Lesli was in her element, her feathers moving in a perfect symphony, riding the air currents as she circled back around to the northeast, looking for any large or unusual monsters in the wave.

Her incredible vision spotted something on the ground, just ahead of the oncoming waves.

Despite being almost a thousand feet up, she could see it was a man and a woman, the man carrying a small child while the mother helped to drag a slightly larger one along.

She shrieked her frustration into the sky.

They wouldn't make the wall, the wave was moving faster than they were.

There was nothing she could do. If she tried to help, she'd just be swept in the wave with them.

She swooped down, trying to see if she could at least identify the family before they were overrun.

The monsters were so close, only a hundred feet behind them and gaining fast.

She could make out the expressions on their faces, the confusion on the small child, the terror on the little boys, and the fear and resignation on the mother and father.

Then, twenty feet ahead of them, a blue-black portal appeared in midair, parallel to the ground, and a man fell out of it.

Lesli let out a very un-hawklike gasp of surprise.

She was a hundred feet above the wave now, and she could see that the man was the one who had been left in the plaza with her.

This close she could hear him yell at the family "Go! Go!" as another portal rippled into being in behind him.

The family raced into the portal, and the man lept through as well.

Lesli pivoted with a beat of her strong wings and looked for them.

There! She saw the portal wink out of existence less than a hundred feet away, close to the Watchtower.

The man wasted no time in creating another portal, this one leading to the top of the Watchtower before he began to shove the family through it.

She let out a shrill scream of triumph, and then cut it off abruptly as the man went to enter the portal, the wave a mere twenty feet behind him.

The portal vanished as he was about to enter it, and he fell to the ground screaming, one hand clenching his chest while the other clung to his staff.

Lesli banked again and dove for the top of the tower, shifting just as she touched down.

The woman who was cradling the young boy gasped as a hawk shifted to a woman and landed in front of them.

The little boy gasped in amazement.

Lesli let herself smile for a second. She never got tired of doing that, especially with kids. Her younger sister loved it.

She then hurried over to where the man was looking over the crenelation.

She arrived just in time to see the wave wash over the Adventurer that had saved the family around her.

Leading the wave were two-foot-tall, three-foot-long insects, with sharp scythes on their thin forelimbs and strong, powerful legs that allowed them to rush just that much faster than the other monsters. They swarmed over the man, their vicious scythes stabbing downward rapidly as the mindless monsters sought to end the strong mana signature all people possessed.

"He," the man grumbled in the way of men who trying not to cry, "he saved us..."

Lesli laid a hand on the man's shoulder.

"He was an Adventurer," she said quietly, "that's what we do. We stand tall, and let the waves break upon us."

"But sometimes," she continued as she felt the family's gaze focus on her, "we have to pay the ultimate price to keep others safe."

"Don't forget his sacrifice," she said sadly. Despite not knowing the man, he'd stood tall as an Adventurer.

"Remember him as a hero."

Then she heard a scream of rage from below them.

"MONROE!"

Lesli turned just in time to catch sight of the Adventurer below her stand up, covered in insects, having apparently recovered from the mana burn he'd suffered from his portal.

She was surprised that he had the strength to do so, as he was obviously a spell caster.

She watched as he shook off the mantises and started swinging his staff in an arc, knocking the oncoming mantises away, at least for a few seconds.

Lesli was surprised to see that he had what looked like a large house cat fighting alongside him.

But she was an Adventurer, and she knew that even though those monsters were weak, they were too many of them. There was no way he could fight them off for long.

Even as she watched he dodged one of them, only to step into the path of another, which started to drive its scythes into him.

She swallowed hard, her throat tightening. She hadn't ever met him, but it was tragic to have to witness this. He was brave, to have done what he did.

More of the insects latched onto him and then his cat was impaled, and let out a heart-rending yowl of pain.

Then he disappeared again under a wave of the monsters.

And she heard a thud behind her, and the little boy yelled.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeremi and his wife Allana stumbled through the portal, Allana dragging their son Justin behind them while he cradled their daughter Emili to his chest.

He couldn't believe they'd been saved.

