19 Two-Faced Ethan

He stumbled forward but regained his balance before slashing at them with his Machete and stabbing them with his knife whenever they got too close. Fighting them was hard as they fought even when their hands were bleeding. 

He was locked in a stalemate and did not want to take more risks as the regeneration pill did not heal all of his wounds and he also had run out of SP. He stopped using the flow state and backed himself into a wall so he wouldn't get attacked from behind.

He did his best to parry, dodge, and fight them but they were still too much for him to handle even without their weapons. He could've kept them in a stalemate if he had his flow state active but he would've run out of juice sooner or later.

He took hits and hoped that the others would finish their enemies off before helping him out. 

Five minutes. That was how long he had waited and finally got some help. Mike directly cleaved one of the goblin's heads off before kicking another one away. He engaged one of the remaining two when Larcen pushed his bruised body to its utmost limits, activating the Flow state.

He went full-on offensive on the last goblin which couldn't last even five seconds before dashing towards the one that Mike had kicked away. It was already up and was about to join its friend to attack Mike but Larcen swung his machete from behind, cleaving its head off while it didn't even know how it died.

Mike was playing with the last goblin and kicked it towards Larcen when he saw him finish the others off. 

The goblin, with its balance off and without any weapon in its hands was like a chopping block for Larcen who did not waste the opportunity. His machete hit its chest, going in halfway before getting stuck there.

The goblin was dead and Larcen let go of the machete before letting himself fall to the ground. Purplish marks that were quite faint until now, began to slowly darken. There was not much blood but the injuries were mostly internal.

Larcen could not believe that creatures so small would have such hitting power. The adrenaline levels in his body went down and pain hit him. Just trying to get back up was painful but he still did it as he knew that he had to move away from here or they'd be swarmed by those goblins sooner or later.

Ethan and Lily helped him up but he still had trouble standing straight without feeling immense pain. Mike and Aria tossed a pill into their mouths while Ethan followed their example, only to curse after doing so.

"Fuck!", he said, "You should've notified me before I tried to buy it for god's sake! Mana won't increase my ass."

Larcen was about to ask him what happened but before he could do so, Aria pulled him aside. A pill appeared on her palm, which she directly put into Larcen's mouth without saying much. The purple hue slowly disappeared while the pain he felt was also slowing going away. In just a few seconds, he did not need to depend on others to simply stand.

Lily let him go while tears streamed down her face, and he couldn't understand the reason behind her emotional outburst. 

"Thank you, Aria.", he said and smiled warmly. He wasn't acting this time, he was genuinely thankful as he couldn't buy the pill himself. Also, SP should be exceptionally hard to acquire for anyone other than himself so seeing someone willingly spend SP for him made him feel warm inside.

Aria nodded in reply and turned around before walking towards Lily who had walked away to comfort her. Larcen suddenly got an extremely bad feeling and just five seconds later, the ground began to shake. 

It was mild at first but then slowly increased in intensity, reaching up to levels where houses near them began to collapse. Larcen and the others ran, following Mike as he was the fastest one in the group.

They wanted to reach a clearing but weren't so lucky as the road in front of them cracked open, blocking off their route forward. Mike and the others jumped over to the other side and Larcen followed but his stats betrayed him. He instinctively used his hand to hold onto the edge to keep himself from falling but the concrete broke off, sending him down into the crack.

A car on the side was already on the verge of falling down and as the concrete fell apart, it slipped before falling right behind Larcen. 

Darkness engulfed his vision as he faced the bottom, his body not under his control. He tried to turn and succeeded but the only thing he saw was a car which was a few meters behind him and light that shone from behind the car. He only caught a glimpse before everything went black.

Lily was carried to the other side by Mike and saw Larcen fall, her surroundings suddenly slowing down. She saw it all, the way he jumped confidently to his surprised yet fearful expression when the concrete broke off. 

"JACK!!!", she screamed as she snapped out of her reverie. The others turned around only to find Larcen missing. Aria was about to run towards the crack but Mike held her arm, stopping her from doing so. The earthquakes continued, and the thought of his sister getting into an uneventful accident terrified him.

Aria clenched her jaw, fighting back tears as she forced herself to turn and run, but her legs didn't cooperate. Her knees gave in and she fell to the ground, unable to stand.

Mike turned to Ethan and urgently said, "Help her. We need to find a safer place."

Ethan nodded and did as instructed, lifting her in a piggyback style and running after Mike. Aria's tears soaked through Ethan's shirt as he carried her. He had initially felt little when he saw that Larcen was missing, but now, with Aria in his arms, a sense of relief and comfort washed over him.

'This must be destiny,' he thought. 'Aria belongs with me, not with him. I'll fix my mistakes and follow his example. I'll ask her for help with small things and that way, I can get closer to her. Fuck that Jack, I hope he really dies in there, that weak ass bitch.'