I collapsed on a bench in the rabbit burrow. Today had been brutal, just like the other days had been since the fairy invasion.
It was extremely dark as the rabbits had dug deeper as fairies had entered the burrow shortly after thee invasion started. There wasn’t enough light to go around as these kind rabbit beast kin rarely had light or fire magic affinities. Most of the torches were lit by me. The rabbits would then use the fire of those torches to lit other torches.
Day 3 had ended but it felt as if we had been fighting for 3 months. The end wasn’t in sight and depression, fear anxiety and despair had set in the burrows. There were still that kept the optimism up but for how long? Days? Weeks? Months? Would we be stuck in this situation for years or would the world get destroyed before that happened? What would the next step be?
Drowsiness took over as [Acedia] kicked in again. This stupid curse! Always making me sleepy and unfocused. The [Acedia] curse had a silver lining, unfortunately...
The rabbits still had their ears curled as the multiple sounds the fairies made penetrated up to this depth and many rabbits had spent the last 3 days wide awake. Only me and the deep sleepers had managed to get some shuteye. Wren had taken up the despised nightshift and was about to head out. She looked the most tired of the group she would be leading.
The more my mind went over the conditions, the more this seemed like a battle of attrition. Sleep and internal conflict due to stress and sleep deprivation might become a bigger problem than the fairies...
“Death by stress...what a joke...” I got up and dragged myself to my new room. Freshly dug out. A heavy earthy scent wafted over me. My furniture had been moved too. How kind of them.
The weakened and young rabbits were present in the burrow at all time and they had the responsibility to make the burrow clean and habitable for those that confronted the giggling, buzzing, whispering, ticking, gargling or rattling sounds.
The rabbits seem to be unable to hear those but they are all too clear to me. All they hear are their screams and giggling. It took a while but I had figured out what the deal was with those sounds. It was worthy to write a research paper on but I neither had the time, energy nor immediate interest in that.
The buzzing sounds belonged to the insect like fairies, the whispering sounds belonged to the bird like fairies, the ticking belonged to the mammalian fairies, the gargling to the aquatic like fairies, who still seem to be doing fine without water...
The rattling sounds belonged to the reptilians and the giggling was universal and because they were obnoxious noisy critters.
And ugly! Absolutely horrendous! So many eyes! So creepy! Simply nightmare inducing! Some didn’t share the trait of multiple eyes like the laser bears which were...singular small pests with 1 eye that moved like a swam in the form of a bear. They tick so they might as well be placed under the term laserbear and considered to be an individual.
I haven’t seen any turn into butterfly winged beauties but I’m not looking forward to it. It might just make this war 100 times harder. It’s easer to destroy hideous monsters than pretty flying beauties.
Something shook me and woke me up.
When did I fall asleep?
“Azu, wake up! It’s the fairies! They have found the entrance to our burrow!”
“Ugh, is that why my head is splitting? Oh... your poor ears...”
I held my hand on the furled bleeding ears of the 15 year old looking rabbit girl.
I hugged her and used my limited healing magic.
“I’m fine... we need your help! Most of the rabbits of your shift have already left and the night shift rabbits are too tired!” The girl pushed me off her, grabbed my hand and lead me toward the exit.
“Wait! I can’t go like this! Give me 2 hours! No 1 hour to make myself presentable!”
“Azu! We don’t have an hour!”
A thud sounded above us and yelling started intermixed with screams. I didn’t want to go out looking unsexy like this but lives are on the line.
I puled out my hairpin and rushed into the main area.
Several obnoxious fairies had made it in the public area and their ticking sounds were deafening.
“Ugh, scythe dogs...”
Nobody knew how to defeat these light emitting golden grey clouds. I had heard about them from the night shift rabbits and they seem to be extremely challenging. They lent their names to the dog head and the 2 scythe like arms they had. They teleported in and created an area of light around them. They would practically disappear when you stepped outside their light area.
It made it easy to disengage from them but also easy for them to flee. Having them flee or disengaging wasn’t an option if they had made it inside the burrow.
I waved my fan at the nearest scythe dog but the icicles went straight through them. As if attempting to hit a cloud.
“Ugh, has anyone figured out how to hurt these things yet?!”
Many rabbits shook their head to my answer. All their attacks phased through them. The scythes were dealing physical damage so they weren’t ghosts or fragments of our imagination.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“They either need a specific condition to get damaged or they have a specific elemental weakness!”
All my skills of different elements got unleashed on the scythedogs but nothing connected. Friendly fire was another major issue as attacks went through them.
The rabbits missed all their kicks. Physical attacks is out of the question.
Most fairies seem to be weak to nature energy but not these. Their scythes plow through any nature energy attack like it’s nothing.
There are several elements that we can’t cover. Rot element, fusion element, light and dark element, illusion element and more come to mind.
I had tried to charm them but alas. I was however happy that it didn’t work. Call it selfish but I don’t want these hideous creatures lusting after me! Eww! That’s only allowed for hunks and handsome men!
My fan unfolded and I blocked an approaching scythe. This was the only way I could push their attacks back.
Mana coursed through my body as I fought against the force attempting to push me away.
I succeeded and launched the scythedogs into another one. They took damage but not alot. Relying on counters won’t get them out of the burrow.
“More incoming!” Rabbits ran out of a tunnel coming from the surface and 12 more teleported into the room with a bright flash.
The rabbits adopted the counter strategy and managed to knock several scythedogs into a corner and kick the wall down, causing the burrow to partly collapse on them.
Is the answer to not use magic? Physical attacks could be done without magic but would anyone be strong enough to resist the slashing attacks without using mana to strengthening the body?
