The base was falling apart.
Half our walls were rubble, the ground scorched black from Zeref's meteor spam, the air thick with smoke and the smell of cooked knight.
And yet somehow, we still had ten flags.
Ten!
More than anyone else.
Oopsies! Yeah, because more than anyone else is GONE!
Which meant we weren't a guild anymore. We were a neon bullseye in the middle of a blood-soaked dartboard.
That Zeref and Kael would like to feast on!
Keiji stood in the middle of the carnage, staff glowing like he was about to personally rewrite the weather report. His robe was half-burned, hair sticking out like a deranged owl.
"Leonhart," he barked, voice cracking like the end of the world. "Do anything, anything, to defend those flags."
I turned my very manly avatar head toward Luna, silently begging for a saner counterpoint.
Luna just nodded gravely, her healer's glow flickering weakly. "He's right. Only you can fight Zeref and Kael."
Me.
The screaming girl stuffed inside Leonhart's mountain-man body.
Sure. Fine. Logical.
I glanced at the flags. Ten bright, flappy banners glowing proudly in the wind.
I glanced at the incoming armies: Flame Heart on one side, Shadow Reapers on the other, Zeref and Kael leading their murder parades with absolute confidence.
Then the dumbest, most beautiful idea popped into my head.
"Okay," I whispered to myself. "Don't hate me for this."
I grabbed the entire stack of flags, ripped them out of the ground, and stuffed them into Leonhart's belt like I was packing groceries in a panic.
Keiji's head snapped around. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Luna's jaw dropped. "No. No no no!"
"Yes," I said, already spamming every OP skill Leonhart had.
Blades of light erupted from the ground, slashes spinning in the air, arcs of steel shredding through the incoming guild members before they even understood what was happening.
Screams filled the battlefield.
Actual, real screams.
But all anyone saw was Leonhart, big, burly Leonhart, flailing through the chaos like a drunk ballerina, flags rattling from his waist, sword arm slashing in wide arcs while I squealed every time an arrow flew too close.
"Aaahhh! Don't touch me, don't touch me!" I yelped, ducking a fireball.
Zeref's meteor fizzled against one of Keiji's desperate ice walls.
Kael cut through three of our guildmates in a blink.
Luna threw a last-ditch heal, then screamed as a dagger found her chest.
She dissolved into light.
"No! Luna!" I shouted, voice breaking, but my feet were already running.
I turned back in time to see Keiji lock eyes with me.
"Go!" he shouted, unleashing one last blizzard before a fireball swallowed him whole.
His scream cut off into static.
Gone.
It was just me.
Me and ten flags.
Against Zeref.
Against Kael.
Against everybody.
"Ohhhh nooooo," I whined, sprinting across the scorched field.
My OP skills detonated around me in random bursts, blades of light skewering enemies left and right, explosions ripping through clustered players like a divine tantrum.
Shadow Reapers screamed. Flame Hearts screamed.
Everyone screamed.
And me?
I screamed the loudest.
"STOP FOLLOWING ME! I'M JUST A GIRL...IN A MAN...IN A NIGHTMARE!"
Leonhart's big armored boots thundered over the dirt. The flags flapped wildly from my belt, smacking my thighs as if mocking me.
Arrows hissed past my ears. Fireballs exploded behind me.
I squealed at each one. High-pitched. Utterly unmanly.
Zeref roared from somewhere above, "STOP RUNNING, FACE ME!"
"NO THANK YOU!" I screamed back, vaulting over a burning log.
Kael's voice cut through the chaos, low and lethal. "You can't run forever, Leonhart."
"Oh really? Watch me!"
Auto-cast slashed backward without me even turning around, and half a squad chasing me disintegrated into light.
Another group tried to block me from the front.
"Not today!" I squealed, mashing more OP combos. Leonhart's sword cleaved through them like they were piñatas stuffed with regret.
The battlefield became a literal massacre.
Bodies dropped left and right, the system lagging to keep up with the kill feed.
But I didn't care about the scoreboard.
I cared about survival.
And I ran.
Ran like my virtual legs were powered by pure fear.
Every girly yelp from my throat echoed across the valley.
Every desperate flap of my arms looked ridiculous on Leonhart's broad frame.
Every flag thumped against my armor like I was Santa Claus for war crimes.
Behind me, the once-mighty Flame Hearts and Shadow Reapers had been butchered down to scraps.
Dozens gone. Hundreds gone.
Zeref was still alive.
Kael was still alive.
But their armies?
Gone.
I'd nuked them all by accident.
I hadn't just defended the flags.
I'd turned the battlefield into a one-woman natural disaster.
Finally, finally, the screams behind me faded.
The ground stopped shaking.
The only sound left was my ragged breathing and the humiliating clink clink clink of ten flags bouncing against my hip armor.
I slowed, stumbling to a halt on a hill far from the wreckage.
The smoke curled up behind me. The air reeked of scorched dirt.
And for one surreal moment, the world was silent.
I bent over, hands on my knees, chest heaving in Leonhart's stupid broad-shouldered body.
"Ohhh my god," I gasped. "I just wiped two armies… while squealing like a schoolgirl… carrying ten flags on my butt. WHAT IS MY LIFE."
The leaderboard blinked in the corner of my vision.
[Black Vultures – 10 Flags]
[Flame Hearts – 10 Flags]
[Shadow Reapers – 12 Flags]
The map pulsed, red marks gone.
It was just me.
Me and ten flags.
Alone.
In the hill side I escaped to.
I stared at the sky, trying not to laugh, trying not to cry.
Then I whispered:
"…I really hope no one recorded that."