This was bad.

This was very bad.

Ben had more than enough time to stare Azriel down to get his Assassinate bonus, and stabbed him in the back with his Backstabbing Dagger.

It wasn’t an instant-kill, that was too much to hope for. It wasn’t a crit either. It did more damage to Azriel than it did to the Berserk Town Guard before, but that was a low bar. I had really, really hoped that it would do more than this. Because after our successful sneak attack, everything else hadn’t quite worked out as we hoped.

Ben's plan to steal the swords right out of Azriel’s hands turned out to be a bust. His odds of success depended on the weight and value of the object, and the level and stats of the one being stolen from. The guards were very heavy, but dirt cheap and owned by a lvl0 low-stats crystal. Azriel’s blades meanwhile had a 0% success chance to be stolen.

The Town Guard proved to be little more than a nuisance to Azriel, and it was just as hostile to Ben. Both could easily weave and dodge around the slow strikes, but Azriel was using the guard as a shield by putting himself between it and the rest of us.

Alexa’s song had backfired too. Turns out that Azriel had the ‘70s nonsense reasoning that anything remotely rock and roll was the music of the devil. The moment she started to play ‘Faster’ by Within Temptation, he knocked her up his murder list.

But, it was no use dwelling on what went wrong. Time to think of solving this mess. Somehow.

I kicked one of the thugs and thrust down my spear before he could recover, killing him instantly. Behind me Krutnik-Miho spat acid in a thug’s face while tackling another, and Tatiana quickly loosened several arrows that reaped lives wherever they embedded themselves. Foreman’s thugs were numerous, but easily dealt with. It was unfortunate that they consumed the precious seconds that Ben bought us, but it was as it was.

The last three thugs ran out the door now that Azriel was preoccupied, leaving Azriel with just one ally. Burl was hanging back, carefully watching the situation. He would be a challenge, as I'd seen the bounty hunter survive tough scraps before. I didn't know if and how he was lethal, but with the way he could dodge and parry he wouldn't be taken out easily and every attack he survived were precious seconds we lost.

“Miho, Tatiana! Take care of Burl, I'll support Ben!” I said.

“Are you sure?” Tatiana asked. “I can-”

“We can't afford leaving our flanks open to him! Take him out, ASAP!” I said.

Hopefully they'd manage. Tatiana couldn't really shoot into the melee without risking that she'd hit Ben or the Guard, and Miho wasn't quite ready for such a tense situation yet.

I ran towards the guard, and the two men duelling behind it. Well, duelling. Azriel was trying to kill Ben, and Ben was barely dodging and weaving around his attacks to prevent that fate. The Elite was too fast and too lethal, Ben had no chance to fight back without risking a lethal riposte.

It wasn't even a close fight. Azriel was wielding his angelic sword using just one hand. The blade was on fire now, the gauntlets made from Shalanter's hands clearly not only for show. I didn't know if the worg pelt gave a similar bullshit power, but the fire alone already forced Ben to dodge more or take damage even from near misses.

With the two of us the tide would hopefully change.

I joined the fight as Ben and Azriel both jumped into the air, reverse-limboing over the Town Guard's massive blade as it missed the both of them with a hair's breadth. Ben couldn't afford a wider margin without Azriel stabbing him mid-dodge, and Azriel waited until the last possible moment for an opportunity to strike. It was an impressive display, despite knowing it was mostly just increased stats and skills doing the work.

I took out my Skyfowl spear and stabbed at Azriel, who batted the thrust aside with his left arm. He didn't even take his eyes off of Ben as he pointed his finger at me and blasted the same ray of light that he used to kill one of Foreman's thugs before.

The spell harmlessly scattered on my shield, but no damage was reflected and Azriel didn't stagger. It made sense that intelligent foes would be tougher, but I hoped that he would've stumbled a bit while figuring me out before he could formulate a battle plan. Guess he already concocted one before the fight.

I stabbed at him again, this time nicking Azriel. I had to get to my knees immediately to avoid getting blasted in the face with another light spell, the Elite using my moment of overextending to bring his index finger but centimetres away from my eye, and I awkwardly shuffled back while shielding my whole body with my shield.

The guard looked at me, and I quickly popped my Gate Pass out of my inventory.

“I've got permission!” I said as the piece of paper fell off my shoulder onto the floor.

