With a thought, I cast my new MAGE ARMOR II and threw open the doors. The hallway was filled with screaming and chaos, people running back and forth shouting and even one of the healers standing in front of the closed doors to the makeshift infirmary had broken down in tears and was being comforted by one of the priests. A teen who’d been guarding the door to the support area shouted my name and tried to grab me, but my armor reacted with a bright blue discharge of energy and threw him back, his eyes round and his mouth opened wide in shock.

Raising the burning end of my staff overhead so I could see in the darkened hallway, I managed to identify the main source of turmoil where a woman was screaming incoherently as the metal table leg she was using as a club rose and fell with almost mechanical precision. I couldn’t see through the knot of men surrounding her what she was fighting, but Rob was writhing on the ground nearby howling in agony.

“MAKE WAY!” I shouted and began shouldering my way through the disorganized crowd. “Get back!”

I managed to force my way through while simultaneously preparing to blast a MANA BOLT when the oddities of the situation finally began to impress themselves on my mind.

“Aaaaah! Aaaah! Oh God! Oh my God! Aaaah!” Rob panted as he rolled on the ground holding his stomach, “I can’t stand it! Oh my God, somebody help me!”

I looked at him in alarm, but I couldn’t see any marks on him.

“Kid! What’s wrong? Where are you hurt?” I cautiously edged around between where he lay near the middle of the wide hallway and the far wall as several of the men around the screaming woman turned their faces towards me with almost guilty expressions and shuffled a little to the side so I could finally see what the woman was fighting just as she landed another blow on a creature the size of a dog in front of her.

“Everybody back!” I shouted as I pointed the burning end of my staff at the creature and let loose the MANA BOLT. It shot forward as if the MANA were eager to join the fray and smashed into the monster’s mid-section causing it to fly up off the floor and strike the woman with the club in the chest, knocking her down and landing on top of her. She immediately panicked and began to scream even more as she frantically tried to scramble away.

“GET IT OFF OF ME! GET IT OFF OF ME!” She screamed and I swept the end of my quarterstaff down and deftly flicked it over onto its back where it lay, multiple legs waving weakly in the air as it lay dying.

“What the FUCK?” I asked nobody in particular, “A fucking COCKROACH?”

“Aaahh haaa! Oh my God, I’m gonna pee my pants!” Rob wheezed from where he lay at my feet laughing hysterically, as I now realized, “Oh, this is so good. SO good.”

“Get the fuck up,” I told him, punctuating it with a none-too-gentle nudge of a boot, “I’m glad somebody is enjoying themselves, but we’ve got a hotel to save.”

That set him off again, and I turned away in disgust towards where two men were helping the now sobbing woman to her feet.

“I’m sorry,” she managed through hitching breaths, I just panicked when I saw it, roaches are just so disgusting!” she spat on the roach and when it hit, it hit like electrified acid, causing a bright spark and a sizzle like holy water on a vampire.

*DING*[1]

I looked at her as she looked at me, her face mirroring the same shock as we received the death notification, then our heads swiveled back to where the roach lay dead, the acidic spittle still melting its way through the things underside.

“Acid spit?” I asked, “Electrified acid spit?”

“Aaaahhh, STOP! PLEASE GOD STOP! I CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE!” Rob screamed, still rolling on the floor.

“I umm…” I stammered, “that’s uh … different,” I finished lamely. I switched my staff to my left and stuck out my now free hand, “Tom.”

“Lynette,” she smiled weakly, but genuinely, as she did the same fumbling weapon/hand swap. “I’m the Sales Manager—was the sales manager—for the Regent.”

“Well,” I said, staring at the giant dead bug, “Now I guess you’re the roach spitter.”

“STOP! DAMN YOU!” Rob cried as he collapsed again from where he’d been trying to stand and then dissolved into weak gasping bouts of what could have been laughing, or crying, it was hard to tell.

It looked painful.

