The Last Experience Point

Chapter 156: The Rescue Pt III

It had been a little while since Zach entered Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 2: just long enough so that he’d forgotten how it felt. He’d forgotten the rush of exhilaration that caused his chest to lurch like a jolt straight into his heart, or the way his senses sharpened as he became more keenly aware of the world around him. He’d almost forgotten how the impossibly black smoke was traded away for a constant jet of burning embers that fired off from both his hands and feet. He’d even forgotten just how markedly it raised his stats.

Name

Zachys Calador

Level

25

EXP

371,082/400,000

Armor Bonus

118

Strength

161

Dexterity

155

Constitution

149

Intelligence

197

Speed

128

Luck

145

The sensation, as intense as it may have been, was still not quite to the same degree as it had been when he’d entered Phase Level 3 during his fight with Ziragoth the Awoken. This was somewhat odd considering that Phase Levels 2 and 3 had the exact same exertion cost. Honestly, it was a real shame that Zach couldn’t just skip right over Phase Level 2 and go straight to Phase Level 3 instead. If only such a thing were possible, he’d be almost untouchable right now—at least when dealing with political guild members, anyway. Still, this would have to be good enough.

Of course it will be, he thought, surging with determination. With his sword currently gripped in just one hand, he swung it at the air several times so that he could feel his increase in speed.

Inhaling a breath of the prison’s damp, stale air, he eyed the staff-wielding mage who was guarding the final staircase that he would need to descend in order to reach Vim, who was hopefully still alive and well. Looking her way, he noticed that the woman was still standing in the narrow frame that led to the staircase with her staff still clutched tightly in both her hands. Of the four mages from the Guild of Gentlemen, she was clearly the most powerful, and as she noticed Zach staring at her, she began to squirm somewhat. She also averted her gaze as though frightened as Zach took a step towards her—but he stopped as Anelia called after him.

“Before you go,” she said, throwing both her arms forward and firing a shot from each of her guns.

“Yeah?” he asked her.

Before answering, she turned her body to face a man wielding a large claymore who was charging at her. She withdrew her arms, bent backwards, and then kicked him right in his face, sending him backwards before extending her right arm again and popping off a shot that exploded his face even as he was stumbling away. His nose, his eyes, and a piece of his left ear joined a pool of blood that splattered off the rest of his skull. Afterwards, she fired off another two shots and then turned her neck so that she looked quickly at Zach.

“I almost forgot,” she continued. “They told me to tell you that there’s been a change of plans. You’re supposed to take Vim to the aircraft carrier, not the dungeon.”

“Huh?” Zach asked, confused. How could there be a change of plans when he was the one who’d come up with his own plan and hadn’t involved anybody else in them?

Anelia shrugged indifferently, then continued to blast the members of the Guild of Gentlemen, who were now fighting way less effectively due to the fact that they were no longer in any kind of formation and had sort of scattered around the gym room. “That’s all I know. Now get going.”

Zach gave her a return shrug. Whatever it was, he’d worry about it in a short while from now. After all, there was no sense thinking about reconsidering his escape plan before he’d even managed to rescue Vim. And so, once more locking eyes with the terrified-looking mage, he took off at a run in her direction, as he did not want to waste another second of his current duration of Unleashed Phase, which appeared to have used up about twenty seconds in replenishing the stamina that Zach had expended while making his way down here.

Unleashed Phase Duration

14:39 Remaining

I’ve got to move fast!

As Zach tore his way across the room, the two shield-bearing tanks that still lived lifted their massive shields and moved quickly to position themselves in front of him. A moment before Zach collided with them, he sprang upwards while tucking his knees into his chest so that he could clear the top of their heads, and then he sailed over them with ease. A half-second later, he landed back down in a crouch. Hurriedly, he stood back up and darted forward as another man scrambled to impede him. This time around, he used the arm opposite to the one gripping his sword to extend his elbow, and with that, he slammed his body into the smaller, rounder shield of a man wielding an axe. The man was blasted away, his body making a painful-sounding thwap as he collided with a wall not far from the four mages and two archers, one of which was about to launch a close-range arrow at him.

Snapping up his foot, Zach delivered a powerful kick to an exercise bench with completely rusted legs and torn padding that coincidentally happened to be in front of him, causing it to go careening off towards the archer with a meteor-like speed. It then struck the archer with such force that it broke in half over the man’s body and caused him to drop his bow. He then fell backwards, groaning.

Continuing onwards, Zach watched as the mage woman’s eyes widened in terror as he approached. “Move,” he demanded, reaching her. “Right now. Or I’ll kill you.” Her body shaking, she stepped to the side and got out of his way, so Zach ignored her and began hurrying down this final flight of spiraling stairs as fast as he possibly could.

Given the constant need to turn around and around as he descended, he was limited in how fast he could move. Thankfully, however, it wasn’t as large a flight as some of the others he’d ventured down thus far, and in less than half a minute, he was able to reach the bottom to see what looked like another narrow frame that led to another area—hopefully the last one. With each step that he took, he kept his eyes on his current duration of Unleashed Phase, knowing that time was now too valuable to waste.

Unleashed Phase Duration

14:02 Remaining

Directly above Zach, the sound of screams and gunshots played out as Anelia dealt with the Guild of Gentlemen’s forces, and then coming from even farther above that point—much, much farther—there were still regular explosive, rattling booms as the Royal Roses created mayhem in the city. But none of that mattered to him right now. He needed to focus on what was ahead—and in this case, it was a fairly narrow hallway with a width large enough so that only two people his size could comfortably stand side by side. It was also not particularly long, spanning perhaps forty feet in length, and it ended in a stone wall that served as a dead-end.

The hallway, as filthy and in as much disrepair as any other around this place, had a flat, empty stone wall that ran along its right side; on its left, there were exactly four doors equally spaced apart, the first three of which were shuttered and closed. The fourth, however, was fully open, and even from where Zach was standing, he could see a shriveled, weak, and sickly-looking little man that he only barely recognized as Vim Alazar lying in a cot, which was illuminated by numerous candles attached at various points around a grimy, uncomfortably small cell.

Gods, what did they do to him? he thought. Rather than rejoicing at finally finding the person he’d come here to find, he instead filled with disbelief and a sense of moral revulsion, which sparked an anger deep within him.

The man looked as though he were in his dying moments. He’d clearly been badly abused and tortured. His face was bruised all over, yet it was still utterly lacking in color save for his eyes, which had turned an unhealthy yellow. His lip was split, his nose was likely broken, and he was barely moving. He was also a great deal thinner than he’d been to the point he appeared malnourished and badly dehydrated. He was breathing very, very slowly, and the only sound to come from him was the occasional weak cough. To see Vim in such a diminished state was truly shocking.

Can…can he recover from this? Zach wondered, becoming very uneasy.

Due to the emptiness in Vim’s eyes, it was only natural for Zach to worry that he might have arrived too late and that there might not be anything left here to save. He feared Vim might already be in some kind of brain dead, vegetative state, from which not even a light stone would be able to revive him. But then, something happened: something very slight, but nevertheless enough to reassure Zach. For just a moment, Vim lowered his eyes and met his, and in them, Zach could see recognition—and even a slight glimpse of waning, but persistent strength.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Zach shouted out. His question was not directed at Vim but at the only other individual to be found down here. “What did you do?” he demanded.

Across from where Vim lay in the small cell, there was a tall man with a large frame who sat upright on a metal stool and faced in Vim’s direction. The sight of him caused Zach to shift his stance so that he once more held his blade with both hands, as with just one look at the man, he could tell right away that this was a person unlike any of those he’d encountered so far. Even without the unexpectedly elegant and intimidating equipment that adorned his body, the fact that he had the face of a man in his mid-thirties whose straight brown hair contained minimal signs of early graying was enough to make him stand out. But to be sure, his armor was certainly a very big part of what immediately separated him from the other guild members that Zach had encountered in Shadowfall Coast. It was also enough to further enrage Zach.

He stole that from us! Zach shouted in his mind. He stole all of it!

