"Helyna?! NOOO!"

  Mateo can only scream as the sudden rush of Helyna caught him off-guard.

  Helyna screams a guttural howl as she plunge her sword towards Dereia, aiming to skewer her head. But Dereia just casually tilted her head, dodging the attack.

  Helyna's perception slow down as she find herself just hanging in the air after her attack miss, closing the distance between the two. Then Dereia's hand forms a pistol gesture and aims under her jaw.

  One of the hand gestures shown by Mateo before they to go to their farm in order to warn them about Dereia's abilities. With no way to halt her motion, she can only observe the consequences of her mistake.

  Suddenly, Helyna feels something grabs her ankle.

  BANG!

  Dereia shots her invisible pistol but it only hit the roof. Helyna is not there anymore. She's got thrown away by Beltrand but it's not a careful save as Beltrand thrown her in the wall with force as Beltrand don't have time for any consederation and just want to save Helyna.

  Helyna crash to her home's wall, destroying it.

  "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?!" Beltrand screams with anger.

  The crash seems doesn't bother Helyna at all. Instead, she stand up and still wearing her wrathful expression.

  "SHE KILLED MY FATHER!" Helyna screams, her voice full of spite and murderous intent.

  "AND YOU WANT TO FOLLOW HIM?! FOR FUCK SAKE CALM DOWN!"

  "Beltrand! That's enough." Mateo reprimands Beltrand.

  "Sorry brother."

  Mateo walk towards Helyna and place his hands on her shoulder.

  "We understand what you feeling right now Helyna. But acting recklessly would only bring danger not only for you but for us."

  Helyna looks at Mateo. Still fueled with fury.

  "B-but... D-Dad..."

  "Helyna. Take a deep breath and calm down. Let's avenge your father together ok? Let's bring her into justice." Mateo gives a genuine sincere smile.

  Helyna gritted her teeth and clench her fist for a while but after realizing her mistake. She calm herself down, tears flow through her cheeks. Helyna stands up, wipe her tears and grab her sword.

  "Sorry." Helyna apologize, she's more determined now.

  "Understandable."

  "Wow... Such heart touching moment you have there. But can we return to the fight now?" Dereia asked.

  "Then why not attack us first?" Fleur asked. Dereia chuckle.

  "Well, you guys is still wary at me while all those drama happened. But if you insist."

  Dereai suddenly aims her SMG and spray bullets to Fleur. Fleur run away on the line of fire.

  "Oho? It seems you also teached these randoms on how my guns work huh?"

  Mateo swings her sword downwards. Dereia leaps out of her chair which is now destroyed by Mateo.

  "Only stupid people would not use any advantages available."

  Mateo signals Sophia to place her totems which she did. 3 totems that boosts stamina, strenght and speed are now in place.

  Before Dereia even react on the totems, she feels the ground rumbling and she looks outside. The windows is now being blocked by something and Dereia realizes that tall walls are now surrounding the home, turning it into an arena or a cage depending on the two opposing force inside.

  "Motherfucker. You guys really don't want to let me escape this time. Ok bring it on then."

  Dereia observes her opponents. Three sword users, one support, one tank with a shield, an elf and she assume the two mages is outside maitaining the walls.

  The home is large with two floors. But it doesn't mean there's huge moving space as walls are created multiple rooms for both floors. The stand-off is in the larger room where the kitchen and living room is and the two sides are waiting on who's going to make the first move.

  And Dereia breaks the tension by spraying the group with her dual SMG. The swords users and Shirna dodges while Sophia and Beltrand blocks the bullets with their shields.

  The swords fights back by closing the distance between them and Dereia. Fleur reach first and gives consecutive slashes.

  Dereia dodges and blocks them with her SMG's then she switch into shotgun.

  Understanding what's going to happen. Fleur kicks Dereia's arm upwards, making her fire her shotgun to the roof but before even Fleur use the opportunity. Dereia switches into dual pistols and aims them point blank into Fleur's head.

  But Dereia fails fo eliminate Fleur as Mateo gets her attention. Dereia have no choice but to deflect his sword strikes using her pistols.

  Fleur joins the fight and the two nows sending stabs and slashes into Derei. But Dereia is confidently dodging all of them for seconds before she sees that Shirna and Beltrand are now going to join and also attack her that she creates distance by spraying them with Assult Rifle.

  Dereia walks backwards and upstairs as she continues to empty her guns to them. Mateo and others have no choice but to take cover.

  "Isn't just me or she's a lot stronger than before?" Beltrand asked.

