Dan hid behind a desk with his eyes shaken after seeing what had happened. The level of this fight went beyond the norm. Far different from their meager battle against the goblins. It was like seeing real fantasy in real life.

Sparkling blue electricity zipping in the air clashing against Jason. Even the sound of it ripping the air was terrifying, being burnt to the ground wouldn’t be a surprise considering it was freaking electric. But Jason defied the odds as Dan saw this man withstanding those flickering visible electric.

“He isn’t human,” mumbled Dan. Although he had those same thoughts multiple times during his mission alongside Jason but this time, it was different.

This battle itself bolstered the fact that Jason wasn’t some human who was stronger than usual, he was more than that, and right now Dan was about to witness something else.

He saw Jason vanishing just before a huge hammer plowed through the wall. Then he heard Jason’s voice near the windows.

“How did he get there?” Dan asked himself. Jason was too fast considering the distance between the place he vanishes and his current position.

Then Jason vanished once more turning into a blur. A second later, Dan heard the loud cry of the goblin giant. He gazed his eyes over and saw Jason piercing the goblin giant’s chest. It wasn’t even a sword that pierced the goblin giant’s chest as Jason’s whole hand went through the creature. Blood trickled down from Jason’s hand as he stood there with a smirk seeing the goblin giant losing its life by the second.

The huge goblin’s body was trembling as it didn’t believe that it was hanging for its life. Then the gibberish noise from a halfling rang in the air. Trumbo was mad, extremely mad. It took him a few seconds realizing his henchman was about to die.

He mocked and cursed Jason with his eyes seething in rage. Then his lips started to mumble. The air started to crackle, gaining Jason’s attention.

“The hell?” Dan saw arrows forming around the halfling floating in the air made out electricity itself.

Jason then caught a glimpse of Trumbo’s eyes and saw it was shining in bluish light as if electricity itself was coursing within those eyeballs.

Jason kicked the quivering body of the goblin giant to the ground releasing his hand from the huge hole on the goblin giant’s body. It was time to retreat, being this close at a madden Trumbo would only spell trouble.

His wind clad body whiffed him away from the scene. But as he ran, Trumbo started the assault. His hand pointed at Jason as numerous electric arrows went chasing after him.

The first one caught him off guard but with his enhanced speed, he managed to dodge. Yet a graze from that electrifying arrow made his body jolted off the ground flinging him across the office floor. He saw for himself a huge chunk of his energy guard was gone and there was something else besides that huge damage.

Shit, it can even paralyze.

A paralyzing effect that made him unable to move for roughly 0.5 seconds but that minuscule amount was enough for another barrage of electric arrows heading towards him reaching close distance.

Come on!

Jason was urging his body to snapped out of the paralyze effect as he couldn’t even heal right now. But then a huge statue flew right in front of Jason’s eyes blocking those electric arrows. The statue exploded into pieces upon contact with the electric arrows.

A slight glance to the side and Jason saw Dan standing there with his breath ragged. The statue barely blocked a thing but it was enough. It gave Jason a bit of leeway as he ran away as the electric arrows crashed over the window walls.

“Hide!” Jason shouted.

Dan interfering with those arrows might made him a target in the eyes of Trumbo and he wasn’t going to let his benefactor wounded up dead. He was grateful for what Dan had done since if that statue didn’t buy him some time he would have turned naked without his energy guard.

But a few arrows were already heading towards Dan who was running for cover. Jason who was running grabbed on to a few David-like statues and threw at the trajectory of the arrows. More artful statues exploded as Jason managed to block it off. Jason took cover behind a pillar as he healed himself.

In the meantime, Trumbo was thumping his feet in the air frustrated by the fact that his arrows weren’t hitting anyone. Trumbo glanced at the goblin giant who was reaching its hand out to him. Trumbo’s expression turned cold as it stared with pity.

Trumbo floated close to the dying goblin giant. His hand reached out to the goblin giant as if Trumbo was caring for his henchmen. Yet a small skull manifested in that hand of his, emerged from the condensation of mana. The small skull was oozing with a baleful aura as Trumbo’s lips kept on mumbling.

The empty eye socket of the small skull started to glow in a purplish hue. Then the goblin giant started wrenching on the floor as if it was in agonizing pain. A subtle flow of energy was hardly seen between the writhing goblin giant and the small skull. It seemed even in death, the goblin giant was only a mere underling in the eyes of the halfling.

But Jason had a different idea. He emerged from behind Trumbo who was too occupied in doing whatever it was doing at the goblin giant. Jason's hand was covered in a dense twirling wind as Jason said.

“You’re not going to last hit my kill, you ugly son of a bitch.”