From head to toe, the man was bedecked in the armor of Ziragoth the Awoken. His entire body was covered in a silvery sheen that looked every bit as grandiose as it did powerful and effective. A potent reminder of the enemy Zach had helped to slay, the image of a dragon was embossed on the breastplate of his gear, and the fin-like spikes that protruded on the elbow-length gauntlets were reminiscent of the dragon’s scales. His helm, which only covered the top half of his face, framed his eyes in such a way as to make them appear more lizard-like and ruthless. But more than anything else, it was the spear that lay flat across his knees as he sat in the stool that drew most of Zach’s attention.

The weapon was a double-bladed spear that appeared to be made of a darkish silver with two middle grips and two outer grips on both ends of the weapon. The middle grips were rigid, and the outer ones were curved, and right near these curved grips there were small, decorative constructs that looked like miniature dragon heads, and each spit out a steady, small, but noticeable stream of orange flame that added to the illumination from the candles inside the cell.

With burning embers of his own flickering off his hands and feet, Zach approached, moving cautiously down the hall in Vim’s direction. He stopped, however, as the man spoke to him without even turning his head or twisting his body to look Zach’s way. “I didn’t do this to him,” he said, his voice powerful but earnest, lacking in any overtly detectable malice. “I also don’t approve of it. It’s not something I would ever support.”

“Oh no? Well, I doubt you’re shedding any tears over it,” Zach replied scornfully. Glaring at the man’s armor-covered back, he said, “I’m guessing you’re Gaelan Malakor, right?”

At the mention of his name, the man slowly stood up, straightened his posture, and then turned himself around. Now, with just one look into his eyes, Zach knew that the man was not going to surrender or stay out of his way. There was a very real edge in his demeanor—one that Zach did not take for mere bluster, but one that spoke for experience earned through hard work. What Zach saw in him was something that he found lacking in most of the other political guild members he’d come across. This was clearly a guy who knew how to fight.

“That’s right,” he said to Zach. “I am Gaelan Malakor. And you, I take it, are Zachys Calador, correct?”

Zach nodded. “That’s right.”

Upon Zach acknowledging his identity, the man gave him a nod in return. “Well, here you are, then. You look as menacing as they said. It’s that cloak of yours, isn’t it?” He met Zach’s eyes. “It shouldn’t surprise you that I expected you to show up here eventually. But what is surprising is that it seems like you were expecting to meet me down here as well. You even knew my name.”

“Captain Gaelan Malakor, sixth in command of the Guild of Gentlemen,” Zach stated. Since it no longer mattered if he kept the information a secret, Zach turned his head slightly, gesturing at his ear. “I’ve been listening in for a bit. That’s how I know about you.”

“Ah,” he said, “it looks like you got one of our Comms.” His gaze darkened. “I guess you grabbed it off one of the kids you killed on your way over here, right? As I hear it, you killed a lot of really good kids today: kids with bright futures that you’ve robbed them of, Zach. Are you proud of that? Are you proud of what you’ve done?”

“Are you?” Zach shouted, becoming immediately defensive and furious.

“Of course I’m not. But having said that, I’m not the one who killed them.”

Zach became so outraged that he actually guffawed. “The fucking nerve of you. You and your guild made this happen! Are you too stupid to realize that? Or are you just in total denial?” Zach felt his lips peel back in disgust. “Of course I’m not proud of what I had to do to get here. What, do you think I wanted to butcher a bunch of kids my own age? Because of course I didn’t. But it was you and your bloodthirsty, good-for-shit guild who made them fight—who put them in danger.”

“Deflecting the blame onto me won’t absolve you of your guilt, Zach.”

“What guilt?” Zach shouted at him. “I have none!” He removed his left hand from his blade so that he could point it accusatorily at the man. “It was you who put them in that position, you Gods damned coward!” Having become so angry that it’d caused him to breathe more heavily, Zach took a second to cool off. Then he lowered his voice and shook his head. “I don’t want to be here right now. I shouldn’t be here right now. I’m a Gods-be-damned adventurer. This is no place for people like me. But because of your guild, I ended up here.”

“Sorry, but I don’t buy that,” the man, Gaelan, said to him.

“Buy what? That you and your terrible, murderous guild are at fault for all of this?”

“No. Well…actually, yes, that too. But what I was specifically referring to is that I don’t buy that you’re still ‘just’ an adventurer.” He gave a dismissive shake of his head. “You’re no adventurer. You’re too far down the rabbit hole at this point to say that with a straight face.” Upon these words, Zach felt his eyes widen in rage, but to his surprise, the man then waved at him apologetically. This intrigued Zach just enough so that his anger faded slightly, allowing curiosity to take its place.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s nothing,” he replied. “Forget about it. It was rude of me to say.”

Slowly, the man exited the cell, then turned his body to face Zach, the two of them standing on opposite sides of the hall. Thus far, Zach’s words—and precious time—had been totally wasted on the man. In all likelihood, they were not going to agree on a single thing no matter what either of them said. There would be no way of convincing a man like this that he was the one in the wrong. From his perspective, he likely felt that Zach was wrong with the same degree of certainty. And yet, despite knowing it would get him nowhere, Zach knew he had a responsibility to at least ask him to stand down.

“I don’t want to kill you,” he said. “If you let me take Vim and go, I won’t harm you.”

Gaelan raised his double-bladed spear. “I offer you something similar. If you surrender and do not resist arrest, I will ensure you are treated fairly. Your deeds during the fight against Ziragoth will surely factor into any sentencing.” He made a reluctant-sounding grunt. “Gods, you’re just a few years older than my daughter. As a father, I desperately don’t want to have to end such a young life, but I will if you refuse to drop your sword in the name of humanity.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Zach said defiantly, once more gripping his blade with both hands. “Like it or not, I’m leaving here with Vim. Whether you’re dead or alive when that happens is completely up to you; either way, I’m taking him out of this place and ending this bullshit.”

Gaelan sighed. “If that’s how you feel about it, then so be it. If you want to escape here with the Gnome, you’ll have to go through me first, and mark my words, you will die. I don’t care how tough you think you are, sonny, I’m going to spill your guts all over that stone floor if you don’t wise up.”

Zach felt a brief moment of hesitance due solely to the sheer confidence the man exuded. But he’d been through way too much at this point to let himself be shaken. “You had your chance,” Zach told him.

“And you had yours,” he replied.

The man shifted his position, entering into a combat stance that saw him place his left foot before his right while he spun around his weapon several times fast enough to make a whooshing sound on the air. Zach raised his blade in kind. He readied himself. This would not be easy. He purged all extraneous thoughts from his brain and focused solely on defeating this dragon-armored, very high-ranking officer of the Guild of Gentlemen, who now stood in his way. Zach held his breath a moment, realizing this could well be the most difficult fight of his life.

“You can make the first move if you’d like,” Gaelan said.

Zach beckoned him with his chin, his hands gripped tightly around his blade. “No, you go on ahead.”

“Very bold of you, but…”

Gaelan raised both his arms and spun his double-bladed spear numerous times over his head at a speed that made it appear a blur, and then he lowered it back down and jabbed it out at the air in front of himself as though pointing it at Zach. “If you insist.” With that, there was a flash from the bladed end of his spear, and following this, an incredibly fast-moving torrent of dark-blue energy shot forward with a “fwoomp” sound that was similar to a dart being fired through a metal tube. This sound was followed by a static-like hiss as it rushed across the narrow hall and made straight for him.

Zach reacted as best he could, but the energy moved so fast that he struggled just to follow it with his eyes. Yet, somehow, he managed. Urgently, he twisted his hips and leaned backwards, narrowly avoiding the projectile, which zipped across the air over his left shoulder and ended up blasting several entire stones out of the wall behind him with a dull crunching sound, which Zach was able to see because he was now partially turned around.

Straightening his body and once more facing his enemy, he ducked beneath a second, then third such attack before realizing he could hardly keep up with the speed and rate of these dark-blue, bullet-like blasts of energy. Needing to close the distance, he activated Phase Blink in the intervening moments before the man fired off three more consecutive bolts.

