"It's your fault, why did you sabotage my technique?"
Daisy shouted at Alaric who continued fighting as if nothing happened. Ken kept slashing the boss as he shouted the next commands.
"The monster is on the verge of collapsing, it's not the time to fight among ourselves. The monster is targeting me, so I will mainly dodge. You guys take it down, treat Bryce later!"
Ken switched from using offensive techniques to Cloud Running. His body turned as light as a feather, and every dangerous punch missed him by a hair width. Despite using a light weapon like the flexible sword, his hits carried a heavier impact than Bryce's, not to mention his speed was far superior.
The rest were focused on assaulting the regenerating monster, offering less support to Ken than they offered to Bryce, simply because he didn't need it.
A minute later, the boss stopped regenerating and soon melted into a puddle of blood that got sucked into the cracks in the stone floor and disappeared.
"Bryce! Bryce! Take this pill!"
Daisy ran to the fallen man and shoved a fifth-grade healing down his throat. However, nothing happened.
"It's too late, Daisy, I'm sorry."
Ken said and placed a hand on her shoulder. However, she didn't accept his condolences. Instead, she slapped his hand off her shoulder.
"Don't pretend to be sorry! If we gave him a pill right after he was injured, we could have saved him, but you ordered us not to spare even a single second to save our comrade! It's all your fault, ever since you joined the group everyone died!"
She screamed at him as tears flooded her pretty face. She sobbed as her eyes turn red in her grief and she looked at Ken with clear anger.
"I didn't want him to die, but sometimes things like that happen during battles. There are casualties in battles, and we can't blame ourselves for the death of our friends. They'd want us to move on."
Ken said with sadness as he crouched next to the crying woman that was still kneeling her deceased friend.
"Don't lie to me, you wanted him dead! And Alaric, you are a traitor! We saved you but you got him killed on purpose. Fuck off and leave us alone, we were fine before you came!"
Ken never heard the normally cheerful girl use profanities before, but he understood how she felt. She entered the place along with 3 friends and Tiara. Tiara was only there because the former leader, Tobias, wooed her and was willing to bring her inside the portal.
Daisy was the only one left alive out of the original four-people team, and it was true that they all started dying soon after Ken joined the group.
"I made a mistake. It's the first time we fight together, and there's nothing we can do if we were out of sync once. It happens."
Daisy ignored Alaric and turned her head to Ken with determination in her eyes.
"He must leave the group. He joined only lately, and I'm confident that he interfered with my technique on purpose. I saw his eyes when it happened, and they expressed success, not the regret of a mistake."
Ken looked at her with a contemplative look. He knew where this was going; if he was going to refuse, she would give him an ultimatum of choosing between the two of them. He really didn't want her to leave since she'd get killed outside without a team.
"I'm sorry, but he won't leave. You're upset, and it's natural that you will see things that weren't there, but I will not send a good man to his death because of that. Bryce's death is a tragedy to all of us. Our power as a group decreased, and we all lost a friend today."
Just like Ken thought, his inspiring words didn't work, and his statement that she sees things only worked to upset her even more.
"Really? Because it feels like I'm the only one who lost a friend. No, I know he did it on purpose, and I did not see things. It was intentional, and if we leave him in our group, we can't know when he will get someone else killed."
She insisted on her argument, and Alaric didn't speak anymore. He simply trusted Ken and let him deal with the situation.
"I'm telling you-"
"No, if you don't kick him out of the group, I will leave. I can't be in a group with someone that's trying to kill me."
She stopped Ken before he could refuse and placed her ultimatum just like he guessed. Although he was great at reading others, he wasn't always good at communicating in a way that reflected his understanding.
"You will have to leave then. Alaric is staying."
·?θm He said with a cold voice as he looked straight into Daisy's eyes. A tear came out of her eye corner, and her face distorted in pain and a sense of betrayal.
"I knew it, you two have agreed on it before. You wanted him to die. Since that's the case, I will leave the group and search for a new one."
Ken felt a tinge of sadness in his heart. He knew that once she left the group, her chances at survival weren't that great unless she found someone else to join soon.
"I didn't lose only one friend today."
She said with a muffled voice, and Ken saw Jane and Diana's images overlapping with hers as he looked at Daisy looking at him in disappointment.
'No, I've just been projecting my feelings toward Diana and Jane to Daisy all this time. I barely know her, and I shouldn't even care about her.'
The moment he understood his inner conflict in sending Daisy to almost certain death, he felt relieved. He hardened his heart and conquered his feelings once he saw the truth – he didn't care if she dies. She isn't Diana, and she isn't Jane. She was just another stranger he accidentally met on his journey, and her existence carried no meaning for him.
he didn't regret any of his actions or decisions anymore. He didn't know her that well, and he didn't want to; he simply felt uncomfortable because of his guilt for his friends' death, but Daisy wasn't part of his goals and future.
He preferred to find a team for her in the labyrinth before they split up, but since it wasn't an option, he was fine with them separating now even if it led to the woman's death.
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