The muscles in my arm burned and my wrist was tense, I strained. I can do this, I can win this stalemate. I thought as I furrowed my brows, Mateo sat across from me, an all too playful smile on his face showed that in fact there was no way we were in a stalemate despite what I tried to tell myself.

I didn’t give up though, and my opportunity finally presented itself when something on his system distracted him. His expression changed to confusion and I didn’t let that moment pass by. Mana surged under my skin, my creaking bones and muscles tingled with its presence as I forced his hand to the table. I shot out of my seat as the group cheered, throwing my arms in the air and hollering.

“Finally someone defeated him!” Ethan screamed. Various cheers erupted around us from the other men in his group.

The joy from my victory was short lived when I saw the reason he’d been distracted. We had just finished fighting half an hour ago and yet here was another message from Rosalynn saying something was happening… again. I looked up to him looking back at me somberly, we needed to go. I didn’t say anything and just took off towards the south side of the walls immediately. Mateo’s resounding shouts behind me told me he was getting those rowdy boys in line. As I neared the walls I caught sight of Rosalynn standing off to one side with Damien and Jeong.

“So what exactly is going on?” I asked breathily as I sidled up to their group.

“There’s a second wave happening now, but there wasn’t any notification about it…” Rosalynn muttered, she looked perturbed.

“It can’t be a wave, they would have notified us!” Damien protested.

“How many of them are there?” I asked, maybe it wasn’t a wave but just a collection of stragglers.

They didn’t respond and just frowned.

Aureus, you busy?

Nope. Do you need me Master?

Yeah, I need your help to survey the south side. Something’s going on here.

Okay, I’ll be there asap.

Thanks.

“Okay, well Aureus will be here soon so I’ll fly over and get an idea of what’s going on. Did y’all send Noel out for recon?” I asked.

“Yeah, he hasn’t said anything yet other than that there’s another wave.” Rosalynn replied as she stared up at the dim red sky.

We all sat around for a couple minutes in tense awkwardness waiting on Aureus and Noel, finally, “No matter how I look at it- oh, Boss! You’re here!” Noel brightened when he noticed my presence. I nodded and waited for him to continue, “Anyway, so like I was saying. This wave has to be bigger than the one that was here earlier, there are so many more of them. I don’t understand why we didn’t get a notification though.”

I frowned and glanced from my quest to the countdown to the repopulation, “maybe we did…” I muttered.

“What do you mean?” Damien asked.

“Uh… I’m not sure, there is a countdown to the next event, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we finished the first one. I mean maybe these rats were spawned with the first wave? Maybe they fought another group?” I hadn’t quite figured it out yet, but I could feel the complete picture forming hazily in my mind.

“... out of the exit…” Noel muttered.

“The distance!” Rosalynn exclaimed at the same time.

They glanced at each other, it looked like they had both figured something out that we hadn’t. “Well?” I probed.

“So, the wave,” she put air quotes around it, “that we’re seeing now is probably just rats that were spawned on the other side of the Underhollow and just now made their way to us.”

“Yeah, the ones that spawned near the exit just went out, so we should assume that they somewhat head towards the closest group of prey? It seemed like they were just focused on getting to the center of the camp so…” Noel added after her, he didn’t sound quite as confident as she did.

“Maybe… it does make sense,” I pondered aloud, “though that would mean that they’ve been running for a while and possibly got into a few fights already. But shouldn’t it be a similar size to the ones that appeared on the north side? Unless more were spawned?”

“Maybe the ones that popped out of the east and west walls joined them?” Damien offered.

“Yeah I guess that’s plausible…” I muttered.

Rosalynn sighed, “Well, I guess we should prepare for their arrival while you do some recon?” She looked at me expectantly, I gave her a curt nod and wasted no time as Aureus took off and nearly knocked the group over with the gust of his wings. Secretly I hoped he wouldn’t get much larger, he was already pretty big as it was. I’d never wanted him to be huge and he was already big enough to be a comfortable mount.

We casually glided through the sky towards where the wave should be approaching from. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, despite the danger on the horizon flying like this always calmed me. It could be the wind, or maybe it was the connection we shared and the freedom we both felt from flight.

