I had once watched a nature-documentary about ants and their behaviour if their hill, their nest, was ever breached. The milling masses around the arena, as we made our escape reminded me of that behaviour. It also made me think that something with the game’s physics-engine must have bugged out, even if the barrels we had set on fire were some sort of magical, jet-fuel enhanced lamp-oil, there shouldn’t have been as much smoke. But who was I to complain, the hallway we had used to exit the building had been filled with smoke, not just light, grey smoke like you saw on cigarettes but thick, heavily rolling clouds of black smoke that made me think of overdone visual effects.

Vision was so bad that I would have been hard pressed to see my hand if I raised it to face-level, at least until we got outside, where I learned that the arena had many more exits and tunnels than the ones I had seen and, at the moment, every single one of those tunnels was expelling groups of humans, some of them clad like circus-performers, others dressed in simple work-clothes, making me think of janitors, and finally, those who organised the whole thing in their immaculate, rich clothes, the executives and religious figures, it was a temple dedicated to Kallendra after all.

All those people, plus a few gladiators that were shepherded by their handlers, joined the guards and a group of people in blue-red striped robes, adding to the overall chaos. Beyond the immediate surroundings of the arena, gawkers were gathering, alerted by the massive blast and drawn to the arena by the dramatically billowing clouds of black smoke, the curious masses that pushed forward, trying to see, while people fleeing from the arena pushed into the crowd, jostling onlookers and stirring it up.

Pandemonium, there was simply no better word to describe it. And in that pandemonium, nobody cared for the two strangely dressed figures, one rather tall the other short and stout, who made their way through the crowds, into a nearby alleyway. Or maybe, those few who I bodily shouldered out of my way, as I pushed through the crowd, they might have seen me for what I was and shouted in alarm. Only for their shouts to get drowned out by the general turmoil.

When we got to a nearby alley and were about to duck into it, I grabbed a rock from the ground, not content to just cause havoc. No, seeing the circumstances, I hoped for more.

With a loud shout of “For the republic!” I took that rock and threw it, vaguely aiming at the guards that were trying to push the gawking masses back, to restore order and allow the firefighters to come to the scene.

With that done, not knowing if I had actually achieved anything, I followed Roknar into the alley, laughing as I went. There were blue screens that I had shunted to the side as soon as they appeared, not willing to deal with them until I was somewhere relatively safe and had a few moments.

He had gone a little further and found a grated access to the sewers. When I caught up to him, he had one hand on the connecting point between metal and stone, his hand shining with a dull, grey light. Now, that I was close enough, and the commotion behind me far enough away, I could hear a soft, cracking noise and, when looking closely, I could see that small cracks formed near his hand. Seeing that he was opening our escape, I stood back, just in case he needed room to work, and pulled my sword, so I would be ready if we were attacked. I wasn’t quite sure I would be able to fight with the sword, or rather, how effective it would be, but I was quite sure it would be better than nothing.

My resolve was soon tested, maybe twenty seconds after I joined him, a growl caught caused me to turn, looking further into the alley we were in, where a rather large and scruffy, yet also angry-looking canine was stalking towards us.

Focusing on it brought up that it was level one, just as me, so I got ready and growled back, making sure it understood that I would fight if I had to. Not that I really wanted, not with an untrained weapon but I had a funny feeling that Roknar would need at least as long as I needed to dispatch the feral dog, no matter how long that actually took.

A short glimpse to my own bars assured me that I had regenerated what I had used against my earlier opponents, so I could fight to my heart’s content. Weighing the sword in my hand, I took another step forward, making sure that I was fully between the dog and Roknar, when the dog took that as its chance to attack.

In a practised mental motion, I activated my Fighting Rage and tried to whack the dog with my sword as it was jumping towards me, trying to tear out my throat, or, if that failed, bowl me over to tear into me at its leisure.

My own strike, slightly hurried as it was, passed right through the creature, causing its health-bar to drop drastically, but not stopping it. For that, I would likely needed something else, some kind of interruption skill maybe, not just a normal attack. But I did manage to get my free arm up, keeping its teeth from sinking into my neck but still, some forty kilogram of angry, charging dog made me stumble back, off balance. That the dog had found its footing and tried to either rip my arm off or get me to the ground didn’t quite help and the sword was just too long to effectively wield it, so I simply let go, letting it clatter to the ground.

Now, with one arm occupied by angry dog and one arm free, I started to simply hammer its head using a Power Attack, the strike making its teeth jerk in my arm, causing the usual sting of pain that indicated loss of health. A quick check of my bars told me that yes, I would easily outlast doggo, it would cost me a good fifty percent of my mana, some of my stamina and maybe twenty-five percent of my health, but I would manage. The power-attack and the previous sword-strike had taken about fifty-percent of its health, so I figured, three, maybe four more Power Attacks and I would be done.

After the second, bringing doggo down to just shy of a quarter of its health, it did me a solid, letting go and trying to run. Not that I was having that, it had attacked, it had taken precious resources from me, so it would give me something in return. Its life, to be precise. And so, with a growl on my own, I pounced after it, managing a rather ridiculous flying tackle and bringing it down, where I wailed at it without using more skills, merely simple attacks.

Four more of those and the doggo stilled, allowing me to push myself up and pick up my sword. For a moment, I considered exchanging it with my dagger, the dagger would have been more useful against the dog, but for now, I kept the sword.

Turning around, to check on Roknar, showed me that he was still busy, so I looked back, to see if there were more dogs coming up the alley and noticed that doggo had despawned into a chalk-silhouette and left behind a small loot-bag. Shaking my head a little, I picked it up, finding a pair of dog-teeth inside, vendor-trash by the looks of it, but I was certainly lacking in the money-departement, so they went into my bag.

I was about to ask Roknar how long he would need, when a new growl told me that we were not out of the woods, or maybe out of the alley, just yet. Turning, a second dog, looking rather similar to the first one, came stalking towards us.

Again, I stepped forward and considered my options for a moment. I didn’t really want to use my rage again, given that it took a lot of mana to activate it, so if I did, I would be out of mana, if another dog appeared. And, given the nature of such guard-events, I had a feeling that the last enemy would be the hardest. Programmers liked to send three waves, maybe it was a joke on the adage that good things came in threes, or something like that, but I had a feeling that there would be one more fight before Roknar was able to crack open that grate.

So, I didn’t just wait for the dog to charge me, I went after it aggressively. Just like the one before, it tried to jump me in an attempt to bowl me over but this time, I had a different idea than before. Where before, I had simply swung my sword, this time, I used it it almost like a golf-club, creating a ridiculous swing that likely would have me stabbed a few times against any thinking opponent, but against the leaping dog, it worked like a charm, especially with the added Power Attack. Where before, the weapon had merely caused the dog to lose HP, this time, the impact was added to it, maybe because Power Attack amplified the damage-portion that was caused by the weight of the weapon, I didn’t quite know, but it worked.

I made a mental note to experiment some more with the different weapons, their effects and possible future skills, while watching the dog make a rather ridiculous back-flip, spun in the air by the force of my blow. It landed heavily on its back, after one and a half rotations that made me question the physics-engine even more but it was on its back, stunned, at my feet and at less than half-health.

So, I did what every player would do in that moment, I finished it off, for those sweet, sweet EXP and waited for it to despawn so I could check for loot.