It was only around half an hour later that light could be seen forging a path through the darkness. Nick watched as a small group came into view, the first thing he noticed was how much more organised they appeared than anything he’d seen so far. They moved in a tight formation, two armoured folk at the front, a lightly armoured man in the middle then two people carrying bows flanking a bit behind. Even their gear put his own teams’ to shame. The two fighters at the front were wearing sets of armour that made Logan and Joshuas look mismatched and sloppy.

The other team's weapons and armour looked like complete sets, whereas his own team seemed to be wearing and using whatever they could get their hands on. As the group got closer one of the archers separated and moved ahead of the group. Tony walked out of the walls to meet with him.

“Doyle! Glad to see you finally made it! We’ve got to get a move on!”

The archer, Doyle, scowled at Tony.

“We actually had more trouble making it through half your floor than our entire floor. You really should get better at keeping it clear. Though that might be hard for a 2-1.” The man said, voice dripping with snark.

Nick wasn’t entirely sure what 2-1 meant but Tony certainly did. Nick could see the man’s face scrunch up in rage before he turned around and started barking orders.

“72nd Roamers! We’re leaving!”

Everyone got up, grabbed their stuff and moved out of the fort. Nick came face to face with the team from the 71st floor and was deeply impressed. Each member looked intimating in their gear, they sported a vigilance as they scanned the darkness for threats. Nick started to think that he and his family had chosen a terrible floor to enter the hotel.

The lightly armoured man, who Nick could now see was carrying a large staff of sorts, approached Maddy and started making conversation.

“Maddy! How good it is to see you! Have you managed to secure your third level for healer yet?”

Maddy sighed. “Hi Benedict, sadly not. Our team has been incredibly unlucky since Greg left. Only a few level two gems here or there.”

Maddy’s face suddenly dropped. She clearly had said something she shouldn’t have. Nick took a guess and looked at Tony. The man looked ready to explode, he was beet red, veins bulging in his face.

Benedict either didn’t notice this or didn’t care. “Ah truly a shame. A fine healer such as yourself could find employment on any floor. You really shouldn’t be with such rabble. My offer still stands, I’m sure Doyle would love to take you in.”

One of the armoured fighters chastised Benedict in a feminine voice, surprising Nick. “Stop disrespecting the other team. They’re clearly working with what they have.”

She openly gestured towards Nick. Nick couldn’t even get mad in response. He really was rabble when compared to his own team, let alone theirs.

“Nick’s a promising recruit, a Latecomer that dropped a couple of days ago. I can see him going far.” Maddy defended him.

This certainly changed the other teams perception of him, Benedict’s face arcing in surprise. The female fighter spoke again, face hidden beneath her helmet.

“A stroke of luck for you then. Hopefully Tony doesn’t force this one into a class then abuse them.” Nick could hear the smirk on her face.

Tony quickly interrupted the talk. “Alright let's get a move on. Doyle, I’m sure we could discuss our Shaman’s messages as we walk.”

With that both teams started walking the path the other team had just cleared, back towards the ramps. As they walked Nick could see the worlds of difference between the two teams. Even in the loose formation the teams had fallen into, the 71st team looked alert and ready to act at any moment. Even Benedict, who was trying to start a conversation with a rather dismissive Maddy, was still constantly scanning the shadows. Nick wasn’t sure if Maddy was being dismissive because of her earlier blunder or if she just wasn’t very talkative, she certainly seemed quiet in the time he’d known her.

The 72nd Roamers in comparison just seemed amature, their scout, Jacob was openly goofing around and trying to chat up the female fighter as she ignored him. Joshua was standing close to Tony as he talked with Doyle, looking like a mediaeval bodyguard. It was only Logan and Maddy that seemed to be operating on a level even close to that of the other team. With Logan at the front of the group moving steadily forward with a reassuring stoicism and Maddy constantly watching her teammates.

Nick found himself awkwardly out of place in the group. Everyone had set roles and responsibilities, tied their classes. He, on the other hand, was pretending to not have a class and just didn’t know where to be. He ended up just trailing nearby Tony, Doyle and Joshua, listening in on their conversation.

He found himself quite interested in their conversation, they were discussing the visions that their respective Shaman’s had seen with their abilities. Another example of blatant magic, from what he was gathering the Shaman’s could perform rituals and ceremonies to get visions of future events. If that wasn’t cool enough, it seemed that each Shaman saw and experienced different things. The one in Tony’s employ could use his knowledge of events to foresee vague impacts of those events, such as the consequences of the recent Flood. What Doyle’s Shaman saw was both terrifying and intriguing to Nick.

“He felt pain and violence, large amounts of anger all driven by fear and hunger.” Doyle explained. “We think it’s war.”

His words gave pause to the entire group. War was a very heavy word, one that seemed to bother everyone but him and Maddy greatly. Nick had the feeling that he was missing some rather serious historical context right about now.

“Fuck. Let’s hope it’s not too bad. Reggie’s got that level seven Shaman, they should have more solid information.” Tony said.

