The next few weeks life at the camp changed a lot.

For one, the monster wave attacks from the spawner got more and more dangerous. The first few rotations after the huge goblin wave had been manageable, at times even easy. After about two weeks they got harder again, not as much that Dave feared for their camp, but enough that he had to fight seriously from time to time.

There was no encounter where he was really in danger though. They still rotated who would face the new wave, so that all of them would have a chance at gaining some experience. Although Dave and Sam were ready at all times to intervene if anything got wrong.

For about a month there was no reason for it, until one attack there was.

It was early in the morning, the sun had barely passed the horizon and their camp was lit in a soft golden hue. It was a quiet morning, even the birds were still asleep. But right the moment when he got up, Dave knew there was something wrong.

He carried his hunch with him over to the barrier where all of his friends but Mira and Max already stood. Lately even Bixby had fought from time to time in their rotations.

Dave remembered a little about the Nodefoxes fighting style back in the Nodefox den, back then it hadn’t been that impressive really. One fight he was ragdolled, relying on Dave to use Spark to draw his assailants attention, and the other he hid beneath his acorn shell Skill.

Only later had Dave found out in what a weakened state the Nodefox had been back then. Apparently his cell back in the tree dungeon had been special, in that it constantly drew little bits of Mana from Bixby, keeping him weakened.

In reality Bixby was a rank one entity, one of the few the Nodefoxes had sent through the portals early on. That fact alone spoke to Bixby's importance.

Without being weakened, he would’ve been strong enough to wipe the floor with almost everyone in the den without much difficulty. As it was now, he was still relatively strong due to him being the only one of them in the middle of the first rank. However most of his Skill weren’t really combat oriented, so he wasn’t worth as much as Dave or Ryland in a fight.

All that being said, Dave still felt a bit more at ease seeing his bushy tailed friend among them, ready to face today’s wave. It wasn’t quite enough to shake the uneasy feeling he had though.

“I think you just haven’t slept enough.” Ryland replied when Dave spoke out about his hunch.

Sarah smirked. “Have you and Mira been up all night again?”

Dave tried to laugh it off, Sarah couldn’t be further off the mark. He had indeed spent a lot of time with Mira lately, but all they did was just talk. Well, talk and walk. Dave held a strange fascination with her, but it wasn’t anything romantic. He enjoyed talking to her, she seemed to understand him in ways others didn’t.

On the other hand there were moments when he wasn’t quite sure about that, so his body’s natural reaction to Sarah’s snark remark was to blush, which in turn elicited laughter from the rest.

A brief flash illuminated the air, scaring a few birds from nearby treetops away. The soft silver shimmer faded away, and just like that they were open to the world once again. The Grace Period shield was down.

The laughter died immediately, replaced by serious expressions. The group took up positions, Ryland at the front, Sarah and Mira at the back, Bixby in between.

They had practiced and fought together so often now, that they moved like well oiled machinery.

Dave looked to the other side of where their shield usually sat. It was still a strange feeling to see the trees that were so often slightly distorted by their barrier normally again. It hammered their vulnerability really home.

They stood rooted and anxious. Waiting for whatever today’s wave would bring to appear. But they didn’t have to wait long. Only a few moments after the barrier was down, a low thumb rang through the forest around them, then another.

Dave’s anxious feeling grew. The sound got louder and finally a stone giant emerged out of the woods, slow moving, but intimidatingly big. Underneath its grey skin, muscles bulged and worked, carrying its heavy frame. Its head was rectangular shaped, giving it a strong chin, but its eyes were dead. If for nothing else, the eyes would’ve told Dave the thing was a lifeless construct.

But it was a scary one at that.

As soon as the thing emerged out of the woods, a Mana Projectile soared into its shoulder. Dave had seen from first hand experience how much damage Sarah’s glowing darts could wrack by now, but against the stone like golem, it seemed like a fly crashing into a horse. The thing kept moving forwards, heading straight towards their camp.

To Sarah’s credit, she reacted faster than anyone else, and without an ounce of hesitation. Next was Ryland who surged forward, even though he only reached the giant golems waist, he showed no signs of fear.

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“Should we get the others?” Sam asked, watching the stone monster anxiously.

“No. This will be a good learning opportunity.” Dave said calmly while crossing his arms. This was a chance for his friends to see what it’s like to fight a hopelessly stronger foe.

Sam looked uneasy but didn’t press the point further.

Indeed their friends seemed to learn their lesson rather quickly. Ryland threw punch after punch at the monster, and it tanked almost a dozen projectiles without significant impact. It seemed to slow down, irritated by its attackers but not in danger.

Their attacks were soon proved futile against the monstrous tank.

At least they had managed to focus its attention towards Ryland, and it started chasing him for a while. The whole forest floor shook from the golems steps, as it tried to catch up to him. Fortunately Ryland was used to sparring against much more agile opponents and kept evading the golem with ease.

