Glaring Nightmare was the name of one of the rowdiest radical groups present in the Orion belt of the Milkyway galaxy. They were nowhere near the strongest, but their ability to cause a mess was unmatched. Even Xyrans would have a hard time beating them when it came to making messy situations even messier.
Unlike other groups in their clique, they openly did things that would have deemed them as psychos. Including but not limited to throwing each other out in the space without so much as a space suit just because they got bored. Yeah... not such a great way of curing boredom.
They were more like a sorority group being high as fuck and their pranks going out of hand than a terrorist group. Their only motive was to spread as much death and destruction as they could... that too in as sadistic of a way as possible.
Being called as radicals, one would expect these people to be the messiah of the lower civilisations and help them get justice or whatnot. But the members of Glaring Nightmare did not give a fuck about anyone but themselves... sometimes not even themselves.
In fact, they often plundered the weak and took their children and women to increase their numbers. Sometimes when they couldn't find anything to mess around with, they'll mess with each other... and not in a good way.
Their idiotic ways were the reason why they were on a constant lookout for more people to join them. Thankfully for them, as long as they had booze, women and narcotic substance, plenty of youth came looking for them like moths to a flame.
"The more I read the report about them, the more I want to know what happened between them and Otiga." Ashton mumbled as he flew across the sky while reading the report, "By the way, do Xyrans have anything to do with them?"
[Haha, it was hilarious. Do you think anyone who has a loose screw or two belongs to the Xyrans?]
"Judging by the thing I have seen so far, the Xyrans having a bunch of junkies on payroll wouldn't surprise me in the least. Just look at the way they make money to stay operational. How come these fuckers get to live a better life than those on earth?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt[Do I really need to tell you that?]
"Nah... I already know you Xyrans have some 'daddy' issues that you love to take out on you siblings, that is, humans. Either way, let's continue with the report..."
Their main source of income depended on slave trading along with trading rare creatures found throughout space. Sometimes they also served as mercenaries, but since their erratic behaviour and poor background, they did not get many clients. Because... there had been cases where the radicals have killed their employers just for fun.
'This could be the reason why Otiga is so pissed with them.' Ashton thought to himself, 'She could have given them a contract which they blew up and since she was the one to employ them, she had to suffer because of their action. Makes sense now.'
Despite all this, they weren't viewed as a threat by most of the higher civilisations. Their self-centred behaviour was the reason for it. Since the group did not have a common goal, their factions often end up fighting amongst themselves. This meant it was easier to divide them and let them fight each other to death. The Xyrans wouldn't even have to lift a weapon to end them.
As for what they were doing on Euphoria, the answer was simple. Euphoria was a hub that was managed by an organisation that did not discriminate between criminals and ideal citizens of the galaxy.
Anyone could enter the place and do what they wanted to as long as they did not give the monarch a reason to hunt them down. Also, the planet was filled with rare beasts. Therefore, the radicals from the Glaring Nightmare group would often come there to capture these creatures for a minimum price and then sell them to their customers to make absurd profits.
"Looks like they aren't that dangerous after all. Sure, no one would want to cross them because of the amount of nuisance they can throw in someone's face. But they quite are weak. Just like a bunch of bullies who can't do anything against someone who stands up to them."
One of the reasons why the group was so weak was a crucial lack of a clear hierarchy amongst them. Without a proper chain of command, it was easier to defeat them. Which meant there was quite a high chance that they lose every battle they fought.
Those Nightmare fools seemed to be aware of it as well. Thus, they rarely ever fought with someone on the same or higher level than themselves and always targetted the ones weaker than them.
"That's why I know they wouldn't dare to target me," Ashton mumbled while he casually flew around.
He was on the lookout for something to happen, all the while looking for the Pegasus he had to capture. Right now, Ashton was only looking for the pegasus and had no intentions of capturing it. Because once he did that, he would be teleported out of the trial zone since the trial would be complete, something he couldn't afford to do.
Also, he was a bit preoccupied with other things... including learning how to fly. For starters, it was really weird to fly around like this. After all, humans were not supposed to fly like this. Usually, he would have used the Wind manipulation ability to move around.
But with the wings, it was a lot easier... well, maybe not as easy as he had expected. There were a lot of things Ashton had to keep in his mind before flying. He tried and tried, but in the end, Astaroth was left in charge of handling the wings for now.
"Well, that concludes everything that we know about the radicals."
[Are you sure you can't kill any of them? You just need a little nudge to get to level 60. Hit it and you'll be able to evolve again.]
The plan was enticing, but Ashton shook his head before he could get carried away. Killing them might allow him to get to level 60 and evolve again, but he would not be able to compete in the following trials.
A rule of no killing was in place during Pegasus's trial. Anyone who broke the rule would be exported out of Euphoria and banned from entering it ever again. Ashton had no idea why such an absurd rule even existed.
But according to rumours, it was said the Monarch of the Seventh seat hated his experience while attempting the trial. Therefore, once he became a monarch he placed such a rule to ensure no one got greedy and killed the participants.
"Whoever he was, only made things worse." Ashton shrugged his shoulders, "If you make rules, people will always find a way to get around those rules and keep doing what they wanted in the first place. These Nightmare folk were the prime example of such a case."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWhile Ashton was chatting with Astaroth, he noticed something weird. Even though he was flying in a place where the Pegasus were supposed to flock around, in the last hour he had not seen a single flying horse.
It was just a hunch, but Ashton could feel something problematic was about to go down. No sooner than he thought this, a crimson portal appeared midair. It wasn't very big, but it was big enough for the other participants to fall back. However, a few unfortunate ones got sucked inside... to god knows where.
'An instance dungeon? Why here of all the places?'
[I'm as clueless as you are and I don't like this feeling...]
According to what Ashton knew about instance dungeons from Astaroth, these only popped open under two circumstances. The first and most common reason, a Xyran administrator wanted to have some fun messing around. Or the second... when some sort of predefined conditions were met, prompting the dungeon to appear.
[It's unlikely that this is an Admin's doing. If they had, then there would have been some sort of notification about it.]
"Well, that doesn't matter. Now does it?" Ashton readied himself, "Once the dungeon opens-"
Ashton was cut off by someone's loud voice. He looked below to see at least a hundred people celebrating. All of them had a robe made out of Pegasus hide. There was no doubt in Ashton's mind that these assholes were the reason the dungeon had appeared.
[Looks like my guess was right on point.]
Ashton did not reply as he was joined by Anna, who looked just as baffled as the rest of them.
"What the hell is going on here?" She asked.
"Those Glaring nightmare folks are behind this. They did something to cause this mess." Ashton calmly replied, "My guess is... they have never been able to kill anyone in this place. So they decided to cause a dungeon to appear and do the killings for them. The only thing I don't understand is... how the hell did they summon a dungeon here in the first place?"
Ashton wanted to head down and bash their heads till he got the answer he was looking for. But he knew that wasn't possible. If he accidentally killed one of them, he might end up getting banished. Well, it wasn't like he had the opportunity to do so in the first place... the dungeon had opened.