They were new to Holmstead, only two months into their new lives at their new farm, and Justin had wandered too far into the woods while playing the prior afternoon.

They'd spent a sleepless night searching for him, before finally finding him, cold, exhausted, and terrified a quarter of a mile away from the farm.

They'd planned to have headed into town that morning, but by the time they'd found Justin and gotten him back to the farm, they were all exhausted and it was growing dark. So they'd cleaned up and packed up, and planned to head to town at first light.

They knew a wave was coming sometime later this week, and they didn't want to be outside the walls when it came.

Then they'd woken up to the tolling of the warning bell. Cursing, and for once receiving no admonishment from his wife about his language, Jeremi had gotten his family out of the house and moving towards town within two minutes.

But it wasn't quick enough.

He'd seen the wave coming up behind him, and realized soon enough that they wouldn't make the distance.

Still, he and Allana had kept running, desperately hoping against hope that somehow they'd make it.

Then the Adventurer had stepped out of the portal, like an angel sent to save them.

He'd opened a portal close to the stone tower, and after following them through it, opened another to the top, and practically shoved his hysterical wife through it.

Jeremi shuddered as he contemplated what could have been, what he had thought was inevitable, and turned to express his own thanks to their savior, only to see the portal wink out behind them, and hear a scream that ended in a horrible liquid choking sound from below the tower.

He rushed over and looked down over the crenelations, to see their savior on the ground, clutching his chest as the wave crested a mere ten feet away.

Jeremi jerked around, turning his attention from the Adventurer who had just finished telling them to remember the man who had saved them as a hero.

"MONROE!"

He looked down, and his jaw dropped in surprise. The Adventurer who had saved them, had, against all expectations, stood back up, despite being covered in monsters.

He stood and started swinging his staff batting away monsters left and right.

Jeremi winced as a smaller monster lept inside the arc of his staff, but quickly realized that it wasn't a monster, and must be a pet or a summoned monster of some sort as it was fighting the insectoid monsters as well.

His wife had moved up beside them and he heard her gasp as the wave pressed against the Adventurer, and a mantis landed on him, digging its scythes into his chest.

He wrapped the arm that wasn't holding Emili around her.

Inside he raged.

It wasn't fair.

The Adventurer must have known he was risking his life when he portaled out to save them.

And now he stood in the wave, fighting a futile battle against an endless horde.

For the first time in his life, Jeremi cursed himself for choosing the path of the Labourer.

They watched in horror as more of the insects latched onto the doomed man.

Then they heard the pain-stricken yowl as his pet was struck.

And then he disappeared.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob paused his second cast as he watched the wave and then blink, and squinted.

"Fuck!" he screamed to no one in particular.

There were three people running ahead of the wave, and by the size, one of them was a kid. And the wave was gaining on them. No way were they going to make the wall.

Bob dropped through a portal.

Bob heard a bird cry above him as he dropped out of his portal.

He opened another portal and stepped through it, directly in the path of the fleeing family.

Bob motioned to the family as he opened a portal back to where he'd come in and yelled "Go! Go!", practically shoving them through the portal before he stepped through himself.

He came out of the portal, released it, and cast again, another portal in front of them, the terminus at the top of the tower.

The woman grasped at his arm and sobbed "Thank you, thank you," as Bob gave up on words, and shoved her and the little boy through the portal.

As he tried to lunge through the portal himself, it winked out of existence, and his body exploded in pain.

As his body seized up and his mana bar reached zero, Bob had a moment to contemplate the nature of his new reality.

His increased intelligence had given him incredible recall. He didn't have an eidetic memory yet, let alone a photographic one, but he could see it was possible.

His increased wisdom had given him the ability to perceive events more quickly, allowing him that extra split second to react.

It had also given him a little more time, as he'd seen the family fleeing, to calculate that casting four portals back to back was going to put him perilously close to draining his mana.

And now it gave him a little more time to appreciate just how much that hurt as blood choked off his scream of pain.

Bob coughed out blood as he recognized that his health had dropped a bit when he'd tried to overextend his mana. He tried to unclench his muscles and stand up to run towards the tower, where he could make a stand, maybe hold out until he had enough mana to portal up.

And then he was in a sea of chitin.

