Agent Kruger was not having a good day. No, Agent 5... something, guh. He couldn't remember his stupid number, and why should he have to anyway? Was it really better to think of yourself as an area code instead of a person? Oooh, look, there goes 717, or wait, is it 718? It wouldn't be viable at all if not for the floating gamer tags hovering above everyone's heads if you took the time to focus a little. But even so. Kruger didn't understand the point.

He'd been looking forward to a nice night off for once, he hadn't gotten a proper sleep in weeks now. He'd finally cycled back here, the one compound that even had sleeping quarters, only to be roused in the middle of the night to a surprise attack, followed by mandatory dungeon clearing. On what was supposed to be a day free of any of that.

325's insatiable excitement only made it all the more unbearable. Teasing the little noob only satisfied for so long. Oh, I'm close to leveling. Look, I found a dead monster. Hey, anyone know what the prerequisites are for the tamer class. Blah. Blah. BLAH.

Kruger just wanted a good long nap. Was that too much to ask for?

Once 325 finally figured out how to add a class, and use his class ability, he still couldn't do anything with it but haul it around. Kruger wouldn't deny it was a pretty neat looking pet, but it didn't seem worth that much of a fuss.

He did hope it wasn't a portent of more stealth creatures to come.

Despite his wariness and concerns, Kruger spotted nothing more out of the ordinary as they finished the forest room and moved into the internal corridor to rest.

Even that had been tampered with recently. Thanks to that new memo going around, the higher-ups had even figured out how to shorten the rest periods between rooms. How? Kruger couldn't guess. The steps were bizarrely specific and utterly nonsensical, but undeniably effective.

He half regretted following the instructions, petulantly wondering if he could have gotten away with 'accidentally' assigning everything to spirit or something.

But, here he was, stuck in a hallway between desperate fights, with the giggling idiot and his new rift cat.

It was almost a relief when their raid leader ordered them up to get moving into the boss room. There were only three levels to the dungeon, after all, and finishing one meant they were that much closer to being properly done where Kruger could get his nap at long last.

The boss fight was well documented. Six backup turkey-raptors, and one giant spider-skunk with precise-shot webbing that stank so much that you couldn't get the smell out of your armor for days.

What was not documented was the possibility of a portal opening in the wall mid-fight, and absolute madness descending.

They'd been doing well, not losing anyone, picking off the support while the front team took the central boss's attention. One by one, the flying dinosaurs were felled, and the boss's unreasonably large health pool gradually decreased. Sure there were a few desperate scrapes, but who ever got out of a boss fight without a little desperation.

The portal, though...

They were not prepared.

First, one of those terrible lobsterclaw hawkbirds flew out with a screech - if it had been just that, he might not have lost his cool. But after it came... everything.

Kruger spun away from the boss at the first screech, eyes wide in shock at the sight before him. He raised his shield and braced for impact, but this impact wasn't something you could survive by bracing.

The fish left him alone, the turkeys seemed otherwise occupied, and the birds didn't even try to swoop down at him. If they were the only enemies they had to contend with, then they all might have made it out of here alive.

But that was only the front wave.

Behind came the dinosaurs, and the kalvex, and the sabercats. Even with only those, the sheer thundering horde of it was unstoppable. There was no evading, no stopping it, not even a chance at slowing it.

Kruger's only thought was to run. He had to get out of the way. But the boss room was sealed, the door closed, no way out.

Monsters crowded in, crushing themselves together, snapping and thrashing at everything in reach, filling up the room. Bigger creatures trampled smaller ones, with none of the usual consideration for one another's survival.

Dire-turkeys were knocked into the uneven ravines that criss-crossed the multi-tiered chamber with squeals of protest and much wing-flapping. Smaller dinosaurs were scattered or crushed by their larger cousins.

Kruger couldn't make out the voices of his companions over the general cacophony of furious creatures. Several of the flying creatures seemed to have gotten into an infight, but any hope that this would lead to a broader conflict among the various creatures was quickly quashed.

He was lucky; he'd been on the side of the boss furthest from the opening portal, giving him the best chance of preparing for what was pouring through, and he was standing near one of the mazelike ravines that the boss loved trying to throw people down into. So when the dinosaurs hit his shield, they shoved him backward and toppled him into the rift.

Ordinarily, being thrown down a hole into a spider-skunk web would be the last thing Kruger wanted, but in this case, it got him out of the path of the worst of the stampede. He'd take what he could get.

For a time he lay there, turkeys and dilophosaurs regularly falling down, ignoring him as they climbed over him and each other to get back up to the top, inadvertently pressing him more and more firmly into the web trap beneath him.

He couldn't stay here. He strained, tugging at his trapped limbs, hoping to break free by sheer force, but this was a boss's trap. Not something that could be easily slipped out of.

His sword had fallen from his grasp and lay stuck to the web out of reach, but his shield was still strapped to his arm. It had a knockback tracing on it, one he'd used to great effect in the past. He only had to lay still long enough for his mana to regenerate, hope the monsters kept ignoring him in favor of whatever was going on up above.

Lying trapped in a boss spider-skunk's web, monsters falling from above, Kruger had never felt so terrified in his life. His throat was dry from his panting gasps. His whole body tensed for action despite there being nothing to do.

Another turkey landed on him, one of the big scrawny ones that could actually fly, from the second floor. It gave an angry peck to his arm before launching itself back into the air, and it was all Kruger could do not to scream. But he didn't dare make a sound. As long as the monsters were ignoring him, he had a chance. The moment they recognized him as potential prey, he was done for.

His mana ticked upward. Seven. Eight. Unbearably slowly. He was sure he'd pass out from sheer terror if this went on much longer.

Ten. Finally.

He pulsed the shield immediately, the power converted into slashing force as it pushed forcefully away. The web beneath him tore, leaving his arm free. Yes!

He immediately brought his arm in, holding the shield across his chest. That should both prevent anything from knocking him into the webbing again and shield him from the next angry turkey to drop down from above.

Alas, it wasn't a turkey who appeared over the edge. It was something much bigger, much more dangerous. The crimson-furred spider-skunk boss, eyes bright with rage above a toothy mouth that did not belong on a face with that many eyes.

This really was the worst day ever.