Hazel and Astrid stared blankly at the Player with the gauntlets as he mercilessly drove his fists into the skull of an Infant Spider. The head instantly exploded, sending green blood splattering everywhere. Luckily, the two players were far enough away from the splash zone and avoided getting their clothing stained in the slick emerald liquid.

Aside from that, they were still questioning the sudden appearance of the Player that just saved them. Where did he come from, and why was he helping them? Could it be that he was after the monsters and their XP, or was it something else entirely?

Neither Hazel nor Astrid knew the Third player’s true intentions. For now, he didn’t appear to be their enemy...but that could change at any time, so it was imperative for them to not let their guards down.

Using the opportunity while he was distracted, Hazel tried to inspect his status to see who he was.

[Kane Evans, Class: Brawler, Level 23]

She sharply held her breath upon viewing his information; surprised by what she discovered. This guy was not only two levels above her, but he also seemed to be in possession of an interesting class as well. A Brawler class.

If Hazel was assuming right, Brawlers were people who fought with their fists. Considering that this Player, Kane, was currently swinging his gauntlets at the Infant spiders with malicious intent, that told her everything she needed to know. He must’ve been a Warrior before selecting his evolved class since that was the only one that matched the setup.

Aside from Astrid and herself, this Kane person was the third player they encountered that possessed an Evolved Class. With this fact at hand, Hazel knew that this player wasn’t someone she could take lightly.

The fact that he was easily taking down the Infant spiders told her as much. Even if those monsters were low-level, it was their numbers that were the problem for them. Taking on one or two level two to three monsters wasn’t difficult, but that changes when more than five of them start ganging up on you. And unlike the Fractured humans, these things don’t take their time getting to you. They rush and attack, making it even more difficult to deal with them when there are so many at once.

But the Brawler seemed to be doing fine. However, she wasn’t certain how long that was going to last before even he hit his limit. When that happened, they were screwed unless they could come up with a plan soon.

Several of the spider monsters attempted to get close to the hunter and witch but were immediately dealt with by a black spear zipping around the air and piercing through their bodies in a single motion. Hazel sat there with Astrid with her arm raised as she continued to use Telekinesis to manipulate her cursed spear spell however she wished.

A couple of the creatures managed to avoid getting skewered by Hazel’s spell, only to get killed by an arrow to the head. Their bodies went limb as they collapsed on the floor with a loud thud.

“There’s no end to these things!” Astrid fumed, firing several more arrows at the next wave of spiders climbing on the roof.

Much like before, they were direct headshots that instantly killed the creatures. The dark elf along with Hazel watched them collapse on top of their deceased brethren that came there before them. If they continued any longer, there was going to practically be a barricade of spider corpses. While Hazel found the idea of the Infant spiders climbing over their siblings to get to the players somewhat morbid, she couldn’t necessarily focus on that right now because of the limited time they possessed.

They needed to get the hell off of the roof and keep moving. But exactly could they go in this situation? Even if that ran away, the spiders were bound to catch up to them, especially with Astrid and the Brawler slowly losing the energy to either fight or flee.

But she also knew that they couldn’t do anything to the spider horde because of the sheer number of them attacking. None of Hazel’s spells could assist her, except maybe Entropy Sickle, but again, she refused to use it after what happened with the Entropy spell. However, at this point, she might not have another option if she wanted to survive.

Hazel continued to fret over her options, struggling to come up with a solution. Out of nowhere, loud explosions could be heard below them. It didn’t sound like bombs, per se, but the noise was a bit similar to that. With each discharge that rang through the air, the building that Hazel and the other two stood on trembled from the force.

Curious about what was happening, Hazel briefly used her Astral Eye to peer down the building to catch a glimpse of whatever was causing those explosions. That was when she saw something rather unexpected.

Down on the very street below them, Hazel witnessed several large balls of flame arched in the air before crashing down on the spider horde. Several explosions were created from the impact as the burning corpses of spiders were flung around the area by the force.

Following the path of the arched fireballs, Hazel saw more people on the opposite side of the Horde with a few of them at the front continuing their fireball assault. They were players, just like the Brawler that came and saved them.

Kane soon noticed the fireball explosions as well and looked down. As soon as he saw the other players, he smiled deeply while letting out a laugh.

“They finally got here!” He turned to face Hazel and Astrid. “Alright, you two, we need to move and fast!” He rushed over to the pair, getting them ready to flee. “I’ll hold on to the girl in the dress while we descend! She doesn’t look so good with the bleeding eyes.”