“When we were fighting those ghosts,” she said, completely ignoring the kid and taking major points from me in the process, “I tried and tried to hit them, but my club just kept passing through. I never really wanted to be a fighter, but, you know, I kind of liked it when you said we might be able to do magic.” She shot me a look out of the side of her eyes, “I always wanted to do magic,” she added, wistfully. “Anyway, about halfway through, I was starting to get really worried, some of the ghosts had just kind of passed through me and I was getting real cold, like they were freezing me each time they did it, and I kept thinking, ‘I’ve got to fight these guys before they kill me!’ and I imagined ways I could kill them and, I don’t know why, I guess I settled on frying them with electricity, or maybe dissolving them with acid, and all the sudden, I started hitting them. I got enough of them, that I managed to LEVEL up, and got a SKILL where I could imbue things with electricity and acid!

“When that disgusting thing squeezed itself out from under the closet door,” she indicated one of the storage closets that lined the hallway, “I was so freaked out, I kind of lost it,” she glared at the kid, “I didn’t even think about imbuing my club,” she gave me a guilty look, “but when I spit on it, I just wanted to put everything I had into it!”

“Well,” I said after considering that for a moment. “It worked. I guess you ought to see if there’s anything you can recover from the carcass, maybe it has some valuable parts; that shell its got looks pretty sturdy, might make for some good armor.”

“Eww! No thank you,” Lynette backed away shaking her head. “It’s all yours, I wouldn’t take anything from a cockroach if it shit diamonds!”

I heard a desperate sounding wheeze from where the kid was trying to climb up from the floor again, but I’d joined the ignore Rob club and just squatted down and tentatively put one finger on the nearest part of the bug that didn’t have a bristly leg or antenna to see if anything popped up.

I didn’t get any notifications, but my TAILORING, HUNTING and COOKING SKILLS kicked in and I knew, somehow, that the meat was a delicacy and that the shell would indeed be good to cut into plates for armor. I got the indication that there might be more that someone else with different SKILLs might find.

“Okay, we need to move this to the back of the hallway out of the way so that we can harvest it later when we see how tonight’s going to go. There may be more of these, or different things, so we need to form a squad that’s not too squeamish to collect all the … I guess parts or bodies or whatever so that everyone who kills something can collect the bits in the morning.

I’d have to have a quiet word with the chef about the cockroach meat. I’d always believed that a lot of deep-sea creatures were a little too reminiscent of insects, so I suspected that cockroach and lobster might have a lot more in common than anyone was likely to appreciate. Still, while we’d managed to save most of the perishables in individual inventories, for now, the food we had on hand wouldn’t last forever, and we’d have to figure out some way of feeding ourselves out of whatever came our way, like it or not. I think the American way of pretending meat comes shrink wrapped in the grocery store would probably cover a lot of sins if the chef and I could talk about it without anyone else overhearing.

“SCHEMA has a marketplace setup, I don’t know how exactly it’s going to work, here, but nobody’s going to be taking dollars anymore, so we really can’t ignore it when cash just drops into our laps like this.” I looked at Rob who had regained his feet, finally, “or crawls out from under the door.”

“Fuck you!” He said, but with a big smile. “I was going to get you to imbue my arrows again, but after that, I think I want She Ra here to give me some of that magic spit!”

That broke the tension in the hallway as everyone shared a laugh and a group of four teens volunteered to take over dealing with the bodies until we could sort them out for harvesting later.

The night wore on with a frustrating number of minor encounters. More Enraged Cockroaches crept out from under the closed doors of closets and the restaurants, and in one disgusting case, dropped through a dislodged ceiling tile. The only serious threat came when a group of five banded together and slipped into the room where the children were sleeping. By the time the kid and I managed to rush back there, it was all over, Grace, the bard, had put them to sleep until some of the nearest defenders were able to surround them and club them to death.

I resisted jinxing the night with the thought that we might escape unscathed, but hope is a seductive whore and as the light of moon that crept in around the plywood covering the lobby’s windows grew dim as it moved behind the western mountains, I gave in and began to think about what to do when morning came.

It was almost a relief when the other shoe dropped.

“Hey kid,” I started, turning towards where he lounged against the wall to the right of where the hallway let out into the lobby, “When the sun rises …”

WHUMP!

