to the Picada mask and fired two piercing air-type spears into the two lunging Gobblies. The two Gobblies collapsed in a bloody heap. Kryse turned towards the twenty-two Gobblies and fired a couple of Picadas at the spread out crowd. Some of the attacks missed, but the ones that did hit, killed quite a few monsters. With ten Gobblies left, Kryse found that it would be too difficult to continue using Picadas especially with so much dodging space in between each Gobbly. Thus, Kryse switched his Picada mask with his Bling mask. He teleported towards the farthest monster, which was a Young Black Gobbly, and kicked the monster up. The monster flew into the air before him and Kryse swung his sword at the monster, cutting it in half. Suddenly, he heard a few swishes behind him. Kryse turned around just in time to see a Young White Gobbly fly towards his face. Kryse brought up his shield at an angle and deflected the attack. The low-leveled monster bounced off of the shield and into the air. Kryse swung his sword up and beheaded the little monster. Two down...eight more to go.

Seeing everyone dead, the eight Gobblies turned tail and scattered. However, all that killings had sparked something in Kryse. With his bloodlust increased to a new high, Kryse did not want to let a single one of the scattered monsters go. They must die...they must all die! Kryse reached in his bag and grabbed the Reinforcement mask. Then, with the Reinforcement mask still in his left hand, he teleported in front of one of the fleeing Gobbly and switched his Bling mask with the Reinforcement mask. With a sweeping kick, Kryse knocked the terrified monster back, stunning him. Then, Kryse switched back to the Bling mask and teleported in front of another Gobbly. He switched back to the Reinforcement mask and knocked the low-leveled monster back as well. The young Masqueraider repeated these steps until all eight of the fleeing Gobblies laid stunned in a pile.

Kryse teleported in front of the pile of eight Young White and Black Gobblies and switched his Bling mask with his Martelo mask. With a flurry of heel-kicks, Kryse cracked the skulls of each of the eight monsters and killed them. After defeating all of the monsters, his bloodlust finally cooled down and he was able to calm down. Straightening up, the young Masqueraider took out his sword and looted the monsters of their horns, their wool, and even their flesh...as it turned out, Gobbly meat was very delicious. Anyways, after storing a number of materials into his bag, Kryse continued towards his original mission - to find Shaa Kwira. Just as he got out of the clearing a rustling occurred behind him. Kryse turned around to see what was causing the noise and saw a giant bush moving fiercely. Kryse took out his sword and shield and looked at the rustling bush cautiously. Who was behind that bush? A monster? Or another adventurer? Suddenly....