Hazel tilted her head in confusion. Bleeding eyes? What was this guy on about?

Using her other Astral Eye, the witch took a glimpse at herself before getting startled by her appearance. She was bleeding from her eyes! What should’ve been tears streaming down her face was actually her crimson life essence.

But why was her eyes bleeding? Could it have been because her Evil Eyes were overloaded? It would match up with her eyes suddenly burning like she was sprayed with pepper spray or acid.

“Alright, let’s move!” The brawler declared reaching over to pick up Hazel before getting stopped by Astrid.

“I got her!” She snapped, already picking up Hazel, princess carry-style. “Let’s go!”

Not wasting another moment, the dark elf jumped off the roof, landing on some fire escape stairs from another building. Taking a couple more jumps down, they finally landed near where the other players were currently making their stand against the horde.

With the help of Astral Eye, Hazel saw that there was a massive wall of fire, obstructing the spiders' path to swarm and overwhelm the players. She could hear the crackling flames as they blazed violently along with the gruesome sizzling sound of burning spiders of those that were stupid enough to get too close.

A couple of the corpses even managed to get through the flame, but were completely charred, looking like coal. Their bodies couldn’t even move a couple of steps forward before collapsing in front of the firewall. It didn’t take long before another barricade of spider corpses was made, further obstructing the remaining spiders from getting through.

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With that scene going down, Astrid and Kane made their way over to the other players, to regroup.

“Took you guys long enough,” Kane said with a daring smile.

One of the players assisting in the magic assault turned to glare at the Brawler, causing him to flinch in response. It was a young woman probably around Hazel’s age or slightly older, wearing a vibrate blue magician's robe while wielding a tall gnarled staff with a blue gem centered at the tip.

“You shouldn’t have rushed ahead like a moron!” The mage scolded him. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”

“Hey, I told you before that I was going to take a look ahead and look what I found?” He pointed at Hazel and Astrid, obviously the two people he was referring to. “Besides, Zoe gave me the go-ahead, so what’s the problem?”

The mage buried her face in her hands, clearly done with her companion’s nonsense.

Before their banter could go any further, loud, inhuman screeches could be heard from behind the wall of fire. A moment later, several of the spider creatures blitzed through the blazing barrier, barely burning as they moved forward with vigor and bloodlust.

“Dammit...!” The mage looked over at the wall before turning to their left, seeing more spiders flanking them in droves. “We need to go, now!”

Declaring this, she and the other players retreated, making their way over to...five green military cargo transport vehicles. So, they still worked even after the System Integration? Hazel wanted to feel elated about this, but they had bigger problems to deal with first.

She spared a glance at the looming threat of the spider horde, watching as they emerged not only from the fire but also from the two streets that connected to the one they were on right now.

Kane, Astrid, and Hazel followed after them, getting to the vehicles in preparation to flee. Before getting in, the brawler looked around, as if searching for someone.

“Where’s Zoe and a few of the others?” He questioned the mage.

“What do you think, they’re trying to block the path to keep the spiders from following us! Get in already!” She declared while pushing Kane inside.

Astrid and Hazel were the last to get inside one of the vehicles. Getting inside, the sound of screeching wheels could be heard around them. The vehicle they took shelter in then propelled forward, forcing the players to sink back in their seats from the sudden acceleration.

As the military-grade vehicles drove away, Hazel still had one of her Astral Eyes outside, allowing her to see what was behind them. The spider horde soon bypassed the firewall without much trouble, to the point where the flaming barrier was beginning to dissipate from the swarm marching over it.

It didn’t take long before the entire swarm regrouped as they continued to chase after the players, clearly determined to eliminate every one of them.

All of a sudden, the buildings around the swarm started to collapse. Their main foundations seemingly weakened as they crumbled and fell over on the spiders, sending dust and debris everywhere. The sudden collision made the earth tremble on impact. Even the vehicles driving away were effective, shaking around like made despite them possessing suspension springs to mitigate their bumpy ride.

The quake continued for a little while as a fog of dust cloud formed in the area where the spiders were crushed by the various buildings around them. Thankfully, the military cargo transport vehicles were fast enough to avoid getting caught in the collapse.

Instead of stopping, the cargo vehicles drove a little further out, making sure that there was no chance for them to get crushed by collapsing buildings or ground. Once they were at a considerable distance away, they finally came to a screeching halt, nearly causing the passengers inside to get thrown forward as a result.

