Ford awoke at seven in the morning with Max, Lilly, and Ace laying atop her. She didn’t complain about having a personal private fantasy fulfilled, but she couldn’t feel her arms. Ford gently shrugged her shoulders, shaking Max and Lilly till finally, Max groaned, looked up at Ford, and said, “Good morning,” then she bolted upright, jabbing her palm into Ford’s kidney and knocking the air out of her, “Ford! You’re awake! Are you okay?!”

“I was then you knocked the air out of my lungs,” Ford groaned.

“Will ye calm down, Max,” Lilly said, fumbling for her glasses, “of course she’s alrigh’. I healed her las’ nigh’.”

“I was alright,” Ford said, catching her breath, “but I’ll be fine. Now, let’s get some food, wake everyone up, and beat the boss,” she then climbed out of the tent only to be greeted by Benet, Morgan, and Gimble sleeping just outside. “What the hell are you doing!?” Ford exclaimed, waking everybody.

Benet snapped up, and his eyes darted between Ford, Max, and Lilly, who had just exited the tent. “Did you all sleep together last night?” Benet asked.

Max and Lilly responded immediately and simultaneously, “No.”

“Not really.”

“Yes,” Ford said at the same time they answered.

Benet raised an accusing finger and then put it back down, saying, “I wish I could wake up next to beautiful women.”

“Keep dreaming,” Ford said as she walked around the tent to be met with a sword to the throat, “Well, hello, Farah. Good morning. Sleep well?”

Farah stared down the length of the blade into Ford’s eyes and asked, “Why shouldn’t I kill you now?”

“Because I haven’t made breakfast yet,” Ford answered.

Farah’s stomach growled, and so did she. “Fine, but how do I know you won’t betray us now or soon?”

Ford looked down then said, “Honestly, I don’t know. The one thing Wrath and I did agree on was wanting to keep everyone safe. Right now, Lilly locked Wrath away somewhere in my mind. You won’t have to deal with her for a while, and neither will I.” Farah stared into Ford’s eyes a second longer, then lowered her sword, allowing Ford to go to the center of camp to begin making breakfast. While she prepped the food, she asked, “So, Lilly, about that Grimoire you made?” Everyone immediately exploded with questions at the mention of Lilly making a new Grimoire. Lilly began sputtering and stuttering, trying to answer everything simultaneously. Finally, “Alright,” Ford cut everyone off, “What is the Grimoire called?” she asked.

Lilly took a deep breath and said, “The Grimoire is called, Angelic; the class is the protector.”

“The Angelic protector,” Max said, “I like it.”

“As do I,” Morgan admitted, “too bad an Elf made it.”

Lilly stuck her tongue out at him, “Well, good thing it wasn’ made by a Dwarf! It has AOE healin’ and shield spells. I lost all my destruction spells, though.”

“What did they get replaced with?” Ford asked.

“Nothin’ the points were jus’ refunded.”

“Well, take a moment to get the destruction spells back,” Ford said, putting assorted meats and veggies onto sauté pans, “We’ll need them later. We leave in one hour thirty minutes. Let’s try and get to the last boss room by the end of the day.”

“Heard,” everyone groaned as they waited for the food.

***

After a long and delicious breakfast, an archway portal opened with a card reader on one side, which Ford ignored and stepped through the arch. They entered a room filled with hay, making walls ten meters high. The room itself looked to be thirty meters by thirty meters, and in the center, a scarecrow hung on a cross, illuminated by a bright sun. The scarecrow was two meters tall, and the cross held it up an extra meter off the ground. Ford waved a finger in a circle, indicating that they should spread out as they approached.

Everyone did so, and Ford summoned her swords, broadsword, and Smite, having the seven swords circle behind her while she wielded smite. Once they got close enough, the scarecrow twitched and looked up with its stitched-on eyes. The HP bar appeared overhead with the boss’s name, Scareqrow.

“What’s with all the puns?” Ford half asked over comms.

“What pun?” Farah asked.

