When we got there, March escorted all of us into a side room, and began explaining.

“The first thing you need to know, before anything else, is that you don’t have to do this job at all.” March said, “I mean, you always have the right of refusal, but this is one of the most dangerous options.”

Copper huffed, loud enough that I could hear him, but March ignored him and continued on.

March pulled up the map on a slide projector, and circled a massive swathe of the city.

“This area is a no-man’s land for evacuation. It’s at least twice as dangerous as where you went yesterday, likely more.” He frowned, “Even so, we know there are still survivors in the area.”

“We’ll do it.” Marie said.

“You can’t decide for your teammates.” March said, “With all due respect, I am not done talking yet. Allow me to continue.”

He glared at Marie until she nodded.

“Because of the scope of the job, and the distance to even the outskirts of this area, we’ve made some logistical changes.” March said, and held up a black stone, no wider than a quarter and slightly thicker than my thumb. He spun it around, to reveal the glowing gold sigil on the other side.

“This is a stonebound waystone.” March said, “What I know is that if someone intentionally smashes it, they turn into a statue. If the statue is undamaged for a period varying between twenty-five and thirty-five minutes, it will vanish, and the person will arrive, unharmed and in the flesh, at the designated destination. This one leads to a safe receiving area on the Campus.”

“What if the statue is damaged?” Copper asked.

“The person will forcefully revert, but suffer the same harm the statue did.” March said, “If you knock off their head, they’ll die. Regardless, if they use another waystone, they’ll be able to return, but that one will be wasted.”

“Is this supposed to be faster?” Marie demanded.

March shrugged, “It might be, but no. It’s supposed to be safer. I am aware this might be a harder sell to survivors than the alternative, but considering how packed the dead zone is, I wouldn’t expect it to be much harder. Regardless, this opens a new option.”

None of us asked.

“With no need to escort victims to safety, returning to Sanctuary at all may be rendered unnecessary.” March said, “I will leave it to your team’s discretion, but it would likely be more efficient to only enter and exit once than to make a number of trips in and out. Discuss among yourselves if you are going. For what it’s worth, storage will not be a concern if you do decide to go.”

“Are we going to?” I asked.

“Of course we are.” Marie huffed.

I snarled at her, “We can say no. I’m not saying no, but we get to choose.”

“Fine.” Marie said, “Copper?”

“I have terms. If any of us get significantly hurt, we retreat at once.” Copper said, “If any of us say we’ll stop, we’ll stop, and the others will respect that, and safely escort them back. We’ll all get at least six hours of sleep per day, one way or another. No infighting or personal projects, and no scope creep. We’re here to evacuate people, and that’s it. If that’s acceptable, then I’m in.”

“Works for me.” I said.

“I can tolerate it.” Marie said.

“So, are we comfortable camping in the open?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Marie said, “We need to rescue them, comfort doesn’t come into it.”

I scowled at her, “We can’t save anyone if we die. Is sleeping in shifts a feasible solution?”

“I think I could defend a fortified location.” Copper said, “I’ll need to see the density to be confident, but I think the odds are good.”

“Is one person actually enough, though?” I asked, “If you don’t have any more tricks, Copper, your guns aren’t that good at dealing with overwhelming numbers.”

“It transforms into a shotgun, and I have buckshot rounds.” Copper said, “You’re not wrong, though.”

“I can take his shifts.” Marie said.

“You can’t.” I said, “We can’t have you sleep deprived. Besides, I’m concerned about your ability to handle this too.”

“I can take care of myself.” Marie huffed.

“That’s precisely my concern. If you can only take care of yourself, that’s not enough.” I said, “You’ve got a very nice sword, but unless you have a new trick, you’re going to need a chokepoint, or they’ll get past you.”

“We can find or make one.” Copper huffed.

“We can. Or we can settle down for the night with a pack of survivors.” I said, “If they’ve lasted this long, they must have some form of strategy. It shouldn’t be too hard to set up a deal before we evacuate them.”