At a speed great enough to be near instantaneous, Zach found himself relocated so that he was now behind Gaelan. Having used Phase Blink with a target, he ended up facing Gaelan’s back, with Gaelan still facing the direction he had Phase Blinked from. Sensing an opportunity to end this in an instant, Zach took a single lunging step and stabbed his blade forward, hoping to pierce the man’s armor, rip it into his back, and plunge it straight through his spine. But his hopes were soon dashed.

With a speed and preparedness that he was not expecting, Galean whirled around so fast that it actually startled Zach, and then he spun around his double-bladed spear defensively, causing each of the two bladed ends to clash against Zach’s sword, deflecting it. He then spun it around a second time, and Zach had to make two large, zigzagging motions to avoid each of its bladed ends before dashing backwards to give himself some breathing room.

It was at this point that the sonic boom from Phase Blink erupted in this previously quiet, subterranean prison cell. The resulting bang therefore came across as so loud that it caused Vim to twitch, stone and dust to leak down from the ceiling, and a colony of rats to squeak as they scurried out of hiding holes and went to live somewhere else. What it did not do, however, was startle or rattle Gaelan, who must have studied the feed of Zach’s encounter with the dragon and therefore knew to expect it.

Gaelan twirled his weapon, creating yet another series of whooshing sounds. “Come,” he said. Now, he was the one beckoning Zach. “Show me this ‘monster’ that so many in my guild fear. I see just a boy!”

Zach scowled and threw himself forward, going on the offensive. He raised his blade and struck down hard, trying to split open the man’s scalp. But the man spun his weapon upwards, causing it to crack twice more against Zach’s blade. Afterwards, he retaliated with another two strikes, and Zach had to work extra hard to meet both, as he was attacking with wide, circular motions that were difficult to match. Each time he struck out at Zach, he’d first spin around his spear so fast and so continuously it gave off a look similar to that of a helicopter’s propeller, seemingly turning from one object into numerous. It also didn’t help that his weapon also had much greater reach than Zach’s Sword of Light Amidst Darkness.

He really does know how to fight, Zach thought, leaning his body out of the way of the dual blades from the man’s fearsome, stolen weapon.

Spinning his body around full circle, the air whooshed as Gaelan struck out with a neck-level slash from his double-bladed spear. Zach dropped to his knees, dodging both blades, and then he jumped back up while slashing his sword above himself, attempting to rip Gaelan open from his belly to his chest. Galean then took one quick step backwards, avoiding the strike, before jutting his spear forward.

If not for the fact that Zach had become so proficient in reading body language, he would almost certainly have been hit by what came next. Yet he knew what the man was intending to do based on the way he angled his wrists along with the distance between the two of them. He could tell that he planned to stab one of the ends of his spear forward, yet he was doing so from a distance where the weapon would fall short and fail to connect with its target. This could only mean one thing: that he was not trying to stab Zach, but launch another one of his magical attacks, this time at point-blank range. And all of this, Zach calculated in a fraction of a second based on nothing more than distance and body language.

Having seen through the attack, Zach took his left hand off his blade and threw himself forward into something that was practically a one-handed pushup position, and he did so even before one of the bladed ends of the man’s spear flashed and unleashed another dark-blue bullet of energy, which he fired in such close proximity it would've been virtually impossible for Zach to avoid had he not done so well in advance.

Scrambling back up to his feet, Zach charged forward again, raising his blade to strike. From the way the man’s eyes became enlarged behind his helmet, Zach could tell that he was surprised—that he genuinely believed he’d put an end to Zach right then and there.

Well, sorry to disappoint!

Zach was on him quickly, seizing upon the man’s stunned reaction. Yet the man, Gaelan, began to light up. A yellow glow came upon his entire body, surrounding him like an aura, and then it grew in brightness—but only for a moment. This yellow aura then vanished as quickly as it appeared, but not before fully illuminating the poorly lit hallway as though it had been dispersed or projected outwards. Zach had no idea what that was or what it even did, but he was too committed to his current attack to stop. Swinging his blade, he attempted to…

Wait. What was he doing?

A moment before striking, Zach pulled himself back. What the fuck was he doing? This was crazy. It occurred to him that he really shouldn’t be here. Like, he really shouldn’t be here. He was going to die…wasn’t he? He was! He just realized that right now. Just now, right in this very moment—Zach now realized that he was going to die. And he’d never been so scared before. He’d never been so afraid. He had to flee! He had to get the hell out of here!

Spinning around so fast that he almost tripped over his own two feet, Zach took off at a full-on sprint, screaming out in terror as he ran across the relatively short hall. He didn’t even care that he was about to run headfirst into a dead-end and have nowhere left to go. His panic-stricken mind demanded that he run. It didn’t matter where he ran. He just needed to run.

Control your emotions! he screamed in his mind as he rapidly approached the stone-walled dead end. What did Jascaila teach you?

Zach continued to scream and shout out in terror as he plopped face-first into the wall. Then he turned around again and saw that Gaelan was already upon him, his double-bladed spear ready to strike a killing blow. Zach did not bother to defend himself. He only wanted to flee. He only wanted to keep running.

Pull yourself together, Gods-dammit! Take control!

He was right. What was he doing? Why was he fleeing? For what possible reason would he behave this way after taking so many lives and spilling so much blood just to make it this far? This wasn’t who he was. It was who he’d been. And he was damned if he was going to go back to being such a mewling coward. No, to hell with that!

Zach’s screams turned into growls, and then there was a snap as a bunch of yellow, jagged shards shot off his body and dissipated as though he’d just jumped through a glass window. It wasn’t until this moment that he realized the man had landed a fear on him. That son of a bitch! Now Zach was really going to let him have it. But first, he was going to have to endure a bit of pain, because the man’s double-bladed spear found its mark; Zach attempted to pull away, but it was too late. Both of the weapon’s blades were able to taste his flesh.

The first blade hurt the most, as it left a tremendous gash in his stomach and caused him to cry out in agony. The second blade bit into his shoulder, and this one might’ve caused him to yelp but he barely felt it in lieu of how much the first one had hurt him. Yet, if nothing else, Zach was fairly sure he’d pulled far enough away to prevent either of the weapon’s blades from wounding him deeply enough that it couldn’t be dealt with via passive HP regeneration. But before that point, he needed to strike back—and vengefully.

Dripping blood from his shoulder and stomach, Zach activated Halting Strike at the cost of 20 seconds of time. Immediately, his entire blade lit up with red sparks. With anger fueling him, he struck out, hard, ripping his blade from the right to the left. In response, Gaelan made a rotating motion with both his arms, spinning his weapon such that it traveled up, around, and back down like an upside-down “U.” It was essentially a maneuver that allowed him to deflect attacks from everywhere before him, as his spear, once more whooshing the air as it functioned like a propeller, had enough length and momentum to deflect just about anything.

As Zach’s sparking blade collided with Gaelan’s spear, Zach thought he detected more surprise in the older man’s eyes—likely at how quickly Zach had snapped out of his fear. This surprise seemed to become amplified as, despite guarding against Zach’s sword, it still caused every tendril of reddish electricity to channel off Zach’s blade, into and through Gaelan’s spear, up his arms, and finally into his body.

I can use crowd control too, you son of a bitch!

All at once, Gaelan released a terrified gasp, and then his body froze, becoming perfectly rigid. Zach knew he needed to act fast: as in very fast. His stun only lasted between 0.5 and 1.2 seconds, and given how tough an enemy he faced, he would wager that it would ultimately end up being closer to the former than the latter.

Having been disrespected, Zach unleashed his rage on his enemy. With all his strength, he ripped his blade through the air, sending it straight across the man’s chest. Then he watched as his enemy’s eyes lowered, looking down at the approaching weapon, and he began to make a loud, pained-sounding grunt, which increased in both volume and intensity as his body began to vibrate and shake.

A moment before impact, the red tendrils of electricity snapped, breaking the very brief stun, and just as Zach had done, the man rushed backwards and away, but not fast enough to prevent Zach’s sword from tearing into his flesh and cutting him open across the chest. He hissed in pain as Zach’s sword sliced through the illustration of the dragon’s face on his breastplate while sending a spray of blood off to the wall to Zach’s left, decorating it like a freeform, abstract painting.

