28 Friends Forever

The Paladin walked over to me and offered his arm to me.

"Here. You need to do damage to heal. So bite, scratch, do whatever you need to heal up."

I looked at Aegis with a concerned frown. Does he know the situation he's in? We have no healers. I'll be fine because of my healing ability, but every point counts for Aegis. There's no way I'll be a deciding factor in his death-

SLICE

"Huh?" I said.

Aegis was growing impatient with my inaction and took one of my fingers cut his own wrist with it. This was enough to bring my HP out of FYL and close up the fatal wounds that Gash caused.

"Are you crazy or something? A couple wrong moves and you're dead! You shouldn't just be handing out HP like that!"

"It's simple. I just won't die here."

"You're an idiot if you think that's gonna be enough."

"I'M an idiot? Who's the guy that wanted to fight a tank and healer alone? And you say that I'M the selfless one-"

"WELL THEN! Is it alright if I interrupt your little reunion? I really want to finish this fight!" Gash interrupted.

"How nice of you to wait for us." I rose to my feet and readied my weapon.

"Of course! You are my best friend after all! Even after you die, I'll consider you the bestest friend I have ever had! We were meant for each other, Matthew-"

SWISH

I didn't let Gash finish his praise of me. It was all nonsense, anyway. The delusions of a madman. I wonder if that's how I sounded my first day in this game...

Sadly, I didn't cleave Gash's head off. He able to duck right under my swing and went for my stomach again.

CLANG

This time, I had the perfect defense with me. Aegis used Shapios to protect my abdomen from the Bloodfallen's attack. I immediately saw an opening and didn't let up on my attack. I tried hitting him time and time again, with each hit getting closer to him than the last. He keeps stepping out of my range of attack just in time. He's agile, I'll give him that.

"DAMN IT!" Polk yelled out. Aegis was attacking Polk and wasn't giving him a moment to breathe. The red item the three of us had wasn't even an issue for him because of his extraordinary defense. "GASH!"

"I'M ON MY WAY-WOAH!" Gash tripped over a rock on one of his dashes backwards and fell on his ass. I focused on slicing him open just like he did with me. When I readied my swing, he got a handful of sand a threw it at my face. I was blinded, but I made my swing thinking he was in the same spot. Unfortunately, he moved. By the time my axe made contact with the ground and I realized, I wiped the sand out of my eyes and looked around.

I looked to my right to find Gash laughing maniacally while holding something. I examined to see what exactly he was holding and realized it was a red and yellow crystal.

WHAT THE HELL?! I DIDN'T EVEN THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE TO GET TWO HIGH-TIER ITEMS IN A SINGLE DEPOSIT! Especially with such low level monsters. It must've been our red item! If luck is a stat, then it would be tripled.

From what I can tell, red and yellow items could immediately set you tiers above other players. Whether that's in PVP like Roxline's Peladore, or PVE like my General Slayer. I'm not even mentioning things like Shapios or Potenshia. If he gets items that are even close to these things, we're screwed!

I dashed to him and made a swing to sever his arm off. I need to separate him from those crystals as soon as possible.

"TOO LATE, MATTHEW!" Gash yelled out as the two crystal began to glow and temporarily blind me.

Soon after, my blade met with another. When I completely regained my vision. I noticed he had an ocean blue sword in one of his hands he was using against me. In his other hand was the same exact sword.

While we locked blades, he threw the other one over towards Aegis and Polk. Aegis saw it coming from a mile away and prepared to block it.

"GAH!"

At the last moment, the sword changed its trajectory and cut Aegis in the knees, causing him to collapse.

I looked over to Gash and saw that he was making a gesture with his hand.

"You're controlling the sword..."

"It's gonna take some getting used to, but it fits like a glove!" As Gash said that, he sent the other blade flying towards me.

He's obviously not going to hit me dead on, so I need to react fast enough to where he plans on hitting me!

But the second sword was just a diversion. He quickly backed away using the sword in his hand and cut me across my back. Directly afterwards, the second sword came in, cut me at my side, and made its way over to assist Polk with Aegis again. Gash picks up fast, I'll give him that...