Taking a moment to collect themselves, all of the players including Hazel and Astrid soon left the cargo transport vehicle, curious to see the aftermath of the many building collapses that killed the spiders.

Looking ahead, all they could see was a dust cloud obscuring their view. They couldn’t see anything past the gray dust fog. Which meant they weren’t certain if all of the spiders were taken care of. However, despite waiting there for a little bit, none of the spiders emerged from the dust cloud.

It didn’t take long before the dust finally settled, giving the players a view of the aftermath which was an entire block or so completely leveled with building debris everywhere. If anyone was even remotely close to that disaster, there were zero chances of survival. Even their status as a player couldn’t guarantee that they could make it out of something like that.

The brawler whistled while seeing the devastation. “Wow, that’s a lot of damage. Thank God I don’t live in Portland. One of these buildings could’ve been my house or favorite restaurant.”

Despite being awestruck by the destruction, Kane’s comment somehow pulled Hazel’s attention away from it all after hearing those words. The way he talked about Portland in such a way...could he have been from Earth?

It was possible since both Earth and Astrid’s worlds were merged, and Hazel couldn’t have been the only surviving Player from her world. This meant that Kane and maybe a few others around them could be from Earth as well.

Although Hazel felt excited to finally come across humans from her world, she couldn’t revel in this realization when several players appeared from their right, walking down a street they emerged from.

At least six or eight players were walking over toward Hazel and the others. The person leading said group seemed to be a female Knight. She had long blond hair that stretched down to the middle of her back and wore several metal plates of armor like a breastplate with shoulder guards, bracers, and greaves. Strapped to her waist was a sword. Whether it was a magic sword or a normal one, Hazel couldn’t tell.

With her entire get-up, this person gave off the appearance of a female knight in a fantasy novel. She even possessed an aura similar to one with the way she confidently walked while leading the rest of the players behind her.

Once again riddled with curiosity, Hazel attempted to try and identify the knight. If the Brawler was level twenty-three, then something told her that this player was stronger. And she was certainly right.

[Zoe Callahan, Class: Knight, Level 25]

Level twenty-five?! That was five levels below thirty! How in the hell did she reach that level? Was her Tutorial Dungeon more challenging than Hazel’s? Or did she get to that point after coming back home by killing stronger monsters?

“Good work keeping those spiders occupied so we could get the buildings ready for demolition,” The female knight praised with a kind smile.

Kane and the mage from before nodded their heads, accepting the praise.

“I’m surprised you suggested such a thing,” Kane noted. “If we didn’t time this right, we could’ve ended up under all that rubble with the rest of the spiders.” He pointed over at the completely ruined block that used to house several buildings. Most of which were likely popular in Portland.

“When facing a horde of monsters like that, this was the only method to deal with them. It was either that or having us swim across a deep lack or ocean to keep them from following us. Even then, there was no guarantee that we could’ve escaped them.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right...” The brawler scratched his head, understanding the female Knight’s strategy.

Zoe then turned and faced the two players that joined them, Hazel and Astrid. The two players hesitated to say anything, unsure of what to do in their current situation. While it was true that they were saved by them, they also knew that they couldn’t simply trust these people so easily.

If they were anything like the player killers from the Fractured world, Hazel and Astrid would’ve been placed in quite the pickle. Before the Knight could say anything to them yet, they were interrupted by another tremor. The Earth below their feet rumbled and shook like made, threatening to tear apart at any moment.

And unfortunately, it did. More cracks in the stone ground spread around them. Then, in the distance where the rubble of the collapsed buildings resided, something burst from under it, sending debris flying around.

The players scrambled to avoid getting crushed or struck by the descending bits of building debris as it hailed down upon them. Meanwhile, the source of the commotion was slowly beginning to emerge from the rubble.

Hazel caught a glimpse using Astral Eye, but what she saw terrified her to her core. It was another spider monster, but nothing like she had seen before. It was at least ten times bigger than the Infant spiders, standing well over twenty feet tall on all eight of its hairy pointed legs.

The creature may as well had been a miniature kaiju from its size alone. If Hazel could use the buildings that used to surround the spider, she would deduce that it was at least three-quarters the height of one if not taller than that.

The giant spider stood above the rubble before letting out an ear-piercing screech. Its eight crimson eyes then settled on the players standing before it. Its mandibles flicked out as it hissed at its prey, causing the other players including Hazel to recoil in disgust and fear.

A moment later...it opened its mandibles wider to reveal its grotesque mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth before a green liquid was shot out, aimed directly at Hazel and the other players.