"LET THERE BE LIGHT!" Liam yelled loudly from the comfort of his recliner, and half a second later a soft light enveloped the entirety of [Gridlocked].

Noah scowled at Liam's dramatic entrance, but he couldn't help but feel a modicum of relief at his return.

The First Contraction will occur in 10 minutes. Please leave the area demarcated in red to avoid abrupt termination.

A red aura in the south enveloped a rectangular piece of land, followed by a distant beeping noise that Noah could only imagine was louder in the affected region. Thankfully the red zone was still a distance away from their location, or Noah would never have decided to join this expedition in the first place.

"Whoa lad the night shift sure did a number on ya, eh?" Liam asked, as he inspected Noah from head to toe, as if carefully looking for something.

"No thanks to you," Noah muttered under his breath, trying not to draw attention himself.

"This all looks pretty dodgy lad. Someone try to shiv you in the back?"

Noah winced at the question, ignoring it and going back to the bowl of ramen he was demolishing.

"Aha, so that's it! You sent that wanker back to meet his ancestors, didn't ya. Ahh, that's a tricky one, tricky, tricky one indeed. Who drew first? Wait, there's no way a nice, all prim and proper kid like you would draw first. So kid, this guy draws at you, tries to kill you and you get the better of them instead. What's there to be all glum and downy about?"

"You don't understand, I... She...." Noah choked on the remainder of his words, unable to say anything further.

"Lad, lad, lad, you do realize that you carry the fate of most of humankind on your shoulders? Without me, y'all are pretty deep in shite. But without you, kid, they're fuckin' done. Any government in the world would sanction your actions as legal, they'd do whatever they can for you if that mean't enlisting your help."

Noah seemed taken aback by Liam's words, but slowly, he nodded, " Right... I didn't do anything wrong.... billions of people are depending on me, I definitely can't fail them. You're right, thanks," he lightly whispered to himself and by extension, Liam.

Schmitt's voice interrupted their reunion, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that with the addition of this new mechanic your resolve has only grown firmer, for now there is no place left to run. As such, I believe that the remaining survivors are either high level enough or in well equipped groups, and thus I expect the casualty rate to drastically fall. If there are no objections, shall we leave now?"

There were nods and grunts of approval all around, and with that the second flare gun shot was fired.

The expedition had halted before a particularly thick section of the wilderness, Schmitt ordering members of the expedition to assist in chopping off excess branches and bushes, in order to gain clearer access to the northern depths. After half an hour of struggling though, Schmitt concluded it was pointless and decided to proceed onwards anyway. At the front were 15 men assigned with shields held to the front and a spear pointed northward, read to intercept any threat from the front. At the side, there were two rows of men to the far most left and right corners, each with shields held sideways (towards the exposed side, and then there was Schmitt and his two men in the second row near the front, armed with one handed swords and no shields for mobility, lest the first line be breached. The center was filled with the remaining people, each armed with an assortment of swords, daggers, cutlasses, throwing knives, the occasional bow and some even with hammers, but generally the anyone with a spear was assigned to the front and lent a shield with the help of their collective resource pool.

They traversed deeper, and Noah could hear the hushed whispers of fear amongst the group, some mention of an intimidating aura that for some reason, he couldn't sense. Or well, maybe it was because the Eternal Lion was far more terrifying than anything that puny forest contained, but that didn't change the fact that he was a puny existence too. Fifteen minutes of tense marching later, nothing of note happened and the tension in the group dissipated slightly.

"Lad, get ready! Here they come!" Liam yelled, and moments later, "TEN HOSTILES FROM THE FRONT" was yelled out by an unknown voice from the front. Noah barely got a glimpse, but ten red skinned goblins wielding large hammers were headed for a frontal clash with their front line.

"Jump backwards, NOW!" Liam yelled, and Noah froze for a milisecond. But then the instinct's of his new persona kicked in, thinking later and acting first. He rudely elbowed his way past the small crowd at the back, and threw himself backwards.

Moments later, the real assault began, and the sky was full of blue blotches. Noah turned on his back to see more than ten blue goblins falling from the sky, daggers in hand, right for the heart of their group. The assault was controlled, coordinated and knew precisely where their weak points lay. One moment they were standing, and the next they lay crumpled on the ground, blood leaking from their nape. A large boom sounded from the front, but Noah was too far away to see what was happening there. Finally though, people in the center got about their wits and started hacking at the blue goblins without mercy.

