Open Is Guarded

When they finally got to the boss room, the attack formation changed a bit to have Ezra in front. This was a way too obvious move, though. Nevertheless, Ezra did not complain and followed in their plan.

The fight begun and everyone seemed to be playing their role well. The boss monster was at least a mid C rank. Given the skill level of the guys that have been leading the team, the monster shouldn't be any problem, but they seemed to be stressing Ezra out intentionally to tire him. Soon the healer ran out of mana, so did the magic casters at the rare. Someone like Austin was scarcely of any help in the fight.

It took a while, but half an hour after it begun, the fight ended with the boss slain. Soon, the dungeon would begin to close, but they weren't showing any signs of leaving. The healer was out of commission, so there was no one to heal the team or give them a boost in stamina. They had to manage the way they were until they left the dungeon. At least, that was to be the case.

Ron, Von, and three others that had supposedly joined from another team pulled out a glass vial containing some kind of liquid in them.

Seeing this, Austin couldn't help but be surprised as he had recognized the substance they were taking. "A recovery potion?"

Within seconds, they all emptied the contents of the vial and threw the bottles to the ground. Ezra, who was standing closest to the monster corpse and away from the rest just maintained his position while he watched.

It seemed like Austin was going to say something, but in the blink of an eye, one of the five men from the other team appeared behind him. He plummeted to his knees after receiving a fatal strike to his back, around his kidney area, coupled with bleeding. The healer and magic caster, who were both female, became frightened immediately, but only got a quick glance from the man who had just back stabbed Austin. Both of them were pretty much useless without mana, so there wasn't any need to get rid of them, it seemed. After attention was turned away from them, the healer rushed towards Austin and dragged him towards herself.

Now, Ezra had seven pairs of eyes on him, and not in a friendly manner. There was no need to engage in dialogue either, since it was clear what was about to happen.

"Come, let me teach some fools a lesson." Ezra said with his arms spread out, in a mocking tone.

The rest had already figured out that his weapon was trash, and so was his equipment, really nothing special. All of them lunged at him with the exception of one who remained behind.

The attacks he received were hard and fast, but fortunately, not so fast that he could not avoid. Though he had practiced no professional fighting style, since people battle with monsters normally and not humans, the senses he had built in those fights had helped him form his own kind of style in fighting even humans.

The enemies gave Ezra no space to catch his breath as they attacked sequentially, and sometimes at the same time. He was pretty much forced into defence while his enemies rained on him an unending string of attacks. He was managing fine, until he broke his stance and was hit hard in the chest, which sent him crashing into the huge monster they just took down.

"That was a solid kick, and I wasn't even trying." One of them said.

"What was that about us being fools again? You shouldn't have ever messed with us, you fucking…" Ron was going on and on, not that Ezra cared, though.

"Will you just shot the fuck up already? Learn to grow up, be more like your brother." Ezra said as he slowly picked himself up.

This simple taunt had worked too well, and the next second, before he could even stand well, Ron charged at him with anger, aiming to cut him in half with his sword. This was just the situation Ezra was hoping for.

Swiftly shifting his body to the side, Ezra, who was unbalanced just a moment ago, dodged the vertical slash in a split second. With the momentum of the slash going upward, Ron couldn't react in time, not that he even saw it coming, as Ezra spun around to land a solid kick, and in one motion caught Ron's sword mid-air to run it through his mid-section. Before anyone could react, Ezra pulled out the sword and cleanly cut off Ron's head.

Realizing what had just happened, Von rushed forwards in fury and rage, "YOU BASTARD!!!" He cut his sword through Ezra's mid-section, but didn't hit flesh, then followed up his initial attack with another.

Realizing what the situation had become, the rest joined in to stop Ezra, all but the one who had not joined in the first time around. Capitalizing on his rage, Ezra cleanly dodged a downward slash from Von then stepped on the sword with one leg first, before using his other leg to kick Von's hands off the hilt of the sword. With a kick to the throat, Ezra stabbed Von in the heart, ran the blade down to his stomach, before kicking away his body into the four coming at him. Three ignored Von's body and continued their attack, while the other stopped to catch Von's body.

The one who caught Von also collapsed after catching Von. This drew the attention of one of the remaining three that came after Ezra, and that split second of distraction was all Ezra needed.

When he threw Von's body, he also threw Ron's sword right after. There wasn't much lighting in the boss room, and Ron's sword was black, so it made for a good concealed weapon strike. The sword pierced through Von and then through the one who caught Von. It was a big and long sword.

In less than a minute, the emenys' number had been reduced to three.