“Go with the other players and get them to safety!” Hazel told her mom.

  “I should help you!” Evelyn stated with a concerned tone.

  “I don’t doubt you can, but right now, these people need you more than I do, okay? Now go!”

  Listening to her daughter, Evelyn escaped with the rest of the players, leaving the so-called invaders to Hazel and Astrid. With her mom out of harm's way, she and her partner charged over to the monsters attacking the residents of the Jetport base.

  They were easy to find since they were near one of the terminals the pair were close to. Getting ready for battle, Hazel prepared to cast a spell while Astrid pulled out her bow. The duo soon stumbled across some of the monsters invading the base.

  They were bulky humanoid creatures with green skin and tusks protruding from their mouth. They were Orcs, a warrior tribe of monsters.

  One of the Orcs raised their weapon and attempted to cut down a human cowering before it. Just before it could, Hazel restrained its body with telekinesis, keeping its weapon from moving any further down on its victim. The Orc looked surprised as its eyes widened by its restricted movements.

  With it restrained, Astrid stepped in and loosed a couple of arrows into its body, piercing its skull and chest. The Orc collapsed on the spot, surprising the human who witnessed it suddenly died before it killed him.

  Hazel and Astrid rushed toward the human they saved, who still couldn’t process what was happening.

  “Get to safety or join in the fight,” Hazel told him in a stern tone. “Either way, stop standing around before you get yourself killed!”

  “O-okay...!” Taking Hazel’s word, the guy scrambled to his feet and ran away while he could.

  Hazel and Astrid didn’t even watch him escape with their attention currently focused on the other Orcs charging toward them like wild animals. Astrid stood in front of Hazel while shooting several arrows at the hulking, green-skinned monsters barreling toward them.

  None of her projectiles hit a vital area and mostly struck an arm, leg, or shoulder. Astrid clicked her tongue in annoyance before pulling out more arrows to fire. Meanwhile, Hazel summoned a couple of Cursed spears and hurled them with the help of Telekinesis, accelerating them to where their speed was enough to easily pierce their bodies.

  She managed to take down a couple of the Orcs while the rest shifted to the side in an attempt to avoid getting killed. Even though they evaded Hazel’s cursed spear, they still had Astrid to deal with who fired a few more arrows. This time, her projectiles packed a bit more punch.

  The arrows resonated with a powerful energy as they zipped through the air toward their targets. One of them struck an Orc’s arm, leaving a massive hole in its wake. The cavity was large enough to where the rest of its arm was only hanging on by a few strands of meat if not less than that.

  Another arrow struck an Orc’s neck, completely severing its skull from the rest of its body. The remaining green-skinned warriors glanced down at their fallen brethren’s head rolling along the floor in front of them. The monsters were then enraged by one of the deaths of their own and glared at Astrid who killed them.

  Just before they could move forward to attack, their bodies were instantly suspended as they froze in place, unable to move an inch now.

  “Sorry, but that’s not going to happen, you see,” Hazel declared with a wicked smile on her face. Her hands were raised as her telekinesis spell was currently affecting the Orcs before them. “Astrid, if you would.”

  “Gladly,” Astrid said coldly, notching several arrows in preparation to fire them.

  In the blink of an eye, with the aid of [Quick Shot] and [Snipe], the dark elf fired a flurry of arrows, all of them aimed at the Orcs' heads. Her projectiles aimed true and pierced all of their skulls without missing a beat, leaving rather large holes in their head.

  Upon their deaths, the Orcs slumped to the ground as soon as Hazel released them from her telekinetic hold. Once they were dead, the pair took a moment to catch their breaths, knowing that they didn't have long before they had to fight for their lives again.

  “I can’t believe our first quest involves stopping a damn invasion,” Hazel grumbled, brushing some strands of hair that were in her face to the side. “And it’s from the players that just returned from their Dungeon Tutorials, no less.”

  While Hazel expected there to be a bit of turmoil and chaos, she didn’t expect it to happen like this. Especially with Orcs no less. And something told her that it wasn’t just Orcs currently within the territory of the Jetport.

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  “Dammit, I wish Nycteris was here. He’d be able to help us a little bit if not a lot, considering his current power.”

  Other than the fact that Hazel didn’t want to reveal her familiar to Zoe and the rest of the group because she couldn’t trust them, there was also the issue with her Nightwing being unable to do anything while the sun was out. And considering that it was currently the morning, she couldn’t expect her familiar to come and save her any time soon. And that only irked her more since she felt that she wasn’t using everything in her arsenal against these invaders.

  In the distance, the pair could hear more roaring and screaming. From where the sound was coming from, the commotion was happening downstairs on the first floor of the Jetport building. Hazel and Astrid looked at one another before sighing in unison, knowing what they needed to do next.

  “Let’s get moving,” Astrid suggested while rushing toward the commotion.

