For the next hour, they napped, grazed on rations, and watched. Below them, the Grue continued to patrol and blow their horns. It was obvious the Killer hadn’t given up on finding them, but they didn’t seem to have any idea where to find the Surveyors, something that Alex was absurdly grateful for. Sam was even smiling when she took her turn to watch. “What is it?”
“They just seem so confused.” He pointed out in the direction that the portal was located. “They’ve been blowing those horns every so often, and you can just hear it in the sound. We’ve always shown up easy before, either by rushing back to the portal, or attacking a Camp. Now we’re not, and it is driving them nuts.”
She smirked. “If it’s driving them crazy, I can’t imagine how Liliana’s going to react soon. She probably expected us to either die attacking one of the Camps or retreat back through the portal by now.”
Sam swallowed whatever he’d been chewing and nodded. “What do we do if they send that C ranker through? Would he help us?”
“Yeah, probably, but he’d want us to head back to the portal, not finish the mission.” She shrugged. “I’m not planning on going along with it, though. He wants us to go back safe, he’ll need to actually earn his pay for once.”
The Adept was still chuckling as he got out to head for the trunk. As he did, the horns blew again, and Alex thought she could hear uncertainty and worry in the sound. It brought a smile to her face.
After the hour, feeling greatly refreshed and well rested, the team set out again. This time they had a bit more of a direction to wander in; Alex had asked Sam to pick out a campsite near the Market, in the hopes they could rest again before they started on the Camps.
They ran into a Grue patrol almost immediately. The monsters howled and ran at them, their weapons held high. Alex braced herself for another hard fight, with the recent memories of the other combat echoing in her mind.
Yet things were different as the Grue closed. Her teammates held their weapons more confidently; the rest had drained the fatigue from them, and their expressions were determined instead of hopeless. This time, as the monsters closed in, they charged together to meet them.
She met a spear with her shield, and was gratifyingly surprised when the Grue’s weapon snapped. Another spear came at her, but this time she saw it coming early, and evaded it without much problem. Her counterattacks chopped both Grue into corpses with a handful of quick movements. Alex had a whole heartbeat to revel in her regained power before a third one slammed into her from the side.
Fortunately, she’d once again managed to see it coming. She brought her shield up and around enough to push the spearpoint to the outside. The Grue was a bit harder to deflect, and the weight of its charge bowled her over. Alex felt a brief moment of panic as it started to scratch and claw at her, but she kept her head, choked up her grip on the axe, and started hacking away. It went limp a few hits later, and she shoved it off so she could stand.
The others had done remarkably well. Sam had shifted over to help Alessa this time, and the two had worked together to fend off the Grue on that side. Even as she watched, Sam found an opening in their stance, slipping his spearpoint into their ribcage, and as another one lunged in at him, Alessa knocked the spear aside and tripped it. Alex looked away as the Porter lined up another of her favorite overhead smashes.
Brian and Tim were actually forcing their opponents back on their own, working smoothly to block attacks and counterattack. They weren’t quite to where they had been the previous mission, but they were holding their own. None of them even taken a wound!
The battle ended a moment later as the last of the Grue fell under Brian’s blade. They were left panting hard, but not nearly as badly as before, and the Surveyors exchanged excited looks as the bodies began to burn. Alex felt her own hopes rise as more text appeared before her.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield has advanced to level 6!]
[Anticipate has advanced to level 6!]
[Recovery has advanced to level 5!]
Maybe this would work after all.
Three fights and another makeshift campsite later, they looked out at the Market from a nearby office building.
The place had all the hallmarks of neglect and decay. It had floor-length windows that looked out on the nearby area, but many of those were half-obscured by Grue scrawls and filth. Her team had taken up cover inside one of the meeting rooms inside, barring the closest doors and barricading the room itself.
Brian was toying with an empty vial, eyeing it with a skeptical expression. “We’ve only got one more of those, huh?”
“Yeah, so no more crazy risks.” Alex grinned as a low chuckle went through the others. They’d arrived through the portal nearly three and a half hours before. Most Surveys were long done now; this time, they were just getting started. “You guys think we are ready to hit the first Camp?”
The others paused, clearly considering it. Their Skills had skyrocketed with each fight; by now, just about all of them had their Chained Skills up to level nine. Given the higher grade of those Skills, most of them were now actually better than they had been during the previous Survey. It wouldn’t keep fatigue from being a factor, but it would hopefully be enough of a difference.
Tim nodded a little wearily. “Yeah, I think we’re ready.” He looked around. “So the Market first. Then the Bank?”
