“If something happens to either of us, your little girlfriend is gonna go away for a long, long time!”

“Murdering a Sheriff and a Deputy is a minimum life sentence!”

The old man and young woman shouted at the same time, while Saul was busy pulling the knife out of his foot. Unlike the two of them, the sniper didn’t say anything. They just rushed over and kept trying to hit Oliver from behind with a ricochet. Aside from the rifle, they also conjured some stick grenades that they threw over the 2 meter high wall, but Oliver just swatted them away with plates of uranium he controlled telekinetically.

“Fine! As long as you kill that asshole, you can leave! Better hurry! You’re running outta time! Hahaha~!” Oliver also sank down through the stone floor like it was water, then those uranium plates vanished into thin air.

*Pa-pa-papapapa~!*

*Bang!*

*Boom!*

The three of them started shooting at the same time. The old man used his revolver, then conjured a second to keep firing faster, while taking cover behind a pillar that was getting shorter by the second. Yarkona also hid behind a pillar to shoot at the distant, shadowy figure that darted around rapidly.

“You are under arrest for attempted murder!” Deputy Yarkona shouted while firing her rifle without exposing her head or body.

“Yar, don’t waste yer breath!” Saul took a puff of his cigar and coughed a few times, before firing dozens of rounds in a row towards the grenades that were flying through the air. The revolver basically had endless ammunition as long as the Sheriff had enough energy and concentration to keep replacing the conjured rounds.

*Boom~! Boom-bang-bang-boom!* The gunshots and explosions rang out constantly as the ceiling shrunk down from 10 meters to less than 2! The shadowy figure who was trying to kill them eventually tripped up, literally. A sharp piece of uranium stuck up out of the ground and stabbed into their foot. As they fell and rolled across the ground, they were hit by a dozen bullets! Most of which were blocked by their body-armor, but one of them managed to pierce the left side of their neck and sent crimson blood spraying all over the concrete.

Yarkona had a big piece of shrapnel stuck in her left shoulder and her right hand was basically mangled beyond repair by a sniper bullet, but she just gritted her teeth and didn’t scream. On the other hand, Saul was basically unharmed except for his foot injury. So he conjured a second revolver and shot rapidly at the mysterious assassin on the ground, hitting them with dozens of rounds as the ceiling pressed down on his hat!

“How much deader you want ‘em, Kid?! Now let us go!”

“Fine.” Jade’s cold voice came from all around them, “Don’t threaten us again. Ever. Go!”

The ceiling stopped collapsing, but it didn’t get any higher. Fortunately, a small tunnel opened up that led straight upwards. There was even a nice little ladder to help them leave more easily. Saul had to basically carry his partner with one arm, but as a Rank 5, that little bit of weight was nothing.

Once the two of them were gone, the hole sealed shut again, then the ‘ceiling’ vanished. The whole time, it was actually just a thin slab of gray stone that Jade conjured up. Once it was removed, the base was basically back to the same size as before. The hole leading down into the mine also opened up again. There were still a lot of blast marks and potholes everywhere though.

“Ollie… Hold on! I’ll go get Klein!”

“No, Peri! Ugh… It’s too dangerous! You can’t leave!” Oliver coughed a few times and groaned in pain, he also vomited out some blood. His lungs were fine, so obviously he wouldn’t ‘cough up blood’, but with so much damage to his intestines, even his stomach was partially affected.

“Ollie, your guts are hanging out! You need a doctor, now!” Jade was crying glowing green liquid, while both her arms and legs were glowing bright orange from overusing her powers! Although there wasn’t that much pain, she was definitely not in a ‘safe’ situation either.

“How is Barry?” Oliver was still able to stand and walk around, even in such a horrible condition. Peridot was also battered and bruised, but not injured very severely. Barilo, on the other hand, was still unconscious after all this time. Laying on the ground motionless.

“Who cares about him?!”

“I care!” Jade retorted angrily, “Barry is our friend!”

“Is it really?! I think he’s a traitor!” Peridot picked up a heavy uranium spike off the ground and pressed the tip against the short man’s side, “Wake up, Bastard! You told them where our freakin base was, right?!”

“Mmmn…” The helmet and mask were already removed a long time ago, so Barilo’s confused bearded face was completely revealed. His hands were cuffed behind his back and hadn’t been released yet.

“What? What happened?!”

“Don’t play dumb, Barry.” Oliver frowned and looked down at his handcuffed friend, holding a dangerous gray pick in his right hand.

“Or should I call you… Uh… Bug-person?”

“Wait! Are you saying Barry is the Legendary Anthropologist?!” Jade shouted in shock, “No, was he always an Anthropologist?! Is that why he can’t conjure Miner stuff?!”

“There’s no way he’s the Anterpolygist. At least not the real him. This is probably just a disguise.” Oliver spoke seriously with blood leaking from many, many injuries all over his body.

“What’re you guys talking about?! I’m gonna be a Dwarf Miner, not some damn Ant Apologist!”

“What the hell’s an Ant Apologist?” Peridot asked, “Is it like a person that apologizes for ants?”

“I think it’s Anthropologist. Like somebody that studies ants specifically?” Jade tilted her head in confusion, touching her chin with her bright orange fingers, “Ow!”

“I’m an Entomologist! You absolute morons! An Anthropologist is someone that studies humans!” A shrill voice came from the mine shaft, “Shit! You tricked me!”

There was a short, muscular young man with a bald head, a long braided black beard and gray eyes glaring at them after he climbed up out of the hole. His mining gear was replaced by a black dress suit, with a white undershirt, a blue tie and some black shoes. After adjusting his tie a bit, his muscles wilted and he got a bit shorter. Then his face transformed and became more feminine, with his beard transforming into countless little bugs that crawled up onto his head. Within a few seconds his whole head was protected by a big ant-like biological helmet.

“We didn’t trick you!” Jade retorted, “Wait! Then earlier… Was that actually you and not Barry?!”

“I guess you’ll never know! Hehehe~! Maybe the ‘Barry’ you’ve always known has actually just been me all along?!”

“No. I’m pretty sure I ain’t an Anthropologist.” Barilo snickered as he stood up off the ground and rubbed his sore wrists after Peridot helped him remove the cuffs.

*Pop!*

“Now you ain’t shit!”