A Trio of Bros Doing Bro Things

Maybe it was all the experience I had so far, or maybe it was the boost of confidence thanks to Wymond, but out of sheer instinct, I charged ahead and raised my sword into a shield, blocking all the arrows with ease and shooting them away. One of them launched into the sky, whereas the other struck a wall.

Dahlian charged up his arms and shot out rods of lightning, but all that power quickly disintegrated into the air.

“What the—? Oh, right, we’re at a church. Ugh, goddamn it,” Dahlian grumbled, balling his fists. “Stupid churches and their anti-demon barriers!” He promptly sprinted past me, a fist fully retracted. “Too bad they can’t dispel this!”

With a shout, he leapt, swung his fist, and smashed one of the statues into chunks of stone. The other statue quickly switched aim and began to target him next, but before he could shoot, a dagger swooped past me and knocked its arrow out of its grip.

Sloane pulled out another dagger from his sleeve and aimed for its eyes, blinding it. Dahlian went for the opening and swiftly finished the job.

After confirming both statues were disposed of, I sighed in relief and lowered my sword. “That was close,” I said. “Nice one, Dahlian!”

“Don’t mention it. That was easy work. Way too easy, actually…” Dahlian looked around before looking up. “Also, was the sky always this gray and cloudy?”

“Huh? No, it wasn’t,” I murmured, also looking up. “Sloane kept complaining about how sunny it was right until we got here…”

“The weather… suddenly changed?” Sloane rubbed his head and furrowed his brows. “It can’t be… What’s a rift instance doing here…?”

“A what?” Dahlian asked, tilting his head.

I, on the other hand, turned wholly pale at that familiar term. “A what?!” I asked louder, my eyes quivering. “No freaking way! Y-you can’t be serious, right?!”

“No, my senses can never be wrong,” said Sloane, pacing around. “This sudden shift in the weather and a sudden surge of magic potency in the air… There’s definitely one here. Haruma, did you see this happening in your visions?”

“No, this never happened before!” Not even in a side quest!

Dahlian tilted his head. “So, what’s a rift instance?”

“Oh, uh… It’s basically like someone’s private pocket realm. They’d put up a magical dome around an area and can do whatever they want inside it. The only way to get in would be to find a glowing crevice somewhere in the area, and you can normally tell you’re close when the environment suddenly changes around you, like the weather.” I glanced at the elf who started looking around. “Unless you’re Sloane and can also sense the sudden spike in magic.”

Sloane threw a stern look. “Only someone with a tremendous amount of mana can make a rift instance," he said. “And this place… reeks of malice.”

“Huh, malice has a smell?” asked Dahlian. “What does it smell like?”

“Is it really necessary to ask that in this situation…?” I asked.

He shrugged. “What? I’m kinda curious.”

Sloane scrunched his face, and he lowered his chin. “That kind of smell varies from person to person,” he muttered. “To me, it smells like… blood.”

“Oh. Damn.” Dahlian scratched his head. “Yeah, this smells like Florathea’s doing alright. Let’s go deal with it, guys!”

He confidently marched forward, pumping a fist in the air, but he paused and glanced over his shoulder, staring at Sloane and me still idling by the entrance.

I clutched my head and paced around. “You can’t be serious with me,” I squeaked, my voice cracking and my eyes quivering. Rift instances are basically the dungeon system in the game, and they’re always incredibly dangerous! “I-I can’t. We’re way too early to tackle one! I’m so not ready for this!”

Sloane slowly sat down and crossed his legs. “The weather sure is nice and cloudy here," he mumbled. “I’m… getting sleepy. I think… I should nap a little…”

“Are you two kidding me?!” Dahlian cried, throwing his arms. “What if there are people trapped in there? Shouldn’t we do something about it?”

“That’s true… Dahlian, you’re strong, aren’t you? Maybe Haruma and I can sit this one out…”

“But I’m a demon, and we’re at a church! This place’s already zapped all my powers! I know I’m strong and all, but I’m not that dumb to go alone!”

“I mean, you handled those statues pretty well,” I mentioned.

