Bret informed him once he got back that they were able to locate 4 different entrances to the Ratling burrows which meant he would need to split the group into 4 for the assault. When he mentioned it Bret told him it was a bad Idea. He had apparently went even further then necessary and snuck inside after purchasing an invisibility potion that lasted 30 minutes and cost him 10,000 credits. What he saw inside was not good.

The Ratling burrows were a set of caves dug in to the small hills and they were just over 5 feet tall in height and very narrow in most places, making it impractical to head inside. Even when he got further inside, this didn’t improve much. There were larger caverns but if thousands of those things came at them at once in the enclosed space they would be quickly overwhelmed.

A small group could feasibly fight inside but it would be cramped. The monsters apparently slept in little alcoves in the walls along the tunnels and further into the caves. There were also thousands of them inside, and although they were low enough level to not pose a problem to any of the Guardians when it came to fighting a few at a time, any more then that would be problematic especially if they had little room to maneuver.

It was still early at just after 1pm so they had plenty of time until their unsuspecting enemy became active. Aiden got together with the Guardians and they tossed idea’s around for what they could do in this situation. Finally a plan was hatched that should deal them a large enough blow and cut down their numbers enough to have a good chance of taking them all out.

Once everyone was organized, they left the town heading south towards the hills in the distance, most of the higher level fighters from the town joined them numbering close to 100 extra bodies. Aiden was apprehensive but also slightly excited. He hadn’t really fought much in the last few day, and when he did, anything he attacked died in one or two strokes of his sword. The enemies around Eden were simply too low level to pose a challenge to him at this point.

This battle probably wouldn’t be much different for him but the enemies would be numerous and he could finally let loose again. He hadn’t mentioned it to Victoria, fearing what she would think of him, but he felt alive when he was fighting, like he belonged on the battlefield. It excited him on a primal level and he feared he would turn into a battle maniac.

This would be a great opportunity to further try out the effectiveness of his swordsmanship. He felt that the added knowledge which came with the class increased his skill in sword fighting to the next level. If he was to put it into words then he would say that he started as a novice, then with the War Ranger class moved up in rank to beginner and now after getting Ice Tempest he was at intermediate or competent, maybe even slightly above that because of all the fights he had been in already and the little bit of training he did back in town.

He wondered if it was because both classes focused mainly on sword fighting. ‘It would make sense’, he mused, having noticed that others who had classes with a focus on sword’s were more skilled then someone that had a class with a different focus and used a sword. He learned by asking around that all melee classes seemingly came with some basic knowledge on how to use melee weapons, but the difference between that basic knowledge and a specific proficiency from a class was distinct.

This would also be a great opportunity to level up his Ice Tempest class. Victoria would finally get the chance to unlock her second class as well, She was only around 2,000 essence away at this point, from going out daily into the forests to fight. If he didn’t know any better he would think she was also becoming a battle junkie.

They were close now and Bret directed each group towards an entrance. They spent their time setting up the trap’s which each member of the order donated to pay for. About 5,000 credits per person went into this set up. Aiden took his group towards one of the two in the middle, which consisted of him, Vicky, Cassandras party and the seven leaders from Hardwick.

The rest of the Guardians split into three teams and headed inside the other entrances, with the rest of their group waiting outside. They cautiously entered the hollow below the hill after each drinking an upgraded variant of the night vision potion.

Aiden and the Guardians each purchased a couple, knowing they would be needed here. It was the best version they could find in the shop, although he learned from Lily who had the alchemist class, that it was possible to eventually craft better versions of pretty much any potion available on the system.

High grade Night Vision Potion: Effect - Enhanced vision in the dark allowing you to see as if it was day. Effective distance 250ft. Duration 2 hour’s (cost 1000 credits)

‘It’s not as cramped as I feared, there’s enough room for two people to comfortably fight shoulder to shoulder, although the headroom isn’t great and we would be forced to crouch when fighting.’ The War Ranger thought after taking a look around, once they were a little ways inside. He was hoping the path would open up further the deeper they went and eventually lead to larger open areas making it easier to fight.