My head whipped around back towards the lobby as my adrenaline suddenly spiked. Something had hit one of the windows around the upper part of the lobby at the second-floor level. I couldn’t tell which one—thank God the plywood held—but it had to be something big. Either big enough to reach that high, or more likely big enough to make that much of an impact and flying.

Please God no giant flying insects, I’d had about enough bugs for one night.

WHUMP! WHUMP!

Two more somethings crashed into the barriers. The attack was coming from the right side as we looked out into the lobby. I tightened the grip on my staff with my left hand and reflexively added another coat of MANA to it with my right. I’d been doing that, off and on, all night, like a nervous tic; God only knew how many I’d already added to it or whether it did anything but drain MANA after the first layer.

Rob straightened up, pulled an arrow out of the quiver strapped over his right shoulder and nocked it. It wasn’t as smooth a move as Legolas in the movies, maybe, but it didn’t suck, either.

CRASH!

That last one caused one of the wood panels to come loose on one side; in the dark, I couldn’t tell by how much, exactly, but immediately, a dark claw or talon or something slid in the newly-created opening and began to try to pull the wood out through the broken window.

Not very bright, then, I thought, but when I heard the cracking sounds start, I reconsidered. Maybe, maybe not, but whatever it was it was godawful strong, so it probably didn’t need much in the way of brains.

THUMP! BANG! WHOMP!

Several more plywood panels around the perimeter, as well as those over the broken double doors, of the lobby began to show signs that something—or somethings—big was trying to get in. Cries of alarm came from the crowd in the hallway, and I began to worry that the group of makeshift defenders would break before the fight even started.

“Anyone who’s discovered any offensive or defensive magic come to the front NOW!” I yelled. “Everyone else ready your weapons!” I didn’t hold out much hope that many would listen, I had never really been a great leader or one to inspire random troops who didn’t know me, but I didn’t know what else to do.

Just then, I heard the soft strum of a guitar and then Grace began to sing, her voice steady and clear:

I've paid my dues

Time after time..

As the familiar lyrics washed over me, I could feel something begin to firm up, my doubts about our readiness started to fade, and hope flared up in its place.

I've done my sentence

But committed no crime…

I firmed up my hold on the quarterstaff and settled my feet in a more solid stance. I could feel others around me doing the same.

And bad mistakes

I've made a few…

All around me, heads started to raise, looks of fear replaced with, if not confidence, then at least determination.

Just then, with a screech of wood against the metal frame, the plywood from the first window—the one that the claw had been pulling on—gave up the fight. I saw the edge where the claw pulled swivel towards the outside, the other edge swung toward the middle of the lobby before gravity took hold and the whole thing came crashing down.

My heart skipped a beat and the new spirit of confidence froze in my chest, I felt everyone pull in a breath, I didn’t know whether to scream or what, but the fear came back, in spades.

But then …

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

But I've come through!

I don’t know what happened, but inside me, something clicked, some spirit of heroism that I didn’t even know was there, thought couldn’t possibly be there rose up like a giant grizzly, and with one voice, everyone in the hallway let out a mighty roar…

We are the champions, my friends

And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end

We are the champions

We are the champions

No time for losers

'Cause we are the champions of the world

*DING*[2]

All the thumps and bangs and animal screeches stopped, just stopped. Like they were shocked at our declaration. Truth is, I should have been shocked at it, but there was no room for it inside anymore. There was no room for shock, or fear, or running away, there was only a growing, swelling confidence.

We’re going to win! We’re going to send them straight to hell!

My whole body, like it was acting on its own, swiveled to face the gaping hole that had been torn in our defenses and I saw the ugliest face I’d ever seen on any creature; glowing red eyes over a flat, smashed-looking muzzle filled with yellow fangs, two giant pointed ears to each side.

A fucking giant fucking bat.

Another black claw as long as my forearm clicked into place on the other side of that massive head that now began to force its way through the opening. I could feel the rage rolling off of it in waves, like our very existence was an affront. It opened its mouth and suddenly all I could think about was pain.

