“N-nah man w-we got this.” I lie.

I’m horrified right now. I saw a massacre before my very eyes, the stench of death refusing to get out of my nose. The scene is reminiscent of a failed World War 1 charge in which all of the men who left the trenches immediately got decimated by machine gun fire. I’ve been in my fair share of fights since coming to this world, but no opponent has made me feel this fear, this sense of dread like I do right now. My legs feel like jelly. I don’t think I have the ability to move forward. I feel like a deer in headlights.

“C-can we still run away? W-we’re out of our league here. If we stay we’re all dying!” Adam proposes still hiding behind me.

I’m so scared that Adam is actually making sense for once.

“You can’t. He’ll catch you.” Akane points out.

“Ugh so what’s the plan? He’s coming toward us” Remi says, directing our attention to Archer.

He’s walking over corpses, nonchalantly reloading his weapons. He’s about a few dozen feet away but closely coming within hearing distance. He looks arrogant, like he’s taking a stroll through the park. Not surprising since he looked like he was having fun massacring an entire cohort. Jesus we don’t stand a chance.

“Ok everyone...spread out and get ready to attack. Azura you need to be on standby with those healing potions. We’re gonna need them. ” Will orders but sounds unsure of himself.

There was no inkling of confidence in his voice or in his current posture. He looks like he wants to run.

“Akane...have you got any advice for us?” I ask as she lines up next to me.

“Yes. Try to survive.” she responds.

“...Yeah I’ll do that.”

“I wanna go home I wanna go home I wanna go home I wanna go” Adam starts to whimper.

“HOLY FUCK Y’ALL NEED TO STOP ACTING LIKE PUSSIES!” Nerva yells as she breaks away from the group heading towards Archer, stretching her arms as she does so.

Unlike everyone else (Akane excepted) she seems to not be scared at all. She was quiet until now so it was shocking to hear that out of nowhere. She stops about 2 dozen feet in front of Archer while everyone else remains in the back. He stops as well, his left eyebrow slightly raised, either out of surprise or slight amusement seeing a small girl say such a thing.

“AY YO MEGA FAGGOT!” Nerva calls out to him.

Oh my god this girl is insane. She is about to die. I ain’t gonna lie though, Nerva just shot up the list of my favorite females with that single line. Everyone is speechless.

“I HOPE YOU READY TO GET YOUR ASS FUCKED!” Nerva continues.

Nerva’s comments are so insane right now that the fear...is actually going away? For some reason I don’t feel as nervous as before, like I feel a surge of confidence. It’s like Nerva’s confidence has spread to me, I think it may be true for everyone else too, well everyone except Adam.

“Nerva stop you’re making it worse!” Adam calls out.

Archer in response smiles. There’s no indication of anger in his expression so if that was Nerva’s goal then she failed.

“Swordsman! It’s been awhile!” Archer begins, completely ignoring Nerva’s insults as he puts away his weapons, walking once more.

His voice sounds jovial, like he’s being reacquainted with an old friend.

“HEY, BITCH! DON’T IGNORE ME!” Nerva yells.

Fire starts to emanate from her hands. She raises them so that they are aimed right towards Archer, but he ignores the fireball that’s being formed in front of him.

“You know Swordsman I'm in a pretty good mood right now. Here I was thinking I’d have to hunt you down but then I got word that you and everybody else, was coming here! You just saved me a bunch of trouble and I have to thank you for that.” he states.

A fireball about the size of a dump truck hits him as soon as he finishes his sentence. He didn’t even attempt to dodge, he just talked as he saw it fly towards him.

“Hah how do you like that bitch!” Nerva exclaims in victory.

The collision between man and fireball caused a bunch of smoke to be created and in the smoke I see a figure emerge. It’s Archer who is acting like the fireball never hit him. After seeing this man take Ryder’s moab head on I’m not surprised. He’s still looking straight at Akane walking blithely, a huge smile on his face. Ok that’s it, we all gotta help, there’s no way we’re winning this if Nerva does all the work. I’m mad, this girl has bigger balls than anyone else here and that’s an embarrassment. I’m ashamed of how I felt earlier.

“Will, let’s kick this guy’s ass!” I shout, trying to rally everyone now that most of my fear has subsided.

