So, things were getting complicated. That's not new. No need to be flustered just yet. Let's just look at the situation objectively.

First off, it looked like Labcoat Guy was laboring under some kind of misunderstanding about why we tricked Armband Guy into coming with our group. He didn't run away though, and he still went through with the ambush, so it's probably not a bad thing.

As for his other misunderstanding, I can't say the same yet. I have momentarily wondered why Vurrok was taken into the Purple Zone along with the rest of the gang, but if he was mistaken for me hiding around the corner, it would all make sense. In fact, in some way this was to our advantage, as this diversion gave Angie and Ammy more time to find the core of the Purple Zone and lock it down. Now, the real question was this: what would Labcoat Guy do when the Faun doesn't come out of hiding?

Or rather, I hoped he wouldn't come out of hiding; otherwise we would've a lot of explaining to do for Pascal and the Arch-Mage, and it may prove to be a disadvantage during negotiations. Considering that, I actually entertained the idea of waiting until Josh got the bad guys' attention and then sneakily smuggling him out of the battlefield. I just had to wait for the right moment, and…

"Galatea, he's not coming out!" Labcoat Guy suddenly exploded with anger. "Do something!"

"Understood," she responded in a flat voice, following which she extended her hand towards the corner of the building where Vurrok was hiding, and oh my bloody god, you have to be kidding me!

Before I knew it, I already initiated a Phase jump and reappeared just behind the confused Faun inside the Purple Zone. The sudden transition, combined with the fact that my body was sitting on rough ground just a moment ago, almost caused me to fall over, but I managed to regain my balance at the very last moment and grab him by the shoulder.

Vurrok let out a high-pitched gasp that would've been hilariously anachronistic under any other circumstances, but at the moment I was so far beyond caring I wasn't even in the same time zone. Instead, I uttered a hasty "[Maintain motionlessness!]" as I wrapped my Phantom Limb around his waist and picked another red dot to move to before I disappeared, dragging the hapless guy along with me.

"[What manner of ludicrousness is this?]"

I presume that question came from Brang, no doubt really shocked by the two of us appearing right in front of him while he was still on the lookout. As much as I wanted to give him an answer right away, my legs had other plans, and they unceremoniously slipped right out of under me. I stumbled backward, barely managing to brace myself in time so that I only landed on my butt instead of getting sprawled out on the ground.

It took a few seconds to get my bearings. The rapid Phasing combined with forcefully pulling someone with me did a number on my head. I felt like the whole world was spinning, with my body parts also spinning, but in the opposite direction and at various different speeds. It wasn’t particularly pleasant is all I'm trying to say here.

"[Are you all right, my Lord?]" Vurrok inquired in a panicked voice as he began to buzz around me.

"[To a degree that is far from satisfactory, yet not one that threatens this life of mine. Now excuse me, for I must reign in the rebellious impulses of my disobedient innards.]"

"[Are you certain thy condition isn't dire?] came the next inquiry from Brang as he casually leaned on his spear. [You even forgot to denounce young Vurrok for referring to you by thine title.]"

I gave the easy-going ex-general a critical glance, but he only smiled back like he was oh-so-clever.

"[All is not lost that is delayed.]" My off-handed response only earned me a subdued chuckle, so I decided even rolling my eyes would've been wasted on him, and instead I focused on somehow standing back up. It was only slightly harder than strictly necessary, but with the help of Vurrok, I managed to stand on my own two feet again.

Brang waited for me to readjust myself, and only then did he ask me, "[Is my presumption correct in that something unexpected happened for you to arrive in thine unsteady state?]"

"[Unexpected is a word that places it without due consideration,]" I grumbled before I stretched my back. Then I paused, rewound my words in my head, and after a short yet intense sigh I added, "I wanted to say 'it's putting it lightly.'"

"[We understood thine words.]"

Brang might have said that, but based on Vurrok's expression, no, he didn't. I let it slide for the moment, and I asked the obvious. "Are we still in the park?"

"[Aye.]"

"Which way is the ambush point?" Brang wordlessly pointed to our right. I glanced in the direction, and after rummaging through my memories for a while for familiar landmarks, I finally managed to roughly pinpoint my current location within the park. I wasn't far away, but it would still take a minute or two on foot to get back into position. "Well, I better get back there."

"[Do you require our aid in traversing the grounds?]"

