Max was soaked in sweat. His hands and knees were dirty from sitting in their makeshift trench. He tried to control his breathing but couldn’t get his heart rate to slow down. The smell of fear was in the air. Fear and singed flesh.

Counting down from three, Max sat up. His eyes immediately found their target. His finger pulled the trigger and held it down. Phew. Phew. Phew. Three laser projectiles shot out of his rifle and embedded themselves into a charging Nodefox.

It went down screaming.

Max quickly ducked back into safety again. Not a second later a beam of light and an arrow soared overhead.

“Another one down, lots to go.” Max said grimly.

He looked down at the blaster he had bought himself. It was a two handed rifle, made out of a white metal that Max couldn’t identify. It was heavy, heavier than it should be, but it fit almost perfectly into Max’s hands. Max actually had no idea how it worked, only that it shot lasers and that it was effective. That was enough for him.

After seeing the mass of Nodefoxes they were up against, Max had to spend all of the roughly 50 Mana Shards they had collected so far on their defenses. It almost pained him to do so, but without surviving today, they wouldn’t get the chance to use them anyways.

Only ten or so Shards went into his weapon. The rest went into the sole reason they were still alive.

Sam, Mira, Bixby and him were supposed to stay back at the camp and protect the Node in case some Nodefoxes managed to sneak past Dave and the others. Bixby was quite sure about the Nodefox tactics, on account of him being part of them and all. They would always go out in squads of five or six, sending one squad ahead to scout before moving their main forces.

Their plan had been to use Dave to kill the scouting squad and face the rest here together. Something had obviously gone wrong though when suddenly almost a dozen Nodefoxes came out of the forest.

Max was a bit worried about Dave and the others. Sarah and Ryland should’ve been here even earlier than Dave, and they would’ve helped alleviate some of the pressure. Something must’ve gone wrong. He didn’t have too much time to worry though, as they had an all hands on deck situation. Even with Max’s buys they were lacking the combat power the rest of their group carried.

The only reason they weren’t overwhelmed yet, was that Max had bought an Automated Turret Manacharged. Or ATM for short. It was a surprisingly fitting name. The turret targeted every none alliance member up to a certain range and peppered them with projectiles made of pure Mana. To create those projectiles the turret uses Mana Shards to power itself. So it was quite literally burning money.

The turret was only another twenty shards, not very expensive. But it had another ten shards of ammunition loaded in it.

After seeing their most foolish companions being sprayed down mercilessly with Max’s hard earned Mana Shards, the rest of the Nodefoxes decided to stay in the safety of the forest for now. They were trading shots and spells with them. Sometimes a Nodefox would duck out of the trees to attack, sometimes Max would pop out to fire, it was good old fashioned trench warfare.

Max had bought a very small shield for the ATM with the last of his Mana Shards, which was the reason the turret was still standing, as the shield kept dutifully absorbing everything thrown at it. Still it was only a matter of time until the Nodefoxes would’ve worn it down.

A fireball the size of a basketball crashed into the shield, making it flicker weakly. It wouldn't hold much longer. Both sides were playing for time, hoping for their back ups to arrive. The Nodefoxes could rush them any time they wanted, they were only waiting to minimize their casualties. Their patience could end any minute though.

“We have to do something Max.” Bixby said.

Since the basketball sized fireball had passed by only inches about Max’s head, he wasn’t inclined to get up for another shot anytime soon. So he took a few seconds to simply give Bixby a blank look. “You don’t say. Feel welcome to come with ideas.”

Bixby was about to say something but his mouth stayed half open and he looked past Max. He followed his gaze and saw a little purple Mana Projectile shooting upwards not far from them.

“That must be Sarah,” Bixby said. “So the others are somewhere to the west.”

“And alive.” Max added relieved.

That relief wasn’t long lasting as the rhythmic sound of the turret picked up again. Max peeked over the edge of their trench and his heart sank.

The Nodefoxes must’ve seen the Mana Projectile too and decided to move this whole thing a bit faster. One Nodefox marched at the head of roughly half a dozen others. At his outstretched hand a giant barrier out of pure golden light formed. It was easily ten meters across and half as high.

Max watched as it tanked projectile after projectile without any sign of even impacting the shield, it didn’t even flicker. Max sighed as he thought about all the shards wasted. For good measure he also pumped a round of lasers into the shield, but as expected it made no difference. The Nodefoxes were still advancing. Slowly but surely.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Oh they’re in deep shit.”

Dave and the others stood at the edge of the clearing that was their camp. Although it looked more like a war zone right now. Craters were everywhere, trees were singed and whole patches of earth were scorched.

A troop of Nodefoxes marched headfirst towards the trench where their friends were sitting. At the front was a Nodefox that casually held a shield tanking bullet after bullet from the strange turret that stood behind the trench.

“We’ve gotta help them.” Dave took a step forward but was held back by a hand on his shoulder. He turned and was surprised by the serious look Sarah gave him.

“And then what?' You’re in no condition to fight.” She pointed at Ryland. “And he’s neither. We’ve gotta get you two to Sam.”

