According to Max there was less than thirty minutes left of the Grace Period shield. Then they would be in trouble.

They stood at exactly the spot where Dave had seen the Nodefoxes two days ago. The whole group was collected at the edge of their barrier looking at the forest on the other side with concern in their eyes.

Dave knew this day could be coming sooner or later. But he had always hoped for later. Maybe a tiny bit of him had also hoped for some sort of luck to finally shine upon them, so that they could make it out of here without incidents. But it didn’t look like it.

Outside of the barrier, a sea of Nodefoxes stood. And they looked ready.

“There are so many…” Mira said, her voice trailing off weakly.

“They must’ve stumbled upon the barrier at night. That’s lucky.” Bixby mused.

Max turned towards him, irritation in his voice. “How can you call that lucky?”

“Well I can call it lucky Max, because it is lucky for us. If they had found it yesterday, they would’ve alarmed their leaders and there would be a lot more of them now.” Bixby paused and nodded towards the Nodefoxes “This looks like it’s a whole scouting troop. So they probably found the shield at night, and decided to try their luck capturing it immediately before going for reinforcements.”

“My guess? Whoever is leading this scouting troop got greedy and wanted all the accolades for himself. That’s why we only face about two dozen rather than multiple hundred.”

“Two dozen, two hundred, what’s the difference for us?” Max said, bordering on anger. “We still have to run now. Now!” He said, emphasizing the last word. “While we still can.”

Dave had to admit there was a certain logic to what Bixby was saying. It could’ve been worse. Yet two dozen were still too many for them. Or were they?

“Bixby.” The Nodefox was midtalk but Dave called his attention towards himself. “What are the odds we can beat them?”

Dave could feel everybody's eyes turning towards him. Max and Bixby’s conversation died down. As did Mira’s and Sam’s nervous chatter.

“Our odds, Dave? Not good. You might have won the fight against four back in the den, but I already explained to you that these will be much stronger. And there are six times as many.”

Dave knew Bixby was right. There was a voice inside him telling him to run. He could feel all the anxiety and fear he had stuffed down deep into the pit trying to escape. He saw the army of Nodefoxes in front of them, not ten meters away, he could see the expressions on some of their faces. The weapons a few of them carried. Dave noticed his hands were shaking.

The more surprised he was when his real voice spoke calm and confident.

“I can take six times as many.” Then he turned towards Bixby and raised an eyebrow, daring him to challenge his assumption.

Dave cringed inwardly at how corny that sounded. He felt like a cheesy action hero. Looking at the others he was surprised to see none of them ridiculing him. Max nodded as if he had expected nothing else from Dave. And the others looked concerned if anything.

If someone other than himself was surprised by his bravery, nobody showed it.

Nobody said anything for almost a minute, everybody having their own battles in their minds. In the end Max sighed. “I suppose we couldn’t outrun them anyways.”

“But how do we fight so many at once?” Sarah asked.

“Maybe we don’t have to.” Bixby said. “I know how scouting squads operate, and I think I have a plan.”

Dave’s heart was pounding. It should be less than two minutes now until the Grace Period shield dropped. He lay in wait on the thick branch of a tree just mere metres away from the barrier.

Sarah and Ryland were somewhere a couple meters to his left, but he couldn’t see them from his vantage point. The rest of his friends should be somewhere back at the camp.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

In less than two minutes it would be them against the Nodefoxes. Dave took a deep breath to calm himself.

Their biggest advantage was the element of surprise. The Nodefoxes biggest advantage was their numbers and their strength. Those things weren’t even close to balancing each other out, but Dave took every advantage they could get.

He checked the surrounding area. Hopefully he should be well hidden from view up here. Less than one minute.

Dave took another deep breath and willed his hands to stop shaking. Surprisingly they obeyed his command. He could feel his resolve settling in. He might have been on this clearing for only a few days, but it still felt like those Nodefoxes came to take his home.

And what’s worse, they came to take his friends. And Dave wouldn’t let that slide.

A soft fizzle was heard. Like a drop of water in a hot pan. A flash went through the barrier and suddenly it was gone. Instead of the slight distortion of air, the world beyond the clearing looked clear now.