"No, I'll manage. Let's stick to the plan. Maintain your positions for now, and warn me when the Chimera makes its move."

Instead of waiting for the response, I immediately began jogging towards my destination. As expected, it only took about two minutes to get back to the spot where I Phased from, and the moment I arrived, I immediately took a seat on the same root and wiped the sweat from my forehead.

Catching my breath might've been important, but there was something more urgent going on at the moment, so I quickly closed my eyes and picked one of our guys before projecting my point of view over with Far Sight. What welcomed me was utter, unabashed chaos, to the point I couldn't even decide where I should look first.

Okay, let's start with a general overview of the situation. First off, it was hard to see because there was a lot of dust in the air. That should already tell you that there was a lot of collateral damage involved, such as the broken windows on the buildings or the way the utility poles around the intersection were knocked over, but hey, it's the Purple Zone. It conveniently existed so that we wouldn't have to care about wantonly destroying everything at times like this. That said though, the odd mannequins, representing the locations of people on the outside at the moment the zone was opened, getting flattened left and right did feel a little icky, but again, no one got hurt, so it wasn't that big of a deal either.

One correction though: at the moment, the area could be better described as 'Red Zone', with the usual violet hues being replaced by a tense crimson ambiance, with most surfaces also getting vein-like black cracks on them. It was all pretty eerie, even more so than usual, but if I had to guess, I would say it was the result of the class rep working her literal magic on the anchor points to lock down the place. That was reassuring, though I was a little worried as well, since I couldn't see Ammy or Angie anywhere.

But then again, that wasn't something I couldn't fix in a split-second, so I immediately Far Glanced over to their side and sighed in relief when I found the class rep tinkering with a glowing spot on the ground while Angie had her bow on the ready while sitting on the shoulders of Petra the golem and watching the perimeter. Once I confirmed that they were fine, I quickly shifted my attention back to the battleground.

So, back to the overview: in front and center, a transformed Josh and Armband Guy were currently fighting the mad scientist, who was putting up a decent fight, if I do say myself. He was throwing around all kinds of gadgets, and the silly-looking pauldrons he was wearing were, for the lack of better words, 'unfolded' so that they formed what looked like the torso-part of a power armor that also covered his arms with metal plates. This, incidentally, made his legs appear hilariously small in comparison.

That side of the battlefield looked pretty intense, but not nearly as noisy as the others. The parking lot on my left was now in even worse shape than the intersection, with a lot of the cars flattened or lying on their sides as if someone kicked them over.

"AAAAAARYAAA!!"

Correction: they didn't just look like that, they were kicked over, as demonstrated by my lovely, if at the moment absolutely terrifying, girlfriend sending a small green sedan tumbling across the lot with a single, draconic-physique enhanced kick. The poor vehicle didn't get much airtime, but on its last roll it still managed to land squarely on the heads of three of Labcoat Guy's foot soldiers. It resulted in a metallic yet still painful crunching sound.

*GHRAAAAAAA!!!*

It was at this moment that, with the sound of a roaring furnace in an echo-chamber, a pair of three-fingered arms reached down and grabbed hold of the already totaled car before sending it careening back towards the princess. Thankfully the Gigant had terrible aim, but she dived to the side anyway. Elly rolled on the asphalt before she quickly leaped to her feet while delivering an uppercut to the face of one of the nearby Sprockets surrounding her. She had so much momentum that it actually carried her into the air, and then she did a three-point-landing and dashed forward to dodge the Gigant's follow up attacks.

If it wasn't completely obvious by the description, my girlfriend was soloing both the mooks and the oversized miniboss, and considering that half of the robots were already in pieces, she was doing really well for herself. Still, I would've preferred if Josh or Snowy was there to back her up, but in the case of my friend, I could at least understand why he was busy, considering he had to keep an eye on and 'encourage' Armband Guy to fight properly.

But speaking of which, where's my sister? I looked for her dot, and to my sincerest surprise, it was pointing upwards. I Far Glanced there, and found her flying through the air somewhere halfway between the intersection and where Ammy and Angie were staying. Then, just as my vision cleared up, I almost let out a scream as I found an ice spear flying right at me.