Now, without saying a single word, the man jumped backwards thrice more, then held out his weapon defensively, remaining in that position unmoving. Zach, for his part, did not pursue. He merely lowered his sword, steadied his breathing, and also said nothing. He remained completely motionless—at least for the moment.

I see what he’s doing, Zach thought. It works to my benefit as well.

Fifteen seconds came and went, during which Zach locked eyes with Gaelan, never saying a single word to the man. The man also never said a word to him. For the entire fifteen seconds, they merely stared at one another. Zach used the time to run ideas and calculations in his head on how to proceed. He imagined the guild captain was doing the same. Either way, he would be ready for whatever came next. For now, though, he felt an intense itching from his stomach and his shoulder, as the bleeding in both came to a sudden halt.

Across from him, in his peripheral vision, Zach could see the wound he’d left in Gaelan’s chest begin to close all on its own while he continued to lock eyes with the man. The very same thing was likely happening with his own wounds. He could feel the heat and itchiness grow as passive HP regeneration repaired both of the injuries on his body, either one of which could have caused him to bleed out to death all on their own over a short period of time.

I have to end this quick, Zach thought. This guy’s dangerous. He’s a real threat!

This was about as precarious as any situation that Zach had been in to this point. The man he was facing off against was clearly capable of killing him, and it would only take a single misstep for him to succeed in doing so. With just the few quick exchanges the two had made, Zach could tell that he was dealing with a man who had already been very experienced in combat to begin with and had now been made even more lethal thanks to the dragon loot the Guild of Gentlemen had stolen. If only Zach could make use of everything he had at his disposal, such as the ability on his blasting ring, which had just come off cooldown, this would’ve been a much simpler and easier fight. Unfortunately, the possibility of unintentionally killing Vim or, even worse, causing a massive cave-in that suffocated all three of them to death was just too high.

I’ve got to find some way of killing him before he kills me!

Still locking eyes with Gaelan, he could see the conviction in the man’s eyes—he could see how, despite his personal desires to the contrary, he was both ready and willing to kill Zach in order to fight for what he believed was right, however stupid and misguided that might have been. But so too was Zach. The consequences of allowing the execution to proceed…they would result in a seismic shift in society that would make life virtually unlivable in North Bastia. They would result in an eruption of the sort that would destabilize the civilized world—at least as far as humanity was concerned.

And even if they didn’t, it would make it almost impossible for humans to convince the other races to join their side when the World Eater inevitably spawned. There were a great number of other consequences as well—too many for Zach to recall in this moment. He only needed to remind himself of the most significant of them in order to fill himself with the same conviction that he saw in his enemy.

I have to kill him, and I have to do it quick. I’ve only got about eleven-and-a-half minutes left on Unleashed Phase. I need to end this!

Zach’s body healed at the exact point in time that Gaelan’s did, and without a word or trace of hesitance, Gaelan sprang back into action—and Zach was ready for him. Their positions were now the opposite of where each had been standing at the start. Zach was now facing the entrance that led into this bottom-most prison level, his back to the dead-end, and Gaelan was standing not far from the way in. A brief flicker crossed his features, and then he made the next move.

With a grunt, he jabbed his arms forward, and the bladed end of his spear that pointed towards Zach gave off a flash as another of his impossibly fast, dark-blue torrents of energy ripped across the hallway, crossing the distance between himself and Zach in what felt like a microsecond. Zach, having expected such an attack, threw himself off to the left, slamming his own body into the wall just to get out of the way. His eyes visibly narrowed through his helmet, Gaelan turned his spear like it was the barrel of a rifle, and then he fired again.

Scrambling to avoid the blast, Zach ducked down to his knees, and with another crunch, an entire section of the wall was blown to bits, raining stone bricks down on top of him. Then Zach was forced to leap his way to the other side of the narrow hall, his black slamming into a shuttered cell as the projectile missed him again.

“Phase Slash!” he shouted in retaliation, swinging his sword diagonally downwards—at the exact same time that Gaelan launched yet another dark-blue bolt at him.

The world was overcome with a high-pitched squeal like that of a zipper being opened only a thousand times louder and all-consuming. Then, a visible disturbance came upon the air in front of Zach, one that took off with a speed twice as fast as the dark-blue energy cruising towards him. The result was that both he and his enemy was struck. Gaelan was struck dead center in his breastplate, which already had a visible, blood-stained tear running through it from Zach’s previous attack.

Now, an entire chunk of it shattered and broke apart, and Gaelan made a “guh” sound as he was shoved backwards and off his feet, crashing on his back and dropping his spear in the process. Zach could even see it rolling along the stone floor. It was also the last thing Zach saw as the dark-blue energy slammed into his own chest, causing him to be blasted through the shuttered door with an ear-splitting crack as he was knocked through the air.

There was a secondary bang as he continued to travel farther into the cell, coming to a stop after crashing into another wall, at which point he fell forward and dropped his own sword. Pain flooded into his senses, his chest feeling as though it had taken punch from Donovan. He struggled to catch his breath. Yet he knew he couldn’t spare a moment—not even a moment—to steady himself. And so, fighting through the pain, Zach grabbed his sword and raced to get back on his feet, and then, with his equipment covered in dust, dried blood, and pieces of stone, he bolted out of the destroyed cell—which happened to be adjacent to Vim’s—and flung himself at Gaelan, who was also once more upright and seemingly waiting for him, having also retrieved his own weapon.

Rather than fight him head-on, Gaelan took another leap backwards as though to put more distance between the two of them so that he could continue to use more of that difficult-to-avoid, ranged magical attack on Zach. But Zach was not about to let him get away with it. Activating Frostbind, the ability on his robes, Gaelan was brought to an immediate halt as, with multiple loud cracks, a number of shackles made of pure ice sprang up from the stone flooring and began wrapping themselves around his feet, rooting him in place.

Gaelan gasped, having been stopped, and Zach was able to catch up to him. And while Zach had absolutely no doubt that Frostbind would not last for very long, it would still have served its purpose. And indeed, not even a full second went by before, with several audible snaps, Gaelan ripped his feet free of the shackles. But Zach was already on him.

With a growing urgency to end this as quickly as possible, Zach held nothing back. He swung his sword with all the strength he could exert, delivering a sweeping slash aimed right for Gaelan’s throat. Gaelan, spinning his double-bladed spear, managed to guard at the last possible moment, but from the loud clack that filled the hallway, as well as a pained-sounding grunt, Zach could tell that his strike had definitely had at least some impact.

Gaelan retaliated, spinning his body full circle, then dropping suddenly down and delivering a sweeping slash of his own, this one aimed at severing Zach’s legs below the kneecap. Zach responded by hopping above the spear, then swinging his own sword straight down on top of the crouching man. Gaelan, quick to react, kicked off the flooring and flung himself backwards, but not before Zach’s blade managed to slice cleanly through the armor on his left shoulder and bite into his flesh.

The man continued to back away, and Zach pursued. But then, as though having a sudden change of heart, he abruptly stopped backpedaling and began performing elaborate, martial-arts-like motions with his double-bladed spear, spinning it above his head, around his body, and making twirling motions that threw off Zach’s ability to anticipate where and when he would strike.

Grunting, he ended up stepping forward and into a lunging thrust, which Zach side-stepped. Zach countered with a downward slash, which he spun upwards to meet. Sparks erupted as his sword clashed against the far-side of the spear, and then Gaelan somehow managed to slip through Zach’s guard, spinning around and slicing him twice in the same spot on his midsection.

“Fuck,” Zach groaned, once again gushing blood. But he was angry now: very angry.

He lashed out recklessly and thoughtlessly, unleashing an incredibly stupid attack that he would normally hate himself for making. In this case, that meant wildly swinging around his sword at Gaelan’s stomach while dropping his guard and leaving himself completely open to attack.

And somehow, it worked.

