We had another problem.

Jord was gone.

The young Nobleman must have seen a chance to slip out during the confusion and taken it.

“What do we do?” Ren was looking around from the roof.

“I don’t see him anywhere.” I looked at Rix. "Did you see him leave?”

The redheaded Shooter shook her head. I could see in her face that she was mentally kicking herself for missing something else.

“I’m going to go look for him.” Gesai moved to the edge of the roof.

“WAIT!” I rushed forward to grab her arm. "If that man wins, then we’ll have plenty of time to look for him.” I hated what I was suggesting, but it was the smart play. "But if he loses, then we don’t know how you’ll be punished for leaving the building.”

Gesai pulled against my arm, but considering that she could have broken my hold on her if she’d wanted, I knew I’d gotten through to her.

“Fine.” Gesai sat down. "The old lady seemed to like him, so maybe he’ll be okay.”

There was a flash of light as Yhan leveled up. The lift guard fell into two pieces as the Nobleman turned his full attention to Glima.

“Do you think we should tell him not to kill her?” Justia looked at me.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Do you think he’d listen?” I hated that two potential allies were fighting to the death, but there was no way that a level three like myself was going to go in between them and get them to stop fighting.

I looked around the bunker and spotted Jord making his way onto the now unguarded lift. I started to say something, but realized Rix must have seen what I saw, but didn’t say anything for some reason.

I moved over to her. "What do you see that I don’t?” I whispered. I didn’t want to alert the others, because if they thought they could get to the lift unimpeded, I assumed most of them would try.

Rix nodded at three Bandits that swarmed the lift before it could make its way to the surface. I winced as Jord got overpowered like he was a blade of grass and dragged out of sight.

“Should we try to help him?” I doubted we’d be able to do anything, but still, it felt wrong to not do anything.

Rix shook her head and pointed at the newest challenger.

So far, Glima had been able to keep Yhan off of her, but she was losing ground. This new Bandit began walking towards the fight with as much concern on his face as he would have had for a pair of children wrestling.

“By the Gods…” Gesai saw him and started backing up. “He’s here?!”

“Who?” I looked from Rix to Gesai.

“Whisper Err.” Oz answered for them. She began to back away from the edge as well. "He’s on the top ten most wanted criminals in the world.”

“And Sipher is?” I tried to get a point of reference.

“Number two.” Gesai’s voice was full of fear that hadn’t been there a few moments before. “He’s at least Tier Four, which means that guy doesn’t have a chance.”

The handsome blonde outlaw began weaving his hands and a half ring of ice shot away from him, freezing Yhan from the knees down.

The Noble began hacking at the ice, but without mobility, there was nowhere for him to run as Whisper walked up to him and took the sword out of his hands.

The outlaw stabbed the Noble through the chest with the sword and turned to Glima. He said something that we couldn’t hear, but what it meant to us was clear.

Our chance to escape had just vanished.