“Yeah let’s do this! Everyone, you know the drill. Azura you stay in the back, Ryder give him everything you have, everyone else follow my lead!” Will commands.

“On it!” His party yells in unison.

Oh shoot Will’s people are competent and coordinated. My party has to follow suit.

“Akane! Do Akane shit! Adam, don’t be a pussy and help Azura! Make force fields or something! We’re all helping Nerva, let's go!” I instruct.

Everyone starts to charge towards Archer as Nerva continues to attack him with fire. She’s using her fire to quickly move herself around him like the way she did with Lancer. She enters a pattern of shooting a stream of fire at him, followed by changing her position via shooting fire out of her hands to propel her body. As everyone charges, bombs courtesy of Ryder fly overhead. Archer doesn’t seem to be caring about any of this. As Nerva continues her attacks he just keeps walking.

“Yo, watch out for the bombs!” I call out to Nerva.

Nerva propels herself back while aiming her hands at Archer so she’s able to attack him and get to a safe distance at the same time. She shoots out so much fire she rolls backwards. I stop in my tracks and bend down to stop her.

“Bout time y’all bitches joined!” Nerva tells me as I help her stand up.

“Yeah my bad. I don’t know what came over us. Anyway you good?”

“No this is some bullshit! My fire ain’t doing shit! ” Nerva shouts.

“Well you know the solution right?”

“Ugggghhhh”

“Use more fire! Make it hotter!”

“Oh damn you right.”

The bombs Ryder sent were about to land on Archer but before they could make contact he whipped out his revolver and shot them in rapid succession like a scene out of a western. As he did so Will emerges from a portal right over Archer with his blades ready to attack. But as if he saw the attack coming he sidesteps to the left making Will plunge his swords into the dirt. Archer flips his pistol around so that he’s holding it by the barrel and swings it down seeking to hit Will on the head. Before he could do so Lilith slides in and raises her shield to block the blow. It succeeds as the handle connects with the shield but there was so much force behind the swing that Lilith collapses onto Will.

“Ah!” Will screams as he gets squashed by the heavily armored paladin.

“Nerva, cover us from a distance!” I direct as I rush in to save Will and Lilith.

Before Archer could do a follow up attack I attempted to tackle him. He doesn’t move an inch. It felt like I just rammed into a wall. I look up to see that Archer has a bored expression on his face. I throw an uppercut to his body but before making contact he swings his revolver upwards so that my chin is striked by the revolver’s handle. I’m lifted about two feet into the air. Archer then swings down so that the handle collides with the top of my skull slamming me right into the ground. My face is now submerged in mud and my head hurts like a mother. Instinctually I roll to the right a few times to get away from Archer, eventually springing up to my feet but I wobble trying to regain my balance. I see Remi’s in the thick of it now as she tries to attack with a short dagger in conjunction with her wolf and bear. Together they unleash a series of claw strikes and swings. Archer nonchalantly dodges most of the attacks and deflects with his revolver the attacks he can’t. Nerva’s fireballs are also being shot but not constantly as Nerva only shoots when she’s sure she can’t accidentally hit Remi. I see Will get up in the midst of battle as Lilith apologizes profusely.

“Ugh, why do you gotta be so heavy Lililth?” Will comments, putting his hand on his back.

“I’m sorry, ok!? Wait, what are you implying?” Lilith counters.

“Huh nothing! Quincy are you ok?” Will asks trying to avoid Lilith’s question more so than caring about me (ok maybe he cares a little bit but we all know it was mostly to avoid Lilith’s ire)

“Head feels awful but I’m alright, let’s go help Remi.” I answer.

“Yes help me!” Remi hollers.

I look back to see Archer striking Remi’s bear repeatedly, still using his revolver as a melee weapon. After smacking the bear on the nose with a diagonal strike he quickly turns around and slams the gun right on top of the spirit wolf’s head. After that he deflects a blow from Remi’s dagger and counterattacks hitting Remi across the face. Blood shoots out of Remi’s mouth and spins due to the force. Archer just took down a wolf, a bear, and an armed woman within the span of 10 seconds. Lilith, Will, and I put our guard up expecting him to attack us next. But instead of doing that he heads toward Akane who hasn’t charged with us. She’s standing still like a samurai waiting to unsheathe their sword to defeat their opponent in a single move. Wait a minute, why didn’t she charge with us? She might be trying to wait for the opportune moment to strike, like how she did with Lancer. At least that better be the explanation.