Damn it! We had the upper hand on him for a moment there, but now he has these dancing swords. I just have to try and keep him so busy, that he'll mess up somewhere. I'll have to trust Aegis to take advantage of that moment.

Sadly, that opportunity never came. Throughout our fight, Gash has completely mastered his new red item. No matter how many attacks I barraged him with, he didn't leave a single opening for Aegis to take advantage of. With this, we were at a stalemate since none of us could reach each other. With each opposing collision, Gash got more and more ecstatic.

"I just don't get it man! I DON'T GET IT!" Gash began stomping his foot like a toddler out of frustration. "I've been having so much fun with you. Your way of thinking, your way of fighting, everything about you screams that you're an agent of chaos! SO WHY ARE YOU STICKING YOUR NECK OUT FOR THESE BASTARDS?! Just join us already! I know you for what you really are! You're not the type of person who would do these things! You're the marauder of white! You revel in the heat of battle!"

"As if! You don't know me one damn bit!"

"Then why are you smiling right now?!"

What? What is he going on about? I touched parts of my face and realized that I was in fact smiling.

"We're both feeding into our desires, so why are you bothering to be shameful about it? Give in! It's more fun that way!"

"I'll NEVER join you. From the moment I figured out who you really are, you became my enemy."

Tears started to well up in Gash's eyes as he wiped them away. "That's fine! Because from where I'm standing, you'll always be my best friend! Even as I lay you to rest and loot your corpse, I'll remember the meals we shared and the treasures we found together!"

Gash ran towards me and performed a combo of countless slashes at me. Each of them hit with extraordinary damage.

"These people wouldn't give a rats ass if you were to drop dead here! Why can't you see that?! They only want to see you produce results!"

My health then dropped to below 40%. Gash was now flailing his sword around in a fit of sadness and rage.

"They don't see you for who you are. YOU don't even see you for who you are! But I do! I'm the only person in this world that understands you!"

You don't understand me one bit. I'm completely ok with people wanting me to be a result machine. That's the one thing I can do for them. I'll keep producing results until I drop dead. Even if they don't bat an eye to my death, I think I'll be fine.

As I reached FYL, I said to Gash "Hey buddy."

Gash stopped his assault in its tracks and waited for my response. He seemed like he was waiting for a sudden change of heart from me.

Sadly for him, he wasn't going to get that.

"I'm gonna borrow your move real quick." I began to prepare my labrys to throw it at Polk. The plan was to use reverse sweep. Gash saw this and quickly prepared for the worst.

"Deathly Lunge!" Gash lunged towards Polk and Aegis.

However, I had other things in mind.

As soon as Gash dashed to prepare his counterattack, I was right behind him. By the time he realized, it was too late.

"Reverse Sweep." Like an executioner, I let my blade swiftly strike Gash down.

As his back was split open and he fell to the floor, he began coughing up blood.

"I... didn't hear...you say Deathly Lunge...how..." He asked.

"It's simple. I mastered the skill. I don't need to say it."

"kehehehe! You really are amazing..."

If I said something like I've been trying to get grasp of the skill this entire time, I'd be lying. I was just hoping in that very moment, I could use it to get the upper hand.

"BEEEEEEEEEP!"

I looked over to the red light and noticed that it was now green. Those monsters are gonna come again and attack. We need to hurry up and kill these two-

"Until we meet again, my best friend!" as a swarm of giant beetles surrounded him, he turned into one himself and blended into the crowd.

I facepalmed as It began to recollect that he could shapeshift with a red item.

"Hey get back here!" Aegis tried to get Polk while he still could, but Polk turned into a giant beetle and escaped into the crowd as well.

As the two of us fought off the beetles, Aegis called over his horse and we quickly mounted it.There was no time to worry about Polk and Gash. We need to catch up to the rest of the group.

"Lead the way, I got this horse goes fast for cheap and I got the armor for cheaper!" Aegis said as we took off out of the deposit.

"Really? How much did you get it for?"

"A smooth 200,000 gold!"

...

"Dude, you got scammed..."

"NO I DIDN'T! I'M THE MASTER HAGGLER! I DON'T GET SCAMMED! IF ANYTHING, I SCAMMED HIM!" Aegis shouted as we raced to the rendezvous point.