"Was she a Viper?" Achara asked Marcus as they moved further up the tower. "For sure, she poisoned me even while we were talking," he answered, and still had a bad taste in his mouth. "And that guy with the two swords? They were both elites from the enemy I would say," Kou said, adding his own thoughts to the conversation. Marcus nodded and moved through a second broken wall. They were moving slower now, even though they felt the need to rush. The encounter with the Viper left them no choice, but to expect more ambushes.

After a moment Grace answered Kou's previous question, "That man in the black golden armor, he was an Arcane Master, bloody high level too. He threw two throwing stars that nearly cut through my neck, and that after Marcus had ruined his arm and we surprised him." Everybody in the squad could imagine how things would have turned out if the fight had been anywhere close to fair.

"Arcane Master? Is that a new class?" Marcus asked, because he wasn't aware of any class with that name. "Right, you were gone. Arcane Archers renamed themselves to Arcane Masters a year or so ago. The class evolved into more of a hybrid and the whole archer thing is out. Some still use bows, but more often they use throwing weapons, grenades and swords now," Achara explained. Marcus saved the information under 'good to know, might save my life one day'.

Marcus led them up the next staircase and they heard the rumbling of battle again. The noise quickly got closer and even without a warning from Janette they moved back as suddenly the ceiling collapsed and something gigantic broke through. After the dust had settled Marcus saw a massive metal gorilla with a green mohawk. At the stomping feet of the menacing puppet were the remains of a body clad in black-golden armor. The five ton gorilla tilted its head and then waved at the team.

"Hi Jack. Hope things are going well for you," Marcus said while the others still had problems getting their nerves in order. The gorilla made a thumbs up and deftly climbed up the hole, vanishing towards whoever or whatever Kim's team was fighting against. "I mean… he could have stayed and helped us," Janette said and the rest nodded. But Kim's team had to fight their own fights and Colors of the Wild had no time to wait around. They pressed on, rising further and further towards the top of the skyscraper.

Five minutes passed without an encounter, but eventually Janette spoke up. "Get ready, we are about to engage hostiles. One of them is another scary bastard, the rest is just super strong," she said, without a hint of irony. Marcus took point and the others took positions behind him. Janette was trailing several meters behind them. Marcus walked through a wide door and entered what looked like a fancy garden in the middle of the tower. Or it had been one before it got smashed and burned.

Only a few meters ahead of him Marcus found a gruesome sight. Kara from Ravens! was on the floor both her hands and feet had been cut off. Her protector, the Guardian, was also on the floor, in pieces. The person most likely responsible for this atrocity smiled at Marcus, gently swinging his massive glowing sword around. Marcus had never seen such a pristine Soul Weapon before. It was light blue and showed no flickering or inconsistency, as it is normally the case with the conjured weapons of the Weapon Master class.

I don't need to tell you to avoid that weapon at all cost. As you are right now, you can't stand up to such an attack.

I'm not suicidal Xeen. But thanks for the warning.

The tall man with the deadly weapon smiled and laughed, while his three henchmen took positions around him. Those three truly looked extremely dangerous, but nothing compared to the existence of that unholy weapon in the hand of that twisted man. "Isn't that perfect. We were about done playing with that rude bitch and in walks the Titan himself. I can't wait to-" The world never learned what he wanted to do to Marcus, because he died that very moment. Level 100+ class holders are incredibly strong and tough, but even they can't survive a direct hit of a railgun projectile traveling at 5000 meters per second through their forehead. Janette had never entered the room, but her gun didn't care about walls that much, and neither did she.

The three men next to the Weapon Master might have been his subordinates, but they were no small fry. The moment their leader's head exploded into a thousand pieces they engaged in battle, unfazed by his death. "I take the fat one!" Achara shouted, and ran towards the largest of the three. "YOU WHAT? BITCH!" The giant man with two large axes screamed and rushed towards Achara. Grace engaged the next man, who turned out to be Blood Knight. Marcus charged towards the last man, who quickly increased the distance between them and fired metal projectiles in his direction.

Achara was the first to fight and she ran right at the man without turning invisible. The massive axes moved with great speed, threatening to cut her into pieces, but Achara Phase Walked through the attack and cut off the right hand of the giant man. Screaming and flailing with his remaining axe, the enemy stepped back shouting curses, and now the axe blade turned red revealing him as a Berserker.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Achara appeared behind the man and started an attack, but he turned and a meaty arm would have smashed against her head, if she hadn't dodged low. Her blade came up and pierced the leg of the big fella, before she once more vanished. This repeated three more times until her enemy had become visibly slower and exhausted from the damage. At that point Achara moved behind him once again and with deadly precision buried the tip of her blade under the helmet, into the brain of the beaten enemy. The 'fat one' fell like a big tree and Achara looked around for who needed help and found Kou working on Kara.