I almost dropped my staff to clap my hands over my ears to shut out the horrible scream that the thing let loose, but then I heard:

*DING* [3]

And I could think again. What’s more, I was pissed. I lifted my staff and pointed it directly at the thing and let loose my strongest SPELL. With a flash that momentarily blinded me, lightning flashed from the burning end and struck the bat right on its ugly maw. Its scream of rage replaced by one of pain and it disappeared, knocked back outside.[4]

With that, it was like everyone had permission to move again. Around me, those who hadn’t made their save climbed back on shaky legs, Grace’s voice, and those closest to her, never faltered; either they’d made their saves, or were too far back for the thing’s sonic attack to reach. Whichever it was, the singing was still sending its courage BUFF over us, and we were determined to win this fight.

Unfortunately, we weren’t the only factor in the equation. The bats, and whatever else there was, had a vote too, and they were voting for our deaths.

As soon as the first Giant Bat had been knocked back, another took its place, this one, thankfully, smaller, but I revised that opinion as I realized its size meant the size of the opening was no longer an impedance as it shot through. Instantly another followed.

The sight reminded me of an old house I’d been remodeling; the soffit around the underside of the roof looked to be rotted away, but one day I realized it had been eaten away by termites as a young queen or queens began their flights to start new colonies, and flying termites spat out of the space like machine gun bullets in what seemed like a never-ending stream.

As soon as the first one cleared the opening, its momentum carried it almost halfway across the lobby before its giant wings even began to unfurl. It too let loose a screech of rage, but this one was either not as powerful as its much larger cousin, or our WILLPOWER was already tuned to resist, and other than hurting my ears a little, it had no other effect.

With the confidence and clarity that Grace’s song provided, I reacted almost instinctively as I threw up my LEVEL 1 MANA SHEILD directly in its path. The shield wasn’t strong enough to withstand its inertia and shattered almost as quickly as it appeared, but it did shut the thing up and throw it off course from where it had been headed to crash right into the front lines. Quick on its heels, one of Rob’s arrows took it through the throat and it crashed to the ground and slid to a stop, dead at our feet.

There was no time to celebrate, though, and I shot fireball after focused fireball out of the end of my staff as its kin swarmed through the opening. Screams of rage and pain echoed off the vaulted lobby ceiling and the space began to fill with smoke and flame as the creatures burned.

Two Giant Bats tried to force their way through the window at the same time and became stuck giving me the chance to stop spamming fireballs long enough to cast GRASPING MANA at it, hoping to keep them there like a living plug. Just in case they broke it, though, I added a WALL OF FLAME and their bickering screams of frustration turned into wails of pain as they disappeared behind the fire.

Just then, the plywood blocking the front doors took a mighty hit and came crashing down, causing smoke to billow in a huge cloud towards us. I bent down to one side of the barrier in front of me and tried to see under the choking mass of smoke at what was coming through.

Rats.

That’s okay, I thought, any of us can kill these!

I quickly stood and turned to look at the rest of the defenders, greatly encouraged to see that they were no longer cowering in fear, but actually pressing forward in anticipation of a fight.

“Come on! These ones can be hurt with your weapons! It’s time to take the fight to them!”

It was like I’d took my finger out of the hole in the dike as they surged forward, almost knocking me over in their eagerness to take the battle to the enemy. The kid and I held our places as the hallway behind us emptied into the lobby, and we shared a grin as he shot off arrow after imbued arrow at Giant Bats that were forcing their way in as one after another the sheets of plywood covering the windows gave way. I turned and joined him, switching to MANA BOLTs as I didn’t want to take the chance that my fireballs would cause collateral damage to my fellows or the hotel, itself.

At that point, the whole battle became a surreal nightmare of confusion interspersed with random moments of absolute clarity, like snapshots of blood and gore. Grace moved forwards with the healing crew and her song changed and rats and bats began to fall, sound asleep as the forward group of defenders hacked and bashed their way through to the door, some of them moving to take up the 4 X 8 sheets of plywood to block it again, using their own bodies to keep them upright.

The kid and I, along with a few others who had unlocked some ranged abilities worked on keeping the bats under control, but the sheer number of them made it impossible. Thankfully, Grace’s SLEEP songs seemed to affect them more than I’d imagine, but, again, there were just too many for any group our size to control, and soon there were so many of them flying through the crowded air of the lobby that defenders began to take damage.

