Fighting for peace is oxymoronic. The people who believes in it are simply moronic.

Callum tilted his body to hide his actions from his opponent, which gave him the opportunity to withdraw the dagger strapped near his waist. With practiced movements, he flipped the blade flamboyantly into the air, still behind his back like a circus trick, in order to catch it again with a reverse grip.

Finally, he was ready to use his Powers. Callum’s body shot forward with no acceleration time, just pure velocity, with his right arm dragging the dagger behind him like a scythe. Looking at his trajectory, it’s clear he was trying to pass by the monster’s left side and slice off its legs.

“You’re fighting a monster though, not a human.”

Hina, who possessed a Power that augmented her senses, heard my criticism and turned toward me. However, she couldn’t formulate her mockery as quickly as the monster could screech.

The sudden, deafening sound shocked Callum for the briefest moment. The monster made a move before he could even think to stop or change his momentum. Its scorpion tail wasn’t attacking from above, but swung from the side like a whip, the green-tainted stinger heading straight for Callum’s head with incredible accuracy.

Just before impact, Durohan rushed in at a speed that made Callum’s lunge seemed like slow motion. With one hand, he pushed the stinger forwards, whilst the other hand wrenched Callum to his back. An embarrassing “Wah!” escaped from Callum’s heart as he fell, utterly powerless.

He landed head-first onto the ground, still fear-stricken from his near-death experience. He didn’t even register the thunderous boom or the dusty crater left behind by Durohan. His shoulder was dislodged from Durohan’s actions, and there were multiple scrapes all over his body, but the fatal blow was on his mental state.

“Callum – out.”

Durohan dragged Callum by his shirt like a carrier bag to a safe distance, and left him there to cry and shake alone.

Meanwhile, the rest of us didn’t have the luxury to discuss his embarrassing display in detail.

Our positioning was all wrong. Hina, who stood almost in between Durohan and the monster, fell down from the shockwave that was the result of the rescue. The sudden change of events blinded her from the incoming threat.

The monster wasn’t too pleased with having its attack interfered. It retrieved its tail by dragging it across the area it came from, this time intending to blast Hina away.

Hina heard it. She also saw it coming. With her Powers, she shoud’ve felt the pressure, smelt the changes in the air and even tasted the dust entering her open mouth.

But, due to fear, she couldn’t think.

“Or maybe she’s just as stupid at all times.”

Looking into her eyes, I’m certain. She heard what I said, and she was busy thinking of a response to my jibe like an actual idiot. Her brain must be filled with gossips and social nonsense to the brim, so much so that she can’t even prioritise dangers properly.

The speed of the tail sweeping the ground wasn’t even a fifth of what it was when it attacked Callum, but Hina was determined to be crushed underneath it anyways.

Durohan simply jogged forward this time, lifted Hina into a princess-hold, and jumped past the tail, before returning to a safe distance and dumping her next to Callum.

“Hina – out.”

The monster effortlessly took down two of our members with just a single swing of its tail. Now, it turned its attention to us.

“I’m the leader of the unit, but none of you are willing to listen. So, what will you do now?”

It may have been an arrogant question, but I was curious of the twin’s answer. They’re standing together, with the two of them and I making a 90o angle to the monster. Judging from the speed of the tail attacks, we’re way too far apart to help each other.

No surprises, they thought I’d be useless and instead tried to handle the task themselves.

Amelia sent a bolt of lightning sizzling through the air from her fingers, striking the monster’s eyes. Dazzled, the monster that was about to charge forward took a step back instead, giving Kelvin the chance to move in.

Kelvin took out his own dagger and, without any fancy movements, sprinted towards the monster’s underside at a speed just slightly below Callum’s initial rush. It took mere seconds for him to close the distance, where upon he stabbed his dagger upwards into the monster’s belly and used the friction to slow himself down. By the time he stopped, he managed to wound the monster from the front to the area near its tail.

That was all the duo could achieve. Kelvin’s arm and upper body was soaked in the body fluid of the monster, which was green and acidic. It took a full second for the pain to fully register, but once it did, the damage was already done. Durohan was about to step forward like before, but I shook my head at him, and pointed to Amelia instead. As a combat instructor, he clearly knew the reason why.

It’s a painful experience to feel your body being eroded, and the scream Kelvin released conveyed the agony he felt. Still, he stayed calm enough to activate his secondary ability, which turned his body immaterial. The acidic blood fell to the ground alongside his clothes and weapon whilst he grabbed his bubbling flesh in horror like a wailing ghost.

The scream of her brother in pain caused Amelia, who was charging up her next attack, to stumble. Being distracted at a time like this was fatal, and the monster instinctively knew it was its chance.

Still thinking there was an enemy beneath it, the monster smashed its entire body downwards to take care of the issue. At the same time, its scorpion tail acted like a scorpion, and attacked Amelia from above with lightning speed, the range of its attack reaching further than its appearance would suggest.

Amelia was saved by Durohan at the last second.

“Amelia – out.”

“Surrender.”

Since I’m the leader of the group, I reserve the right to surrender. Poor Kelvin, the only one hurt in this fight, could no longer contribute. Oh, correction, the only useful one that was hurt.

