The air was thick with the sound of beating wings—hundreds of them. The loud flapping and chittering sound from the opening and closing of mandibles sent shivers down his spine. The creatures, small they may be, were dangerous. They swarmed the area like a black tide. A look was all it took to feel an impending storm. Their sharp mandibles continuously clicked in freakish unison, adding to this foreboding storm.

In the path of the raging storm, a man stood, in his battered clothes, soaked in blood and guts. He wielded a danger and had a pack on his back.

Panic surged through the man as he spotted the encroaching swarm. What was there to do when faced with a true natural disaster? His chest tightened, and his breaths quickened. Only a single thought went through his head, the most human one of of course. There was no time or strength in bones, most definitely not to fight them all. His body screamed and he obeyed, he knew he must escape. The synapses in his brain ignited on that single thought alone, like a bolt down the narrow alley he strolled, hoping desperately in bones for safety.

He ran pushing his feet beyond their limit, into that alleyway, hoping to lose his predator, but unlike his previous attempts at fooling his foes, at the other end, his hopes turned to dread. There on the other side, another group of Krivels emerged, they blotted the light flying overhead. Everywhere he looked there was no escape. Their numbers were endless and their beady eyes gleamed with anger, and most terrifyingly, hunger. He skid to a halt as the Krivels converged onto his position. The way ahead was a death waiting for him.

He turned around hoping to escape before they enclosed him on both sides, he needed to escape. A few Krivels latched onto his body, their acid saliva, their teeth penetrating and burning his skin. It sizzled and burned but now was not the time to wallow, so he turned. He turned left out of the alley, he ignored the death notifications of the insects, as he ripped one in half, angered by the burning of his slabbed. The agony burned through his clothing only providing a small respite from the inevitable pain, he fought forward, trying to outrun the hoard, but they were onto him. They saw their prayer and they would not relent, not a moment, he knew. More clung onto him, biting his arms, neck, and wherever the disgusting insects could sink their teeth into.

It was getting into him he knew. There was only so much pain he could endure while his blood ran. His body did too, as his vision began to blur.

He needed time to evade the Krivel's pursuit. His mind ran with many ideas. More Krivel's landed on his back weighing him down. His foot slipped and he almost landed on the ground. Grayson caught himself before his doom was sealed for good. He was one human in a swarm of hundreds, what was there he could do? His [Firefly] wasn't enough to kill them all, he wasn't his future self that could take out an entire sky of lizards. His eyes darted flittering around his surroundings. His heart beat fast heavily in his chest. "What to do. What to do!" he screamed in his head.

He felt the air grow heavier, he knew the Krivels were gaining on him if he couldn't kill them alone— no he couldn't kill them alone, but he didn't need to. Everything around him felt like it slowed to a crawl. He felt A Krivel descending on his neck baring its mandibles, he didn't think to swat it, because he knew what he could do.

The Krivel aiming for his neck dived straight toward it like a peregrine falcon falling onto its prey, but before it could feast on its foe, Grayson twisted his body and turned a corner. There he saw what he was looking for. A pile of debris— a half-collapsed building just wanted he needed. It was risky, but it was one of the only ways. It was either this or facing the tide all alone.

Once again he felt his heartbeat, the sweat drip down his face, and the burning sensation all over his body. He'd done it multiple times, and he only needed to do it one more time. He drew in one big breath and drew upon all the leftover mana he recovered. He was no engineer but he knew with a big enough blast, anything could crash.

He ran into the half-collapsed building only standing on its two legs. He felt the building shake as the Krivel's chasing behind him collided with the supports. They didn't know it, but with just a little support he could do some massive.

His eyes focused on the two support beams. He was still too far from the other side to escape. That's the thing with gambles, there's always a chance of things going wrong. And right now the stakes were high.

If the Krivels managed to collapse one of the support beams with the force of their bodies before Grayson could get far enough to the other of the building to escape, both they and he would die. But if all things went according to plan he would have enough time to reach the other side before a collapse.

The thing is that it was still a gamble even at that point. He wasn't an expert on buildings. He could miscalculate and find himself unable to make the building fall or a whole host of other things could happen. Because he wasn't an expert nor was he experienced, he knew there were many flaws in his plan. He didn't have many options so he proceeded anyway. He ran with all his might knowing his real reason was to escape with his life, not to kill these things.

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He expected it, but he didn't expect it to happen so fast. Behind him, he heard a loud crashing sound. He didn't need to look behind him to know what happened. The ceiling growing closer to him was all he needed to know.