  "Yeah. She's a lot faster and can match our already buffed movements." Mateo answers.

  Dereia also feel that she's a lot powerful but she knows that there's no way she can win on close quarter combat against seasoned warriors. So she devise a plan.

  The hail of bullet stops. The house becomes earrily quiet.

  "She's now want us to play hide-and-seek." Shirna asked.

  "Can you detect her scent more precisely?" Mateo asked, Shirna shakes his head slowly.

  "Sorry but that might be difficult. It seems she just taken a bath and used clothes owned by Helyna's family so that smell is in the whole house. And relying on gunpowder would also be unreliable as the smell is also all over the place."

  "Because of her previous fight with Helyna's father." Mateo said with sincerity.

  Helyna frowns then smiles painfully. Feeling proud for her father who die with triumph.

  The earth wall that blocks the entrance opens and Norm enters.

  "Did you got her?" Norm asked.

  "Not yet. But she's cornered now. Where's Claustrine?"

  "She's still outside. She's reinforcing the walls." Norm answers.

  "I see. Dereia might blast throught the walls." Mateo understands.

  "Should who seperate ways on finding her?" Beltrand asked.

  "No. That's the very thing she want us to do. Sticking together is a more safe options for us." Mateo answer Beltrand's question as she scan the insides of the large sized house which is now turned a battlefield.

  Mateo then signals the group to move to the second floor. After climbing the stairs, they greeted by four closed rooms.

  "Now that we're inside. Your home is a lot spacious than what I imagined." Beltrand commented.

  "You surely have a beutiful large house here." Fleur's compliment.

  "This is our ancestral house and fruit of our's family's generational work." Helyna's explanation.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Helyna."

  "Yes sir?"

  "I'm sorry but your home would get damaged even further." Mateo apologize.

  "That's not my concern right now. What's on my mind is killing that bastard." Helyna's cold and anger filled words as she remembers that his father is still sitting lifeless on the chair below them.

  Mateo nods and commands everyone to stay extremely quiet then he looks at Shirna who understands what Mateo is implying.

  Shirna close his eyes and focus to decrease her senses except his ears. Being a Moon Elf, Shirna have a more sharper hearing which is further enhanced by his experience as an adventurer.

  Shirna hears the breathing of his friends around him so he focus even further. Giving his attention not to the sounds around him but any possible noise from all the rooms.

  .

  .

  .

  *Squeek*

  A sound of a wooden plank who getting a pushing force

  Shirna points on the door on their left. Comfirming the location of their target.

  "Sophia, cancel the light orb." Mateo orders which Sophia follows.

  The party walks towards the door quietly in Mateo's instruction in order to not alert Dereia. Mateo then gives specific order for Beltrand and Norm. The two nods and walks to their position: Beltrand on the front, Norm behind them and the rest on on the back.

  "Sophia, cast a barrier when I say it." Mateo whispers to Sophia who nods.

  Beltrand walks in front of the door. He put aside his sword raise his hand to give signal to the people behind him.

  And raise a finger.

  And another..

  And another for the third time.

  Beltrand kicks the door with absurd force that it breaks in two and completely snaps on its hinges.

  Beltrand ducks quickly and behind him is Norm already pointed his staff and casted barrage of wind cutters. Blasting the room with his mastered magic that it create a mess and clouds of dust.

  But before the entire room got engulfed by dust, Beltrand sees a glimpse of Dereia hiding behind the bed, pointing an invisble gun at them which make Beltrand quickly stand up and hold on his shield to cast his Knight's Vow - A barrier magic exclusive to knights.

  "Sophia!"

  Sophia cast a barrier to add additional layer of defense.

  RATATATTATAATA!

  Sophia's barrier breaks after catching a lot of bullets while Beltrand blocks the rest, protecting Claustrine and Shirna in the process.

  "Cast another barrier!"

  Sophia cast another.

  "Push foward!"

  To not got bottlenecked on the entrance, they proceed to march in order to give themselves a huge breathing room as Dereia emptied a gun on them. They see the muzzle flash of Dereia's invisible gun, giving them a pinpoint location despite the chaos and darkness of the room.

  "Scatter!"

  Everyone moves anywhere to catch Dereia off-guard as she will have difficulty on focusing her firepower to multiple seperated targets.

  Yet it's not what the combined force of Grand Ecstasy and other adventurers expected as the gunfires suddenly halts...

  And clanking sounds are heared. The sound is like a metallic object bouncing on the wooden floor and brick wall. Mateo realizes what might happened.

  "Grenades?! But where in a enclosed space." Mateo's thinking.

