The armor surrounding the pair didn’t feel any need to pause to look at the scene. They drew twisted, ugly swords and stumbled forward in a charge. Gwyn liquefied the first closest with ease, followed by the next set, then the next, then the next—the wave of armor was overwhelming, and he felt exhaustion creep a little bit closer as he turned each to puddles on the floor.

  Amaris, kicking aside one of the empty suits as it tried to sideswipe her, looked behind them.

  “We are surrounded on both sides, if we don’t get away, we will lose in attrition!”

  “I know… I know… they just keep coming though.”

  Gwyn could feel his rage begin to swell slightly at the endless horde. Even though he could easily take down each and every foe with the slightest of ease, it did not bolster his mood. He was not some action game hero mowing through mobs of enemies, he was a simple guy fighting for his life, and he felt even one mistake and he would lose it—just like Mina. And that annoyed him to no end. Why couldn’t it just be easy? He’d learned his lesson with the elf girl, wasn’t that enough for now? Couldn’t he just save the others and they all go home? Some other event could happen on another day, surely, he deserved a break.

  Another group tried to close into Gwyn for attack, but the liquefied metal of their comrades was pooled up so much they slipped and crashed to the floor. The next wave behind them tripped over and clanged on top of the previous wave. The earthling pushed his grumpy thoughts away; he shouldn’t pass up a chance when it presented itself. There was an opening.

  “Amaris, there!” Gwyn shouted. He jumped onto the back of armor trying to stand back up, and leapfrogged across another before making his way through the opening in the horde. A smash from Amaris was the only indication he knew that she had followed.

  The duo sped through the hallways with jittering armor pursing from behind.

  “The controller can’t be far, Needaimus don’t have that kind of range.”

  Gwyn had been so preoccupied with defense he hadn’t thought about that, but she was right, whomever was moving the armor shouldn’t be too far from it, and chances were that the controller shouldn’t be able to do it on autopilot.

  He looked back; the suits pursued in such a sloppy sprint that it would seem almost comical. Arms and legs flailed unnaturally, and the bodies flopped side to side without care of looking like any kind of normal.

  Yet one in the back seemed to have it together. It ran like Gwyn and Amaris did and wore a helmet that didn’t seem to flop off. Gwyn felt stupid, he should have seen it before. As he and Amaris turned a bend, he stopped and pressed his hand to the metallic wall. A quick liquification and hardening made it seem like spikes suddenly shot from the side as the armor chased after. Many empty suits were impaled.

  The suit in the rear jumped back and three of the surviving horde surrounded it. Gwyn liquefied his spikes into floating metal balls and shot them like bullets. He couldn’t get enough velocity, so they only clanged across the armor. The one in the back still jumped in shock.

  The Nonpareil moved in close, holding his arm close to his chest. He dropped to his knees to slide under the swiping blade of one suit of armor and let it turn to goo behind him as he stood up and strode to the obvious controller.

  Gwyn waved his hand dramatically and the armor of the controller splashed to the floor around him. The creature was a fishlike Zenotote, similar to the other ones the earthling had encountered before. His scales were mostly like the night sky with a golden ring from his shoulders to his chest. It made Gwyn think of a crescent moon, albeit sideways. He glared at Gwyn with fierce yellow eyes. The earthling socked him in the face.

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  The Xenotote yelped and stumbled back as Gwyn tried to go for a second strike. The remaining suits of armor exploded into pieces and began to fly around like a drunk swarm of bees.

  Bits of armor pieces smashed into Gwyn from all sides, and he grunted as he tried to slowly liquefy each one away. The crescent opponent produced a blade from his side and charged forward low and ready to pierce. The blade became goo as the opponent smashed his hands into Gwyn. He looked shocked for a moment, staring down at the spot then up to Gwyn. It was always an odd thing how human the expressions the people of Resh could pull off. The earthling responded with his own snide smile as a response, which incited rage in the opponent.

  The scrape devolved into a fist fight between two people clearly not trained to do as such. The crescent opponent tried to swipe and claw, and Gwyn responded with punches that mimicked a boxer as best he ever paid attention to one.

  A blow to the opponent’s shoulder caused him to reel back, but he responded with a slash to Gwyn’s own bad arm. A couple of times the crescent foe would try to attack with armor, but the more and more Gwyn made it clear he would liquefy each attempt the more they resorted to letting their fists do the talking.

  Both fighters landed a blow on the others chin and stumbled back. It was starting to hurt, but it wasn’t the worst pain Gwyn had felt on Resh, and he could bear it a little while longer if it meant saving the others. He shot a smug grin at the opponent, and the crescent foe replied with his own in return.

  “No more tricks, huh?” Gwyn shot at the foe that couldn’t understand him. The Xenotote replied something in his own tongue. “Did you get that Amaris?”

  The red-scaled woman had mostly helped mop up the suits of armor before the foe gave up on trying them. After they went still, she had stood on eh side, seemingly allowing the two idiots to battle it out.

  “He said he bets your weak skin wrinkles in water.”

  Gwyn couldn’t help but laugh, “Ha! Hahaha, I wonder if that’s some grand insult.” It had been a while since he felt as good as he did, perhaps it was the illusion of being a hero finally having a moment to live itself out—a battle against a worth foe or something of the like—or perhaps he just was a hypocrite that didn’t mind punching others if he didn’t get hit that hard in return.

  Either way, the crescent foe laughed back. He charged at Gwyn, but the Nonpareil was quicker, leaning low and tackling the opponent by the midsection. The Xenotote went off balance and hit the ground hard, grunting in pain.

  Gwyn held him low and the next thing he knew Amaris was at his side with a knife to the foe’s neck. All at once their opponent froze up, only his slitted eyes moved to look at each of the two before the knife. The red lizard woman muttered something in foreign tongue and the yellow eyes of their foe narrowed.

  “What did you say?”

  “Surrender and you’ll die quickly, or something comparable. It seems it got through.”

  Gwyn sighed and pushed her arm with the blade away.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m not… I’m not killing anyone. We’ll just save the others and get out of here, no need to be looking at anymore… any dead bodies.”

  The surprise in the crescent foe’s eyes were clear, before they shifted to an emotion Gwyn did not recognize. No one had ever looked at him like that. Respect maybe? He knew it would be short lived as he chopped the opponent hard enough to knock him out cold.

  “He may attack you later.”

  The rush of thoughts in Gwyn’s head agreed with the sentiment, he didn’t know if this foe would return and continue to give him trouble. Perhaps he would live to regret the decision, the fish man could end up being like the typical comic book supervillain who always escaped jail to cause more trouble, and perhaps in an earlier state he might have given into the endless possibilities of troubles that swarmed him. What if he attacked from behind? What if he hurt Fiona? What if he was really more violent? What if? What if? What if?

  Yet, the thought of ending a life didn’t sit right with him no matter how villainous the foe potentially was. Gwyn didn’t want to see that last moment of life again.

  He stood up and brushed himself off.

  “Let’s get moving, we still need to save everyone.” He didn’t give Amaris a chance to reply before he ran ahead.