After a few minutes of walking his hopes were answered when the tunnel started to opened up in to a wider cavern. He even had enough room to stand at full height. He immediately noticed upon entering fully, that they were not alone and raised his left hand up, signaling to those behind him to stop. There were what looked like dozens of what Aiden assumed were Ratling’s, (not having seen one before) laying in small holes in the ground and inside the walls, sleeping.

He took a good look around, now able to see much farther in the dark thanks to the new potions range of visibility. There were two other exits from this cavern that he could just barely make out, one on each side. Leading him to believe that the entrance they used was probably connected with the others.

He couldn’t see all the way to the other side, but had to assume that there was also another path leading deeper in. If what he was told about their numbers was correct there would have to be at least a couple thousand of them, to be able to send out attacking party’s everyday to harass the town ranging in the hundreds.

He also trusted Bret’s assessment so he believed there to be close to 8,000 of them. He wondered how they had multiplied so quickly. He was worried that if these things could increase their numbers so fast then other monsters could as well. They would have to be careful of that in the future.

‘If there are so many, I wonder why they didn’t all attack at once. They probably would have overwhelmed the townspeople if they had. Even tho these monsters seem to be intelligent, it seems they are still lacking in things like basic tactics.’ He cleared his head and refocused his mind on what would be a grim task.

He had accepted the need to kill but it somehow still got to him at times. Right now for example, when less then a month ago what he and the Guardians were about to do would amount to a genocide of an intelligent species. It was either these things or them he knew, but it still left a sour taste in his mouth if he thought about it too long.

Clearing his head yet again he motioned to the others. They slowly advanced forward and quietly slit the throats of the Ratling’s one by one. They didn’t die just from that, but they couldn’t scream out and wake the others. They managed to kill over half of the monsters in this cavern, numbering close to two hundred this way, but unsurprisingly someone eventually managed to slip up and one of the monsters woke the rest.

The surprised Ratling’s sprang up and attacked turning the one sided slaughter into an actual battle. A few minutes into the fight Aiden was getting a better handle on his skill level. It felt to him like muscle memory now, where as before he had to think about what to do with his sword, now he just reacted, his body moving seamlessly to parry, block, or cut.

While moving his head slightly to avoid a spear thrust and then leaning forward and swinging his sword in a wide horizontal arc, taking out the two Ratling’s in front of him, he chanced a glance a little ways away at Cassandra’s party. They weren’t having much trouble dispatching these things and one of them was even smiling the entire time. ‘kinda creepy that one’ The youngest in their group, Tom, also seemed to keep disappearing from his view occasionally, although his senses still told him his general direction. ‘That’s an interesting ability, could make a good spy or infiltrator in the future.’

The War ranger brought his focused back to the fight and continued the extermination of the rest of the Ratling’s in quick order, with a few managing to get away into a tunnel in the back that indeed existed. They opted not to follow them and stayed here instead to fight the monsters that were sure to return with greater numbers. They set up at the mouth of the cave where the monsters ran into, it would keep them funneled and in front of them until there were to many to hold the location.

Victoria came up to Aiden while they waited and showed him the options for her second class which she had unlocked in the fight just now. He took a look and after some pondering advised her to select Valkyrie, which was a Rare warrior class only accessible to women.

Since she chose the spear proficiency for Battle Healer, and Valkyrie was a spear focused class, they would synergize well together. It was also similar to his War Ranger class in that it increased one's combat prowess. She thanked him for the input and selected her class.

Description: The Valkyrie is a fast and fierce female warrior with a focus on spear combat and body enhancement. With the ability to increase their effectiveness mid battle they can turn the tide in most situations. Their deadly dance on battlefields leaves carnage in their wake and strikes fear in their enemies.

