“You killed the subboss.”

Ezra stood up and cracked his neck to the left.

“Yeah, and?”

Yuki stood to her feet, her hands gripped around her staff. Pete’s hands shook as he adjusted his grip on his bow. Ezra looked at Charles, an expression of contempt on his face. He twirled his needle between his fingers like a pencil.

“So, care to explain what you’re doing here?” Ezra stopped moving his needle.

Charles shrugged his shoulders, his eyes darted toward Ezra’s needle before going back to Ezra’s face.

“What can I say?” he said. “I was a bit disappointed when I found out you got that information crystal. How am I supposed to have my showdown with the boss monster without that?”

The crystal seemed to sit heavy in Ezra’s pocket.

“I’m never going to give it up to you in a hundred years,” Ezra said. “I won it, and I’m keeping it.”

Charles pulled out his razor. “Ezra, I don’t think that I gave you an option.”

There was a flash, and Charles rushed toward Ezra.

Ezra barely had a moment to think. He jumped to the side, throwing out his hand.

“[Restrain]!”

The threads flew out toward Charles with all their customary speed. Charles’s eyes darted around, then his arm blurred with the gleam of steel, and the threads fell to the ground. Immediately, Charles dashed after Ezra.

He pulled back his fist.

The attack impacted Ezra’s chest, knocking the air out of him along with a bundle of spittle. Ezra flew through the air like a ragdoll before landing in a heap.

205/300

Pain shot through Ezra’s chest. His body spasmed for a moment before he pushed himself off the ground into a slouched position.

He gripped the skin over his heart and looked up at Charles.

“God,” he said. “You hit like a truck, you know that?”

Charles pointed his razor at Ezra.

“I dumped all my stats into Dexterity and Strength,” he said. “Min-maxing, you know? My abilities are almost nonexistent, so this is what I chose to do. Turns out it’s a pretty effective strategy.”

Ezra’s fist clenched around his needle.

“[Polymorphism].”

The needle changed to something the size of a dirk.

Charles sighed. “Do you seriously think that’ll make a difference? Honestly, Ezra, think rationally.”

Yuki and Pete had been watching, unsure where to intervene. Yuki took a step forward.

Ezra’s eyes darted toward her.

“Don’t get in the way,” he said.

Yuki shrank back. After a moment, she shook her head. “Fine.”

Charles stared down Ezra for several moments.

“I’ll cut you a deal,” he said. “Hand me the information crystal and I’ll let you go. That simple.”

Ezra laughed, then winced and gripped his stomach.

“Never,” he said.

“Your loss.”

Charles had put everything into Dexterity and Strength. That meant he was a glass cannon, right? One good hit would result in his death. Ezra tensed his muscles. He just needed to predict Charle’s movements. That’s what it would take. One good hit.

Ezra dashed toward Charles.

“[Entangle]!”

Thick threads like rope cracked out of the ground and raced toward Charles. Charles rolled his eyes and cut through the threads with a few quick swings of his knife.

Ezra pulled back his needle and threw it. “[Precision Prick].”

Charles had just finished cutting the various threads to pieces when the needle flew toward him. For a split second, his eyes widened in shock. He threw his razor up into a rough parry and the needle clanged off of his razor

“Recall!

The needle glowed and disappeared from the air, reappearing in Ezra’s hand. He dashed forward and Charles backpedeled as quickly as he could.

“Shit!” he said.

Ezra took one long step and stabbed out toward Charles’s chest. The needle just grazed the edge of Charles’s armor, unable to pierce it. Charles grinned, then reversed direction, pushing inward. Unprepared, Ezra was powerless to stop the cut coming toward his chest.

The knife sank deep inside his stomach, piercing through his armor.

105/300

Ezra pushed back, wrenched the razor out of his chest, and jumped back. He placed his hand on his chest.

“This is some of the shittiest armor ever,” Ezra said.

Charles flicked his razor and splattered the blood to the ground.

“I don’t want to kill you, Ezra,” he said. “You’re a fellow human, not a monster. But the longer you resist, the higher the likelihood that I slip up. Just come peacefully with me.”

Ezra growled and adjusted his stance. “Not in a hundred years.”

“You asked for it,” Charles said.

Charles was still for a moment, then dashed forward. Ezra threw his needle into a block, protecting him from the first strike. A moment later, Charles’s razor blurred and stabbed toward Ezra’s arm.

Ezra blocked the strike, then stabbed out toward Charles with his own needle. Charles blocked the shot, then stepped inward. Using his free hand, he punched Ezra in the wound.

Pain shot up Ezra’s spine and he resisted the urge to scream. He stumbled back onto a tree trunk, the strength gone in his body.

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Charles raised his fist to strike at Ezra, probably to knock him out.

“[Entangle]!”

Charles paused and shook his head.

“Oh, come on, Ezra. Seriously?” he said.

