Grace and Jacob sprinted towards the action, the former summoning flames to her hand and the latter doing some gestures that Lance didn't recognize.

"Ah, fuck," he muttered, and he joined them. Sophie came a heartbeat later.

Jacob stepped forward first like he had done before, but this time he held his hands up defensively; he started talking rapidly again though, saying things like "Don't come any closer!" or "Get away from us you fucking monsters!" over and over again, but he moved towards them slowly but surely.

All at once, he thrust his hands forth, and the next words he said came out as a mass of sound, harsh and directed.

A monster exploded under the pressure, its head bursting apart from the force as the rest of it turned into nothing more than fragments: bones scattered everywhere and blood sprayed across the ground. A second one stumbled back after the blast with a screech, dropping to the floor and trying to crawl away on the carpet in agony, even while it was covered in scorch marks and red-hot coals were smouldering beneath the skin of its body as well. Grace's fire burned through its flesh without hesitation: the monster howled and rolled onto its stomach, then curled up into a ball that burst in a wave of flame—it stopped moving entirely when she let go of her flames.

"Fuck," Lance muttered quietly before turning to look at the two people joined them. "Well, they're not monsters."

"We need to move," Jacob said.

"Agreed," Grace said, holding his hand.

Sophie nodded curtly. "We will come with you too, then?"

That had been enough for her to trust them, then. Lance glanced at Sophie who stared at him with wide eyes like she didn't quite believe what she was saying .

He sighed in defeat though; he couldn't deny it anymore than he could argue with it, so he just nodded back at her instead, acknowledging that they had to team up. After all, if things were going to get worse from here on out, it might be better to have friends along than having enemies on their heels. Even if some of those would end up being crazy as well after a while.

"Do you guys know which way is out?" Lance asked. "Feels like I've been stuck in this police building for ages."

Jacob shook his head. "I think we can find a way out—if there's any point finding one when the city's full of monsters now." He looked around as he said that but stopped when a sudden thought crossed his mind:

"Let's not think about that for now,” Lance ordered. “We need to move on, and we need to do it fast.”