Walter spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the battleground and collecting his arrows. Only one shaft broke in the whole fight but he would have to refletch half of them. Replacing them from his stores would work until he had time to fix them.

He started a fire in a dumpster, he wheeled out of the alley, to burn all of the dead beasts. He would search the ashes after the embers cooled for any mana crystals the beasts may have left behind. This was the main reason for burning bodies infected by the darkness. The other reason was that he didn’t need any other scavenger type beasts moving into his spot after a free meal.

He had only lost about an hour of daylight so far as he climbed back up to the roof. He would use the binoculars to scan the buildings looking for possible survivors. If he didn’t see anyone close, he would begin scouting north, looking for whatever Karl had warned him about. Or not warned him about Walter was still unsure of that.

Walter began to systematically scan the building through his binoculars. The closest he came to finding another survivor was the word help written in dried blood. Very few other windows had evidence of fighting but nothing that could be considered viable.

Turning north he started scanning the buildings in that direction, one building at the very edge of his binocular’s capabilities caught his attention. It looked like people on a street standing completely still staring upwards at something. Whatever they were looking at was blocked from his view but Walter had a guess. The humanoid beasts had trapped something in a building they couldn’t get to.

Walter needed a better look, but he needed to be careful. The amount of humanoid beast absent from the city streets had been nagging at him, this could be why.

He jogged along the middle of the street for a few blocks before stopping in front of a three-story building. Climbing the fire escape he saw on the side of the building to the third floor he peered in. Nothing moved not proving it was safe in there he dropped his bag, spear, and bow, and pulled out a large crowbar. Wedging the window open, its ungreased frame whined in disagreement.

A little old humanoid lady beast in a stained pink nighty and slippers stepped out of one of the rooms. Clicking its teeth she charged Walter just as he opened the window all the way. Grabbing her outreached hand he wrenched it downward, lining her head with the downward force of the crowbar braining it. He quickly dumped the body over the side before her tainted blood had time to spill out.

Tapping his crowbar on the windowsill he could hear moving from below but nothing else came for him. Crawling in the window, he crept through each bedroom up there opening all the windows to light in. Then grabbed the two mattresses up there and dumped them down the stairway to block it off before pushing a dresser in front of the stairs creating a barricade that would last long enough. Donning his gear Walter did a more thorough search for access to the roof.

Not finding access to the roof, Walter chose a place at random to make one. Standing on the dresser, he made short work of the paint and plaster, dust covering him from head to toe he broke through. Spitting out a piece of plaster Walter hauled himself up onto the roof.

He now had a clear view of the building he was looking for. I was a heavily fortified bank with tents and rain catchers set up on the roof. It looked like people would be living up there but he couldn’t see anything moving. Pulling a mirror from his bag he started reflecting sunlight at the roof.

Three flashes and wait, he repeated this a few times before looking through his binoculars. He could see a hand waving and then pointing at the mass of beasts that surrounded them. He looked at the mass of humanoid beasts seeing nothing strange he flashed the light again. And looked through the binoculars again to see a face in the recesses of the tent shaking its head back and forth vehemently.

Looking back down at the mass of beasts he saw movement. A couple beasts started to move in his direction. Something was different about these beasts though; they were carrying guns and it looked to be on purpose as one lifted it a long gun with scope to its face and pointed it at Walter. Walter reacted by throwing himself backward through the hole in the roof.

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The sharp crack of thunder echoed across the buildings as the bullet went wide completely missing the house. Walters reaction though did have a consequence as he fell through the hole landing across the dresser and bouncing off. The backpack protected his spine but not his head smacking the corner. The sharp tang of metal in his mouth, his ears rang as he stood up. Shaking his head he went to the window to check the situation but realized he was screwed.

He must have blacked out briefly, the mob of humanoid beasts was already surrounding the house. The ringing started to subside and he heard the beasts breaking down doors in the house. Looking back out the windows he saw certain humanoid beasts howling at the horde. Some of them had mutated a simple intelligence but no outward signs of it. They were cleverly hiding in the horde directing it.

Walter knew he couldn’t take out the horde with simple hit and run tactics, he started rummaging through his bag pulling out a metal water bottle. Running to the mattresses he opened up the bottle, visible vapors escaping it as he poured it on the mattresses and lighting them on fire.

He looked through the window watching the humanoid beasts looking for any strange actions. A couple stood out howling rather than clicking their teeth as they kept looking at the door and then the roof. More of the regular beasts streamed into the house or tried to. The pounding of their fists was sending vibrations even up to the roof.

Walter needed to anger these beasts to come at him faster and angrier. Grabbing his bow he took a bead on the smart beast howling and let a particularly vicious looking arrow lose. The arrow flew true, it spiked blunted end smashing into the forehead of the beast. The beast collapsed. Its forehead looked deflated as the other smart beasts stopped howling and surrounded it.

Walter quickly pulled another arrow out and shot. The arrow hit, stopping halfway through another beast’s head. Taking two steps forward from the force of the arrow, the beast swung around looking directly at the window Walter was at and screamed. The fury in its scream driving all the dumber beasts near it into a rage as they rushed the house, but Walter had already bailed hoping for this reaction.

Grabbing his supplies he again scurried to the roof keeping a low profile. He estimated the distance Skitter would move him from the edge of the roof. Double-checking to make sure his items were secure he gripped his spear watching as the smoke coming through the roof. He could hear the beasts beating the burning door down. Bursting through the door fed the fire the fresh air it craved. An explosive backdraft rocked the house while spreading the fire.

Black oily smoke erupted from the hole in the roof obscuring everything. Walter activated skitter and moved through the smoke to help hide him from the beasts below. The last step of the skill landing on the edge of the roof as he leaped to the building seven feet away. Landing with a roll he popped up and performed another skitter dash and leap combo.

He did this a couple more times creating distance from smart humanoids beasts that controlled the horde. He watched them from a couple buildings away. They stood there unfazed from the blaze, some still entering the inferno looking for him.

The beast leaders started howling at their minions stopping them from entering the fire. As one they all started walking back to the larger horde to stare at the roof of the bank. Walter needed to do about the smart beasts soon. If they became smarter, they might figure out a way to get to the survivors or potentially find his base.

Slowly slinking away to an edge of the roof hidden from view, Walter rappelled to the alley behind the building. Escaping this way, Walter found the remnants of rat beast all over the alley. As if they were trampled by the horde when caught. The alleys were most likely swarming with the rat beasts and he would need to be careful in them.

Walter started jogging in a new direction deciding that if the horde were near no other beasts would dare to be here. After a couple blocks, he noticed something following him. He didn’t let it know it was spotted as he led it into a trap.

He slowed his gait slowly letting it get closer every block as he started looking at the building surrounding him. Watching for a reflection of whatever was following him but he never spotted anything.

He changed tactics and entered a building that was partially destroyed. The plaster from the walls created a cloud of fine dust almost imperceptible to the naked eye. Pretending to examine the room, he watched the dust behind him slowly being disturbed by something invisible stalking him.

Kicking back with his left foot, his heel connected with the invisible beast. Spinning around to stab it with his spear, a little girl was laying on the ground holding her stomach. Gasping for air she stared up at him with tear streaked eyes. Walter just stood there his spear ready to strike.

“Sorry?” he said in a high pitched voice.