At the same time Grace fought the Blood Knight, who used a long but nimble two handed sword. The man was a lot smarter than the first guy and used his reach to extend the battle. He drained blood from Grace's earlier wounds and used it to give himself a second layer of Blood Shield. In spite of her constant blood loss, Grace relentlessly pushed forward using her two blades to threaten attacks and to parry the counter strikes of the fine weapon the enemy wielded. They crossed blades several times in quick succession and moved through half the room in less than ten seconds.

The strategy of the Blood Knight seemed to work, more and more blood was covering Grace's armor and she couldn't reach him behind his curtain of steel. He was fast and talented enough to stop her advance, her glowing blades crossed paths with the enemy's enchanted blade over and over. Grace didn't relent and started the next push which was countered by the Blood Knight. Grace barely parried the larger weapon with both her swords and for a short moment all three weapons touched.

A stronger opponent would have realized that for once her blades were not glowing, the Blood Knight didn't see the kick coming that exploded in bright light in his guts. The hit was hard enough to make him flinch, but not enough to break his Blood Shield. The man tried to stabilize, but another exploding hit against his head made him dizzy, a third made him stumble and a fourth made him fall. Grace drove her glowing blade through his helmet, stopping her blood loss for good.

After the death of her enemy, Grace took a few deep breaths, fighting her own dizziness. Her nice armor was covered with blood but she had learned something new in this fight, about twisting Channel Light. It didn't only allow her to use a combination of modes, it also enabled her to switch modes much faster than normal. Progress! She couldn't wait to tell Marcus later.

Marcus had followed the Metal Master towards the back of the room and was unaware of the other fights. Several blade-like metal fragments tried to cut and pierce him, but left no real damage on Marcus. His time with Rita had given him insight on how the Metal Masters used their fragments and he had little trouble avoiding dangerous hits and the rest was taken care of by his defense. His enemy was backing away constantly, feverishly searching for a way to stop Marcus. The moment Marcus stopped, seemingly stumbling over a burned tree, the man united his fragments into a mighty spear and aimed for Marcus' heart.

The sudden Burst charge from Marcus made the deadly weapon miss and brought Marcus very close to his enemy. But the man wasn't a beginner, easily overpowered by such a move, he used his speed and agility to escape Marcus once more, while also retrieving his own weapon(s). For a moment the two men measured each other, planning their next steps.

Marcus was below the enemy, who stood on a small artificial hill, and prepared the next Burst jump. The metal fragments had turned into three smaller spears and the enemy had spread them out ready to hit Marcus no matter what way he went. In this crucial moment the enemy lost his head... in an explosion of blood and viscera. Marcus blinked in surprise and turned to the origin of the shot. "If he completely ignores me, I can shoot him, right?" Janette said over com and Marcus nodded, still disturbed by the view.

Walking back to the others, Marcus reviewed the battle and came to a simple conclusion. Janette was still by far the main damage dealer of the squad. Her new weapon was especially dangerous to class holders, anybody who ignored her was as good as dead. "At least that bastard behaved like a proper villain, holding speeches and all," Janette said and gave the corpse of the Weapon Master a light kick. Right, no speeches for me or I might end up like that guy one day, Marcus thought.

Kara's situation was bad, even after Kou had treated her as good as possible, it was clear she needed a Priest and a Mender if she wanted to survive. Marcus looked at the outside glass front and said, "Okay, Kou take her down, we will manage without you." There was a moment of tension, but the rest accepted his choice. They gathered Kara's body parts and Kou slowly descended the large tower together with the shivering woman.

Marcus could see how the strong winds up here made flying hard for Kou, but he trusted in his skills. "We move on," Marcus said, without turning around. He knew Achara wasn't happy about being separated from Kou, but he couldn't let Kara die or lose Achara's combat power. He had to prioritize the survival of the whole team over her personal feelings. She could scold him later, when they were all safe at home.

The remnants of the Colors moved up without further opposition, but Xeen had something to say.

I think you made the right decision. But it is not always correct to primarily look at the bigger picture. If you follow that path too long and too rigidly you end up like me. Because I will forget what is truly important? What matters beyond victory and success?

Correct, Marcus.

But how do I know when to choose what?

You have to decide every time, there is no simple rule that will give you the answer.

Marcus thought about Xeen's words as they climbed closer and closer to the top of the tower.

"I can only see one more class holder above us, and that one doesn't look very strong," Janette said after a while. "Cherry and her group, Kim's team, are all close to us. But I think we might be the first to reach the top," she said. And she was right, Marcus was the first to push open the doors to the top level office and they walked in like some legendary badasses.

Ten seconds later the Queen of Hearts swooped in with her people and joined their march to the last enemy. "First," Janette said as her wife walked next to her. "You were not even supposed to be here right now," the Queen said. "Thank you for risking your lives. I heard over the com what you have done," she said, but now she was talking to Marcus. He nodded, but his eyes focused on the attractive woman sitting on a desk at the end of a large room. She was very beautiful, with long dark hair, a perfect figure and porcelain like skin. "Thank you for coming, I was worried you wouldn't find my hints in time," the gorgeous woman smiled and a tear dropped from her eye.

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