“What are we to do?” Lucas asked the rest of his party, feeling it’s not his place to make decisions in their name. He was sure he would be able to outrun the woman, but he was also pretty certain she was stating the truth about the destruction. He and Bruce did a lot of speculation, with Bruce being adamant about the fact the General would rather take the whole town down with him instead of going down quietly. Lucas hoped that Bruce was mistaken, that the destruction of his unit which was happening even at this moment, with troopers left inside the city deserting en masse and outside forces not showing up, probably aware what was happening and deciding to stay out of the clusterfuck in the settlement. But, his hopes obviously proven misplaced, as the current situation showed him.

“How much do we need to get to the skyscrapers?” Ted asked.

“Half an hour if they took down the Carmen here and now, and who knows how long if they were forced to contend with her on their way. But do we have time for that?” Lucas responded back.

“She’s tough, even with the four of us” Chen reminded them.

“It seems like our best bet is to just head to the heavies, keeping her out of our back. Lucas, can you identify her. I’m getting blanks” Ted said, Maggie nodding in agreement with the statement. Lucas activated “Sharpsight”, the world taking the pleasant light blue filter. He discretely cast a glance at the woman, prompt appearing with the information Lucas tried to find.

“Carmen Diaz, Mistress of the Whip, level 49”

Lucas found the previous information in his log and shared both of the prompts with the rest of the party.

“She leveled quite a bit since the last time” he commented.

“So did you, and if my math is correct, the difference is now less than it used to be” Ted said.

“And today we kicked her ass. Let us deal with her, you will be the fastest one to get to the heavies.” Maggie said, Lucas admiring her bravery and willingness to throw herself into dangers for the people she never met. He was momentarily lost and it took a chuckle from Ted and Chen for him to regain his senses and think about what she said. There was wisdom in her words, but Lucas feared Carmen was able to take at least one of them down and he was tired of losing people he worked with. His memories of how he ran last time instead of helping still haunted him, even if his conscience was a little sated due to the Michael death and knowledge vengeance has been brought.

“No, we are in this together” he simply said. Seeing they agreed there will be no surrender, Lucas turned to face the woman at the gate. She was still as a statue, carefully observing the group and she sensed what they planned almost immediately. Her whip was already in the air, on the length of it thorns began sprouting. Lucas was first to react, activating “Punch parry” two times in quick succession, allowing his party time to spread out. Confident in their ability to dodge individual hits, Lucas started running at the woman. Carmen proved more than the match for his Agility last time, but this time he had his passive which already proved once today. He was soon so fast, he looked nothing more than a blur and he was at the position of Carmen before she managed to react. He tried hitting her with “Stinging cut” but as soon as his blade started glowing, she jumped backwards, leaving Lucas to swing in the empty air. Cursing, he turned to face her, but before he managed to do anything else, her whip had tripped him. Falling on the ground, Lucas immediately activated “Dodge” and rolled out of the way, but the follow – up blow never came, as Chen and Maggie sent a cloud of arrows flying towards Carmen. Even thought the woman knew only one of the arrows was real, she didn’t have any way of differentiating between them so she was forced to dodge them all. Lucas used her current preoccupation to activate “Infused piledriver” his spin aimed at the torso of his opponent. Carmen was agile enough to dodge the strike and Lucas was forced to anchor himself with his legs, something that hasn’t happened in the long time. Ted was there to pick up where Lucas left off, forcing Carmen to use her whip to block and entangle his club instead of striking Lucas while he was out of balance. Another cloud of arrows also started flying and Carmen was starting to get overwhelmed. That was enough for the party to quickly advance, Maggie combining her skills for instant reload and the one which immediately stabilized her aim, sending two shots in quick succession while closing the distance to Lucas and Ted. Chen on the other hand conjured four of every party member, each set trying to link up to the other. Carmen, forced to dodge four different attacks, seeing how Lucas rejoined the fight and tried to circle around her with “Spin strike” dodged in one of the smaller alleys, out of view. Party used this momentum to regroup and they were off towards the skyscrapers, with the illusions of them following closely before the first intersection came, where they split off in four different directions. Chen warned he would be able to keep them only a short amount of time, meaning soon Carmen will knew which party is the real one and would be able to hunt them down. Lucas positioned himself at the back of the group, knowing he had best chance to survive an attack if they don’t notice Carmen on time. They covered about half of the way before the whip came, tripping Lucas down mid – run. While he was getting up, he remembered he had actual skill to help him combat Carmen, cursing himself for his incompetence. He continued running, forcing Carmen to once again try to trip him. He was ready this time, shouting “Bulwark of Balance”. Whip connected with his ankle, but this time instead of swiping them, it was stuck. Seeing his chance, Lucas pulled his leg quite aggressively, feeling the resistance for a few seconds before it came out flying from the hands of Carmen. He backtracked to the now weaponless woman forcing her to retreat in full sprint, her hands starting glowing blue while she talked something into it. Not wanting to waste his time, Lucas packed once again started running towards the heart of the city, quickly catching to the rest of his squad. In that moment, skyscrapers were lighted with the dozen skills activating at once, raining death and destruction on the city bellow it, with the deadliest ones crashing on the path they were on. Lucas got the signal and so did the rest of his party and they picked up their pace, each one of them straining their Agility to the maximum. Chen started to lag behind and Lucas picked him up and carried him the rest of the way. After about five minutes of neck – breaking sprint they arrived to their goal, third volley of skills just being launched. From here they could hear screams and death throes of people hit and panicked shouting from the ones that haven’t yet be hit.