Sam shook his head, and Alex let him explain it. He’d already quizzed her on it enough to understand the logic. “No. We head south to the Library. We know there’s a back way there, so we could finish the fight a lot quicker there.”
“Then the Killer might get between us and the Bank, though. We don’t want to fight him this time, right?” Alessa looked around the room, carefully avoiding Alex’s eyes. The others shifted a little, and Alex decided it was better to answer it now rather than let the doubt fester.
“No, we don’t.” She tried not to raise an eyebrow at the relieved slump in the Porter’s shoulders. “Last time the Killer tried to get between us and the portal, so it might do that this time too. So we’ll head west, away from the portal, and loop around him. The Grue should run right past us, and that’ll leave us the chance to hit the Bank without them right on our tails. From there, it’ll be a bit of a race to see if we can get to the Mall before they can, but if we do…”
“That’ll be a lot of Grue that aren’t around anymore.” Sam looked around at the others, grinning. “Who wants to bet that the Killer isn’t quite so brave at that point?”
“More importantly, the portal won’t have hundreds of Grue waiting for us. We could see if there’s a shot there, and if there is, we can get through and get home. Preferably with a full clear under our belts.” Alex looked around. “Any better plans or ideas?”
Brian snorted. “Aside from going back in time and slapping myself when I decided to sign up for this gig? No, not at all.”
The others chuckled, and they settled in to finish their rest. It would be time to fight again soon enough.
“They’re a bunch of idiots.”
It was hard to deny that Sam had a point. The Grue in the Market seemed remarkably unconcerned with the situation. Their spears lay up against a half-empty display of what looked like candy near the front of the grocery store. Tents were scattered among the various aisles, and the Grue had sprawled in various spots throughout the place. Alex had seen the crystal itself hovering near the back, in the meat section.
Then again, maybe they were right to be so relaxed. There hadn’t been any sign of Surveyors in the area, and there hadn’t been any patrols reporting anything for over an hour. Even the horns had gotten further and further apart, as if the Grue at the portal were growing bored. Maybe they even thought that the Surveyors had wandered off outside the dead town.
They definitely didn’t expect five of them to be crouched just outside their back door, preparing to charge in and end them.
Alex looked back at them. “All right, we’re going to hit them hard and fast. Make sure nobody gets a horn off, and once it’s done, try to grab whatever food and anything else before we run. Don’t get hit, and stay safe. Got it?” They all nodded, though Sam looked a little distracted. She stared at him until she got a solid nod back from him, and then they tensed.
The charge caught the Grue like a lightning bolt from the sky. Alex killed two of them before they even started scrambling for weapons, and her teammates weren’t that far behind her. By the time they even managed to arm themselves, two-thirds of their guards were dead. Most importantly, the one with the horn had died on Sam’s spear. Those who had survived began to try to throw themselves back at the Surveyors, but their desperation was laughably obvious.
Her team cut their way through the rest of them in heartbeats, and just as Alex was raising her axe over the last one, she heard Sam call out. “Don’t kill it!”
She blinked, and the hesitation almost cost her dearly. The Grue lashed out with the spear, and she deflected it up and away from her face. “What?”
“Keep it alive! Alessa, Brian, Tim, get over here and help me!”
Alex felt a burst of irritation and confusion as she was forced to continue to circle the monster. It kept stabbing at her, trying to get past her defenses, and she carefully had to avoid breaking the spearpoint by only allowing for glancing blows. At least three times, she had to keep herself from using her axe to trap and yank the spear away; if she disarmed it, it would probably pounce on her, and she’d have to kill it. “Guys! What’s going on?”
“Just keep it breathing a little bit longer! Alessa, grab some of those. Quickly!”
Were those idiots looting while she was still fighting? She felt another burst of irritation. The Grue snarled and tried to shoulder-check her; she met it with her shield and pushed it off. “Come on, are you kidding me?”
“Just a bit longer… Okay! Go ahead and finish it!”
Alex gave the Grue a snarl of her own. When it tried another thrust, she trapped the haft and ripped it so viciously from its grasp that the thing fell facedown on the store floor. She was on it a heartbeat later, hacking it twice. As she straightened up, the crystal began to shatter, and text floated in her sight.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield advances to level 10!]
[Anticipate advances to level 9!]
[Recovery advances to level 7!]
[Main Quest Completed! The Grocer’s Market has been explored]
[Hidden Quest Completed! Grue Camp cleared]
She dismissed it and spun to start after her teammates. All of them had finished stuffing canned food into their packs; Brian and Sam were already headed out the door. Alex caught up to them just as they were leaving through the busted sliding doors. “What was that about?”
