There were surprisingly few Dire Eagles in the Wave. Blair spotted only two of them flying up to the higher floors but it was possible that there were others coming from the other sides. The cube had four sides and she was only looking at the one she could see from her viewpoint. More importantly, though, there was a swarm of wolves.

One of the stairways was closed off but the other one was open. It was safe to assume that a horde of wolves would be coming through the corridor that was wide enough to fit three people walking side-by-side, but only around one and a half if they stretched out both their hands. By visual estimation, the wolves seemed twice as wide as a human so that meant there’d be two of them coming in at any one time.

That was good.

“We should collapse the stairway,” said the security guard after staring at the stairs for a while. He clicked his tongue and gestured at the blocked-off one with his chin, “Then we can defend the one that isn’t collapsed. It’ll be easier.”

That was the perfect solution. If it only had one stairway and they barricaded that whenever a Wave was coming, then it’d essentially be an impenetrable fortress.

At least for the wolves.

Blair heard screams from the upper floors but one of the eagles plummeting to the ground was a good sign.

“No, it’s unrealistic. Our spells don’t have that much firepower yet,” said Jeremy and narrowed his eyes. There had to be at least a hundred of those things coming their way. The building was trembling ever so slightly but that was enough to alert them.

Through the windows, Blair could see that some of them were already inside the building. Begrudgingly, she summoned her spear and felt the surge of Strength. Against a Dire Eagle, it could’ve bolstered her confidence but knowledge of how easily those things could dismember a human kept her from becoming overconfident.

There were enough of them there and there was no shortage of people with spears.

Their ancestors used spears to fight against far larger creatures but that wasn’t the kind of situation they were in. When they were hunting, the humans outnumbered the prey. This time, the beasts outnumbered the humans —at least the ones willing to fight.

“Let’s split up. A quarter of us defends the blockade and the rest will go to the other side. Quick!” shouted Jeremy and he was the first one to run to the other side. Despite the System giving them a five-minute head start, none of them were in position yet.

They were inexperienced, or even if they could easily manage that, there was always the issue of fear.

Blair found herself glued to the ground, her hands firmly grasping the spear. It was one thing to kill one of those things, but when it came to fighting against several of them, the situation was completely different.

More than a half of them were on the other side by the time the first of the Dire Wolves reached their floor. In a surprising show of solidarity, several Blue Skills were shot at them and they repelled the horde for a few, short seconds.

There floated a pop-up with a timer to the top right of her vision, which said there were roughly eight minutes left until the Wave ended.

They’d managed to buy two minutes by hiding on the upper floors of a building and that was good.

They just had to stall them.

However, it was easier said than done as the Monsters had none of the self-perservation instincts that were necessary for survival. That was the only explanation for them charging into a pack of armed people that could shoot out deadly projectiles.

It was like they didn’t want to survive.

Fortunately, none of the wolves bothered to bulldoze through the barricade. Instead, they left for the other side. When no other wolf came up to the barricade, Blair started to suspect foul play. They had a certain measure of intelligence and there was no howl to communicate that this side was closed off.

Was it a hive mind?

If it was, then they were royally fucked.

They drew first blood and one of them managed to push past the group of over thirty people. Its whole body was twisting and turning as it pushed past them but a Steel Mace dug into its skull. There came a disgusting crack that overpowered every other noise and before its lifeless body hit the ground, the Dire Wolf scattered into light, leaving behind a single Red Card.

Only then did Blair come to her senses and she got closer to the wall made by the Guards. They stood at the spot where the stairs met the floor and were fending the horde off to some degree, but it was by no means effective.

That’s when one of the wolves jumped over the group and managed to make its way onto the floor, which was the last defense the ordinary people had against the horde.

For all the nonsense the Mayor was saying, her head was by no means necessary when chaos like this ensued. The last time she fought a Dire Wolf, she managed to kill it thanks to teamwork and no lack of luck. This time, as the giant wolf charged toward her, she realized how vulnerable she was in an open field.

Like a deer stuck in headlights, she stood there, staring at it come at her. Her hands were tightly clenching the Steel Spear in her hand and she kept its sharp edge facing the wolf, hoping to scare it away.

She didn’t even think about killing it.

Fortunately, a Wind Blade struck its side and left a deep gash across its side. With murderous intent, it turned its head to the left and growled at the one that shot the Skill. In the tiny moment that its eyes were off her, Blair stepped forward and pushed her spear into its throat as hard as she could, her Strength enhanced by the spear itself.