  But before Mateo even assess their situations, the invisible grenades explodes and it turns out to be bunch of stun grenades.

  BOOM!!!

  ssssssssssssssssssss

  The ringing sounds engulfed the ears of everyone. The sudden flash of multiple flights blind and stuns the group as their vision is still blurry and recovering.

  "Ughhh..." Helyna's confused grunting.

  "What the... fuck is that." -Fleur.

  Shirna continues to recover and go back to her senses and his efforts turn fruitful as he's the first one to escape the confusion.

  Shirna looks around and panics when he remembers that Dereia might ready to spray them another round of bullets. But he notices a unfamiliar silhoutte next to Mateo.

  The silhoutte point her hand on Mateo's head which makes Shirna move fast.

  Without questioning, he quickly pull something on her Bag-of-Storage and...

  BANG! BANG BANG!!

  "OH NO!" Sophia panics!

  "Sophia! Cast a light orb!" Mateo shouts.

  Sophia summons an lingering orb of light, a magic that brings them light on ther night travels. As the light illuminates the whole room. It reveals the situation.

  The room's mess is now in full glory.

  Dereia, looking at Shirna with genuine shock. She's holding her shoulder who now soaked with blood.

  The group's equally dumbfounded expression.

  And Shirna pointing a Revolver looling like gun to Dereia. The barrel is still smoking.

  Dereia comes back to her senses and using her right hand, she use an SMG to spray bullets to her enemies. The group caught off guard and have no choice but to dodge or block the sudden attack. Dereia then exits the room and run.

  "Are you guys ok?" Mateo calls.

  "I'm fine!" -Beltrand.

  "Me too!" -Sophia.

  "We're both fine here!" -Fleur and Norm.

  Mateo looks at Shirna and sees he's fine.

  "Ughh... I got hit."

  Everyone looks at Helyna and concerned fills the destroyed room as they see Helyna holding her abdomen. Her light armor stained with blood.

  "It... Hurts..."

  Helyna lost her balance but thankfully Beltrand catch her where he carefully lie her down on the floor.

  "Sophia!"

  "Got it!"

  As the rest stand guard, Sophia kneels in front of Helyna and assess her injury.

  "Two wounds but missed vital organs. I can heal her."

  "Good, stay here and heal Helyna. The rest follow Dereia!"

  Fleur, Norm and Beltrand exits the room quickly. Shirna follows and he looks at Mateo. What he see makes him scared.

  Mateo is clearly pissed. He looks at Shirna with anger. But her anger subdued and replaced with look of sad dissapointment. It only last for seconds before Mateo also leaves the room.

  Mateo knows they have no time for this and there's a murderer they need to deal with.

  Shirna is left behind.

  "Why Shirna?" Sophia asked with concern as she continues to heal Helyna.

  Shirna gives a sorrowful expression before leaving where she almost hit Claustrine who enters the room.

  "What happened? Why Shirna looks so doomed?"

  "He brought a gun." Sophia's sad answer to Claustrine's question.

  Claustrine is dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events. The gunfires and destruction can be heared from the background.

  "I'm s-sorry... I-m so... useless."

  Claustrine and Sophia sees Helyna who now crying.

  "Don't say that. You can still do something?" Claustrine's motivation.

  "But how? I'm injured."

  "Sophia. Heal her quickly, I have a plan."

  Back to the first floor. Dereia is now fighting the combined force of Mateo, Shirna, Fleur and Norm. To their surprise, despite Dereia being injured. She's still manages to give them a hard time.

  "Fuck! Why she's suddenly become stronger?!" Beltrand's anger-filled complaint.

  "She's truly a monster." Fleur spouted as she endure the bullet wound on her arm.

  Shirna got hit on her legs and now retreated to safety in Mateo's order. But he ensures to emptied his revolver first.

  Mateo rush forward and fight Dereia who only using dual wield handguns. The two blocks and dodges each others' attacks.

  "What's the matter? Already emptied out your arsenal and not even manage to defeat us?" Mateo's trashtalk then swings his sword targeting Dereia's side.

  Dereia deflect it using her invisible gun.

  "If we're not on an enclosed space, I already turned all of you into Jigsaw puzzle."

  Dereia fires two shots which Mateo barely dodged.

  Dereia notice someone flanking her left as she deals with Mateo. She jump backwards and fire bullets to prevent Mateo from following. Her jump also dodge the dozen of wind cutters casted by Norm.

  Dereia fires her pistol to Norm who run to dodge the bullets. The constant dodging and casting spells is clearly having a toll on Norm's body.

