Sally shook her head. Louie slammed his tools down on the bench. "What? He comes into my house and demand that I spend my time and the time and lives of my people to serve his whims. I have no tolerance for layabouts. The soustrain (Gravy train) has been derailed. There is no place for people that want to sit back and give orders, not in any place that I'm in. If he wants to lead, then lead by example." He could see the survivors giving him fearful glances where they were talking to one of the LC. He sighed. "Go to sleep, Sally. It's going to be a long day tomorrow." She shook her head as she turned around and left for the barracks. Louie shook his head. Can't people see that we will only survive if we all work together? He picked up the spear and stared at it before he sighed and place the tools and workbench back in his inventory. I am too soft-hearted. He started for the stairs that lead up to the top of the wall above the gate. Looking down, he saw the man wedged into a corner against the gate. "Oi, you! Mr Deputy Councilman!" When he stirred and looked up at the Louie leaning out over the wall, he started demanding to be let in again. "Shut the fuck up! Keep your trap shut, or I come down there and shut it for you." Louie sighed. "If you can survive till tomorrow, then I will let you in. I would suggest that you try to keep quiet since sound might attract the monsters." He took one of his crappiest shields and a bulwark spear and dropped it to the councillor. The counsellor picked the weapons up, and after fumbling with it for a while, he fearfully wedged himself back into the corner of the gate. Louie shook his head but looked at the guard standing watch over the gate and whispered. "Keep an eye on him. Don't interfere except if it's something that you guys won't be able to face alone or if there are more than one monster at a time." Louie went back and removing the workbench and spears he finished shortening and modifying the last couple of spears. He decided to sleep in one of the barracks since he would not hear any trouble if he stayed in his tent. He retired to the barracks and sent a message to Joe, telling him about the fort and the loss of one of their recruits. He also told him about the dangers they faced on the way to the fort and suggested that they send a patrol of at least 30 soldiers every morning to the fort to return the next day. He also told him to beware of the bridge over the Breede River. There was something hidden above or below the bridge, and to watch out for the Otters there. Louie opened his inventory and started to organise the content. It would have been nice if there were an auto sorting function in the inventory. I got to get rid of some stuff. My inventory is huge, but it's nearly full with dungeon loot. It's the odds and ends that take up one sq each that take up all the space. He dropped BOB's poof next to his bed so he can scratch his neck while he lay in bed. Huh, when did he get the fur to scratch? He rolled over and took a closer look at BOB, and saw what looked like fine hair all over his back. It looks like he is growing hair, but it's more like small thin, flexible spines. Louie kept on stroking BOB till he fell asleep. 'Danger' Louie woke up with a feeling of danger and saw BOB standing nearly over him, watching the recruit at the door. "Sir!.. Sir, the Lance Corporal needs you at the gate!" "I'm coming!" He struggled up out of bed, trying to push BOB out of the way. "Move, boy!" He got up and inventoried the bedding and equipped his armour. He rubbed BOB between the shoulders. " "Thanks for the protection, buddy." He walked towards the gate and saw another two squads awake and stood ready and armed facing the gate. He hurried up the stairs and saw the same LC who showed them the spider in the vines and was training the shield wall. He tried to see why they woke him, but it seemed his mind was still asleep. "What's up, Corporal . . . ?" "Koen, Sir, Leon Koen." "Lance Corporal Koen. Ok, what's up? You raised the alarm?" "Yes, Sir." Louie had told them not to call him Sir, but they persisted. "There are people out there. They are coming here. It looks like they are trying to fight through monsters to get here. One of the recruits spotted a scout, they talked. The scout said they got a lot of people coming down the road, they saw the light on the spire, they couldn't wait any longer, so they packed up and are coming here." Louie shook his head. "Idiots, they should have waited till morning. Where is the scout, and where are they coming from?" "They are coming from the east, Sir, down the N1. The scout left to tell them that we know they are coming." "Shit. Go wake up Sally, Tell -" "I'm awake. I'm here." He saw Sally struggling up the stairs. "Good, Corporal Koen can fill you in." He handed her four of the health potions he had left, keeping the rest for himself. "What's happening?" She asked. Louie started down the stairs. "Ask the Lance Corporal. I'm going out to help them." Louie saw BOB waiting at the bottom of the stairs and stroked his head in passing. "Good boy, BOB, come on, we are going out." They walked to the gate, and without bothering to roll the big disk away, he just opened a hole, and he and BOB walked through. There was a squeal from the counsellor as they suddenly appeared next to him. Louie saw four giant rat bodies laying on the bridge and the deputy clutching his bloodstained spear and hunkering behind his shield. Looking at his