“Jamie, stop riding the stroller. You’re going to break it!” Lena chided the child, who didn’t listen.

Ben grabbed the kid and pulled him off of the stroller, which resulted in the kid screaming angrily and trying to jump back on immediately. Ben held him back, which only led to more angry wailing.

“It’s not how you’re supposed to raise children, doing it like this, but we don’t exactly have the patience and parents to do it right.” Lena sighed. “I’m just glad that we managed to get out of that place, Zartas was about to explode and we only had one toilet designed for high elves. I spent more time helping children piss and cleaning up after them than I could keep them in check. And Zartas is not cut out to be a father.”

The young mother looked very tired indeed, no doubt from having to deal with four children from which only one was hers. Her own baby had been the least of her worries, ironically, despite him waking up in the middle of the night crying until all the children were awake. Something that hadn’t helped their mood and patience the morning after.

“We might need some leashes, for their own safety if nothing else.” Ben said, eyeing the girl that was once again running after Elise when she ran ahead to deal with incoming vespa.

“At this point I can no longer disagree with you.” Lena sighed.

Ben easily caught up with the girl and dragged her back. She didn’t resist, but refused to learn that she wasn’t supposed to do it in the first place.

“More from the left. I’m on it.” Ben said, running away from any more babysitting duty before anyone could stop him.

“Just a little further.” Thomas said, holding the hand of a starry-eyed girl that clung on to his pants and declared that they were going to get married when she grew up. “I hope that you and Cynthia can shake Jude out of her stupor to help, because you look like you need a good night’s rest.”

Lena didn’t say anything, she just stared blankly at her baby as she kept pushing the stroller.

“The acid nerf seems to be that the vespa stopped aiming for our heads, instead they’re targeting our limbs and central mass now.” Elise said, returning to the group and patting the head of the girl that immediately ran up to her again. “At least, that’s what I think. Don’t know if the damage is less too, and I'm not inclined to test it.”

“No headshots is already a great boon, people panic when their face is melting off. Less likely to heal themselves in time, not to mention the lasting damage.” Darryl said.

“The dangerous mob is close, but I think we’ll evade it. It doesn’t seem to know we’re here.” Thomas said. “That said, we should still hurry.”

Five red dots were crossed out one by one, and a minute later Ben reappeared next to them.

“At least the vespa aren’t a huge issue, as long as we don’t run into any large swarms.” Thomas said. “Six or less we can still deal with, as long as we can dodge or rely on Darryl’s shield to draw their acid.”

A hard requirement escorting these children, as they were neither quiet nor good at dodging. Using the revealed map to avoid swarms was already useful without the handicap, but getting anywhere would’ve been doomed from the start with the kids along.

There was a swarm of 32 vespa nearby, and they waited for it to buzz off before taking the children out of the Safe Zone. They never came close enough that the baby’s sudden wailing could attract them. The thought of having to be ready for such a swarm to pop up without the map giving a heads-up was a clear-cut impossible mission.

But they were going into uncharted territory next, meaning that they could run into a swarm at any moment. Or for a swarm to pick up their scent and hit them from behind. Or even for a few stray vespa to spit at them before being noticed.

In other words, once they no longer had a map, these creatures were going to become a lot more troublesome. They had two answers to the problem of a swarm, though they couldn’t rely on either.

But that was a problem for later. Right now, they had to deal with the baby starting to cry.

“Dangerous mob incoming!” Elise shouted.

“Start running!” Darryl shouted, and Lena immediately obliged. The children weren’t as fast, but they began running as well. The boy started crying and Thomas’s new admirer wanted to cling on to his leg instead, but none of them stood still.

“We can make it!” Darryl shouted. “Just keep going, the Safe Zone is right around the corner!”

Behind him, Thomas picked up his girl by the armpits like she was baby Simba and ran, while Elise unceremoniously picked hers up in a bridal carry. Darryl grabbed the boy and lugged him under his arm, much to the kid’s displeasure. Ignoring him, they ran to the Safe Zone and dropped off the kids.

“Get in!” Elise said, opening the door and shoving the girl through. She didn’t need to be told twice, and a moment later Lena pushed the stroller through. Darryl and Thomas dropped off their kids and turned around.

“Are we going to go in ourselves?” Ben said, looking at the rest of his party blocking the entrance.

“Let’s figure out what this mob is.” Elise said, taking out her bat menacingly. “One less issue to take care of.”

“Or we can let it come here, droop off after it finds the door closed and then we surprise it from behind.” Ben said.

“Or that. Yeah, let’s do that.” Darryl said, retreating into the Safe Zone.

