A screech tore through the sky overhead. Arek looked up as a wyvern dropped down towards him, its claws outstretched and mouth wide open. He launched the guandao through the air and leapt to a nearby roof, crashing through the wooden wall as the monster crunched into the ground where he’d been standing, burying the weapon deeper within itself.

Arek extended his hand, but the guandao didn’t fly back into it. It was buried beneath the wyvern’s body. His eyes narrowed and the runes on his claws flared brighter. The guandao erupted from the wyvern’s back in a flower of blood and bone. It slammed back into his hand and the orc spun, setting off at a sprint before the horde could start swarming his location.

He ran for several more minutes, systematically covering as much of the city as he could while avoiding the horde. He slew several more wyrms that grew too close as he ran, but he did his best to avoid the sea of silver. If they managed to pile over him, his armor wouldn’t be much help.

A series of explosions echoed through an alley several streets away from the crumbling house that Arek currently stood on. He spun. It was hard to be certain, but they sounded similar to Ming’s new spell.

Wood cracked under Arek’s feet as he abruptly changed course, bounding towards the sound of the noise. Even if it wasn’t Ming, fighting meant more guards that needed his help.

In the end, it wasn’t the noise that led him to the the resistance but the horde itself. Dozens of wyrms from the endless river of snarling monsters branched off down a smaller path. The scent of blood seemed stronger down the path.

The buildings along the path had been completely wrecked, although they were so full of large debris that they were still largely impassable for the horde. Unfortunately, that also meant that Arek had fewer roofs to run across.

“Might as well start somewhere,” Arek growled to himself, his battle rage flaring brighter. His eyes lit with a red glow once again and he hurled himself forwards, over the majority of the swarm and into the alley.

The orc landed on a wyrm’s back with enough force to force it to the ground. He brought his weapon down through its skull before the creature could respond, then leapt to the next creature’s back.

He couldn’t afford to spend any time fighting in one spot or the monsters would swarm over him. Instead, he dashed from one to the next, occasionally throwing his spear out and killing the creatures that tried to snap at him.

Arek was vividly aware that adrenaline would only take him so far. Even though Belmont had healed his wounds, he’d done nothing for the exhaustion. There was only so much fighting he could do in a day. And, unlike Ming, he couldn’t just refuel by eating.

Another explosion tore through the sky. A blast of crackling blue energy tore out from the window of a shop at the far end of the alley. Arek dashed across the backs of the wyrms towards it. He leapt onto the roof instead of walking in the front door to avoid getting blasted.

Arek threw himself through the wall, tearing the wood like paper. He momentarily found himself thankful that the wyrms were too stupid to just demolish the buildings by trampling them, then stomped the ground.

The wood cracked and he fell through, crushing a table beneath him. To Arek’s delight, Ming stood several feet before him, facing the door. She had the smoldering carcass of a wyrm propped against the entrance, blocking it from the rest of the horde. A huge bag sat by her side, and her bundle of staves was open on the ground behind her.

“Arek?” Ming asked, pulling the bone from a chicken leg out of her mouth and tossing it to the side. She reached inside the bag and pulled out a fistful of what had likely once been a sandwich. She stuffed it into her mouth with one hand while pointing her staff through the gap between the wyrm corpse and the door with her other.

Pure magic gathered at the tip of the weapon. A dozen motes of blue light launched out from it, detonating in rapid succession. The shockwave was so strong that Arek felt it from where he stood.

“You don’t look too worried,” Arek observed, repressing his battle rage and lifting the visor of his helmet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I raided all the restaurants I could while I was setting up,” Ming said, nodding at the sack at her feet. Despite her words, Ming’s brow was knit and her knuckles were white around her staff.

Arek couldn’t recall her being this concerned, even when they were trapped inside the fish man dungeon with no apparent way of escape. His eyes narrowed.

“Who did you recognize in that B ranked team?” Arek asked.

Ming jerked her head to the side to stare at him. “What?”

“You saw something that’s seriously bothering you,” Arek said. “And I don’t think it’s the monster horde. I’ve never seen you this worried about a fight.”

Ming pointed her staff again, launching a blast of pure magic with enough force to nearly knock the weapon from her hands.

“If there’s something dangerous, you can tell us,” Arek said, stepping towards her. “We’re a group, Ming.”

“I know,” Ming said, her words terse. “It’s not dangerous. Not to you, anyways.”

“But it is to you?” Arek pressed.

“Not really,” Ming said. “But… I think I recognized one of the people in the team.”

“Which one?” Arek asked. “I know most of them, at least at a superficial level. They should be able to save the city. They’re no heroes, but they’re strong adventurers.”

“It’s not that,” Ming said, shaking her head. She wiped her free hand off on her clothing and then reached into her bag, pulling out a paper and handing it to Arek.

“Null? The new member?” Arek asked.

“Yeah,” Ming replied, her tone ice cold. “He’s my brother.”