I swore while leaping over to Eris. “Heal me, hurry!” I carried Eris in front of me while using my arms to support her backside. I found the quickest way to travel with my current strength to be a mixture of leaping and running.

At this rate, we would arrive in roughly five minutes. Eris explained that our home was under attack by monsters. Being on the border of Avalon and close to the outpost made it at risk.

Just a few more trees in the way and I could finally see the warehouse in the distance. The entire compound was overrun by monsters laying siege on the warehouse.

From what I could see everyone barricaded themselves inside after not being able to withstand the constant onslaught. There were bloodied corpses of beasts and humans littered throughout. I counted six or so before I sped up in rage.

I found an opening the monsters created and forced my way through after killing the ones in the way. Eris erected a barrier to block any more from entering after us. I let her down to maintain it as Tessa rushed over to us. She had on her fist weapons with blood splattered all over her body.

After realizing it wasn’t hers, she told me how everyone was being holed up in the stairwell. The walls were thickest in there and it only had a few points of entry. I thought it was a great idea. I wanted to first meet up with everyone before I started clearing out the rest of the monsters.

I had Tessa stay with Eris to help watch her back and continued on to the staircases. I communicated with Alexa that I was coming through the door beforehand in case they had it barricaded. I hoped no one was behind the door as I slammed it open.

Everyone was littered throughout the stairwell reaching up to the second and start of the third floor. A heavy and festering scent filled the air with the wounded placed on the flat parts between each flight of stairs. Their injuries varied from cuts and bruises to missing limbs. No one was prepared for an attack of this scale and neither was the warehouse.

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I called Eris to retreat to the stairwell as well. She had the best recovery magic here and it was desperately needed at the moment. I placed my hands along Alexa’s face. Fresh blood was flowing down her cheeks and her color was draining.

“I’m sorry…, I couldn’t protect everyone.” Alexa teared up after apologizing. “No, this is my fault.” I hugged to comfort her.

Healing magic, especially regrowing full limbs took a lot out of Eris. I knew she wasn’t going to be able to help with anything else. I asked for a quick status update and found out that Rhea was further up preventing monsters from entering through the roof. Alexa grabbed my arm before saying she wanted to come along to assist.

“I need you and Tessa to take care of Eris and the others on this end.” I planned to meet up with Rhea and start from there.

“Rhea!” I threw my dagger with enough force to impale a large flying bug-type monster to the wall. Her injuries weren’t light either. Both Alexa and her were on the frontlines, taking on the bulk of the monsters. She had shapeshifted into a hybrid beast that was able to move on two legs easier. It looked like a slimmer more humanistic version of her blue bear transformation.

There were four more creatures closing in on her as I rammed my blade into the closest one. It only took a matter of seconds to kill the remaining monsters. Their size was small enough to enter through the door going out to the rooftop.

I ran over to Rhea as she dropped from exhaustion. She mentioned how dangerous it was to revert back to human form while injured but couldn’t help it. She ran out of mana to support her shapeshifting. I caught hold of her before she hit the ground and laid her down gently.

“Bring her to Eris!” Nathan was nearby assisting in a worse physical shape than her but still able to move. He took hold of her and carried her down with a bit of strained effort.

A mix of emotions surged through my mind. They messed with the wrong building. I wouldn’t be satisfied until every monster disintegrated into dust. The carcass of the bug fell to the floor as I retrieved my dagger. I exited out onto the roof of the warehouse to begin the slaughter.

An assortment of monsters that climbed or flew up swarmed in. My body was drenched in blood and guts as my dagger wasn’t able to absorb the messiness of the combat. It didn’t take long for a mound of monster corpses to stack high as my daggers darkened.

The remaining monsters fled in fear and there was no way I’d let them run away. I chased after each and everyone, eventually finding my way no longer on the rooftop but landing on the courtyard, out front surrounded by many more monsters to kill.