Unfortunately, we quickly caught sight of the wave. A chill prickled at my skin and along my spine at the sight of them. Noel was understating it, there were definitely much more than the ones we fought earlier. How large was this place that it took them several hours to make it here and collect that many rats along the way? For a few more minutes we flew above the horde. I was trying to get a general idea of how many to expect but it just seemed endless. At that point I decided, rather than idling here and trying to get an estimate of their forces in vain, I should just head back to help the group get ready.

“How was it?!” Rosalynn asked frantically.

I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t find the right words. The group stared at me for a couple beats and the tension continued to rise. “There’s,” my voice cracked as I started, “ahem, there’s quite a lot…” I ran my hands through my hair, I didn’t struggle much in killing them the first time, but there weren’t this many. Even if I could protect myself would I be able to protect everyone else? This must’ve been why Rosalynn’s patron god wanted me to stay here and even sponsored me along with the others.

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“There’s nothing we can do about it anyway, so let’s just get ready. It’s not as if we can avoid them.” Rosalynn said in a nonchalant tone with a shrug, “Alright everyone stop moping and get yourselves together. Me, Damien, and our other melee people will be on the front line, we can trade out when we get tired with Mateo and his group. Everyone else needs to stay back if possible and just try to prevent any rats from entering the camp.”

“Well on a positive note, at least we only need to protect one side or the other when waves happen.” Noel chimed in with a grin.

I chuckled, “Yeah I think I’ll finally get to level 20 with this wave, thank the gods.” I added sarcastically.

“Good, then carry us, why don’t you?” Damien joked as they made their way down.

I glanced over at my quest, less than three days left now, I had to make sure no one died. The repopulation would be starting in about 18 hours and we’d likely have minimal rest after this. We didn’t even know how long the fight would take. My eyes narrowed as I watched the group walk out of the walls and prepare to defend and I made a decision.

[ “Witch of the Wellspring”: Hey, I think we need y’all here. ]

[ “Priest of Golden Light”: Where? What’s going on? ]

[ “Witch of the Wellspring”: The wave isn’t over yet. Just bring your minions and head out the south side wall. We have to make sure no one’s gonna die today. ]

[ “Priest of Golden Light”: ok we’re on the way… is it bad? ]

[ “Witch of the Wellspring”: Not sure yet, but it looks like it. ]

I rubbed at my eyes, even before I awakened I didn’t sleep as much as I should, but it got even worse after the awakening. Logically I knew I should feel sleepy, but I didn’t. Was it the change in stats or the adrenaline of never knowing when some blood thirsty monster would attack? Maybe I was just too used to exhaustion and once I had a healthier body I couldn’t read its signals properly. Either way, I tried to be mindful of it since I got so sick the last time I’d stayed up for three days.

[ “Traveling Spring Painter” asks if you’re feeling alright. ]

“I’m fine. I’m just a bit stressed. I want to complete the quest you prepared for me perfectly after all.” I replied with a smile.

[ “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” chuckles and says that you just want the perfect clear rewards. ]

I dismissed the GGC despite the various messages flooding in. Alright Aureus, let’s get started with round two.

But the rats aren’t here yet?

Then let’s just go to them, since you can fly we might as well fly over and kill as many as possible so there’ll be less when they get here.

It didn’t take long for us to make our way back to the wave of crazed rats. I’d nearly bottomed out my mana when we fought the first portion of the wave and hadn’t had enough time to refill it. Being around other people really takes a toll on my regeneration abilities, but what else can I do? I couldn’t leave when they were offering me such generous rewards.

Well. Let’s do our best to thin them out. Hopefully they can manage the ones that get past us? I wasn’t confident. There were ridiculously more rats, it was as if this was the real wave and the one before was just a joke.

Okay Master, fire then?

Yup, let’s not worry about damaging the materials, what use would we have for this many dead rats anyways.

I glanced over at my party window, the rest of the group had full health and their mana was recovering decently. I hesitated briefly, but left the party. I was far enough out from the camp, they had people to help them, and I needed the regeneration abilities from my title that I gave up to protect them. Almost immediately I got a couple messages from the party asking if I was okay and what happened. I reassured them while Aureus created an island of fire within the ocean of rats.

