"We're about to get caught!" Brody shouted from the back of the truck. "Drive faster!"

  Maeve was hauling ass, being chased by 11 other delivery trucks. One of the delivery trucks had a mounted gun on the top, which was firing at them.

  "Can you virgins do anything about that gun?" Maeve said as she frantically did her best Tokyo Drift impression into a valley, ignoring roads altogether. The terrain grew increasingly hilly and denser forest as they attempted to lose their pursuers. Dusky disappeared into a shadow. Paige was in the front seat, unable to properly use her mist magic. Anytime she tried to use it on their pursuers, they drove through it before anything could happen. Adrian was waiting for his moment, but this mission was about surviving more than anything else.

  Their car started to sputter, "No! No! No!" Maeve was slapping the steering wheel and the front console in frustration.

  "Yes, slapping it will make the engine work again", Brody said before being hit with an item thrown by Maeve.

  "Eat a dick, soyboi! Useless until the end." Maeve looked in the rearview, noticing their pursuers gaining ground. "Get ready to fight. Remember to use party chat and to rendezvous at the Dragonspit if we get split up."

  As the trucks neared, the one with the turret started to swerve. Shadows could be seen in the driver's seat, appearing and disappearing before blood splattered across the windshield. The car was going off track before it turned sharply, going on two wheels.

  Dusky: Truck commandeered.

  Dusky was now trying to impede the other trucks, using the turret's full power. Adrian looked on, confused, as the truck maneuvered around the other trucks while Dusky sat in the gunner seat.

  "We really need to get a better understanding of each other's powers," Adrian muttered.

  Paige smiled at Adrian while she put in some earbuds, and mist started to form around her.

  "Time to hunt some monsters."

  Ear Buds of a Misunderstood Teenager

  Description: Escape the help your parents try to provide. The item completely silences your skills and the noise they generate.

  The item would mean that anything that happens inside the mist would be silenced entirely, allowing Dusky and Adrian more freedom to work. This item screwed over Brody's powers, but it added depth to their teamwork. The item paired with Paige's mist was an overpowered combo that completely silenced a 500-meter radius. There was a small clearing, but it was in a wooded area so that the trucks would have a tricky time maneuvering in the mist. A perfect location for the tactic.

  Maeve summoned a fire totem in the mist before her tattoo turned into a wisp, and she took to the sky. Adrian's nunchucks were out, and he found a tall tree to climb next to the fire totem, ready to strike anyone distracted by the totem. It was an eerie feeling for Adrian. With the mist enhanced, he couldn't hear or see anything outside the mist as much as they couldn't hear or see inside the mist.

  Maeve: Dusky and his pursuers are incoming. Ten seconds.

  Adrian saw Dusky enter the mist as Maeve said, turret blazing a bright light in an otherwise muted environment by Paige's magical item. Trucks came speeding through the mist, one of them crashing directly into a tree. As the Unwoke entered the mist, the trucks began to stop, and people exited and fanned out, taking cover from the turret fire. The Unwoke were trying to talk to each other, but stopped when it was utterly silent. Adrian assumed they'd utilize the party chat, so he remained cautious.

  He counted about 10 people around his area, with around 100 Unwoke pursuing their group total. Fireballs from Maeve's totems started to fire as the enemy approached, seeing the bright lights of the totem. Ranged attackers began to fire back, some with guns and others with magic, while melee fighters charged the totem. Adrian waited for the melee fighters to cover more ground before he made his move. He jumped from his post in the tree and landed an explosive swing on the head of someone with an assault rifle. The gunman died on the spot, showing his low level. Adrian continued to pick off the ranged attackers as they were unaware their teammate had been killed feet away from them.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Adrian saw Duskies at the fire totem, then another Dusky, and another. 5 Duskys were now zooming in the mist, confusing the Unwoke while the turret was still firing, pinning a large gathering of Unwoke behind thick trees.

  On the other side of the mist, a pokeball was released, causing the Unwoke to take cover. A weird blob came out of the pokeball before it turned into one of the Unwoke and started to attack another Unwoke. Adrian knew the pokemon was Ditto, a perfect pokemon for Paige and the illusions of her mist. They were fighting on the Cucks and Cunts terms, guerrilla warfare in the most chaotic and confusing of battlefields. Despite the Unwoke thinking they were the predators, they were, in fact, the prey. With the battle environment completely under the Cucks and Cunts control, the Unwoke were in disarray and couldn't create an organized assault in the mist.