Of course, it passed right through the spot from where I was looking, but damn, it almost gave me a heart attack! I mean, I wasn't easy to rattle, but I have bad memories of those. I let out a small gasp, and once I gathered my wits, I turned around to see where she was aiming, and I found the funky android there. She dodged the incoming projectile with a pirouette and seemed to maneuver through the air using a series of glowing spots on her shoulders, back, soles, and butt. I couldn't tell if they were technological, magical, or both, but she managed to use them to fly with surprising grace all the same. Well, at least until Snowy used what looked like a blast of snowflakes to stall her, and then deliver a literal flying kick to her back.

In other words, she was also doing well. I had a hard time deciding who should I watch, but I settled on getting another good look at Josh first, if only so that I could take a better look at Armbad Guy's fighting style.

When I returned to them, Josh was in the process of scaling the side of the office building by the intersection; using the super-human strength given to him by his Abyssal transformation to grab onto ledges and use them to fling himself from one balcony to the next. The way he was doing it struck me as really dangerous, since one wrong move could send him falling tens of meters, but based on his expression, he might've been enjoying this.

"Parkoooour!"

… No, scratch that. He was definitely enjoying it. With one last heave, he landed on the rooftop of the building with a heavy thud that made me wince and he quickly glanced around to find the other two engaged in trading blows smack dab in the middle of the roof. The whole place was flat, save for a few large air conditioners and satellite dishes, so it was a perfect place for a showdown.

Without further ado, Josh rushed towards them in the cover of one of the air conditioners, popping out into the open just as Labcoat Guy's left shoulder plate opened up and launched a small, round object towards Pascal.

"Duck!" Josh shouted as his hands made a series of subtle motions. There was a flash of light in his palm, followed by a blast of wind aimed at the ball. He didn't manage to hit it head-on, but the wave of air still threw the projective off its track and it landed a couple of steps to the left of Armband Guy, where it exploded into a puddle of viscous yellow liquid.

I wondered if it was something like an acid grenade, or maybe some kind of superglue designed to hold someone in place, but my attention was quickly yanked back to the fight when Josh came to a halt beside the bespectacled disciplinary committee member and told him with a grin, "Sorry I'm late, I still have to work on my parkour tricks."

"Your assistance was wholly unnecessary," Armband Guy answered dourly, but then a moment later he added, "Thanks, nonetheless."

"You're welcome. Now, let's take this guy down!"

"Ki-hi-hi! Do you think you have what it takes t—!?"

Labcoat guy got exactly that far before the whole building shook so violently the three of them could barely keep their footing. I was also startled by the development, so I quickly Far Glanced around to find the cause of the disturbance, and I soon found the culprit on the ground.

Elly was standing on top of the wreckage of a different car, leaning forward and with a series of magical sparkles dancing around her face, her hair cascading behind her like she was in a wind tunnel. I'm not going to lie, she looked outright stunning, but I quickly shut down my lizard brain and its annoying signals, and instead I focused on the direction where she was looking.

Pivoting around, I found myself face to face with one of the severed arms of the Gigant, blown right into the middle of the intersection and leaving a nasty indent on the asphalt. More importantly though, I noticed how there was a huge gash in the side of the office building, almost as if a straight line was gauged out of it with the world's largest ice cream scoop.

Dammit, princess! I know I just mentioned that you don't need to mind the collateral damage in the Purple Zone, but at least pay attention to where you are firing your dragon flame! Friendly fire is still a thing! Also, I'm fairly sure that even if none of the buildings are strictly real, they would kill you if they fell on your head all the same. Be more careful, and… Wait. Could this be how Judy feels when I do something reckless?

Putting any eye-opening revelations aside, I quickly looked around to locate the owner of the large severed arm; not that it was hard to find it, considering it was a honking huge monster thing. The princess's attack only grazed it, as it still had three of its arms remaining. That said, I also noticed a dent on the metal plates centered around its chest region, one that wasn't there the last time I saw the creature, and its shape looked suspiciously like it was left behind by a comparatively tiny fist. Which meant…

Dammit, did I just miss the moment when my girlfriend decked the three stories tall monster? Why do I keep missing the best parts? Oh, speaking of which, I just realized that there was a series of bright flashes in the direction where I last saw Snowy. I had a feeling something was going on over there, so I moved my point of view, just in time to catch a chase between the android, my sister, and Angie, who must have joined the fray while I was paying attention elsewhere.

