“What the hell is that?!” I exclaim out loud.

“That’s his signature skill that he got from his legendary class.” Uncle Moren says solemnly.

“Legendary class?! Why the hell did know one tell me about this?!”

“It’s rude to tell people about someone else’s status, you want me going around telling everyone about your status?”

“I guess not… but why the hell is he here on Earth if he managed to get a legendary class? Wouldn’t the Kingdom keep him locked away somewhere safe if he was able to do that?”

“Some people would rather not live in a cage, myself included. I’d do the same thing if I were him. Keep the Kingdom in the dark and while you lose some benefits here or there, you get to keep your freedom.”

I nod at this and look back to see Delorie staring in shock and fear at the giant cockroach, and quickly begins to attack Garut with renewed ferocity.

The giant bug charges at us rapidly, bowling through a few Kingdom agents and Empire soldiers on the way.

Delorie even has to roll out of the way to avoid getting trampled by the thing. This allows Garut, for the first time since the fight has began, to land a large gash onto Delorie’s leg.

The bug continues its charge, heading straight for Uncle Moren, until finally its upon him. Fortunately Uncle Moren is able to avoid the blow, but only barely.

Uncle Moren quickly reorients himself, and turns to face the thing that used to be Hoggle. He sends a giants blow straight into his carapace, but to Uncle Moren and I’s surprise, the attack seems to do absolutely nothing, other than annoying the giant creature more than it already was.

It turns to look at Uncle Moren as if it were mocking him, before ramming its head straight towards him. The headbutt lands, and sends Uncle Moren tumbling backwards several feet.

“Fuck, this thing is stronger than I thought! Garut you done over there yet? I need your help over here!” Uncle Moren says while spitting out a wad of blood.

Garut grunts angrily as he continues his relentless fury of attacks at Delorie. With Delorie’s now injured leg, he’s having more and more trouble defending himself, though that’s not to say he’s completely out of the fight yet.

Each time Garut manages to land an attack, small as it may be, Delorie’s face becomes more and more red, twisting with rampant fury and anger.

‘Oh god don’t tell me Delorie’s a berserker! Goddamnit! At this rate Uncle Moren AND Garut are going to be screwed! Fuck! There’s got to be something I can do!’

I think as Uncle Moren continues to get thrown around like a ragdoll and Delorie slowly gains the upper hand against Garut.

My mind races to think of some sort of plan, but unfortunately I come up blank I just can’t find a way to insert myself into either fight without becoming a detriment.

With each passing second, my panic only grows. I watch as Delorie lands a devastating blow against Garut’s armor, causing cracks to ripple all throughout it.

Uncle Moren isn’t doing much better, in fact he’s doing significantly worse I’d say, with blood coating his entire body and his left arm hanging limply to the side.

Just as I think all hope is lost, I feel a hand rest calmly on my shoulder. I look behind me to see a somewhat ragged Gael smiling warmly at me.

He chuckles lightly before saying with a dark look on his face, “I see our little traitor situation has figured itself out. No need to worry young man, the Kingdom’s actions here today have firmly told me what kind of direction they plan on heading. Needless to say, I’m quite disgusted by it.”

I let out a breath of relief and watch as the old fox-man walks up to an angry looking Delorie slowly.

“GAEL! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY THE KINGDOM! AFTER ALL IT”S DONE FOR YOU?!” Delorie screams out.

“I’m sorry Delorie, but what the Kingdom has attempted to do here today quite frankly sickens me, and its sickens me more that there are people out there who blindly follow orders like yourself. I joined the Kingdom because I thought the people here were better, more moral than the Empire, but clearly I was mistaken.” Gael says with a sad look on his face.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“GRAHHHHH!” Delorie shoves Garut out of the way and charges like an angry gorilla at the old man.

Gael seemingly disappears, causing the large man to look around in confusion. Eventually he looks up to see a rapidly falling Gael heading straight towards him. He tries to react, but he was to late and Gael shoves his entire hand into his left eye, causing him to go stiff,

After a few moments, his body finally realizes it’s demise, and the big man falls with a loud thud. Gael swiftly jumps off the corpse before it hits the floor, landing gracefully to the side while breathing heavily.

He looks towards the half-dead but still standing Moren, and charges at his large, golden, six-legged foe.

The giant cockroach sees him and screeches loudly, once again garnering the attention of the entire battlefield.

