"Fine."

Flaze's stare fell heavily upon me as she spoke the single word.

"Excellent!" Geneva clapped once, pleased. Her assumption was that Flaze was talking to her.

The world exploded into motion in the next moment, just to prove her wrong.

[Hellish Fireball].

The fireball landed on Geneva and exploded. The nearby warriors and soldiers were taunted by the clone of Flaze.

The original of my friend shifted, a samurai taking the place of she who was once a squire. Her knees tensed, wound like a spring, and then she shot out for a single burning woman.

Geneva.

Her guards were distracted, taunted, and so was she. No one saw it coming, their leader beheaded before anyone could even understand the current situation, much less react.

A single moment passed.

[Longstrider].

Spells flared up fully all around, I felt the pull of a Taunt from two places, one overpowering the other.

[Blessed Heal].

I worked my legs as the nearby soldiers descended upon the clone of Flaze, her ethereal body near instantly destroyed. I reached the original while our enemies suffered the last vestiges of the late clone's taunt, a heal of my own landing on Flaze.

She wasted no time and jumped on my back as I passed.

[Trailblazer].

I ran. Full speed ahead, debilitating light trailing behind me. Explosions resounded by my rear as the mages and rangers entirely missed their mark. Others yet used guns, and I heard the rattling of their shells. I had to heal against the bullets that managed to hit without ever halting my dash.

I moved forward, far too fast for them to react, much less keep up, Geneva's guards just now turning back to chase after us.

The chain of command had crumbled with her loss.

And then I saw someone familiar as I moved ahead. Someone we had just reunited with, earlier.

It was Philip, and Flaze met his eyes.

My friend unconsciously reached out her hand, and Philip took a half-step forward, but he pulled his own hand back, a frown crossing his face.

Another few steps I took, and he quickly disappeared out of sight. We headed deeper into their territory for we were not exiting the way we came.

A profound look of sadness overcame Flaze's complexion for a second, spells and arrows still sailing at us from all around, but none of them hitting. She sniffed and shook it all away, re-diverting her gaze forwards, towards our escape.

Thank you for not betraying me, and I'm sorry for ever doubting you. We'll get you some more quiet later. But for now, stick with me. I know it sucks, but please bear with it, until we've fled.

"STOP!" I heard someone yell, and immediately I felt fear grip my heart. My gait slowed, pain shot up from my rear from projectiles finding their mark, and I saw a man in a police uniform catching up.

I gnashed my horse teeth and chanted in my mind, ancient powers long forgotten drawn forth.

[Blessed Heal].

[Curse of The Horse].

The man halted, my mind cleared. I moved forward again, still with the same unreasonable speed for my Longstrider cannot be undone by such a momentary lapse.

I flew off, away from the fighting, and towards where our enemies had taken residence.

Beyond the defensive line, we got to see what Green Skull Street really was like. People were out in the streets, the buildings were occupied, a small community trying to make something out of the end of times.

They gaped and pointed at our passing, those in our way jumping out of our path, but not fast enough. I tried to not hit them, but it's quite difficult when I'm going this fast. I heard the sound of pained screams and the crunch of bones breaking. I was not able to evade all of them. Not without slowing down. Not without jeopardizing our escape.

[Your Party has defeated a Level 19 Warrior!]

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Fuck you. That was my kill and mine alone. Not a party's, not of Flaze.

The end of the street soon came to view, the opposite edge of the settlement. There was another perimeter here, one similar to the one we had just fled. Spikes jutted outwards, the defenders busy with more goblins trying to invade.

Few noticed our approach. Fewer yet were aware of our treachery.

I lowered my head and prepared to run them through, aiming for the gap in the spikes.

Shouts of confusion resounded, a Taunt made its way into my mind. I healed against it, and flowed the same skill towards Flaze at my back, while she transformed into a knight and left behind an ethereal copy of herself.

Her eyes met with someone else's. Another familiar face. It was Ralph, and he stared at our passing, mouth agape, clear recognition dawning by his face. For some reason, he was also wearing a police uniform.

We had no time to talk.

I crossed the threshold, and then stepped into the chaotic intersection where the war runs thickest.

The humans responded in erratic and confusing ways. Very few actually chose to pursue, but the same cannot be said of the goblins. Flaze Clone rolled on the ground and quickly taunted them , meanwhile the real one slammed a wolf rider away while I ran against the flow green-skins.

[Hellish Fireball].

I cast the skill to add to the confusion, get the monsters to panic and disperse. Regardless of whether we were the targets or not, spells rained down from the nearby buildings, falling down on the horde that we've found ourselves in the midst of.

