“AAAAHHH!” My yell echoed throughout the entire compound grabbing the attention of every remaining beast.

There were several bigger monsters that were working on destroying the warehouse structure. My movements were aimed at the lion looking creature near the front door that continued spewing acid-like substance, ignoring me altogether. I sliced its fuzzy tail in one quick motion. It bellowed a roar, spraying its acid around in an attempt to catch me.

Part of the acid splashed onto my upper arm and shoulder. It tore my clothes and burned away the outer layer of skin. I pushed through the intense pain and stabbed my dagger into its jugular before stepping towards the next monster.

Thankfully my resistance prevented the acid from spreading any further. My next target died without much trouble and when deciding what to kill next, two thick fangs pierced my leg. A creature with invisibility took a bite and treated me as if a rag doll.

I swung at its head and got lucky enough to stab its eye. I happened to push deep enough as the creature's invisibility stopped and we toppled over to the ground. My thigh was a bloody mess as I pried open its jaw to remove my leg.

I held pressure on the wound and didn’t have time to bandage it before the next creature lunged at me. In my attempt to dodge its strike by rolling over, forced me into the path of another beast. I raised both my daggers just in time to parry its razor-sharp bite. The momentum from the charge pushed me backward, scraping my back across concrete ground.

They were relentless and continued bombarding with magic attacks. I relied on my magic resistance to diffuse nearly eighty percent of its power; not able to move fast enough to avoid any of them. It still hurt enough to groan out in agony. I was doing my best to avoid drifting in and out of consciousness.

The next thing I saw was a pair of fangs aiming straight for my head, then a solid beam of light the width of a tangerine piercing through its jaw. It tore a circular hole, emptying its entire head.

A ruckus of voices called out my name along with other commands. Alexa led a group of ten others to help with the battle. They carried me inside to retreat into the stairwell again.

“Eris!” Alexa shouted.

Eris stopped in the middle of healing another when she saw me on the verge of death. “Out of the way!” She ran down the stairs knowing full well of the repercussions.

Her pale face drained even more as soon as she finished healing my wounds. It took only a matter of seconds yet the amount of magic required was immense even for her. “Rest for now…,” I held onto Eris to prevent her from falling and whispered into her ear as I gently laid her down.

I needed to rethink my strategy if I didn’t want to have the same result since Eris was out of commission. I did my best to ignore the hoard of monsters wreaking havoc outside and closed my eyes to think of a plan.

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The solution was so simple that I got mad for not thinking of it in the first place. Had I done so, there would not have been this many casualties. The battle gear obtained from Balthazar. If I handed out a set to everyone from the start then we would’ve stood a better chance.

“Tessa, Alexa, I need your help. Hand these out to wear.” They were both there when I opened my eyes, awaiting my orders.

I decided it wasn’t the time to test everyone’s aptitude on which set of gear they could use and only retrieved the most basic set of battle gear from the ring. I knew Alexa could already use the third set so I set aside that one for her. Also using her as a basis and taking out a battle set one tier above the common one.

“Rhea, this one is yours.” I stopped Rhea from putting on the basic set, knowing she was insistent on fighting again. She regenerated the critical injuries but was still covered in gashes that hadn’t fully closed. The basic set was useless to her and wouldn’t change forms whenever she wanted to shapeshift.

I sighed at her determined gaze, seeing as she was on autopilot at this point, and gave no response. I placed an assortment of each weapon type against the wall ranging from halberd to daggers. If anyone needed extra they could come directly to me, since there was a limit to the amount of space here.

I took this time to pick out a two handed longsword, something with better reach than my daggers. I liked my daggers even more after finding out it had a hidden ability, but it only occurred after several days of countless monster kills to activate. I needed something with a longer reach for these back to back battles.

Out of the individual unique sets stored in the ring, I found a cloth type outfit with a neutral color scheme. A mixture of dark turquoise, gray, and black boots. The details listed were a perfect match for a fast-paced combat style. I had no idea what the outfit was made out of but figured if it was unique then it had to be better than the other armor sets.

Alexa had a set of five people protect the bottom and top of the stairwell, rotating out with a handful of others on standby. The effects were dramatic just like it was for Dorian and it became much easier to defend our position.

“Tessa, stay here with Eris.” I made sure Tessa stayed back with Eris, even though she would most likely be fine.

“I’ll protect her, master.” Tessa’s appearance in the shiny gold armor looked like overkill.

It surprised me that Tessa didn’t complain, but then again both of them were really close. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her combat skills, but more so enough to protect and stay by Eris’s side.

After prepping for a solid eight minutes we exited onto the first floor. Everything was destroyed with monsters running amok and to think things were finally settling down with renovations being set just the way we wanted.

I jumped in fright from a sudden scream, bursting with rage. Alexa scared the crap out of me. Beams of light flared into multiple directions as she swung her rapier at the creatures. The equipment increased her firepower dramatically and removed the activation time that previously limited her.

“E-everyone follow her lead!” I stuttered from the shock, trying to understand how she must be feeling.

Alexa was the one in charge of all the renovations, moving processes, and practically everything else. To have all of the hard work she put into our home and for it to be instantly shattered to pieces must have snapped a few nerves.

I made a mental note to provide extra affection and to also assign others to split up her workload in the future. This charge signified our first step to recapturing our home from the invading horde of monsters.