system clock, he noticed it was just after 12, so he still had a couple of hours to go. He also noticed that he didn't open his mouth to demand anything. He lightly kicked the one body. African Giant Rattus LVL 1 (deceased) The African Giant Rat is an omnivorous rodent that feeds on a wide range of food items. Its diet includes meat, insects, termites, fruit and vegetable matter. Rats were not a threat to humans normally, as they were not brave enough to attack one, That changed with the system. "It's a good start councillor, maybe there is more to you than just demanding that other people do your work for you. 6 more hours to go. Good luck." Louie left the sullen councilman. Together with BOB, he started jogging down the road in the direction of which he had to see the flickering light that must be the torches of the approaching survivors. There were quite a lot of cars on the road, but it was easily avoided. It was only as they neared the R43 overpass that the road was blocked from a huge pileup. Louie took his WTF chest out of his inventory and just willed each vehicle into the storage as he touched it. He noticed a cash transit armoured truck and a lux liner tour bus with a trailer among the crashed vehicles. Everything went into the chest. Pretty soon, the road was cleared, and he stored the chest and start jogging again. He wondered about the lack of any monsters trying to attack him. Till it became clear where they all were as he neared the site where the survivors were battling what appeared to be a whole shitload of giant rats. The air started to vibrate as BOB growled as he ran. Louie was afraid to use earth manipulation because he saw people mixed in between the rats fighting each other. "Go, boy." He visualised BOB ripping a rat apart. And BOB sped up, storming into the dark, twisting mass of rats. Louie drew his ninjato and channelled his mana into the blade as he rushed the swarm. He started cutting through the rats to get to the encircled crowd. BOB was a literal monster. The low-level rats could not damage him, while he was like a meatgrinder with his metal body. Louie lay into the rats. The fire ninjato cut through the creatures like a hot knife through butter. The refugees regrouped and slowly started to condense the circle, unsure about what new threat they were about to face. Their flickering torches didn't cast much light, and the swarming mass of rats made it nearly impossible to distinguish between rats and the people fighting them. The leader grabbed a rat by the neck, smashed it into the ground and stomped on its head. "Damn, woman, you got us all killed with your crazy demand to move during the night. We are all going to die here." He swung his bush axe at another rat smashing it back into the mass of creatures. Next to him was an older woman swinging what looked like glowing oversized meat tenderising hammer like it weighed nothing. "Shut up Johan, and keep killing this vermin." "It's not the vermin that worries me, Bi. Something is attacking them, and it's big. I can feel my bones vibrate. My skill is telling me it's big and dangerous." She cackled as she swung her weapon, bashing in brains. "You can tell me all about how it vibrated you later when we are at the lights." "Damn woman, not now." He laughed as he put more effort into killing the rats. The rat swarm's pressure seems to lessen for a moment as the focus shifted to wherever was ripping them apart on the other side. "Regroup!" He roared as the fighters fell back to surround the old, the injured and the children. "We are nearly past the Mall. Keep pushing." Suddenly a huge rat, nearly twice the size of the other, leapt out of the darkness at him. He thrust his bush axe into its stomach, just below the sternum. The weapon wasn't made for stabbing, but luckily his strength filled the gap as the bush axe pierce its skin. The rat shrieked as it tried to claw its way up the shaft to reach its tormentor. He struggled to lift the creature off the ground with the polearm to deny it the leverage it needed. The rat snapped and slashed at him as he fought to stay out of its reach. He grabbed one of its paws and shouted, The rat gave an ungodly shriek as it burst into flames and was hurled into the swarm, followed by a couple of litre bottles of homemade napalm that their brewers concocted. The darkness was pushed back as the fire blossomed, spreading as the burning rat rolled around in the swarm. His arms were getting tired. But he could only imagine how some of the younger fighters must feel. He thought that he imagined things since he kept on seeing streaks of fire deeper into the swarm dancing through the air. He dodged an extremely vicious slash from another abnormally large rat that was too close for his bush axe to reach. He grabbed it by its neck to throw it back away from him when a sudden flare of light and a stream of fire cut right through the rat and carried on into the swarm. Johan dropped the bloody half of the rat and stood frozen in shock as a figure appeared in front of him. In one hand, it had a sword wreathed in fire and in the other some kind of spear. It lifted the weapons into the air and brought them down in the direction of the swarm. There was a mighty ROAR as a wave of fire ripped out from the weapons and swept through the rat swarm like fire in dry grass. The blaze lit up the sky for what seemed like kilometres, and they could clearly see the individual that stood between them and the squeals of