The three of them were weaving between buildings and under street lamps, and while I wouldn't have called it a high-speed chase per see, they were still moving fast (and frantically) enough to give me motion sickness, so I switched over to Ammy, who was watching the spectacle from the shoulders of her golem. From this vantage point, I could finally see that the flashes of light I was seeing were from Angie firing her bow while flying and the arrows exploding mid-flight as they came into contact with some kind of transparent force field that surrounded the fembot's body.

I kept watching them for a while and cheered on them, though I couldn't see much. I figured I might as well try to follow one of them again once I braced myself for the motion sickness, but before I could get to it, there was an unexpected development in the form of the sound of thunder followed by the office building in the distance beginning to tilt. The moment I realized what was going on, I immediately moved my vision over to Josh, ready to do another Phase and grab operation at a moment's notice.

Thankfully my worries were unfounded, as once I arrived, I found them already standing in the middle of the crossroad, right next to an enormous, severed black arm. Before I knew it, Elly also joined the fray, while the Gigant and the remaining silly robots surrounded Labcoat guy. Once they squared off, the oversized biomechanical monster thingie casually reached down, picked up the limb that the princess blasted off with her breath attack, and simply reattached it to the stump on its shoulder.

Wow, that's a handy ability.

…

I apologize for my terrible pun. I reflected on my actions, and it won't happen again.

Anyhow, for the moment neither side was willing to make the first move, and I was afraid it would devolve into a stalemate until the Purple Zone got unlocked and allowed the baddies to scurry away, but my reservations were once again overstated, as Labcoat Guy immediately let out another one of his grating chuckles.

"Ki-hi-hi-hi-hi! So this is what it came to! This is how it feels to be betrayed!"

"Give up, Robatto! We have you cornered! Surrender now, and I promise we won't hurt you!" Josh exclaimed, his words so protagonist-y it wasn't even funny. But then again, this whole excursion was about forcing him to take up the mantle, partially for my own benefit, so I wasn't exactly in a position to call him out on that.

"You think you've cornered me?! Ki-hi-hi! How naïve!" All of a sudden, a couple of bright spots, the same kind that I had seen on the android, lit up on the guy's half-power-armor, and he gradually rose into the air. "No, Joshua Bernstein! The real battle has just begun!"

Ooooh, that was pretty ominous. Also, just a tiny bit cool. Or at least it would've been, if not for the multi-colored pauldrons and the silly welder's mask, but hey, he was still getting better at looking like an actual threat. It was a good start. If he kept it up, at this rate I might even start taking him seriously in a year or two.

More importantly, he was obviously getting ready for some kind of climactic last stand. Or at least I hoped he was, and that this wasn't one of those bad jokes when the villain makes a big show and then turns tail for comedic effect. I mean, not all tropes are bad, but some are, and we certainly didn't need that one in our lives.

I was also itching to finally see a proper battle, so I swore not to get tempted by anything and Far Glance away from the action. So, I watched, very closely, as Labcoat Guy slowly rose into the air, hovered just in front of the chest of the Gigant, and then…!

Someone poked me in the cheek. … Wait, what?

I hastily opened my eyes, just in time to get poked again. I followed the long, purple object touching the left side of my face, and found it being held by a certain annoying huntress. She was crouching about two steps away from me, and she was using her wrapped-up sword to prod me.

"Oh, come on! I was just getting to the good part!" I grumbled as I swatted the annoying sword away with my hand. Rinne blinked at me in surprise and turned her head to the side like a doggie.

"You're alive. Good," she stated emphatically before proceeding to turn her head in the other direction. "What were you doing?"

"I was…" I spoke up reflexively, only to catch myself before I would accidentally reveal something to her. After a moment of thinking, I decided to answer with, "I was listening to any signs of the Chimera."

She blinked again, following which her thin brows scrunched up in a frown.

"Onikiri wonders that if you were truly listening, then how come you didn't notice when we sneaked upon your position on our way to the slaughtering grounds?"

I rewarded her oddly sharp question with a critical glance, and then replied with, "You're not a Chimera, are you?"

"No, Rinne is not a vile creature of the despicable underworld," she responded with a huff. "How could you ever mistake Rinne like that?"

"I didn't. That's the point." My level voice even surprised me, as I think no one would fault me for blowing her off. I took a deep breath and carefully stood up while minding my numb legs. Crouching in one place for so long certainly wasn't good for them. "Speaking of which, since you're here, I suppose you're ready for the ambush?"

"The hunt for blood and viscera," she corrected me as if I said something silly just now. "Yes, Rinne is ready to slash, maim, mince, and tear apart the abominable creature of darkness tainting the nights of this city."

