As Lily wreaks havoc at the center of the swarm, cats start to pile up along the edges. Soon, while Lily can hop around freely, the swarm has built up the edges enough to prevent her from leaving.

Up on the wall Rosha turns to Peter, “I thought they wouldn’t be able to do stuff like that because of her being the same size as a cat.”

Peter shrugs, “Being the same size only removes a lot of the correction a swarm gets when attacking. Against a human-sized target, every swarm cat close enough to attack would be able to get a swipe in. With a rabbit? Just look at how the cats next to her are flailing about, some are even hitting other cats. Without the System guidance, that is what happens.”

“If you remove that it doesn’t make a swarm stop swarming. This isn’t even some clever surrounding tactic. The cats are just trying to climb over one another to get to the enemy. If she wasn’t moving around so much the swarm would have already collapsed in. Anyway, even with that there isn’t much danger. I don’t know what specific skill that is, but empowering her fur lets her just barrel through the cats.”

Jason scratches his head, “Shouldn’t this be at least a little more dangerous for her? Like, I’m not trying to raise a flag, but that is a lot of enemies.”

Peter raises an eyebrow at this, “Would you have any problem fighting that swarm? You’re both the same level after all.”

Jason shrugs, “I’ve had a lot more combat training.”

Peter laughs, “Fair point, but remember, because they can’t tap into swarm mechanics against her this isn’t one high level encounter. Rather, this is like fighting a bunch of chumps. Those cats are all super low level compared to her. If I tossed you in a room of infinite level one goblins I bet exhaustion would be a bigger threat to you. This is the same sort of thing, only better experience.”

Courtney turns away from the wall and asks, “Why would it be better experience?”

Peter gestures at the rapidly depleting swarm. “Even though they can’t fight as a swarm against her, the System doesn’t remove the experience gained from fighting the swarm as a unit. Of course with how easy it is there is a penalty on how much she gets. It will be better than if it was just a group of regular cats of the same level.”

“This is actually why my kingdom has a good relationship with the halfling nation off thataway.” And he points vaguely in a direction opposite of where the group came from. “We have a swarm over there of wolves. The younger halflings are small enough that, like with your rabbit, the swarm can’t actually swarm. Since the swarm wolves, yes I know a unique name that, are like the swarm cats and not too bright they easily deal with it. Combined with a halfling’s natural ability to hide in shadows, very few of the young they send over die.”

“A good trade for both of us. They can have their young experience real danger without it being too life threatening, and we don’t have to deal with a freaking wolf swarm. Like seriously? Wolves? In normal circumstances, a wolf pack already has enough coordination. If the swarm wolves weren’t so dense I don’t think my kingdom could handle them.”

Courtney slow blinks, “A wolf swarm? Sigh, of course there is. I know this is sort of the area for swarms, but that is just getting silly. What’s next? A bear swarm?”

Peter shrugs, “No, those are dead.”

Courtney just stares at him until he continues. “Yeah, there used to be a bear swarm at the center of this area. Well before it was settled, of course. This actually has to partly do with the bamboo our kingdom is famous for. The first ruler, Queen Jessica the six-tailed prodigy, planted the nine bamboo. She was a Realm Breaker Illusionist and a Godly Alchemist.”

“Over the course of 99 years she grew the nine sky breaking bamboo. Through secret means she was able to infuse her knowledge of illusions into them forming one of the largest formations in the known world. In the 100th year the System tried to smite the nine stalks with regal lightning for breaking through the sky. Normally at this point sky breaking bamboo would be shattered, spreading their seeds above the sky.”

“Queen Jessica the six-tailed prodigy however accounted for this. Her Godly alchemy should not have been able to stop the System’s wrath, but through the illusion formation she had set up something special happened. Through her skill that was beyond this realm, she was able to trick the system. The purple lightning fell like a waterfall from the clouds that had gathered for months.”

“Now she couldn’t entirely trick the System or it would have sent another tribulation so her nine bamboo were baptized in the lightning. However they only experienced the edge, like feeling the splatter of a waterfall it isn’t going to kill you. Still enough to temper the nine stalks and change them on a fundamental level into their current form, Sky Breaking Purple Bamboo of Tribulations and Illusions.”

“And where did the main deluge of lightning go, you might ask? Though by this point you’ve probably guessed already. The six-tailed prodigy had tricked the System into smiting the main swarm bear nest, killing the level capped six-armed swarm bear matron. Of course there was clean up to do. While none of the other swarm rulers had hit level cap, they were all quite high up there.”

“That and the swarm bears aren’t exactly pushovers even without their leader. Sure, they don’t get the benefits of being a swarm against most sapients but that doesn’t really matter. Taking such a powerful lone predator and getting them to work together in large groups is horrifying. That and without the matron’s buff which had reduced their need for food they were ravenous. Honestly, all of this is almost too crazy to believe. After all, how could the Queen even have six tails? Five is the limit for our world. If it wasn’t for a grand illusion over remembrance lake that the System admits as being an accurate representation of what happened we wouldn’t know about it. Oh, and that lake? Half our kingdom is taken up by it, and apparently it is the result of water filling the crater from all that regal lightning.”