(+3 free / +3 Agi / +1 Dex / +1 Skill points per lvl)

Class Selection permanent Bonus: +2 Vit / +1 End / +1 Str / +2 Agi / +2 Dex / +2 Skill / +1 Int / +1 Wis

Skill gained at first level:

Overdrive - lvl 1 (0%)

Increases Agi, Dex, and Skill by 10%

Duration: N/A. (Cost 50 Mana to activate) (Secondary cost 10 Stamina per 10 second’s)

After viewing the complete description of the class he knew it would be a good fit for her. The extra mobility from the Overdrive skill would be perfect for maintaining distance, and dodging attacks. The +3 bonus per level would only help with that. Its the first time he saw someone gain a +3 to a single stat per level. She would eventually be a speed demon, faster then most in a battle, especially once the Overdrive skilled gained levels.

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She would need to spend a lot of her free points on vitality and endurance to keep from becoming too vulnerable and that would make her healing suffer somewhat in the future, but healing wasn’t really the main focus of the Battle Healer class in the first place.

Victoria only chose it because they needed a healer at the time, and it was the secondary focus of the class. He figured it would be a good build going forward, and if she could evolve one or both of her classes later, she might find something more suitable then Battle Healer.

A few minutes later they heard noises coming from the tunnel and prepared themselves to halt the enemies advance. Victoria cast her Flame cyclone spell at the first grouping of monsters, causing them to scream out in pain as they were engulfed in the inferno. Everyone fought fiercely after that to hold the tunnel, killing many monsters that came at them. At times even blocking the passage with the bodies of the Ratling’s.

The tactic worked for a while and they managed to thin their numbers quite a bit but the monsters eventually pushed through. Mainly because of the arrival of new enemies. These were a bit larger then those they fought previously with slightly higher levels as well.

Aiden figured they must have been fighting the grunts and fodder, wondering if perhaps the Ratling’s had some sort of hierarchy which would maybe explain why they attacked the town in such a fashion. ‘The stronger ones were in charge and sent out the grunts to conquer and to fight to get stronger? or something to that effect.’

The grunt’s were all somewhere in the range of twelve to nineteen, these ones were all above level twenty. They were also slightly larger and had better quality weapons. When inspected they were also termed as warriors instead of just Ratling’s.

They weren’t all that much harder for him or the Guardians to kill, but he could see the seven leaders of the town he brought with him were struggling a bit and had to support each other. They had all gained at least a level so far but the highest of them was their leader William, with his common class of Warrior at level 10. He fought with a war-hammer and Aiden wondered at the choice of weapon.

He also noticed that none of them seemed to have an uncommon class. In fact no one he inspected from this town so far had anything other then the basic common classes, which was highly unusual. Out of the 52 Guardians only eight of them had common classes. It was similar with the rest of Eden’s citizens.

‘Perhaps it has to do with the lack of struggle these people had at the start of the awakening? With so many of them alive to fend off the Mana beasts and no immediate danger around they must only have had the basic class choices. Now however those that had yet to unlock a class would probably have better prospects from the constant attacks they had to fend off.’ Aiden shrugged and decide that was probably the reason and got back into the fight, moving a bit closer to the group of seven to provide support if needed.

It was difficult to combat such a large group in an open area and even Aiden was slowly starting to take damage, so they retreated back towards the entrance and fought a retreating battle in the cave leading out. They had enough room to fight side by side at first but the tunnel kept narrowing as they retreated so they were forced to create two rows of fighters.

With Aiden, and Victoria up front and the others behind offering ranged support with the occasional heal from Myra who had a common healing class simply called ‘Healer’. The only person who could do nothing to help was Dean, who couldn’t fight with his Great-sword in the tunnel and had no ranged weapon to use.

They fought a retreating battle for another minute with the front liners having to swap out to recover their stamina and health. Eventually one of those waiting outside came running in and informed them that the rest of the party’s were coming out so they turned around and ran towards the exit. Once outside they carefully watched where they stepped using the placed rocks as markers to make their way up a slight incline to where the others were waiting.

