The return to Reed City started as I expected. Now that I was “On Call,” it was Ryker’s turn to nap, and Ethan and I spent our time putting out fires in the Region and killing the District Lords.

Once again, I found myself jumping from town to town in the Region, slaying the District Lords and sometimes thinning out the crowds of monsters, before continuing to the next town. I gained a level in the process, reaching level 31 and putting the point towards Mana Regeneration.

It was a strange feeling. I never felt like I was personally threatened or in danger, but I still felt like I was losing. I wasn’t fast enough. Around 11 a.m., whether by coincidence or some planned coordination, dozens of towns were attacked by District Lords simultaneously.

Even when we woke up Ryker, we couldn’t fight in all the towns at once.

It was infuriating, never being able to move fast enough.

The Reed City Militia sent some support to the various towns, but Reed City itself was also being attacked by numerous District Lords at the same time.

I was tempted to reach out to Dawnbreaker, or the Crucible, but Uman was sending me updates on the Crucible’s end, and they didn’t look good.

The Crucible as an organization had dropped its original name and was now rebranded as Daybreak.

Daybreak was now responsible for six Regions in North America. While most of the former Crucible members decided to join Daybreak, six Regions being attacked simultaneously meant that they were struggling to defend the Cities, let alone the towns.

Hearing what Dawnbreaker was up to made me wonder if I should be doing more.

Personally, I could only fight in one place at a time. But having only two people mining Mana Beads at a time was incredibly inefficient. Most towns were falling because they didn’t have enough Mana Shards to power their walls—in theory, with enough Mana Shards, towns could last indefinitely against District Lords.

Was it worth it to take guards away from Reed City, in order to mine?

By 11:30, the first town’s shield fell.

It all happened so fast—three hidden District Lords had attacked the shield simultaneously, draining all of the remaining mana in the Mana Shield, and nobody in the town had any warning.

The moment the shield fell, I rushed over to the town, along with all the militia any town could spare, to help with the evacuation.

When I appeared in the Teleportation Circle, I immediately knew this would be a nightmare.

Hundreds of people were packed in the building, with no room for anyone to move, and one or two guards were yelling at everyone, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, because I could hear pained cries and yells outside.

I immediately got off the Teleportation Circle, and I had to shove my way against a frantic flow of traffic in order to leave the building.

As I pushed my way passed people, I noticed dozens of people with bite marks on their arms, missing fingers or hands. Blood was everywhere.

I finally made it out of the teleportation building, and I saw that there were hundreds more people pressing to enter the building.

The hundreds of people were pressing in against each other frantically, everybody shoving their way forward, trying to escape the thousands of monsters swarming the streets— mutated wolves and bears, as well as rocs.

The rocs were the worst. They would fly directly towards the rushing masses of people, in the opposite direction that people were running, forcing the evacuating residents back, away from the Teleportation Circle, against the frantic press of people.

As I watched, I saw several people get pressed to the ground and stepped on by the people rushing away from the rocs.

I was itching to fight, but there were no easy battle lines. It was a frantic free for all, and it was pure chaos.

I pushed my way to the outskirts of the crowd, I could see on one side of the crowd a few brave men and women were actually facing the wolves with weapons drawn, so I headed the opposite direction, where the wolves and bears were unhindered as they preyed on people who were trying futilely to run away.

My stomach churned at the sight of dismembered bodies—some were children—bleeding out in the streets, or being eaten alive by carnivorous wolves and rocs, or stepped on by the crowds.

Once I was at the edge of the crowds, I finally let loose.

I had fought monsters hundreds of times before, but I had never felt this sickened feeling of powerlessness and anger in my stomach.

To my surprise, Samantha had me focus on Dexterity. I threw my two blades with deadly accuracy, every toss a deadly blow, and the moment the blade sunk through a creature’s neck, head, or heart, I willed it back into my sheath, and I threw it again. I received another level-up notice—reaching level 32, now, and I put the extra point towards Mana Regeneration, without thinking too much about it.

The pattern continued, and once I had cleared this part of the street, I jumped up to a rooftop, and started throwing my knives from a better vantage point.

Unfortunately, my better vantage point also gave me a full view of the death below me, of the dozens of broken bodies trampled by people, and the people who were still alive, but bleeding out on the street, with nobody to help them.

Just focusing on monsters that were about to kill humans, I had my hands full, and for every ten monsters I killed, I saw the eleventh wolf bite the neck of a refugee.

Just a few days ago, I had been considering laying down my weapons. I had been resentful of Samantha turning me into a killing machine, and I felt sick every time I saw blood. Blood had reminded me of all the people and monsters I had killed.

I had been playing with the idea of just being a Rune Master. I could equip people to defend themselves.

Watching the trauma unfold before me, I started to recognize the truth that I’d been hiding from, for so long. The truth Samantha had tried to drill in my head, time and time again. This was a new world, a world where strength was a necessary condition for whatever you wanted to achieve.

This was what monsters were capable of. In just a few more days, when the other sentient species invaded our world and waged war on us, how much more horrible would our world become then?

Samantha’s words rung through my head. You need to give me long term goals to work with.

I never want this to happen again, I thought, staring down from my rooftop at the blood and gore below me, trying to ignore the frantic cries for help, even as I continued throwing my knives, deciding with each toss who would I would continue to protect, and who I would let die.

It was a visceral part of me that had the thought. Of course, I knew this would happen again. It was probably happening right now, in hundreds of towns around the world.

For once, at least, I felt like I had a clear moral stance. I want to save people.

If that meant following Samantha’s combat shadow, spending hours and hours hunting monsters or tracking down valuable equipment, sucking up to Samantha’s elitism, then so be it. I would do what I needed to do to grow stronger, and to fight for humanity.

Samantha said, sounding particularly sympathetic.

I hated turning my back on the crowds of fleeing, frantic residents. But I did, charging towards the Town Hall with a fury.

There was a giant worm at the doorstep to Town Hall, with a torso as tall as I was. Flying above the giant worm was a Roc Queen, and a Direwolf was currently snarling at the two brave guards that stood in front of the Town Hall.

I killed the giant worm first, because I felt like it could deal the most damage to the Town Hall’s Mana Shield and locked door. It never saw me coming, and my blade slid in and out with ease.

Once the Roc Queen and Direwolf turned to face me, the battle was already over. I was a little surprised that the Direwolf still dared to directly charge me, but it just made things easier—I sidestepped the charge, and stabbed my sword deeply into its throat.

The Roc queen tried to capitalize on the fact that my sword was otherwise engaged. It flew towards me with a shriek, but I threw two well-aimed knives, and the queen had no chance to dodge.

It was a pyrrhic victory, though. Just by distracting me for a few seconds, the three District Lords had probably cost the town dozens of lives.

I rushed back towards the Teleportation building, only to receive a new message on my Communication Amulet.

A second town’s shield had collapsed.