“The entire reason we’re here is because we think they need the safe zone.” Marie huffed, “What if someone dies because we were sleeping? Can you live with that?”

“Absolutely.” Copper interjected, “As Ashlyn said, if we don’t survive, we won’t save anyone. There is always more we can give. I’m not as softhearted as you two, but I’d say the same thing if I were. You can’t do everything. Decide what is enough, and do that.”

“You aren’t even trying to be good.” Marie snarled, “Don’t lecture me about virtue.”

“Marie, I get it. He’s a big, bad, scary fae.” I said, “He’s callous, and only here for profit. He’s also right.” (1)

Marie huffed, “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It only took a little while longer to leave. March had made some preparations, but apparently he still needed to pack food for us. We wound up leaving with three backpacks lightly packed with supplies, and six magic storage bags within. (2) Three of the bags were stuffed to the brim with food, another one held thousands of the runestones, and the last two held an absurd number of bullets for Copper.

Within an hour, we headed out. The work was much the same as it had been previously, though the monsters continued to grow more powerful. I had discovered, to my dismay, that my powers struggled to bring down these monsters as quickly as I’d’ve liked. Many lasted ten seconds, and a few lasted twenty. It wasn’t often, and I had abilities to help compensate, but Marie and Copper actually needed to shoot or stab the stragglers.

As a result, we wound up traveling through the buildings as a group. I likely would have been able to handle myself out there, but Copper was, reasonably, concerned about if I got unlucky. Marie had backed him up, so I cooperated with them.

Because of the cramped quarters, I wasn’t quite as useful. My powers still were adequate for maintaining safety, but without the advantage of range, Marie and Copper wound up killing the lion’s share of the monsters.

Exploring the buildings with survivors was slower than I liked. Copper could pinpoint the survivors within the building, but often the paths through the buildings were damaged or altered. All the elevators were nonfunctional, and in many places the stairwells were damaged or destroyed. Sometimes we wound up zigzagging up the building, needing to climb three floors and then move between stairwells.

On the bright side, thresholds apparently didn’t include rooms that were no longer separated by a door, or areas separated by a broken stairwell, which let me get some insight about the paths we would need to take.

The survivor groups that had thrived generally had significant numbers, and we wound up sharing a lot of our food as a result. It wasn’t as hard as it should’ve been to convince them to evacuate, but it still took two or three hours to evacuate a group. Usually they agreed to leave with us, but one group insisted on staying. Marie was visibly frustrated by this fact, but I respected their right to be idiots. (3) We left them with some waystones, in case some of them changed their minds.

The actual evacuation usually took place on the roof, if it was still accessible. It was usually the widest suitable area, giving [Blood of the Sacrificed] the most range to affect its targets, and Copper the most time to shoot things.(4)

By the time we were getting ready to sleep, we had evacuated three survivor colonies, been rejected by another, and found a fifth to evacuate once we were done sleeping. In total, we had saved maybe three hundred people directly, plus whatever difference thinning the herd of Shadowbeasts would make.

[You have helped slay a great number and variety of Shadowbeasts! You have gained 116,525 Potential and 11,653 Net Quanta]

[You have helped rescue 303 people! You have gained 101 Moonlight Shards as a reward]

As we had expected, they set up guard duty on a chokepoint. In the case of the base we had found, it was in the stairwell. With clever positioning, their ranged fighters could shoot down at the Shadowbeasts as they tried to climb the stairs, and with only one path through, any melee fighter could force the beasts to fight through them. I took the first shift on guard duty, slipping a waking dream over the stairwell while seated near the sixth floor.

I wasn’t alone, but I had agreed to be the first line of defense. A tall man with a spear stood with me, and grinned tiredly at me as I joined him. We didn’t talk.

[Blood of the Sacrificed] killed most of the monsters before they could even climb to reach us. Often, I was able to grab the exceptions with [Beast in the Blood]. It wasn’t even slightly tiring, or difficult.

After about fifteen minutes where I hadn’t had to personally kill anything, I sat down, and started investing my Potential.