  "I think this is my limit Mateo." Norm's pained words, his breathing is heavy as both mana and stamina exhaustion slowly getting him.

  "You did a huge help Norm. Just go to Sophia and help her please!" Mateo screams as he still fending off Dereia.

  "H-how about you guys?"

  "We will do our best. Now go!"

  Norm muster more strenght to move his legs and climb up on the stairs. Dereia points his pistol to Norm but before she fires it, Beltrand appears and block the shot with his shield.

  "You scumbag! We are your enemy!"

  And then Beltrand rush forward with his shiled still facing Dereia. With no choice, Dereia can only move asides as she remembers how Beltrand's shield bash sents him meters away.

  But Beltrand is not only his problem as Mateo dashes beside her and stab her. Dereia barely even manage to dodge and in retiliation, she switch to his shotgun and shot him point blank.

  And Dereia also shot Fleur and Beltrand who attempted to flank her back and side.

  The three combatants got sent meters away and recovers. Mateo shakes his arms like nothing happened as he manages to transfer his dense mana to his upper body.

  Beltrand manages go block the shotgun with her shield.

  But Fleur, Fleur also manage to transfer her mana to block Dereia's point-blank attack. But compared to Mateo, her mana is not enough to fully nullify the shot...

  And her arms and some parts of her face recieve considerable damage. She's now looking at her arms, shaking as she see's the tiny craters caused by invisible pellets.

  "Fleur are you ok?!" Beltrand asked with concerns.

  "Y-yeah!" Fleur tries to act tough but she's flinching due to pain.

  Dereia seeing the injured state of Fleur dash to her. Aiming to reduce the number of her opponents to two. But Mateo manages to intercept her.

  "What's the matter? Can't fight us without reducing our count?!" Mateo's mocking question to Dereia.

  Mateo gives Dereia a barrage of slashes to push her away from Fleur.

  "What's wrong for lessening my burden?! One less enemy, less attacks to worry about!" Dereia shouts back as she blocks Mateo's attack with her pistols.

  "You don't need to worry about that if you just use that secret techniques of yours! Come on! Use it and stab us with your sword!" Mateo provokes Dereia as he amplifies the intensity of his slashes.

  Yet Dereia still manages to block all of them with struggle. But Dereia doesn't answer Mateo's provocation and instead stay silent.

  "I knew it! That transformation is not yours but a skill owned by the real Dereia!" Mateo swings his sword really hard that break Dereia's guard.

  Mateo sees an opportunity, hold his sword by two hand and make a strong upward swing. A crescent swing with all of his force.

  Dereia switch to his empty sniper rifle and block the sword swing. The attack is so powerful that Dereia's invisible Sniper Rifle shatters after absorbing the impact and she got sent to the air.

  At least she manage to block the sure-kill attack of Mateo. Once she lands, she might truly resort on using explosives despite how dangerous it is. It's do of die situation now.

  But did she really needs to land to her feet? Dereia thinks.

  Then Dereia summons her frag grenades and prepaee to send some gifts to the enemies waiting for her below.

  "Here's my sur-"

  Dereia eat her words as she recieves a punch to the face from Beltrand mid-air. Dereia is sent to the wooden wall that seperates the kitchen and living room, destroying it.

  "I wish Dereia didn't feel that." Beltrand says after landing.

  Mateo, Beltrand and Fleur are walking towards Dereia who now delirious as she tries to stand up. She sustained considerable injury after accepting Beltrand's fist.

  "It's over. Give up." Beltrand is not talking to Dereia but to the man that steals her body.

  Dereia is just looking at the three, wearing an uncanny smile on her face.

  "Hehe... I never felt this alive before. But I guess this is the end huh?" Dereia sigh.

  "Living your short life here must be a blast for you, but your reign of terror must now end." Mateo's words.

  "Is that so? Hehe... Well then. Remember our first meeting in Nattunia?"

  Seconds after Dereia says her riddle. Mateo's eyes widen.

  "Oh shit!" Mateo shouts, as he forgot the tragedy that cause so much unnecessary civilian deaths in heart of Nattunia.

  "Yes. Thank you for creating the tomb for all of us."

  Fleur and Beltrand manages to read the situation after watching Dereia's maniacal confidence. The three tries to dash towards Dereia who now manages to raise her hand and ready to push the trigger.

  .

  .

  .

  SLASH!

  Dereia watch her detonator arm fall to the floor, still making the hand gesture that make the c4 on her body to explode.

  Mateo, Beltrand and Fleur watch in shock as they see Dereia get stabbed on the back by some invisible force.