“KELVIN! KELVIN, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

Amelia shouted in worry when she saw the wretched state her brother was in. Thanks to his Power, nothing influenced his ethereal body, not gravity nor the ground. As such, he was writhing about in mid-air like a worm being levitated.

The rest of us watched in silence as Durohan effortlessly clamped the monster back into chains, dodging its attacks like a leaf swaying in the wind.

It was a gritter. It was an easy opponent.

“First try fail. I’ll be releasing the monster again in 25 minutes. Until then, rest up and start using your head. You are not allowed to attack it until break time’s over.”

“Mr. Durohan, save him please!”

“Kelvin? No. He is resting, like you should be.”

Amelia was about to rush forward when I grabbed her shoulder.

“Its stinger isn’t chained; it can still attack you.”

“SHUT UP!”

“Also, you can’t touch him either. He needs to get himself over here.”

“THAT’S WHY I NEED TO GO THERE AND TELL HIM!”

“Gee, I guess you’re right, your brother can’t be as smart as you to come up with that idea.”

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!”

“You could’ve thrown me off any time. The thinking part of you knows I’m right, and it’s using me as an excuse to keep you alive.”

“KELV-mhh“

I took my right hand from her shoulder, and clamped it on her mouth. Partly because her screaming is annoying the fuck out of me, mostly because that’s a stupid thing to be doing right now.

“I don’t know how he turns himself invulnerable, but if your screaming distracted him, he’ll die from shock and blood loss, so shut up.”

Though she immediately recoiled from my hand, Amelia’s too upset to react properly to me manhandling her. She no longer saw me as the kid who gets bullied every day in school, but as an obstacle to rescue her brother. In addition, this obstacle made sense, which confused her enough to finally ask.

“What do we do then?”

“You spent more than five minutes doing nothing inside this room. You didn’t even properly look around.”

With my prompting, they finally found the solution – a man resting at the corner to the right of the entrance, eating popcorn and laughing at our antics. He sat beside the two weapon racks filled with various equipment readily available the whole time.

“Are you a healer, mate?”

The mystery man had his mouth full, so he gave a thumbs up in answer.

“CAN YOU HEL-“

“Will you stop shouting already? He’s not moving, which means we have to get Kelvin to him.”

“WHY!?”

Performance anxiety, a deadly mental state that rendered even the most skilled performers into a useless blank shell. Once under unfamiliar pressure, a person loses all cognitive ability, and reverts to basic instincts. The first two are commonly known – fight or flight. The third instinct, people usually hides – dependency. Things are too bothersome when you have to think, so push it all onto someone else instead.

Aggressive communication will worsen the problem. Only with a calming voice that shows both empathy and gentleness would help a normal person under stage fright.

That being said…

“ARE YOU FUCKING DUMB? SHUT THE FUCK UP OR GO KILL YOURSELF ALONG WITH YOUR BROTHER!”

I’m not looking for normal people and shock can sometimes be more efficient time-wise in dealing with this issue. Also, it’s more my-way.

I know, I know, I literally warned her before that shouting could’ve worsened the situation. I glanced back at the wounded to check for changes, but thankfully Kelvin was still conscious and fought to stay ethereal. Amelia’s full attention finally snapped onto me. Unlike the oxygen-bandit at the side, she swallowed her irrational thoughts and waited for the solution, like a mischievous puppy sprayed with water.

“You’re faster than me. Get me a shield from the weapon rack and a healing potion, then create a distraction for me to rush in.”

Even before I finished my sentence, Amelia blasted off to complete my order. She successfully retrieved a few bottles of bright red potions – 9 of them to be exact, when I only needed one. Unfortunately, she also returned with a round shield the standard size of absolutely-fucking-useless.

“Are you trying to get me killed too? Don’t just switch your brain off!”

Though it is true that an imprecise order is the fault of the commander… it’s not like I’m expected to list out every tiny detail, right? You’re with me on this one, right?

Amelia looked at the frying pan she brought, then compared it to the menacing 10 meters long lively-pokey-ouchy protruding from the back of the monster, before dashing off to correct her mistake with a reddened face, like a confused puppy bringing back the wrong toy during fetch.

Once she returned, I had in my hands a full-body shield made of solid wood, coated by an iron frame. It was split into two sections, thinnest on the sides and thickest in the middle, which helped deflecting enemy attacks. Within my shirt, wrapped with a couple layers of Callum’s tear-soaked shirt, was the precious vial for Kelvin.

“Make some distractions, but be sure not to hit the monster.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re supposed to be resting right now. I doubt Durohan will appreciate us sneaking in attacks whilst it’s chained.”

“But we’re trying to sav-“

“Look, the healer’s not moving. The teacher’s not moving. This is a serious lesson for battle, so start treating it like one.”

“Why don’t I rush in then?”

“Then who’d distract the monster? Are you confident you can handle your brother and the monster alone? I can’t attack from range to help.”

Amelia Reiner, who recovered from her panic through shock, began to show her capabilities as an Inquisitor. A quick thinker, decisive and open to criticisms. I gave her an inner-thumbs-up when she took less than a second before nodding to show she understood.

Without another word, I rushed in to begin the rescue.

Wait – I lied, I forgot something.

“Oh, and just in case it wasn’t clear, don’t fucking hit me either.”