I don’t know how long we kept it up before the battle began to turn against us, it felt like hours, but it may have been minutes. My MANA was already starting to run low, and I snatched what seconds I could to down as many of the weak, homemade MANA potions as I could.

It wasn’t enough.

Defenders began to fall; then, they began to die.

At first, groups would run out from behind the barricade and retrieve the wounded, but as more and more of the bats began to fill the space, it became too dangerous.

I knew the defenders who’d gone forward were out of time, I had to act.

“Wait for me to cast then fall back!” I shouted to the defenders at the doors. “When you see the MANA hit the floor, leave the doors and fall back behind the barricades!”

I raised my staff to cast at the doors, but the defenders panicked. They abandoned the barricades and tried to run.

It was a rout.

It became a massacre.

As soon as the ones trying to keep the plywood over the door openings started running back towards us, the wood came crashing down under the weight of hundreds, maybe thousands of rats of all sizes. They swarmed them in numbers I’d never imagined, it was like something out of the worst horror film. I ignored my own order to retreat and vaulted the barricade, the kid following right after, tossing his bow to someone else and drawing his sword.

Somehow, I still managed to cast GRASPING MANA and WALL OF FLAME at the front door before we were all overwhelmed. I waded in to the mass of rats swinging my staff like a scythe, imbuing it with SHOCKING MANA over and over again as I swept hordes of rats the size of cats to each side where they landed flopping around as the SHOCKING MANA discharged over and over, while at the same time trying to keep Giant Bats from taking advantage from above. I just had to hope that others would come behind and finish them off, there were too many to pay attention to individuals.

Rats began to run up my legs, my MANA ARMOR II flashing sparks as they hit, and quickly failing. I had to drop my staff as it was no use in such a close quarter fight. I knew then that I had made a terrible mistake by jumping into the mass, focusing through my staff was my greatest weapon, but it was too late, now. If I turned back, they’d swarm me just as they were those who’d tried to retreat from the doors.

I quickly equipped the knife I’d crafted what seemed like a lifetime ago and used it for my SHOCKING MANA SPELL I didn’t have any finesse; I just swung it wildly, trying not to stab myself in the process. It was all I could do to keep them off my face. I was mostly successful at that, but I began to take damage to my arms and legs.

I could hear Rob screaming curses nearby, but I didn’t have any attention to spare for him. We were all on our own.

Then, as if things weren’t already bad enough, I heard the rats still flowing in through the now gaping doors’ squeals rise in pitch in what sounded like fear. I shot a quick glance that way and froze in shock as the LEVEL 3 Giant Bat I’d blasted out the window shouldered its way in the door, crushing its smaller and weaker brothers under its bulk. It was the size of a small horse, covered with patchy dark brown fur, smashing those two long claws on the leading edge of its great, black leathery wings into the floor and using them to propel itself forward.

Straight at me, with bloody murder in its glowing red eyes.

[1] LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach bites Lynette for 3 (piercing)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Rob strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach for 10 (5 piercing +5)

LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach successfully resists knock back

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Lynette strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with Improvised Club for 2 (1 bludgeoning +1)

Tom strikes LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach with MANA BOLT (focused) for 14 (3 piercing +5 + 6 focused)

Lynette strikes Enraged Cockroach with Shocking Acid Spittle (imbued) for 8 (4 shocking + 4 acid)

LEVEL 2 Enraged Cockroach has died (XP = 14)

[2] WILLPOWER +2 for the next 30 minutes

[3] LEVEL 3 Giant Bat hits you with sonic blast for 4

Save vs WILLPOWER you have resisted knockback

[4] Tom strikes LEVEL 3 Giant Bat with MANA LIGHTNING (focused) for 15 (8 shocking + 7 focused)

LEVEL 3 Giant Bat fails save vs DEXTERITY and is knocked back

LEVEL 3 Giant Bat takes additional shocking damage for 5

LEVEL 3 Giant Bat takes additional shocking damage for 3