Trace Taylor couldn’t believe her eyes.

Janus, the leader of the Onyx Lair Crew, had nearly beaten her. He was so close to ending her life just a few minutes ago; she’d actually been afraid that she would die there and then to that psycho.

But she was saved. Adair Russell and Samuel Diaz arrived just in time and confronted the Berserker together. Her heroes. They faced him in battle in her stead—

And were now getting their asses kicked.

“Fuckwatchout—”

“Oh—”

Sam tumbled through the air, crashing into Adair and cutting off the latter’s casting. Janus picked up the Rapid Ranger’s bow and snapped it in half.

“Good work guys,” Trace said as she stumbled to her feet. “Really kicking his ass.”

“That’s gonna cost me a fortune to replace,” Sam groaned as he picked himself back up.

Adair clicked his tongue. “Perhaps, as an archer, you shouldn’t have opted to face the Berserker at close range.”

“I didn’t want to get close to him. He ran straight at me. What was I supposed to do there?”

“How about we stop arguing—” The redhead raised her pistol and pulled the trigger. Last in the Chamber shot out, barely missing the charging Janus. “And start focusing on fighting?”

“It’s three of us and one of him,” Adair said, conjuring flames in both his hands. “We have to use our numbers to our advantage.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not going to do us much good if he manages to pick us off one by one. I don’t know if you noticed, but none of us here can fight at close range.” Sam gestured vaguely at the three of them.

That was true enough. Trace realised it as well— as long as Janus could close the distance between them, he had the advantage. And considering that he was sprinting across the battlefield like a three-hundred-kilogram grizzly bear, it wasn’t going to be easy keeping him back with just ranged weapons alone.

He was like a literal tank. Sure, maybe in this analogy, Trace and Adair could be considered the artillery. Oh, and Sam would be the infantry, probably. But without much mobility— due to Trace’s injured state— they wouldn’t be able to win.

Not in this enclosed space.

And not especially with how much stronger Janus grew each time he was hurt. Every bit of pain inflicted on the Berserker made him angrier and thus more powerful. It was insane, really. His class was absolutely broken.

Janus roared— literally roared, much to Trace’s bewilderment— as he made a mad dash for Adair. The Energy Caster sent out a cone of flame to keep him back, but he leapt over it, jumping a dozen feet into the air.

Like a soaring comet, Janus crashed into the earth, cracking the ground with his fist alone. Adair managed to roll out of the way in time.

Trace’s eyes flickered. She stared past the Berserker as he rose from the dust— at the whirlwind of blades happening concurrent with this battle. Elizabeth Evergreen was locked in battle with a Spellcaster and a Warrior. She wasn’t gaining much ground, unfortunately.

Each time she knocked the Warrior back, the Spellcaster would keep Liz at bay with a localised tremor. Sometimes, Liz would regain her footing, only to be walled off from all sides by rising stone pillars. By the time she broke out, the Warrior would already have recovered, so Liz wouldn’t be able to gain ground.

She needed help. And conversely. Trace knew she needed Liz’s help to beat Janus. So, she turned to Sam who was fumbling through his back as Janus threw Adair to the side.

“I need you guys to distract him for a minute,” the redhead said hurriedly.

Sam ducked under the flying Adair and produced a pair of miniature crossbows. “For you? You got it.” Smirking, he aimed at Janus and rapidly unleashed a flurry of bolts.

“Where’d you get that from?” Trace blinked.

“Magitechnician, remember? Now hurry up before I accidentally let Adair die to that bastard.”

Adair was already back on his feet, conjuring a lightningbolt to stave off Janus. Nodding, Trace reloaded her pistol and was off to help Liz.

The redhead stumble-ran her way to her best friend. “Liz!” she called out as she raised her pistol.

The Swordsmaiden glanced back, nodding. Trace fired, and she moved out of the way.

Six rapidly fired bullets streaked for the Warrior giving chase to Liz. He looked up as he heard the gunshots, but he had no means to block them. All he had was two pieces of a broken baseball bat.

The ground rose as he braced himself, and the bullets were lodged into stone. The redhead grimaced, turning to the Spellcaster who was creating a hail of stone pellets as the Warrior smugly grinned.

“Try again, b—”

Liz struck him across the shoulder. The Warrior screamed, leaping back. And they were engaged in a clash once more.

Meanwhile, Trace drew the attention of the Spellcaster. He launched the salvo of stone pellets at her as she hurriedly changed clips, shooting the projectiles down mid-air. She reached the end of the magazine as she sidestepped the remaining stone pellets, knowing she had an aetheric bullet left. But even if she fired it directly for the Spellcaster’s head, he would block it with his magic.

So, she shouted, “Liz, switch!”

The Swordsmaide’s eyes flickered as she immediately disengaged from the Warrior. With vytal at her feet, she bounded through the air for the Spellcaster, distracting him as Trace pivoted. The Warrior’s eyes grew wide, and the redhead fired.

The aetheric bullet tore its way to him. He moved back, but it reached him in an instant. He raised a hand coated in vytalist aura, trying to deflect the attack. There was a clash of aether and vytal energies— before, finally, the aetheric bullet won. It pierced him across the shoulder, him down.