Screams, curses, panicked yells and dying yowls, the scene was complete madness for the first minute, that lasted for more than an eternity in Noah's eyes. He finally got back up at his feet, but he felt something tuck at his legs.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!" Noah yelled as he saw two yellow hands wrapped around his legs, pulling downwards. The earth around his feet turned into viscous mud, and he instinctively acted, slamming his dagger into the last visible bit of hand of his sneaky adversary. He heard a muffled yell, and felt the pressure around his legs ease. Falling down, face first, he used his hands to bite into the soil and pull himself out of the quicksand. Thankfully, the yellow goblin didn't appear to pull him face first this time- it appeared it required some time to work the sand.

Getting back to his knees, scared out of his wits even before he got to start the fight, Noah saw over twenty bodies littered in the center of the formation, interspersed along the corpses of goblins. Red and blue blood flowed, mixed like a grotesque painting brought to life, and Noah six other people half submerged into the ground, Schmitt leading the second row of men to bravely pull their compatriots out of the ground, killing the yellow goblins where he could.

The ground in front of him was a quick sand land mine, and for all he knew running away alone would not only label him a deserter, but there would be no one to help him. Just as Noah was wallowing at how useless he was, some odd instinct drove him to activate his [Lens of the Righteous Hunter]. It was then, that he noticed the odd sight. The men helping those that had fallen victims to the yellow goblins were all painted bright red..... including Schmitt.

"Oh, No," Noah muttered in dismay, was unfortunately forced to witness a sight he would never forget. Schmitt and the other five men appeared to move in slow motion for Noah, and he had to slowly witness them executing the men and women drowing in quicksand, before turning their blades on the backs of their allies.

Noah felt his hands trembling at the sight, his mind went fuzzy as he dropped to his knees, persona or no persona, this was beyond his threshold for horror. The only thing he couldn't understand was that there were two men guarding Schmitt and there were five men painted in crimson red. If four belonged to this group of traitors, and Schmitt and his two guards were also traitors, then what was the fifth crimson man doing. And where was the second bodyguard?

One after the other, men obscuring Noah's sight to the front started dropping like flies. The man moved like a spectre with a plain, almost dull looking one-handed blade in his hand, the same weapon Noah had used not too long ago, but the level difference in skill was almost transcendental. Nagai moved like water itself, one strike flowing into the next with clinical accuracy, from a light incision to the neck flowing into a vicious strike across the chest, his footwork transporting him to the next victim before the first had hit the ground.

Noah could hear Liam screaming behind him, but it didn't matter. How could a mere mortal fight someone like that? It was too beautiful, too divine, to fight. The struggle had no meaning against such a foe, it was almost disrespectful to resist that godly artifact glistening under the light of the sun. His parents, his sister, and perhaps the entire word... he had let them all down.

In but a matter of seconds, Nagai was in front of Noah, who was kneeling on both knees as he waited for his execution. The sword snaked towards his neck with lightening speed, and Noah braced himself for the end. He was just a teenager, this role was too much for him to begin with.

Instead, a loud clang rang out, causing Noah to open his eyes in bewilderment. The killer had definitely not shown him mercy... then who...?

Noah saw the silhouette of a middle aged man with whitening hair in front of him, and even from behind he could realize who that man was. The fifth man painted in a deep crimson- why the hell would a ruthless killer save him. No, as Noah saw more clearly, he realized that the exterior was only an illusion, projected by some sort of item. The visage vanished a moment later, and Noah realized that he recognized that build- medium height, pitch black hair, dressed head to toe in system optimized armor, including a faceguard, gloves, and boots, that one handed shortsword... it could only be him.

"I thought trash like me was the lowest a man could fall," Jake's cold, emotionless voice echoed out. "Guess I was wrong, " Jake said, his dropping to a whisper as he stared into Nagai's eyes as they locked swords, and then both of them erupted into a flurry of strikes.

"Jake Lane saving a kid. Now I've seen everything," Liam muttered to himself in genuine shock.

"Get out of here, kid. Consider our debt absolved," Jake called out, snapping Noah from his reverie. Finally the adrenaline came crashing down, and Noah scampered to his feet, running towards where the expedition crew had come from.