However, as one of its fists crashed into a patch of dirt where Ryland stood, not even a second ago, it almost made Dave flinch. The golem first had left a crater that was almost big enough to bury someone. It looked like the whole ground was just caved in, loose and brittle dirt laying around the edges.

Dave tried to keep his outwards confident appearance up, but didn’t feel half as sure anymore. Sam was there should anything happen, and after the recent rather easy waves it would indeed be a good training opportunity for his friends. But did he really want to be responsible if something happened? Dave didn’t feel so sure about his non involvement anymore.

He watched anxiously as one of Bixby’s Acorn Grenades crashed into the golem, making it stagger a few steps backwards. The Skill was one Bixby had only revealed later, it apparently used up quite a bit of Mana, but it enabled him to charge the equivalent power of a hand grenade into a single acorn.

It was devastating to say the least, but the golem soon found his balance again, and now kept going after Bixby.

The fight kept going on and developed into a weird sort of equilibrium where no party really made any advancements. The golem was too slow to land hits on either of them, and Dave’s friends were unable to damage it.

After seeing Ryland throw an overhand right into the back of the golem without even cracking its shell, Dave grew nervous. It had been a good punch, Ryland had thrown all his bodyweight into it. It was the sort of punch his friend normally used for felling trees. Sure they were weakened by Mira beforehand, but still, Ryland did take down trees with the same punches the golem just shrugged off.

Dave wondered if he would even be able to damage the golem. Ryland had much more punching power than him, but Dave had one ace he had kept hidden away so far. Before Dave could come to a decision, his eyes were drawn back to the fight.

Another fist shook the ground, leaving only a crater and the golem slowly pulling its arm back. Dave’s friends used its immobility against the giant though.

Three darts hit the golems head in quick succession, making it stagger. Before it regained its footing, Ryland was there and bodychecked the golem in full sprint.

Both of them were thrown to the ground, but Ryland quickly jumped back into safety again before the golem could grab him.

That was their moment. While the golem fought to righten itself, a storm of fists, claws and purple energy thundered into it.

A cloud of dust rose around the still struggling golem, caused by it’s vain attempts to get back up, but the pressure of Ryland and Bixby was too much. They held the golem down as best as they could with their attacks while Sarah kept aiming for its softer parts. This went on for a few tense seconds. His friends gave everything trying to break the golem, but he could see them tiring. Not a lot, but enough.

As soon as they had slowed down minimally, the golem struck. For the first time since the fight started, a deep grunt escaped the up to then silent golem. The noise was bone chilling. It was a deep rumble that almost hurt Dave’s ears, but what’s worse, the thing sounded angry.

Bixby and Ryland were thrown away from the golem, it probbed itself up, quicker than they could react. Ryland only rolled a few meters, seemingly unhurt, but Bixby thundered into a nearby tree.

There was a crack, from the tree. And a crunch from Bixby. But the noise that was the worst in Dave’s ears, more uncomfortable than the angry rumble of the golem, was the noise Bixby made when he slumped to the ground. The soft painful yelp made Dave’s heart sink. Sam was already on the way over to the tangled mess of limbs and tail.

Angry as it was, the golem also seemed to have gotten smarter, as it was moving to intercept Sam’s direction.

Only now after it stood again could Dave see the carnage his friends had wracked. Whatever the material the golem was made off, it had splittered in mutliple places. Parts of the golem looked like a broken cracked floor tile.

A part of its shoulder was simply missing, probably where Ryland had repeatedly hit it. And its face was scorched almost black on one side.

For all the damage it took, it only seemed more dangerous now.

However, Dave had let it go too far already. He stepped to intercept the golem, blocking the way between the creature and Sam.

The sight of Dave actually stopped the golem. As it laid its black, lifeless eyes upon him, it hesitated. Dave simply stood there, spear in hand, staring right back at it. He was no imposing figure by any means, but the golems still saw something in him. Something that made it more careful than against the three of Dave’s friends at the same time.

“That was enough big boy.” Dave said, his voice flat and emotionless. He was actually angry, brooding even, not at the golem, but at himself. For if anything had happened to Bixby, it was his fault.

So while he wasn’t angry at the golem, the golem was simply unlucky enough to be close to him. While Dave kept staring straight into the golems eyes, it made no move to advance.

Dave took a step forward, calm and sure. The golem almost took an involuntary step backwards, but seemed to catch itself mid movement and stop. For a second there was confusion in its eyes, that quickly turned into rage though as it took off and rushed towards Dave. The ground shook as the golem moved at a speed previously unshown.

Dave simply smiled and raised its spear.

“I wanted to try this for a while now.” The Golem was halfway towards him. “It was a really bad day for you to get here.”

The golem swung one of its rock sized fists, with another growl it reached towards Dave. He stepped closer, underneath the swing, and brought his spear forward.

“Zeus Punishment.”