Dahlian squinted at us. He stomped back toward us, snatched our arms, and began dragging us with him. “Let’s go! It’s us three against the world, baby!”

“Noooo…” Sloane whined, his body limp and sliding on the ground. “I need my sleeeeeeeep…”

“Wait, no!” I screeched, squirming around. “Wait, wait, waaaiit! I’m still not ready yet! Please! I don’t wanna gooo!”

Sloane and I kept crying and pleading with him, but the stubborn guy refused to give up on us. Despite our—more like my—best efforts to resist, he managed to drag us all the way into the middle of the churchyard, his grip firm and resolute.

That was when Sloane and I spotted something glinting behind Dahlian and stiffened up. My body moved before my mind registered it, and Sloane probably went through something similar. He twisted Dahlian’s arm, swept his legs, and tripped him backward.

“Uwah?!” Dahlian fell on his rear. “Ow! The hell was—”

I raised my sword and blocked an arrow meant for Dahlian, letting it fly elsewhere.

“Oh, damn. Heh, thanks!” Dahlian grinned and quickly stood back up. He, Sloane, and I faced our backs together, and the three of us stared down at a new horde of angel statues stepping out of the bushes and surrounding us, their arrows already aimed at us.

“Looks like they don’t want us here,” said Dahlian.

“No kidding. They’re probably guarding the crevice,” I said.

Sloane sighed and nodded. “Yep, this must be our sign to leave.”

“More like our sign to fight back!” Dahlian slammed his fists together and charged. “Let’s do this!”

The angel statues on Dahlian’s side all fired, but Dahlian casually punched them all away. He sped up, retracted a fist, and made a leap. He obliterated a statue with a single strike, and without sparing another second, he smashed the rest of the crowd in the same manner.

Sloane groaned and combed his hair out of his eyes with his fingers. “I’m so tired…” He pulled out a pair of long blades from his robes, and his face grew deadly. He leaned forward and dashed, sprinting so fast his figure became a blur before disappearing entirely. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared right behind a group of statues, all briefly frozen before they broke apart and collapsed into piles of cleanly-cut stones.

God, watching these two fight like total badasses reminded me how I wasn’t the protagonist at all. I was just standing here and blocking arrows like a lame amateur, and the fact that I looked away from my own fight was also in and of itself an amateur mistake.

An arrow from behind managed to graze my shoulder. I hunched over in pain and spat curses, lowering my shield in the process.

“Haruma, watch out!” Sloane shouted.

“Huh?” I looked back up, but the arrow flying straight toward my face soared faster. I couldn’t react in time. No one else could either.

I squeezed my eyes shut right before it struck me, but rather than facing total death, I winced as familiar magenta and cyan lights flashed before my eyes. The pain inflicted on my forehead quickly vanished, replaced by that familiar, tingling numbness.

With shaky hands, I rubbed my eyes, carefully opened them, and blinked at a familiar, glitchy screen manifesting before me. “What the… How…?”

I briefly stared at it, wholly stunned, before two people grabbed me by the arms. I snapped out of my trance and stared at Dahlian and Sloane, who made a run for it with me in their grasp. The three of us dived into the bushes, and right on cue, the glitchy screen exploded, cratering the ground beneath it and shattering all the statues, church’s doors, and windows.

“Hahaha! That was awesome!” said Dahlian.

“Are you okay, Haruma?” asked Sloane.

“Uh, y-yeah. Just got a scratch, is all. Thanks, guys.”

“Wait, guys, look over there!” Dahlian pointed inside the church, where a purple, glowing crevice hovered at the center of the chancel. “There it is! The crevice!”

Sloane looked around and counted the new incoming wave of statues. “But there’s still—ah?!”

Dahlian grabbed us, carried us over his shoulders, and promptly charged toward the crevice, dodging all the arrows whizzing by. “Let’s skip the statue fight and head right in! Hang on tight!”

“Eh?!” I sputtered. “WAIT, NOOOOO!”

“Nooooooo…” Sloane mumbled.

Our pitiful screams echoed through the grand, golden nave before it got cut off the moment we jumped into the crevice.