Gaelan, as though himself surprised that Zach would lash out with such a desperate strike, was utterly taken by surprise, and Zach cut through more of his armor as he gave the man’s belly a nice, deep wound to mirror Zach’s own. Gaelan hissed in pain and then made a dizzying twirling motion that was so fast that it somehow gave his weapon the illusion of “bending,” which meant that it now looked, from Zach’s perspective, like there were two different blades coming at him from two different angles. Zach raised his sword, and with a clack, guarded against the first. Then he leaned to the side to dodge the second—only to have his entire right earlobe sliced off his face, as a tiny part of the spear managed to make contact.

“The gods damn you!” he shouted, kicking out with his front foot and slamming it into Gaelan’s stomach.

The man made an “oomph” and stumbled backwards, and Zach brought his sword streaking down. Gaelan tried to take a quick step backwards to get out of the way, but once again, he did not move fast enough, and Zach was able to slice him from the right corner of his forehead and diagonally down across his face, ending by his lower-left cheek. Unfortunately, it was not deep enough to constitute a serious wound, but it did cause a constant, heavy flow of blood to pour over his eyes and nose.

“I’ve had enough of you,” the man growled, shaking his head like a dog and causing blood to splatter off to both sides of his face. Then, Gaelan’s body began to glow with another yellow aura that looked identical to the one he’d just used before. But this time, at least, Zach knew in advance what he was about to do.

He’s trying to use his fear on me again!

Having likely already drawn too close to get out of the ability’s range in time, Zach instead defended himself by trying to strengthen his mind while calling upon all of his willpower—and to his surprise, it actually worked. Well…sort of. Though he did begin screaming and fleeing the moment after the yellow aura turned into a bright flash and vanished, he was able to snap out of it in just a couple of seconds. But unlike before, Gaelan was much quicker to capitalize on the opening provided by his ability. He rushed forward, whipping his double-bladed spear around.

Snapping out of the fear, Zach regained control of his body just in time to duck and weave his way out of an exhaustive number of back-to-back slashes that Gaelan sent his way, and though Zach succeeded in dancing around the fast-moving blades, he was now off balance and awkwardly backpedaling. Thanks to the fear, Zach had lost his footing, and he was trying desperately to regain it as he continued to expend all of his energy just on avoiding the man’s ferocious, double-bladed dragon spear.

One attack after the next, Zach was pushed farther and farther back until, eventually, forgetting just how short the length of the hallway was, Zach bumped into the stone-walled dead-end, which threw him completely off balance. As a result, he was caught off guard and forced to endure a full three-hit combination attack from Gaelan’s double-bladed spear, in which each one hurt more than the previous.

First, the spear took a bite out of his midsection. Then, it opened him up deeply across his chest. Finally, the spear struck him yet again across the stomach, spilling out more of his blood and making him feel lightheaded. Hurting badly from all three cuts, he weakly raised his guard to block a strike that spun from high to low. And though he succeeded in deflecting the attack, Zach’s sword was knocked out of his hands. In the corner of his eyes, he saw it bounce off the stone wall behind him and then disappear somewhere off to his left and in front of him.

Now, Gaelan, as though sensing victory, went in for what looked like a killing blow. Backing up slightly, he then jutted forward, attempting to run Zach through with his spear. But Zach refused to submit. He refused to let this bastard kill him. Was he disarmed? Yes. Was he in a really shit position? Obviously. But no matter how experienced Gaelan might have been, Zach didn’t think there was anybody in Galterra who had been through as much harrowing shit as frequently as he had in such a short span of time. He doubted this “Captain Gaelan Malakor” had ever been mutilated by a dragon or literally killed by an Elf. Zach had been worse off than this: so much worse. This was nothing!

His survival instinct fully kicking into gear, Zach shifted his entire body to the right, causing Gaelan’s spear to narrowly miss its target and instead plunge deeply into the stone wall behind Zach. Then, before Gaelan could pull his weapon free, Zach balled both his hands into fists and delivered a powerful right hook into the man’s nose, which he followed up with a left, striking him on the side of his cheek and causing him to unleash a wad of spit as his entire head snapped in the opposite direction from the strength of the punch.

Zach continued, delivering an uppercut right below the chin, and then he pivoted on his hips and delivered yet another powerful blow, bashing him over the right side again with a hook and actually feeling his jaw break. One strike after the next he began to beat the ever-loving shit out of Gaelan, who eventually gave up on trying to retrieve his spear as though realizing it was no longer worth it. Now, he surprised Zach as he balled his own hands into fists and raised his forearms to guard, causing Zach’s next punch to be absorbed. He countered, and Zach was bludgeoned in the face, his nose breaking and the wind knocking out of him. He was hit so hard he barely felt the follow-up jab, which struck him in the mouth.

Angrily, Zach delivered a round kick to the man’s right side, catching him in the ribs and making him grunt—yet it did not throw him off balance. He slammed his fist again into Zach’s face, and this time, Zach felt dizzy. So he decided to share that dizziness. He grabbed Gaelan’s shoulder armor, and then he slammed his entire face into Gaelan’s, headbutting him so hard that he actually cracked through the man’s helmet—though at the cost of opening up his own forehead. He could even see his blood splattering all over the man’s silvery dragon helm.

Dizzy, tipsy, and having lost a great deal of blood, Zach let his body go on autopilot. Powered by nothing but previous experience, his body seemingly ducked all on its own as Gaelan delivered a five-punch combination, none of his blows connecting. He ended this combination with a hook that went wide, which gave Zach exactly the opportunity he needed. He ducked beneath the man’s fist and then dove forward at the stone floor, coming into a roll while simultaneously scooping up his sword. Noticing this, Gaelan spun around and retrieved his double-bladed spear, and then the two weapons clashed yet again, with Zach’s back now to the entrance and Gaelan’s to the dead-end.

Weak and wounded, Zach was now struggling to defend himself effectively. He gritted his teeth as Gaelan struck out twice—and connected twice, ripping off a piece of Zach’s cheek and cutting him open again at the hip. Luckily, Zach was able to dodge a piercing thrust that definitely would’ve been fatal. But Gaelan was also in a poor state, and this became obvious as Zach countered and succeeded in slashing him across the throat, though his blade ended up digging just an inch too shallow to kill him. Gaelan tried to lacerate Zach’s own throat in retaliation. Zach bent backwards and away, then delivered another follow-up slice, which badly missed his intended target but did somehow manage to cut off three of the man’s fingers on his right hand.

This back-and-forth continued, and now Zach entered into what could only be described as the single-greatest struggle for survival he had ever faced. One time after the next, he would strike Gaelan and draw blood, only for the same to be done to him. At this rate, both of them would end up dying. Zach had no idea how he was even still alive. He was cut open in so many places he couldn’t even keep track of them all. His ear had been chopped off, and his belly, chest, hips, throat, and face were all pouring blood. And worst of all, he was down to just eight minutes on Unleashed Phase, virtually ensuring he would not have the time to escape.

Seeing this number drove him into a frenzy. Something snapped inside of him. He’d had enough. He’d fucking had enough!

Taking the biggest risk so far, he dove into—rather than away from—a thrusting attack that Gaelan sent towards his chest. Then he dropped to the ground, sliding behind the man. Filled with desperation and bleeding from seemingly everywhere, he lifted himself up into a crouch and spun himself around while raising his arms and swinging his sword, cutting deeply into Gaelan’s heel and causing him to howl in pain while immediately dropping down, almost certainly immobilized and no longer able to remain standing.

I’ve got him! Zach screamed in his mind.

Zach darted back up to his feet. Now, he was the one who sensed victory. Striking out with his sword, Gaelan, in a kneeling position, defensively swung around his spear, deflecting a number of Zach’s blows, yet Zach now clearly had the advantage. He struck time and time again, hammering away until, eventually, Gaelan became the one whose weapon was knocked out of his grasp.

I’ve fucking got him! Zach thought as he saw the spear rolling away.

On the verge of ending this, Zach slashed again at his throat, and the man, now defenseless could only lean backwards. Though Zach did not get in a clean shot, he caused another spray of blood to stain the walls, nearly killing the man yet again. Having been sliced across the throat one too many times, the man now began to wheeze, and there was terror in his eyes.