I waved my fan at the ceiling and brought a clump of earth down on a scythedog. It was a direct hit and it started to whimper, on top of it’s ticking sound.
“Rabbits, I’m sorry but I think the only way to defeat them is to bury them...”
A dapper rabbit wearing glasses came into action. “All the inactive rabbits! We’re abandoning this burrow to burrow these things! Use the southeastern C route to escape and commence digging a burrow in the 4th mountain quadrant. The mountainside might give us better protection against these...fairies... Make sure to carry the sleeping night shift rabbits with you!”
The dapper rabbit released his rabbit mode and shot a [Flower Cannon] at the ceiling and slowly started to bring the burrow down. The other rabbits followed his example.
“Wait! Wait! I’m not due for a mud mask yet!”
I used my fan as an umbrella to protect myself from falling earth clumps and rocks.
“Azu! Go with them, they might encounter more of these things while fleeing!”
“Huh? What about you guys? You’re not going to bury yourselves alive right?” I asked.
It was hard to look at his expression as he was fighting with his back to me. “Azu, please...the night shift had been brutal, the night shift rabbits need their rest. We will handle this.”
“Are you guys insane? Do you even have an escape plan?!”
The burrow rumbled and parts of the ceiling collapsed.
More scythedogs teleported in and the rabbits became more active in bringing the burrow down.
“Azu! Please! My wife will help you! Please...”
A hard choice. I’m supposed to be on shift. I’m supposed to fight these things too. Why are they sending me to flee?
I put my feelings aside and ran after the fleeing rabbits. At least I thought they were fleeing. They were grabbing everything and sending the fastest rabbits out first.
“Ah, there you are Azu, Yan did tell me he would ask you to help us. The supplies are being transported right now, can you help me carry the sleeping warriors?”
A slender blonde woman with long legs and a mole under her right eye handed me a water flask.
“Are you the wife of that dapper rabbit?” I said as i pointed at the well-dressed rabbit who was shooting lasers at the ceiling.
“That would be Yannick, my husband yes. Recent reports have come in. The whole burrow is infested...we on the 15th floor and those below us on the 16th are the only ones that have room to move around. Come on this way!”
She pulled me along into a room. A couple was peacefully sleeping with their ears furled. They looked as if they had gone through a blender.
Yannick’s wife lifted the man and carried him on his back. I made my fan float and expand.
“Put them on my fan, we might have to pile them up but it will be more efficient... How did you hear about that report by the way? I didn’t hear anything.”
Yannick’s wife pointed at he rears and pulled me along to another room. We kept collecting rabbits until we found empty rooms. Many others were carrying 2 or 3 of their sleeping kin on their backs and shoulders.
The burrow rumbled again and more of the ceiling started to collapse.
“Come come! That was the last one!”
The rumbling became more frequent and more clumps of earth fell from the ceiling.
Multitudes of rabbit backs and rabbit butts were in front of me as everyone was carrying their sleeping night shift warriors through a corridor sloping up.
Yannick’s wife went into rabbit mode, shot a laser at the ceiling and blocked the corridor behind us.
“Wait, what about the rest and your husband? How will they escape?”
Some rabbits looked behind them, at me and Yanmick’s wife looked down.
“Azu...they’re not planning to escape. They will bring the burrow down on themselves and our enemies to ensure that we can escape...”
“What?! No! You can’t be ok with this! He’s your husband! They’re your family! You’ve laughed, fought and eaten together!”
Yannick’s wife lifted me up and carried me through the corridor.
“Wait! You can’t leave them behind! They’re your friends! My friends...”
The collapsed corridor behind us became hazy as tears clouded my vision. Everything went well for 3 days, nobody died. Why do they have to bury themselves...
They might not instantly die due to having multiple lives but... that’s worse... they will suffocate until every of their lives have been depleted... that’s worse than death...it’s torture...
Yannick’s wife was shaking while she carried me. It must be hard for her too and everyone here but even so...this is unacceptable...
The rumbling returned and it felt like an earthwuake and didn’t stop. A feeling of loss and regret overtook me. Was there really nothing I could do? Not that it matters now. It’s too late.
Yannick’s wife kept shooting her [Flower Cannon] at the ceiling behind us periodically and brought it down.
I was still being carried but not because I tried to escape but I had lost the will to resist. I can’t dig...I wouldn’t be able to save myself if I got separated...
Fairy noises gradually got louder as we neared the surface. It was delusional to think that there must be any spot on the surface that wasn’t covered in a swarm of those abominations.
The earthquake like trembling intensified and died down a bit. The noises became more bearable.
“The cave has been cleared! Let’s run!” Was what echoed through the corridor.
Everyone started running. My fan, carrying dozens of sleeping rabbits, sped up to keep up with the new traveling speed.
I closed my eyes as light blinded me. We found ourselves in a large cave structure. The entrance was blocked by vines and several rabbtis were shooting their [Flower Cannons] through gaps.
The floor was littered with corpses of the abominations.
The rabbits gathered near the vines to look outside.
The sky was filled with the abominations as usual. Lasers sniped fairies out of the sky but 10 took the place of every fallen fairy.
The earthquake increased in intensity again and a vast jungle area collapsed, forming an enormous hole in the jungle.
“The burrow!”
“My wife!”
And similar cries went out as the rabbits and I looked at what was left of the burrow we had called home. It had been reduced to a hole in the ground.
My vision got hazy again and I tried to keep back my tears.
The cave had become noisy again but not because of any fairy. there was no giggling, buzzing, ticking, gargling, whispering or rattling. The dominant sounds were akin to lamenting, sniffing and weeping.