"Hey, old man, are you alright?"

"What? Daisy? Where are we?" Howard rubbed his eyes as he sat up. The last thing he remembered was seeing Daisy, his daughter.

"Daisy? Who the hell is that? My name's Jenna, and this is Alyssa." The peppy voice sounded nothing like his daughter. Everything came rushing back.

Howard leapt to his feet and conjured a knife in each hand. He raised one, ready to launch it at the enemy. Then he saw… A woman who looked eerily similar to his daughter, standing next to another, taller woman.

They seemed confused, but not hostile. Shit, I fainted! If they were out to get me I would've been dead the moment my head hit the ground. Howard cursed his impotence, but could only thank the system the two women were friendly. Or seemed friendly, at any rate.

"Sorry, you just—Never mind." Howard shook his head. Now wasn't the time to get distracted, not when his life was on the line. "Who are you? Are we all in the same tutorial?"

The shorter, peppy woman nodded. She had no visible weapon, which in Howard's eyes, only made her all the more dangerous. She'd survived this far, after all.

"I think so. That system thingy would have told us if we were supposed to kill each other, right?" The cheery expression on her face as she said that sold Howard. He wasn't going to fuck with her, not if he could help it.

There had been a few guys like that, back in his unit. After their first tour, most of them, Howard included, who'd not seen action, had been wrecked for weeks. One or two, though, the truly fucked up ones, were either unbothered, or actually excited to go back. Those guys always ended up dead, or recruited to the SAS or some equally insane unit.

This girl reminded Howard of those types. Still, as long as she was on his side, he wasn't about to complain. The other woman, the one who looked like Daisy, had a stoic expression. A shortsword was strapped to her waist, blood dripping from the tip, and splashed on her clothes.

Was his daughter going through this shit? Would she even survive? He didn't want to think about it. All he could do was fight, and survive.

"Okay, so what, we're like a squad? Kill these monsters together? I can do that," Howard said, finally returning to full awareness of the situation.

"Great attitude, grandpa! Let's go kill some monsters," the peppy girl—Jenna—said.

And that was how they'd entered the dungeon, fought a horde of skeletons, a few groups of goblins—a shaman had nearly killed them when it suddenly healed a warrior who was behind them—and ended up triggering this godforsaken trap that sent them tumbling into a cavern, where a fucking lich was waiting for them, speech and all.

Howard only recognised the monster because of his depressive years, which he sunk into gaming as a pastime, when he wasn't too drunk to function. In any case, they hadn't fared that badly against the horrifying mini-boss… at first.

Through a combination of his throwing knives, Jenna's powerful magic, and Alyssa's agile melee combat style, they'd managed to defeat first the 'failed' experiments—skeleton soldiers—and then slowly whittled down and defeated the five giant soldiers. At that point, only the lich remained.

Which was when it began to use magic of its own.

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Evading the fireballs wasn't too difficult once they figured out the speed of travel, and the boss' tells. That was when it used the first lightning strike.

Alyssa attempted to dodge, but the searing white light caught her foot, and left it charred. She was slower after that, and Howard saw that it was inevitable that she'd suffer another wound soon enough. A wound that might prove fatal.

When Tharaxes swept her feet with its staff, and Howard saw the crackling mana gathering in its staff, he wasn't sure what took hold of him. Before he knew what he was doing, he threw himself between the lich and the woman. She wasn't his daughter, but he was damned if he'd let a young woman die because he wanted to shy away from the fight.

"Howard, what are you—" Alyssa's exclamation was cut short as the lightning burst from the lich's staff. Howard closed his eyes, and braced for the pain.

A second passed.

Then two, and three. Nothing happened. Howard lowered his arms, and gingerly opened one eye. What he saw left him flabbergasted.

The unstoppable lich that had tormented them, and nearly killed Howard, was missing an arm, and had been sent flying. Standing between them and the mini-boss was a tall man wearing a plain white shirt. In his hand he held a katana-like sword, and there was a manic grin plastered on his face.

"Tharaxes! I know that puny lightning bolt isn't all you have. Bring it on, you little bag of bones." Howard's jaw dropped open as the man taunted the mini-boss as though they were in a schoolyard brawl.

"Who the hell is that?" he muttered to no one in particular.

"I don't know, but he's kind of hot." Jenna's outlandish remark broke the tension, and Howard was no longer frozen. "Did you see how he just swooped in from the ceiling and cut the skeleton's arm off? It was like… bang! Whoosh! So cool."

Jenna helped Alyssa to her feet while muttering complete nonsense. Howard turned back, unwilling to miss a single moment of the action. "Should we help him?" Alyssa was earnest, even while injured.

"I don't know. He seems like… he's having fun?" Howard wasn't sure what to make of the new arrival, but he seemed to be on their side. Or at the very least, not on the mini-boss' side.

"You bastard! Little!? LITTLE!? How dare you… Just you… Let's see how you fare after this!" The man clearly hit the lich's funny bone, because it began to rant like mad, and reaching out its remaining arm, the lost staff flew from the ground into its bony grip.

Immediately it crackled with electricity. The man seemed unperturbed by the impending attack. When it seemed as though the boss was busy charging the lightning bolt, three fireballs suddenly shot out from behind its head, racing towards the man.

He didn't move an inch, even when they were just a metre from exploding against him. "Watch out!" Howard yelled. He didn't want to see the man who'd saved his life die so soon after.

He needn't have worried.

Lifting one arm towards the first fireball, the man simply began to laugh. His finger glowed briefly. The fireball simply… disappeared.

Like a conductor leading a world-class orchestra, he waved his finger back and forth. The other two fireballs vanished without a trace. The world flashed white. Lighting shot from the staff.

With a click of his fingers, the lightning disappeared. Howard's jaw dropped once more. Was this guy a certified wizard or something?

"How are you doing that, damned musclehead!? I'll sue you for false advertisement," the lich roared, launching a barrage of dozens of fireballs while charging more lightning.

Once more, the man just laughed. Only this time, he took a step towards the lich. He raised his hand, the katana appearing as he did so.

The man inhaled, eyes sparkling. He lunged forward and slashed horizontally through the flames. Each fireball vanished as the blade passed through them. Not a single sound could be heard, save for the angry chattering of the boss' teeth.

Three more lightning strikes roared towards the man, and each time, he cut through them as easily as buttering toast. Just six metres separated him and the boss, and Howard wondered what he would do if this monster turned on them once he was done with the lich.

No sooner had he thought that, did the man suddenly vanish from view. Howard's eyes darted about, locking onto the skeleton right as the man appeared in front of it. His blade moved like lightning, slicing through its torso. Then another blade followed, and another.

In total, five swords cut through Tharaxes. The fifth blade shattered the lich's skeleton into dust, leaving not a single trace of its existence behind.

Then, the man turned to face them, and raised his sword.

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