the burning rats. Most of the surviving rats started fleeing back towards the safety of the nest inside the Mall. When it turned to them, they saw what appeared to be a skull peeking out from under a black hoodie. From the gasps behind him, Johan knew that he was not the only one that had seen the skull. Over its shoulder, he saw something big moving around in the fire. The beast suddenly dashed into the dark, and there was a loud screech that cut off as something died. When the first figure lifted its hands to the hoodie, Johan started praying. Let it not be its skull. Please let it be a mask. It pushed the hoodie back from its face and exposed a helm with an apelike skull mask. Thank Goddess, it's not a skull. Suddenly the helm and mask vanished, leaving a young man wearing a fancy set of armour with a slight gothic theme. "Damn, Lola will like him." Johan gave his wife an angry look. "He is much too old for Lola." "She is twenty-two, and she isn't your baby anymore." Louie stood and looked at the bickering, obviously married couple that seemed to be the party's leaders. He noticed the wife had a glowing rolling pin clutched in her right fist as she glared at her partner. He shook his head as he smiled, then he noticed what they were bickering about, and his smile dropped from his face. "Excuse me. . . . Hello." They kept on bickering, so Louie turned around and started walking back to the fort. He was a couple of meters away when it got silent behind him, but he ignored it and kept on walking. "Hey, wait up." Behind him, he could hear the woman scrambling to catch up and follow. "Where are you going? Who are you?" The big guy talked to somebody else before hurrying to catch up. "Sorry, I thought you guys needed help. But the way you are going on; tell me that I was mistaken. You are obviously married, and this is a family outing. I try to never get mixed up in family arguments. So we are out of here. Enjoy your outing." Louie kept on walking. Suddenly Louie staggered under the flood of notifications and loot as he left the combat zone. Louie saw something about a title before he swiped all the BB's away. The big guy ran around, stopped in front of Louie, and held out his hand like a cop. "Wait." He took a deep breath and lowered his hand. "Wait, thank you for your help. We would have all died here tonight." He gave his partner an angry scowl. "I'm Johan Els, that's my wife, Bianca. My kids are somewhere around here." He held out his hand. "Thanks again for the help." Louie shook his hand. "Hi, I'm Lewis. Call me Louie. It's a pleasure. Why the hell have you guys decided to come out here during the night?" Johan shook his head as they kept walking and Bianca said that she would go see if the rest of the people are ok. The glowing butcher's knife disappeared. Huh? Didn't she just have a rolling pin? A glowing rolling pin? "Foolish wife's idea," he sighed, "but she wasn't wrong. We wouldn't have survived another night at the hospital. There were just too many windows and doors to watch." Johan's gaze snapped to the side as there was another squeal that abruptly got silenced. He nervously clutched his weapon as he saw a big shape moving into the darkness. Suddenly there was a flare of light, and he snapped his head back to Loo and the glowing light he held in his hand. He quickly averted his eyes to preserve his night vision. "Sorry, I forget that not everybody can see in the dark. Here take these." Loo handed the last five lightstones to the young man behind Johan. "Spread it around. It's the last few I have." Johan was back to nervously scanning the dark forest next to the road. "Don't worry, nothing will easily get past BOB." Johan gave him a confused look. "BOB? Who is BOB?" As if its name called it. Johan saw the biggest meanest looking monster, which looked like a pitbull from hell, step out of the forest and practically floated up to them. It moved soundlessly, like a ghost for all its size. Johan nearly fell over his feet, trying to back away as shouts of surprise and screams of terror could be heard behind them. Fighters rushed to put themselves between this new monster and their loved ones. "STOP! It's ok. He is with me." Loo stepped between the slightly confused BOB and the armed but nervous survivors. It's the first time he really noticed the size of the group. There must easily be around five hundred people that he could see, if not more. The strangest thing was that most of them were dressed in medieval-style clothing. They were all dirty, and their clothes were torn and bloody, but they were definitely dressed in medieval clothing. The fighters all had on some kind of plate armour pieces or chain-mail with swords and shields. One guy even had on a full set of plate-mail. There were also a couple of guys dressed as friars. "What the hell? Where are you people from, Camelot?" Johan gave a nervous laugh while keeping an eye on BOB. "You are looking at the first Worcester renaissance fair, or what is left of it. I guess we were luckily doing a dress rehearsal when this happened." Louie saw the way he was watching BOB. "Don't worry, he is my bonded pet. Here boy!." He slapped his thigh, and BOB came bounding over happily wagging his tail, putting a couple of dents and destroying the door of the car he passed. They all relaxed as they saw Loo rubbing behind BOB ear but still stayed as far as possible away from him. "Bonded pet? Like a ranger?" Loo was surprised that Johan knew about