He caught flashes of them as they piled onto him, just enough to sort of piece together a picture. They looked like praying mantises. If praying mantises were three-feet-long, two-feet-tall and hunted in swarms.

He coughed out more blood as they landed on him, and he felt the sharp scythe-bladed limbs puncturing into him, between the plates of his armor.

He struggled to rise, but even though they weren't heavy, there were just too many of them.

A scythe pierced through his right hand and he managed to let out a scream.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monroe hated the loud ringing noise that hurt his sensitive ears and had escaped into the special place his human-servant carried with him.

It was quiet and big enough to move around, but small enough to be cozy.

And it was part of his servant, so that was good.

Ever since he'd been reunited with his servant, he'd been able to detect his emotions and push his own towards him.

Which was quite useful when it came to ensuring his human-servant knew when he needed to bathe or use a sandbox, or when he was hungry.

As Monroe tried to snuggle back down to sleep, he could feel his human's irritation and an undertone of discomfort.

Soon, that discomfort led to actual muted fear, and even sooner after that, outright terror, and then pain!

Monroe stood up, his ears laid back, and his tail low, then lept out to defend his servant.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob gasped as another scythe pierced him underneath his arm where the sleeves met the vest.

'Fuck!' he raged as he was driven further to the ground. 'I'm going to die under a giant pile of bugs,' he thought to himself as he saw his health meter drop below half and begin flashing.

Then he heard a hiss and a familiar growl. And the familiar sensation of Monroe using him as a springboard to leap.

Terror gripped Bob's heart and he contemplated just what was about to happen to his buddy.

With a sudden surge of strength, Bob shoved himself up as he bellowed out "MONROE!" and started swinging his staff with both hands, not trying to do damage so much as to clear a circle around him.

He saw Monroe to his left with a mantis pinned beneath him. One savage jerk and Monroe had torn its head off, then the big cat lept past his swing his staff and landed in a crouch between his feet, facing behind him as he swung his staff.

A mantis flew at his head, and he managed to dodge to the side, but another clipped him as he moved into its path and it latched onto his shoulder and started stabbing into his chest with its scythes.

He was swinging his staff wildly but there were hundreds of them, and they were all trying to pile onto him. Every mantis that he batted away only flew a few feet before it landed in the sea of chitin.

Monroe was spitting and snarling while demonstrating just exactly why cats were the apex predator in every ecological niche they'd ever occupied. The Maine-coon moved like liquid batting at the insects with his claws, tearing off their limbs while avoiding every strike made against him.

Bob watched his mana bar inch up as a second passed, and then two. He now had four mantises latched onto him, trying to stab him through his armor. And having a degree of success. Bob roared in agony, as the one on his left leg managed to get a scythe into his thigh.

Then Monroe let out a howl of pain, and Bob looked down to see that his buddy had finally succumbed to numbers, and mantis had landed on his back, and driven a scythe into Monroe's side.

Bob tightened his jaw and dropped a portal at his feet, willing himself to go through it, and latching onto Monroe as he fell, noting that familiar burning sensation as his mana bottomed out, and his health bar, which was already at under a quarter, dropped as well.

Bob fought through the pain as he landed on the top of the tower. He dropped his staff and wrenched a mantis off his shoulder throwing it over the edge.

Monroe growled in savage satisfaction and pain as he turned the tables on his own attacker and tore off its head, at the expense of turning his puncture wound into a nasty gash.

The little boy grabbed the one on his leg and ripped it off before jumping up and down it.

The man and the two women... two women? His brain recognized that there hadn't been two women, but he was too occupied ripping another mantis off his chest, and then uncorking a healing potion that he'd pulled from his inventory and gulping it down, all while another mantis on his back did its level best to punch a hole through his back.

Bob threw himself back against the wall of the tower, hard.

He felt a scythe drive into his back, through his armor and he gasped in pain, spraying blood. But he also felt the chitin give way and shatter, as the unorthodox attack killed the monster.

He slid to the ground, cough out blood as the potion started to mend his flesh, and his health bar began to inch its way up from the bare sliver of color it had contained.

"That," he coughed out, "was way too fucking close."