  Hazel followed behind her while sending one of her Astral Eyes down to the first floor to investigate what was going on. The floating eye phased through the floor, instantly making it to the first floor.

  When Hazel switched her vision for a brief moment to see what was happening, her face turned pale when she spotted a familiar face.

  “Crap, invaders are attacking my mom and the other players!”

  From what she could see, there were several monsters of different species. Some were Orcs, others were goblins, and there were even some gnolls mixed in as well. Thankfully, after appraising them, none of the monsters attacking them were high-level. Most of the invaders were barely above level ten.

  And there was something else interesting happening. The invaders were fighting amongst themselves. Hazel witnessed a few Orcs and Gnolls fighting one another like a bunch of wild animals fighting over scraps of food. As for the goblins, they were attacking the weak players while the big invaders were attacking one another.

  In a panic, she switched her vision back to the Astral Eye she used to see where she was going and continued following behind Astrid.

  “We need to hurry!” Hazel urged, picking up the pace.

  “Alright, then hold on!” Astrid stated while slowly down to stand near Hazel.

  She then abruptly picked the witch out, prompting her to let out a yelp of surprise. Without giving Hazel a moment to prepare herself, the dark elf sped down the hall, making it over to the stairs before jumping down them in a single bound.

  Landing on the first floor with a heavy thud, her feet kicked off the tiled floor and rushed toward the sound of battle ahead of them. Meanwhile, Hazel switched back to her other Astral Eye to see the progress of the battle, praying that her mom was safe.

  However, when she switched her point of view, she saw something rather interesting.

  “There’s...someone taking down the invaders...”

  “I’m assuming it's Zoe or one of the other players?” Astrid surmised.

  “Not unless Zoe or the others were secretly a humanoid lizardman in disguise?”

  “Wait, what?”

  Hazel’s eyes were not deceiving her. Current taking down the invaders was some kind of humanoid lizardman. It stood well over six feet tall with dark green scales and wore metal-plated armor around its chest, shoulders, arms, and legs. In its hand was a long spear that it used to pierce and strike its enemies, in this case, the Orcs, Gnolls, and goblins attacking it.

  She witnessed the Lizardman elegantly twirl its spear around before thrusting it into one of the goblins, impaling them with ease. The tip of the weapon poked out from the back of the monster with blood dripping from the wound. The lizardman warrior then raised the goblin in the air before swinging its spear to the side, tossing the goblin away in the process.

  Its body slumped to the ground lifelessly as the lizardman warrior proceeded to cut down the other invaders that got in its way. Even the Orcs stood no chance against the warrior. One of them charged at it and swung its battle axe down on its head, only for the lizardman to effortlessly shift to the side, easily avoiding the strike before it blurred its spear forward, plunging its blade into the Orc’s neck.

  The hulking monster grasped at the handle of the spear, trying to pull the weapon out, but the lizardman only thrust in deeper, instantly killing the invader.

  The other Orcs and gnolls saw this, and instantly shifted objectives from fighting amongst themselves to targeting the Lizardman together, to take down their mutual opponent. The remaining invaders charged at the warrior, using their numbers to their advantage to overwhelm their opponent.

  Sadly, that didn’t work as the lizardman warrior slaughtered every invader with ease. It maneuvered its way around the invaders as if it was dancing, twirling and swinging its spear around like a dance baton.

  Hazel and Astrid soon made it to the area where the fight was going down and witnessed the last minutes of the fight in person. All of the invaders were soon killed except for a single Orc, who stood a bit of distance away from the lizardman warrior.

  Then, in a fit of rage, it barreled toward its enemy with its broadsword in hand. With a mighty swing, it brought its weapon down to cut through the lizardman. However, the warrior simply used its spear and deflected the attack. It barely moved its body when doing this and stood in place like a status.

  Meanwhile, the Orc was thrown back its deflection and attempted a second attack. Sadly, the invader didn’t stand the chance and was immediately killed with the lizardman warrior charged its spear with red lightning that coursed along the weapon. And with a single thrust, it pierced through the Orc’s chest, creating a large cavity that obliterated its ribs and sternum, reducing them to dust if not less than that.

  The Orc collapsed on the spot, dropping its weapon as it scattered along the floor. Upon its death, the lizardman stood there for a moment before turning its gaze toward Hazel and Astrid along with the rest of the players.

  Hazel and her partner prepared themselves for a fight but didn’t expect what the lizardman warrior would do next upon defeating the invaders.

  “Apologies for the late introduction,” The warrior said with a feminine voice. “My name is Chegyaeyi.” She bowed at them. “I hope I wasn’t intruding my aiding you from these invaders.”

  Hazel and the others remained silent upon the lizardman warrior’s polite demeanor, unsure of how to respond. It was clear that not only was she not an enemy, but also someone with good manners.