“Where was I at? Oh yeah like I was saying I’m glad you came all the way here. Saved me a lot of time. You were always the smart one, you knew I’d hunt you down to the ends of the earth so you decided to commit suicide by coming to me.” Archer monologues as he is attacked by bombs and fire but continues to ignore them.

“Yo Archer, I came to end you, not commit suicide. Just so we’re clear.” Akane retorts ready to take out her sword any minute now.

“Ah you see that can’t be right because you should know better. And here I was saying you were the smart one.” Archer says as Nerva runs to him to unleash a fire punch.

Archer flicks her with his finger making Nerva roll back a few dozen feet, his eyes still on Akane. Luckily Nerva rolls into a tree stopping her momentum but the crash looked painful.

“Nerva!” Adam yells, rushing towards her.

Jesus Christ now he does something. He hasn’t done a thing this whole fight. At least Azura is doing her job. She regroupd with us and gave us healing potions and is now healing Remi. Ryder is with us as well, still shooting bombs. Archer must be so focused on Akane that he doesn’t care about any of us.

“Did you actually come here thinking you could win?!” Archer questions, laughing in front of Akane.

“You’re going to die today Archer. I’ll make sure of it.”

“See that might be a problem because that’s not what I have scheduled. What I have scheduled is that I’m gonna kill the first hero and his party, torture the second for what he said he was gonna do to the Man of Stone in front of his party (which apparently you’re a part of) and then kill them, find your parents, make them feel an amount of pain never experienced on this earth before while you watch, then do the same to you for the next few months before finally putting a bullet in your head. Oh and I gotta remember to send the heroes’ heads to the lords so that they know not to fuck with the Man of Stone ever again. Sounds good?”

Akane responds by unsheathing her sword that leads into a strike but as quickly as she did so Archer puts up his pistol blocking it. The collision between sword and revolver was so great that it created a visible mini shock wave that sends all of us stumbling back. Akane’s red aura is pulsating from her body as Archer’s purple aura does the same.

“Wow I actually had to use a decent amount of aura for that one! It’s gonna be moments like these when I reflect on how much potential you had Swordsman.” he compliments.

“My name...is Akane!”

Akane v. Archer Music

Akane unleashes an absolute flurry of sword strikes. She unleashes so many it’s hard to physically keep track. Everything is a blur as I hear of the clanging of their weapons. She’s attacking so much Archer is stepping back, slowly becoming overwhelmed. Akane suddenly disappears from view and reappears behind Archer. She attempts to impale him but sensing her he juts his right elbow, hitting her in the face. He follows up by turning around and punching her straight in the gut which sends her flying to a tree. Unlike Nerva, the tree didn’t stop her momentum, no she went through it causing the tree to fall over. The giant tree slams itself into the ground causing a bunch of dust to rise into the air. Akane shoots out from the forest and dust like a bullet attempting to cut Archer in half. He ducks as she flies past him, sliding on the ground. She actually slid past us but doesn’t say anything, she’s in the zone. She shoots straight back like a pinball and tries again. This time she makes contact but it’s with Archer’s revolver and the clash was so powerful that it made all of the dust fly away. Once again Akane starts to swing her sword again and again at Archer. He is waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, I can just tell. He finds it when Akane pulls her sword back, uppercutting her in the stomach. This causes Akane to cough up blood as he follows up by slamming his elbow down her back into the ground, causing her to cough up more blood.

“Come on swordsman! This is pathetic! I know you can do better!” he says looking down at Akane.

“You’re asking me to use my true power? Be careful what you wish for.” She responds, still lying down.

Suddenly blood spikes shoot up from the ground. Archer was able to dodge most of them but I can see that one cut his right cheek. He jumps back with a huge grin on his face.

“Ah you cheeky girl. You were waiting until I made blood come out of your body for a sneak attack. That’s more like it” he says, wiping his cheek with the back of his right hand.

“Tch.” Akane utters, getting up.

She takes out a smaller blade and cuts both of her forearms causing blood to trickle to the ground.

