Adrian and Dusky were holding their own and looting where they could. Just as Adrian was about to grab the pokeball, a mist covered the area. Adrian knew the mist wasn't his friend and decided to abandon the pokeball. However, he noticed in his escape that the number of active magical pokeballs increased to 10. Adrian stopped and cautiously returned to the fray. He wanted those pokeballs, but also wanted to avoid getting caught in this magic. When he reached for the pokeball, his hand went right through it.

  Illusion magic.

  Adrian used his stealth, hoping it would save him in this mist. As he was stalking through the mist, an explosion rocked the section of the convention center that the lightsaber team occupied. The blast sent Adrian and many others flying back and dispelled the mist. The explosion was powerful enough to blow a hole in the side of the building.

  "What have you done!" Cash, the lightsaber leader, cried out. He looked enraged as the entire south side of the convention center was up in flames. A man with thick glasses started to laugh from somewhere above them.

  The fight for loot continued with magic being thrown around like candy on Halloween.

  The mist reappeared farther away in the convention center, concentrated in an area that caught Adrian's attention. There was a fight between four women. It looked like a 2v2, but Adrian wanted a better vantage point and heard the actor as he got closer.

  "Go, my lovely female fans, kill them for the sake of peace!" Brody's voice shouted, the actor who tried to get everyone to calm down earlier. Two women did as he said and moved to intercept the other two. There weren't many women at the convention, so seeing four women in one place drew more attention than their actual skirmish.

  "Why are you listening to this blowhard? He uses the word female unironically, and his TV shows are shit!" the Nami from One Piece cosplayer said.

  "Don't you dare insult the Master of Hollywood!" The crazed woman said.

  "Master of what? Oh, I think I know what's happening. No one with a right mind would ever call that man talented." The woman in Nami cosplay yelled to her teammate, "Maeve! Do you have anything to cancel a spell? He's controlling them!" The redheaded woman said as she continued to dance through the mist. The way she moved made it obvious it was her magic.

  "Hang on, Paige! I need 30 seconds! Cover me!" Paige cast a spell, causing Maeve to duplicate into 5 identical images of her. This confirmed to Adrian that Paige is the mist user. Next, she threw a pokeball, and a Poliwag came out, a water-type Pokémon. "Use [Watergun] on the groupies in front!" Paige commanded the Pokémon. Poliwag did as commanded and attacked the woman closest to them.

  This is the first pokemon that Adrian saw attack a person. It filled him with mixed emotions, one for how much effort had been wasted in the attempts for powerful pokeballs, and two, for the sheer power of Pokémon. The [Watergun] attack blew the woman out of the fight and into a wall on the other side of the building. Brody spoke next,

  "A worthy opponent indeed! I underestimated you." Adrian felt something hearing Brody's words. "Join mewas a world-class actor with amazing hair after all. Who wouldn't want to die for his beauty? Suddenly, Adrian felt something in his mind awaken him.

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  Genjitsu Resilience activated. Your bitch ass is saved because mental attacks are cheap and lazy.

  Adrian's mind was clear again and no longer revered Brody. Adrian was thankful for his newly acquired skill. It was good to confirm Brody was using mind magic but he felt shivers at the idea of mind magic in the outer world. Paige, the mist user, slowly walked towards Brody, while his other mind-controlled woman was getting ready to defend him.

  "Almost there, Paige, hang on!" Maeve shouted. She was seeing the events unfold, but was somehow immune to the mental attack.

  Adrian decided to make another business decision. He pulled out his nunchucks. He jumped into the air towards Brody and landed a strike on his throat. Unfortunately, he couldn't activate [Explosive Swing] because he used all his mana in the last fight. Who knew using a bunch of spells simultaneously would drain your mana that quickly? It was a risk, attacking someone without mana, but he couldn't sit around doing nothing.

  Luckily, he didn't need to use [Explosive Swing]. The strike landed squarely on his throat, causing Brody to stumble back and gasp for breath. Adrian was happy to see how much health he absorbed from the hit. Brody tried to speak, but his throat was too damaged to say anything out loud, taking him out of the fight.

  The woman on Brody's side was still under his gaze, ruling out a channel spell, which shows a strong potency of the spell. She made a move on Adrian when a look of shock crossed her face. Her head fell to the ground a few seconds before the rest of her body dropped. A fat man with a katana struck a pose next to her in the process of sheathing his sword.

  "Shinobi brothers!" Duskwalker was pleased with the result. His shinobi skills allowed him to eliminate the threat and save his shinobi ally. Before he could take a deep breath, a fireball came at him.

  "Get out of my way!" Maeve shouted at the Duskwalker. She appeared to have totem magic as a totem was shooting fireballs. but that wasn't the end to her magical arsenal.

  Maeve had weird cosplay going on with some skimpy clothes from a Viking-like TV show, probably. Her tattoos glowed and began to move.

  She had a different personality from the people here, and Adrian thought that was a plus in this situation. He hoped his support would create more allies. Duskwalker is proving to be a terror in a fight, but was worried about his people skills. However, they remained at a disadvantage if more teams targeted the duo. Dusky came to Adrian's side as the women moved towards Brody.

  Adrian spoke,

  "I don't care what you do with him. However, we have more pressing concerns at the moment. We should team up until we can get out of here safely. More death on the horizon whether you like it or not."

  "Fuck off, nerd."

  Adrian waved Duskwalker away to farm more cutouts, telling him to talk to the intimidating women on his own. Once Duskwalker left, Adrian began talking to Maeve and Paige. "Sorry about my teammate. I never met him before the world turned to shit, and he's definitely odd, but he's been a great teammate. We could use more great teammates, and I think you two would be a great fit. Our chances of surviving will go up if we help each other out until we get out of here."

  Paige and Maeve turned to each other and burst out laughing. Paige almost fell over at the idea of working with Adrian and Duskwalker. Brody was still about to stand up when Adrian hit him again in the throat with his nunchucks. The girls were still laughing when they looked at Adrian.

  "Not interested. We'll find others to team up with once we leave this fucked up treasure trove."

  Rude.

  "The lightsaber guys don't look like good news. We work well together. We can survive by having each other's backs in case they turn on us."

  "We're not looking to team up with lightsaber-wielding anime lovers. Everyone here will lose those weapons within a day of leaving this place. Now to deal with the real problem." A tattoo on Maeve's shoulder started to glow and move. It crawled down her arm and began to materialize into her hand. It was an eerie yet beautiful display of magic that captivated Adrian. A spear was forming out of the tattoo and into her hand. The spear looked like a legitimate weapon, with no hint that it had been a tattoo. Maeve stood over Brody, spear in hand, staring down at him with contempt.

  "People like you don't belong in this new world," Maeve said coldly.

  Before Maeve could deal a finishing blow, the familiar sounds and lights of lightsabers lit up around the cloud of mist.