A punch pack with wind headed towards Trumbo, it was a cheap shot from Jason but who cares when life was on the line. But that sneaky punch of his collided against a barrier. Trumbo glanced behind with a glare. It was about to throw the small skull at Jason but another wind covered punch struck at the same place where he just punched.

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This time, the barrier broke.

Trumbo surprised by the spectacle as he paused for a second and that second costed him. Jason choked him by the neck and threw him to the marble floor. The halfling cried out loud on the floor in pain but Jason didn’t stop. Again, his wind covered fists punched the hell out of Trumbo. Blood splattered on the floor and surprisingly Trumbo could take those hits and still living and breathing.

It spouted gibberish at Jason before a small blue spark erupted at point-blank. Jason was flung away at a distance.

“Shit!” Jason said as he saw Trumbo getting up with his bloody face. Standing on the floor made Jason realized how short this halfling was, he was more or less the same size as a goblin.

Trumbo spitted out blood from his mouth glaring at Jason from a distance. For a runt, he was tougher than Jason expected. His barrage of punches did some damage but not enough to kill it.

Trumbo continued to aim his small skull at the shallow breath goblin giant while his eyes kept on glaring at Jason. Jason watched the goblin giant writhing in pain as he was still wasn’t sure about this spectacle. Rather than waiting, he swung his arm hurling a dozen Wind Cutter at Trumbo.

But it was futile as the barrier came back. Trumbo smirked at Jason and as the final breath slipped away from the goblin giant, the small skull glowed in purplish hue. Jason was assuming the worst about that skull and as he saw those electric arrows coming back floating in the air around Trumbo, he knew the second round was starting.

Those arrows went flying at Jason as Jason counteracted with his Wind Cutter. They collided but the electrical arrows won the clash as more kept on flying at Jason.

Jason sprinted away while vanishing into his Shadow Sneak, yet a hammer came out of nowhere right from the front smashing Jason out from hiding. Jason rolled on the ground as he glanced at Trumbo. That bloody face hobbit was smirking at him and seeing that obnoxious purple flare on Trumbo’s right eye, he knew that this runt had every possible way of countering him and the feeling wasn’t pleasant.

Trumbo was also the same level as him and knowing that fact only bolstered the fact that named monster was indeed stronger than the normal one. He, who could defeat a higher-level monster was stumped by an outcast halfling and that was enough to tell him something. He shouldn’t underestimate this halfling.

As he healed himself, Trumbo didn’t stop his attack. Electric arrows and Lightning Creeper went ripping in the air heading towards Jason.

Jason buffed himself with Minor Defense Buff and Wind Clad, as this time he shouldn’t take any leeway against this opponent. He fled away from the chasing bluish lightning. Yet again, a hammer came from his blind spot. He ducked and rolled on the ground dodging the flying hammer.

“Watch out!” a voice alerted Jason.

Jason turned his head and saw the barrage of lightning heading towards him. He Shadow Sneak to slightly lowered down the damage toll and he was right. Everything hit him as huge forces pummeled down his body. He couldn’t even move due to the paralyzing nature of the electric arrows.

He watched as his energy guard points dropped and then came the hammer once more. It hit him straight as it lifted Jason off the ground but as he was being flung away, he gained a little bit of time and healed himself with Major Heal.

His energy guard almost replenished up to half-way but then the trajectory of the hammer changed as it dropped on the floor bringing him along. His energy guard dropped a bit but Jason didn’t stop healing himself. He knew something bad was about to happen and he was right.

Something rolled over to where he was and he saw what it was, he gritted his teeth preparing for what was about to come. It was the small skull that Trumbo held and as it stopped rolling after hitting Jason. The glowing purple skull intensified in brightness.

“Shit,” Jason said and boom.

A massive explosion as the whole building shook. That small skull detonated like a stronger version of C4. That Trumbo really did the worst to Jason as it threw everything at him.

Dan and Pixie staggered on their feet as they braced themselves but the aftershock was too strong. Dan was hurled to the wall and Pixie smashed against the wall window.

Dan woke up after losing consciousness for a few seconds. His body was rattled in pain as it ached. Yet in his sight, everything was filled with black smoke and purplish flames burning the floor. Dan didn’t expect all of this to happened and the last thing he saw was the sight of Jason being blown apart by whatever bomb that was.

He didn’t know what to do right now as all hope was lost with the death of that man, that monstrous man. But right now what he saw, a monster much stronger triumphed against that monstrous man.

“Dan!” a voice called out to him.

Dan recognized who it was. He dragged his feet over to the broken wall window and saw who it was, Pixie was hanging on for her dear life by whatever left on the edge of a broken wall window.