“There’s no time for that, if we run to the trench first we will just be overrun as well.” Dave argued.

Ryland chimed into the conversation. “Besides I still feel pretty good.”

Dave locked eyes with Sarah for a long moment before she finally nodded, realizing he was right, and released his shoulder.

They moved a few meters through the forest to get the Nodefoxes from the back. As soon as they were into position Sarah released another dart of energy to inform their group. By the time it passed the tree line, Dave was already off.

Upon seeing his friends in danger Dave’s pain was already forgotten. It wasn’t like Dave was blinded by adrenaline or worry. No, his injuries actually seemed a lot better than only a few minutes ago. Not wasting too much thought on that, Dave charged the back of the Nodefox troop.

One of them was fortunate enough to hear Dave’s approach and was the first to turn. Unfortunately he was greeted with a Spark to the face. The Nodefox stumbled a few steps back and a purple glowing dart brought him down.

This happened still before the rest of the troop realized what was going on. Dave had switched to his spear before charging and was now targeting his second Nodefox. With the speed buff of his additional Spark effect active, Dave was quick.

But the Nodefox was quicker though, seeing Dave at the last minute and evading the attack. Dave cursed, he had hoped to catch more of them with their element of surprise.

But there was nothing to be done about that now. All expression left his face, as he was diving into his flow state. He was ready for a fight.

Before the rest of the Nodefoxes could react, Ryland thundered into one of them behind Dave. After that it was pure chaos.

Dave fought to hold two or three Nodefoxes back at a time. For every gash he caught, he returned two. But still he was up against too many, his senses struggling to keep up with so many opponents at once.

Ryland had picked the biggest Nodefox for himself. It stood almost as tall as Ryland, obviously also enhanced by some sort of Skill. So while the two slung it out between each other, Sarah tried to keep Dave’s back clear.

Mana Projectile after Mana Projectile found its mark, forcing Dave’s attackers to either block or dodge. Soon another Nodefox was down, giving Dave enough breathing room to finish a second one with a quick spear thrust.

The fight kept going, Dave managed to overwhelm another Nodefox with Sarah’s help, leaving only two others and the one Ryland was still facing.

One of them carried a bow and was in a contest of shooting with Sarah. While Sarah used the trees as cover, the archer Nodefox seemed to be simply vanishing and reappearing a few feet away from time to time. Making it hard to hit for Sarah.

Before Dave could advance on the archer Nodefox, a beam of light shot towards him, he was barely able to dodge aside by throwing himself at the ground. Dave swallowed as he looked back and saw a huge crater where he had just been, the earth smoking hot.

The Nodefox that had held the barrier before had one hand raised towards Dave. It looked surprised at Dave’s evasion. Only now that Dave was able to give it his whole attention did he realize that it seemed a bit taller than a normal Nodefox, not just in the way it carried itself, but also in his aura. While he watched the Nodefox expression slowly turned from puzzlement into amusement.

It turned completely towards Dave now. With its focus diverted, the barrier was gone. A fact that Max and his turret utilized by raining shots at the Nodefox.

Without turning around, or even looking, it raised its hand towards the turret. At first another barrier of light formed catching the laser projectiles. Then a ball of light formed at its palm, exploding forward into another golden beam. Too bright to look at, the attack hammered into the turret’s shield like a car into a deer.

The poor shield crackled weakly and then collapsed with the sound of a hundred bottles of glass breaking. There was still enough energy left over in the attack to smash into the turret, leaving nothing but ash.

“Noo my ATM!” Dave heard Max’s voice crying out from the trench.

The Nodefox only sighed. It was definitely a few leagues above the other opponents they had fought so far. Dave could feel a dangerous aura emanating from it solidifying.

They knew from Bixby’s explanations that the scouting troop would have a leader. A Nodefox that was stronger and more dangerous than the rest combined. Dave had held a slight hope that the Nodefox summoning the green abomination had been the leader, as it had been unusually strong.

However that hope was squashed like their turret by the beam of light when Dave looked at the enemy in front of him. A part of Dave told him to run just by looking at the Nodefox. As usual Dave tried to ignore every advice his body gave him and gripped his spear tighter. He wouldn’t run, there was too much on the line for that.

Still having a barrier formed behind him that causally blocked Max’s vain attempts to score a hit, the Nodefox turned its whole attention on Dave again. It raised an eyebrow almost as if surprised that he was still there.

Suddenly an immense pressure built around Dave. Whereas before his instincts had told him to run, now they were screaming. Something about the Nodefoxes aura had changed. Before it Dave had felt it, but now it bore down on him heavily.

His perception of the Nodefox suddenly changed, before he felt like he was seeing a lion in a zoo, a mighty predator, dangerous, but hidden behind bars.

Now it felt like he was face to face with a wild lion that had just caught him trying to steal his cubs. His knees almost buckled under the stare of the angry apex predator.

Dave fought to simply keep standing. His heart felt squeezed and his legs got weak. The Nodefox just smiled.

Was this truly the power a being of the second rank held?