The group then continued on in silence, the route had already been cleared so it was an easy trip, everyone lost in their own thoughts.

That changed when they finally got to the ramp. The teams grouped into a much tighter formation as they began to push up the ramp to the 73rd floor. Tony actually started speaking to Nick as they did.

“Alright kid, the areas around the ramps are always the most dangerous. The beasties seem to like to group up around them. While Brutes, like the one you killed, are rare, they can still appear on these higher floors.” Tony openly flexed Nick’s achievement.

Ahh. There was the reason Tony was talking to him. Seemingly desperate to claw back some face. Nick heard Doyle scoff at the claim of his achievement and Nick felt a part of him want to defiantly explain his fight. Tony put that to rest by continuing on.

“While it’ll get easier as we pick up the other teams, we have to be on guard. It’ll be a good way for you to get some experience, though I think we all know what class you might be going for.”

Nick wasn’t sure what class it was but he assumed it was something to do with striking, maybe a Boxer class or something? Nick put it on the back burner, he hadn’t really put much thought into what combat class he’d be looking for at all yet. Gareth had said he had at least a week until he could get one so he hadn’t considered his options yet. Nick focused as the team made it up to the 73rd floor.

The area was filled with dark coloured humanoid figures shambling around. They looked a lot like the Infected that Nick and his family had encountered on the lower floors but they had lost their human features, their skin completely replaced with what looked like dark scabs. Their yellow eyes had a faint glow to them and their fingers had transformed into claw-like appendages.

“Fuck, Ghouls.” The other fighter from the 73rd team complained.

The ghouls turned to the group, yellow eyes glowing with malice.

“Push forward! We can’t fight from the top of the ramp!” Doyle yelled out and everyone moved into action.

Logan and the other male fighter moved back to place themselves between the ranged fighters and the ghouls, Joshua and the female fighter moved forward to intercept the now charging monsters. Nick decided to hang back with Logan for the time being.

Joshua and the other fighter began to brutalise their way through the group. Both used swords but that’s where the similarities stopped. While Joshua used his giant sword to overpower his opponents, the female used a much more traditional looking sword to deftly deliver strikes to key parts of her opponents bodies. She removed legs, arms and heads with brutal efficiency.

Then the ghouls started coming in from other directions, they were being thinned out by the four ranged fighters but some still made it to the tanks. Logan expertly deflected one of the monsters towards Nick, letting him handle it.

Nick sized up his opponent for a moment before making his attack. The creature was humanoid and from what he’d seen had most of the same weaknesses and fought like a rabid brawler. Nothing Nick hadn’t dealt with before.

The monster wildly swung it’s claws towards him, Nick taking a short step back out of it’s range before moving in with a swift punch combo of his own as it left itself off balance. Nick made sure not to use his haste skill, as while it would help him defeat the creature more quickly, he wasn’t supposed to have a class right now. The creature stumbled for a bit, trying to regain it’s balance. Nick realised he’d been giving the ghoul far too much credit and pounced on the opening. Nick swung an overhand right down into the creature's head as it was still stumbling, sending it plummeting down to the floor. These monsters had nowhere near the coordination of a person, let alone the trained boxers he’d become accustomed to fighting. It actually reminded him a lot of the drunken bawls he’d gotten into out the back of seedy pubs.

Nick finished the fight with a few nauseating stomps to the creatures head. Unlike the giant that just crumbled apart this monster had a skull and mushy object inside it. As his boot broke through and made contact with what he assumed was a brain, he felt the urge to vomit. Nick barely managed to contain himself, stopping himself from hunching over in disgust. He felt a disgusting feeling spread through his body, threatening to force up everything he’d eaten in the last day.

It wasn’t human. It was a rabid monster. It was trying to kill me. Nick kept repeating those three things in his head, trying his best to not compare the fight with his fights with actual people. The intrusive thought that it was a drunken man he’d just curbed stomped just wouldn’t leave his eyes.

“Nick.” A gruff voice called out. “Nick snap out of it. We’ve got a fight to deal with.”

Nick opened his watery eyes and saw Logan looking at him with concern. Nick took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Logan was right. Guilt and nausea could come later, he had a fight to finish.

Nick dug deep and nodded at Logan. “Thanks.”

The large man simply grunted and deflected another ghoul towards him. Nick moved forward to intercept this one, using footwork to dodge it’s lazy swings. He cut an angle and hammered a punch into the creature's chest, sending it toppling backwards. The creatures were far lighter and weaker than a human that size should be, another factor Nick could take advantage of. Nick quickly found himself falling to an all too familiar flow state. He dispatched every ghoul that Logan sent his way, with growing efficiency. That was until Logan pushed two of the creatures towards him.

Nick once again found himself challenged, forced to use his footwork more defensively to avoid the haymaker-like swipes of the creatures. The creatures weren’t able to coordinate though and Nick managed to manoeuvre himself so that one creature blocked the other’s path towards him. Once he’d managed that it was as simple as defeating them individually.

Once he was finished he looked towards Logan, expecting the next ghoul to fight. He only found the entire group watching him.

Nick smiled sheepishly back at them.