Mash muttered the words, as he trudged up the dune. The man had been a fool who got cocky because he wasn’t able to use any skills. When was the last time he was in a real fight? It was clear that he was used to fighting with opponents, only after disabling their skills. It explained why the group had so much trouble against the worms. Even if the worms were a little tough any truly strong group should have been able to handle it easily enough. It seemed like Mash’s initial impression had been wrong,

Anger bubbled up in Mash as he considered who their party had actually fought for their levels. With a skill meant to seal magic, they would be best against adventurer parties that were smaller than them. With how casual and confident Gerard had been, Mash wondered how many groups they had done this to. Well, at the very least he wouldn’t be doing it anymore, and the rest wouldn’t either.

He slipped on the sand as the thought flashed through his mind. It took effort, but he stamped it down as soon as he thought it. Where had that heartlessness come from? Was one of his transformations exasperating his anger? What about his earrings though, there was a lot of energy being pushed into them? As he thought about it, only one thing came to mind. The earrings were treating the changes that had happened to him as a part of him. It probably treated it as a change he caused to himself rather than something external trying to influence him. That was a problem he would need to deal with, but he wasn’t sure how. He would need to consider if there were things, he could eat to balance his emotions. Those thoughts seemed a little strange. He would be hunting creatures based on their emotional profile, and that sounded wrong.

As Mash crested the dune he had fallen down, he scanned the battlefield. The twin fighting Red was getting tired, but her attacks still seemed too deadly to join that battle. No, Luke’s battle would be easier to deal with. The man he was fighting was strong and the flames seemed annoying, but he wasn’t particularly fast, and the flames wouldn’t kill Mash quickly. Plus, he needed healing and only Luke could provide that now. Mash’s hibernation skill would be locked like the others. He considered rushing Safa but didn’t think he could break the barrier as he was. Jill couldn’t and he doubted that he could. Hopefully, Luke had enough power to manage it.

Mash ran through the sand, feeling the effort of pushing through his wounds. His hunt skill still hadn’t activated, but he couldn’t wait for it. Other adventurers might be heading here, and he wanted to end this fight before then. Mash couldn’t make himself run at full speed though, the cut in his thigh protesting against the sudden movements. His necklace was mainly tending to the biggest injury, which in this case, was the massive cut that crossed his chest.

When he got close to the fight, both Luke and Brock turned towards him. Both stared at him with a surprise for a moment, before Brock screamed at him.

“What happened? Where is Gerard?”

“Dead.”

Mash didn’t raise his voice, but Brock could hear his words. Luke could too, and he moved to take advantage of Brock’s surprise. With a hefty swing of his ax, Luke cut him across the back. Brock ignored it and charged at Mash with a blind fury. He seemed to grow more muscular too, and veins became visible across his body. He continued to scream as he approached.

“How? You shouldn’t have been able to beat him!”

Mash had to suppress a flash of anger, and he held his tongue from making a response. Instead, he focused on the charging man and preparing for his strike. Luke was right behind him, so Mash only needed to slow him somehow. He probably couldn’t do it through the same means he had with Gerard, but he could manage something. Tripping him should be easy, but a better thought ran through Mash’s mind. He set his feet preparing to dodge Brock’s strike. While he did so he pushed aside the sand with his front foot, digging it deeper into the ground.

Brock leaped into the air continuing to scream nonsense, while he raised his sword in a huge overhead swing. It was an attack that would only ever work against monsters, though it made his previous preparation pointless. He had been planning on making the man slip, but that wouldn’t be necessary anymore. An attack like this would leave him completely exposed to Luke.

As Brock’s blade came down, Mash easily stepped to the side. Mash moved even before Brock landed, throwing an elbow towards his head. However, his attack never landed as flames exploded out from Brock as he landed. They were hot and strong, pushing Mash back while burning him. He was sent flying through the air, crashing and rolling against the sand. The tiny grains irritated the new burns that appeared on his body.

The entire front of his torso was badly burnt, and the arm he used for the attack was black. It looked bad, and Mash felt worse when he realized that no pain came from it. He couldn’t feel it in the slightest, but there was more than enough pain for him to get distracted. He found himself coughing and struggling to move. He pushed himself, using his remaining arm, to drag himself upright. The arm was burned, but it was still usable, and he couldn’t stop some tears from falling as sand mixed with the burnt skin. He bit down on his cheek to keep himself from screaming, and he tasted blood almost immediately.

While he managed to struggle to an upright seating position, he couldn’t go any further. He could hopefully manage a roll and waited to see if Brock entered his domain. The seconds passed slowly, and Mash only got the strength to move when the boost from hunt activated. The improved stats helped clear his mind and strengthened his body. He managed to drag himself to look over into the crater created by Brock’s landing.

