“Take cover!” Tanuki yelled and ran away from the edge. The rest of the soldiers scattered, some hid behind rocks, while others ran up to the bridge. Because the deer were affected by a different gravitational pull, the latter was like a tall wall for them.

Tanuki dashed to one of the trees growing out of the wall and tucked himself behind its roots. Hundredth ran onto the bridge and waved.

“Come! They cannot destroy the bridge. We are safe while standing on it!”

Tanuki almost got up, but sensing the ground shake beneath his palm, he held back. Hundredth called out again.

“Come, quick! You’ll be safe here!”

“How do you know?” he yelled over the growing charge.

“They cannot hurt the bridge, it’s a rule! They never even tried to––“

A loud snap retched out as the planks of the bridge broke. The creatures charged with antlers first, those who could not break through were squashed by the others behind them.

Tanuki watched on in horror as Hundredth disappeared under the charge. Immediately, he aimed his staff and cast two acid shots in quick succession, but the deer running by him got in the way of the attack.

“How is this a level one dungeon?!” he pulled back behind the tree to cast another acid shot. Since he made it his chosen favourite spell, its mana cost halved, making it so he could cast four in total. He tried to help Hundredth with the next two, but the deer were too many.

Forty, sixty… he lost track of them as they ran by in circles, appearing as though there was no end to them.

“This is it,” his heart raced, “This is the moment of truth. They threw everything at us right at the get-go, now we gotta’ show them what we’re capable of!”

He swallowed his fears and focused. About six of the soldiers were hiding nearby. He yelled out to them.

“Line up next to me!”

Though the deer had five times the units, they could not charge in, as from their perspective he and the guardians stood inside a steep gully. They could not hurt Tanuki and his soldiers, so long they remained inside.

But he refused to sit idly whilst his companions died.

Four soldiers wore red, the other two yellow ribbons. He ordered the yellows swap their shields for swords with the frontline, after which he lined them up over the edge.

“Red ribbons, raise your shields! Yellow ribbons, behind and ready!”

Some deer jumped over the shields, while others tried using it as a launch pad. They got sliced as the swords reached out between the shields and cut them up. Still, this strategy was only killing one or two every five seconds. If they had more time, perhaps this would have been a good way to cull their numbers, but he feared being patient might cause the death of those stuck on the bridge.

He needed to give it his all if he wanted to save Hundredth and his men. He had a plan, but one even he was not sure about.

Yet they had to try, or else the fate of their companions was sealed.

“On the count of three, jump into the void!” Tanuki ordered with a serious tone.

The soldiers snapped their heads towards him, but he continued, louder.

“Keep your formation as you fall! One… Two…”

The soldiers kept looking at him without any sign that they would follow through. So, Tanuki charged at them and pushed two into the void. Instead of falling, however, they got caught by the swarm and pushed upwards by the mass.

There was no telling his plan would work and the soldiers lacked the trust to follow through. Even if he was the Great Hero, this was effectively suicide.

Tanuki knew, but he did not care. It was their best chance. Either they push their luck or wait until their partners fall so they too can die a pathetic death.

He charged at the red ribbon soldier standing in front of him and fell with him into the void. They bounced off the running deer and for a second, it seemed like they were about to fall to their death.

But the deer were mindless creatures. They saw a chance to cause hurt and jumped up to headbutt the two, to which their clothes got stuck in the antlers, bringing them down to be a part of the circling mass. The two fell not far apart.

Though the deer beneath Tanuki would have stopped to trample him, it would have meant certain death; even though they were ready to die for the greater good, it could not. The other monsters behind kept pushing it forward, giving no chance to stop or push off the boy.

The guard failed to understand Tanuki’s plan. He bashed the deer’s skull, the monster fell apart, and the guard too fell off its back, right down into the thick treeline covering the void. Tanuki saw the last of him as he crashed into a tree, breaking his arm before disappearing forever below.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Tanuki had no time to grieve as he fought to gain control of the deer beneath, and when he got a good enough grip, he successfully climbed onto its back. He was riding it like a horse, and it could not do anything about it. The other deer tried to get him off, but either he blocked with his sword, or they completely missed, getting trampled beneath the charge as gravity pulled them under.

An overload of sensations assaulted his brain. Tanuki was being pulled vertically, while everything else was horizontal. It took him a moment to adjust, but when he got it figured out, the blows he rained upon the swarm were merciless. They were so many, so focused on him that with every slash, he was sure to get at least two.

When the circling mass reached its highest point, they began to turn left until they were facing the other way, now charging downwards.

When he got a good view from above, Tanuki saw what happened to the ones who hid on the bridge. The deer broke through, and the swarm left an opening in the middle of their merry-go-round to give way to a more concentrated attack. About ten or so deer fought the remaining soldiers. One was incapacitated, while another fell, also getting caught by the swarm.

He looked closely and found Six amongst the guards. He seemed to be doing well, decapacitating enemies with his shield only as his sword got lost.

