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Unfortunately, Raul had never had the honor of meeting him personally, but the tales of the man were legendary. During the Jungle Wars, Grandpa Dino had single-handedly liberated the city of Maridol in Melmoore from an infamous sect of Abolish. Not unlike what the Rainlords had recently done for Miro.

So this mysterious stranger claiming to be an old friend... could translate into any number of things. Obviously, with Grandpa Dino having lived such a long and crazy life, he would've made plenty of friends outside of the Vanguard, too. But the fact that this stranger was also working against Abolish made for some compelling evidence that whoever this was belonged to the Vanguard.

Plus, there was the nature of the plan to consider. Ambitious was one word for it. Insane, another. Because in the end, it boiled down to single combat with one of Abolish's most powerful warriors.

Who would this stranger have to be in order for such confidence to be justified?

A few famous names came to mind, certainly, but one in particular made more sense to him than the others. If he'd been able to, Raul would've guessed it in order to gauge the imposter's reaction.

Here and now, though, in the middle of all this otherworldly mayhem, the identity of the stranger was the furthest thing from Raul's mind. He was only concerned about trying to survive a bit longer.

These weird demons or whatever they were--they thankfully didn't seem too interested in him, but they weren't completely leaving him alone, either.

He'd seen some of them spewing fire, smoke, and acid in his direction. Back when he couldn't move, he would've definitely been smothered and killed, if not for an invisible barrier that made their attacks splash off harmlessly around him.

Raul could only guess that it was the stranger's doing. Why the man was bothering to protect him--a servant whose death here wouldn't even matter much--Raul couldn't rightly say, but he did appreciate it. Being boiled alive by acid would definitely not have been fun.

He wanted to contribute to the fight in some way, but his instinct was telling him that the more helpful thing to do would actually be to just get away. Making it so the stranger didn't have to worry about him anymore would probably be better than any ineffectual attack he might've been able to launch against Vanderberk.

So that's what he was trying to do now. Create distance.