As Rose was questioning Higby, in the distance, Lucid had keeled over after everyone had escaped her ability. Fortunately for Wayne and the others, everyone's back was turned to focus on Rose.
While Wayne's group was trying to get their bearings on what was happening, their eyes widened to see over twenty mercenaries not too far in front of them.
"Hey guys, I don't know if you know this, but I'm not really suitable for fights," Radio said in a hushed tone, fearful that today might be his last day.
No one paid him any attention as they kept their focus on the group in front of them.
"Alright, we have to do something quick, they obviously don't know we're awake," Wayne said, looking to cut them from the tree.
"I'm on it," Celeste said as she phased through the rope and turned semi-transparent, running toward the group, Wayne knew what she was going to do and thought she was acting too hasty.
At the same time, Artic breathed ice onto the rope solidifying it. Wayne then used his strength to break the ice, but as that happened, one of the men turned around to see that Lucid was on the floor. While everyone was getting up, and before he could say anything, Celeste jumped into his body and began controlling his actions.
Celeste's ability [Angel's Control] makes her able to phase into anyone's body, controlling it for a maximum of one hour, the time might even decrease depending on the person's willpower.
Rod was the unfortunate one that got caught up in Celeste's ability, and Celeste was trying to get acquainted with her new host. When she learned what this person could do, she grew confident she'd be able to take out a few of the thieves before this body died.
Meanwhile, Rose was thinking about how she could pressure Higby to talk, and she happened to glance in the direction of Wayne's group to see they were awake and free, and she even noticed Celeste was missing.
"GET THEM!" Rose said with wide eyes while pointing toward Wayne's group.
Grim was the first to act, having a horde of undead come out from underneath the ground, shocking some of the mercenaries, but they quickly regained their composure, seeing as there were over twenty of them and only three of the people in Wayne's group, so they felt free to act brazenly.
At that moment, Celeste acted as if they were running toward Wayne's group and punched the guy next to her, sending him flying into three other men in the distance.
The captain, who was still standing beside Rose, saw this and grew confused, but Rose quickly shined a light on the situation.
"It's the girl, she has control over him now, fuck!"
"Should I go ahead and join?" The captain asked as he anxiously wanted to go and fight.
"No! We're the last line of defense if too many of them die, we must act quickly."
Hearing her words, he just nodded and looked onto the battle, analyzing the enemy in the off chance they have to fight them.
Wayne ran forward, trying to reach Higby, but he was met by six of the mercenaries, all of them attacked at once towards Wayne.
Wayne used his new profound speed to run towards one of the men while dodging his attack, he grabbed his face and let Helgor do his thing while he looked onto the area to see if anyone of his comrades were nearby, once he saw it was clear, he activated another ability.
[Dark Flame]
Wayne let out the devastating black fire with a lot of intensity, Wayne tried to cover the whole area where the other five men were, making sure no one was alive.
When Wayne let out the attack, some of the mercenaries stopped moving and looked at the fire in fear as they'd never seen anything so menacing, and most of them were bottom tier Class B, with the highest being a high tier Class A.
Rose and the captain looked at the attack with sweat trickling down their foreheads, while Arctic and the others were wondering if he was really bottom-tier Class A.
After the attack was over, Wayne felt slightly tired, but he got his focus back on the captain and Rose in the distance. He took a look around to see if anybody needed help, but Wayne grew a wry smile as he remembered these guys were also professionals, seeing them sweep the floor with some of these guys. Even Celeste was on her third body fighting with no regard for protection.
[Dark Void]
Wayne used his ability to get in behind Rose and the captain. Meanwhile, Rose noticed Wayne's disappearance and was on full alert, but it was the captain that noticed Wayne behind them and used his ability of teleportation and was prepared to stab the neck of Wayne.
Wayne reacted quickly and moved out of the way with the knife grazing his neck. Wayne tried to counter, but the captain simply teleported again, trying his same tactic. Wayne didn't move but simply raised his hand in front of the knife, grabbing it, and using his strength, he pulled the captain towards him and grabbed his neck, having him hang in the air. Helgor made quick work of the captain, causing his body to go limp.
His dwindling thoughts as Helgor began feasting caused the captain to reflect how shocked he was when Wayne let the knife stab one of his hands, but he even grew more shocked at Wayne's strength when he got pulled in. He wanted to teleport away, but if he were in contact with anyone or vice-versa, they would just teleport with him, making teleportation useless in this situation.
Rose hastily grabbed Higby by the neck with her whip, especially when she saw how quickly Wayne had gotten rid of the captain and how swiftly the men were dwindling.
"Stay the fuck back, or he dies!" Rose had said as if she was desperate, she wanted to leave alive, even though she would be on the run and have to remain hidden, she knew it would be better than being dead.
Wayne grew a devilish smile looking at Rose's desperate attempt as fear, and for some reason, he loved it.
"Whoa, he doesn't have to be involved, just let him go, and we can talk things out," Wayne said in a cheeky tone.
"Talk things out? You must take me for a joke! He is my only ticket out of this alive, so why don't you turn around and leave us be."
"Rose, now you know I can't do that."
As Wayne said that, Rose pulled harder on the Vine, blood trickling down Higby's neck.
Wayne didn't do anything but have a somber expression on his face.
"I said LEAVE!" Rose said with gritted teeth.
"Why don't you turn around?" Wayne said, pointing.
Before she could turn around, Celeste hopped in her body, releasing Higby and surrendering.
Wayne wanted Helgor to eat her, but he figured it would be too weird for him to ask the group, so they just tied her and Lucid together and called in their location to get them transported to Rikers Reef.
After a day of recouping, Higby thanked everyone, and they continued to head towards New Dawn with no hiccups on the road.