There was a slight resistance but after it traveled an inch, it comfortably slid into its neck and the wolf was turned into shards of hard light, leaving behind a Red Card.

It split in two and one landed on Blair’s hand and the other landed on the one that had saved her —a man with straight brown hair that draped over his shoulders. There was a massive frown on his face and he looked to be in his late forties, his face riddled with wrinkles. If anything, he looked like a rock star that had outlived his golden days, now donning the uniform of a grocery shop.

Blair huffed and turned to the stairs.

They were still swarming in like there was no tomorrow and the timer said that seven minutes were left.

Outlasting them was frankly easier than weathering the assault.

“Ice Wall!” shouted the Mayor, his voice easily recognizable from among the masses.

After stumbling for a few seconds, a duo of Ice Shields formed and blocked off the assault for a few more seconds. It perfectly covered the entire width of the stairway but not the height, and as a result, yet another Dire Wolf jumped over it.

It tried, at least.

Much like the wolf that was killed by Diana in the last Wave, it was stuck between the ceiling and the shield. Before it could wrestle its way out of its dilemma, a spear stabbed through the side of its head and scattered it into light.

The shield didn’t even last five seconds before it started to crack, prompting the same ones from before to create shields once again.

“Prepare to fire!” Jeremy shouted again and in a united effort, several of the Guards raised their hands and aimed their palms at the shield. Almost in unison, they charged up their Blue Skills and the moment the so-called Ice Wall cracked, they were loosed onto the wolves.

Contrary to a single usage of a Skill, the volley of deadly spells downed a few Dire Wolves where they stood. It happened exactly thrice, felling the number of Dire Wolves by a good amount, killing off four of them every time. That was twelve down, and with all the other kills she’d seen, it added up to a total of twenty dead Dire Wolves.

That’s when they lost the advantage.

The wolves surged onto the ninth floor —the one they were on— and their tactic of keeping them in a narrow corridor would no longer work. Once three of them were on the floor, everything devolved into chaos.

People were struggling to keep themselves alive but contrary to Blair’s expectation, they were winning.

Left and right, Dire Wolves were dying but oddly, there were almost no humans dying. There were a few that died near the stairs but aside from that, they were taking down the wolves with surprising efficiency.

When one of them came close to her, she charged up a Fire Ball and took a deep breath. Charging up a Fire Ball with one hand meant that only one hand was holding the spear, making it difficult to properly wield it. The Strength boost was still there but efficiently wielding it with one hand required more Strength than the measly 4 she had.

The Fire Ball struck the wolf on its side and left a charred circle on it, forcing it to growl and turn to Blair. That one second of inattentiveness resulted in another one of them effortlessly taking it down with a mace to its head. Upon further inspection, Blair found it to be the same one that killed another one of the wolves with the exact same move.

Another card placed itself in her hand.

The Wolves weren’t as scary as she’d thought them to be.

When she heard one of them panting, Blair realized why they were so easy to kill —they were exhausted from the climb.

Being holed up at the top of a skyscraper helped a lot more than she’d expected it to.

There were four minutes left on the timer and that’s when they ran out of wolves to kill, which was when the clock abruptly stopped.

Congratulations!

You’ve killed all [40 x Monsters] in the [Monster Wave]. Their number will be increased in the next [Monster Wave].

“Not again!” roared someone.

Not again?

“Eighty of them next time?” grumbled one of them.

“Fuck it,” shouted yet another one.

“We can do it, guys!” shouted out Jeremy, a massive grin on his face. His hair was drenched in sweat and his shirt was no better, and he was panting to boot, “We won that. We totally did!”

“Six casualties,” said one of them after scanning the room for Purple Cards.

Only six casualties.

That was a start.

“Eagles got into the higher floors. We know what happens when they do,” helpfully remarked the security guard that led Blair to Jeremy.

“They should’ve taken care of themselves. I think there was only a couple of them. And they didn’t scream as much as they’d have if they were being slaughtered,” said Jeremy and ran his hands across his hair to style it. He turned to Blair with a grin on his face, and pointed at her with an open hand, “She’s the one that came up with the idea.”

“No. Whoever decided we’d be on the highest floors was the one that saved us. They were already exhausted from the climb,” said Blair and furrowed her brows. She lightly pinched her chin with her thumb and index finger and stared down at the ground as she spoke.

If she recalled correctly, wolves could be unbelievably fast but if they ran at full speed, they got tired easily. With how little inhibitions that the Dire Wolves had, to the point of being suicidal, it was likely that they were already tired from running at top speed for a whopping two minutes.

