My eyes wander in the distance for a moment.

  What are they expecting me to do? Fight that thing and rescue Brinn? Just me? Why the strongest one, I’m barely capable of harming that thing, even if I use the Well of power 2nd upgrade–which still is a mystery to me. I think quickly.

  “Go!” The old teary woman yells once more.

  What nonsense! I think to myself, but the pressure is strong and the more I wait, the more I feel I’m wasting time and moving towards failure.

  Turning my head towards the trail of dust which leads far behind the notional borders of the town I decide to take the plunge the grandiose way.

  Mike would disappear with ease, like a bolt, but they called for me especially.

  “Focus!” I whisper in my head, my fists tightly closed.

  *Fwoosh* following a rumbling.

  Rocks and dirt are thrown out of the ground from beneath my heavy armored boots as I quickly channel Focus to my calves and basically spring myself forwards.

  People in the crowd cover their eyes as gravel raises in the air.

  *Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud…*

  “Left, right, left, right, left, right…” I focus on my steps gazing in the distance as my metal armor combined with a bulletproof vest increases my weight drastically. Every step is heavy and loud.

  I feel like a tank and that’s exactly what I want!

  But more concerning is what is awaiting me there. What if Brinn is already torn to pieces and Goro will squash me like a fruit.

  *Fwoosh!*

  A black tall figure passes me, readjusting the dust trail in front of me.

  “Mike?!” I groan.

  “Of course!” I shake my head.

  Houses–tall and short and the church in the middle.

  All passes by as I follow not the trail of smoke, but rather the trail of Mike. Bushes, rocks and gravel are what I see in the distance, all fading progressively in saturation–turning the area in the distance nothing but a gray.

  “Tssk!”

  My expression of determination disappears right away and turns to despair and fear.

  I stop at the moment, still pumped and all red gazing in front of me.

  A black figure lays on the ground, pinned struggling to raise an arm. My eyes are wide open. I stare at Mike and a shiny object even further–the pile of red stained scrap is a corpse of Brinn.

  “Miike!” I yell out loud.

  Looking back I see the village surrounded by dense forests which slowly diminish into bushes, then just the grass, rocks and fades into a grey moonlike surface.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “What the fuck killed Brinn?! And probably Mike too.” I blatantly assume Brinn is dead and Mike won’t survive either, but I’m not even that concerned of him, as he will indeed respawn.

  What concerns me now more is that, where the hell is this house sized gorilla and how it managed to kill Mike!

  “Tsk!” My teeth gritted as I’m turning around chaotically, combat dagger in my left.

  “Miike!” I yell again.

  He waves his arm with struggle.

  I grunt as I see no other option but to walk towards him while looking around, stressed and awaiting mysterious attack any second.

  “Ugh!”

  My head starts to hurt.

  One more step and the feeling I felt before suddenly awakens again–the pressure like this was applied to me in the beginning of my cursed journey. Old wizard capable of manipulating gravity - The Exiled One used his weightening spell on me.

  “So that's why they wanted to send the strongest one.”

  “Now, where is another wizard!” I look around, struggling to maintain balance, but with a smile on my face.

  As I know what to expect and with some new tricks in my sleeve. “Now the true power of enchantment!”

  *Fwoosh*

  The hammer materializes and as expected–it weighs the same!

  “You can’t cast it forever, show up bastard!” Screaming around I spin while walking towards Mike, absolutely sure this is the same case as before, ignoring all other possibilities.

  “It’s the area, dumbass...”

  “Oh..” My expression says it all. At least he is unable to see it as he lays there pinned down by the massive force.

  “Inventory.” I call for the floating window and decide to ease my burdens.

  First my hammer disappears. Quite tricky maneuver would be to take off my bulletproof vest, which feels like weighing a ton.

  Focus is on, but I feel that there is no body part from which to suck the power, as the gravity pulls me down.

  I struggle to back off a bit to ease it a little more, the farther from Brinn the less the pressure. Poor man, at a distance like that he must’ve suffocated already.

  *Thud*

  Fours steps back and my vest hits the rocky ground with a thud.

  I grunt as I squat and pick it up, hiding it in my inventory.

  No more time to waste–I start walking into the infinite gray landscape where the shiny knight lays in a peculiar position.

  “Mike! Can you hold it a bit?” I ask him, refusing to use all my tricks now, saving the last resource which is a Well of power boost for Brinn.

  “Grrrgh..”

  I step closer to him.

  “Nnn, not much..” He answers through his teeth. Not sure if it was due to pressure or anger because he did a stupid thing and now needed to ask for help–from me!

  “Hold on a bit. I need to check on the big guy.” I answer confidently.

  “Soo, how much does the boost last?” I ask myself, walking tediously towards my goal.

  Each step I take I can feel the pressure being more overwhelming.

  Grunting and walking, I drag my feet like heavy stones.

  My head hurts so badly, the pressure on my forehead, I’m being pushed more and more down.

  “Please, let my calculation work!” I grunt through my gritted teeth. Veins protrude all over my body; “Focus”, “Focus” – all I whisper, like it would somehow magically help.

  *Deep inhale*

  “The Well of Power!”

  “Manifest!”

  “Gaaagh!”

  I grasp for a breath while sudden energy like a molten lava emerges from my core.

  “Yes!” I say victoriously as the sudden burden disappears!

  “Stats!” While walking almost fine I scream out loud to double check. Three-hundred thirty three! As expected! My cooked brain from the pressure keeps thinking how many times I was at the place of power as I expected Devil’s numbers rather than 333.

  But it doesn’t matter now, I have a goal to fulfill.

  “Rargh!” Despite having unholy strength stats I barely reach Brinn.

  His body almost crumbled, I look at his chest–he is hyperventilating.

  Kneeling down in a rush I slide my metal gauntlets against the gravel and underneath the tall warrior.

  “Ugh!” And that’s when I notice bone fragments amongst the gravel. Skulls and bones, bashed to pieces scattered all around.

  No time to worry about this, I push myself up while holding him, chuckling as I think of making the deadliest deadlift of them all.

  Turning on my foot I start to sprint. Well, at least I think I’m sprinting, but instead I’m moving slow, yet my mind is sprinting. I am indeed sprinting against time here!

  I start to worry; The moment the Well of Power boost wears out, I’m gonna crumble on the ground. That's why I need to be as far as possible to minimize the exponential pressure of gravity.

  “Hang on!” I tell Mike while I walk past him.

  One more step and the moment I was afraid of the most is here.

  “No, no, no, no, no, no..” I repeat, while the knight slips from my arms. My biceps feel like they are being torn off.

  “Well of Power! Manifest!” In panic I scream.

  *Gagging sounds*

  I grasp for the breath again while my insides feel like I ate a few Carolina reapers. Golden light once again shines through my stomach.

  Suddenly the burst of energy hits from the inside and I stand up straight while Brinn lays in front of my legs. I can see right away his breathing is stabilizing.

  Looking straight I raise my arms up checking my bicep for damage. I see all the villagers standing there, Harald with Roland in front and Nathalie close by, looking at me.

  Harald stays strong a few steps inside the gravity barrier.

  I turn on the spot, back away, grab Mike by his belt like a handbag and put him on my shoulder.

  The same thing with Brinn the warrior.

  Closer to the villagers, the more powerful I feel as the burden eases, yet my power is still in boost.

  I can hear loud clapping.