Warlock of Oceans: My Poseidon System

"Damn…" I cracked my neck, left and then right. "This might be a bit tough." Obviously, that's for the others, but if I joined in, I should be able to increase our firepower and win. And I might get punished once again, but if I can obtain those juicy skills from this quest, then doing anything would be worth it. I'd even cut off an arm to obtain those skills… especially a rune for my spine.

As soon as I arrived at the rendezvous point, I saw the woman clad in black. She wasn't going to help us, but as this was our first mission, she was most likely going to watch over us.

"Okay, your clothes are fine, but you'll need to hide your identities. I'll be giving you a mask that will not only filter the polluted air for where we're going but enhance your night vision and allow you to zoom in like binoculars. And the obvious, well, they will hide your appearance," The woman explained, handing out masks shaped like that of Oni.

Oni were monsters that had various tusks and horns and were shaped like that of ogres. And this mask really leaned into its grotesque nature. But what was really interesting about these masks was that they weren't the usual easily camouflage colors like gray, black, or possibly white in certain circumstances. They were pink, green, and blue to hide in, with the glowing neon light scattered across the cyberpunk city.

"Okay, I'm assuming everybody reviewed the commission. Failure will not be tolerated, but I also won't allow any of you to die. If any of you are about to scrape death, I will step in. I would also like the entire team to know that Cyrus will be our main intel and communicator with me. I will sit back in some other building, and he will relay every drop of information he can see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and touch. In addition, I will be relaying orders through him, so keep your ears open. Now, let's get going."

…

"Alright, does everybody have their earpieces in?" A woman's voice came out of the headphones plugged into my ears. They were adaptive to our surroundings, so not only was I able to hear the people around me but also the voices of everybody in our little band of assassins.

Everybody replied with a solid "Yes," before the roll call started. We were all given code names before we headed out for the mission that was assigned to us by the Boss. Well, the main woman in charge was, just like I said, Boss. Elora was Angel. Lothin was Snake. The white-haired kid, whose name I had yet to learn, was Wolf. The black-haired kid with blinded eyes was Panther. And, well, I probably got the worst of them all… Fish. My code name was just straight-up Fish.

"Okay, now that everybody is ready, let's get going. Hop off as soon as I say the signal," Boss ordered into our earpieces. And as I slipped on my mask, I got a face full of hair from Elora, who stood in front of me. The gushing wind swept past us as we rode atop the neon train through the eerie woods, and it looked like the elf did it on purpose.

"So immature," I muttered, swiping her hair out of my face and adjusting the blue mask so it fit my head perfectly. It was a bit of a head-scratcher using these masks during a mission like this, but if the Boss said to do it, then we had to do it. Especially me, who was going to deny her orders later, so I needed to butter her up just a bit more before I broke the rules.

Soon, everybody had their own masks on, and as soon as the Boss gave us the signal, we jumped off the train, letting its momentum carry us forward to where we could roll safely on the dirt ground. Our fall was immediately broken with a swift dismount from the train, and as we immediately began to dart into the pitch-black forest, I brought up my phone.

It was the only source of light in this eerily pitch-black forest, causing everybody to slowly crowd around me as we moved in a somewhat skewed formation. We were like a bullet heading straight through the intertwining trees, watching out for any potential assailants that could ambush us.

"Hey, do you have any information to give us on the matter of dark magic? Is there anything we should avoid?" Snake spoke up, whispering into the microphone placed against our lips so we could communicate with each other with ease. "You're an expert on light magic, so I would assume you'd know a few things about your opposite… any tips?"

"Avoid getting hit by it. That's all I have to say… but for assassins, you all should be fine, right?" We could all see Angel slightly smile beneath her dull pink oni mask. It was apparent she wasn't taking this mission very seriously, meaning she was just an idiot, or she knew something- yeah, no, probably just an idiot. Why was that even a question I had?

After a few minutes of straight-up running through the forest at top speed, most of the kids were tired. All except for Snake, otherwise known as Lothin, who kept his guard up the entire time we took a rest. I as well was on guard but was mostly looking at the laptop I had been given.

On my back, I carried a massive backpack that had all of the technology that I needed to not only scout for the entire team but also communicate with the entire team. And normally, things like this would be way more compact, but in order to avoid any potential UAVs, I had to use older technology.

"This shit is so slow…." I banged against the side of the laptop, knowing it wouldn't do anything, but just thought it might. I even tried looking away a couple of times, hoping it would somehow trick the laptop into loading the map for us… only for me to look stupid as I turned back around, seeing nothing had changed.

Eventually, though, I did manage to get it working, and with a few tabs open, I was prepared to do the job I was set out to do.

On a map was a massive abandoned warehouse which I was able to zoom into, zoom out of, and manipulate to see the very ins and outs of the rusty old building. The layout was pretty simple, with a main floor and a perimeter lining the inside of the warehouse, serving as a semi-upper floor.

"And currently, we are… a mile and a half away. Alright, everybody, I'll be staying here. You all are checked into my tracking system. Communicate with me, and I'll make sure to inform you all of where the enemy locations are. Just get in range, and their data should download into the computer," I explained to the group. And everybody gave me a nice easy head nod before stuffing down their last bit of jerky and taking yet another sip of water.

Just as the group was about to head off, Panther, the blinded girl, suddenly stopped in place, standing as still as a statue. Angel immediately tapped her on the shoulder, gesturing for her to get ready, but she barely even responded. Just a twitch of her shoulder and upper tricep.

"*sigh*... what's wrong? Nerves?" Angel sighed, only to see the girl slowly tilt her head upwards until their "eyes" connected. It was as if they were staring at each other despite one side, unfortunately not having the capabilities to do such a thing.

"I-I need to use the bathroom," She murmured before dashing in the opposite direction of our resting site and diving into a pile of bushes. She was there for only a few minutes before finally coming out, refreshed and ready to go.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Okay, now can we go?" Angel rolled her eyes, and as the girl responded with a slight nod, they headed off into their darkness. Their trackers quickly entered the line of sight for the device to capture, allowing me to immediately see four glowing green dots. In addition, there were a few red dots scattered around.

"Come in, Fish," the boss intercommed to me, so I immediately replied back with a limp response. She sounded unamused but quickly continued with what she was going to say. "I can see everything is going smooth, but remember what I said before, don't get involved. You are the keystone to this team. Fighting in the dark is impossibly hard without proper training, and even with Panther, the team will have trouble… so I repeat, do not disobey my orders, understood?" No response. "Fish, come in. Do you understand what I just said?" No response. "FISH! DO YOU HEAR ME!?"

Experience tales with empire

As I switched off the intercom, the darkness around me enveloped every sense that I had. It was familiar. It was almost soothing to feel as its cold and merciless blanket wrapped around me.