rangers and their pets. It must have shown on his face. "Don't look so shocked. Most of us are into anything fantasy. The kids are big into RPG and LARPing." "Good to hear. I'm tired of trying to explain everything to everybody that I meet." There was a noise to the right in the darkness, and BOB rushed off to investigate. They were getting near enough to the fort allowing the fairgoers to start seeing the outline, and whispers started to spread. Here and there were still rats attacking the group, but they were quickly dispatched. There was a loud growl from the darkness, and suddenly BOB barked, and a fight could be heard. Loo indicated that they should hurry. "Better hurry. That's a leopard or some big cat. They are a bastard to kill. BOB will handle it." The people hurried the last couple hundred meters to the gate. Louie walked up to the gate and saw the tired councilman leaning on his shield amidst more dead rats. He ignored the curious look Johan, and his people send at the tired man. "Counsellor, looking good." Louie reached into his inventory and removed a stamina potion, and handed it to the man. "You are doing good counsellor, have a potion. It will give you the energy to push through your shift. When you are done, go see LC Koen." The man stood up straighter as he took the potion and downed it in one go. Johan stood next to Loo while his people started to stream through the gate. The last group through the gate where the group of friars. "How did you do all this? I assume you made all this?" He waved his hand around. Louie thought for a moment and decided that he liked Johan, especially how he saw him interacting with the people around him. He looked like a natural leader. "It's a spell I have. It's easier to show you." Louie looked up at the battlement. "Corporal Koen, you up there?" " Yes, Sir." "I'm going to do a patrol around the moat." "Understood, Sir." "Army?" Johan asked, and Louie nodded. "Long story, I will tell it as we walk." BOB came bounding out of the darkness, and Louie gave him a rub as they walked. He told Johan about the Dungeon and the last couple of days and his intention of starting a trading caravan. All the while he was gathering stone from the moat, making it deeper and wider, he piled the excess stone against the wall where he would easily get it from inside the walls. "So that's how we came here. What's your story?" Johan gave BOB a look as he was sniffing around at the edge of the cleared area. "Nothing as drastic as yours. Most of us are from Panorama and Van Riebeeck park at the other end of Worcester. Our story started a couple of years ago when my brother came up with the idea of a Renaissance fair after he was at one in America." "It took a couple of years to organise, the mist nearly put an end to the fair, and we wanted to postpone. Still, we all put a lot of money into the planning, so we decided to go ahead. The first evening we were all going through a rehearsal, and bam, Gaea surprised us all." They came up to the gate and nodded at the counsellor as they crossed through. Louie saw that Bianca had taken command and everybody was busy erecting a camp inside the fort. "Luckily, all of us are into fantasy, LARPing and outdoor living, and that saved us. The young ones figured things out pretty quick. The big tent wasn't going to hold up much, so we all gathered everything we were going to need and went to the nearest big building that turned out to be the Brewelskloof hospital." "We moved through and saved as many people as we could. We barricaded the cafeteria and surrounding corridors off. We started fighting the rats that seemed to have a nest in the basement and started making plans and trying to work out what to do. Bianca and I unlocked cooking classes, probably because we were making dinner for everybody gathered." "My daughter, Lola, who likes to be called Amelia, got some strange healer class. Hannie, my eldest son, unlocked a ranger class. Well nearly everybody got some class or other due to our occupation. Ha. You should talk to Brandon. He is a blacksmith. He is probably the most affected by the system." They walked around the inside of the wall, and Louie brought the stone across the wall and started erecting 20 person stone barracks with the back against the wall. Then, he went around again and made smaller rooms for a second story. He had enough stone left over to make it flow up the spire and create a single bedroom with a kitchen, basically a Bachelor flat with stone lattice windows. John just shook his head where he and a bunch of people were watching Loo manipulating the stone. "That is impressive. I can't believe that you can do that all with an earth spell." Louie shrugged and looked at them all. "I have some advice for all of you mana users, think outside the box, and you might just surprise everybody. You all saw the firestorm that destroyed the two rat swarms. That is a combination of two spells, fire and wind. Put them together, and then you get a firestorm. Think outside the box, people. Johan, your people can use the rooms." The people started to disperse, breaking down the tents and moving into the rooms as Louie, Johan and Bianca moved to the barbeque area. Louie heard a horse walking on stone and turned around. He saw somebody build like Hercules over two meters tall, but the strangest thing was his lower body. Wtf? is that a centaur? Louie stood and stared at the half man half horse in shock. "How the hell did that happen?"