“Pixie!” Dan shouted.

“Help me!” she said.

Dan lie down on the floor as his hand grabbed on to Pixie’s hand.

“Let go! I’ll pull you up,” said Dan.

Pixie let go and her whole weight pulled Dan down. Dan braced himself as he held her. If it wasn’t for his augmented strength he wouldn’t have been able to do this in his current injured state. One of his arms was badly injured and right now he was hoping this right arm of his would do the trick.

But as he was about to pull Pixie up, she saw something as her eyes quivered.

“Dan!” she shouted and before she could say anything else.

“Argh!” Dan yelled in pain, his whole body dropped on the floor as he was losing strength in his arm.

Pixie was about to fall but Dan held on to her. Then Dan heard a cackle from behind him. He turned his head and saw the halfling smirking at him with that obnoxious smile. That halfling was poking at him with his scepter in hand and it almost cost the life of Pixie.

Dan lost hope seeing that this halfling had the upper hand. Pixie too felt the same thing, there was no more chance for them as right now they were only playthings for the halfling.

“Argh!” Dan shouted in pain as the halfling kept on torturing him with the pointed sharp end of his scepter. Trumbo was having a blast since he won against an annoying human who dared punched his exquisite looking face.

Since there was nothing left of Jason’s body for him to play with, Trumbo laid his eyes on to these two other humans.

Again, and again Trumbo took pleasure hearing Dan’s cry. It was music in Trumbo’s ears as he kept bleeding the heck out of Dan’s body.

The soldier who treasured his comrade was reaching the end of his life with his face turning pale. Yet his hand was still holding on strong to Pixie with no intention of letting her go.

Pixie cried seeing the things happening to her captain, a man who she always butted head during their first meeting but she came to respect him after the passing of times, and yet now she was seeing him in at the brink of death while still holding on to her. Helplessness overwhelmed her as she couldn’t do anything to help Dan.

She glared with her tearful eyes at the perpetrator of all this, Trumbo the halfling. She swore in her heart, if she dies, she would curse him and all the monsters until they vanish from the earth. But then she saw a change on Trumbo’s face.

The hobbit that was cackling while torturing her captain was now silenced by something, then that something pierced right through Trumbo’s neck. A knife? A sword? No, it just a shard from the broken window. But it wasn’t any random shard, it was a glass shard covered in crimson hue and she knew who was the owner of that glow.

It was Jason.

“You let your guard down Trumbo, and now you’ll die,” Jason said.

He pushed the shard deeper until all of it was inside Trumbo’s neck. But that wasn’t the end, a few more shards went right through Trumbo’s back as he was stabbed from the back by the sneaking assassin Jason.

Trumbo fell on his knees before plummeting on the floor like a ragdoll. The named monster finally was defeated but through a rather anti-climatic way.

Jason helped Pixie out as he pulled her up from the edge. Pixie saw the sight of Jason who was covered in blood and ashes, they were even a few open wounds with the bone visible through the naked eyes. It seemed Jason survived the explosion but not without heavy repercussions.

Yet her attention at him only lasted for a while as she turned to the silent Dan.

“Dan, are you all right?” she asked.

But there was no response. She turned him over and saw that lifeless looking eyes. She didn’t want to believe it.

“Heal him!” she shouted at Jason.

The heavily injured Jason knelt down and reached out his hand at Dan. The green glow engulfed Dan’s body and yet after it receded, nothing had changed. Those lifeless looking eyes were still there.

“Dan, you got to get up, this isn’t time to play around,” said Pixie with her trembling voice.

“Wake up Dan! Fucking wake up!” Pixie shouted to the top of her lungs as her tears fell.

She couldn’t believe it, just a few seconds ago he was still holding her hand tight. But unknown to her and Jason, Dan was already dead even before Jason came sneaking from behind. His sheer resolution of saving his comrade extended even beyond death.

Pixie wept over Dan’s body as Jason watched. He didn’t like the outcome of this whole mission as he clearly underestimated this place and the monsters. He watched the holes on Dan’s body and the pool of blood underneath Dan’s corpse. Him taking light of this mission, cost the life of another person, a soldier who worked for the best of the country, Dan. That soldier himself also saved his life back then, not once but twice. But now, he couldn't even pay the favor to his savior as Dan lay there lifeless.

Jason didn’t even bother healing himself up as he felt the pain of his flesh wrecking his entire body. He knew if he came prepare with all the weapons in his arsenal, then Dan’s life wouldn’t have been lost. On the highest floor of this building, a comrade in arms was grieving for her captain while a bystander blamed himself.

Again, it’s my fault.