Acrid smoke rose from the boulder Jeboro was gripping. Within an instant, it had turned a flaming red color, melting into lava. His hands sunk deep into the molten rock, draining the insanely hot lava into the cylinders around his arms.

Ten talismans fell onto the ground, erupting into another ten massive Vigors. Now, there were more Vigors present than when they had been attacked. The girl reached into her purse and took out another seven cards to fan herself as she sucked on her lollipop.

“What the fuck…” Macaw mumbled. “Is this real?”

A glob of lava shot towards Skadi, who nimbly sidestepped it as he advanced towards Jeboro. Without missing a beat, the Vigors raised their feet to stomp downwards.

Hidden in the bushes, Solera looked on with horror. How was anyone supposed to defeat this unending stream of Vigors? Even an immortal, one of only a thousand in the world, had come to take care of them! If Solera could move, he would still be unable to put up the slightest resistance against these monsters that defied reason.

Chianti shot a pulse of power from her gauntlet as she dodged a Vigor strike. It moved slowly through the air towards the girl, who didn’t react at all. Seeing this, Solera’s eyes widened. Of course! If the golems could not be defeated, then it was best to go for the controller!

As the glowing ball of power moved towards the girl, Skadi sent a palm towards Jeboro’s face while he was still in the air. Jeboro met Skadi’s palm with a forceful punch. The palm was stopped, but Skadi’s body continued to move forward. His knee lashed out, going straight for Jeboro’s chin. Jeboro did a strange contorting motion to dodge the strike, causing Skadi to change his kneeing attack to a frontal kick that sent Jeboro flying through the air.

At that moment, the pulse made contact with the girl, sending a tremor running through her robes. The pulse’s power spread throughout her robes with a crackling noise before dissipating in a bright flash of light.

For a moment, the Vigors stopped moving and began to crumble apart. Yet not a single happy look could be seen on the faces of the mercenaries. Chip, for his part, had a shocked and nervous look in his eye.

“Insulator robes…” A mercenary breathed in disbelief.

Chianti’s lips had turned into a thin, hard line. “Retreat! Everyone get out of here, now!”

The girl’s head snapped back up, her wings quickly flapping to break her fall. All at once, the hills of dirt formed back into Vigors. But many mercenaries had already begun to flee into the forest.

“You idiot girl!” Jeboro shrieked as he dusted off his robes. “Can’t you kill a couple people without getting shot? What do I give you those lollipops for?”

Completely ignoring Jeboro’s berating, the girl had her Vigors turn back into small piles of rock rolling across the ground to chase after the fleeing mercenaries.

Solera watched the disappearing soldiers resignedly. As Chianti had said, the injured were “fucked.” If the mercenaries were to drag him along, then they would only slow themselves down and get more of them killed as they escaped.

This was the bitter reality. How could he blame them for leaving him behind?

As he thought these forlorn thoughts, two huge legs appeared around him as Guinness lugged him up onto his back.

“Guinness…” Solera croaked in shock as Guinness carried him away. “Don’t… do this…”

“No!” Guinness grunted, panting heavily as he ran.

You bumbling idiot! Solera screamed in his mind. You’re killing yourself! She’ll chase us down and turn us into bloodstains on the ground, Guinness. Leave me here, and save yourself. An idiot like me doesn’t deserve to be rescued so many times. Don’t be stupid, Guinness…

But he didn’t say anything. Because he didn’t want to die!

At that moment, Solera clung onto the tiny, minuscule hope that he and Guinness could get away alive. Even if it meant that he would drag Guinness down with him if they died. Because he wanted to live.

Bitter, self-deprecating tears poured down Solera’s cheeks. He could no longer blame Chip for fleeing. He could no longer blame Pinot for putting herself first. Because he was doing the same.

In times of danger, a person’s true nature is revealed. Solera was no different from Chip or Pinot. Like them, he clung stubbornly to his own life, even if it meant endangering the lives of another.

A sizzling drop of lava landed on a nearby leaf, creating a burst of steam as the branch erupted into flame. From behind, Solera could hear Jeboro’s shouting.

“Stay near me, Victoria! Don’t go too far! If you died, I’d be in huge trouble.”

Solera registered this grimly as he bounced up and down Guinness’s back. It seemed the little monster would not chase them, but it didn’t mean he and Guinness were out of the danger zone. She had attacked them from kilometers away, somehow being able to see through the endless ocean of trees and even the Vigors themselves to coordinate the attacks of twenty golems, despite the Vigors not having any vision modules! Solera wouldn’t be comfortable even if they fled for the next thirty minutes.

Loud, crisp crackling sounds could be heard from behind them.

“AHHHHHHH!” Jeboro screamed, causing Guinness to stop and look back. Several hundred meters away, a raging inferno had engulfed Skadi and Jeboro, obscuring the two from view.

“Sun…” Guinness mumbled as he looked at the flames. After several moments, intense heat waves began to buffet them. A blur jumped out of the flames onto the shimmering ground several meters away, gasping.

“You… you rat!” Jeboro howled at the center of the flames. “My longevity! You just ruined it!”

Like a monstrous dragon, Skadi strode out of the inferno. His entire body was radiating waves of power, at a volume Solera had not even thought was possible.

“Haha, the inventor of this technique called it Sublime Gold.” Skadi laughed. “It uses sweat as a base to imbue power, and-”

Jeboro threw something at Skadi’s face, causing him to dodge aside.

“Wha… what did you just throw at me?” Skadi’s voice was full of disbelief. “That’s never, ever happened to me before!”

“Damn you, you bastard!” Jeboro hopped up and down in fury. “I used my manhood every Saturday! How can you do this to me?”

Another stream of lava shot out of his cylinders at Skadi, instantly resuming the fight. Not far away, Solera could see a Vigor threading its way towards them.

“Run, Guinness!” Solera yelled as loudly as his parched throat could muster. Guinness obliged, and they began to flee again.

A small hill of mud flew through the air, crushing a tree to their left as it landed on the ground. Guinness smashed through a brush in an effort to flee before the Vigor could strike.

“Right, Guinness. To your right...” Solera hoarsely whispered, taking off his power crystal and pressing it into Guinness’s neck, where many major channels were located.

All at once, Guinness sped up, thundering away from the Vigor with newfound wind in his sails. Though Solera was the one channeling power into the crystal, allowing power to continually drain out of it, Guinness was able to absorb a good amount of it into himself, and borrow its power to flee faster.

Several rocks smashed into Solera’s back, sending them both tumbling onto the ground. Within three seconds, Guinness was back up and running again. Blood trickled down the gashes in Solera’s back, but he wore a triumphant smile.

They could make it! They could live!

A talisman riding a small patch of rolling stones drifted past them. But before it could reform back into a Vigor, a flying dart pierced through the talisman.

Chip, Macaw, Verreaux, and Chianti ran over from another side, panting with exhaustion. They had complicated expressions as they looked at Solera and Guinness.

“Nice one, Guinness.” Verreaux panted. “You’re a stand-up guy.”

Chip looked at Solera briefly, before pointing into the distance. “Shut up, we need to keep going.”

Chianti glanced around for incoming Vigors, before nodding. “Go.”

They continued fleeing for their lives. The sounds of fighting grew dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared altogether.