The two guards looked at each other in terrified silence as they watched the monster charge toward them.

It was their turn after all.

They'd been told by the other guards, the ones that had already taken their turn, of the wingless, beauty's strength. Able to stop monsters in their tracks, with only the smallest effort needed and after watching the world's palest angel bisect the charging monster she had dubbed the mini-Rex, did they believe the words spoken by the colleagues.

With a wave of her arm the monster's legs are no longer connected to its body, resulting in the small, but bulky creature, landing face first. Small arms not strong enough to stop or prevent the monster's ungracious fall.

The guards stand motionless after witnessing the woman's single-handed bout of strength. Until her less-than angelic voice compels them to move that is.

"Well!? What are you waiting for? An invitation? Fucking kill it!"

Bathilda watches as the guards exchange a quick look with one another, something on the lines of "Really?" before charging the now-incapacitated monster and attacking its flank.

Each pair of guards have used the same method of attack so far. Striking in vulnerable locations away from the monster's most dangerous areas. Without legs and the ability to right itself, however, the mini-Rex is more along the lines of a sharp-toothed worm. As long as the guards don't attack the beast head on and stay far away from its mouth, they're fine.

With that thought in mind, the agonizing cries of a predator-turned-prey cease and the two guards high five in celebration over the levels they've earned from the monster. Even with Bathilda claiming a significant portion of the XP for herself, chopping off a third of the beast and causing major blood loss at the same time can do that, the guards still come away with over 30+ levels each though from a single encounter.

Not bad at all for the low-leveled guards of Home.

Happy that she's finally making a difference, Bathilda stretches as the guards bid farewell. Jogging back to the gate to let the next pair take their turn.

After walling off the chasm-enclosed livestock and farmland, east and west of Home, Bathilda then created two more symmetrical walls in front of the city to make a tunnel of sorts. Leading away from the south gate, the kill zone is wide enough to support an extremely-large monster or two regular monsters side-by-side.

Not that she let's two monsters in at once yet. A single pair of guards aren't able to handle a fully capable and mobile mini-Rex alone yet, nevermind two. Instead of risking it she has Hiro divert one monster toward the gate every few minutes and he's free to avoid, evade or murder the rest.

'Once the guards have evolved we can see how they handle a mini-re which still has its legs. Wait a minute... Shit. Do humans evolve? Or upgrade?'

'I don't know? I hadn't thought about it. On my world we would rank up through our skills. The level of our skills determined what tier we were and who would be more likely to win during combat.' Answering her panic, Hiro's unable to shed light on Bathilda's problem. It does offer insight into what his life was like before however.

Then again, how long had he spent in the so-called Paradise of God?

'So not like here then? Where it's all about the person' s level.' Bathilda sighs as she watches guards M and N reach the gate. They trade off with guards O and P who set off jogging towards her direction, ready for their turn.

It's hard to remember everyone's names whilst trying to power level an entire city guard. Maybe I should have started by power-leveling two guards. Then they could have helped me with the others, as well as having a more solid defense.'

'Unfortunately not. Next mini-Rex will be there in sixty seconds.' Breaking her train of though, Hiro announces the monster is on its way.

Using the same tactic, Bathilda bisects another monster with a reality slash and watches it slides across the floor eating dirt. Blood gushes out from where its appendages used to be, making the area look like the scene out of a well-budgeted horror film.

She looks at Guards O and P in hope that they might take the iniative, but both seem to be trying to break their spears by clutching them as hard as they possibly can.

Letting out another sigh, Bathilda creates an ice tea. Three icicles Bob around the top of the glass and a long red straw hangs out the top. She takes a sip and after enjoying the cold drink shouts at the would-be guards.

"Well? What are you waiting for? An invitation? Fucking kill it!"

'These guards are shocking. How have they even managed to keep everyone alive out here for so long? It would probably take tlat least ten of them to take down a mini-Rex without my help and even then I could still forsee casualties. It's easy to see why they'd prefer to stay in their city than be out here leveling up.'

She watches O and P slash, stab and hack away at the mini-Rex's flank, all-while thinkin how long it will take to get them to a level that's sufficient enough to defend the gate without worry, or her presence being needed.

'As it was up until now, if a monster turned up at Home they would have hidden away inside the safety of their walls until it finally left. Unless it was a relatively small monster, or a small-to-medium sized one depending on when the last time they had eaten was.

After gathering everyone inside the gate, they would attack in force as a full-sized guard unit. Although it seems a bit overkill for a mini-Rex. If there are 100 guards in Home, then they wouldn't have all been able to attack at the same time and would have probably ended up in each others way, potentially doing more harm than good.

The xp gain must also have been shocking. Sharing a single enemy's worth of xp between that many people, pitted against the cost of the endeavor due to how many guards get injured in each meat run, it definitely wasn't worth it and I can almost understand why they want to hide away. If anything, they're lucky I turned up when I did. They were literally down the last sack of dried meat.'

Waving to O and P as they head back toward the city, Bathilda wonders what she did so wrong to have been placed in charge of the defence levels of Home before remembering that it was her idea in the first place.

Sipping on her iced tea, she let's put a little chuckle.

"Who's a silly Vampire?"