“Liz—” The redhead immediately spun around, looking to help her best friend. But she only stared as her best friend stood over the collapsed Spellcaster.

“Easy peasy.” Liz smirked.

A small smile propped up on Trace’s face, too. Before her attention was drawn by a voice from the side.

“You girls done? ‘Cause… ah fuck—” Sam flew into the wall next to Trace, clutching at his stomach, having taken the full force of Janus’ punch. “’Cause we need a little help,” he finished.

The Berserker grunted and lifted up a chunk of stone the size of his chest and tossed it at Adair. The Energy Caster raised a hand, stopping the thrown debris mid-air, only to be tackled by Janus a moment later.

Trace unloaded multiple bullets at Janus’ back, only for a black aura to deflect the attack. He was unhurt. But, fortunately, his attention was drawn away from Adair and towards the redhead.

Or was that unfortunately? Yeah, Trace was pretty sure she meant whatever was the opposite of fortunately.

Janus ran at her like a charging bull, knocking aside her bullets with his blackened vytal aura like they were toy bullets. When she reached the last shot in her magazine, she squeezed the trigger, anticipating an aetheric bullet to fire— only to freeze when a regular bullet came out.

She was out of aetheric bullets.

And out of ways to hurt Janus, ostensibly enough.

He screamed incoherently as he grabbed the Mystic Bullet powered by a Shot Amplifier out of the air. Trace noticed his face scrunching up in pain when he caught it, so it meant the regular bullets weren’t completely ineffectively. Nevertheless, Janus fought through the pain and grew angrier, reaching the redhead a moment after. Trace braced herself, flinching as Janus raised a fist—

And Liz slashed the man across the back.

Janus stumbled forward as the Obsidian Longsword tore through his protective aura. Trace quickly backed up and swapped clips while Liz went for his neck next. The Berserker caught the blade, burning eyes staring up at the Swordsmaiden.

“I’ll kill you,” he said his first coherent words in forever.

Liz narrowed her eyes and yanked her sword back. It sliced his forearms, but Janus didn’t look hurt from hit. Only enraged. He threw a thudding blow which she barely managed to parry. Even though Janus struck the flat of her blade with his fist, it should’ve still hurt, yet he marched on.

Trace fired at him from behind, but his protective aura flared once more, blocking the repeated attack. She bit her lower lip, emptying her magazine, hoping that she’d be able to fire a Last in the Chamber. But not enough time had passed.

“Die… die, die, die, die!” Janus yelled, ducking under Liz’s swing and landing a hook to her liver. She grunted, backing up further as he continued to close the distance.

Trace felt her hands shaking as she quickly swapped clips once more. She needed to do something. To somehow catch Janus off-guard— bypass his defences. Right as she raised her pistol again, she was reminded that she wasn’t the only one here other than Liz.

A crossbow bolt shot out, nicking Janus in the leg. The Berserker paused and stared down. It didn’t look like it hurt him. But it had exploded into a web. Some kind of fluid that glued his right leg to the ground. His brows tightened like a fist as he tried to raise his leg—

Only for a crackling bolt of lightning to strike him from behind. It shattered the last of his vytalist aura— the black barrier coating his body dissipated as he shouted in pain.

“You—” he started, only to be cut off by Liz who ran her Obsidian Longsword through his abdomen.

Janus blinked, looking down at the blade. At the blood pouring out of his chest. And at the small trail of smoke that came from the burning enchantment of the Obsidian Longsword.

“I-I…” He fell to one knee as Liz drew the sword back.

“Holy shit, you’re strong,” she panted, flicking the blood off her blade. “But… you lose.”

Sam ran up to Liz’s side, pelting the Berserker with more webs, keeping him down on his knees. Trace sighed in relief, only to find herself nearly falling over. She was caught and steadied right before she fell.

“Are you alright?” Adair said as he helped her up.

“I-I’m fine.” She took in a deep breath. “Just tired.”

“Well, you can rest now.” He smiled, looking over at the kneeling Janus as Sam and Liz stood over him. “We won—”

“No!” Janus yelled.

Trace let go of Adair, quickly aiming her pistol at the Berserker as he shouted. Liz tensed and held up her blade as Sam cursed. But Janus didn’t break free. No more vytal coalesced around him. He just screamed.

“No, no, no, no, no!” He flailed there, tears streaming down his eyes. There was still anger there, but mixed together with a sadness. Not grief— a kind of sadness which Trace and any half-mature adult would recognise.”I can’t lose. I can’t go to jail. You can’t make me go!”

It was a temper-tantrum. The kind a child would throw when they were punished for making a fuss. They all fixed their gazes at Janus as he continued his whining.

“I’m not going to go! I’ll be back! I’ll make you all pay for what you did here! All of you shall suffer! Do you not know who I am?”

Trace stared at this pathetic display. She pursed her lips, at first, in pity. Then her eyes darted to the doorway at the end of the hall. Inside, there were dozens or even hundreds of young women, trapped and defiled by the Onyx Lair Crew. All because of Janus.

So many lives had been lost for no reason. All because of this pathetic loser? The redhead could feel her fingers twitching.

“I am Janus! I am the leader of the Onyx Lair Crew! I will be back— ”

And Trace Taylor pulled the trigger.

Bang.