Despite his safety providing relief, Tanuki felt his heart rate grow when he saw no Hundredth amongst the crowd.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump.

The beating of his heart overshined that of the drumming hooves. He worried for the soldiers, but his emotions were much stronger for Hundredth. Though he tried to be a good person, he could not lie to himself. Not to his emotions.

The guards were like pets of the neighbourhood. He found them interesting and would not wish any harm on them. If given the chance, he might even help them, and he would most certainly not go out of his way to bother their ordinary lives. But his feelings for Hundredth were completely different. She shared her emotions. He got to know her memories. She had a distinctive personality from all the others. She felt human. And for the first time in his life, Tanuki was present to witness another human’s life being threatened. He would not have been so overwhelmed had it been him in that situation, but Hundredth, even if he only felt so little towards her, she still felt human. And that would make her death a loss greater than any soldier’s.

He hated it, he hated to have to admit it, he hated to value one life more than another.

But what else was he supposed to do? Lie to his emotions and lie to himself?

As the wave turned, so did a switch turn on inside his heart. All fear lost voice to the awakening trumpets of his soul. It was an instinct rooted deep within the human psyche from aeons ago, long before they separated from the animal kingdom.

Preservation. Of his species and humanity.

Though he was not on foot, the distance he travelled still registered to the Staffbearer Boots. His mana refilled with every gallop of his steed and he reached his full capacity in no time.

He bit down on his lips, warm blood crawling onto his mouth as he raised his staff.

“Die, you worthless pieces of shit!”

Acid rained down on the swarm as he shot for the deer in the middle. Those in the merry-go-round tried to stop him, but he cast faster than they could get in the way. Combined with the gloves’ ability to increase his casting speed, he was nearly unstoppable.

The swarm wanted to overpower them with sheer numbers, but it became their downfall. The acid burnt them until their foundation gave way and their remains scattered to the ground, creating an obstacle crackling with acid. Their numbers grew less and less with every second, each corpse oozing with more of the deadly liquid building a tall barricade. The deer stepped into the acid, their hooves broke down, and they shattered, the monsters fell beneath the swarm to be trampled.

The soldiers in the middle got to take a breather as Tanuki’s relentless assault destroyed the monsters targeting them. Even then, Hundredth was nowhere to be seen.

As the swarm reached the lowest point of their round-and-round, Tanuki’s steed jumped out of the crowd and continued to charge downwards. It understood that a different pull was affecting Tanuki that could launch him into the void. The monster wanted to achieve exactly that, and when it got out of the swarm, it threw itself around, but the boy would not be shaken off. No matter how much it tried, Tanuki held on with an iron grip.

They fought until a fallen guard flew by and sent both flying downwards. They crashed into a tree and Tanuki’s hand finally slipped.

He fell beneath, the swarm disappearing from his view.

“Shit!” His heart shot into his throat as he felt the void’s growing embrace.

Much like how suddenly he began to fall, his stop came out of nowhere as he fell into a bush. His back started slipping, but before he could fall any further, he kicked himself towards the nearest tree and, like a terrified cat, dug his nails into the wood.

The tree shook as the previous guard fell next to him. He was not fast enough to hold onto the trunk; Tanuki tried to grab his hand, but he was too late. The guard fell beneath, disappearing into the woods below.

Tanuki sat up and listened for the guard. All he could hear were the drumming hooves above.

His breathing grew quicker as he imagined what happened to the plantfolk could have been a shared fate. The void beneath was always the most terrifying aspect of these realms, but to come so close to it…

“Hero! Great Hero!” he heard someone yell out nearby.

The voice was not on the same level as him, but below. About four meters away, down just a few more trees, he saw Hundredth.

“Hundredth!” he yelled her name. As relief coursed through his chest, his eyes became watery, “I thought you were gone! What happened?”

“I did not like it upstairs, so I hopped down.”

“Really?”

In the heat of the moment, he did not hear the sarcasm in her voice. It took him a second, but he got there.

“I hit my shoulder pretty badly. Are you alright?” asked Hundredth.

“My legs ache, but other than that, I’m worried about the others.”

“No need to! They are adept fighters. These creatures are a weekly occurrence for them.”

Tanuki rather remained silent. He saw two guards fall under, but Hundredth probably missed them. Her soldiers were neither adept nor good.

“I believe you,” he lied.

“Besides, I saw you ride the wave! It was amazing! No wonder you are the Great––“

Tanuki’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to shout, but his voice came out too late.

Large claws rose from behind Hundredth’s tree and locked around her torso. It flung her through the air against another tree, from where she fell to the one beneath. For a second, the light left her eyes, only returning dimly.

“Hundredth!” he shouted her name, but she would not respond.

Quickly, Tanuki raised his staff and returned to the claw, but it was gone. His eyes searched the area, but the attacker was nowhere to be found.

He felt a breeze pass by his ear as someone whispered,

“You’re not supposed to be here.”