“Oh I know what that means. Someone’s trying now. I might as well put in some effort as well” Archer concludes, flipping his revolver around so that he’s holding it normally again. He aims it at her and fires. The bullet speeds towards her but is blocked by a blood shield. Akane makes her way towards Archer via dashing in a zigzag pattern. I can only see her when she stops to redirect herself. As she gets closer and closer Archer shoots more rounds from his revolver but has each bullet blocked by a blood shield. She eventually makes it in front of Archer and swings her sword upward. She does it with such force that while Archer blocked the swing, his right arm goes up into the air exposing his chest. Blood that was on the ground slithering alongside Akane then shoots at the exposed area seeking to pierce it. But instead of going through it’s stopped dead in its tracks by his aura. Then with his left arm he pulls his shotgun off his back and shoots it at Akane but she was able to dodge the blast by ducking underneath the barrel, rolling under his feet. On the other side of him now she performs a horizontal slash trying to cut off his legs but to no avail as he dashes forward. The attack did some damage though as his calf started to bleed a bit. He puts his pistol away and pumps his shotgun.

He fires it at Akane who was able to put up another blood shield. But because this was a shotgun with a more powerful blast compared to the revolver, she flies back hitting another tree, smacking into the base of it. She quickly recovers and starts to run up the same tree as Archer shoots shotgun blast after shotgun blast, destroying huge chunks of the giant tree. After running halfway up it she propels herself so that she flies towards Archer like a comet falling out of the night sky. Instead of attacking with her sword she goes in for a divekick. Archer sidesteps the attack and using his quick reflexes grabs her head so quickly and with such precision it was as if he was catching a falling leaf. He runs, holding onto her head for a few dozen feet which he traversed in a few seconds due to his speed. He stops over the part of the ground he was looking for and slams her head into it. When her head made contact an explosion occurred sending her flying about 20 feet into the air, doing a few flips before eventually landing down pretty close to us. Jesus Christ, he slammed her head into a landmine didn’t he? Everyone goes to Akane and forms a shield around her as Azura does some healing magic. I’m sure we all feel bad for not helping during that exchange but Akane was doing so much I’m sure no one knew when to join in. I’m sure if I tried to help during any of that I would have gotten in the way. It’s like soldiers on the ground watching a dog fight in the air, they may want to help but the cold fact is they can’t, unless men grow wings then and there.

“Swordsman I gotta say, I was expecting a bit more. I’m disappointed knowing that you were the only one who could entertain me. Because once I’m done with you, it’s gonna be like transitioning from being a hunter to working in a slaughterhouse.” he lectures.

Akane gets up after downing a healing potion and emerges from the circle.

“Did you all see how he attacks?” Akane asks all of us.

“Ugh yeah kinda hard not to why?” I answer on behalf of everyone.

“Good. Keep watching, don’t join in yet. You’d just get in the way. Archer hasn’t used all of his abilities, I can tell. If any of you attacked him like you did earlier, you’d all get killed. Many of you got hurt when he was only toying with you. The only option left is for you all to observe, make a plan, exploit any weaknesses.”

“Wait, you're just gonna keep fighting on your own? There’s no way we can let that happen. What if you die?”

“If I have to die in order for you all to defeat him, I’m ok with that. At least I’ll die like one of the heroes in the comics..meaning dying in the coolest way possible. Remember to use your secret weapon.”

“Huh what weapon is that?”

“Friendship”

AH THE CRINGE. Oh no it’s too much. I can’t handle it. I’m this close to switching sides and joining Archer. With that she leaves us behind speechless, blood dripping from her head because of the last attack.

“Swordsman you better have more tricks up your sleeve! Otherwise I’m gonna end this now, I’m starting to get bored.” Archer tells her.

“Remember, just observe, don’t interfere!” Akane calls out, her eyes dead set on Archer, ignoring what he just said.

“Archer! You are about to witness 100% of my power! Prepare yourself!”

“Finally! I see your bloodlust, give me everything you have! Make me feel something!” he says motioning her to come forth.

I feel bad about this, we have two parties here yet we all feel helpless knowing Akane’s right. Most of us charged at him and got beat up when he only used his revolver, shot at him from a distance and did no damage. Akane is giving us breathing room to think, to come up with something, knowing that she doesn’t stand a chance against Archer for if she did, she wouldn’t have joined my party. I can only do what Akane told me to do. For now, all I can do is be a spectator, knowing that very soon, I’ll have to be a participant.