As soon as the large armoured man came through the door Nick swung a right hand hook into the man’s face. The man was caught completely off guard and let out a yelp. Unfortunately the punch didn’t take him out of the fight immediately, but it did break the man’s nose. The other two members of the party couldn’t react as they were still stuck on the other side of the door.

Nick didn’t let up, he needed to take advantage of this initial confusion as much as possible. Luckily for Nick the man didn’t have his sword drawn, and Nick wasn’t going to give him the chance to. Nick swung another hook into the man’s side, connecting with the metal armour. It hurt Nick’s hand but he had no choice, there wasn’t much else for him to hit. Nick needed to start stacking his combo passive as quickly as possible and treat this guy as a Brute. He needed to crack the shell.

The man recovered quickly though and let out a yell. Nick tried to land his next shot but the man blocked it and the blow didn’t seem to affect him. He then charged towards Nick, pushing them away from the door. Nick tried to muscle the man back, but he was nowhere near as strong. Nick started hammering his fist in the man’s side, and could only watch as he was pushed deeper into the corridor. This gave space for the other two party members to come in.

The armoured man slammed Nick into the wall, winding him. This wasn’t looking good. Nick activated his movement buff and used the speed to land a quick series of heavy strikes to the man’s head, managing to daze the man for a moment. Nick used this time to get out from between the man and the wall and ran directly towards the two new members in the hallway.

“You filthy Banditos!” Nick used his debuff skill on the bandits, Jeer.

This seemed to slow their reactions a bit and Nick took full advantage. He shoved past the swordsman and slammed his fist into the face of the archer. The poor woman had nowhere near the endurance of the large armoured man and crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. One down, two to go.

The armoured man had recovered and used the time to pull out his sword. It wasn’t great for Nick, but he’d chosen this room on purpose. The man wouldn’t have the room to properly swing his large sword. Nick had to deal with the poorer swordsman first. The man seemed inexperienced and had panicked when Nick shoved him and was now staring in shock at his fallen comrade. Nick didn’t have the liberty to pity the man though, he pounced on the man. Nick threw a three punch combo that took the man out of the fight. Two straights finished with a powerful hook, Nick was pretty sure he felt the man’s jaw bone crack. It made Nick shudder, but he still had an opponent to deal with. Two down, one to go.

The larger man didn’t rush towards Nick, he had his sword drawn and was cautiously approaching him.

“Real simple how this is going. You drop your bag, take off all your gear and hand it over real slow.” The man spoke. “Then I’ll let you leave with only a few cuts and bruises.”

Well, at least Nick hadn’t beaten up members of the Complex’s scouts on a fundraising mission. Nick thought about how he could beat the man in front of him, giving over all of his gear would leave him in too bad a state to be feasible.

Nick raised his hands. “Alright alright! You can have it my dude.”

Now Nick had only ever seen this in youtube videos but it was worth a try. He slowly took off his bag and held it out.

“Drop it.”

Instead of dropping it, Nick ditched the bag at the man’s head then charged forward. The man barely flinched and simply stabbed his sword towards Nick. The sword cut right through his armour and penetrated into his shoulder. Nick’s mind blanked. He hadn’t felt pain like this, ever. His mind was seared in white hot pain, it felt like his shoulder was burning. Nick screamed.

“Dumbass kid.”

The man then kicked Nick in the chest, pulling his sword out of his shoulder. Nick crumpled to the floor, still screaming. Nick couldn’t hold a thought together, every time he tried to put something together the pain racked across his body. He wasn't sure how but he managed to get back up to his feet. He stared down the man, only seeing red. No thoughts, just pain.

“Resilient little fucker, aren’t ya.”

The man then went to stab Nick again, aiming for the stomach this time. That’s when something exploded out from Nick. Something not visible, but certainly felt. The man suddenly froze, faltering for just the moment. Nick used the opening to rush the man, tackling him to the ground. The man’s armour suddenly did more harm than it did good, the extra weight toppling the man to the ground and pinning him there. Nick then mounted the man and tried to punch him. His left arm was just hanging limply by his side. Nick grunted and just used his right arm. He relentlessly pounded his fist down into the man’s face. The man tried to throw Nick off, but Nick pinched his knees together, keeping him locked to the man’s chest. The added weight of the metal armour helped Nick keep him down as he went to work.

Nick’s breathing grew ragged as the man’s face grew blooder. Nick’s form fell away and he found himself just dropping elbows into the man’s face. The man eventually stopped struggling, his movements dying down. His face was reduced to a messy pulp of blood and bone. Nick didn’t stop though, he didn’t think, just kept going. It wasn’t until he was completely out of energy that he realised what he had done.

The fight had ended. Nick felt a tingling in his shoulder and realised that it was his skill trying to heal him. He looked down at the man beneath him and realised it wasn’t a man anymore. It was a body. Nick had killed him. Nick’s mind reeled and he threw up. The pain mixed with the sudden guilt that struck him and his body didn’t know how to respond. Well it did, it just kept expelling everything he’d eaten over the last day.

