“A what?”

“A spawner.” Bixby said solemnly.

The whole group stood at the edge of the clearing. Once again they had anxiously awaited a Nodefox attack, but still there was no trace of the bushy tailed beasts.

Instead they were greeted by two dog sized rats aggressively scurrying at them as soon as the barrier dropped down. They were quickly dealt with by the group, no real threat to them.

“What is a spawner?” Dave asked while kneeling next to one of the lifeless rodents.

They were ugly things, long scrunched noses, dark and dirty fur, and a smell that announced them before they were even seen. Dave scrunched his nose. The smell hadn’t gotten better after they died.

“A spawner is something that generates manifestations of Mana. It takes the ambient Mana and transforms it into creatures and beasts that run rampant. They can vary in form, but monsters are most common.” Bixby said and pointed at the rodents on the floor. ”Those rats? I think they’re one of the manifestations of the spawner.”

“How do you know?” Dave asked skeptically. “I mean sure, you know your stuff and all, but those just look like normal rats to me. Sure a bit bigger, but we’ve seen weirder wildlife by now.”

Just as he said this the rats dissolved into a cloud of light blue smoke, leaving Dave sitting there dumbstruck.

“Because spawner manifestations always dissolve into Mana again after a certain while.” Bixby said with a smug smile.

Dave looked at him blankly, but as he inhaled the smoke he fell into a coughing fit, eliciting a round of laughter from Bixby and the others.

“Yeah I wouldn’t stay too close to the corpses when they evaporate.”

“But why would the Nodefoxes place a spawner close to us?” Max chimed into the conversation. “Why not just attack us again?”

“I don’t know for certain.” Bixby admitted. “Maybe they’re too occupied on other fronts to afford sending their troops over here.”

Dave gave a dry chuckle. “Just that light guy from last time would suffice if he went serious.”

“My people haven’t brought a lot of rank two people over yet. They are valuable resources, and if they can conquer the Node without any manpower, that’s perfect for them.” Bixby said in a lecturing voice as he paced around a few steps. “Besides, spawners are a popular siege tool. They pull Mana out of the ambient environment and generate frenzied monsters out of it that will attack everything nearby, wreaking havoc and destruction.”

Bixby paused and turned towards the group before continuing. “You have to understand that Spawners will generate ever stronger monsters. The first few waves are always easily defeated, but they will get more and more difficult to deal with, until they eventually overrun everything that is nearby. Spawners are a truly terrifying tool.”

The others were shocked.

“But if the first waves are weak, why even wait all the extra time to capture our Node, if they can just come themselves?” Max asked.

“That’s the most ruthless thing about spawners,” Bixby said plainly. “The Mana smoke that comes to be after the monsters dissolve? It drifts back to the spawner where it is converted into Mana Shards. That’s why spawners are such popular siege tools, they will slowly bleed out settlements all the while they even generate money for the Nodefoxes.”

Max swallowed after hearing that.

“What if we stay strong enough to deal with the monster waves?” Dave asked. “Wouldn’t we just need to play for time?”

“Nobody can keep up with spawners.” Bixby said solemly.

The next few weeks showed how right Bixby was. The first waves were pretty weak. For two or three rotations, all that came at them were a few rats, but never too many at once. By the third rotation, it wasn’t even enough for Dave to rectify taking time off of training to fight the rats.

Up to that point mainly Mira and Max had dealt with the vicious rodents in a way for them to get combat experience in a somewhat safe environment. With Max’s blaster and Mira’s plant growing Skill the rats didn’t prove much of a challenge to them.

It was during the fourth wave that Dave was interrupted in his training by a shrill cry.

While rushing to the edge of the camp, he fell beside Ryland, who with a nod signaled Dave he heard it too.

When he reached the place, he saw his friends fighting a giant serpent. Mira was on the floor. That was all Dave remembered. His vision turned red, and the next moment the serpent was suddenly on the floor spasming. A blade ended it’s suffering a moment later.

Max was already by Mira’s side, Ryland already gone to get Sam.

Dave caught himself staring angrily at Max. Accusingly even. He forced himself to calm down. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, probably just knocked out.” Max looked down.”I’m sorry Dave, it all just happened so fast.”

“What happened?” Dave asked, slightly taken aback by the harshness in his own voice.

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Max gave him an understanding look. “We fought one of those rats, when suddenly this giant ass snake came out from behind the trees. It just straight up headbutted her.”

Dave glanced over to the slightly grilled snake on the ground. It indeed had an enlarged forehead. His curiosity piqued, he wanted to inspect the dead beast, but it vanished into blue smoke in front of his eyes.

Dave sighed. How fitting.

Just then Sam arrived. From the look in his eyes, Ryland had already told him all about what happened. He mutely went to work.

After a few tense seconds, and more than one pair of eyes resting on back, Sam spoke up. “It’s only a mild concussion, so no reason to worry.” Then he turned to face the group. “Also back off please. Give me some space to work. Jeez.” His voice was harsh and raised.

Not really knowing what else to do, Dave decided to go back to training. He walked away like a dog with his tail between its legs. Max wasn’t any different. Only Ryland was so used to Sam’s occasionally raised voice by now, that his spirits were still high. He had been on the receiving end often enough.

“You guys wanna do a few rounds together?” Ryland asked as they reached camp.

“Sure.” Dave replied, never one to say no to training.