The rest were right behind him, and they closed the door before the mob even came within view. It was a bit slower than he initially thought.

The red dot soon came around the corner and ran towards the door. It crashed into the wooden frame, making the hinges creak.

“Don’t worry, no amount of force can break these doors. We’re safe in here.” Thomas said.

His admirer didn’t hear him and continued to sniff and sob, but Elise’s fangirl nodded and gave him her best brave face after wiping off some snot using her sleeve.

The mob pounded against the door again, again with no real effect. The sound suggested that it wasn’t a big mob, though the Clurichaun hugs showed that size could belie strength, and the screaming sounded almost human. Too feral and distorted, but still recognisable as a poor mimicry of a human voice.

“Let’s just wait for it to leave, and then we’ll go take care of it.” Darryl said. “You guys should go take a shower, you all need one.”

“Darryl, look!” Ben said, pointing at the door.

As he turned around, Darryl saw that the doorknob moved down.

“But these doors are supposed to be locked when mobs try to use them!” Darryl said, stepping back.

The door swung open, showing a sight that belonged to a crossover between a horror movie and a bloody slasher-flick.

The most notable detail was the large demon-badger skull. A long white mask with large holes where the eyes and nose once had been, leading to an unnaturally long and sharp row of fangs and no bottom jaw. Where the ears should be, there were instead two thick black horns that curved around the normal ears before pointing straight ahead.

Then there was the ill skin. Albino white with flecks of the healthier pink it once was here and there, splotches of healed acid wounds turning every inch of his skin into an expressive modern art painting.

The hands completed the abstract painting vibe. While the feet were also covered in gore and bug guts, the hands were a testament of the many bugs that fell before the might hidden in this small frame. Fresh gore covered caked-on guts that layered onto even older dried gore and blood, with scraps of vespa wing sticking out here and there.

And then there were the eyes. Bloodshot and completely dilated from hours if not days in complete darkness, the two orbs peering through the badger skull refused to blink despite the bright Safe Zone lights blinding them.

Crawler # 9,120,482. “Barry K. Tomson”

Level 15.

Race: Human.

Class: Not yet assigned.

This is a feral crawler!

The boy couldn’t be older than eight years old, and barely got past Darryl’s midriff. Yet he didn’t hesitate to lunge at Darryl with a bloodthirsty roar, hands ready to rend off his flesh like they did with so many vespa before.

Darryl raised his shield and the kid slammed into it.

The world flashed and the kid teleported to just outside of the Safe Zone. Ben and Elise were there too: Ben pulled at the mask while Elise held the kid in a grapple.

The mask didn’t budge, but Elise’s strength managed to contain the kid’s and she forced him onto the ground.

“Damn it! He’s really strong, hurry!” Elise grunted, struggling to keep him down despite pinning the kid down with her full weight and with an advantageous position.

The kid screamed and squirmed, and Ben touched him instead of going for the mask.

“Damn it!” Ben said. “Again!”

Nothing happened.

“Ben, hurry up!” Elise said.

“I’m trying! The odds of success go down when the target knows I’m trying to pickpocket them!” Ben shouted back. “And there’s a ten second cooldown when I fail!”

“What…” Darryl said.

“He attacked you inside of a Safe Zone, but you used your shield to reflect the damage.” Thomas said, not tearing his eyes from the scene. “Seems like the AI counts that as hostile behaviour as well, so you were both frozen for a minute just now. We were hoping that we could just pull off the mask once he unfroze, but that didn’t work.”

“So now Ben is trying to pickpocket it.” Darryl understood the situation.

“Yes. It’s the only item that the kid is carrying, so he should have some good odds of success using randomised theft.” Thomas said. “But the AI might want to see the kid squirm a bit before letting this work.”

“Damn. He’s going to be traumatised for life once we take that mask off.” Darryl said.

“Be that as it may, we cannot let him continue to rampage with that mask on.” Thomas said. “Even if he wouldn’t get himself killed, he’s going to be a hazard to others. Others that might have no choice but to kill him if he attacks them.”

“I know. But we-”

Elise yelped when the kid threw her off and jumped at Ben. He jumped back, but even a glancing hit from the kid’s blunt fingers was enough to take twenty percent off his health.

Ben weaved back, dodging the kid’s savage attacks only by virtue of being a lot faster. Then he touched the kid’s wrist and the mask popped out of existence.

Barry kept growling and waving his hands for two more seconds, and then the feral state drained from him completely.

He froze, his lip trembled, and then he fell to his knees bawling his eyes out.