As Jason launched himself back into the fight, he glanced to the side and happened to catch a glimpse of Suto and Kimi’s ... predicament. He grinned and let out a deep belly laugh. Damn if he couldn’t see those two becoming a couple. Then again, Kimi always got strangely flustered whenever dealing with Nero. Ah well, he was probably looking too deep into it. He let out another deep laugh at his own stupidity and at the pure joy of combat. Charging the worm’s flank, next to Alphard, Jason lowered his shoulder and activated the Art <Bull Rush>. Impacting heavily, he actually managed to flinch the beast before flipping head over heels over it. Landing on its other side, Jason drove his feet into the worm and rocketed away. 

He hit the ground running and, while passing hooked his fingers in Kimi’s armor, yanking her to her feet and skidding to a stop with her in his arms. “You alright, Kimi? Looks like you and Suto landed pretty hard there.” 

At her nod, Jason smiled wolfishly and handed her a heath potion. “Here, take this, you might need it after what I’m planning is done. Think of this as a preliminary test to get onto Alphard’s team.” He winked slyly, “Have you ever heard of the Fastball Special?”

Alphard was standing directly in front of the worm, hacking away at its face and dragging its aggro back to her. As she landed the final hit of her Art, she had the satisfaction of seeing the Boss’ health finally drop into the red. Suddenly, it lunged forward and clamped its gaping maw down around her midsection. “Oh we’ll have none of that now, you slimy bastard!” she yelled, and brought her scythe down hard into its left eye. The beast screeched in pain and Alphard managed to wriggle free. Just as she regained her feet, Alphard saw a brilliant golden comet streak past her and imbed into the worm’s head. The comet resolved itself to be none other than an extremely shaken Kimi, coming off the cooldown from her Sword Art <Flashing Penetrator>. Kimi retreated back to Alphard and took a health potion, muttering under her breath the whole while. It seemed to Alphard that she was repeating the same sentence over and over again, “Never again, Jason, never again.” Alphard grinned, sure that Jason had just launched her off the head of his hammer with a devastating Sword Art. Possibly even <Gravity Crush>. She turned back to the Boss just in time to see Nero run in and cleanly bisect the worm with his crimson glowing blade. Finally, the fight was over, time to reap the rewards. Alphard waited for the victory screen and checked her loot to find a strange black gem labelled <Shadow Crystal>.