“We needed to come back with as many rations as we took out, right?” He grinned and jerked a thumb back at the Market as they left. “When I was finishing mine, I caught sight of something else. You see that?”
Alex glanced back and blinked as she recognized the symbol for a pharmacy. “Wait, did you find…”
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“Got three vials, all full of health potion.” He glanced at her. “Not sure where you got the two we’ve been using, but we might be able to put these back in their place without raising any eyebrows. I just wanted to be able to finish looking before—”
The triple howl of the horn near the portal finished Sam’s sentence for him. They all exchanged a look and took off down the street at a trot. One Camp down, three to go.
Their journey to the Library was mostly uneventful. The vengeful noise of the horn echoed from the direction of the portal, obviously growing closer to the Camp they’d just destroyed. They didn’t bother trying to be subtle about where they were headed, either, just blazing a direct path to the next Camp. A single patrol stumbled into their path, and they spent half a precious minute cutting them down.
They didn’t even bother collecting the crystals before moving on. There wasn’t enough time or reward in the world for them to risk it.
When they reached the Library, Sam led them straight to the side door. He spent another half of a minute tinkering with the lock. As soon as it was open, he led them inside, all with weapons ready. They crept through the darkened offices and side rooms, eyes ready for any sentries that were watching.
They didn’t find any. As they came out into the main area, Alex saw that these Grue were more alert; they had their spears in hand, and they had gathered in small groups, where they could growl and yip to each other without making too much noise. Unfortunately for them, they were all facing the front doors of the Library, and there weren’t any more than there had been at the Market.
Alex gave the others a tight smile, and they all prepared to charge. True, they would all be armed this time, but the Surveyors would still have the advantage of surprise. It wouldn’t last long, and hopefully they would be gone long before the Grue realized what had happened to another of their Camps.
Just before she charged, Alex noticed a few thick books with planets and stars carved into the covers. She grabbed them and slipped them into her pack. The others raised eyebrows at her, and she shrugged.
Then they charged, and yet another battle was joined.
“I still don’t get why it had to be me that danced around with the last one.”
Tim’s voice held a distinct flavor of whining that set Alex’s teeth on edge, but Sam just laughed. “Well, you’re a Porter. Isn’t Recovery one of your main Skills?”
“I mean, yeah, but Alex and Alessa both have it, too. Why shouldn’t they be the ones doing it?”
Alessa sighed. “You know what? I’ll take the next one if it matters that much.”
Brian nudged Sam as they moved north along the street. “Are we doing it at the next one too? Planning on robbing a Bank?”
Alex broke in before the Adept could speculate. “No. We’re already carrying enough loot, and we’ll need to move quickly if we get the chance.”
Sam muttered something under his breath, and it was Tim that laughed this time. “Don’t worry so much. At this rate, it even looks like we’ll actually make it back.”
He hadn’t been quite so sure before, but they’d heard the triple horn to the south a few minutes before. Hopefully, it meant that the Killer was off chasing them in that direction, or waiting for them to throw themselves towards the portal there. If they were really lucky, it would give them enough time to rest before they attacked the Bank.
They’d need it. Fatigue was already starting to drag at her as she walked, and they probably had another half hour at least before they’d reach the Camp. If they could just find a spot where the Grue wouldn’t stumble onto them…
As if in answer to her desperate hopes, she heard the triple horn again. This time, it was even further south and east. The Killer wasn’t on their trail; it was swinging away, as if on the inside track of a racecourse that led on a meandering path to the south.
She turned a tired grin to her teammates, who seemed full of disbelief and hope themselves. “Looks like we might have lucked out after all. Sam, is there a spot we could stop for a while? I think we should open some of those rations in celebration.”
The team was outside the Bank a mere hour later, once again refreshed from a short rest. It hadn’t been a full hour break, but even a half hour had sapped some of the weariness from their bodies.
It looked like they were going to need it. The Bank was teeming with Grue, at least forty of them. They were all on high alert, even as the triple horn blasts moved further south. There wouldn’t be an easy ambush this time, and they would be going up against even more Grue. Alex was suddenly glad for the additional health potions they’d picked up. She was thinking they’d need them sooner rather than later.
Alex looked from the building to her friends. She grimaced. “Any ideas on how to lure them out? Or separate them somehow?”
The others looked back at her with blank expressions; even Sam appeared to be out of bright ideas by this point. Brian shrugged irritably; the Squire had been taking the worse of the endurance run they’d been putting on so far. “The moment we kill some of them, the rest are going to come after us. Then the one with the horn is going to call the Killer back to finish us off.”
