Cain had barely made it outside the base when the first wave of the expedition team had reached him. From what he managed to gather as he turned around to follow them, Alice had started sending back people while slowly retreating from the woodland.

This meant, to Cain anyways, that they were now in a losing battle and further withdrawal orders would be given at an appropriate time; most likely in the morning when everyone had managed to recover some form of stamina.

Finding the closest scout, as they would have had a better measure of distance than the others, Cain pulled him aside for a second, which seemingly shocked them out of a daze.

"How far away was Alice when you guys left?" Cain asked, trying to formulate a rough map in his head of the terrain.

"Half a mile. Probably more by now. You aren't going back are you? It isn't safe at all," the scout replied, fear staining his face.

"I have to report to Alive for instructions," Cain grimaced, hating the chain of military commands. "I was directly under the previous commander, so…." He trailed off as the scouts eyes widened in realization.

"You poor sap. Good luck, and watch your sides. We caught a couple monsters lurking, and there was no way to tell if they were controlled or not."

Cain nodded and walked away, dodging the errant returner while sinking into his thoughts. There had to be some sort of a way to turn this around, but from what Bronn had mentioned at the start, the group's combat power was immensely too low to deal with this sort of gate, let alone the amount of new people that had been a part of the initial expedition.

'So, the Gate is closed, and the only way out is through that. So to get out of here we need to kill that… thing. Or…'

"Show skill Creator."

System Alert:

Showing Skill Description

Creator:

Creates a Gate equal in rating to the current skill level. Requires 75% of the users maximum energy.

Cain sighed to himself as he climbed another hill. Nothing new showed up in the window, and he had absolutely no idea how the skill actually worked.

"Can I place it where ever I want? It would be pretty useful to just drop people through it," he muttered, turning his head as he scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

System Alert: Affirmative. Skill can be placed according to the users wishes. Would you like to activate Creator? Y/N

The window popped up just outside of Cain' s peripheral vision, causing him to take a moment to realize what it said.

"No, do not activate skill!" He sighed in relief as the window closed itself before processing the rest of the statement.

"So I can place it… so technically I could jibget us out of here. But what if there isn't another exit inside?"

As he began to ponder what was actually a better option, the earth began to shake under him, cause him to stumble for a second before recollecting his balance.

System Alert: Skill Balance created.

'Right now? That couldn't have popped up when Ariana was torturing me?' He thought, looking around for what caused the mini earthquake. A second shake shortly after jarred his memory.

"Fuck, it's moving," he said, heading in the direction the combat team should be in with an increased sense of urgency. If he remembered correctly, whatever that giant creature was could only move so far every twenty four hours, which meant that the group still had some leeway to possibly escape or kill it.

As he moved down the slope, a faint sound of howling could be heard from in front of him. More and more noise could be heard the further he moved, and shortly after he could see plumes of dust and smoke rising behind yet another small hill.

'Finally found them,' Cain thought, activating his sprint skill and rushing to the top immediately and took stock of the sight below.

Small skirmishes were breaking out across the entire field in front of him, and while it looked like his allies were winning, that was actually a lie. Every time an enemy died, more erupted from the ground, causing a constant wave of attacks that was sure to be taking its toll on the group's mentality.

Pulling up his web of links, Cain sent a message out to Alice, having her specific signature memorized from earlier.

'Alice, this is Cain reporting. What's the situation?'

'Cain?? Why did you come back?' Alice's mental voice sounded incredulous. Cain suppressed a small sigh before responding.

'Because you're my commanding officer now. I was under Bronn's direct command remember? Anyways, I might have a way to get us out of here, but I need everyone to group up and get up the hill.'

Silence greeted his statement for such a length that Cain was beginning to worry that he might be looking for a new chain of command, before Alice's voice came through. Even though this was a mental voice, it sounded extremely exhausted.

'Affirmative. Coordinates?'

'I'm on the hill behind you. If you funnel them behind you, that would be even better, but I would prefer you just get out.'

'Copy that. Alice out.'

Sighing in relief, Cain opened his status window.

Name: Cain Darkgleam

Rating: 4-Stars

Title: None

Stats:

HP: 125/125

Energy: 125/250

Strength: 25

Vitality: 17

Charisma: 13

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 44

Passives: Danger Sense, Heat Resistance, Axe Mastery, Apathy

Sighing in relief, Cain closed the window and turned his attention towards the bottom of the hill. He had just enough energy to utilize Earthquake without actually killing himself or needing to use the skill he just got. He still wasn’t sure on the range of the skill, but he assumed that he would need to be in very close proximity to the epicenter. Sprint would take up most of his energy after the fact trying to get out before the damage kicked in, so he only had one shot. And from the looks of things, that one shot was coming up very quickly.

‘Wow, I didn’t think they would have managed a funnel given that they are going up a hill, but i guess these monsters are a tad more stupid than I gave them credit for,’ Cain thought, moving down the hill past the first wave of fighters. He ignored the calls and looks of confusion as he went, heading straight for where he figured Alice would be: right at the back of the group making sure no one else died.

Luckily his intuition was correct, and Alice was indeed there when he arrived, slicing open what looked like a very angry rabbit before dodging the spray of blood. Cain could hear a fizzle as the droplets landed on the grass, corroding it until all that was left was a barren patch of dirt where it landed.

‘Guess that’s something else I need to watch out for.’

"Cain, what are you doing? Your plan better not involve you dying otherwise I'm going to haul you away right now," Alice said, confusion and anger filling her voice as she stared him down.

"I'm not suiciding, don't worry, " Cain said, looking at the horde of creatures charging at him. Gulping down some air and sterling himself for what was about to come, he looked over at Alice.

"So, I get there's a lot of them, but uh… any chance you can just make a giant trap hole?" Cain asked nervously. Maybe this wasn't such a grand idea now that he was staring them down.

"Are you kidding me? I'm an assassin, not a god damned mage, what are you…" Cain held his hand up and cut her off mid rant.

"Bad idea, got it. Might wanna move away because they're here."

'Oh boy, here we go.'

"Earthquake!" Cain shouted, placing his hand on the ground in front of him as the beginning of the horde reached him. Feeling his energy drain, he jumped backwards towards Alice and stumbled slightly as the fatigue hit before turning around and running.

System Alert: Sprint activated.

"Let's go Alice, preferably as fast as we can!" He shouted, already feeling the ground shake below him. While the mob behind him was definitely being controlled, the sudden change in their footing allowed the natural instincts to take over, which in turn caused the faster creatures to skitter and slow down immensely, blocking the slower creatures. It was like watching a deadly and terrifying traffic pile up take place.

"Why are you so heavy?" Alice asked, speeding past Cain in an instant and throwing him over her shoulder as he let loose a gasp of air from having his diaphragm squashed.

"I'm a growing boy," he managed to wheeze out, keeping an eye behind them. Slowly the mob began to scatter, but not nearly fast enough as the ground below fractured and began heaving. A multitude of cries from different creatures filled the air as they were thrown around and crushed.

'That is definitely larger than a two meter diameter… I'll have to check my energy levels when we get back.' Cain thought. A ping in his ear alerted him to a new status window.

System Alert: You have leveled up.

System Alert: You have leveled up.

System Alert: You have leveled up.

System Alert: You have leveled up.

'Oh no… how many times is this going to go off….'