Chapter 81

“Next floor,” Tamara said cheerfully.

“Did you run into any trouble?”

Tamara shrugged. “Nothing serious. Our tank shield charged some sort of monkey and had the two ceiling ones drop onto his exposed back. I electrocuted all of four of them, which bought enough time for the rest of us to kill. The bloody things were glass cannons. Captain.” She smiled mockingly at that name. “He wants to be called Captain Australia, got angry at me electrocuting him till we pointed out the scar on his belly from where they had cut straight through him.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he is an idiot. We keep telling him to wait until the enemies were identified, so we knew what they could do, but he does not listen.”

“He was going to shield charge the bear.”

“But there were live traps in the way,” Tamara said. Daniel just nodded at that. “Idiot! Anyway, hopefully almost being turned into sushi will reduce some of his suicidal tendencies. What is upstairs?”

“One of the creatures from the stairwells.”

“They scare you, don’t they?”

“Yep, they are scary.”

“An identification will probably help refine our strategy?” She winked at them.

“How does that work?” he asked in mock confusion.

She grinned at him. “I just need to see it and then we can work out the best way to kill it. Like the stupid monkeys had the description, ‘enjoys ambushing from above.’”

“Okay, give me a minute.” Daniel crept up to the door and sprouted vines to obscure the glass. He did not want the monster to see them before they were ready to attack. Then he got Tamara. She stood, lifting a leaf up so she could see through the window. It was about ten minutes till it glided back. Even without using his magic, he could tell it was there because Tamara froze.

Then she dragged him downstairs.

“What is it?” Ivey asked straight away.

“It is a mutated earth moth,” she said carefully. “It has sound, dark, and life-draining abilities. It is also really hard to hurt, as it has an anti-magic shield and will use sound to deflect arrows.”

“I have abilities that can counter that,” Ingrid declared.

Another of the archers nodded in agreement. “Me too. I have true shot that keeps my arrow on target even if something tries to disrupt it.”

“Dan’s traps are obviously not going to do anything,” Tamara continued. “The aim, of course, will be to eliminate the monster at range, but if it gets close. It has two attacking abilities. The first is its dark magic. It will sort of suck the life out of you; that one we just heal through. The real dangerous ability is its life steal. If it uses that, you will see a green tether connecting you to it. If it forms, run away as fast as possible from it; the life transferred increases over time. If it latches on for too long, you will die and it will get stronger.”

“I have seen that in video games,” Captain Australia said. “Nasty mechanic.”

“If you see the green tether, then run,” Tamara repeated, ignoring the shield fighter.

“And the rest of us?” Daniel asked.

“Just try to hit it. The thing is tough and heals fast, and its sonic boom will knock you away, but there is only one of them. If we disrupt the tether, we will wear it down eventually and kill it.”

Animal Sense pulsed. It was opposite them and not moving.

“Let’s go,” Daniel ordered, leading them to the corner. They all got into position. “Gabby, if you would.”

“HELP! HELP!”

The moth came around the intersection. Daniel pointed, and arrows went flying along with magic. It was big—its wings must have been a meter across, and its body was the size of a house cat. He waited till it crossed the half distance to him. Energy gathered in his hand. Once more, he went for two-thirds of his mana.

“Lightening,” he warned, but the target this time was smaller, so he kept his eyes on the moth as he aimed.

ZAP!

The light was literally blinding, and he stumbled away, unable to see.

Boom!

The wind thumped against his back.

Priscilla, he thought desperately. There was a momentary pause and then she was on his shoulder and it was like he could see once more, though everything was a little off. The moth was still coming, just meters from him. Captain Australia blurred forward and slammed into it. A tether lashed out and caught Ivey, who without hesitation turned to run. Dave was swinging his club. Multiple arrows were tangled in the monster’s wings, and scorch marks covered it.

The bloody thing had shrugged off his massive attack like it was nothing. He had known through the Animal Sense that it was strong and dangerous, but he had not realised it was this powerful.

Gran’s sword slashed down and cut off most of the wing. It fell to the ground. There was a boom and everyone got knocked backwards. Arrows slammed into the prone form, and the melee fighters swamped it again.

Daniel blinked furiously as his vision came back. Priscilla disengaged, no longer interested in what was happening. When he looked up, everything was blurry, but it was pretty clear that brutal attack had overwhelmed it. Apart from the exposed core, there was not much left of it.

“I think we need to discuss your lightning,” Tamara said quietly beside him.

“You bloody flash blinded me,” one archer complained.

“I gave warning.”

“I shut my eyes,” the archer snapped.

“You cover your eyes like this,” Ingrid demonstrated, putting her arm over her eyes. “Against the bear it was decisive,” Ingrid continued, “but here it did more harm than good.”

As much as Daniel wanted to reject their approach they were right. “I guess I should treat it as a get-out-of-jail card or our group’s primary offense if the target is vulnerable to lightning.”

“I will tell you if we fight anything like that,” Tamara offered immediately.

There were sounds of multiple monsters scrambling against the doors that contained them. The entire floor had clearly heard what they were doing. Daniel took the paint and went to work. The attack teams cleaned up behind him, and whenever he looked back, he could see how their professionalism had improved by leaps and bounds. The teams were perfectly capable of killing ordinary creatures by themselves.

