“Are you alright?” A hand touched my arm, one of the soldiers meant for security. Was I alright? The headache lessened, allowing me to look around. I had a bad feeling about it, as if something triggered in my mind as soon as I saw the younger brother of Allie, or rather the cat monster. Soon after, a callout.

“Twenty at ten!” Another soldier shouted and prepared his bow, the other ten soldiers turned to the same direction and also nocked their arrows. I checked my belt, on it were ten knives prepared to be used, though it was hard to hit a moving target with them. The only thing I really used them for was killing dogs that were busy clawing at the tree I was resting on during my runs. “Get to the trucks!” The officer in command shouted towards the workers.

Soon monsters emerged from between the trees, twenty of them as the soldier called. I had checked on my own with Detect Presence just to be sure, as always when I was close to forests, buildings or tall grass away from the city. First volley hit, and with it almost all dogs dropped dead, some even with two arrows in them. Three seconds later the rest was killed off. Quick and efficiently, the soldiers must have multi shot skill as some used three arrows at once and still managed to hit all the targets.

My musings were cut short by another shout. “Seventeen at three!” And another. “Ten at seven!” Officer, the one who ordered workers into the trucks, soon ordered. “To the trucks, at the top and ride towards Gavensburg!” I followed, within a mere second or two already in place, my [Detect Presence] not advanced enough to help scout and my throwing daggers not enough to help. As soldiers clambered onto the trucks, a bit slowly another shout was heard by me. “Twenty-five at twelve!” It was an ambush, and I caused it. Allie wanted her brother.

The trucks started moving, in a mere minute the road ahead was blocked by a group of monster dogs. Soldiers which were atop the first truck focused their shots on those monsters blocking the trucks.

Something leaped out of the trees to the side onto the middle truck, the very one where I was on. Fangs were the first thing I saw, then it just fell to the ground as the truck passed by. Hitting nothing in the end and only scaring me a little. It wasn’t a dog, a cat or anything that I could really compare it to, in a next second an arrow struck it in the head killing it. I didn’t have time to think of what kind of monster that was.

More dogs, more bears. The soldiers fought, some unlucky worker was pushed out of the truck and were set upon by dozens of hungry beasts reaping him to shreds. I could hear the screams. There were simply too much of them, the city, our only safe sanctuary was too far.

I did nothing. Few of my daggers killed a few dogs, I cried out to a nearby soldier to ‘watch out’ and that’s it. ‘Am I a fool?’ A thought appeared in my mind, and then another one and another. Novels I usually read were that of great warriors, when armies stood against them and the sheer idea of winning was that of madness, they always succeeded. Yet here I was, after investing all my time, points and crystals into being able to run faster… No, to run AWAY faster.

“We are stuck!” The driver of the first truck screamed, the bodies of monster bears blocking the road ahead. Words that made me think it’s over, feeling of closing doom gripped my heart.

Behind us, hundreds of dogs, dozens of bears. A hundred of dead monsters left on the road behind us over the course of a dozen minutes beneath the feet of the living ones.

My throwing daggers were already spent and the only weapon left for me was a military knife that I barely knew how to use. Soldiers were shouting while shooting, their arrows already running low. Orders were given, shouted but I knew what I had to do. They would soon be overwhelmed, but I could run. I could run fast.

And so I did. There were screams directed at me as I jumped over to the front truck and landed in front of the boy. He stared at me wondering what I wanted, looked straight in my eyes, fear didn’t allow him to move. If it was fear of me or the monsters all around us I didn’t know. The boy was in front of me, he looked on as I outstretched my right hand as if to show something to the right.

[Half-step used]

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

And the boy was out, my arm caught him in his stomach at my fastest speed without using mana. His mind and body were not prepared for instant acceleration and the amount of damage he had to take to his gut. I jumped into the forest, onto the branches. Far from the trucks. Far from the people that were about to die.

-

It was behind me, I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t hear it but I just knew. Dogs, bears and other similar monsters appeared from time to time before being left and outmaneuvered.