Looking left and right Aiden could see the other Guardians also making their way to them. They seemed fine if a little dirty and tired, and after a quick count were all thankfully still alive. When They were all up on the hill everyone switched to their bow’s or crossbows if they had them, and waited a little as the monsters started to come out of the burrows in droves. They seemed a little bothered by the sunlight, but they were enraged from the invasion into their homes and charged out anyway, with the grunts sent forward first.

The first group of Ratling’s got about a hundred feet from exits to the burrow's, when the traps they set went off. There was a flash of light follewed by a loud bang, and then the earth around the monster's exploded in a tower of earth, fire and gore.

When the dust settled there were hundreds of Ratling corpses littering the ground. Out from the cloud of dust came more of them and 100 feet later there was another explosion resulting in more gore that even managed to reach them. A dismembered Ratling arm had pelted one of the unsuspecting guardians close to him in the head. Making the man almost throw up when he saw what hit him.

Before they went inside, each of the guardians had purchased two magical mines that were placed in front of the entrance and a little ways up the hill. They were spaced out enough that they hopefully wouldn’t accidentally be triggered by the previous set’s exploding. The Ratling’s didn’t seem to care at their looses, seeming to be in some sort of frenzy and plowed straight ahead and into the third row of mines killing another 300 of them or so.

The approaching monsters were now about 700 feet away, and close enough that they let out a volley of arrows into their ranks, mowing down another hundred on the first shot. Three more volley’s were loosed in to the Ratlings before they reach to within 250 feet. That’s when five of the Guardians loosed flaming arrows in to the air. The arrows sailed up high and at an arc landing a few feet in front of the approaching hoard.

The ground in front of them was set aflame, the fire quickly spreading into the monster’s ranks, setting them on fire and resulting in unpleasant squeaking from them and halting their progress slightly. The ground had been covered with gasoline they took from the town’s mostly intact gas station and some oil for a better burn. The effect was more than satisfactory engulfing most of the front lines of the charging horde.

Arrows continued to rain down on them as the fire slowly began to die down and the Ratlings continued their frenzied advance. The defenders continuously backed up geaining a couple more precious seconds for a another few volleys before Aiden called “Hold!” and everyone stopped.

The Ratling's were almost upon them a second later. Those that had any, unleashed their spells in to the quickly approaching monsters. Various magics slammed in to them, taking out another chunk of the enemy before they were upon them.

The Guardians made up the front ranks of their defensive line and took on the initial charge of the remaining enemies, which were funneled somewhat by the archers who had aimed for the sides of the approaching army, resulting in them clustering closer together. What followed was a brutal and bloody battle that finally came to an end 10 minutes later.

The injured were tended to while the few dead were laid out for transport back to the town. Eight of those that came with them had died in the battle from the over whelming number of enemies. Thankfully none of them were his Guardians but he still felt saddened at the loss of people. He knew that humans were currently an endangered species and any losses were a tragedy.

The monsters that managed to reach them numbered somewhere between eleven to thirteen hundred, and the defenders were pushed to their limit trying to hold them off. Aiden had killed over a hundred of them by himself. He was a hurricane of carnage, anything coming near him was quickly cut apart and left half frozen. It still wasn't enoug to prevent the casualties.

It was the best strategy the Order could come up with to thin the Ratling’s numbers. It had worked wonderfully and the Ratling bodies that littered the field numbered in the thousands, speaking to the plans ultimate success. More then 70% of them were killed before reaching their lines. It still wasn’t enough however.

‘If only we had brought a few more people, the casualties could have been avoided.’ He lamented, then sighed tiredly. There was nothing to do about it now. They didn’t have all the information going in.

Bret did a good job but the 30 minute time on the potion and the fact he had to move quietly only got him so far into the caves. He had brought back an approximate estimate of their numbers and levels but this only accounted for the grunt’s of the litter and not the actual warriors.

Looking over the log from the battle he saw there were over 3000 of the warrior variants. They were all that was left of the enemy by the time they got into melee range. And they were stronger than what the residents of Hardwick were used to fighting.

