Chapter: The Horde

Rugrat moved through the forest easily, there weren't too many creatures in the surrounding area, most of them were just rabbits and foxes, Rugrat didn't care as he moved through, killing them as they found them.

They disappeared off into his storage ring as he and the hunters moved deeper into the forest. Rugrat held up his hand, stopping the hunters from moving forward, they might know the area, but they weren't that quiet.

They only hunted on the side when they didn't have fields to look after in the day.

Rugrat moved off by himself, his bow down and ready.

There was a litter of boars, the creatures were grunting and making noises at one another as they rooted through the ground, trying to dig out some kind of food.

The further Rugrat went into the forest, the less food he found.

Rugrat didn't directly attack the boars and moved back into the forest.

Once there, he pulled out all the daggers that he and Erik had salvaged in their travels.

He found a long depression with plants in it.

He took the blades, secured them into the ground and binding them to logs so that they wouldn't move or be knocked over.

Rugrat hid them in the bushes.

"Alright I'm going to bring a bunch of boars through here, I'm going to position you as soon as you see them cross this line," Rugrat used his boot to make a line in the dirt. "I want you to start shooting them with arrows."

The three hunters showed that they understood as Rugrat put them in hidden positions and then went off to where the litter of boars were.

He stood and drew on his arrow, sending it flying as it drilled through the front shoulder of one of the medium sized boars.

The creature was only a level six, but it's natural defense was really high.

Still they were just level six and Rugrat was level twelve with a bow and arrow to augment his base attack power.

The boar squealed and moved a few steps before it collapsed on it's side.

The other boars looked around in alarm.

Rugrat didn't wait, drawing and firing his second arrow, it hit a boar, eliciting squeals, but not killing it outright.

The other boars were all gathering together.

"Hey over here!" Rugrat yelled as he fired his third arrow, killing the boar.

The boars were tired and hungry on the verge of losing their minds, seeing Rugrat they let out squeals and charged him.

Rugrat didn't try to fire another arrow and took off, he watched behind him, making sure that they were following as the remainder of the litter came charging through the forest after him.

Rugrat led them into the depression that he'd rigged, firing an arrow back at them, more to anger them than try to kill. It flew over their heads as their pace only quickened.

Rugrat saw the bushes, where he had hidden the blades, he jumped, missing the daggers and kept on running, the boars continued to follow before letting out high pitched pained squeals, the daggers had opened them up from below, using their momentum, against them.

Some made it past the blades with wounds but they weren't life threatening, arrows passed Rugrat, hitting the boars behind him, killing those that were still charging forwards.

Rugrat jumped up the side of the defilade, turning and firing down at the boars, in just a few minutes they killed the remainder of the litter.

The hunters came out from where they were hiding, looking at the boars with stunned looks, then they opened their screens, letting out cheers as they had broken through bottlenecks in their levels.

They wouldn't fight the boars if they were at their level usually, these wounded and maimed boars were easy to kill under Rugrats guidance.

"Alright, collect up the corpses, we'll clean them up when we get back to the town, we aren't done with scouting," Rugrat said, focusing them and silencing them.

They were still wary but they were excited now, as one increased in levels then it would be possible for them to Gain a better position in life and be able to determine their own future. They collected up the bodies into their storage rings, Rugrat found that not many of them actually had storage rings, so he took the majority for himself and cleaned the daggers off before storing them.

They moved forward, they killed three more litters of boars, racking up some fifty boars before Rugrat started to ignore them and move forward.

The hunters listened, they were pleased with their gains and wanted to keep on hunting boars though their gains were diminishing, Rugrat was getting a hundred points or less per kill while the hunters were getting thousands in one shot, all of them were now level six and reaching for level seven. Rugrat was pleased in their increase of power but he still needed to know everything that they were fighting. They could kill boars all day long but they would run out of ammunition at some point.

Seeing the rewards that they could gain in following Rugrat they listened to his every word and did their best to try and aid him. They avoided the groups of boars to find groups of wolves that ranged from level six to level eight, then there was the Panthers that roamed in small packs.

Rugrat halted everyone as he heard the sounds of a fight, the hunters all dispersed under his command.

He moved forward to get a better look.

Well, that's not good.

***

Erik was staying at the city Hall, he was looking over the different reports he had got from Blaze the town leader.

It wouldn't be the easiest to defend Alva, but Erik felt that it was possible.

Erik was sitting out front of the town hall when he saw Rugrat dismissing his hunters and moving to Erik.

"What are we looking at?" Erik said, pushing forward a beer.

Rugrat took a long drink before wiping his face with the back of his hand.

"Looks like the creatures in the area grew in massive numbers to the point that they've eaten the other materials in the area.

First we've got boars stripping the ground clean of any vegetation, they've grown in massive numbers, allowing the wolves that hunt them to have plenty of food and grow as well. Then there are the panthers that eat both of the other creatures and finally, the King beasts of the area, level nine and ten bad boys, bears, sabre tooth, even a few cougars," Rugrat sat in the seat opposite Erik.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Erik asked.

"Once the creatures get scared, or hungry then they'll either charge from the rear, the smell of blood startling those that are weaker, or the weak are going to charge forward, get wounded, either by us or naturally, then the smell of blood will entice the higher level creatures," Rugrat said.

"Well that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun," Erik surmised.

"How's things on the city side?" Rugrat asked.

"Guards are okay, thinned them out some to get the ones that will stick around. I want you to take them out on patrol, get used to seeing the enemy, kill some, get them to a higher level."

"Great, more training," Rugrat shook his head. "The hunters are okay, they'll be decent and they're around level six, some level seven so it'll be possible to use them to bolster up the people in the village."

"If possible I want to get the guards ready to take out some villagers, get them to thin out the boars, increasing their level and confidence. You good taking over that side of things?" Erik asked.

"Shouldn't be a problem, defenses?"

Erik pulled out a piece of paper.

"We've got the city here, it's not big but lines of traps is going to be hard. Thankfully we're dealing with beasts so we can modify accordingly.

"First I want to have a series of traps set up over dug out pits with fresh meat at the traps. The boars are aggressive but they're not meat eaters, they'll move away from these places, or they'll go in the hole, doesn't matter much really.

The second ring I want to make obstacles, funnel the creatures down more, thinking sharpened stakes tied together. The next line will be inside bow range, I want to have deep pits with sharpened stakes. The final defense I want small potholes all over the ground meant to break the creatures ankles as they enter bow range. We hit them with bows and they have to amble forward, in too deep to get away easily. Erik tapped on his picture that now had four circles surrounding it.

Erik and Rugrat spent the night going over their plan, as their stamina had increased they didn't require much sleep.

They grabbed a quick nap before the sun came up.