Octavius thrust his spear forward into the roiling mass of black carapace and pincers. The guards that he had stepped between instinctively made space for him as they slowly retreated. The voice of the leader of the defending party, David, boomed over the sounds of battle from where he fought on the far right of the shield wall.

“Who the fuck is that?” he said.

The reverberations from the man’s voice faded in the time it took Octavius to cut down three more beetles and step back. He grunted as he swept his blade horizontally, slicing open the abdomen of a beetle. Seeing no pressing reason to respond, he didn't.

He saw the older man glance at him out of the corner of his eye. The sounds of combat enveloped the cleared area behind the fireline before David eventually responded, “Whatever, as long as you can fight.”

With that, their exchange was clearly finished for the time being, and Octavius focused on killing as many of the massive beetles as he could. It seemed as if the horde of beetles was never-ending. He used the range of his spear to his advantage. Lighting fast jabs of his spear flashed forward in quick succession. With every solid hit, a beetle either died or was severely wounded by Octavius’s superhuman strength.

His heavy leather boots ground into the dirt as he took a short stride backward to remain in line with the men and women that made up the defense. The range offered by his spear helped him keep the beetles at bay, but no matter how quickly he struck out, again and again, more seemed to press in on him.

Yellow-green blood coated the blade of his spear and reflected the orange light of the fires that were slowly growing farther and farther away. Even as his spear cut down one of the massive beetles every few seconds, one managed to slip past his spear’s most effective range. Instead of taking another step back and possibly leaving the men on either side of him to deal with the beetle, he swept his right foot forward and kicked it back into the swarm.

He focused on the minute movements of the horde. Whenever an individual beetle was exposed for a second, be it an exposed abdomen or merely that it was in a poor position, he would target it with his spear.

From his peripheral vision, he saw a young man overextend while bashing a beetle with his wooden club. The beetles took advantage of his moment of weakness and leapt at him. He stumbled back with a cry, and Octavius lost sight of him. A moment later, five loud gunshots rang out, halting the beetles from advancing into the opening they created.

The middle-aged man who had fired the gun suddenly stepped forward from where he was waiting just behind the line of melee fighters. Octavius saw the man swing an axe with a copper-colored blade into a beetle before pulling it out. Satisfied that the situation was taken care of, he once more devoted his full attention to killing as many of the massive insects as he could.

As the fighting wore on for long minutes, Octavius and the defenders were pushed back further and further into the Sanctuary. As the distance between the battle and the fires increased, the defenders grew more sloppy in their attacks. The black-colored beetles almost seemed to blend into the dark ground, and Octavius considered retreating for a moment so that he could resume the mana flow to spear for light. Eh, revealing to everyone that I have a magic spear wouldn’t be smart. I don’t want any of them using identify on it and seeing its rarity.

The trail left by the battle was strewn with the bodies of beetles. Their shiny carapaces and yellow-green blood reflected the firelight and created a gruesome image. The problem was that the horde seemed to have barely diminished in size. With every beetle that fell to spear, club, or axe, the vacancy left behind was filled by one of its hundreds of brethren within moments.

Octavius heard shouting and movement behind him but didn’t have the time to look to see what was going on. As he fought, he strained his ears to make out understandable sentences through the cacophony of noise.

“... come on, get up!”

“... are almost here, we have to…”

“...are they?”

Piecing together the various snippets of exclamations and questions, he concluded that the retreating battle was quickly closing on the tents situated closest to the border. David seemed to come to that conclusion as well because his shouted voice carried over the battlefield seconds later.

“Come on! Slow them down!” he shouted, “If they get to the camp, they’ll stop focusing on us and go after the civilians!”

As the old leader spoke, Octavius held his spear up horizontally and activated whirlwind. He’d hoped it would work in a similar way to the squirrels not three days prior, but, alas, his doubts were proven when it failed to seriously injure many of the beetles. What it did do was give him a moment to breathe. Just because the skill didn’t kill them didn’t mean that they weren’t knocked a few feet out of the way when they ran into the path of the spinning spear.

Octavius used that second where the focus he needed to devote to the battle was lessened to throw a glance over his right shoulder. What he saw surprised him.

He’d thought that the people on the outer ring of the Sanctuary were moved into the center, and judging by the fact that there weren’t tents right on the border anymore, that was true. Octavius, however, had overestimated how many of the people that lived in the outer ring of the Sanctuary actually moved. Looking at the tents filled with people being awakened by the sounds of battle, it was clear that they didn’t clear out the outer ring quite enough.

The screaming and shouting of the civilians became a backdrop to the battle as it continued. The vast majority of the people in the tents were fleeing, streaming away from the battle as fast as they could. However, there were a growing number of people that were heading towards the delaying action of the guards.

He didn’t have time to see what they were doing as his skill soon ended, and he was forced to focus once more. He fought with every little bit of skill and strength he had. The fact that he couldn’t save the first group of guards spurred him on, as he focused his entire will into slowing the inexorable advance of the swarm.

