The entire compound lit up entirely from obnoxious spotlights. Metallic gated floodlights were spaced around acting as street lights. The white light stung to look at and felt a tad overkill. We held hands as we barged on through the sea of people. We found the bulletin board but had to wait our turn to view it.

“See anything interesting?” There was nothing that caught my eye, hoping Eris had better luck.

“Nope, nothing…” Eris shrugged, “What now?”

“Let’s check out the info brokers.” I prayed for some useful leads, anything worthwhile checking out.

Absolutely nothing of interest. We exited the tents ready to head home until sirens whirled into chaos. The outpost’s perimeter immediately fortified whenever the emergency alarm sounded. The military relayed the situation to the entire outpost as the sirens receded.

“A massive hoard of monsters are heading directly to the outpost! Get ready for battle, this is not a drill!” The message repeated three more times and then another two for several different languages.

Bodies were weaving about with most heading to either of the two directions. To the bunker or outer perimeter. We were of the latter and wanted to see what was going on. Up the steps and onto the outpost’s defensive walls granted a perfect view of the surrounding darkness.

The spotlights lit up everything to the base of the forest. A flat clearing of two hundred meters with grassy patches scattered through the dirt. Military personnel loaded artillery as others got into formation above the walls. Mercenaries and hunters were called on to give magic support including an array of buffing, healing, and defensive spells. Others held their weapons at the ready to go on the offensive.

Everyone fell into place as if they were veterans when it came to this type of situation. It must be a normal occurrence for this outpost since most people weren’t in a crazed panic. I couldn’t see anything beyond the tree line and closed my eyes to try and enhance my hearing. It took several seconds to block out the ruckus from the outpost and focus on beyond the treeline.

I managed to hear the charging pack of beasts incrementally become louder, then opened my eyes in that direction. “Don’t interfere. I want to see what happens.” Eris followed my sight agreeing with my request.

The gatling like artillery fired at the forest the moment the monsters passed through. Each shot created a mini-explosion on impact. I admired the effectiveness of the continuous rapid-fire and thought this would be over in no time.

Out of the stream of monsters were some small agile ones that managed to avoid the projectiles. They were up and over the walls in an instant, focusing solely on destroying the turrets.

As soon as the majority of turrets were taken out of commission an entire flock of assorted flying beasts took to the skies. They were sitting in wait within the cover of trees. They acted strategically and reminded me of the alpha frost wolf that we had trouble dealing with. At this rate, the casualties would stack up and it didn’t sit right, to not help at all.

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I went around saving others from the flying creatures. The first one looked like a condor with a wingspan of four meters and pristine black feathers. Before it could strike with its fiery claws I sliced at its neck.

From one to next I swiftly dwindled their numbers. A screeching sound up above caught my attention. It was a similar condor looking beast, but double the size and fully immersed in scorching hot flames. There was no way I missed a ball of fire approaching and guessed it didn't activate magic until closer.

Before I could act, the flaming condor crashed into a barrier. Eris sealed the beast within a fully enclosed barrier. Panic caused it to flail about while burning even brighter. Just like a torch in a vacuum, the bird fell down unconscious against the barrier. Eris let it fall to the ground and that was when I noticed larger monsters charging the walls. There was no cease in the monster's steady assault. What was the military doing!?

“Eris we’re going out front.” I carried Eris and lept to the ground floor beyond the wall. The stampeding monsters nearest to us swerved, funneling their attention to us.

I had every intention of ending this or at the very least let out some steam. I lowered my stance to the ground and kicked off aiming both of my daggers at the first monster in my path. A special feature of the daggers made sure not to drop a single speck of blood.

I had to make up the difference for using daggers on these large creatures. It forced me to aim at weak spots such as the neck and any body part with an opening. I got lost in the rush of everything and focused only on moving faster.

Just as I was going on a rampage. Eris did the same by impeding the monsters in the sky. The inertia of their flight instantly ended the moment they rammed face-first into her barriers. She was targeting them several at a time with her wide cast of magic.

A howl that acted as a signal for the monsters, halted any further advances. Both of us finished killing the monsters that were too far forward to retreat and kept an eye on their odd behavior.

“Eris, we’re going back.” I shouted as I finished my last monster and landed next to her. We made it back on top of the outpost walls with a running jump. Everyone nearby made way for our landing.

“Stop staring! Hurry up and fix those turrets!” Someone in charge yelled as they came over to us.

“Thanks for the assistance. Can we continue to rely on both of you?” His intentions sounded polite, but something still irked me.

“Why aren’t the Monster Corp. soldiers getting involved?” It pissed me off that they were hanging back and doing nothing as others died for no reason.

“It’s not my place to question their orders.” This guy knew nothing and just as I was about to leap over to their location to get answers the monsters made a ruckus.

It was a far distance, but I was able to make out the monster that stepped to the forward position. Tusks the size of my arms, protruded outwards from its massive jaw. Compared to the ape from before this monstrosity was about the same height. Its blood-colored eyes stared right at me, at least it felt that way as my body tensed up. An irrational fear overtook my mind. No matter the enemy or the predicament I’d never felt anything like this before.

“Snap out of it!” Eris pulled on my arm to grab my attention.

“What the hell was that!?” I bent over panting with my eyes shut.

“There’s magic in its gaze. Don’t stare for too long.”

Eris explained that the minotaur had the power of intimidation. It could overwhelm the target with fear and render their mind useless. Winning battles before the opponent even had a chance to start.