Tim was nodding, but Alessa suddenly frowned. “So all we care about is the one with the horn, right? The rest of them we can kind of pick off?” When Alex made a gesture for her to continue, she smiled. “Then why don’t we just kill that one?”
Alessa’s question led to Alex crouching right next to the Porter outside the Bank. They were half-hidden in the shadows on the side of the building, straining to listen for the signal to start. Alex shifted her hold on the axe; she’d need to be fast and accurate if she wanted everything to work perfectly.
Then the signal came. Another three sharp blasts from the south, very far away. Wherever the Killer thought they were, it was extremely far off target. In answer, a roll of howls rose above the town.
In front of the Bank, the Grue with the horn stepped out, lifting the horn to its lips. It signaled back to the Killer that all was well.
Meanwhile, Alex was already running. She came at the Grue from the side; it barely had time to turn and acknowledge her presence before she ran past it, lashing out with her axe as soon as she was within arms’ reach. The Grue took the hit in the head, and the horn fell from its limp fingers.
It didn’t hit the ground, however, because Alessa was there to catch it. The Porter scooped it up like some odd sort of football, and she dashed after Alex at full speed. By the time the Grue came howling and snarling after them, the girls were both already around the corner, where the others were waiting.
Alessa tossed the horn on top of a pile of their packs and then spun around to take up a place in the line the others were forming. Alex did too, her breath a little short, but her heart pounding. Now, if there was any luck…
A flood of Grue came around the corner, the fastest and nearest of the Grue inside. They rushed into the mouth of the alley and paused, suddenly confronted by an entire team of Surveyors rather than two running girls. Vengeance and ferocity dissolved into confusion and fear, just long enough for their front ranks to become a snarl of Grue half-tripping over one another and piling up at the mouth of the alley.
Alex and her team didn’t give them time to recover. She charged, with the others running alongside her. They hit the Grue before they could get reorganized. Shields shattered spears, Grue were stabbed, smashed, and hacked, and the monsters found themselves being thrown back.
The Grue tried, they really did. After the shock of the initial charge, they threw even more of their weight behind the attack. More and more of them piled into the alley, where they were pressed together and unable to maneuver. By the time they realized their mistake and tried to pull back, more than half of them had already been cut down, and the Surveyors were already charging into the ones who were left.
In the end, as the final handful of Grue tried to retreat up the steps and into the Bank, Alex found herself shouting in triumph. She put her axe in the back of the last of the things, and as it fell, the crystal hovering inside began to fall apart. Yellow text blared to life, and she grinned even wider as she saw it.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield advances to level 14!]
[Anticipate advances to level 12!]
[Recovery advances to level 9!]
She dismissed the Screen and then looked to her teammates. “All right, one more to go. Let’s move! No time to loot, Sam.”
The Adept made a face at her, but he followed along as they made their way south and east. Just one more Camp was left, and then they could finally head home.
“You know, we could just head for the portal. The Quest is just to explore the place. We don’t have to kill anything.”
Tim’s entirely reasonable suggestion died before he even had the chance to finish it. The team had the chance to win again, and they were not going to let it slip away.
Alex grinned as Brian, of all people, started mocking Tim for bringing up the possibility. She supposed that after killing three different Camps, the Squire was growing overconfident in their abilities. Either that, or it was the time they’d spent in the other world that was changing him.
That second possibility was actually worrying her. They’d crossed the portal nearly seven hours ago; it was the longest Survey she’d ever been on. Her mother had gone on a longer one, a Raid that had involved nearly sixty Surveyors. Muriel had told her it had lasted twelve hours, and she’d shuddered as she said it. She had always believed her mother was brave, but Alex had suspected that Muriel had been overselling the experience.
Now that she was living a similar situation, Alex was finding it harder to blame her mother for the reaction. Time was starting to pass a little more strangely, now, as if there were spaces missing between the seconds. Shadows were moving oddly, seeming to twist a little when she turned her head. Worst of all, the sky was starting to…flicker. It was as if there were threads of heat lightning crawling silently through the clouds, but the tendrils were purple, and they hissed with static instead of thunder.
Either way, it was long past time for the game to be over. One more Camp, and they would be done.
Alex led her team into the Mall, careful to look for signs that the Grue had set up sentries. She was a little worried that the Killer would have gotten there ahead of them too, but the triple horn had sounded just a little while ago, further to the south. Hopefully, by the time the thing realized what they had done, it would be too late, and they would be on the way home.