As he waited for them to finish the latest floor, he examined their fighting force. It had swollen to over twenty; admittedly, three of them were kids, if you included Carly. Both Gabby and Janice were helping them out.

“Next floor,” he declared. Ideally, he wanted to clear every room above them.

It was very routine, as was the next level. It was fast too, with five teams clearing the rooms quickly and efficiently.

As they sat down for a late lunch, Daniel was feeling pretty pleased. The five floors cleared had saved a staggering thirty people, including seventeen fighters. The apartments’ layout, because of height or a different unknown reason, had weathered the transition better than lower floors. Instead of two-thirds of humans being turned into ferals, it had dropped to a third and that totally flipped the survival stakes around. There were fewer occupants, but twice as many people per floor had survived.

“It must be about two,” Ivey told them after they had finished clearing level thirty-five. “We should aim to clear to the penthouse.”

“That is asking a lot, and what about the monster?”

“We have numbers.” She waved her hand, and the group they had built up was quite impressive. “You already know what is above don’t you?”

“The next five levels. A few small things in the corridors, but almost everything seems to be trapped in rooms.”

“So, like down here. Do you need to flag any problematic areas?”

Daniel shook his head. His Animal Sense had not picked up anything at that level of danger.

“If that is the case, we should split into three teams. Ten per team it will be pretty much safe. I know using traps will help, but they are hogging the experience and . . .” She lowered her voice. “We need to test the new guys. Get them used to killing. Each team clears a floor,” she continued in her louder voice. “After three floors, we will reassess just in case the floor-hopping monster is coming after us.”

Animal Sense flared out. Nothing he touched felt unduly dangerous, and the men and women around him were pretty competent, but he still did not like it. The whole split-up felt arrogant, and he was not sure if it was worth it to save an hour.

Against that, Ivey’s underlying message resonated with him. They needed to learn, and the cluster of thirty of them were getting unwieldy. The community could not rely on just one man. He had to let them train and develop themselves.

“Okay.”

Ivey smiled brightly at him and rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek. She finished her sandwich, and her expression changed. Daniel grinned; he recognised that. She was planning ongoing full-on boss mode.

She stood up. “Everyone,” she yelled. “Time to fight.”

Daniel watched her, his heart half tearing itself up. She was smart, cute, beautiful—but their relationship was doomed. She was so close to being right. If this, if that, maybe what they had would be sufficient. The thoughts ran around in his head.

She caught his look and smiled happily at him. She was in her element, organising things and rising to save the crisis. Theoretically, they would make a great couple, but . . . he remembered her internal opinions and doubts. How could he have a relationship with him when she was looking down on him?

Eventually, they were in teams, and Ivey had been careful not to create an A, B, and C team and instead had split the powerful fighters amongst the three teams.

“You have thirty-eight like you wanted,” she told him, and Daniel examined the group he had been assigned to. There was Ingrid the archer, a fat Black man who had a juggernaut tank class, which sort of made sense because once he got going, nothing was stopping him. Another archer this time, a mid-forties whose appearance screamed cocksure lawyer down on his luck. In the apocalypse, he was wearing a goddamn business shirt.

The man caught Daniel’s eyes and nodded in a determined fashion. The team was boosted by not one but three magic users, a fire wizard who he was worried about including on a battle team within a hotel but Ivey had also given them an ice mage. That combination had Ivey’s touch all over it. If the fire wizard stuffed up, then at least it could be fixed before their home burned down around them. Then a guy who fired magic lasers, two healers—one traditional, and the other was some sort of support healer—and then finally Luke with his sword and shield.

“Carly?” he asked.

“Sitting out,” Luke answered.

“Good,” Daniel responded. “She is too young.”

“She did a great below, but she is tired and was worried about making mistakes and we have the numbers.”

“We are three levels up,” he reminded them. “We are not taking anything,” he told them, but could not stop himself from looking longingly towards the traps that they would not be taking with them. Mind you, versus what he could see they would be useless anyway, as most monsters on the floor looked small for his existing ones to work.

Of course, give him half a day and then his traps would be adapted.

Enough, he told himself harshly. This was stupid. It would not go sideways.

“Daniel’s team goes first. Then mine and then Tamara’s,” Ivey yelled.

Sometimes caution was required, and other times it needed to be abandoned.

Priscilla? She was behind him, but she had taken one look and seen something she disliked and then refused to scout. Not even chips had got her to move, and that worried him. The only thing that kept him moving was that a monster that terrified a mouse might not be quiet so fearsome to a human. Whatever scared her was probably small, fast, and not a threat to a heavily armed person.

Without firm intelligence, they proceeded cautiously.

“What’s up?” Ivey called out from behind him. “Are you scared without me backing you up?”

“Absolutely,” he said with a wink before walking away. Let her work out what whether he was being mocking or not? After all, he hardly knew himself.

Reaching the landing to their floor, he let everyone catch their breath.

“Be ready for anything,” he warned them, and then pushed the door open.

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