Once Uncle Moren sees Gael, he smirks lightly before falling backwards. I see this and begin to run towards the fallen man in a panic.

I reach him after a few moments and, much to my horror, his wounds are much worse up close than from far away.

Sickly purple bruises cover his torso, his right eyes is swollen completely shut, and his arm is so broken that I can see the bone protruding slightly. Not to mention the rapidly increasing pool of blood surrounding him.

In that moment, I felt the most powerless I ever have. Before then, I understood conceptually how little comparative power I held in the multiverse, but right then, as I watch the long-time father figure in my life bleeding out on the floor while hundreds fights and skirmishes happen around me, I understand it better than I probably ever will how weak I really am.

“Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! Uncle Moren! Can you hear me!? You better not fucking die on me you asshole!” I say with tears welling up in my eyes.

Surprisingly, he opens his eyes.

“Relax kid.” He says with a small chuckle that turns into a coughing fit. “That asshole of a bug hit an artery. I’m done for unfortunately.” He says weakly.

“No you’re not! There’s got to be a field medic somewhere around here!” I say as I begin searching the battlefield for just that.

“Kid, ain’t no field medic around here willing to take care of me. They’re our enemies, remember? Ha, I’d be surprised if they were even willing to spit in my direction!” He once again says in a chuckle turned cough.

“We’ll get you into the warp pad then! You’ll be fine!” I say, tears falling quickly down my face.

“Listen to me Rowan my boy, I’m a gonner. Don’t try to fight it, just let me die like a hero alright? Now before I die take this.” He says as he hands me some sort of cube with complex runes and symbols engraved on it. “That was in that asshole Waylen’s safe, don’t know what it does, but it’s important, so don’t lose it.”

“What the hell… WHAT THE HELL?! I don’t want this? I don’t want you to die! I don’t want any of this?” I cry out.

“Kid, you’ll be something great one day, and I’m not just saying that. I SAW your potential, in more ways than one. So don’t waste it thinking about some asshole like me, your better than I ever will be.” He says while smiling.

Tears continue their descent down my cheek, as the pool of blood around the two of us grows with each passing second.

Finally, I see the light slowly leave his eyes, and I’m left alone, in a pool of blood and tears.

I feel a hand on my back, I look back to see a disheveled and exhausted Garut kneeling mournfully next to me.

After a few seconds, I stand in frustration and sadness. Tears continue to fall down my cheek as I take in the empty shell of the man I used to look up to.

Wiping my eyes one last time, I turn back to the fight between Gael and Hoggle. It’s clear that Hoggle isn’t long for this world, as pools of blue blood and shattered golden carapace litters the floor.

The giant bug, clearly on it last legs, tries to open its wings and escape away from the ruthless old fox-man. Unfortunately for it, Gael has no intention of letting it escape, as he sends a black ominous looking cloud of mist at the creature.

The creature then falls back to the ground, twitching and screeching. The giant golden cockroach begins to rapidly transform back to the blind mole-man we are all more familiar with.

After a few second of violent morphing of skin and bones, a half-dead Hoggle in revealed, breathing heavily on the floor.

Seeing the man who betrayed our trust and killed Uncle Moren causes anger to well up inside of me. I take my sword and slowly walk up to the mole-man.

“I hope you rot in hell you fucking bastard.” I say with spit and vitriol. I look at Gael and he nods in affirmation.

I then bring my sword up high and bring it down onto his heart, twisting it violently. The pain and shock in his eyes bring me no amount of pleasure, though. Instead, it only makes me angrier.

Deciding now is not a good time to process my grief, I move to reconvene with my now only two companions.

Gael and Garut both stand solemnly over the dead body of Uncle Moren. I watch as Gael’s fist clenches up.

Then he relaxes and shakes his head, and places his hand on the body. In an instant the body disappears.

“What’d you do?!” I say, panicked.

“Relax, I just put him in my storage space, we’ll have a funeral for him once we get the hell out of here.” Gael says tiredly.

I take stock of the rest of the battlefield.

What was a room teeming with hundreds of Empire soldiers, now sports only about seventy or eighty, with the Kingdom agents only numbering about a quarter of that. Each side very clearly exhausted and ready to retreat at any moment.

The main fight in the middle is coming to its conclusion, with the red metallic person about to end the military man.

I say quickly, “We need to hurry, before their fight ends! Or else we’ll be his main focus, and exhausted or not, I don’t think we’ll last long against a tier 9!”