"Good to hear that," I answered on autopilot as I glanced around to see if any of the Faun were giving me signals, but as far as I could see, none of them were in the vicinity. That meant that they were probably still on lookout duty. "In that case, let's find a good spot where we can hide."

Mountain Girl nodded, and we began to search for a nice little hidey-hole. At the end of the day we decided on a pair of lush coniferous shrubs that were just thick enough to serve as cover, but we could still see through them enough so that we had a nice view of the nearby footpath.

I took my spot behind the leftmost shrub and Rinne… also did the same. I wanted to tell her that she could hide behind the other one, but before I could do so, she suddenly asked, "Are you certain our prey will cross paths with us on its own?"

"Yes, it should. Also, you could—"

"Onikiri wonders how you could possibly know that," she casually cut me off and glanced up at me with questioning eyes. "She says you must be a traitorous te… tegriv… ter-giver-sa-tor? Yes, it's tergiversator!" She let out a proud little grunt, but then her eyes clouded over and she followed it up with the question, "What does that mean?"

"… Why do you ask me? You said it."

"No, Onikiri said it, and we don't know what it means." She paused for a long time here, right until her eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh. Onikiri says it means a person who turns coats. … But you don't have any coats, so Rinne still doesn't understand."

"I think it's better that way. Your sword is a bad influence on you."

"Leonard-san can tell?"

The high-pitched surprise in her words made me raise a brow in turn, but before I could get into what she meant by that, as I was pretty sure we weren't talking about the same thing, I noticed a small, yellowish glow in the distance. I focused my attention over there instead, and I quickly realized that it was a waving Faun. It was either Hrul or Gram. It was hard to tell those two apart even under the best of circumstances, let alone at this distance.

More importantly, the fact that they were giving me a signal meant that the Chimera started to move. I quickly put a finger on Rinne's mouth to stop her from any further babbling and pointed towards the path where we were expecting the target with my free hand.

"Psst. The Chimera is coming," I spoke in a low voice, and then I slowly removed my finger from her lips.

Mountain Girl gave me a confused look, which then turned into a skeptical one as she whispered back, "How do you know?"

I thought for a moment, and then decided to double down on my previous stray comment and told her, "I can hear it coming."

"Is it how Rinne can smell the vile stench of the underworld?" She suddenly sounded really excited for some reason. "Rinne and Leonard-san may really be compatible after all…"

"No, we're not," I denied her bluntly before I flicked her forehead. Now granted, doing that to an armed person in a decidedly dark park might've been considered a bad idea under any other circumstances, but this time I felt entirely justified in doing so. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Y-Yes! Rinne-must-first-spill-the-dark-red-lifeblood-of-the-vile-and-abominable-and-really-really-bad-thing-that-is-coming-our-way-under-the-guise-of-the-night-most-dark-as-if-it-was-made-for-the-sake-of-th-eultimate-hunt-between-the-two-of-us-and-to-paint-the…."

Okay, I'm not going to lie, her motor-mouth mumbling was once again creeping me out a little, but I decided to ignore her and instead I focused my attention ahead. I really hoped we could get this over with quickly, and then maybe I could catch the tail end of the battle between the others.

Unfortunately, it took nearly five minutes for the first sign of the creature, five minutes which Mountain Girl spent quietly babbling by my side. At last, I could see a large body moving in the dark, so I tapped her on the shoulder and whispered, "It's here."

Rinne immediately fell silent as her body relaxed and her face was slowly twisted into an impossibly wide slasher grin. Weird as it might sound, I was almost relieved to see that, as it meant she was finally serious. Probably. Hopefully.

Anyhow, it was my turn to get serious as well, so I clenched my hands around my spear and…

...

Um… Where's my spear? Where the hell is my bloody spear?!

I remember taking it from Brang, and I still had it when I sat down on the roots. Did I leave it there, or… Oh, damn it. I had it in my hands when I Phased over, didn't I?

My eyes opened wider and wider as I rewound my recent memories, aaaand yup. I had the spear with me, and then dropped it in the Purple Zone when I grabbed Vurrok. My feelings at this moment were quite complicated, but I think I managed to sum things up very succinctly as I whispered:

"Fuck my life."

For some moments in life, you need a poet to describe them. This one? Yeah, those three words were more than enough, I'd say.