As he sliced open the exposed underside of two beetles, he saw a new fighter step up and join the battle out of his peripheral vision. The fight was soon joined by another and another, each wielding their own weapons as they joined the growing wall of defenders holding back the swarm. Octavius was surprised when a stone flew over his head to land in the swarm. It likely had not done any significant damage, but it seemed that even those in the Sanctuary that weren’t fighters were willing to fight any way they could.

As the guards who had been asleep in the area joined the battle, the pressure on Octavius decreased drastically. More and more guards and fighters arrived; some were likely reinforcements from other sections of the border, and others off duty guards.

It seemed as if the defense led by David had delayed the insect swarm enough for a significant amount of the fighters of the Sanctuary to mobilize. Guard after guard joined the line until the threat of being surrounded changed from a problem for the defenders to deal with to one for the bugs.

The rabid bugs didn’t have the mental abilities to recognize that they were now at a disadvantage. Instead, they just turned and attacked every new fighter that arrived to engage them. It took two minutes for the swarm to be completely surrounded by upwards of eighty guards and for the human retreat to come to a halt.

The humans began to tighten the circle, moving in towards the center as they slaughtered the relatively low-level beasts. Octavius smiled when he realized what an advantage he had now. His spear’s long-range had already allowed him to kill a significant amount of the bugs, but now that he was not on the back foot and surrounded by friendly forces, he could really put that range to use.

Deciding that the EXP was worth the drop in stamina, he activated instant thrust over and over, and he advanced towards the center of the swarm. Each thrust burst through the low-level beasts, killing many with each attack.

The massacre of the bugs, for that was what it had turned into, lasted for three minutes due to the sheer number of beetles that made up the swarm. Once it was over, Octavius was breathing deeply with his spear planted into the ground. The stamina drain of using his skill so much was much larger than the stamina he used up from the normal combat of the fight.

As he stood among the piles of bug corpses, he checked the messages he had been ignoring in favor of concentrating on the battle. Immediately he was inundated with a massive number of windows.

You have killed Common Giant Stag Beetle (Lvl 6) and gained 94 EXP (1/4)(6)(1/2)(1)(1.25)(100)

You have killed Common Giant Stag Beetle (Lvl 7) and gained 110 EXP (1/4)(7)(1/2)(1)(1.25)(100)

You have killed Common Giant Stag Beetle (Lvl 5) and gained 78 EXP (1/4)(5)(1/2)(1)(1.25)(100)

You have killed Common Giant Stag Beetle (Lvl 5) and gained 78 EXP (1/4)(5)(1/2)(1)(1.25)(100)

…

You have killed Common Giant Stag Beetle (Lvl 6) and gained 94 EXP (1/4)(6)(1/2)(1)(1.25)(100)

He immediately dismissed the messages and instead called up how much EXP he needed to advance to level 13.

Level

12

EXP

29428/70000

Blinking at the number, he shook his head slightly. He estimated that during his wild hunt earlier, he’d gained give or take fifteen thousand EXP, but that meant he’d gained nearly that amount again from the beetles alone. Reviewing his memory of the battle, it was clear that he’d killed a vast number of them, but the true number of them that he must have killed to gain that much EXP surprised him.

Shaking himself from his reverie, he surveyed the battlefield. All around him people picked through the remnants of the battlefield, collecting the corpses of the beetles and piling them to one side. He guessed that they would use their carapaces to make any number of important things.

He saw one man down a health potion and watched as a deep laceration in his leg healed quickly. It seemed as though no one had died after the first group was wiped out. There were a few gruesome injuries, but anyone injured was dragged from the battle and given a health potion. There were only two people he saw that had visible wounds that remained. One had a fresh bandage over an arm wound, and the other had one over a wound on his leg. Octavius had to guess that these two had both already used a health potion within the last twenty-four hours.

He considered activating his illusion ring and quietly slipping away but decided against it. Now that the Sanctuary definitely knew he existed, he had to develop a good relationship with them to avoid any future conflict.

Thus, he stood in the middle of the battlefield, resting against his spear as he waited for someone to approach him. The wait proved to be short when David walked up to him. He silently held out a hand, and Octavius shook it. Silence reigned while they sized each other up.

David was old. Judging by his grey hair and wrinkled face, the man was at least in his sixties. He probably was only a decent fighter at his age due to the system. After all, a health potion would fix any problems with his body that damaged his health. Ava had told Octavius that the extremely elderly got permanent debuffs towards their stats, but he doubted David was old enough for those to kick in.

His stats would be behind the curve because his starting stats would be less than average, but that could be made up for. The man had old brown eyes and the worn, tanned skin of someone who’d spent decades in the sun. His brows were furrowed in a way that made the wrinkled skin of his forehead fold together as he examined Octavius.

He has experience with leading men in combat, Octavius thought as he examined the older man, maybe ex-military, Vietnam? Or perhaps law enforcement, SWAT? He could have no experience with combat before the tutorial, but I doubt it. I wonder where he is from. Now that I think about it, there’s a good chance he’s not American. His age makes it hard to tell his natural skin tone, but that doesn’t mean much these days. David is a common name everywhere from America to Europe to Israel, so that doesn’t help much. I’m not sure then.

