Kael walked through the town calmly with Violet behind him. There was no one to stop him. After all, the adventurers were outside, or so he thought, as a few seconds later he sensed someone’s presence.

"Come out and attack if you want to," he said.

Footsteps echoed from the alley as he stepped out, the fifth member of the party that had taken the floor five treasure. Allen.

"Allen," Violet called out to him the moment she saw him.

Allen looked up at her. His eyes held a kind of emotion that could not be read. He moved his hands to his blades and pulled them out.

"You and Sir William were my first masters when I came to town, before Lady Silva even took me into her party.

William was someone I looked up to all this time, and even now his influence shows in the way I fight." As he said that, he looked up at Violet.

"Tell me, Lady Violet, is it true? Did you really take us as a joke? Are you really the enemy? I saw Sir William kneeling at the town center, about to die. I could not believe it. There is no way that he did something like this, right?

Right?!" he yelled, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather than get an answer.

Violet looked at him. She drew a deep, slow breath and took a few steps forward. "Allen, I swear it on my life, this has all been a plan against William and me. The guild master is trying to get us killed because there is something he wants, and we have refused to give it to him," Violet came clean to him.

"I see," Allen responded. "I knew the two of you would not do this. Had I known earlier, the situation would be different," Allen said.

Violet looked confused. "What do you mean, Allen?" she asked.

He moved his collar a bit and showed her a seal of a star on his neck, a black-colored seal.

"The guild master called all the strongest adventurers, silver-ranked and above, and told us about the dungeon break, and everyone agreed to swear an oath to defend the town until the dungeon break was over.

This seal is the oath, and if I fail to do that, I’ll drop dead this moment. Sigh, I’m sorry, Lady Violet, but my life is worth more to me. I know you speak the truth, but I cannot allow you to get through," he said with so much struggle.

"Allen," she muttered in a way that showed she understood the situation he faced.

"Don’t think about it," Kael cut her short, "and if you allow emotions to lead you in any way, William will die. Go and find William, save him. I’ll take care of the kid," Kael said.

Violet hesitated. "Kael, I can’t just leave you to—"

"This is not the time," he cut her off, his voice carrying no room for argument. "William is dying right now. Every second you spend here is a second he doesn’t have. Go."

She looked at him, then at Allen, the war in her expression visible for one long second before something settled in her. She turned and ran, cutting toward the side street that led to the town center.

Allen moved to stop her.

He shifted forward, blade already swinging in a clean arc meant to cut off her path rather than harm her, and Kael was there before the motion finished. He caught the blade with the flat of his own sword, the impact ringing down the empty street, and pushed it wide.

"Your fight is with me," Kael said.

Allen’s eyes narrowed. The fact that this goblin could talk had already unsettled him. The fact that it was now standing in his way, blocking him with real skill, pushed that unease into something sharper.

He pulled back and kicked, three fast strikes aimed at Kael’s chest, and Kael took them, sliding back a few feet with each one, the armor on his borrowed body absorbing what it could.

"I don’t know what kind of goblin you are," Allen said, low and tight, "but you are not stopping me."

Violet was already gone, her footsteps fading around the corner.

Allen turned his attention fully onto Kael and attacked.

The first exchange was fast, blade against blade, Allen’s twin swords moving in the tight, efficient pattern Kael had watched from the walls of his own dungeon, except now he was on the receiving end of it instead of admiring it from a distance. He blocked, gave ground, found his footing, and pushed back.

Allen pressed harder. He used the narrow street, kicking off a wall to gain an angle Kael hadn’t accounted for, both blades coming down from above. Kael caught one on his sword and let the other graze past his shoulder, the armor taking the worst of it, and countered with a shoulder check that sent Allen stumbling into a stack of crates.

The crates exploded outward in splinters.

Allen rolled clear and came up already moving, faster now, the fight spilling into the open square between two buildings. He used the terrain like it belonged to him, vaulting a low wall and coming down with both blades, and Kael met him mid-air, their weapons crashing together with enough force to crack the stone beneath them.

They broke apart and circled.

A market stall went down between them when Allen feinted left and Kael overcommitted to the block, the wood splintering under a kick aimed at creating distance. Kael used the debris, kicking a broken plank up into Allen’s path, forcing him to cut through it rather than around it, buying half a second that Kael used to close the gap and land a clean strike across Allen’s ribs.

Allen grunted but didn’t slow.

Kael was smiling the entire time, a wide, genuine grin that had nothing to do with malice and everything to do with the sheer pleasure of moving a real body through real space, blade against blade, wind in his face, the world solid and present in a way that perception alone never let him feel. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

’This is exhilarating,’ he thought, ducking under a slash that took a chunk out of a wooden post behind him. ’This is actually really nice.’

Allen caught the smile.

Something in him snapped at the sight of it, the casual ease on the goblin’s face while he was fighting at his absolute limit, and his expression hardened into something furious.

He planted his feet.

A surge of raw power rolled off his body, visible in the way the dust around him lifted and scattered, his blades trembling with the force gathering behind them.

He was done holding back.