Stamina 212/300

Yet I couldn’t do it forever, I had to stop. My legs kicked the ground hard and it gave me enough momentum to make it to the high branches. For a second a thought of thanks to all those ecologists who fought to save old forests appeared in my mind, but only for a second. I turned back, and there it was.

“Allie?” The monster cat-like creature, as big as a human or even bigger. The one that I met a few days ago, the one that showed me those memories… “The ones that k… Those two are dead.” I continued, fear gripping my heart, gripping my legs making them heavy.

‘Give him to me.’ A voice in my mind spoke, shivers went down my entire body. Fear, my mom often told me that I was always too scared. A chuckle escaped my mouth, fear always made me do weird things. ‘Giiiiveeeee…’ Memories, no… Desires. I could feel them in my mind yet they didn’t belong to me. The monster didn’t want for the boy to be safe, nor to be happy. It wanted to consume him. I was wrong, very wrong.

The boy was on my shoulder, basically folded in half. The city was dozens of kilometers away and my stamina….

Stamina 187/300

I couldn’t make it, not with seventy kilograms on my back. The monsters started appearing, surrounding the tree that I was on, yet they couldn’t get on it, the only thing that could was the monster cat itself. It wasn’t Allie, I was sure of that.

“I’m sorry.” I dropped the boy, his unconscious body started falling to the forest floor. The cat pounced, but not on me. A second later I was at the top of my speed, jumping from one branch to another until forest gave way to a field and field gave way to the road. “I’m sorry…”

I knew what would happen the second I took the boy from the truck to lure the monsters away. Did they survive at least? Eleven soldiers and around twenty workers were on those three trucks. One person was a fair trade for thirty, right? I asked in my mind, hoping that no voice would answer.

Another set of desires appeared in my mind, ones telling me of growth that was unending, yet those were weak as if whatever the monster cat used on me was faltering, ceasing to exist. It gave me a piece of mind that those desires took away from me. ‘Evolve, consume, evolve.’ Sight of an unending swarm of monsters entering Gavensburg entered my mind. I needed to get to Jake.

-

They were alive, three trucks and three dozen people or so were entering Gavensburg as I caught up to them. I passed them, heading straight towards where Jake was, there was no need to speak to them. No, I just didn’t want for them to ask me where the boy was. It seemed that death wasn’t the only thing that I feared.

“ID check.” I pushed the man over and sped down the hall, they tried to stop me, they shouted. I didn’t care. “Stop him!”

The doors swung open as I entered Jake’s office. “Drones! Now!” Guards that were chasing me entered after me and moved in to restrain me.

“Don’t touch him!” Jake quickly ordered, immediately after which looking straight at me. “Where?” Ten seconds later he had a map on his desk with me pointing at the general area of where the last time a monster cat was seen by me, where I… it would be best not to think about the boy.

Twenty minutes later we all saw, swarm of a hundred thousand small monsters was coming and with it a monster we didn’t see before, the one that was normally seen at the coast. Yet I felt that it was familiar. This time there wouldn't be a gunship aircraft that would blast all of them.

-

I sat at the roof of the highest building overlooking the east border of the city, my legs hanging in the air. On my back a bow with at least fifty arrows ready to be shot, my belts full with twenty throwing knives attached to them. In my hand's spear, I kept staring at it as it was on my lap…

It was my fault. The swarm was coming because of me. I thought that the monster would leave once we did what it asked for, that it would die for some shenanigans of the system. It evolved, and with it’s evolution came strength and numbers.

Ten thousand soldiers were in the city, prepared to defend their homes, their families. Ten thousand who will stand against a swarm of almost half a million. The sun was setting, the trees on the edge of my sight were being toppled over by the swarm, coming closer and closer. People were fleeing, to the other side of the city or not I didn’t know.

Tears fell on the spear, my tears. I would die tonight, I knew. I could run, but not tonight. People will die because of me, thousands, dozens of thousands or even all of them. Million souls, mostly innocent and all of that because of me.

My hands gripped the spear harder and harder. I will use it tonight… Tears kept coming…