Dave wasn’t the only one to notice the break down of the barrier. A cacophony of Nodefox squeaks filled the silence. With the sound Dave felt his adrenaline rising even higher. Every fiber in his body was on edge now and the little knot of anxiety in his stomach wound even tighter.

Then the first group of Nodefoxes passed underneath his tree. Five of them in total, as Bixby had predicted. A dart made out of pure energy thundered into the tree on the opposite side of Dave. That was his sign.

Without thinking about it, Dave let his instinct take over. Passing the reins to his Soul Weapon Mastery Skill. He rolled over the side of the branch and let himself fall down. The group of Nodefoxes stood directly underneath him, their attention locked on the other side. They never saw him coming.

Dave turned in the air, and when he landed he did so by sliding his Hidden Blade into the back of the Nodefox nearest to him. At the same time Dave hit the ground, so did the body in front of him. He had practiced this move a few times during training, but was still surprised by how well he pulled it off. Almost like a real Assassin.

Confused and panicked, the group of Nodefoxes turned around to look at Dave. As their attention landed on Dave, one of them dropped facefirst to the floor from another Mana Projectile shot out of the forest.

Dave stood up and looked at the Nodefoxes in front of him. Three left. He retracted his Hidden Blades and went to work.

He was like a storm of steel between the Nodefoxes. They were still recovering from the shock of the sudden attack when the first one of them fell to Dave’s blades.

The next one was quicker though, he produced a sword out of thin air, blocked his attack and swung at Dave. But he sidestepped, kicked the Nodefox in the shoulder and sent it staggering a few steps back.

The last Nodefox in the back was concentrating sinister looking black energy in his hands. Not wanting to find out what he was cooking up, Dave rushed towards him but the swordsman was there again to get in his way.

After a quick exchange, Dave was forced to block the attack of the Nodefox that was downed by the first Mana Projectile, and caught himself a gash on the thigh for that. A brief panic settled in. There was no way he could reach the casting Nodefox in time. There were just too many of them.

Thankfully he wasn’t alone. Another Mana Projectile shot out of the tree towards the Nodefox in the back. A thin shield popped up, encapsulated the caster and tanked the attack, yet it broke his concentration. And it drew some attention away from Dave.

The Nodefox turned around to look for the source of attack, leaving only the one with the sword and the one who got back up from Sarah’s projectile focused on Dave.

“Time to get serious.” Dave thought.

He charged forwards towards the Nodefox with a sword, before he was in melee range, he extended his hand and shot a Spark. Not expecting the attack the Nodefox was hit square in the chest and fell to the ground spasming. With another few steps and some blade work Dave managed to get rid of the other Nodefox.

The last Nodefoxes turned his attention back towards Dave at the dying sound his companions made. It seemed to really be a pure caster, since he didn’t rush Dave. Instead it looked at Dave with evident shock and fear in its eyes.

Less than thirty seconds ago its whole troop had been intact. Now most of them lay on the ground bleeding out or unable to fight. Dave stood in front of him like an angel of death.

Of course it tried to run, but Dave was faster. He caught the one with the black energy with his Blades. The one with the sword, that Dave had surprised with his Spark Skill, actually managed to get back to his feet and stagger a few steps away from Dave, but it was stopped by another well placed Spark.

It wasn’t enough to finish him, but it made him fall defenseless to the ground again. In front of Dave’s blades there was no difference between those things.

After making sure each of the Nodefoxes would stay down, Dave looked around in surprise. Five Nodefoxes laid sprawled out over the ground and Dave only had a gash in his thigh to show for it. A nasty one, but still.

The fight had been rather easy. The element of surprise had been a big part of his success, and without Sarah keeping his back clear he would’ve been overwhelmed quickly. On his own against five Nodefoxes in a fair battle it would’ve gone quite differently. Still Dave felt a certain sense of satisfaction, his training was paying off.

Feeling the surge of Mana entering his body after overcoming his enemies, Dave felt strong, unstoppable even. But he knew he was just riding the highs of adrenaline.

The battle had only begun. And something told Dave it wouldn’t stay that easy.