[You have 117,942 Potential and 11,898 Quanta]

[You have spent 80,000 Potential to boost ‘Kindest Venom’ from level 4 to level 5!]

[You have spent 25,600 Potential to boost ‘Lake of the Sacrificed’ from level 9 to level 10!]

[You have spent 12,352 Potential and 458 Quanta to boost ‘Melody’s Reprise’ from level 8 to level 9!]

[You have 0 Potential and 11,440 Quanta remaining!]

Once that was done, I sat and continued allowing my skills to rip through the enemy, humming to myself as I did.

The monsters continued to die quickly for the entirety of my shift. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I fell into a trance at some point. (5) When I did, I completely lost all awareness of my body, leaving only the Blood and the Beast. It was all reflexive, and barely conscious.

I was prodded awake from my trance hours later. I looked up, and saw Marie tapping me with the flat of her sword. (6) Copper stood a good distance behind her, and looked very nervous about Marie’s actions.

[You have slain a great number of Shadowbeasts! +70,997 Potential, +7,100 Quanta!]

“Hey.” I said.

“Don’t sleep on the job.” Marie said.

“Nobody’s complaining, Marie.” Copper said, “She got the job done, and nobody was even injured as a result. Besides, we slept through our shifts, too.”

“They promised to wake us when it was time for the next shift!” Marie said.

“They altered the deal.” Copper said, “She was doing it in her sleep, and they didn’t need to wake her.”

“It was horribly irresponsible!” Marie huffed.

“You’re right. It was very irresponsible of her. That said, it worked, and nobody died.” Copper said.

“I’m sorry.” I said, slowly blinking back into awareness of my own body, “I didn’t mean to doze off. It just happened.”

“Could it happen again?” Copper asked, “Did it work as sleep? Are you feeling any side effects?”

I yawned, “I’m always tired in the morning, but not more than normal. I wasn’t pushing myself today, but I don’t trust myself to do this alone. Do you need help with the evacuation?”

“We handled that while you were dozing off.” Marie said, “Copper insisted we had to wake you together.”

Copper said, “Sleep casting can turn into sleep fighting! You’ve seen what that blood can do!”

“It’s not that dangerous.” Marie scoffed.

“Even if it wouldn’t kill me, I don’t want to take a bath in it!” Copper said, “Don’t you like having skin?”

“You didn’t try using an alarm?” I asked.

“I did.” Marie said, “And then I tried a louder one. I wanted to throw water on you, but Copper stopped me.”

“It would qualify as an attack, wouldn’t it?” Copper said, “Even if she woke, she’d want revenge.”

“Copper, thank you for stopping Marie.” I sighed, “Marie, I’m sorry for sleeping on duty, and for sleeping through your attempts to wake me.”

“Don’t do it again.” Marie said.

“I won’t.” I said.

“Actually, we should use this.” Copper said, “Even if she can’t do it alone, the guard rotation would appreciate her help.”

“Fine.” Marie said, and we got to work for the day.

---

(1) As I said this, Copper’s smirk slowly grew wider until he was outright grinning. That was probably a good sign. If it wasn’t, I was going to pretend it was.

(2) Apparently each bag could only contain one type of thing, which was why we would need the backpacks at all.

(3) Their defenses were solid for dealing with Shadowbeasts, but if a Sunderer arrived they’d be in serious trouble. I gave it a month at best before they were forced to abandon their current hideout. More likely, the first Sunderer would wipe them out, since it would be exceptionally powerful.

(4) Fortunately, flying Shadowbeasts weren’t common yet, and the few that did manifest were incredibly fragile. If that stopped being true, we’d’ve had more trouble. That wasn’t going to happen for another two weeks, though.

(5) I’m pretty sure that I would’ve woken if a Shadowbeast had actually gotten close. That night, none of them did.

(6) But on the other hand, while I really did trust Marie to respect the truce, I had let her get in stabbing range. That was evidence that falling into this trance was at least somewhat risky.