Zach, caught up in the rage of battle, screamed out a battle cry and then cut him again across the forehead, taking a chunk of flesh out of his head in the process and knocking off his helm. Yet still, he lived, as his armor stat and constitution appeared to be just high enough to prevent Zach from landing any outright killing blows. Still, with each attack Zach was able to land deeper and deeper cuts.

Slash, slash, slash!

Blood streaked across the hall, splattering to the left, the right, and behind the man as Zach carved him apart. Finally, Zach turned his blade so that it faced the floor, and then he plunged it straight down—and through—Gaelan’s armor, puncturing his lungs. Yet still, incredibly, Gaelan refused to die. But he was close. He must have been. And so Zach tore his blade free, raised it up high, and readied himself for another plunging attack. This was it. He finally had him. His hands gripped tightly on the base of his sword, he drove it down and into—

“DAD!” screamed a voice from somewhere behind Zach. “NO!”

Taken by surprise, Zach hesitated just before delivering the final blow as Gaelan wheezed, coughed up blood, and then fell forward onto his stomach, his flesh making a plopping sound as he dropped down onto the stone floor. And then, an instant later, Zach felt something sharp pressing into his back—though it was not painful. He spun around to face his attacker.

At the moment, his vision was blurry and obscured by a combination of sweat and blood—and not all of the blood was his own. With his impaired vision, he struggled to clearly see who was attacking him, though he could just make out the shadowy form of someone—likely a woman—wielding a spear, though she did not appear to have the strength to actually puncture his flesh. She was certainly trying, though, thrusting a spear repeatedly into him yet failing to cause him any harm.

No time for this, he thought, badly wounded and needing to get a move on. Zach raised his blade, aiming to kill the woman in one swift blow.

“Pl-please,” wheezed Gaelan. “Daughter. No. Pl-please.”

Zach again hesitated. “What?” He wiped his eyes, then glanced over his shoulder to see the dying, gasping man extending his hand urgently with tears now in his eyes—not of pain, but of what looked like fear.

“Pl—”

He gagged, likely on his own blood, unable to finish the word, though Zach knew what he was trying to say. He once again faced forward, and now, with his vision slightly clearer, he nearly dropped his sword in horror as he realized he’d been about to strike down a very, very young girl—probably only fourteen years old from the looks of her—who was trying to skewer him with what looked like a level-1 starter weapon. The girl herself was clad in level-1 cloth armor. Or if not level 1, something very close to it from its unimpressive, bland, and plain appearance.

“Stop that,” he told her.

She continued to scream and attack him, so Zach raised his blade and delivered a strike, though it was one aimed at the spear rather than the girl. With ease, he split the weapon into two even pieces, and it suffered a full break, vanishing a moment later.

“Get out of my way, you monster!” she screamed as she began hammering his chest with her fists, which he also did not feel. He grabbed her wrists, holding them tightly.

“Stop it,” he ordered. She struggled and tried to yank her hands out of his grip.

“Let me go!”

I don’t have time for this.

Zach released her then stepped to the side, allowing her run to her downed father’s side. She dove at him, and she began to wail hysterically. “Gods, please, don’t let this be real,” she begged. “What did you do!” she screamed at Zach, her eyes becoming soaked. “You killed my dad.” She sobbed into his armor. “Please don’t die. Please. I’m begging you. Please!”

Zach was struck by the sight of this. It caused a trauma he thought he’d put behind him to explode in his brain with such vivid detail he felt like he was being transported back in time. He was there again, on that street in Whispery Woods, witnessing his father’s crumpled, broken corpse lying in a pool of glass and his own blood. The jitters returned, though he was far more in control of them than he was before meeting Jascaila. Even still, he’d had an entire week without them, and he’d almost hoped they would never return.

It's a process, he reminded himself.

The girl began to cry harder, wailing and pleading for her father not to die. “I’m…I’m sorry,” Zach whispered to her, though he doubted she could even hear his words right now. He also knew he couldn’t afford to stand around here and watch this, either. With just 7:35 left on his current duration of Unleashed Phase, he was going to have to move faster than a God if he wanted to get Vim out of here and far enough away that he’d still be safe when Zach collapsed from E-debt. He would also probably need to use a few stones on himself, too. Hell, he might need to use some right now, as he was badly, badly wounded, and clearly, passive HP regeneration was not “covering” all of these injuries.

Actually, speaking of stones…

Becoming mindful of Vim’s critical state, Zach rushed over to Vim’s cell, his body leaving behind little splotches of blood in a trail wherever it was that he moved. Yet even as he did so, he could not get the sound of the girl’s endless wailing out of his mind. He struggled to ignore it, but he just couldn’t. Even despite his lack of time, he felt compelled to look over his shoulder. The girl was still by her father’s side, and she was pleading with him to live.

“Daddy, please. Please!”

The man was as good as dead. This much, Zach knew for certain. It was the way he wheezed. The sound of it alone was enough to know his fate was sealed. Still, a rush of guilt pounded into him. He swore. Then he swore even more loudly. Hurrying over to Vim’s side, he knelt down, and with urgency in his tone, he asked, “If you can talk to me, tell me quickly: what, specifically, is wrong with you?”

Vim opened his mouth, his lips quivering, his body shaking. And with a weak, very ill-sounding voice, he whispered, “I’ve got a little headache.”

“Don’t start your shit with me now, Vim, please! Just tell me what’s wrong with you.”

Vim coughed out a laugh—or choked one out was a more apt way of describing it. “Very sick,” he whispered. “Dying.”

Zach felt his spirits lift even as his blood continued oozing out of his many wounds, some of it dripping down and splashing on top of Vim’s face. “So wait a second. Do you have any, like, serious internal injuries?”

Vim mouthed the word no. And now that Zach got a closer look at him, he could see that, while yes, Vim was badly beaten and wounded, his wounds were not in vital areas; no, what was killing the wiry guild leader was almost certainly a combination of disease, starvation, dehydration, and infection—literally everything that a yellow rejuvenation stone was designed to heal.

By now, Zach had learned the purpose for each. Reds were for regrowing limbs and non-vital organs, as well as general-purpose healing. Yellows were for replenishing bodily resources and curing disease, both viral and bacterial in nature, and purples were for repairing internal organs. There were more uses for each, but Zach could not recall them all. Fundamentally, he understood that what Vim needed was a yellow.

He reached into his robe and scooped out all four that he had on him: a red, two yellows, and a purple. Vim would likely need a single red and three yellows to be back to full health. But for now, Zach decided to use just one yellow.

“Gods,” Vim whispered, a note of excitement entering his voice. “You…you have stones?”

It was only now that Zach realized Vim did not expect Zach to actually show up with any. And his expression lit up with pure gratitude as Zach pressed one against his forehead, seeing it disappear. Now, before Zach’s eyes, he watched as some of the color visibly returned to Vim’s face. His cheeks became slightly redder, his eyes less yellow, and he was at last able to speak in more or less complete sentences. In just a matter of seconds, he transformed from someone on death’s doorstep to someone who resembled a very, very sick hospital patient who had just undergone surgery and was now in recovery, albeit with a long road ahead of them.

“Oh, Gods, the relief,” he said, sighing. “I’m still weak, but I feel so much better now than I did a few seconds ago. Zach, do you have another yellow?” He greedily eyed the one in Zach's palm.

Another yellow would fix him up perfectly, but…

Zach looked over his shoulder and at the girl, who was soaking her father in her tears. “Please!” she shouted, likely speaking to the Gods. “Please don’t take my daddy away from me,” she begged as her father wheezed, and now made gargling sounds that sounded horrific and struck at Zach’s very soul. “Please! Daddy, please. You promised me you wouldn’t die. You promised. You said you’d be home tomorrow. Please, daddy. Please. Please!”

Fuck.

“I know what you’re thinking, Zach.”

“Vim,” Zach said, meeting the eyes of the leader of the Royal Roses. “I have to.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

He sighed. “Fine. I’ll just suffer, then.”

“Don’t be a dick. You’re not dying anymore.”

He coughed. “You sure about that?”

“Mostly.”

“Why did you come here? They might hit us with another of the weapons because you—”

“No, there’s…there’s a lot of things that happened you don’t know about. I’ll tell you later. But…but for now just…hold on. I’ll be right back.”