Inside, he spotted Luke with a hand pressed against Brock’s back. Neither of them was moving.

“Luke!”

Mash forced the word out, coughing as he yelled. His throat was dry, and his lungs felt burned. The heat from the explosion had done even more damage than Mash initially assumed. He needed Luke’s help, and Mash grit his teeth as he pushed himself over the lip of the crater. Rolling down the sand was one of the worst experiences he had ever felt. The sand rubbed against his already burned skin, the pain shooting through his body every time he tumbled. He couldn’t stop when he wanted to either and crashed into Luke’s legs.

Thankfully, that was enough to shake him from whatever he was doing. He turned his head slowly but snapped to attention when he saw Mash. Immediately, Mash felt the soothing flow of his healing magic and sighed in relief as his body began to heal. Mash shivered slightly as he remembered what had happened. He had made a mistake in assuming that he could handle anything that Brock had. The man was at a higher level than Gerard and would have been stronger. Plus, he had taken that attack head-on and suffered for it.

Apparently, his wounds had been bad enough that it would take him a few minutes to heal, and he wasn’t sure if they had that time.

“Leave my arm, for now, I can barely feel it anyways. Just deal with the skin, and we can go after Safa.”

Luke didn’t seem to agree with Mash’s words and protested vehemently.

“Your wounds are worse than they seem. I can tell how close you got to-“

“Once we stop Safa’s curse, I can do a lot more for myself with some skills.”

Mash cut him off, not wanting to hear where that was going. He wanted to heal and knew that it would be smart, but he also knew about the danger of lurking in this place for too long. Eventually, someone else would come, and they would be eager to pick the remains of whatever fight was here. Reluctantly, Luke nodded. That was good as Mash started moving as soon as he felt like he could. The pain was mostly gone, and he could manage well enough.

Moving quickly, they got out of the crater. Red was still fighting, which meant that her opponent was probably the strongest. Although, seeing Jill’s fight made it hard to tell. Both of the twins seemed quite strong, and Mash wondered why they would join a group like this. They seemed more than strong enough to handle monsters or dungeons. In fact, Brock seemed like he would have been fine in a normal dungeon as well.

Ignoring the two fights, they moved towards Safa who was kneeling on the ground. Her barrier rippled around her, and she kept her eyes shut as she muttered something. It sounded like a prayer, but Mash didn’t care to listen. She did glance at them though, her eyes going wide when she saw who it was.

Without needing to be told, Luke began to glow brightly as golden flames wrapped around his ax. He swung his ax down like a divine smite. The blade managed to part the barrier. Luke’s strength after all of his bonuses was quite immense, and Mash imagined he gained more from the previous fight. He knew immediately that Luke had stolen Brock’s soul, though that was probably out of concern for him.

Still, the new power only made his swing that much more terrifying, and it easily parted the barrier. He didn’t kill Safa with the strike, and Mash repressed his urge to finish her off. The skill that had trapped him disappeared, and Mash relaxed as his skills returned to him. Almost as if to help him relax he turned into his dragon form, feeling the rush of power as he did so. Oddly, he felt annoyance from Priscilla, but he ignored that for now.

Safa had broken down into a mess, crying and begging for her life through her sobs. She seemed even more horrified by Mash’s transformation and began spouting nonsense like it would change anything.

“Please spare me! I had no choice; this is the only thing my class is good for. I couldn’t do anything about my class. Why do you think I’m working with people like this.”

She waved her hands gesturing to the twins who had stopped fighting. It looked like they had surrendered and approached the now crying Safa. They looked just as disgusted by her as he was. There was no point in acting like this now, the damage had been done and two people were dead. Plus, there had to be countless others that they had done this to, and Mash couldn’t fully control his anger.

“How many people have you killed? Do you think you have the right to beg now?”

The voice of his dragon form was louder and deeper. The sound caused her to whimper and flinch away. The gesture only made Mash more frustrated with the situation. He couldn’t just kill someone acting like this, it felt wrong. And if he did, that would make him worse than these people. Not knowing what to do in this situation, he just sat on the ground while speaking aloud.

“Can you heal me, Luke? I think the fight is over.”

Mash sat down as he knew that the penalty from hunt was coming. He didn’t think that he would fall unconscious, not that he didn’t want to though. His body ached and there was still a lot of damage across his body. Luke nodded scolding Mash for fighting so much despite his limitations. Mash didn’t have a real argument and let Luke heal him up while using his own meditation to speed up the process. He could carry the others and fly over the water afterward. That should be good enough to avoid any other adventurers that arrived. However, they still needed to figure out what to do about these three.