That would be Burk, Piper, Pablo, and Evyle?

Almost hard to guess who the one who's got to be kept alive. Pablo's the obvious choice, and I'm almost sure it's him, but does Dolk really have that little fear of killing the CEO's daughter or the client state's ruler's cousin? It's already been suggested that "the top" will bend rules to protect Evyle in spite of her contempt for her father, and in the latter case, even if Heroland needn't fear the Mage Kingdom, they do want its cooperation.

Still, it's absolutely Pablo.

How nice! Now burk won't have to run around and hunt for fun, the fun will come to him.
Wish all MY enemies were this accommodating.

Let me guess, the rest of the heroes gonna wear picklehauble helmet too and their food ration would be sausage.

man, thats the heroland equivalent of smile guy

Okay, surely one of these badass heroes will give Burk a run for his money, right?

Right?

@Cellphone

It's hard to say. Dolk already tried to kill off Pablo, so he might have decided to toss the "don't kill diplomats" rule into the bin. Evyle meanwhile has quite openly turned against Heroland by now - even she herself doesn't think she's getting out of this unscathed either way.

I'd still personally bet my money on Evyle being the one needed to be kept alive, but it's a pretty close bet.

@Tom
Since there are no white stars in this drop, it's unlikely any single hero can match Burk unless their powers just happen to be a hard counter to his abilities. Still, Burk IS injuried, and they might just be able to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Then again, heroes are not exactly known for their teamwork skills...

Finally caught up! I had taken a break from the comic a while back, thinking I'd let the archive build up a bit before I binged it, only to forget about it for a couple years. I don't remember exactly where I had left off back then (I think it was a bit before the Chernyl Nightmare chapters started), but when I came back I was surprised to see there were at least 1000+ new pages.

Since I didn't remember where exactly I had left off, I decided to just read everything from the start, so I've been binging the comic over the past few months. I have to say, I'm extremely impressed by how much the artstyle has evolved throughout the comic - while the early pages still look nice, newer pages looks fantastic. Especially stuff like the giant tree-like structure in Chernyl's nightmare. It's also really cool to see how much the stories have progressed, and how elements from each story are combining to build up the overall narrative.

Apologies for the wall of text, but I felt the need to gush about the comic after my binge. This is easily one of my favorite comics, and I can't wait to see what's in store for the future!

Also one thing I noticed while going through the comic is that sometimes people were complaining about certain arcs taking too long or are moving too slowly. And while it is valid criticism to an extent, I feel that it's primarily a result of having to wait and read each page individually when the comic updates. However, when I was reading entire chapters in one sitting, most of those arcs felt quite well-paced.

@Cellphone : they wish to keep alive Evyle, because they need her for the contracts (Morty can later them, but not create them).

The other three are witness of their illegal deeds and need to be shut up for good.

After beating up the half the hero drop, Burk faces off against Kaizer 12.

Kaizer 12: You may have beaten all the low level heroes, but I am Kaizer 12, #1 follower of the White Star Grey Death... are you prepared to face my... DOOM BLAST!

Burk: Yes?

one doom blast later

Kaizer 12: Curse it, what is your secret?

Burk: I am Burk!

Kaizer 12: Nice try. I know of Burk. Grey Death punched Burk off an air ship to fall to certain death earlier this year. EAT LASER BARRAGE!

Burk: Nope. I *AM* BURK!

Kaizer 12: Admittedly, you sound like him, but you don't even wear a cape!

Burk: It was a casualty of war in the quest for the toilet.

Kaizer 12: My head hurts. If you are Burk, what are you doing in Eddstadt and how did you piss off the executives?

Burk: I was interrogating a cat!

Kaizer 12: Please stop...

@Tom
"By run for his money" you mean muscles to admire, right?

Can't wait to see Burk get punchy again.

Man, a Kaiser helmet, you know, i always say something about that kinda uniform code, and that is "If spikes are on the helmet the expect skulls and full black next"

I doubt the other executives actually intend to return. Even in the unlikely case that Burk's group is defeated, too much has gone wrong for them to escape responsibility.

I think they still don't know that Sabrina is actually Piper, they mentioned "Sabrina" went missing early on; so they may be putting her in the "may be eliminated" pile just because they have no idea about the diplomatic ramifications

For some reason I thought that the one to be kept alive is Burk. I forgot that they do not want to hurt Pablo. Or don't they? I he died accidentally, they wouldn't weep after him.

I think they do know that Sabrina is Piper, but they will use the excuse that they thought that she was Sabrina.
I think they don't care that much with Pablo, since they already tried to make him disappear.
And although they may be curious about Burk, I think that it would be good to them if he simply vanished.

So my bet is that the one they want to catch alive is Evyle.

Btw, @Matthew I also read the comic from the start till Held's arc and I completely agree with you about the good rythm of the arcs.