As Helot, Firetank, and JJ walked towards the next room, the general mood of all three of them was not too cheery. This was due to JJ still trying to digest the information that Helot had bestowed upon her. Though it was a response that JJ deemed a bit too generic, she still felt herself lingering on those words for the entire walk.

Once the next room came up, they saw yet another room full of demons. This time, it was a group of dark grey people looking figures that were buff beyond anything JJ had seen previously. Also, there were bits and pieces of chains all over these creatures and on the floor.

“Ah, Asura slaves, I haven’t seen these in a while. A real tough bunch that are extremely hostile.” Helot spoke in rhyme once more, getting up to his usual antics as he became so characteristically accustomed to.

“Slaves? Does that mean they are a bunch of good-for-nothings?” Firetank said while making fun of them.

“Are they that powerful?” JJ asked curiously.

“These Asuras are the lowest rung of the ladder, they used to be lords, now they are slaves, could they be any sadder? Or madder for that matter?”

“That’s even more hilarious, what a pitiful bunch. We should put them out of their misery.” Firetank snorted once more.

“Firetank! Don’t be so insensitive to these poor creatures.” JJ said in a tone more stern that she usually talked in.

“Don’t mind him, JJ, he is nothing more than a dumb beast at the end of the day.”

“Hey!”

“Still arguing? I swear, every time one of you open your mouth, the other has to say something to bully the other.”

“It’s fun, plus, what’s this nobody with the body of a weakling going to do to me? Nothing!”

“Conversely, I feel like this is a choice that both of us participate in consciously and unconsciously.”

“Fine, screw it. Will we be able to take them down?” JJ asked annoyed and grimly

“No problem, there really is no need to be so solemn.”

“So what do you suggest we do?”

“Firetank! We surely have you to thank.”

“What? Why?”

“You will be the first to test out how strong they are, out of our little group here, your skill is the best by far.”

“Humph! You know it.”

“We’ll be out here seeing how you do, take care not to die. I really don’t want to have to summon something like you again.”

“Wow, master, thanks for the words of encouragement.”

“A beast that can understand sarcasm is not ordinary, there must be something special you carry.”

“My previous master loved sarcasm so much that I decided to partake in it too. It’s not anything too special.”

“Let’s get to the task at hand, I will guide both of you with my commands”

“What? Are you too chicken to fight on the front lines?”

“Nooooo.” Helot added a lot of extra sass in those last few ooo’s. “I’m doing this since there is room for your teamwork skills to grow.”

“Alright then, Helot, what do you suggest we do?”

“First off, Firetank, you must heed my instructions and not scoff.”

“Humph, fine I’ll listen.”

“Something else we need to be wary of is his love of battle, his body is hardened from centuries of battle and toil so he is anything but fragile.”

“What kind of weapon should I use against him?”

“I suggest you use a sword and shield, in terms of defence, this should even the playing field.”

“What about me? Should I go up and attack him with my claws and teeth or should I stay at the back to spit fire at the guy?”

“You should go up with JJ, she is powerful but she needs protection too, ok?”

“Yea, yea. Even if it isn’t in my personality, the contract still exists for me to protect her.”

“Good, JJ you must absolutely be careful when you face this guy, his strength is way too high.”

“He’s using a 2 handed sword right? So I should parry or block all of his hits?”

“Correct, if you are unlucky enough you might just end up dead if any of his hits connect.”

“Firetank, you lead the frontal assault and JJ will go flank.”

“Anything else that we should know before we go in?”

“Try not to die, and make sure to communicate alright?”

“Yea,” JJ said as she conjured up a sword and shield. This time she chose to go for a lighter set so that she would have a much easier time to move around as opposed to trying to outcompete the Asura in strength. That was just how much Helot’s talk had made her all the more cautious.

“Charge!” Firetank said as he rushed in to confront the Asura head-on. Just a few moments later, JJ charged in as well trying to get behind the 9-foot tall grey-skinned shackled man.

The Asura was quite quick and rushed towards the intruders as soon as he sensed them walking in. Firetank was normally all haughty, but this time, even he was a bit more attentive to detail given what Helot had told them.

“Firetank! Fireball then a melee attack,” Helot suddenly screamed in the channel.

The giant fire lizard did as he was told and immediately he had seen the benefits of having Helot in charge. The fire attack that he had thrown at the Asura had embroiled it in flames long enough for Firetank to reach him and get a few good bites in. This led to the Asura falling over. Now, he knew it was best to keep it restrained for his master to get some hits in as well.

It was a good thing that JJ was not one to let a good opportunity go to waste. All those team raids and clan matches, and group vs. group games she had become so accustomed to was finally put to the test. She rushed forward and jumped over Firetank while also changing her weapon to something she knew would do a lot of damage in this situation, a halberd and brought down all of her force upon the Asura’s neck and tried to behead him. She was close, but at the last moment, the Asura raised one arm that Firetank hadn’t managed to get ahold of and blocked JJ’s strike.

“Oh, screw poems. Lizard, another fireball and get JJ out of there.”

Firetank was just a tad too slow, he did get the fireball out of his mouth, but not before the Asura flung his arms with JJ and the halberd still caught in his flesh and sent them both flying. It was a good and bad thing, the good part of this was that this allowed JJ to not get hurt by the flames, but also bad because she hit the caves of the dungeon with quite a bit of force.

A few more rounds of fireballs later, the Asura was completely enraged and punted the 4-foot tall lizard like a soccer ball right next to JJ who was trying to get herself up and back into the fighting. The Asura was still almost completely engulfed in flames by this point but had learned to slightly mask the pain that he felt.

For JJ, everything hurt. Good thing she had bought the armour she was now in, or else, things might have turned out even worse. She took a quick peek at her stats and was wholly shocked to see that she was already down to half-health. She was level A8 in hit points, but that one strike had made 4 out of her 8 health bars go black. Then, she took a look at the Asura and found out that it was level A20 in hit points, but was already down to a quarter of his health bars left.

“Well, that was a bit of a set back. JJ! Don’t look at the stats until the end of the battle, your mind will have other thoughts if you compare yourself to the enemy. That is not something we want. Don’t worry about it for now, Firetank’s blasts will be enough for his health bars to go down to 12 if we don’t do anything.”

“So we just wait here while he burns in my flames?”

“No, you dumb lizard. We will need to continue to pour in the attacks. Hold on, let me try something.” The little goblin came forward and nocked his bow and let loose an arrow that would hit the Asura dead in the eyes.

“Wow, you couldn’t have done that before we got our asses kicked? Ya dumb goblin.”

“The only reason that I was able to land the shot was because the Asura was too busy writhing in pain and closed his eyes to avoid having them be burned off. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it if he was in full health and full strength.”

“Oh...can you get the other one?”

“...I could try.” the goblin raised the bow one more time to shoot it at the Asura who was now writhing in even more pain. Through a lot of sheer luck, JJ managed to get the other eye too!

“Excellent shot. What should we do now?”

“Oh just go kill it. Firetank, go and subdue it one more time. With its sight practically gone, his battle strength has just decreased by half.”

“Hehe, let me pay you back for all the damage you gave to me, stupid Asura.” He said as he smiled wickedly the way only lizards could.

It was a bit of trial and error, but with the eyes of the Asura done for, JJ and Firetank was able to take down the Asura. Even with this advantage though, it would take them another half an hour to kill it. After transporting the body to the 4th-dimension, they took a break from doing anything and just chilled for a bit.

JJ was feeling especially proud of herself for the fact that she was able to achieve what she had. With the death of the Asura past her, she felt like the guilt that had been weighing her mind down became less and less. She hoped that eventually it would disappear altogether.