Octavius knew the man was looking him over in a similar way and could guess what he looked like in the eyes of the man. He wore green camouflage military fatigues that were faded and, despite Octavius’s cleaning them frequently, bloodstained. Above the fatigues, he wore strange leather armor on his upper body. The armor had a quality that put the makeshift protections of the guards to shame. Perhaps the most striking thing about it, however, was that it was clean of almost all blood, dirt, and grime. His height and frame were striking as well. Overall, he looked much like the warrior he was.

The silence was broken when the man grunted while nodding at him. “I’m David,” he said. “I’m a Lieutenant of the Guard here at Sanctuary,” before looking at Octavius, waiting for him to answer the unspoken question.

Octavius nodded back to the man and smiled. “I’m Octavius, and I’m just a wanderer at the moment.”

“Forgive me for my bluntness,” David said, though it was clear that he didn’t care much, “But what were you doing here to be able to join the fight?”

Recognizing that this moment would possibly set the tone for his relationship with the Sanctuary, Octavius spoke truthfully. “I was killing beasts in the area when I heard the screams and gunfire. When I arrived, the group of guards was already surrounded. You guys showed up, and I figured I could help.”

David squinted at him for a long second before snorting. “Well, help you did. You’re pretty damn impressive with that fancy spear,” he spoke with a slight smile, “Do you want something to eat?”

Octavius smiled gratefully and answered in the affirmative. David led him off the battlefield and to the east. As they walked, David began to fish for information.

“So, I would think that a solo fighter like you would try to get as far from Sanctuary as possible for the Emergence,” he stated.

Stepping around a smoldering fire, Octavius responded with a grin. “I’m here because all the beasts are. It takes a ridiculous amount of experience to level up these days.”

David nodded before asking the obvious question, “And how did you get to level 12 so fast? I only know one other level 12 guy, but he fights with guns.”

Octavius’s smile grew. “Constant combat and a good deal of luck,” he said.

The walk to wherever David was leading him lasted for five minutes. Over the course of the walk, David grew less and less suspicious of Octavius and his motives. Finally, they arrived at a series of fires. Over each fire was a roasting animal. Octavius saw birds, rabbits, and even a whole pig, along with the unidentifiable pieces of butchered meat.

“Over here,” David gestured towards a line of people. He walked past most of it until he reached the front. The two of them received more than a few annoyed glares but weren’t stopped. He grabbed two wooden bowls filled with a broth and a few pieces of roast meat, vegetables, and what looked like some type of potato.

After handing one to Octavius, David spoke as he led Octavius to a fire off to one side. “You’d think that the food out here sucks, but since Ekon took over the cooking, it’s become actually enjoyable.”

Sitting on opposite sides of the fire, they ate and talked. Octavius talked about some of the beasts he’d seen, and David shared tales of the Sanctuary’s founding. Apparently, he was one of the first hundred or so to join.

As they spoke, they conversed about the most dangerous beasts they’d encountered. Octavius told him of the bear he’d fought not long before, and David countered him with the story of his group fighting an honest to God griffin. Octavius was rather impressed by that until David let it slip that the griffin was wingless.

They moved on to speculation about the end of the Emergence.

“What I think is that the Lord of Beasts or whatever is going to be nasty,” David explained, “Sure, the Emergence has been difficult, but it hasn’t exactly been enough to warrant being called a nightmare.”

Octavius nodded, ”I think you’re right about that.” The discrepancy hadn’t sat well with him either.

“You think that once the Emergence is over, we’ll be off free for the rest of the tutorial?” David asked with a sarcastic smile.

Octavius grimaced, “The way it has been going, I doubt it.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to wait to see what’s in store for us next,” David said.

Octavius frowned at that. There was something right at the tip of his tongue, something that he felt was essential. What could it be? It was like an itch at the back of his mind, and he tried to remember.

“You alright?” David asked.

Octavius shook his head slightly before nodding, “Yeah, I just feel like I’ve forgotten something that I should tell you. I’ll let you know if I remember.”

After that, they sat in companionable silence as the fire began to die out.

“Did you know them?” Octavius asked as he stared into the embers.

David grimaced, knowing exactly who he was talking about. “Not well,” he said softly, “but I’ve spoken to one of the younger boys, Danek, a few times. He was a nice kid, didn’t deserve to die like that.”

Octavius nodded, picturing their final stand. As he raised his waterskin, the image in his mind shifted to an old photograph of a man in desert camouflage smiling at the camera, rifle slung across his chest. The man’s beaming smile was infectious and uniquely similar to Octavius’s own. “To those who have died so that others may live,” he spoke softly.

David nodded and raised his own drink. They sat in silence, staring into the dying flames as the sky began to brighten. Their companionable silence was broken when a young man ran up to their fire.

“Hey David, is this the guy that helped stop that massive swarm of bugs?” he asked. David looked up, and the young man, clearly recognizing him and nodded.

“Robert asked me to let you know that he wants to see you and to bring the new level 12 guy. He wants to meet him,” the young man spoke while glancing at Octavius.

Octavius looked at David to see his reaction. David began to stand, “Alright, let’s see what he wants.”

Standing as well, Octavius stretched and turned to the young man, “Ok, lead the way.”