By the time Zeta had splashed back to the dozen humans to see if they could defend this position, Zack Krum had caught back up with him. The young man gave the automaton a sour look, but Zeta did not take it very seriously; many of Krum’s expressions were sour. “Your body affords you high base Stats, but without a Class you will not be able to keep up with monsters beyond Level 60. You need at least the base of an image to match them. If not high-Level Skills to weaponize that image.”

BA-Zeta nodded its head to show the human that it understood. And it truly did; only Zeta suspected that eventually, Stats could accumulate that would invalidate this rule. However, it appeared that having every Stat over two hundred was not quite enough for this effect. The superior engineering of its body could only carry it so far.

Hoooooowwwwwllllll!!!

Henrik finally thrust himself to his feet and swayed. Zeta wondered if the humans could smell the thick scent of werewolf sweat being blown down by the wind winding through the streambed. The desperate man jabbed his finger at the female teenager holding her brother to her chest. “Shut up! You little shit. Because of you, their sacrifice means-”

“Look, look!” The boy said again and pointed upward. Zeta watched the older man’s face twisted in madness as the being he blamed for their current situation continued not to recognize their dire circumstances. Humans were oblivious to the inherent obliviousness of their own nature. However, any move Henrik was going to make was preempted by the return of Zeta and Krum to the group.

Zeta could feel the reverberations of feet intensifying, meaning that a large number of monsters were converging on their location. Zack Krum scanned their surroundings then pointed sharply to a fold in the rock about five meters back the way they came. “Someone investigate that. If there is a cave… we can at least defend ourselves here.”

Henrik just looked at Krum. “If we stay here, we will die.”

“We have no other choice,” Krum said decisively. Then he produced four metal bars about as long as his forearm and tossed them to Todd. “Make these into projectiles. We are going to need as much help as we can get.”

The rumbling was getting louder; humans would probably be able to detect it. In a move that made no logical sense, Zeta revved his saws, creating a whining noise that drowned out the growing evidence of a monster convergence. One of the older women wrapped herself in her arms and began to sob, but stumbled backward to check the rock outcropping that Krum pointed toward.

Every second, another Greater Werewolf hopped down and landed around the streambed, usually about twenty or thirty meters in either direction from where the humans stopped. Zeta spun on its metal heel. A surging wave of Greater Werewolves was loping toward them from both directions. The monsters’ howls were high and piercing, very uncomfortable in Zeta’s audio receptors.

Meanwhile, the little boy continued to point and Zeta followed his finger while continuing to make pessimistic calculations about their survival chances. To his surprise… when Zeta looked up, his lenses located well-hidden slots in the stone walls. And from one of the larger openings… a wrinkled, blue-skinned goblin looked down at them.

“There is a tunnel!” The woman shrieked as she investigated the folds in the rock. Her voice was torn between fear and relief. The other humans shifted their tired bodies and gathered around the woman as she squeezed between the rocks. Todd was furiously etching lines of Mana into the bars of metal provided to him, not even noticing that the group was shifting away from him toward the escape. The kid worked while shivering too, much more susceptible to the chilly water than the average human.

Zeta tore its gaze away from the strange goblin withdrew the saw at the end of its left arm. Although it had been impacted by the Calamity Tainted Werewolf, its base operations remained functioned. Then it hooked Todd around his waist and picked him up, careful not to disturb the Scrawling.

Krum moved beside Zeta and looked back and forth. The woman had fully disappeared in the small cleft in the rocks and now a thin teenager followed her. The girl carrying her brother urged the young boy forward. Zeta could sense the shift in Krum’s heart rate as he looked at the girl. “We aren’t going to make it in time.”

The Greater Werewolves had closed the distance to only ten meters. They were ravenous, grey blurs. And because of how wide the stream bed was, even Krum would not be able to keep the charge at bay single-handedly. Sometimes another monster hopped down and landed on its fellows that were charging for the humans, but they quickly recovered.

However, Zeta hummed uncertainly. Its lenses continued to scan. “I wonder if we do not need to.”

How unexpected.

And as soon as the machine man spoke, the arrows came, fwat-ing out of the hidden slots in the stone wall. Under that bright sun, a steel rain cut sideways through the charging press of werewolf bodies with not the slightest hint of pity. A dozen and then a hundred and then a hundred finger-sized holes were torn in the aggressive werewolves.

The monsters yowled and collapsed as a second wave of arrows shot out beyond the first. The steel arrowheads gleamed in the midday light only a few meters above the humans’ heads. Luckily, the shooters didn’t fire any arrows near where the people were clustered, still stuffing themselves into the tunnel.

When the teenage girl followed her brother, Krum finally released a sigh. Then he shoved that fool Henrik forward. “Get a move on. This is our chance.”

Several wounded Greater Werewolves staggered forward beyond the limits of the arrow rain, but their limbs were punctured with zooming metal bars, now that Todd had finished his Scrawl. Several more werewolves used their bodies to screen their companions from harm, allowing about five to step out and snarl. But even with Zeta’s powerful Reaction, Krum arrived first.