Zach got up, spun around, and trailing more blood behind him on the stone flooring, he walked over to his downed enemy. The girl turned her head as she saw him coming, and she shrieked. “Get away!” she screamed. “Get away from my dad! Noooo! Get away!”

He brushed her aside. Then, with a bit more force than he’d used on Vim, he slapped a purple stone right down on the man’s chest, as well as a red and finally the other yellow. This, as his daughter began again punching his chest with her fists, which would likely only cause her pain, as he could barely feel it.

“I’m helping him, you dummy,” he said to her.

“Huh?” She stopped abruptly. “Helping him?”

Zach looked at her. “Your dad’s hurt real, real bad. I gave him three healing stones but even that…I don’t think what I gave him will be enough to save his life. But it should make it so that, uh, instead of dying in the next ten seconds, you have at least two hours to get him to a hospital or something. It’s all I can do now. I’m sorry.”

The girl looked at him as though absolutely mystified. Then she spun around and once more looked at her father. The man’s wheezing and gargling had stopped, and already, the rise and fall of his chest seemed a great deal more normal. Perhaps too normal. Actually, was he already moving?

Oh no.

As a sign of his strength and willpower, the man sat up—and then stood up. Now, Zach, still dripping blood, backed away as he actually returned to his feet, retrieved his spear, and looked as though he had been fully healed.

“I have a unique passive that boosts the effectiveness of healing magic and stones on me by three-hundred percent,” he said as though sensing Zach’s confusion. He bent down, retrieved his helmet, and placed it on his head. The front of his breastplate was already almost repaired, as armor tended to repair itself much faster while out of combat—assuming it had not suffered a full break.

“I didn’t know that,” Zach whispered.

“Now you do.”

Zach cursed himself for being so stupid. Fear exploded within him. Gods, what had he done? The man should’ve been incapacitated and in critical condition. And yet, already, not even a minute had gone by, and he was back on his feet and staring at Zach. And then he began to lift his spear, extending it in Zach’s direction.

And it was here where Zach truly came to accept that he now deserved whatever happened to him. Because he knew better. This wasn’t his first screwup of this caliber. That was the worst part of it all. It was that Zach knew better. How many fucking times did he have to have his acts of kindness turned against him? How many times did he need to have his deeds backfire before he finally learned not to do shit like this? Before he finally understood that people couldn’t be trusted?

Time and time again, he made stupid, thoughtless decisions, and then he promised himself he would become smarter, wiser, and not fall for the same pitfalls. He swore he’d never trust people again, only to end up trusting. He promised he would stop sticking his neck out for others, only to have it nearly decapitated. The lessons he was supposed to learn—why couldn’t he learn them?

By now, Zach should have known that any time he risked himself for dangerous people, they were going to turn on him. Because people, ultimately, could not be trusted. He needed to purge the weakness within him. He needed to give up on the idea that people deep down were good and naturally inclined to—

“That way,” Gaelan said, extending his spear towards the dead-end wall rather than stabbing him with it.

Zach stared at him, confused. “What?”

“There’s a hidden passage. It’ll take you back to the surface. You should be able to get a head start in taking the Gnome wherever it is you intend to go.”

Swallowing nervously, Zach asked, “You’re…you’re not going to kill me?”

Gaelan visibly cringed as though he found the suggestion disgusting. “What kind of…what kind of monster would do that? You defeated me in combat and then spared my life. What manner of beast would even begin to think of doing something so treacherous and dishonorable? Imagine the world we’d live in if that was how people behaved?”

Tell that to Fylwen, Zach thought to himself, resisting the temptation to roll his eyes. He had to mentally remind himself that he’d already let this go and had come to admire and like the woman. Even still, it was a sore spot.

“You’re really just going to let me and Vim go?”

He nodded—no, he did more than nod. He bowed. “Peter respected you. Now, I can see why. Thank you for not harming my daughter. I was wrong about you.”

Zach shook his head. “You weren’t. I killed so many people today.”

“War,” he said, speaking as though that one word alone was enough to convey an entire sentence. In a way, it was.

Not wanting to give the man a chance to change his mind, Zach scooped up Vim and threw him over his shoulder despite his angry protestations and demands to be let down. This, as the man activated a hidden button built in the stone wall that caused the wall to slide to the side, revealing a stairway that went straight up to the surface and thankfully didn’t spiral.

“Your chance of making it out alive is still quite low,” Gaelan said to him. “You’re badly wounded and there’s a whole lot of enemies between you and a way out of this city. You’ll probably pass out from blood loss very soon and die even sooner. I wish I could do more for you. I mean that.”

Zach shrugged, causing Vim to groan as he carried the little man. “I’ve been in worse spots than this.”

“I see…”

With only six minutes left on Unleashed Phase, and a rapidly growing feeling of lightheadedness overcoming him, Zach actually wondered if that was true. Deep down, he knew he was probably going to die again today. He had come to save Vim, but now he had no healing stones, no time, and he was half dead.

Okay, this time, I think I’m actually screwed. I think I really might have…this might be it.

He was alone in enemy territory with a very ill—though not deathly ill—guild leader and he was leaving a trail of blood with every step that he took. The situation was probably hopeless. Even still, he continued to try his best.

I need to let the others know how I made out, he realized.

Taking off at a run, he placed a call to Mr. Oren to let him know the situation in the hope that, should the worst happen, at least Vim could be rescued and humanity could still have a future. It wasn’t that this kind of selflessness came easy to Zach, either. Had he been in a normal state of mind, he’d be freaking out right about now.

But he’d lost so much blood, and it was starting to have an almost calming, drowsy effect on him. He was in so much pain, but he was also becoming woozy and detached. With Vim over his right shoulder, he used his left hand to dial Mr. Oren. The conversation was surprisingly brief, though there was no mistaking the worry in Mr. Oren’s voice. Finishing up quickly, he then called Queen Vayra, as there was one last thing he absolutely had to do. He spoke to her quickly, summarizing events as fast as he could.

“I just need you to let her know I love her in case, you know.”

“How bad is it, young man?”

“I’m uh…it’s bad.”

“How bad?”

“Let’s just say…” He paused to breathe, suddenly feeling weak and short of breath. It was a struggle just to speak, but still he continued to ascend step after step with Vim on his shoulder. “Let’s just say I’ve only got five minutes left on Unleashed Phase, and it still probably won’t be the thing that kills me.”

“Very well. I’ll send for help.”

“Don’t bother. I’m in way too deep. I’m only calling you so you’ll give Kal my last words if…you know. In case. Make sure she knows I love her.”

“Okay, I’ll call her and let her know now.”

“W-wait!” he shouted, suddenly becoming far more awake and alert. Her words caused him to feel such a spike in anxiety that he nearly tripped over the top step. Or maybe it was because things ahead were starting to blur. It was becoming a struggle to keep conscious. “Definitely not now, Gods dammit!”

“Oh? I should wait?”

“Obviously!”

“Very well. I won’t say a word for now.”

Zach sighed. “Okay, thanks.”

With that, he ended the call and continued on. He couldn’t believe Fylwen almost dialed Kal. That would have been real, real bad.

******

“He’s where?” Kalana screamed into her phone, unable to believe what her mother had hidden from her. Pain exploded in her chest as Donovan and Zephyr continued to stand by her side, both of them silent. They, along with all the raiders, had now returned to Galterra together and had gathered in a large pub in one of the quieter areas of Slopes of Dal'Zarrah to await the roll for loot.

“My daughter, cease your dramatic howling. This is precisely why he asked me not to tell you any of this. Truly, you must stop these theatrics, Kalana. I’m betraying his trust just in telling you this.”

“I don’t care about that right now!” she shouted. “Tell me where he is, or I swear, mom, I’ll never forgive you!”

She explained, and Kalana had to resist the urge to scream yet again as all the adventurers eagerly awaiting the loot roll turned their heads to look at her, concern in their eyes. The more her mother explained, the more upset she became, and the more betrayed she felt. “He’s fighting a war by himself?”

“He’s fuckin’ what?” Donovan asked, slamming a big mug of beer onto the countertop.

Kalana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Mom, tell me everything. Please!”