  Paige moved through the mist, shimmering and barely visible to even Adrian. She pulled out an item that Todd made for her and moved to the Unwoke, who were pinned down by the turret fire. Paige dropped the grenade in the group, who didn't hear the grenade land.

  Todd's Boom-ball - Is that a bomb in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

  This mini-bomb packs a punch, causing a controlled blast with a 5-meter radius.

  An explosion went off, and body parts flew. Due to the controlled explosion, it didn't harm all the Unwoke. The Unwoke who noticed the blast panicked and ran out of the mist, while others didn't even notice it at all. The Unwoke were fleeing the mist in droves, seeing that their efforts were thwarted. Adrian and Dusky cleaned up the Unwoke remaining in the mist before seeing what was going on outside the mist.

  Paige: Enemies in the mist cleared. Maeve, are we good to drop the mist?

  Maeve: Drop the mist. We have new developments.

  The mist started to dissipate, taking a few minutes to be entirely gone.

  "Thank God the mist is gone!" Brody spoke loudly, "I can finally hear myself speak again. Could you imagine?"

  He stopped in his tracks as he witnessed the scene. There were dead bodies everywhere, both in the mist area and outside. Maeve clearly wasn't sitting idle while the rest of the group was fighting in the mist. But more transpired outside the mist than any of them thought, seeing as newcomers surrounded them. Adrian and Dusky readied themselves for battle when Maeve landed next to them and put an arm in front of them,

  "They're on our side."

  "Then why are they aiming guns at us?" Brody commented. Adrian had to agree with Brody on this one. It didn't seem like they were on their side. They were well camouflaged in the trees, blending seamlessly with their surroundings. Most of them had face paint and hardened expressions, their steely eyes fixed on Adrian. Maeve walked towards a more open part of the forest while a man from the other group did the same. Paige gawked at the man walking towards them, with a bit of hunger in her eyes. She walked up next to Dusky and put his arm around him, then pointed at the man walking in their direction.

  "Now that's a real man." Paige smiled, eye-fucking the large man. He walked with purpose, like he owned the entire forest. At 6'6", he stood above everyone else, with a full beard perfectly maintained but wild in all the right places. The biceps veins bulged, and had a jawline that could cut diamonds. Objectively speaking, he was an exceptionally handsome man. A man who belonged in a Romantasy, not a LitRPG. He smiled as he got close to the group.

  "It's good to see newcomers who aren't trying to enslave us and take our land. I'm Brock." He put out his hand, and Maeve shook it, introducing herself and the team.

  "Yeah, you look like a Brock all right." Paige's eyes were still aggressively assessing Brock, drinking him up in a way that bothered Brody. Dusky didn't seem phased in the slightest, comfortable in his own skin.

  "Those bastards have been launching assault after assault on us. They've taken our children and continue to try to push us off these lands." Brock's comrades lowered their weapons and began walking towards him, realizing Adrian and company weren't threats. They all looked like hardened soldiers, yet Adrian didn't get any bad vibes from them. Some of them looked like lumberjacks, while all of them looked like they could live in a cabin without electricity without issue.

  "Most of us worked for the national park when the AI came, or at least lived in the area. Our numbers aren't great, but we've managed to hold our own so far. We go by the Rangers." Brock sighed, looking at the mess of their battlefield, "We try not to kill them because we have a way to remove the mark on them, but I understand your situation."

  Maeve visibly flinched, "We're better at taking lives and saving them, unfortunately." Maeve wanted to know more, "How can you remove the mark? How many have you saved?" Brock smiled, turning around and nodding at a young woman with a flower growing in her hair. The woman stepped forward and smiled at the group. Adrian inspected the woman.

  Nova: Level 26

  Race: Human

  AI: ?

  Class: Druid

  Attunement: ?

  Stats: ?

  "Hi, I'm Nova. I have a spell that can remove the mark. We've saved hundreds of children from those monsters."