“Stay in front of me, we’re going to move fast,” Lance said, arrow and bow held low and pointed to the ground as they emerged from the parking garage. More than a few civilians shied away from the group while others shouted questions. None moved towards the armed and armored individuals, fear keeping them back. Lance knew that wasn’t going to last though. Best to move, fast.

“Got it.” Hefting the spear, Sarah trotted forwards, Neil following beside her a second later and taking her left. Automatically, she headed for the sidewalk, only for Lance to call out.

“Middle of the street. Less traffic.” She hesitated for a second before following his orders, and Lance nodded to himself. Good. She listened. Now… “First group, you’re going to take them on. If there’s more than two, I’ll try to reduce it to be equal.”

“What? I… why?” Neil asked.

“You need the coins.” And experience, Lance did not say. He certainly was not going to risk his life in the dungeon without at least making sure they would not run at the first clash.

“Right… right.” Neil nodded while Sarah stayed silent. She kept moving forward, heading towards the end of the street. Just before they reached the end of the street, another trio of those centipede-dogs appeared.

Waving his hand above his head to call off his friends, Lance waited for the group to approach even as he angled himself slightly away from the pair in front of him. He drew and loosed with ease, watching as the fletching sunk deep into the open throat of the monster, forcing it stagger and fall down dead.

Letting out a screaming shout, Sarah threw herself forward, her spear leading the way. Caught out by the sudden explosion of movement, Neil was a few seconds behind, barely getting in place to catch the second monster his shield even as the first was skewered on Sarah’s weapon.

Holding the monster still as it thrashed on her spear and along the cross-guard, Sarah kept pushing, barely even noticing the whipping leg that cut a leg along her arm as she slammed the monster backwards along the ground before it finally caught against an abandoned car. Still releasing a now wordless scream, she kept the monster pinned as it bled out.

Behind her, Neil was faring less well, his blow from his mace smashing apart limbs even as the monster lunged at him again and again. Eventually a lucky blow clipped the creature across the head, stunning it long enough for him to lay his mace on its head over and over again till it stopped twitching.

Panting, Neil stared at the monster corpse, only to see it slowly dissolve. He looked up, seeing the same thing happen to Sarah’s victim. “That… that was one?”

“One coin, yes.” Lance said, quietly watching the pair. The woman was rather wide-eyed but there was a gleam in her eyes, that as almost manic. Neil on the other hand looked like he might be paMatting. “Can you keep going?”

“I…” Neil shuddered then straightened. “Yeah. I have to, don’t I?” He looked at Sarah, the woman almost entirely ignoring him as she scanned ahead.

“Let’s go!” Sarah said, turning around and waving to them. She winced as she half-completed the wave, looking at her arm. “Ouch!”

“First, bandages. Then we keep going,” Lance said calmly. He waved a hand, grabbing at the first aid kit that appeared in a glowing metal box. “Hup hup. We got to go.”

***

The moment they turned the corner, they found more monsters. Some were already moving towards the alley, moving in bursts and starts as they checked out abandoned cars, shuttered doorways and glass windows. They sniffed at bodies, a few of the centipede-dogs fighting and snarling at one another. The only thing pushing them forwards were those green creatures, though occasionally they pushed faster and harder than they liked, at which point the two would fight.

“Oh shit… that’s a lot of them,” Neil whisper-shouted.

“Alright…!” Sarah said. “How are we doing this?”

“Not rushing them this time?” Lance said, drolly.

“I’m not insane.”

“Could have fooled me,” Neil whispered.

“Right. We hold… there!” He pointed over to the side of the pavement, empty but for a car that had rolled halfway up the pavement. “You guys keep them off me, I’ll shoot them till they die.”

“You know, it’s not fair that you get all the kills while we keep you safe…” Neil muttered.

“No, not fair at all…” Lance said, then fell silent.

Sarah, impatient still, trotted over to the side indicated while the pair followed. Lance’s gaze was on the information that kept moving through his eyes, while he mentally toggled through the options. It did not take him long before he found the information he needed.

“What the hell? Party Invitation?” Neil yelped.

“Just accept it. Monsters incoming,” Lance replied, cooly even as he drew and loosed. His hand never stopped moving as he targeted the group of little green men coming at him, loosing three shots before he turned to the centipede monsters that had noticed them at last.

Neil swore, accepting the prompt and raising his shield and weapons up. The first three goblins fell, killed via the arrows. The other two hit the line, the first managing to dodge around Sarah’s spear. She swung it backwards, clubbing it with the side of the shaft before she stepped forward and stomped and kicked it.

Neil on the other hand waited until his opponent arrived and swung his mace down, hard. It crushed through its defences, the man’s greater size and strength killing the monster.

“Good job. But back to the line!” Lance snapped, even as he kept drawing and firing. Hitting his targets wasn’t an issue – moving or not, the monsters weren’t actively trying to dodge or take cover. Not the way truly smart creatures would.

No, the problem was the natural armour in the centipedes and the sheer volume. As fast as he drew and fired, there were only so many he could kill before they swarmed his allies.

Hot, heavy and busy minutes later, the trio were standing panting in a small circle, staring at the dissolving corpses around them. Even Lance had been forced into close combat, a hastily purchased short sword having been added to his arsenal. Neil was leaning against the car, a leg bleeding heavily where a damn goblin had clawed open his jeans. As for Sarah, she was clutching at her stomach where one of the monsters had manaed to punch through the gap between the front and back of her breastplate.

“Don’t. Think the. Magical Bandages. Will be enough. This time.” Sarah panted the words out, wincing as it pulled against her stomach. The bandage around her arm where she had been hurt sported the aforementioned magical bandage, a simple thing that had started the healing process when it had been slapped on.

“I… should be fine.” Neil said, gritting his teeth. “Bandage me. But leg armor would be good.”

Lance flicked his gaze down to the coin counter, did some quick math and shrugged. “If you can hold off, you might be able to get some decent stuff after our next fight.” Then looking at Sarah, he continued. “There’s better things you can buy, but have you seen the modifications?”

“Healing: Accelerated (Basic)?” Sarah said, gritting her teeth as she pushed against the blood. “I don’t have the coins.”

“I do…” Lance said, doing his best to keep it calm. “If I lend it to you, I expect to be repaid.”

“We don’t know if it’s enough to patch me together fast enough…” Sarah said, trailing off.

“Your call. But if you don’t fix it…” Lance shrugged. “I can’t use you.”

“You’re a cold bastard, aren’t you?” Sarah watched as he shrugged again rather deliberately. After a second, she nodded. “Lend it to me. I’ll repay you as soon as I can.”

“Done.” Lance replied. The truth was, she was not wrong. He was cold. It had always been a thing with him. Ever since he could recal. Being able to disassociate his emotions, to look at things logically. Made him great in crisis. Not so much with relationships.

Except with certain kinds of women. Most of whom were more trouble than they were worth in his experience.

Pushing away those tragic thoughts – and one aspect of being able to see this logically was admitting he was as much as fault in those relationship tragedies – to look for monsters, Lance only heard the hiss of indrawn breath as the Shop adjustment kicked in.

“Oh… this is… ooohh… aaah…” Sarah huffed and moaned.

Silence, then Neil limped up to Lance, both of them very much not looking at the young lady behind them having a good time. Long minutes, before she grew silent.

“Well… that happened.” Neil said, his face entirely red.