Charles stood there, not seeing the threads passing between the trees to his left and right, behind his head. There was a quiet groan from the wood bending.

Charles froze, then paled.

Two trees wrenched out of the ground and flew at him, empowered by [Entangle] to seek each other out, and Charles was right in the center. He took a step back—right into the threads that spelled his doom.

That split-second of hesitation cost him everything.

The two logs flew together. A massive bang and heavy splintering sound boomed through the forest.

Ezra shielded his eyes from the flying pieces of wood. He slowly turned his head back around.

“Is he still alive?” he said.

There was blood on the wood. Charles had at least gotten injured.

“Ah shit, I didn’t want to kill him,” Ezra said. “Well, damn.”

The sensation of cool steel on his neck made him freeze.

Ezra slowly turned his head.

Charles was standing behind him, his razor at Ezra’s throat. He was sweating buckets and his face was pale white while his other arm hung limply at his side. Ezra had done damage.

But not enough.

“Crystal. Now,” he said.

Ezra didn’t respond.

“Don’t test me, Ezra.” Charles pushed the straight razor closer to Ezra’s throat.

Ezra slowly reached into his pocket, revealing the information crystal. He presented it before Charles. Charles yanked the crystal out of Ezra’s hand. He stepped back and glanced over at Yuki and Pete.

“This is the guy you chose to follow,” he said. “You regretting your decision?”

Yuki was silent.

Charles’s nose twitched and he sniffed. “Whatever, You three are coming with me.”

Ezra’s mind raced. Surely he wasn’t done for. He had to have something else up his sleeve, some trick he hadn’t thought of.

[Bind]? No, it just did the same thing as [Restrain]. What about an air attack? He hadn’t gotten the chance to use it. Maybe it would actually be useful.

“Whatever you’re planning on doing, don’t,” a voice said.

Ezra’s head darted to the left and right. He could vaguely recognize the voice but couldn’t identify the source. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

“Dorian?” he whispered.

“You can’t fight him as you are. If you tried, you’re just going to get yourself killed. I can’t have that, can I?” she said.

“How are you talking to me like this?” he said.

“Clever application of teleportation. Now, just be still.”

Ezra didn’t know whether or not to rust her. After all, she didn’t really have a reason to help them, right? Nonetheless, he was quiet. It wouldn’t hurt to wait, after all.

Charles stood in the center, his head moving from Yuki to Ezra.

“Don’t make a move, any of you,” he said. “The rest of the group will soon catch up, and then you’ll be taken back to the castle, or maybe Synica will do something. Either way, the jig is up.”

Ezra looked over at Yuki. She was tightening her grip on her staff, then, she paused, her eyes widening. She blinked a few times, then let her hands loosen off the staff. Ah, so Dorian was speaking to all of them, eh? What was her game? Ezra waited patiently. Charles had continued to talk about the rule of law and something about a fair trial. Ezra had mentally filtered him out a while ago.

Then, Ezra felt an odd sensation. His feet started to feel weightless—as if he was floating.

Charles turned around to continue lecturing, then he saw them glowing.

“Wait, what the hell are you guys doing?” He marched over. “Stop that!”

Ezra shrugged. “Sorry buddy, I don’t know what’s going on any better than you do.”

Their bodies pulsed with green light. Sensations attacked them, it was impossible to tell where anything was. The world flipped, lights and sounds assaulted Ezra’s senses. What was happening? Ezra wasn’t sure.

Then he plopped onto the ground.

Dorian stood in front of them.

“Now then, let’s make something clear,” she said. “You guys are idiots.”

----------------------------------------

They were in a small ravine. Rocks surrounded them, preventing them from being seen by any would-be attackers.Dorian was wearing her steel armor and staring at them. She raised an eyebrow at Ezra. Ezra did not react. Dorian glared at Ezra, her left eye twitched for a moment before a realization flashed across her face. She grinned like a Cheshire cat and shrugged.

“Honestly, I saved your life and this is the thanks I get? How rude,” she said.

Ezra was about to respond and object when a sound caught his attention. Yuki dropped to her knees. She held her hand on her chest and breathed hard. Sweat formed and dropped onto the ground.

Pete dashed over to her. “Yuki?”

“I—I’m fine!” she said.

Ezra approached her and kneeled down. “You’re not fine.”

Yuki sniffled.

“You think I don’t know that?!” she said.

Ezra sighed. For a moment, he considered walking away. But…

Yuki’s dimensional storage was really useful. It wouldn’t do for her to have a mental breakdown.

“You’ve been under an enormous amount of mental stress. No one can blame you for feeling this way,” he said.

Dorian blinked and looked at him as if he were an alien before she narrowed her eyes at Yuki. Pete tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows.

“I want you to breathe slowly, Yuki,” he said, his tone calm. “Breath in through your nose for 5 seconds. Exhale through your mouth for the same amount of time. Do it with me.”