“Perhaps this was indeed a mistake…”

“Mom!”

“Very well,” she said with slight grunt. “But only since your petulance comes at such an abhorrent time. Zach called me perhaps a minute or so ago. He’s succeeded in rescuing Vim Alazar, and now he’s planning to fight his way to the Piercing Thorn.”

Kalana felt tears roll down her eyes. “But he told me he was going to bed. He…he lied to me.”

“Of course he did,” her mother stated bluntly. “He’s a brave boy, and he wished to spare you the pain of experiencing war. Honestly, Kalana, he has grown so much on me. I fully approve of him now as though he were an Elf. He brings us—and you—honor.”

“But he lied to me, mom!”

“As he should have,” she said, her words striking Kalana deeply. “You stand alone as the only Elf to ignore the call to action. You stand alone as the only Elf whose heart is too soft to appease the Gods. You have much growing up to do, daughter.”

As insulting and irritating as her mom’s words might’ve been, Kalana didn’t even care about them right now. She was too worried about Zach to focus on her mom’s stupid war that stupid Adamus told her to fight in. As far as Kalana was concerned, only Eilea was a real Goddess. Adamus was just a jerk. Even Jascaila thought so. Everybody was making a really big mistake in listening to him. But that was a whole different thing.

He doesn’t trust me, she thought, an ache in her chest. He doesn’t even trust me.

She wiped her eyes. “Why did he lie to me?” she asked her mother, sobbing. It hurt so bad.

“Because he doesn’t want you there, Kalana. Can you truly not see why he’s done this? It’s quite obvious. He loves you. And he knows you cannot—”

“Just tell me where he is now!” she screamed.

Her mother made another angry grunt, which came through over the phone. “As I said, that is the reason I’ve called you against his wishes and confidence. Right now, he is about to fight his way to the shore, but he claims to have been badly wounded.”

“How badly?” she asked, her heart beginning to pound faster and faster as she awaited her mother’s reply. “How badly!” she shouted into the phone.

“Very badly,” her mother stated.

“He’s in the southwest of the city?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

Kalana hung up, ignoring whatever mom had to say next. She met Donovan’s eyes. “I have to go immediately. Zach’s hurt bad. Do the roll without me.”

He opened his mouth to question her, but she’d already grabbed her daggers off the counter and re-sheathed them at her sides. She eyed the window and looked outside the pub. If she leapt across the rooftops, she could make it to the Grand Library in under two minutes. From there, she could pick any reasonable dungeon that had a nearby door to Angelica’s, and she could get one of the adventurers with an exit door near Shadowfall Coast to let her out. That should get her within a few miles. It would be a difficult trip to make in such a short time, but it could be done. Of course it could.

I can get there in under five minutes, she thought. But I need more stones.

“Please,” she begged, looking at the faces of the human adventurers around her. “Please. If any of you could umm, if you guys could please just lend me a few of your stones, I would repay you, I promise, and I’d give you more than they’re worth. And I’d also—”

Before she could even finish speaking, hands were extending towards her from every angle: dozens of them. She nodded her head graciously. She could see why Zach had fallen in love with this community. She really understood now. He belonged here among the adventurers. He should’ve been here with them right now. Maybe if he’d come along, Jimmy wouldn’t have gotten hurt and run off. He should have been here!

Why did you have to lie?

Accepting only what she believed she might need, she stuffed a few stones into her pockets and graciously thanked those that’d given them to her. Many of the adventurers were also asking if they could accompany her, especially Rian and Lienne, but Kalana politely refused. She had made up her mind to travel alone—well, almost alone. One of the adventurers insisted on tagging along, and she knew he wouldn’t be stopped.

“Fluffles coming too,” the cat said with a meow. “I fight.”

She knelt down before him. “If I let you come, kitty, you have to promise me you’re not gonna kill anybody, okay?”

He hissed. “I kill five.”

“No! Zero people. Promise me.” She frowned at him. “You gotta promise.”

“Okay,” the cat said, purring. “I promise. Fluffles not kill.”

“Good kitty,” she said. Then she grimaced. “We need to get there before Zach kills anybody either. I don’t wanna see him in pain, and there’s a better way. We don’t gotta kill.”

Fluffles meowed. “Kalana too late. Zach kill.”

“Huh?” she asked, looking at him.

“Zach already kill 107 humans today.” Then he meowed. “Now kill 108. 110. 114.”

Kalana—and every adventurer including Donovan—gasped in disbelief. “Are you serious?” Donovan asked.

Fluffles meowed happily. “Zach already kill 119 humans. Fluffles so proud! He the best hunter.”

Donovan made a low groan, then shook his head. “The fuck is going on with him?” He scowled. “This is Alex’s fault. I know it is. That fucker’s gonna ruin him. Ah, shit, I’ve had it! I’m gonna rip that prick’s head off if he keeps corrupting the kid like this. We’re gonna lose him as an adventurer if this keeps up. Ain’t possible for him to keep doing shit like this. Not if he wants to be part of us. He’s going in the wrong direction.”

Kalana didn’t know what was going on or why, but she knew she needed to leave immediately. Checking quickly to ensure she had everything that she needed, she took off, leapt to the top of the three-story pub, and then dashed to another roof across the road. If there was no straight path, she would make one.

Zach had lied to her. She was hurting. She felt betrayed and untrusted. But all of that was secondary right now, because she loved him, and he wasn’t okay. She just wanted him to be okay. Gods, please, protect him until she got there.

*****

There was an explosion, and Zach held on more tightly to his Kralzek’s Beast, as the cannon inside its throat launched an explosive shell that blasted apart the third floor of an apartment building, where three leveled archers were firing arrows down on him and Vim. Afterwards, he ordered his beast to spin violently around and move in the opposite direction as several armored tanks and a legion of infantry, as well as a number of leveled defenders, turned the corner of the street in front of him and tried to cut him off.

“This is bad, Vim,” he said, having his mount instead dash through an alley as he continued to try to evade the tightening net closing in around them. The entire city seemed to be aware that he and Vim were out and about, and there were hostile forces everywhere.

“If we live through his,” Vim said weakly, “you know you’re being promoted, right?”

Zach barked out a laugh. “Promoted? I’m not even really a member of your guild.”

“Mhm. Sure.”

“Stop that,” Zach said.

Now, Vim made a laugh as well, though his was weak and strained. “You’re taking Varsh’s role: fourth-in-command of the Royal Roses.”

Zach felt his jaw drop. “You’re fucking with me.”

“Not this time,” Vim said as the mount leapt through the second-story window of another apartment, causing a father and a mother to scream at the top of their lungs, grab their children, and hide behind a green couch as Zach shouted out an apology and raced across their living room, knocking over their coffee table, causing their screen to fall off the wall, and tearing up a section of their area rug. His mount then jumped through another window, bringing them back outside into the very early morning darkness, falling back down to the street.

“I’m an adventurer,” Zach insisted. “I’ll never be a member of a political guild.”

“So I take it you won’t be moving into your hundred-acre estate in Giant’s Fall, then? And you’ll be rejecting your monthly gold stipends?”

His words roused Zach so much that his blurred vision cleared for a moment. Gods, he was in so much pain. He was also so tired. He wanted to close his eyes and sleep. He was fighting to stay awake and guide his mount. Yet Vim’s words, at least for a few moments, managed to bring him back into the present.

“I get that?”

“Yes.”

Zach cleared his throat. “Well, since you’re forcing it on me, I’ll obviously take it. Doesn’t mean I’m really a member of your shitty guild.”

“Of course not,” Vim said. “Now stay awake and fight the embrace of death. Haisel will take care of us if we can just get to the shore.”

From the constant sounds of explosions and gunfire, Zach knew in which direction he needed to head. But honestly? He really, really didn’t think he was going to make it there. He was just so tired. Even as he leaned over to his right side, extended his sword-carrying arm, and decapitated a motorcycle-riding member of the Guild of Gentleman who pulled up beside him, he felt like he was about to slump over and pass out.

I just need to get Vim close enough to where someone else can rescue him. Then…then whatever happens, happens. So tired. I want to sleep.