They went to loot all the corpses and Aiden was eternally grateful that there was an option to loot multiple monsters at once or they would have been there for hours. Now if only he could find an option to turn off his sense of smell. The battlefield smelled horrible and he had to cover his face with a cloth to walk it.

According to their combined log’s, Him and Vicky had killed 478 Ratling’s in total earning over fifty thousand system credits each. The monsters that died from the Mines all gave essence to those that had purchased and placed them. The ones that died from the fire went to the lucky five that had started it. They had killed almost 10,000 of the things since they got here.

The group’s went back down the hill and enter the burrow, killing any stragglers they could find. Aiden's team did the same and when they were sure there were no more monsters left here, they headed towards one of the two side passages to see if they could join up with one of the other groups, and help out there.

Status:

Aiden Winters: Age 22

Race Human: Rank(f)

War Ranger: lvl - 25 - Mana essence: 27027/30000

Ice Tempest: lvl - 6 - Mana essence: 5570/7000

Woodworking: lvl - 26

Health: 970/970

Stamina: 630/630

Mana: 490/490

Defense: 63(162)

Mana Defense: 49

Vitality - 90(97)

Endurance - 63

Strength - 69(74)

Agility - 76(96)

Dexterity - 53

Skill - 58(69)

Intelligence - 49

Wisdom - 49

(+3 free / +2 Vit / +1 End / +1 Str /+1 Agi per level from War Ranger)

(+3 free / +1 Vit / +1 skill /+1 Int / +2 Wis per level from Ice Tempest)

(+1 skill from Woodworking Per level)

System credits - 170,750

Skills:

Battle Aura Lvl 2 - (30%)

Effect: Boosts all stats by 2 for 1 minute.

Cost 35 Mana and 25 stamina.

Tempest Blade Lvl 1 - (20%)

Effect: Encases your blade in Ice Mana dealing increased damage with each strike. Duration 15 seconds. +15 Ice damage per strike +1 damage for every 10 points in Int.

Cost 50 Mana

Spells:

Frost Wave lvl 1 - (10%)

Effect: Unleashes a wave of Frost in a 60 degree cone in the direction you point your hand. Range 10 feet.

Effect: Deal 45-50 Ice damage and slows targets for 3 seconds within the cone of effect. (Cost 50 Mana)

___________________________________

Victoria Leblanc: Age 21

Race Human: Rank(f)

Battle Healer: lvl 25 - Mana essence: 22850/30000

Valkyrie: lvl 6 - Mana essence: 2850/7000

Herbologist: lvl - 23

Health: 660/660

Stamina: 480/480

Mana: 500/500

Defense: 48(145)

Mana Defense: 50

Vitality - 54(66)

Endurance - 48

Strength - 51

Agility - 81(86)

Dexterity - 40

Skill - 41(47)

Intelligence - 70(75)

Wisdom - 45(50)

(+3 free / +1 Str / +1 Agi / +1 Int / +1 Wis per lvl from Battle Healer)

(+3 free / +3 Agi / +1 Dex / +1 Skill points per level from Valkyrie)

(+1 Int from Herbology Per level)

System credits - 274,390

Skills:

Skill gained at first level: Overdrive - lvl 1 (5%)

Increases Agi, Dex, and Skill by 10% at the cost of stamina

Duration: N/A. (Cost 50 Mana to activate) (Secondary cost 10 Stamina per 10 second’s)

spells:

Healing Wind - lvl 2 (40%)

Summons a wind infused with healing Mana over a single target.

Range 16 feet. Cast time 2 seconds.

Effect: Restore 75 hp to a single target at the cost of 30 Mana.

Flame Cyclone - lvl 2 (35%)

Unleashes a cyclone of flames in a designated location.

Spell duration: 6 seconds. Range: 26 feet. Affected area: 11 foot radius from point of origin. Cost: 100 Mana.

Effect: Deal 45-50 Fire damage per second. High chance to set targets aflame.