We loaded a cart with Marcy's explosives and wheeled it onto the undercity to lower city elevator. We covered the explosives with crates of tomatoes, so whenever someone asked to see what we were carrying, we'd flip up the cloth and all they'd see was tomatoes. We got to the main gate leading from the lower city to the upper city before we ran into any real snags.

  "Where's your work order?" One of the guards said.

  "Ah, shit. My dog ate it," I said.

  "Well then, I guess you can go right through," he said.

  "Thanks," I said pushing the cart across the checkpoint. The guard jumped in front of the cart.

  "Whoa!" He said. "I was being sarcastic. Can't you poors recognize sarcasm?"

  "I'll have you know, I am not poor, good sir. I have more than 2,000 gold," I said.

  "How'd you get that? You steal it?" He said.

  "Dungeon diving. It's called risk and reward. I risk my life, I get rewarded," I said.

  "Well. If you're willing to part with half of that, we'll let you through," he said, grinning.

  "Hold on there buddy. I risked my life dozens of times for that money. I'll give you 50 gold. That's over 10 times your daily pay. That should be more than good enough," I said.

  I didn't know his daily pay. I just guessed based on how much the mercenaries got paid before I took over.

  "Sure, that's good enough for me, but what about my partner?" He pointed at the other guard manning the gate.

  I must have guessed right. Otherwise, he would have disagreed with my assessment.

  "100 gold total. No more. Besides, that's all I have on me right now. You think I just walk around with thousands of gold?" I said.

  "Fine. Let's see the gold and I'll wave you through," he said.

  "Ok, let me get it." I walked around the cart to hide the fact that I had more than 100 gold on me and pulled it out. I walked back around and handed it to the guard.

  "Glad we could come to an agreeable arrangement," the guard said. He slapped the side of my cart and said, "They're good!"

  I pulled the cart up the hill. I was the only one pulling. Everyone else was either sitting on the cart or hiding under the tomatoes. It wasn't too difficult with my physical stats. We made it to the street where the noble branch building was. I turned into an alley before the building. I pulled a crate of tomatoes off the pile and Marcy jumped out of the hole, then Nico.

  Nico handed me my staff and Abigail her wand. "Ok, everyone remember the plan?" I said.

  "Yes," Nico said. "Tomatoes go boom, and we sneak in through the back."

  "Exactly," I said. "I'll take care of pushing the cart and then we can sneak around the back together. Marcy, would you light the bombs for me?"

  "I got you," she said. She didn't make any moves toward the cart.

  "What does that mean? You already lit them?" I said.

  "Yes," she said.

  "Oh shit!" I threw a cloak over myself and pushed the cart back onto the street. It started to smoke. I pushed the cart over to the noble branch building and pushed it hard at the building. As it careened toward the building, I yelled in my best old lady voice, "My tomatoes are on fire!"

  Then I ran back to the alley where everyone was waiting. I heard a huge explosion and screaming. That should keep the guards out of commission for a while. Marcy had created tons of strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence draining bombs and put them on the cart.

  Whoever got hit with the effects of the bombs would be completely out of commission for the duration of the effects. And the bombs' radiuses of effect were large. The entire street in front of the building would be full of floating powderized crystals.

  "Ok, let's get going!" I said. I lead the way through the alley to the other side. We walked between buildings until we were behind the noble branch building.

  "Stand close," I said. Everyone scooted in. I created a bone platform underneath us and raised it up to the third-story window. I checked for evil people in the room but found none. Using my staff, I smashed the window and climbed through the hole. The room was empty. Marcy, Nico, and Abigail climbed in after.

  "The plan is we gather everyone on this floor into one room and then I eliminate the evil ones. We'll leave the neutral ones tied up if there are any. Nico and Marcy, you pair up. Abigail you're on your own and so am I." I opened the door into the hallway and said, "I'm going left. You all go right. Go!"

  I jumped out into the hallway and turned left. I kicked open the first door on my left with three people talking in it. They all came up evil on my Evil Eye for good reasons, so I filled them full of bone spikes, exploded them into bone shards, and moved on to the next room. The next room was a man and a woman. They were having sex. The woman didn't come up as evil so I said, "Get out of here!"

  Startled, she looked at me, saw my bone staff, and realized I wasn't screwing around. She hurried out of the room and I filled the man with bone spikes that I then exploded and moved on.