“We go inside and we split up. We have to shut down the heavies before they level half of the city.” Lucas shouted to the agreement of the rest of them. They entered the first one, finding themselves in the huge lobby. There a woman in familiar uniform stood and when she noticed them entering she quickly raised her hand in the air.

“Wait, wait, don’t attack. You are Doom, aren’t you?” She said, looking at Lucas.

“A what now?” he said apprehensively, his sword waiting to strike at the first sign of treachery.

“Yea sorry, just the way us guys and gals in the troop called you after that catastrophe at the prison. You are the guy from there, right?” the trooper continued.

“Yes and we don’t have the time. Move aside and leave the city, same as everybody else. I have to find the ones doing this” Lucas said and started moving forward.

“Great, we then are going in the same direction. I wanted to find those responsible for this and reason with them “she said, evening her pace with the rest of the party.

“And why do you think we will allow you to go with us, seeing as you are still our enemy” Lucas asked, looking to see the reaction of the rest of the party. They watched the trooper very carefully but the woman seemed unfazed.

“After this tonight? I officially resign. And seeing the lot of you, I think you are a healer short. That covers both of your question. So, are we off now, I thought you were in a hurry”

Lucas looked at the woman incredulously before turning to the rest of the party. They were chuckling at the courage woman showed and Ted subtly nodded to Lucas.

“Okay, but watch your step. Any sign of betrayal and you are dead. Clear?” Lucas said to the woman. The field medic, as were more precise way to describe her, nodded before speaking again.

“I’m Margaret, by the way. What are your names?”

“Later” Lucas said.

Margaret rolled her eyes, prompting more chuckles from the party, before Maggie took it on herself to introduce the rest of them. Margaret happily listened in and when the time came to split up she offered spoke up.

“I would advise against that. I know exactly where every one of them is. It would be faster to follow them and deal with them with number advantage”

“And why would you listen to you?” Lucas asked with venom dripping from his voice.

“I thought you a local guy. These buildings are huge and if we split up, I can guide only one of you. I know I ask a lot, but trust me” Margaret said.

“And how exactly do you know their locations?” Lucas asked her.

“We ran these drills before. Medics needed to know where they were, to quickly react in case of emergency. But I assure you, we were told it will be only if the enemy took entire city. If I knew they would target civilians…” Margaret abruptly stopped, her distress genuine even to Lucas, who tried so hard to find any sign of treachery. He once again looked at the party and the simply shrugged, indicating they are okay with the plan Margaret suggested.

“Lead the way, then. And remember…”

“I know, I know, you are watching me” Margaret interrupted him before taking the point. And with that, they started the race to silence the heavies before they bring even more death.