Nick was hunched over, still reeling, when he felt something slam into his back. He rolled out of the way and saw that it was the other swordsman. They had gotten up and looked horrified. They had run over to Nick and slammed their sword down into his back. Thankfully Nick’s armour held up this time and the sword only cut into the leather. Nick didn’t have the ability to count his blessings that the man hadn’t gone for the head. Nick pushed himself up to his feet, vomit, tears, and blood covering him.

The sight must have petrified the man as he wildly slashed towards Nick. Nick easily dodged the blow and closed in on the man. The man’s jaw was hanging loosely from his skull, clearly broken. So Nick just slammed his own forehead into the man’s nose, breaking that as well. The swordsman crumpled to the ground.

The fight had pulled his mind away from the reeling. Nick now looked at the last person in the room. The archer. She had woken back up and had backed herself into the corner, shaking. Nick saw pure terror in her eyes and felt like throwing up again. What had he just done?

The woman started crying.

“Please, please don’t kill me. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She started rambling and begging for her life.

Nick just felt disgusted with himself.

“I’m not going to kill you.” He spoke through ragged breaths.

Nick was being assaulted by shame, guilt, and disgust. He had no idea how to deal with them. How could he reconcile with his actions? He’d just killed a man. He took a deep breath and focused on the little bit of energy bouncing around inside of him. It was unaffected by everything. There was considerably less of it, likely used up in whatever Nick had done to the man, but it still just floated and bounced without a care. Nick let himself be distracted by it. It was slowly regaining size, being refilled by a trickle from the strange rectangles in the ethereal space. Nick’s turbulent emotions calmed and he looked at the woman cowering before him.

Nick considered his options. Part of him wanted to finish off the poor swordsman and the archer, so that no one would know what he did here today. He didn’t listen to that dark part though, he didn’t want to continue down that path. Nick had to accept what had happened here. There was no hiding from what he had done, he’d slain a man. That man was likely going to kill him or leave him for dead after robbing him. Nick wasn’t home anymore, he was no longer in a position to take a pacifistic approach. Nick was going to be killed, he had simply fought for his life and come out on top. Yeah, that made sense to Nick. He had done what he had to.

Nick turned around and picked up his bag. Then he realised that there was an awful lot of loot just lying around. Nick looked at his left arm that was hanging limply by his side, then at the woman.

“Take the gear off both the swordsmen.”

The woman nodded and did as she was told. It took her a while but she stripped all the armour off both men. Nick made sure that the smaller swordsman wasn’t actually dead, just deeply unconscious, which relieved him. Nick took all the loot and dumped it into his bag. Nick looked at the corpse of the large man and committed it to his memory. He wasn’t going to let himself forget what had happened here.

The woman started to take her own gear off but Nick stopped her. He didn’t want it. She looked confused but nodded anyway. Nick needed to find a healer, he’d like to be able to use his arm again. It was time to get back to the dining room. Nick knew he was in a pretty terrible state, if another group decided to attack him he really was done for. So he took the archer with him, made her lead the way back to the hub. She explained that she was a Tracker and she could navigate back with ease. Nick knew she was just trying to increase her worth to him but he just sighed. It was all just a little too much for him. They made their way through the many rooms quickly and certainly earned more than a few stares from groups.

Nick held his chin high, as if challenging anyone that was eyeing him up. Trying to be lowkey had gotten him into this mess, it was time to try something else. Nick had always been pretty good at bluffing, he just had to hope no one would call him on it this time.

Thankfully no one did. Nick and the archer made it back to the dining room without issue. The Exes were still sitting around their table, it really hadn’t been that long since Nick had left. Paige noticed him first.

“You look like shit Nick. Who’s this?” Her eyes examined the archer.

“One of the bandits that tried to mug me.” Nick replied.

“Oh, want me to take care of her? I know some of you gents don’t have it in you to finish off a woman.” Paige said with a smirk.

Nick winced. Firstly, it was a terrible joke. Secondly, Nick was shocked about how easily the woman implied she could kill the archer.

“No. No more death. I’m letting her go. How do you usually deal with bandits here?” he asked.

“Well, nobody will care if you’d have killed her.” Paige said simply.

Rina didn’t even bat an eye at the statement. The archer shuddered but hung her head in defeat. She had known this.

“But if you don’t want to do that, you can take her to Doyle. He’s pretty lenient and will just banish her from the floor. He’ll make sure the militia knows her face and she won’t be let back into the 71st floor.”

Nick liked the sound of that much more than the alternative.

“Alright, I’ll be back in a bit then.”

Nick then led the woman towards the kitchen. He needed to find Benedict as well, he hoped he’d be back there.

“Thank you.” The woman muttered to Nick.

Nick didn’t respond and just kept walking. He hadn’t asked for any of this. He found Doyle in the same spot as usual.

“Christ Nick, what happened to you?” Doyle exclaimed.

Nick pushed the woman forward. “Bandits. One of the Exes told me you could kick her out of the floor or something?”

Doyle’s face hardened. “Of course, the 71st is no place for bandits.”

Doyle signalled over someone from another table.

“D or B?” The man asked.

“Banished.” Doyle said with a nod towards the woman and a slight smile to Nick.

The woman was dragged off by the man but she looked relieved. Nick didn’t want to ask what ‘D’ meant, but part of him knew.

“So, what else can I do for you Nick?”

“I need someone to appraise some items. Oh and is Benedict around? My arm is pretty messed up.”