Sometimes Grey really didn’t know what even he was thinking.

When he was young—who was he kidding, he was still young. But still, his everyday was filled with what he could do in the next second.

Who cared about the future if he hated what he was doing right now. Maybe it was naive, but he felt like so long as he was true to himself and did what he loved, things would eventually work out so long as he had a good head on his shoulders.

Of course, he never gave it so much clear and defined thought. He just liked living with his heart on his sleeve and a grin on his face.

That was fine in a world where there were police stations in every neighborhood and the greatest danger he had to face was the local cow fucker, but in a world where everyone was trying their best to survive, this was far from the best practice.

Grey didn’t care, though.

The world was too heavy, too morbid, too filled with backstabbing bastards and old monsters with intricate plans and the time to execute them that he simply couldn’t.

Like he had said... if his life was going to be strung up to a bungee cord and plucked back up the instant he fell into an abyss anyway...

Why not continue to live the way he wanted to?

Something about the Fog of Chaos just made him want to shred it apart until there was nothing of it left. So he acted.

Well, he also acted because he felt like the moment Calixan succeeded, even if it ended up biting him in the ass later, this Instance would have gotten a lot more impossible to complete. There was definitely a reason the Genesis Games had allowed so many teams to enter for hope of success.

That all sounded well and good. Beautiful, almost. Heartfelt in the most heart-pluckiest of ways.

Unfortunately this was reality.

BANG.

Calixan pulled a staff from thin air, waving it at Grey and sending him flying...

Flying right toward the lake of almost certain death.

The moment Grey’s back landed on it he felt the sizzle. His skin wasn’t even touching the waters, and yet it felt like his bomber jacket and even his flexible inner armor weren’t even there at all.

It was like the lake had bypassed all the defenses he wore entirely, attacking him directly.

His skin felt like it was burning. He could feel the blisters forming, the pustules of water building up in his body’s failed attempt to protect itself, only to pop from the inside out because they, too, began to bubble.

Anyone else would have roared in pain at this point, gone blank from all the stimulation and horror of it all. But Grey... Grey had experienced far worse already.

’I’m about fucking done with this.’

Grey’s back skidded against the heavy waters and he flipped back up to his feet. Almost instantly, the blisters and boiling transferred there.

Grey reacted instinctively. Pulling on his Paladin Frame, he erupted with everything he had.

Paladin Spirit formed almost solid, illusory armors around him. He had no idea when he gained that ability, but almost like it had been stimulated by the atmosphere, it surged and twisted until the boiling, burning sensation beneath his skin came to a stop.

Grey’s feet hit land and he looked back to realize his sliding momentum had landed him on the small island. Calixan had really pushed him back quite far.

Looking down, Grey sighed a breath of relief when he realized his Epic items were still fine, they hadn’t burned away. The waters were just odd.

’If I lost my Forces I might as well just die in this loop to get them back. Nothing comes before the drip.’

Grey looked up and found Calixan staring at him with wide eyes. He smiled sheepishly and waved.

"So, about the whole Vampire Lord thing. I’m a Paladin, too. Hello, nice to meet you."

BANG.

Blood unleashed a howl into the air as Grey shot across the waters. No longer fearing what they could do to him, he moved like the wind, leaving ripples of gold pulsing out from where his feet landed with every step.

The tattoos of white gold that covered Blood became a dense black, wafting light fogs of darkness from time to time.

"Kill him!" Calixan growled. "We still need to get that item! Kill him quickly!"

’Item?’

Grey frowned. It seemed that what Calixan wanted was still in the tomb. In that case...

Grey crossed the lake and then suddenly swapped from his Holy Frame to his Helion Frame. Helion Resonance pulsed outward, beautiful rings that echoed lines of magnetic fields formed almost like angel wings behind Grey.

His speed exploded as his weight dropped to nearly nothing and a wall of solar wind slammed into him.

Blood was a second slow to react and Grey launched himself up in a flying kick that landed right on the man’s chest.

BOOM.

Blood was ripped off his feet and Grey landed right in front of Calixan, his fang daggers appearing in his palms and erupting with blood blades as Grey slashed downward.

Calixan waved his staff, forming an orb of gold around him. Holy energy began to peel away from the sphere of protection, sending bullets flying right at Grey’s vital points.

"Do you all have the fucking same spells? Where’s the creativity? The ingenuity?"

BANG. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Grey’s blade landed on the sphere’s surface and cracks began to form across it, but he didn’t have the time to send a second strike in.

He deflected a bullet with his follow up, dodging out of the way of a second, and propping up his other short blood saber to block the next one that came.

Grey bobbed and weaved, and then he suddenly dropped his Helion Frame and activated his Vampire Lord Frame.

BANG.

Calixan’s shield shattered as Grey suddenly vanished in motes of black smoke, appearing by the Bishop’s side and slashing it to pieces.