He breathed in for five seconds, then exhaled.

Yuki, after a few cycles of him doing this, joined in. After a couple of minutes of this, she stopped. She looked away from Ezra and drew her knees to her chest.

“I’m okay now,” she said.

Ezra looked around. Dorian was staring at him. Pete, meanwhile, had changed his focus to his weapon. He had an expression of pure hatred as he stared at his weapon. His hands were gripped so tightly that his knuckles had turned pure white.

“Pete?” Ezra said.

“I had an ability that could’ve helped,” Pete said. “[Smoke Arrow]. But it wouldn’t activate, just like all my other abilities.”

Ezra watched on.

“It’s useless, Ezra,” Pete said. “This weapon is completely useless!”

He raised his hand to throw it to the ground. Well, Ezra couldn’t have that, could he? After all, Pete wouldn’t make very good cannon fodder without a weapon.

“Don’t,” Ezra said.

Pete froze. He turned his face toward Ezra and furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why?”

Ezra crossed his arms and glared at him. He didn’t really have an articulate reason, but hopefully, glaring would be enough to deter any bad behavior from Pete. Pete sighed and drew his weapon closer to his chest. He slumped and stared at the ground.

“Yeah, yeah. I shouldn’t,” he said.

Dorian leaned in toward Ezra, her hands folded behind her back.

“Well, Ezra, how sweet of you,” she said. “I had no idea you had such a caring streak.”

“My cannon fodder needs to be stable and chill to be useful.”

Yuki lowered her head and sighed, though a flicker of a smile played across her face. Pete rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, Ezra,” Dorian said.

A noise caught their attention.

“Dorian?” a voice called out. “The rest of the class is moving ahead.”

Dorian’s head looked up. She shimmied her way out of the ravine to meet up with whoever was speaking.

Ezra pressed himself against the edge of the ravine wall. Yuki scampered over to follow Ezra. Pete froze, then stuck himself to the wall like a magnet.

“Dorian… why were you in a hole?” the voice said.

The voice.

It was Charles.

Ezra clenched his fists around his needle. For a moment he considered just ambushing the guy. He sucked in a breath and sighed, the anger exhaling at the same time. He couldn’t afford to do that. As much as he hated to admit it, at this moment, Charles was stronger.

“Oh, you know,” Dorian said. “I was just doing… hole things?”

“Right…” Charles said. “Something weird happened while I was fighting Ezra, you know. I found him, beat him, then it seemed like he vanished. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Of course not!” Dorian said. “I would never!”

Ezra rolled his eyes. If she was trying to keep them from getting caught she was doing a terrible job.

Charles hummed.

“Well, guess that’s that.” There was a shuffling noise as he turned around. He stopped. “I would note that if anyone is listening in, I’ll be confronting the boss monster pretty soon. Such a shame that Ezra couldn’t get to it first.”

Ezra resisted the urge to jump out of the ravine and strangle Charles. It was shockingly difficult. Charles was still for a moment before he started walking off. Yuki breathed a sigh of relief and Pete wiped a bundle of sweat off his forehead.

“I guess there’s nothing to do now but run away,” Yuki said.

Ezra shook his head. “Absolutely not. We’re going to watch them.”

Yuki’s head swiveled in the direction of Ezra.

“What?” she said.

Ezra nodded.

“I need to get a better handle on Charles’s abilities for our rematch.”

“R-rematch!? Are you insane?!”

“Do you think I care if I’m insane?”

She paced back and forth for a bit before kicking the wall with her boot on. She reached up and grabbed clumps of her hair, then let out another screech.

“I’m losing my mind,” she said. “Everyone here is losing it too, obviously, otherwise you wouldn’t even be considering such a stupid decision.”

Ezra sighed.

“Look, me and Charles are going to fight again. It’s inevitable. I need to get a better grasp on his powers. Otherwise, I’m doomed for the same fate.” He looked down at the needle in his hand, an unreadable expression on his face. “It’s clear that me and my weapon aren’t powerful enough.”

Yuki clenched her jaw. “Why? Why are you two going to fight? Couldn’t we just leave? Head south?”

“How will I kill the Demon Lord if I run away from him?”

Yuki paused. She slowly reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Wait, what?” she said. “Why? I sincerely doubt you’re doing it out of the goodness of your heart.”

Wow, for once she’s actually said something intelligent. He crossed his arms.

“None of your business. But that’s my goal.”

Yuki pursed her lips together.

“You know that Synica will probably be able to see us, no matter how well we hide?”

“She will, but she won’t capture us.”

Yuki furrowed her eyebrows together.. “What? Why?”

Ezra shrugged.

“Beats me. All I can tell you is that she’s supported me in my escape attempts.”

Yuki was quiet.

“Fine.” She said. “But if we get captured, I’m blaming you.”