That was why they won, not because they fought by using a narrow corridor. Even after they’d gotten past the stairway, they were easily taken care of.

Jeremy pointed a finger at his left cheek when they made eye contact.

That’s when Blair realized that half of her face was caked in blood and so was most of her sweater. She grit her teeth, took a deep breath, and let it out.

Everyone was bloody.

There was nothing wrong about this.

Calmly, she wiped the blood off her cheek with the sleeve of her sweater, fully intent on throwing it away —she just had to find something else to wear before that. Maybe she could trade it for something, perhaps a canteen of water.

“Well then, I guess we have Dexter to thank for half the plan,” said Jeremy loud enough for everyone to hear, which ended with a round of awkward chuckles and titters.

No one cared about the ones that were dead. They were conveniently ignored and Blair saw the man in the grocery shop uniform from before grabbing a Purple Card in the wake of the ignorance. Maybe, just maybe, she could sneak up to them and grab one or two.

Before that, though, there were the two Red Cards that she’d already gotten.

Congratulations! You’ve used a [Red Card]. Choose one of the following Skills you are able to attain from a [Dire Wolf].

Canine Tracking (C): Allows you to temporarily increase your Perception for the purpose of Smell.

Claw Retraction (C): Allows you to temporarily turn your nails into claws.

Canine Bite (C): Allows you to temporarily increase your Strength when biting an object.

There was nothing particularly useful from the wolves.

Unlike Eagle Vision, Canine Tracking wasn’t as necessary. More importantly, she didn’t know if her nose would be overwhelmed by all the smell of blood and sweat. She already had Claw Retraction, and it didn’t seem all that useful yet. Canine Bite, on the other hand, seemed completely useless.

That’s why she turned both of them into Claw Retraction, hoping that leveling up the Skill would make it better.

Name: Claw Retraction

Level: 3

Rarity: Common

Description: Allows you to temporarily grow claws for combat purposes.

Cost: 0.8 Stamina per Minute

If the Dire Wolves were the only ones she’d be running into, then it made sense to level up Claw Retraction to check if it truly would become free to use at Level 11. That was only possible if the trend of reducing Stamina cost by 0.1 per level was kept up, though.

After staring at the others, she settled on leaving them to their own devices and resting in the isolated building that she now called home. On the way down, Blair grabbed two of the Purple Cards that were conveniently near the stairs.

If no one cared about their deaths, why should she?

Only after scaling several floors did she lean on the wall and stare at her loot. She’d just grabbed two Purple Cards and there were only six casualties. That meant she’d grabbed over 33% of it despite not providing much support.

It left a bad taste in her mouth but no one other than that old rock star was grabbing it. It’d be a waste to let him have it when it was right in front of her, after all. She’d much rather have it in her pockets than in someone else’s if she had the choice.

She looked into the first Purple Card and came to a dilemma. There, amidst all the other less useful Skills, Blair found Eagle Vision and Vigor of Ancients. She needed a better recovery rate but if there would be as few eagles as today all the time, then that meant Eagle Vision was more important. If it drained less Stamina, she’d be able to use it for longer periods of time and that’d make her more useful in the long run.

If she managed to survive, that is.

Thus, she mumbled the Skill’s name underneath her breath and it materialized. Unlike before, that sickening merging process didn’t happen, just like that of Claw Retraction.

Just to make sure, Blair summoned her Skill Deck and looked through, and there she found the cartoonish eye staring back at her. She tapped on it and it turned around, showcasing its information.

Name: Eagle Vision

Level: 3

Rarity: Common

Description: Allows you to temporarily increase your Perception for the purpose of Sight.

Bonus: +12 Perception (Sight-only)

Cost: 0.8 Stamina per Minute

It just decreased the Cost rather than modifying the Bonus, but to want more would be simply greedy. Even if it was a tad bit disappointing, she turned it around and activated the other Purple Card.

Both of them were guards so they had no shortage of the more common Skills that dropped from Monsters, but that’s where she found Ice Shield —the only Blue Skill he had. The Starter Skill was Light Foot of Felines, which seemed to be the most useless of all three.

Without a doubt, Blair chose Ice Shield and rejoiced with the knowledge that she could summon it again. After trading her Ice Shield with Diana, she’d never gotten to actually trading it back. It seemed like Diana wanted to keep it as well, clearly not a fighter.

Neither was Blair, but at least she made an effort to survive rather than just run and hide.

She was met with the same information she’d gotten used to seeing on Ice Shield and contently closed her Skill Deck, then let it dissipate into light to store itself.