Am I going to make it in time?

Questions like those raced through his mind, but he still ran. It was now or never. He swung his dagger wildly cutting apart the critters trying to encircle him. The air began to crackle with power as a bright yellow light began surging toward his hand. Grayson activated [Firefly], the spells light flickering throughout the building.

"Who would have thought they don't like bright lights." he quickly shut his mouth as he felt something enter his mouth.

That tasted awful.

He silenced the random thoughts in his head as he dodged a piece of debris that fell from above him.

He was thankful that the entire ceiling hadn't fallen on him, because of the last support beam still standing, but that would change. He aimed his finger, sucking all the mana out of his body, and aimed at the last pillar and forced all his mana in that direction. The swirling fireflies obeyed and shot toward the pillar.

More Krivel's began to descend on his body covering his field of vision. He slashed at them but there were still too many. The little light show had initially dazed them but now they seemed a lot angrier than before.

The structure groaned under the force and a huge piece of the ceiling fell toward his position. Seeing this he threw himself to the ground with a heavy thud and his breath knocked out of him. He gritted his teeth fighting against the pain and scrambled back up and ran.

Grayson dodged the huge pieces of the building falling onto him. The ground began cracking from the large amount of force it was being subjected to. The large majority of the swarm had fallen to the debris, but there were still much more willing to take a fallen brethren place.

The world spun as Grayson struggled to inhale any more oxygen. It seemed the entire building had finally given up on standing.

Grayson's chest tightened as the shadows grew closer. He clenched his fist and found himself in a footballer tackle position. He ignored the Krivel's burning his flesh and rammed straight into a glass window. He lost his footing as he tumbled threw feeling the glass shard scrape against him.

It wasn't over yet he got back up to his feet and looked at the window he'd just crashed through. Even after all the damage they'd taken, there were still hundreds of them bounding toward the window. His eyes went wide, but before they could descend upon their foe, a large cloud of dust wooshed through the air.

Grayson couldn't help but close his eyes, but when he opened them, he saw the building had finally fallen in its entirety.

"Holy fuck that was close," Grayson huffed. He got back on his feet examining the wreckage. A whole flood of kill notifications dinged his mind.

Is it over?

Grayson breathed as hard as he could trying to catch his breath.

"Of course, it isn't," he moaned to himself. In the corner of his eyes, he saw in the HUD that he'd gotten 76 kill notifications, in the last minute. And if the last image he'd seen was anything to go by he knew there were still hundreds alive beneath the rubble.

Suddenly, Grayon's ears picked up a faint chittering. It started soft, then it rapidly grew louder— the oh-so-familiar clicks of mandibles. He heard of rubble being moved. They were not not dead he knew. His stomach dropped as he realized they were not defeated, merely slowed. He wasn't going to stick around and find out how long it took the group to dig their way out.

He bolted once more, groaning at the fatigue and pain coming from his lunges. His mind frantically calculated the odds of his survival. His legs felt like stones, his body was heavy, and his breath was ragged. His skin burned with pain and he'd lost a lot of blood. How long he could go was anyone's guess. With each step, Grayon's thoughts became darker.

I can't keep this up anymore. I'm not strong enough.

No matter how fast he ran as long as the Krivel desired it they would have him served on a dinner plate. He couldn't just turn around and fight them, he wasn't enough. He'd never been enough.

He thought back to the times in high school when he became majority depressed and fell behind on his schoolwork. During those times he'd spend the entire day cooped up in his room all alone. He had encased himself in his own sadness, that everything around him started to fall apart. His grades, his friendships, and his relationships with those he loved. He remembered how helpless he'd felt and how much of a failure he was.

All he could do was run. Both back then and now. His vision blurred with tears, as shadows flew above him. His muscles ached with every step he took. He could feel the energy draining from him—I can't do this anymore, I won't last much longer.

Thre Krivels were relentless, some time had passed, and he could already hear the sickening sounds of chittering in his ears. He was mad and he was exhausted. Some of the faster flyers had eventually caught up and began to latch onto him, crawling onto his legs and arms—He had enough, he couldn't let this go on any longer. With a sudden burst of energy, he began ripping the Krivel's apart with an animalistic scream, but the effort weakened him.

Even if his emotions ran high, his body didn't obey. His movements became more sluggish and every swing of his body took all the strength he had.

Grayson he what had to be said, a truth he'd come to realize a long time ago: his body was near its limit.