His twisting holds and brutal blows with his knees and elbows quickly put the ‘lucky’ few that made it past the arrows face down in the stream. At this point, the liquid was more murky maroon than running clear. The humans continued to force their bodies into the small crack and scramble away.

Above, a howl almost double as loud as the ones Zeta heard previously made all of the Greater Werewolves skid to a stop beyond the area affected by the arrows. They used their yellow eyes to glare balefully at the disappearing humans but did not try and close the gap. In response, the arrows ceased.

“You next, Toddler,” Krum grunted, shoving the short kid forward. The young man squawked and stumbled, faceplanting into the dirty water. Zeta quickly stooped down and picked the teen back up; Zeta could not understand how this human existed with such an imbalance level of capability. His Scrawl was flexible impressive, but he struggled with most other activities. After being set on his feet, Todd glared at Krum but hurried forward.

“I anticipate that howl came from a powerful monster,” Zeta said as it deactivated its right buzzsaw and retracted the bloody implement within its arm. It made a mental note to thoroughly clean out its body later. Its internal mechanisms would otherwise be quite sticky. “Even with assistance… the intelligence displayed to call for its minions to hold back now... The discipline-”

“Yea,” Krum’s face twisted into a smile. Zeta observed the expression closely, trying to understand the convoluted reasons that humans experience joy. Before it could arrive at a satisfactory answer, Krum nudged the Brass Automaton forward. “But you next. I’ll hold up the rear.”

Zeta nodded its head, considering the growing Greater Werewolves lining the creekbed and their fellows sniffing down over the edge of the cliffs above them. It vibrated its fingers at a high frequency, sheering off a bit of the hanging stone as it ducked down and pressed its way through to the interior of the cave.

HOWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

But even through the heavy stone cliffs, the determination that the leader of these Greater Werewolves resonated. They slipped away, but the werewolves would follow.

That howl was a song of vengeance. That howl was a promise.

*****

Congratulations! Your Skill Grit of the Ascendant Bane (T) has grown to Level 415!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 25!

Randidly allowed the Hierarchy to deactivate gradually, his teeth aching from the strained tension of having his body ravaged by the powerful electromagnetic radiation. Without even him flexing, several of his joints popped and shifted as he relaxed. Even though he could safely endure those energies for quite some time even at the Hierachy’s maximum setting, that didn’t mean he enjoyed the experience.

Of course… right now… if I don’t push myself to the limits… Randidly squeezed his eyes shut and released a shuddering breath. The warped Engravings on his metal left arm sparked ineffectually. On the one hand, ever moment was a new twinge of agony from the chasm within his Aether Crossroads. An abyss had been opened in him and even moment allowed a little more pain to leak upward. But suddenly, he also had the looming funeral to torment his anxiety after his decision to ask Neveah for her help.

Of course, he didn’t regret it. Yet the abrupt arrival of that impulse had shaken him somewhat. When he had checked in on Yggdrasil, he had seen the Ichor emerald seeping out of the cracks in Yggdrasils bark… and those fat drops of fluid squeezing them out viscerally reminded him of the sensation of tears sliding down his face. The next thing he knew, he reached out to Neveah.

One thing at a time. Randidly slapped his cheeks; he was exhausted. His inner organs shifted uneasily, burned and singed from the light radiation from this new layer of the Fatepiece. The discomfort was real, but Randidly knew that if he pushed himself, he could go further… so long as he didn’t also need to deal with his muscles spasming uncontrollably. Handling both made the process complicated. If he could find someone else to bear the first portion of the Hierarchy-

Helen… Randidly’s breath hissed through his teeth and his heart threatened to fold in on itself once more. The surrounding space in the shaft began to vibrate and he activated the Stillborn Phoenix to devour some of that ambient emotion. He forced his mind away; Randidly looked in on the Alpha Cosmos and scanned for anyone with high enough Stats to assist with the Hierarchy.

And to his surprise, he found something immediately. The ram demon DiOrtho Vant was within the Alpha Cosmos, strolling along a beach with his wife. Or rather, DiOrtho was giving his wife a piggy-back ride and she was hitting him with a leather riding crop. Something about how gaily the two were laughing caused Randidly’s mouth to spasm. Their version of ‘domestic bliss’ briefly distracted him.

Randidly withdrew his attention to give the two some privacy and spent a bit of time meditating. But his mind kept moving back to the horrible visual of Helen’s body, so he couldn’t avoid sending a message to at least give himself a task. How did you end up in my Alpha Cosmos?

This was Randidly’s sudden worry at his unexpected presence; how did his subordinate make it into his Alpha Cosmos? If there was a method of transportation that those in the Nexus could use-

You don’t remember? After… Overseer Helen was attacked, I asked to return to the Alpha Cosmos to spend some time with my wife. You didn’t answer, but you… tossed me in here…

Randidly could only chuckle without any humor. Truly, those moments on the Fifth Cohort Rally Station… his mind had stuttered somewhat as he tried to process what was happening. Even now, if he thought about it too deeply-

Randidly pressed his eyes shut then he rolled his shoulders, letting the physical sensation distract him. He focused on his original goal of searching the Alpha Cosmos. Can I ask you for a favor?