Arrows and fireballs hit my rear. I lurched and nearly stumbled, but I held myself up and forced my legs to keep on running. I could no longer tell left from right within the sea of green bodies, but Flaze grabbed hold of my neck and steered.

I trusted in her decisions.

The club of a level 90 Hobgoblin was neatly avoided, the charge of a boar redirected instead against the former. Spells and arrows from the goblins flew, and I hid within their compatriots to escape the damage.

It felt like both a swift and prolonged experience, when we finally made it out of chaotic streets, and into the calmer march of approaching goblins. The enemies were still many, but I navigated around them til numbers thinned. I didn't bother to go killing, my mana saved for the heals necessary to keep us alive as I'd burnt through quite a lot of my reserves.

It grew more quiet as I went, a patch of territory devastated by the green horde, the telltale signs of even more violence and destruction than before.

There was a thin crevice before me that I easily jumped through, and a multiple-story building collapsed a block further. Kinda like how my transformation would've turned out, had I not retained my sanity. It is almost a shame.

I caught sight of something, a familiar diner, a workplace, a prison.

I found myself going towards it, for some inexplicable reason.

Dust and rubble crunched under my feet as I approached, my enhanced eyes easily noticing a wrongness in the picture presented in front of me. The diner had changed, much of its wide expansive windows destroyed. The off-blue exterior had become caked in dirt and dust, with the occasional splatters of blood. Large parts of the structure was concealed by fragmenting pillars of stone and dented bars of steel.

It had served, it seems, as a stronghold within this hell.

And yet I doubt it is one that remains standing.

My feet carried me towards the front door, the metal of it bent, hinges dislodged, and the parts that are glass reduced to only a few blades by the edges.

Someone gave me a hand when I finally moved to enter, the severed limb hanging from the door's handle. It looked familiar, and I realized that it probably belonged to a coworker. Former coworker. Because I got fired.

Well, it would've been former regardless, by now. Perhaps if I hadn't gotten myself fired, then I would've died here, to whatever monster got my acquaintances here.

Go me.

I staggered inside, and immediately collapsed.

Flaze too, fell along with me.

Oops.

I stared at her unmoving form for a second, even the heaving of her breaths invisible through her samurai armor.

Eh. She'll live.

I turned and laid on my side, a tilted view of the world. I watched the nostalgic checkered tiles, green tables atop, sandwiched between benches of brown. The counter was towards the back, leading forth to the kitchens and the staff area. I'd spent so much time here, waiting tables, taking orders, sometimes cleaning, managing the register, running random errands... Really whatever our boss Henry thought was our job description on any given day. And then finding some bullshit reason to get mad at us no matter perfectly we did it, because I know he fucking enjoys it. The bastard.

Maybe he also died...!

The hope flashed across my mind, and I quickly scanned the area. I saw more corpses lying around, or at least parts of them, the offending monsters also seeming to be the same goblins that plague this area of the city. But I do not see the one carcass I wish to find. A shame.

I shifted uncomfortably as I lie there, the floor beneath myself covered in a layer of debris, from the tables that have been broken, parts of the ceiling falling, and the sharp shards of glass from the windows and cutlery.

I realized then, that the place I once knew, like the back of my hand, is truly gone. No longer doe it exist in reality, only inside my head. And even that, in time, will fade.

Why do I even feel any sadness, at seeing this place in such a terrible state? God knows its done nothing good for me during my way too prolonged stay.

"You know I never would've betrayed you right?" I nearly jumped, when Flaze finally spoke, after a long long period of silence. I took a few moments to calm myself and chew over her words.

Of course. I huffed, proudly, yet my breathing likely still came of as hitched.

Flaze sighed. "Don't lie dude. You were pretty fucking anxious back there."

I grumbled, and gave a weak nod, my head still lying sideways on the ground.

"Well. I never would've done that. Trust me a bit more."

I do Flaze. I do trust you. As much as you've been acting differently, I do still trust you.

And yet I can't deny, the anxiety that I felt then.

"I was just..." she continued. "I was only thinking if we really had no recourse but to kill her. I don't know what will happen from now, but as distasteful as she's been to us, she was clearly competent."

How many will die because of our actions today? was the question left unasked by Flaze.

"But of course," she added, "i would have let them all perish, before I choose to abandon you."

I say nothing, not that I even could, but hearing her say so, so clearly, really did make this single lonely horse happy.

I also feel sad, to see someone so kind, become so willing to sin. But any protest I give, would only be hypocrisy.

Maybe I am a bad influence.