  [You have defeated Moderate Evil (2) and Regular Evil (1). You have gained 5 justice points!]

  'Put it all into upgrading Evil Eye!'

  [You have upgraded Evil Eye 5 times! Evil Eye's range is now 2,000 feet]

  The third room had a large group of evil people in it with one non evil person. That person was wearing black armor with gold accents. They were large and imposing. They looked to be about 7 feet tall. I couldn't be sure, but I had a suspicion this was Haglor.

  "Damn!" I said. I covered myself in thick bone armor and turned my bone staff into a massive sword that I held in my right hand. In my left hand, I summoned a large shield. Haglor turned around. As soon as he saw me, he rushed at me with his sword held over his head. He struck down on me and I raised my shield to block. My shield exploded and the floor beneath me buckled. My arm broke under the force of the blow, but it healed almost instantly.

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  Haglor raised his sword again and struck down on me. I lifted my sword to block. Bone screeched against metal. I succeeded in blocking his sword, but the floor beneath me gave way and I plummeted down a hole to the floor below. I landed on my feet initially, but I fell backward onto my ass. Looking up through the hole, I saw Haglor jump down through it.

  Thinking quickly, I summoned a bone platform on the floor below the hole and raised it up, pushing Haglor back up through the hole. I kept raising it until I felt it hit the roof and blasted through it. I kept raising it after that until I couldn't raise it anymore. The bone platform was now sticking roughly 5o feet up out of the top of the building. This would be seen from far away and probably bring kingdom guards rushing here, but my goal was to stall Haglor as long as I could. And hopefully, Haglor was still on the platform, 50 feet in the air.

  I looked around the room and saw one person in the room who was marked as evil. I got up and walked over to him, grabbing him by the collar. "Tell me everything you know about the noble branch's upcoming plan!" I said.

  "I don't know anything! I'm just an accountant!" He said.

  "Oh, sorry," I said. I activated Soul Inquiry.

  'Tell me everything you know about the noble branch's upcoming plan!' I said to his soul.

  His soul replied, 'They're planning something at the upcoming gala at the castle. Something about demonstrating the power of legendary crystals on noble children, tricking the nobles into investing in and importing tons of crystals into the city.'

  "Thanks," I said.

  "I didn't say anything!" He said.

  "That's what you think," I said. I headbutted him into unconsciousness.

  I heard feet stomping down the hallway outside the room I was in. I ran to the door and locked it. Moments later the door rattled as someone tried to open it.

  "Templeton! Unlock the door! We're evacuating everyone from the building!" A voice said through the door.

  I had to get out of there quickly before they realized something was wrong and busted down the door. I summoned another bone platform and raised it up, busting through the ceiling, and creating a circular hole.

  The person on the other side of the door must have heard the crash, because he said, "Someone's in there! Bust down the door! We need to protect Mr. Templeton!"

  I lowered the platform, stepped onto it, and began raising myself up through the hole. The door to the room busted open and I heard the twang of a bow. An arrow plunged through the bone armor on my leg, through my lower leg, and out the other side. Now I had an arrow going all the way through my leg. Nice. And ow. I raised the rest of the way through the ceiling and stepped off the platform.

  There were still some evil people cowering in the corner of the room, but that wasn't my problem right now. I had to get back to my friends before any of the guards did. I heard someone screaming above me. "Ahhhhhh!!!" It continued, getting louder and louder until there was a crash on the roof and Haglor smashed through the ceiling and did one of the coolest superhero landings I'd ever seen. He kneeled as he landed and punched his fist into the floor to stop his momentum.

  I was distracted for a few moments longer than I should have been. Haglor pulled a dagger from his boot and threw it at me. I summoned a shield over my left arm and put it up to block. The dagger slammed into the shield and pierced through it and through my forearm. The dagger was long enough and Haglor had thrown it hard enough so that the dagger not only pierced my forearm but continued and pierced my ribs, pinning my arm against them.

  "Fuck! Why are you so strong!" I said trying to pull the dagger out.

  Haglor answered in an artificially lowered deep gravelly voice. It sounded like he was intentionally lowering it to sound more intimidating. "I work out a lot!" He said. Haglor rushed at me, slamming his body into mine. We crashed through the wall and fell onto a flight of stairs. We tumbled down the stairs. We landed at a turn in the stairs with a side railing. Haglor's head and helmet got stuck between two of the poles of the railing.