Without asking I knew Aureus wouldn’t be able to create a line of fire across the front lines of them. The group stretched into the distance so far that I couldn’t tell the difference between them and the rock beneath them. As they got closer to the camp they looked like they were coming to a head. I was thankful since it caused them to injure or kill each other more often as their path narrowed.

I racked my brain trying to consider the best course of action. Fire was the best element to use as it caused widespread and significant damage, but I couldn’t help but feel passive in this fight compared to previous ones. We were just flying overhead as Aureus maintained a field of fire and they stupidly ran into it. It wasn’t surprising that despite the screams they continued running blindly into the fire. Especially since they were even killing each other in their desperation to get to the camp. Originally I thought that it made them easy pickings, now with the sheer magnitude of them… the concept made me shudder.

The lake of fire he created was draining our mana faster than I wanted, but melee attacks weren’t going to be nearly as effective. Yet still I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was sure that I wasn’t a very effective fighter. I didn’t have much skill in tactics or battle planning. I just made whatever decisions I could, whichever felt right. Still, it never felt like enough. Anxiety nagged at the back of my mind. It was a similar but twisted version of my need to level up.

I groaned, Aureus do you think you can maintain that fire field while using melee attacks as well? I was thinking that you could drop me behind the fire so that I can attack the ones that make it through or are going past it.

I can try, it would be good to get practice using magic and attacking elsewhere too… but will you be okay down there?

Uhh well, I hope so. I mean there aren’t many rats that can make it through the fire so it’ll probably be fine… probably.

By the time Aureus dropped me on the stone the fire was already creating a pile of corpses, the stench of their burning fur and the blood was so thick I struggled not to gag. The roar of thousands of feet and claws scratching against the rock, screams of pain as they became enveloped in flame, and my own blood pounding made for a disturbing background noise. My limbs and skin tingled with numbness as I tried to get my mind right.

They’re just rats, you’ve done this hundreds of times. It’s fine, just breathe… oh god-gag-don’t breathe just center yourself. We can do this. I tried to give myself a pep talk, but it was hard to get past the… everything that was happening. A sense of foreboding like something was going to go horribly wrong was hard to dismiss. They’ll be fine. I’ll complete this quest and no one will die.

A rat landing a foot to my right pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts. I glanced up at where it’d arrived from, a hill of corpses that continued to grow. I wondered if the horde weren’t surrounding me would I be able to hear the snapping and crunching of bones as it landed.

Even without my intervention it would die quickly, there were sparse patches of skin still left on its body. Most of the less fleshy areas were basically reduced to bone and the rest was charred muscles that struggled to perform as it wanted. The eyes dripped down across the bones in its snout, melted likely from the high temperatures. Yet still it weakly pushed one of its broken legs against the rock in a failed effort to get closer to the camp.

A swift swipe of my dagger and it was over, I suppressed a shiver. Disturbing. For the first time since the wave started, I glanced at the rat’s status window. My eyes widened, they had new status effects.

[ Pack Mentality: Causes Berserk effect and the need to grow the size of the pack and then find prey. ]

[ Berserk: Causes loss of rational thinking, external stimuli other than the need to fight will be ignored. ]

My brows furrowed, they always fought in packs. Why was that different from this Pack Mentality status effect? I frowned but decided it was likely just the gods’ interference. What was the point of this? Were they having fun? Some of them acted like they didn’t like the deaths of humans and tried to act as saviors, but if that is the cause why didn’t they just prevent the others from starting this originally?

A flash of rose gold flitted to my left and tens of rats flew into the air. I glanced over at my status window, we were just a few hundred points from leveling up to 20. I’d been waiting for that for so long, it had been so close yet so far for weeks. I hated to admit it but helping out my party ruined my ability to level. I watched Aureus attack the rats for a few seconds and came to a realization.

I fucked up. Damn it. I never should have focused on making him more well rounded. We both need mana more than anything and we’re running out too quickly now.