The guard's dot turned white again and it returned its attention to Azriel and Ben.

I sighed in relief. The pass wasn't going to help Ben after he stole the Guard, Mayor or not. Similarly Azriel couldn't just negate his wanted status. But it seemed like the Gate Pass gave some leeway in attacking wanted criminals. It had been a gambit, based solely on that the Bounty Hunter's Permit should allow for such a thing and that the Gate Pass might include those rights.

Then I sheepishly remembered that I had four Bounty Hunter Licences in my inventory, which I took from the bodies of Burl's friends.

I got back onto my feet again and tried to angle myself to another attack. Azriel sidestepped before I could sandwich him, not allowing me to attack him from the back. Ben immediately moved with him, knowing that only death awaited him if he would allow Azriel to sandwich him between the guard and his holy blade.

The guard immediately lumbered forward in pursuit, and I took a moment to glance over my shoulder. Burl had a few grazes and an arrow sticking out of his shoulder, but he was still up and going. Even with Alexa pelting him with Mana Bubbles while she was singing her Dex-boosting song on top of the other two fighting him, he was holding his own. Fighting almost purely defensively based on my friends being completely uninjured, but alive nonetheless.

Livia was still standing on one of the tables, talking into her hand while looking ever more annoyed. There were clearly some disagreements with the top brass about her contributing to this fight, but if she was still talking then there was a chance she could help after all.

I hesitated for a second, but then pocketed my shield and spear to bring out my Guard Spear instead. I would be all but defenceless if Azriel closed the distance, the unwieldy spear was not useful against something closer than a metre, but the sheer strength and slight Dex boost might allow me to damage Azriel.

The Guard briefly turned its head to look at my spear, gave me a collegial nod and then disregarded my very existence again.

I stepped forward and went for a downward strike. For the first time Azriel glanced my way, hesitating for a split second before jumping backwards.

Ben immediately took the opportunity to put some distance between him and Azriel as well, getting a breather for the first time in what was a mere 20 seconds to us but dozens of near-death experiences for him. Just the flames licking him had reduced his health by a third, and he was breathing raggedly.

My spear-sword left an oval-shaped crater in the ground, and I strained my arms to immediately bring it back up for a wide horizontal slash. I was never going to hit Azriel like that, it was a defensive measure to keep the Elite at bay.

Not a necessary one as it turned out, as Azriel had to dodge Tatiana's arrows. She opened fire immediately once Ben and I were no longer near the Elite, firing several arrows in quick succession. He dodged them needing to parry just one, but damage or not she kept him occupied.

I was about to press the advantage when the Guard suddenly cut me off, lumbering towards Azriel with complete disregard for me or that it walked through my killing zone just moments after a wild attack.

“Darryl, can you *gasp* hold him off for *pant* a moment?” Ben said, backing away from the fight.

He nodded at Burl and I nodded back. The bounty hunter's continued survival rested mainly on his agility allowing him to evade lethal blows, but his persistence would run out once he was up against a faster foe.

Azriel looked at the changing battlefield, and decided to reposition himself. With a graceful leap he went through the window out of the tannery, the guard hot on his tail. It was a spacious building, but in between the fighting and the corpses littering the floor it was getting a bit cramped. I hadn't even noticed it, but with just one step back we managed to almost put Azriel's back against the wall.

Seeing how the clumsy Guard would block the window for a while, I quickly ran to one of the others and angled myself. One of my Phantoms appeared to block it, and I ran for the door. It should buy us a second of warning, and I didn't think that Azriel was going to come through the window with the foul-smelling vats of chemicals. Which only left the door.

A ray of light shot through the wall, easily punching through the half-rotten wood. The first ray struck me against the shoulder, and the fourth struck my side. I quickly popped a health potion to recover the damage I took, my race not granting me much resistance to light nor magic. It was a good thing that Azriel was firing blindly, only one more of his eight blasts finding a target. And Livia ignored the damage with but an annoyed glance in the Elite's direction.

I quickly shifted gears from defence to keeping Azriel busy, and equipped an item I had yet to try out. My feet were eager to obey my command as I kicked the ground to build up speed, the old floorboards shattering under my kicks. I took a blast of light in stride as I ran straight through the wall at Azriel's position, my new buckler glowing with radiant streaks of light that trailed behind me.

