“Hurry up! We can’t take care of them much longer!” Cried one of the warriors. Derb was wading through fist-sized beetles, fighting his gag reflex as the musky smell of bugs permeated the air. He once again cursed not having a smaller weapon. He couldn’t take care of the bugs correctly, so the group forced him to take care of the matriarch. He tried arguing but one of the peacekeepers forced his hand when they said he was the only one in a full suit of armor. He felt the sickening crunch of a bug every time he took a step, making him green in the face. The fact that he was always off balance because of it didn’t help either.

The only thing keeping him from vomiting was the fact that he couldn’t remove the helmet or else he’d be treated like a pincushion. He didn’t care how poison resistant he was, the idea of getting ripped open by disgusting bugs made him think death was a better alternative. He finally saw the stupid queen, or matriarch, whatever. The thing was only a bit bigger, if all the other ones were the size of fists this one was about the size of a basketball. The thing was about 15 feet away, and he wasn’t going to tread through bugs to get to it.

He put away his sword, channeling the mana he stored into his fist and forming it into a familiar dark orb. He channeled it until he was sure it was seconds before collapsing, tossing it at the matriarch as fast as he could chuck it. This one had all the mana he contained, so it was bigger and less stable. It hit to the side of the bug, but it didn’t matter. The moment it expanded it expanded a whopping ten feet, disintegrating everything that was alive in the area. The moment the queen died all the bugs scattered, no longer forced to die for something.

Derb groaned in relief as he no longer felt the crunch of bugs under his feet, the smell had even started to dissipate so he was able to breathe again. He bent over and ripped off his helmet, dry heaving while clutching his stomach. While he tried his best to make things come out of his body a hand came out and patted him on the back. It was the peacekeeper that got him in this mess. He had a mask on so Derb couldn’t make out any details, which was too bad because he had a vendetta against the man now.

“Good job out there, we could save the old man’s mana because of you. Now that we have a swarm-type counter like you around we can actually reach the center much quicker.” The man’s eyes looked full of pity, there were still legs stuck in Derb’s cloak and it made him look disgusting. For once he wished he hadn’t brought the damn flowy thing. He activated it and watched it wave around him, floating in the air as the legs fell off. He slapped the hand away and put on his helmet, not in the mood to have someone feel sorry for him. “Let’s… just go already.”

The peacekeeper nodded, not responding to the snappy attitude. It made Derb feel sort of bad for holding a grudge against him, it wasn’t like there was a choice… wait. “Wait, wait a second! What did you say about the old man being able to take care of it?” He said, catching up to the peacekeeper. The peacekeeper smiled guiltily and ran up ahead, lining up behind Walter. Everyone else was already moving, picking up their equipment and hauling ass, burning and cutting down what was in front of them with practiced ease. Derb groaned in annoyance, the fact that he was going to be used again just to take the edge off the old man annoyed him greatly.

He hadn’t even really seen him use any magic other than whatever he used to bash his head in. The old man just silently walked behind the rest of the 20 men, guarded closely by his five students. He knew not to judge a book by its cover, hell, the old man could game-end him in one shot if he wanted to. He couldn’t help but think that he was taking this a bit too easy, though. Especially that last fight, he hadn’t even bothered killing any, just standing by as the peacekeeper kept everyone else safe.

He sighed in reluctance, continuing the trek to the center of the forest. He wondered why he hadn’t seen these creatures before, but when he asked he was told by a big fat, middle-aged man with a spear that looked tiny in his meaty palms that cores only get stronger as they expand. Apparently, no one had known this would be a swarm-type dungeon, they thought it’d be full of hunting-type monsters, like giant spiders or ghouls. Swarm types were terrible currently because they either required serious firepower or a completely armored individual to take care of the leader.

Apparently, both options were seriously expensive. Derb almost felt sick when he heard how expensive his armor was. When he asked if it was safe to wear something so expensive he got laughter from everyone “Anyone stupid enough to come after you doesn’t have the power to back it up, and anyone with the correct amount of power knows not to mess with someone with that kind of backing. Spoiled brat.” One of the older men said, his yellow, messed up teeth in full view as he grinned. Someone slapped Derb on the back, a gawky man with frizzy hair and tired eyes. “We’ve all seen how well you can handle yourself, I'm sure your daddy wouldn’t have let you out without that kind of skill.”

Everyone laughed as Derb reddened with embarrassment. “He’s my teacher! My father isn’t here anymore...” That made the gawky bastard flinch. He knew from what the old man said that most of the older people here had families. “Ay, is that it… I’m sorry for acting like that, little knight.” He said, stepping back a bit. Everyone else seemed to also tone down the teasing after that. Derb was lucky to be wearing the helmet and hood, anyone here could catch his bluff with the malicious grin he had. “Don’t worry, I've gotten over my parents being gone... kinda. Look, just don’t make fun of my teacher, he’s the one that brought me up from nothing.”

He hoped he held the smile out of his voice, if he wanted these people to grow to like him he had to sell the “Orphan child” act. These were men with families off risking their lives, of course, they’d feel responsible about him. One of the old men patted him on the shoulder, “Sorry about that, son. I know how it feels to lose someone you love. Don’t die here, ok? Someone’s bound to miss you.” A general murmur of agreement came from the rest, Everyone going around and telling stories of their families.

One had a little girl who had a habit of setting napkins on fire. Another had two sons who always fought, one always lost but the father said he was crafty enough to squeeze out a win when he wanted to. Derb felt warm inside, hearing the retelling of their stories. He remembered when he dropped the whole pot of boiling noodles when he reached for it as a little kid, his mother running in and picking him off the floor before the water touched bare feet. He remembered her setting him on a chair and rushing to pull off her socks and slippers, tears in her eyes as she tried pulling them off her red feet.

She didn’t get to tell him off because he was too busy crying and hugging her, scared because he thought she’d never be able to walk again. Since then he made sure to always get things for her, thinking her injuries never really healed. She never told him she was completely fine, and he didn’t figure that out until he was 10. Even now he still subconsciously took her place whenever she said she’d get something. It’d been almost a year since he’d seen her. Months even before he came here… He should have seen her more since he left…

He shook his head. Stinging tears were threatening to fall down his face. Before he even noticed, everyone had gotten quiet after he stopped speaking. He wanted to pull off his helmet to rub his eyes but the last thing he wanted was to let these people see his tears. “You ok, kid?” One of them asked, He turned to them and smiled, even though they couldn’t see anything. “Thank you, I'm alright. You guys just helped me remember my family for a second. I really wish I could see them again.”

He wasn’t lying, he never realized how much he depended on his friends and family to keep him happy. Nowadays he had to constantly keep his mind busy to forget how lonely he was. The goblins helped a lot with that but they felt more like… they were more soldiers than friends. He wanted someone that wouldn’t follow him blindly even if he wanted them to. Unfortunately, he’d already screwed up twice making companions in this stupid town. Betrayal seemed to be a big part in the rumors spread about him.

No one said a word. These were men of battle, they didn’t really know what to do in these fluffy sort of situations. They only knew how to brag and fight, the latter which was granted as Walter shouted out orders. “Ambush! