Boom.

By instinct, Cray shoved Louise behind him and wrenched his eyes shut. A smart decision. Several beams cracked and part of the roof caved in with splinters lashing against his face and around his eyes. He tasted iron in his mouth, but he stood firm through the explosion, despite the pain. Only when it’d died down some did he turn back to check on Louise.

She stood frozen with gray eyes wide as saucers, but whether she remembered his warning or was just too scared to speak, she stayed silent. At least she showed no further signs of damage, although she had him in a death grip.

He smiled in as comforting a manner as he could manage and mouthed, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ She didn’t say anything, but her hold on his shirt loosened.

But as the debris finally settled though, it entered the room. With claws like steel spikes that twitched and scrabbled against the varnished floor and pale blue scales on a writhing body. It stood twice his size, perhaps more, it’s long, forked tongue stuck out of a maw filled with dagger-like teeth, all set upon an eyeless face. A vision out of his nightmares: a Mana Devourer.

Cray didn’t dare speak, but his heart pounded in his chest, his lips dry. He exchanged looks with Karah, and the same fear reflected in her eyes that pounded in his chest. It’s my fault. I got distracted comforting Louise. We should have gotten out of the house first before talking.

The creature’s snakelike head twisted about and writhed on its long neck. With a growl, it squeezed through the broken wall and ignored the shingle slamming into its face as easily as Cray might a fly. Its torso was built like a horse, but it crept along the floor on far too many squirmy legs to count, and even more limbs sprouted from its back, all viciously clawed. The Mana Devourer crunched over a low dresser and sniffed; slit-like nostrils flared to sniff them out.

Louise shook and shivered against him, too terrified to move, let alone scream. Cray held her tight and tried to think. ‘Mana Devourers can smell magic and are both resistant to spells and extremely deadly in close combat…’ he remembered from previous research and swallowed a gulp. Great. If there were twice as many of us to fight it… there would be twice as many of us to die.

Luckily, the creature was confused more than anything, and snuffled about like a dog whose trail had gone cold in the rain.

My spell ended after we got Louise out, Cray realized. All that remains is what’s left of the spell trap. It can’t sense us! He didn’t dare to speak, but motioned to Karah and jerked his head toward the door.

Her lips compressed into a thin line, but this was well beyond their capabilities and they both knew it, so it only took a few moments before she gave the nod.

Now for the third member of their group. With a crouch, he met Louise’s eyes and held a finger to his lips, then gestured to the staircase with his other hand. Her face was pale and she looked like she might vomit, but she gripped the offered limb in her own smaller hand. As quietly as they could, they made their way down the hall.

The Mana Devourer slithered about Louise’s room, and brushed its slitted nose against the broken spell trap with a puzzled air, as if unable to quite understand why nobody was inside it.

Sweat dripped down Cray’s nose, but he forced himself to move forward, one foot in front of the other.

They almost made it out when Louise’s foot landed awkwardly on a broken bit of wood from the explosion and it gave way, causing her to tumble to the ground with a loud cry.

Karah yanked her back to her feet immediately but the Mana Devourer reared up and growled; its head twisted about, curious.

Don’t notice us. Dismiss the sound. Don’t notice us.

He’d begun to hope it would dismiss the sound when the beast snarled again and a flash of blue light burst from it and pulsed through the room and their bodies too fast to react, all while ‘Detect Life’ appeared over the creature’s head. When the light sucked back into it, the Mana Devourer straightened to its full height and let out a deafening roar before the creature rocketed forward toward them, far faster than one would’ve expected from its size alone.

“It sees us! Cray, grab the girl!”

No time to argue. He scooped up Louise in his arms to her astonished cry, raced for the stairs and leaped down. The air rushed around them with the fall and Louise screamed all the way down.

Cray hit the ground with a great thud and winced in pain, but forced himself to ignore both that and the damage taken and raced through the kitchen, letting go of Louise but pulling her along by the hand. He followed his sister while household appliances smashed into the ground around them. The front door was just ahead…

They dashed through and slammed it shut behind them, only for it to explode open seconds later when the Mana Devourer burst through it as well as the nearby wall.

Louise’s shouts in his ear made it impossible for him to hear anything else, so he gave her a quick shake to get her attention. “If we’re going to live through this,” he said, loud as he dared, “Karah and I need to focus. Can you be quiet one more time?”

She was visibly terrified but her screams quieted into whimpers.

“Thank you. Now just stay calm...”

They were in the middle of a modern street, or what might have been a modern street except all the cars were broken and rusted, the grass long overgrown in a wasteland of neglect. He remembered all the creatures he’d shown Louise and sweat trickled down the back of his neck. The Mana Devourer was the only monster after them now, but that wouldn’t last long. They needed to get away fast. The trio rushed across the deserted city street, dodged past a pair of rusted cars and leapt a hedge.

"Is it gaining on us?” Karah hissed through her teeth.

Cray allowed himself a quick glance. The Mana Devourer was big and needed to push aside the same rusted cars they ran between, but it was quick enough to make up any gap each time. “I think so.”

“Blast, how fast is that thing?

A rhetorical question. He leaped over a long-rusted bicycle and ducked through a hedge. Okay, so outrunning it isn’t going to happen. We need a new plan. “No choice, we’ve got to bug out!”

“Where’s the closest waypoint?” Karah shouted to make herself heard over the sound of a wooden fence torn to splinters.

A glance at his mini-map made him grimace. “The only one nearby is the supermarket, half a mile… back the other way.”

On the other side of the giant monster.

Karah groaned. “Alright." She turned on her heel. "Then I’ll give us some breathing room. Going loud!” Bzzz! Electricity crackled around her in great green arcs and she raced toward the Mana Devourer, which seemed stunned that its prey was going to actually attack it.

“Wait-“

But Karah dove past the Mana Devourer’s claws and buried her fist into its chest. "Thunder… smash!"

Thoom!

Lightning exploded and the creature was blown back to crash into and through the wall of a nearby house.

"Ha, gotcha you overgrown worm!" Karah exulted while she, Cray and Louise raced past the stunned creature.

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"Good hit, but that's a Mana Devourer,” he shouted.

"And now it’s a wall fixture, so your point would be…?"

"It means - oh blast! Get behind cover!"

He dove behind the wall of the corner store they’d run past, Louise dragged down with him. Karah followed him after only a moment’s hesitation.

Crack! The building buckled and an immense bolt of lightning exploded past them. A boom followed along with a crash he suspected was the other half of the store collapsing to the ground.

Cray staggered to his feet with a groan with the taste of ozone in his mouth but shook his head to clear it. They hadn’t been hit, at least. Yet, anyway.

Karah’s eyes were wide. "What - What was that?"

"Mana. Devourer. It ate part of your attack and now it has lightning breath!”

"I - You - Shut up and keep running!"

Around them, homes became corner stores and playgrounds turned to parking lots. On the horizon laid the supermarket where the waypoint was, rusted and overgrown but with the promise of safety just inside the broken glass doors. But the footsteps were just behind them. Another crackle of electricity and Cray threw himself to the side, only for yellow death to crash into where he’d been. More footsteps, but further back.

It’s… slowing down? Wait, it needs to hold still to spit electricity at us, which means… "Good news," he shouted. "Your powering it up also slowed it down. At this rate, we’ll make the waypoint with no trouble at all!”

However, rather than take the backhanded compliment, Karah’s face paled. "Great, but it looks like I went a little too loud. We’ve got company!"

Cray was about to ask when manic babbling filled his ears, his only warning before a clawed fist slammed into his temple and pain exploded behind his eyeballs. He careened to the ground, and tried to twist so he took the fall rather than the terrified girl in his arms. It mostly worked, with the net result that he slammed into the ground back-first, only for Louise’s flailing body to smash him further into the broken asphalt. Another set of claws went for his legs, but he twisted around and pushed himself - and Louise - to his feet.

Four creatures surrounded him, each no more than five feet in height but strongly muscled, with scaly white skin and blue fur covering their arms. From each of them came a cacophony of meaningless noise and the world around him twisted and roiled before the words ‘Willpower Save successful!’ appeared before him and things calmed down some. Gibberers; annoying enough without having to protect Louise as well.

No choice, gotta do it. He let go and gave Louise a push toward his sister. “Go with Karah.”

Hopefully, she would, but there wasn’t enough time to make sure she did so before the Gibberers swarmed him.

He ducked the first hit and the one following, but the third sent him head-first into a streetlight. Close range; need some kick. He summoned a shotgun from his inventory just in time for a Gibberer to go for his throat.

Kaboom! The first round blasted into the creature’s stomach. It reeled, unable to recover before the follow-up slammed into its face; that finished it and the creature dissolved into red with a whoosh, followed by the clatter of loot.

No time to grab them though. The other three punched, kicked and bit at him in a vicious frenzy, eager to rip his health away.

He grit his teeth through the pain and reloaded his weapon with a thunk, then shoved the barrel into one of their mouths and pulled the trigger.

Kaboom! The Gibberer dissolved into red and he twisted his gun to a third and sent it flying.

Just two more.

"Cray, hit the deck!"

He dove but too slow. There was a flash of yellow and his world shattered. A thud signaled his body’s crash into the street light. So much pain… everything… hurt. No, you have to move. No time to wallow! He couldn’t see, his vision dissolved into melted yellow, but his hands scrabbled against concrete and he pulled himself to his feet. He couldn’t see the Gibberers, but he blindly ran forward, following the mini-map’s guidance. A moment later, he slammed into a car with another flash of pain.

Warm arms yanked him to the side. “This way, you doofus!” Karah shouted. “We’re almost there!”

"I can't see anything!" He admitted. "You'll have to guide me. Wait! Louise. Where is Louise!?”

“She’s fine. Now shut up and run!”

He held her hand and ran forward. There were a few stumbles, but he didn’t run into anything else and, slowly but surely, his vision began to clear.

He wished it hadn't.

It wasn't just the Mana Devourer or some Gibberers. From every direction streamed creatures of all shapes and sizes, a ravening horde of drooling teeth and rending claws; all fixated upon them.

"So many," Karah’s words echoed his thoughts, but she took a deep breath and her expression hardened. "We have to get through. Are you ready for a party?”

Bravado said yes, but bravado dribbled down his leg at sight before them. “You are joking, right?”

“I'm not asking if you can take all of them, you idiot. I'm asking if we can handle the ones between us and the waypoint.”

With that thought in mind… He focused just on the ones between them and the Supermarket… and counted at least twelve, luckily just gibberers. Still, the sheer numbers…. "Karah, any other time, I would say you're insane. Right now… you're still insane, but sanity left about three blocks back."

“So you can do this?”

Ninety times out of a hundred? No, but it’s our only chance. "I'll try," he said, and accessed his inventory again to swap the shotgun for a rifle. Didn't have the same kick but at least it could hit at this range… Three shots one kill, and the first Gibberer collapsed into red, but there were a dozen more where they came from. Can’t wait for them to come or the horde’ll get us. Alright... “Forward!” he shouted, and they charged.

However, while his agility was good, movement put a penalty on accuracy. Ten more shots only got one more of the Gibberers, with a second heavily damaged.

Then they were upon them.

Twelve, thirteen, fourteen!? There were more now than when they’d started, but they were out of time, so he pulled out the shotgun and fired into the face of the first Gibberer.

Kaboom! The creature flew back, tumbling over one parked car to smash into another. but the rest were upon them. Everything dissolved in a blur of battle; fists slammed into bodies and shells exploded against their foes. He used an open car door as a makeshift shield and clubbed at them with his shotgun between rounds fired. Two, three, four, five Gibberers dissolved into red in a desperate attempt to break through them. All the while, he tried to keep himself between the horde and the young girl behind him.

He’d never been so quick nor accurate. Adrenaline fueled his every movement and one enemy after another fell, whether it be to his guns or Karah’s fists and feet. They did better than he’d hoped and might have actually won given time. Not fast enough, though. Nowhere near fast enough. Already, the horde closed within a few dozen yards behind them.

"Alright,” he shouted. Blue light coalesced in his hand to form a single canister, no bigger than a football with a switch covering a button on top. “No choice. Time for Plan B!" He hoisted the grenade in his hand.

Karah's eyes went wide and she grabbed Louise, then sprinted through the press of enemies. Several struck her, but she ignored them and continued her charge until she’d broken through. The creatures’ manic chatter paused, confused, but they turned to focus on the single enemy they had surrounded in their midst.

Fine by him. They were inches away when he thumbed the catch and pressed the button within. The soft blue ignited red and, even through the manic gibberish, he grinned, then hurled it into the air as high as he could. “Grenade Shower… Activate!”

It arced into the air gracefully and began to spin. The first explosion was almost soft, and the grenade burst into red pellets; they drifted down like snowflakes, but the moment they touched something, anything, they exploded. Boom! Boom, boom. Boomboomboomboomboom. Everything around Cray dissolved in explosions. He sprinted forward through the shrieking carnage, knowing through experience that he might be immune to his own ability, but it wouldn’t stop any shrapnel. Metal shards flew like arrows and several cars joined the grenades in their explosions as the symphony of destruction rended the earth and everything upon it.

Almost caught up to Karah, he allowed himself a glance back. Several of the Gibberers were dead, but the rest were damaged and disoriented, and, most importantly, far enough behind them to let them get a head start. Less than a hundred yards remained between them and the waypoint. “We’re… we’re going to make it!”

“Shut up until we get to the waypoint!”

Alright, she had a point. He raced forward after the two girls. The Gibberers were in pursuit - countless feet thundered behind them - but they were too far back to catch up. Eighty yards, sixty, forty, twenty, ten. Parking lot gave way to the store entrance, then the countless overturned and overgrown shelves that surrounded their destination: a circle of blue crystal, glowing just for them. They were going to make it!

A massive roar was the only warning. He had just enough time to look back before the Mana Devourer’s claw grabbed his leg. It slammed him against a shelf and knocked it over, dozens of plastic spray bottles smacking him in the face.

How did it make it without him spotting - oh, it must have used up the mana from Karah’s ability. He unloaded two rounds of the shotgun into it, but this was no Gibberer. A dozen more rounds would run off of it like rainwater. He struggled and twisted, but the creature’s grip was all too firm. It wrenched him back into the fallen shelf, an inexorable pull he couldn’t stop. I’m out of abilities and so is Karah, so...

The sickened dread on Karah’s face told him she came to the same conclusion.

Only one thing left to do. He took a deep breath and forced a smile, “Karah… don’t ever give up, okay?”

A twisted face, already torn by guilt. “No!”

But it wasn’t Karah who’d shouted.

Louise rocketed toward him, tears raining from her eyes, each almost white with grief. Wait… she was actually glowing.

The white light redoubled into a mighty corona, all within the palm of her hand. When she spoke, her voice was a winter storm. “COLD SNAP!”

The world exploded into white. And so much light; she was the only thing that existed, save for the endless white. And cold. So cold. His hands were pale white and frost covered everything, from hands to cars to shelves, all courtesy of Louise. Cray couldn’t do anything, but the Mana Devourer’s grip slackened enough for Karah to drag him forward and out, into the waypoint.

Moments later, the Mana Devourer roared and brought down its claw, but too late.

They’d made it.