Inside the dark sphere, Zed slowly turned his head, scanning the endless black fog that surrounded them.
"Some sort of dark domain?" he muttered. "But where is she?"
Kochi stood nearby, just as confused. Her eyes darted around the space, searching for any movement. Nothing.
"There is no sight of her," she said quietly. Then her hand reached into her pocket. Her fingers wrapped around the handle of a small knife.
"Thus…" she whispered, pulling it out and slowly raising it toward herself.
Zed's eyes snapped toward her. Without thinking, he moved fast and slapped the knife out of her hands. It clattered to the ground and slid away.
"What do you think you're doing?" Zed demanded, grabbing her wrist.
Kochi didn't look at him. Her head dropped, her voice low and full of shame.
"I'm useless," she said. "We should just give up now… while we still have a chance to."
Zed's grip tightened slightly.
"Have you run mad?" he shouted. "How does taking your life solve anything?"
He stared at her for a long second, breathing heavily, then let go of her wrist and turned away. He walked a few steps before stopping and looking back over his shoulder.
"It's better to die a warrior than a sorry loser."
With that, he kept walking, disappearing into the darkness once more.
Kochi stood frozen, unable to respond. His words rang in her ears.
Outside the sphere, the battlefield was chaos.
Felt and Banid faced off against the giant worm. The creature roared, its body twisting through broken buildings and dust.
Banid held his ground, barely dodging the worm's wild attacks.
"That's right…" he said, panting. "Beasts are immune to the abilities of monsters."
Felt blinked. "Right… so I'm just gonna go now."
He turned, casually brushing dust off his shoulder.
"Wait!" Banid shouted.
The worm lunged forward, its jaws wide open, aiming straight for Felt.
With sharp reflexes, Felt dodged to the side and kicked the worm's head down. For a moment, it looked like he had the upper hand.
But the beast recovered fast.
It sprang back up and slammed its head into Felt's body, sending him flying.
He crashed hard into the side of a nearby building, breaking through the wall. Rubble rained down as he sat up, groaning.
"Ugh… what gives?!"
Banid kept his eyes on the beast. "It seems this one's also a natural predator to monsters. That would explain why it's paying so much attention to you."
Felt stood up slowly, brushing off pieces of concrete with a sigh.
"Well, that's a bummer."
His tone was casual, but his eyes were serious now.
Then, without warning, he reached out, grabbed the side of the building he'd just crashed into and ripped it free.
He spun and slammed the massive piece of concrete straight into the worm's face.
"Unfortunately," Felt said with a smirk, "it's not on my level."