They approached the Camp on the bottom floor, and they could see Grue swarming all over the ruined food court. Alex glanced up and saw at least twenty of them wandering around on the upper level, and she mentally congratulated them for learning that lesson. It was too bad that Alessa had come up with a different plan.
It wasn’t subtle. The Surveyors just got into position around the Camp on the first floor, and charged, yelling.
She thought the Grue reacted well enough, but they had divided their forces between the upper and lower levels. Twenty Grue might have been enough in most circumstances to swamp an exhausted team of Surveyors—but they weren’t this time. This time, she led her team in cutting right to the heart of the Camp. Reinforcements swarmed down the escalators to help, but they arrived piecemeal and late.
The entire fight was over in only a couple of minutes, and by the end of it, every single one of the Surveyors was shaking with exhaustion. As the crystal shivered itself to pieces, Sam gave her a tired grin. “So, do we keep going or head home?”
“Home.” Alex gulped for air, trying to stop her axe from trembling in her hand. She waved away the words trying to inform her of her Skill increases. “We’ve been here long enough, and the Killer’s still running around. I don’t think any rest would be long enough. What do you guys say?”
They were just starting to agree when the Killer’s horn rose again. This time, it blew four times. Four long, loud howls that seemed to echo across the town.
Alex looked at the others, who all stared back at her. Then she shrugged. “Let’s get to the portal. I don’t need any more surprises this week.”
Despite what she had said, the Survey had one last unexpected development waiting for her.
The portal was completely unguarded. It was obvious the Grue had been there, but just as clearly, they had run for it. There was no sign of the Killer, either. Just that simple, swirling vortex that represented Earth and home and rest.
Alex didn’t trust it, but she was starting to trust the purple and grey sky less. The lightning that moved across the heavens seemed hungry, in a way she didn’t need to know any more about. She could see the others nearly collapsing from exhaustion as well. It had been more than eight hours since they had left Earth. Trap or no trap, they needed to go home. Now.
So she led the way across the broken pavement, stepping carefully and trying to stay alert. Her dulled senses detected nothing, and the portal was right there. She forced herself not to run, to move slowly, and to let the others limp over to it first. Alex watched, holding her breath as Alessa reached the exit and vanished. Brian followed, then Tim, then Sam.
For a single, horrible moment, she was alone.
Then she stepped through and left the purple lightning growling overhead. She was welcomed back into that beautiful light…
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quests Completed! +60 Experience]
[Secondary Purge Quest Completed! +40 Experience]
[Secondary Purge Quest Completed! + 40 Experience]
[All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! + 40 Experience]
Alex stared at the words with a dull kind of fascination. It was the same as the last report had been, but it meant so much more this time. They’d done so much more. Why wasn’t the Screen giving her some kind of extra reward for all the extra effort? The amount of magic they had dispelled, well, it had to have been a lot. It had to have been.
As she was blearily thinking it over, the words shifted. She grunted in resentment, at least until she registered what it was saying.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield increased from 0 to 15!]
[Anticipate increased from 0 to 15!]
[Recovery increased from 0 to 11!]
[Running increased from 11 to 13!]
[You have reached level 3 as a Page!]
[+2 Speed gained. +1 Free Attribute awarded.]
Another free point, another point into Strength. At least until she was done with Page. At the same time, had she really raised her Skills by that much in a single Survey? It seemed both too much and too little as she thought over the past eight hours.
[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Running and Recovery?]
[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels.]
It was tempting, but if she chose it, she wouldn’t be able to increase Recovery without Running at the same time. Given how helpful Recovery had been, she was reluctant to give it up now. She refused.
[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Combined Arms–Axe/Shield and Anticipate?]
[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels.]
Another tempting possibility. Anticipate had been useful during the fighting; she’d been able to flow around her opponents and almost see where they would strike before they even began. She’d even thought she could see where her own hits would land, and what impact they would have. It wouldn’t be bad to match that to her other combat skills.
At the same time, she pictured starting all her combat related Skills at zero—possibly losing the bonuses from War Maiden, Quick Reflexes, and Ferocity at the same time—and almost retched. She refused the option in an almost panic.
[Additional equipment awarded! Select new equipment.]
She chose a helmet this time, one that would hopefully keep her from getting stabbed in the face or knocked unconscious. The brigandine had already been helpful enough, and she had more than enough Strength and Speed to deal with the armor’s weight.
Her choices made, Alex closed her eyes and tried to relax. She was safe, her team was safe, and they had finally succeeded. All she had to do now was throw her report in Liliana’s wretched face and pass out for the night. She felt the light build around her…