Max merely shrugged and went along.

As they reached the clearing, Ryland went to stretch a bit to get warm. Dave turned towards Max instead.

“I’m sorry for earlier.” His head cast down, he rubbed his arm awkwardly. “I got a bit carried away.”

Max smiled gently. “It’s alright. I understand." Then his voice turned teasing. “Besides, it was quite gentleman-like for you to care for your girl.”

Dave blushed a deep red. “She isn’t.. I mean..” he stammered.

“Yeah yeah I get it.” Max joked. “Actually you guys have fun training, I think I’ll just take a little walk. Not really in the mood for broken bones, you know?”

Still scrambling for words, Dave watched Max walk away.

Max spoke uncomfortably close to something he didn’t want to think about right now. Dave couldn’t deny Mira was kinda cute, but he did not want to get tangled up in girls right now. Not during an apocalypse. And especially not after Angela.

Like a lightning illuminating the sky, the memory crashed back again. Angela. He had totally forgotten about her during the past few weeks, there was just always something to do.

Actually it was good this way. Or was it? Dave wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“You coming or what!?” Ryland cried out form behind.

Ripped out of his thoughts, Dave smiled and rolled his shoulders. Luckily he didn’t have to think about it right now. There was training to do. That always distracted him.

And so he just stuffed his feelings down into his slowly filling pit.

Max strolled around their camp for a few minutes before he found what he was looking for. Sarah. Max leaned against a nearby tree, crossed his arms and watched, not wanting to disturb her. He didn’t even notice the smile creeping up on his face.

It looked like Sarah was practising her new Skills. She had actually gotten twol after their recent attack by the Nodefoxes. Pretty lucky.

She was walking in line between two trees, carefully counting her steps. When she reached the one at the end, she turned around. Her face scrunched up in concentration for a second, and with a blink she suddenly stood halfway between the two trees, only a few faint purple lines hanging in the air between her old and new position.

Sarah looked around and her eyes narrowed. She slowly counted the steps back towards the tree and cheered.

“Nice progress.” Max said, knowing how and when to make an entrance.

Sarah looked around confused, until her eyes settled on Max. “Thanks.” She said, giving him a gleeful smile. “Teleportation is still a little disorienting, but I already manage almost twice as many steps as in the beginning.”

“And it seems you need a lot less windup time.”

“Yep.” she said proudly. “I’ve managed to raise the Skill to level four, so I’m pretty excited for the next level.” She walked a few steps closer towards Max.

From so close Max could see the thin sheen of sweat on her face. She must have been working herself pretty hard.

He smiled at her. “Yeah I feel you. Let me know if any interesting choices come up.

“Will do.” she said. “How is your new Skill coming along?”

Max had also gotten a new Skill after their desperate defense. It was called “Weapon Purchaser”, it worked a bit similar to Dave’s Soul Weapon Mastery Skill. Max got a little extra proficiency with every weapon he bought in the Node Store, but nothing compared to the boost Dave got.

The main advantage was, that every weapon he bought would get a random upgrade, increasing its strength. It was a pretty cool Skill in Max’s opinion, although he didn’t know how random the upgrade truly would be. He could see himself with a flame spitting sword though.

“Well… I haven’t had a chance to really test it yet.” Max said. “We don’t really have the budget for me to go and buy tons of new weapons.” He had gotten fifteen Mana Shards along with his Skill, but he wanted to save them for now.

“But just from my aim training the Skill has already reached level 3.” He said with some overplayed confidence in his voice and banged his chest.

Sarah chuckled. “You seem to be working pretty hard.”

“You want to train together? We could combine training my new Skill with your new Skill.” Max suggested.

Sarah looked confused for a second before she understood which Skill Max meant.

“Sure let’s do it.”

Max nodded and drew his blaster from the holster at his hip. The rifle was only fistsized at first, but it grew in his hands, until it reached around the size of a proper sci-fi laser gun. Max loved the function, by shrinking it and putting it into his holster it didn’t hinder his movement and he could draw it in a blink.

Sarah walked a few steps away from Max and turned to face him.

“You ready?” Max asked.

Sarah nodded, her eyes set. So Max set the rifle on his shoulders and carefully took aim. The weapon already felt much more natural than it had only a few days ago. By now he was sure he would be able to hit a few more Nodefoxes if he had to. It was unbelievable growth.

Max took a deep breath and released a small burst of shots. The blue glowing bits of light soared through the air faster than a normal bullet, right in the direction of Sarah’s head.

For a second Sarah only stood there, Max fearing he had made a terrible mistake. But just before the missiles would hit her, a thick shield of energy sprung up in front of Sarah.

It was different then the barriers the Nodefoxes used or the shields they knew from their Node buidlings. Sarah’s shield really took the form of a medieval shield, it even held a motive on it. It was almost a as big as Sarah, although far wider, and looked to be multiple inches thick and hard to the touch. But it was only a manifestation of Mana, sheen, purple and translucent.

The shots soared into Sarah’s protection and fizzled out of existence. After a whole round of shots, Sarah’s shield still held strong.

Even though Max had seen the shield before, he marveled at it. It looked beautifully designed, the lion on front of it looked carried a regal air and Max wondered why Sarah had gotten the particular crest for her Skill.

“One more.” Sarah demanded.

With a smile Max complied. He would never deny a girl the wish of another round with him.