Back at the swamps...

The masked leader, Devon, was deeply focused on the news. Thoughts were racing up and down his mind. Even though he was disturbed, his demeanour was as calm as ever. He was planning his next moves just like Nathan was... Unless there was a mastermind hidden behind him, working from the shadows just like he had been doing this entire time.

​​

No one accurately knew about his location. Not even the swamp-dwelling retards. Yet he had suspicions that the syndicate knew more than they were letting out. And Nathan's statement that monsters weren't the only ones the syndicate was focusing on, made it obvious.

"They are onto me... I'm sure of it." He mumbled while the recorded video of the conference kept repeating itself, "This plan of theirs isn't as sudden as they would like the others to believe. They have already planned it out... but when? They shouldn't have much information about the swamps and after the massacre of the last time, they shouldn't even be considering to launch an attack on the swamp. Yet here we are..."

Alex, Devon's most loyal pupil, silently stood there while Devon kept mumbling to himself. He didn't know what to do.

On one side they had a strong army of enhanced soldiers and lizardmen to back them up and on the other side, the Nagas have grown hostile to them without any reason. They already had their hands full at the moment and now they would have to prepare for yet another war. One, according to him, they could easily win, but a war nonetheless.

Why was he so confident about winning? Because they knew the swamps inside out and had a strong ally in form of the lizardmen. Moreover, they had proper gears required to manoeuvre freely around the terrain. Something he doubts the syndicate had despite their claims. The Inhumans they had 'manufactured' were top tier and the ace up their sleeve.

Their opponent, however, didn't have the ways to get much information about the swamps nor did they have strong allies who had evolved as apex predators by nature itself. Under no circumstances could he see them losing to an overconfident and ill-prepared army. No matter how many or how strong they were, once they enter the swamps, they were nothing more than sitting ducks. But he couldn't understand why was his leader so tensed about the situation.

'Who knows what goes through his mind? Understanding him is more difficult than befriending the monsters.' Alex sighed and went back to watching the press conference for the tenth time.

"They are not going to attack just to eradicate the monsters." Devon said as he finally switched the screen off, "It's just a convenient excuse for them to do something else..."

"Like attack us?" Alex chimed in.

Devon silently nodded. It was the only reason he could come up with.

"Pardon me sir, but don't you think it's all a bit... Absurd?" Alex asked, "I mean, I don't think they can obtain proper gears without stepping a foot in the swamps. Also, I doubt they have any information regarding our whereabouts. So even if they decide to attack us, the only thing they'll gain is another humiliating defeat."

According to Alex, there was no way the syndicate could've known about them hiding in the swamps. So they must genuinely want to kill off the monsters and then leave as they came. However, he wasn't a bright person either. He was smart and calculating but only when it came to fighting. Otherwise, he was just a usual muscle brained warrior. Thinking deeply wasn't his strong suit and Devon would gladly call Alex out on his arrogance.

"Oh... So according to you, they would be willing to sacrifice hundreds of their own just to regain a piece of land which would take them years to rehabilitate to do anything on it?" Devon sarcastically commented, "Sure they were foolish enough to do that before but this time... It's different. The Tramp isn't leading them anymore. This time they have proper leadership or advisors. Their every move has been thought of long and hard. They have the strength and maybe the ways to nullify our advantage over the swamps. More than that, they have 3 SS ranked warrior and that's a whole another shitshow."

Alex looked perplexed, "3 SS ranked warriors? I think you're mistaken, sir. America only has 2 SS ranked warriors apart from the ones you've artificially created."

At this point, Devon couldn't make whether Alex was always this stupid or he was doing this to spite him... Or was he acting up once again?

Ever since consuming high tier beast crystals, Alex had been acting weird. His stupidity was getting almost unbearable. It was safe to say that the beast crystals had messed with his brain. Regardless of it, Devon was getting frustrated.

"Did you seriously think a low ranker could've taken down a dragon all by himself? Also doesn't that guy reminds you of someone?" Devon replayed the recording where Arnold was addressing the nation.

Alex's dormant brain cells were kicked into overdrive. Soon he got his answers.

"He is the same guy!" Alex exclaimed, finally getting what Devon was trying to tell him, "The one who killed Bob."

'There's no need to be happy about that, you idiot.' Devon shook his head in frustration.

One thing that was bothering him was Nathan's claim that they have successfully made gears that were effective against the swamp dwellers. He was thinking about it because he knew exactly what was needed to make those type of gears: Lizardmen. Or their corpse at least.

One would require lizardmen hide, foot and a few other things to make useful gears. But lizardmen could only be found in the swamps and nowhere else. As far as Devon was aware, no human had stepped foot into the swamps for a while. Unless...

"There's no way... It was them!" Devon finally realised who was behind the recent massacre of the lizardmen.

Initially, he thought maybe it was the doing of the Nagas. After all, the Nagas and the lizardmen have hated each other for a long long time, so it was the only possible conclusion he could draw at the time despite the Lizardmen claims that it was a human's doing. But now it all made sense. The syndicate must have arrived at the swamps in secret and killed the lizardmen. After that, they took all the corpses they could while they left the rest there. However, there were a few issues with this theory of his.

First, how did they even managed to enter the swamps undetected? He already had the swamps under surveillance so it was next to impossible for anyone to sneak in.

Second, even if they managed to invade the swamps and bypass the security. How did they even manage to fight hundreds of lizardmen simultaneously? Not that it was impossible, his soldiers could do it too but only when they had special gears on them, something he doubted the syndicate had.

"They were right under my nose and I didn't know!" Devon's anger grew exponentially. He couldn't believe he was played by someone in his own game, "Whoever the perpetrator is, he isn't normal. Could it be him?"

Devon had had his eyes on Arnold for a long time. At times he had tried to screw him over thinking he was too weak to do anything to him. But looking at him now, sent shivers down to his spine. He couldn't believe Arnold was the same gullible person he had wanted to destroy on more than one occasion. He... had changed a lot, to say the least. He was no longer a pushover like before and now Devon knew exactly what he was capable of. After all, he killed the monster named 'Humanity's worst nightmare' all by himself.

If Arnold had figured it out that it was Devon who had been playing with him from the shadows and even tried kidnapping his sister, he couldn't even imagine to what extent Arnold will go to make him pay.

It also solidified what Devon had been suspecting all along. They knew about him. They knew he was hiding in the swamps. That's why Arnold was so interested in coming to swamps before he retires.

'He wants to deal with me. He's coming after me, that's the only explanation to it! He's not here for the monsters but me!'

He refused to believe Arnold was the same man. The amount of growth he had had in such a short duration of time was abnormal. It was unheard of. How come an E ranked warrior gain so much power to kill a fcking dragon all by himself!? Nothing was making sense.

Devon had always been able to look through his enemy's mind. It was a blessing and a weapon against his enemies. He always knew what his enemy would do even before the enemy could think about it themselves. But when he tried to do the same with Arnold, all he could see was despair. He was his natural enemy and he was coming for him.

Devon turned around to face hurts guards.

"Assemble everyone! We have to prepare for war." He exclaimed and hurried out of the room.