Who was the Masked man?

The abandoned cave

I crossed the forest and found the entrance of a cave. The opening was a cluster of black rocks in a semi-circular form but pointed at the top. It was around six feet tall, a Burnthound could never enter that cave. I walked hesitantly towards it because the darkness inside was unwelcoming and scary. I ducked and entered nevertheless, what other option did I have?
I couldn't go back after what had happened in the forest.
The ground inside was uneven, my bare legs could be bleeding within some time. Brandon had told me that this cave had been abandoned several thousand years ago because no weapons, strength, or magic could penetrate the outer or inner rocks of this cave. Nobody knew what lies inside this cave, or what dangers we could find. But we knew one thing, that the other opening of this cave would lead us directly to the foot of the mountain.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness within, but nothing much was visible except for black rocks sticking out from all sides. I took cautious steps, moving my hand before me as my guide. But let's not talk about a guide. I hate guides now.

I kept walking for a minute, without hitting anything with my body. I felt I had been blindfolded and left onto a busy street where the vehicles hit you and nobody stopped to check on you.
I knew I did not need to stop because something worse than the darkness and sharp stones could be waiting for me. At a point when I had just started taking confident steps, my right leg dropped onto nothingness, I almost fell forward into the darkness being thunderstruck. There was nowhere to go but behind. I thought for a moment, then sat on my knees on the rocky surface.
I ran my hand below to check if it's a dead-end or a staircase. My hand went down the surface and touched something smooth. It felt like cement as if someone had carefully made the stairs down there. I decided to step on it because I couldn't go back. I had come too far to turn behind now, and besides, maybe the clearing lied just beyond these steps?
Who knew?

I stepped down carefully and once both my feet were on the dusty stair, I let one leg down to check for another stair, and there it was!
I kept repeating this till I went down some steps. My hands and clothes were now filled with dust. Without keeping a count of how many stairs I'd climbed down, I kept ongoing.
The darkness seemed a little relaxing here because my other senses had become too sharp, I was trained for such situations. I could touch the staircase but the roof seemed far up ahead. I was sure that no sharp rocks were near me.

A few hundred steps down, I was exhausted by this, and fortunately, the staircase came to an end. And what lied forth was a plain surface. The skin beneath my feet didn't hurt anymore, it was like I was floating on a huge pile of dust. I walked forward the same way, with one hand checking for any obstacles in my path. But there was one dangerous obstacle that my hands hadn't touched yet, though it had already smelled me and sensed my presence.

I walked further cautiously. I could make out from here that I was inside a large arena, and I didn't know where to go, where the other staircase is, or where would be the opening that would lead me to the volcano. A tiny orange dot came to my sight amidst the black background. And I followed it.
Was it fire?
Or some other source of energy?
I was yet to find out.

I walked briskly towards it, and the orange dot got bigger with every step. It seemed like a mile away from where I stood, but it somehow seemed the only thing I should've been following.
After chasing it for several minutes, the orange dot took the shape of a high dome structure, as if I was in a dungeon. A fire burnt inside the hall that lied beyond the dome, and that was what I'd been chasing. Something else caught my eye, too. At the left corner of the entrance, a manly figure stood nervously. But why was he not going in? And wait! I thought this place had been abandoned long ago, then what was this man doing here?
I walked silently towards him. He was gripping onto something tightly, something tall. When I craned my neck to see, it was yet another person standing ahead of him. " Yormen, " I whispered, and he instantly turned around.
" What the hell! " he jumped. Brandon appeared from behind him and hugged me tightly.
" I thought you were lost, or maybe... " he whispered.
" They cannot kill us again, can they?. " I smirked. Stank and Nichole were there too, they had smiles on their faces. " Why are you hiding here? Why didn't you go further? "
" I sense there's a trap in there. " Brandon said, " Why is the hall lit with torches when they abandoned this place thousands of years ago? It means someone lives here, "
" Or something, " Stank said, thoughtfully.
" Yeah, more like someTHING," Nichole peered into the hall.
" But how long are we going to wait? " I asked.
" I say we dash through the hall to the other opening. " Yormen said.
" Is there an opening? Where? "
" Down the hall right in front of us. "

I looked beyond the dome and set my gaze upon a black semi-circular structure at the end of the hall. It was about 400 yards away from where we stood.
" We don't have much time, I say we run for it, " I said, facing the others.
" But what if we're trapped? We don't know what lies in the hall! " Brandon said.
" Do we have a choice? " I retaliated.
They were all silent.
" I know this could be dangerous, but we've lost a lot of time already. We should've been at the top of the volcano by now," I said and they nodded half-heartedly, " We make a run for it, that's the best we can do. "
Brandon was not willing, and Stank seemed cautious of what lied ahead. But Nichole was ready to take the risk, whereas Yormen would do anything that the group decided.
We started running from our end of the dome towards the black opening before us. The hall was like an empty paradise. Our footsteps echoed against the walls several times. Its dome-shaped roof was as tall as a skyscraper. Several torches were lit on the walls to make this place glow with orangish light. We were approaching the end of our run, the black opening, when I saw a pair of yellow eyes staring back at us from there. I stopped everyone instantly. The golden eyes stared at us, they were oval in shape and bigger than both my arms.