  He pulled his head out but the helmet was stuck between the railing. His helmet got pulled off when he sat up. I saw green skin, feminine features, tusks, and long black hair spill out as the helmet was removed. I didn't know what I was looking at. I mean, they were a person, but what kind of person eluded me. That is until someone yelled, "Orc!"

  Then, it all clicked in my head. Haglor was an orc. A female orc. That was why he, or she, never took off her helmet. She didn't want people to know what she was.

  "Get the orc!" The same voice said. I looked down the stairs and saw a group of guards at the bottom rushing up at us.

  "It's me, Haglor!" The female orc said. She pulled her stuck helmet out of the railing, and put it back on her head. "See! I'm wearing Haglor's helmet and armor!"

  "An orc is disguising itself as Haglor! Get it!" The lead guard said.

  Apparently, orcs were not liked by human society in this world. Just like goblins. Haglor's situation mirrored Marcy's too much for me to not feel a pang of sympathy for her new predicament, but I had my own problems to worry about. Her being one of them. If she asked for my help I'd have to help, but if she didn't, I could pretend she didn't want it.

  "Wow. Talk about being a racist moron," I said to no one in particular. I hated watching someone being treated badly through no fault of their own, but my friends were my top priority. Not someone I haven't even met yet. I got up off the ground and tried to walk back up the stairs, but Haglor grabbed my arm.

  "Where do you think you're going?" She said in her fake man voice.

  I looked at her with the deepest look of confusion and sympathy I could muster. A single tear ran down my cheek. Watching her not understand the danger she was in was painful. My bone helmet had been smashed and broke off my head when we went through the wall and tumbled down the stairs, so she could see my face. "I don't know what you think is happening, but apprehending me is no longer an option for you. You've lost their trust. You aren't Haglor to them anymore. You're just an orc they have to kill."

  "If I were you, I'd either throw me at them as a distraction and try to get out from the third floor, or I'd join forces and escape with me. Your better option is joining forces with me and my people because we know people and we know how to hide. On your own, you won't get far. At best, you'll get run out of the city. At worst, you'll be killed, thrown in a dungeon, or tortured."

  She paused for much longer than she should have with the guards rushing up the stairs. She was looking at me instead of them. The lead guard stabbed her through the knee. She palmed his face and pushed him down the stairs. He smashed into the people behind him and they all fell down the stairs together.

  She pulled the sword out of her leg and tried to put weight on it. It started to crumple beneath her until she caught herself on her other leg. She looked up at me again and released my arm. She looked down and sighed before looking back at me. "Lead the way," she said.

  "Good," I said. "I'm glad you chose survival."

  "Just get us out of here before I change my mind," she said.

  "Ok, pushy," I said. I put my hand on her shoulder.

  "What are you doing?" She said, grabbing my wrist hard.

  "Relax. I'm healing your knee," I said. I channeled my magic through her body and healed her knee in a matter of seconds.

  "Uh, thanks," she said.

  I turned around, ran up the stairs and turned right into the hallway. Then I walked left down the hallway and found Abigail, Marcy, and Nico tying up some fancy dressed people. "We don't have time to kill the evil people. We have to get out of here. Mission isn't a failure though. I got critical intel we will be following up on. Now let's go."

  "Ok!" Abigail said with a joyful smile.

  "Ok!" Marcy said with a confused smile.

  "Ok!" Nico said with a devious smile.

  "Ok!" Haglor said. I don't know what her face was doing.

  "Oh, right. This is Haglor. She's on our side now, because she's a fugitive orc."

  "Racism?" Marcy said. "I get it. We got you."

  "Uh, thanks, I guess," Haglor said.

  I blasted a hole in the roof with a bone platform, then lowered it and got on. "Everyone get on!" Marcy, Abigail, Nico, and finally Haglor got on after some hesitation.

  I raised us up through the hole and into the sun. A barrage of arrows blotted out the sun for a moment. Abigail made a large bubble form around us. The arrows got stuck in the bubble. We ran across the rooftop and came to the edge. I looked down and I looked forward.

  "Are we taking alleys?" Nico said.

  "No," I said. I summoned my bone powers to do something I had never done before. I hoped it would work.