The Scarqrow pulled itself off the cross, turned, and pulled the cross out of the ground. The wood of the cross dissolved into dust and revealed a scythe with a long and wicked blade. “This is my field,” a whispered husky voice said, “You will not trespass.”

“Well, too late!” Ford exclaimed and charged at the scarecrow. She swung Smite in a diagonal, and the scarecrow backstepped it as though the small breeze carried it that Ford created when she lunged. Then the other seven swords came down in the same arch, and the scarecrow floated aside as though it were carried on the wind.

“My turn,” the scarecrow said, then flew at Ford and swung its scythe at her. Ford couldn’t react in time, and the blade made contact with her chest and passed through as though the blade was made of shadows. Ford didn’t feel anything but saw a de-buff under her four bars, and the icon looked like a person getting shit on by a passing bird; also, she felt surprised to see that her mana pool was filled after the fight yesterday. When she noticed this and got attacked, she instinctively walked backward, tripped on the floor's flat surface, and fell.

Ford heard a volley of bullets being fired, all missing the scarecrow, even the shots that Kii fired that followed Scareqrow for a few turns before Kii lost control, and the bullet passed through the center of Ford’s chest. She gasped as her lungs were crushed and her heart stopped pumping. She healed a second later and saw Scareqrow disappear, reappearing behind Gimble and Morgan and slashing at them with its scythe. Morgan reacted first and swung his war hammer, accidentally hitting Gimble’s left knee, shattering it. He screamed in pain, and Morgan winced, “Sorry about that. I didn’t know you were that close,” he apologized over comms.

“Shit,” Ford said, “Lilly, he’s an affliction monster. He gives us bad luck. Can you fix it?”

“I think so,” Lilly responded, then filled the room with a blue-white light. The de-buff in Ford’s vision disappeared, and Gimble’s leg healed.

“That’s a good skill,” Ford complimented, “Max, Farah, do what you can to trap him in a dome or something.”

“Heard.”

“Ace, chase,” Ford said, pointing at Scareqrow.

Ace grew to his full size, and his flames turned red-white, just like the Horror golem. Farah charged forward, swinging her blade in a flurry and pushing the scarecrow back with the air created. Max ran behind the scarecrow and made a dome around it with a small hole that Ace stuck his snout in and activated destructive field and gravitational pull. Then he shut his snout, pulled out, and sauntered over to Ford happily. Max opened up the dome and reviled the scarecrow gone.

Ford smiled triumphantly and looked up; the HP bar received no damage and showed no change. “You missed,” the husky whispered in Ford’s ear. She whorled around and swung her sword, hitting nothing but air.

“We’re not done yet,” Ford said on high alert.

Everyone circled around her, keeping an eye out for the scarecrow, “How do we fight something we can’t hit?” Benet asked.

“We can’t,” Ford said, then activated the linchpin skill. She saw a highlighted speck on the other side of the hay wall, “or can we. Lilly, you have volley again, right?”

“I do. Why?”

Ford pointed at the speck on the wall, “Everyone, fire everything you have right there,” Ford, Lilly, Max, Kii, and Mizu fired volley spells and arrows at the spot, breaking down the hay wall revealing a vast, peaceful wheat field. The linchpin skill still active, Ford saw a small man hiding in the wheat. She launched another volley of fire spears at the spot, and the man disappeared as the field was set on fire. She turned and saw the HP bar fall to zero, and she was immediately pelted with a loot bag.

“That was,” Benet began, “disappointing.”

“I know, right,” Ford agreed, “Especially after the Horror golem.”

“Well, I’ll take all the easy wins we can get,” Max said.

“True,” Ford agreed, “Now let’s look at the loot and go to the next room.”

***

“Finn,” Tanashi said, “that was the worst fight ever…of all time.”

Finn crossed his arms, “It would have been awesome if you hadn’t made that Horror golem!!”

“Don’t make excuses. You know you suck,” Tanashi continued.

“Fuck you,” Finn said, pulling up a screen to make a new stronger monster.