Azriel looked startled as I reached him before he could dodge, and I ran straight into him. My unknown but sizeable weight found the resistance of his stance lacking, and he was shoved back several feet before coming to a stop. Behind us, part of the tannery collapsed.

I quickly ducked under his slash and only barely managed to bring out my proper shield before he could execute me with a downward strike. After my moment of surprise and victory, I immediately found myself struggling to survive again as Azriel proved himself much faster and more skilled than me. Three strikes struck my shield, my health dropping some every time his burning blade made contact. His health dropped too, but not nearly enough to make it worth it.

I quickly used Phantom Phalanx again and back-pedalled between the two green me's. I was still losing and way out of my depth, but this at least covered my sides forcing Azriel to stab or dedicate a few attacks slashing through the illusions.

The Elite didn't do so, however. He just straightened his posture, and with a smug smile he brought his left hand to his chest to cast a spell. Holy light seeped through his fingers as he healed himself, what little damage Ben and I dealt to him refilling itself.

I took another step back and brought out my Skyfowl spear, trying to come up with a new plan of approach. His healing wasn't incredibly fast, he couldn't heal himself faster than we could damage him if we all attacked together, but it certainly made things more difficult.

Behind me the Town Guard made another hole through the wall and then walked through the rubble, causing another collapse as a roof support got stuck behind its head and pulled the whole roof along. My first Phantom Phalanx casting shivered as more debris fell on it, the spell functioning as a makeshift support beam for the whole front left side of the building.

Azriel glanced over to the only real threat to him and back to me. He smiled, and then walked the opposite direction circling towards Ben's last location.

Darryl: Incoming.

Darryl: He's circling around to focus the Guard on you.

Azriel pointed his finger at the half-collapsed shack as he kept wandering towards it, and fired a few of his light beams. Tatiana appeared from the wrecked side and returned fire, but had to immediately take cover as Azriel fired back while batting the arrows out of the air with his katana.

He tried to do the same when Miho spat at him, and then realised that swords weren't optimal to deflect acid. He stumbled as he dodged, but not a single drop struck him and his sword didn't seem affected by the acid. With a single swing, a line of smoking droplets was drawn in the sand.

Tatiana immediately began to fire again when Azriel stumbled, and this time Ben added a crossbow bolt to the mix. An arrow found the Elite's arm as he fumbled his casual swipe to knock it out of the air, but Azriel managed to dodge the bolt. The arrow's damage was only superficial despite being a clean hit, and didn't get stuck.

I charged in before he could answer in kind, going for a thrust with my Guard Spear while shielding myself with my Paladin Protector shield. The large spear was unwieldy while held in just one hand, but it would work if I just had to hold it steady and charge as if it was a lance.

Azriel sighed as he looked my way, but turned to face me. Sending off one last finger blast in Ben's location, he swung his blade to slap my spear to the side and follow up with a lethal move.

Only the rushing of wind warned him, but it was unfortunately sufficient for him to block the attack. For the first time since the fight began, he quickly grabbed his katana with both hands as he brought it up to defend his head.

My Miniature Giant Hammer slammed down on him with the full weight and momentum of Elise swooping down from high up, the hammer cackling with electricity. The katana held and with his insane stats Azriel even managed to keep it from being pushed down much, but with a loud bang his feet sunk into the ground just before the shockwave caused the dirt to explode outward into a small crater.

I finished my charge and ran the blade straight into his chest, impaling Azriel with the first serious clean hit we got since Ben's opening move. Azriel gasped and spat out a few drops of blood, and before he could recover I raised the spear up over my head to run him into the ground with a suplex: polearm edition.

Azriel used his katana with unwavering accuracy to push himself off my spear using the sword guard as leverage, and flew off before he hit the ground. He turned around midair to land on his feet like a cat, and then touched his chest wound with two fingers to confirm that he had indeed been wounded seriously.

“Fine, I'll admit. Better than I expected of the likes of you. No more playing around.” Azriel said, looking at us. He grasped his blade with both hands and took an actual fighting stance, and began to glow with radiant light.

“Alright, guys.” I grunted. “One down, just three quarters of his health left to go before he dies.”

“And don't forget that we'll have to do it a second time.” Ben said with the same gallow's humour tone.

I took a deep breath and readied myself.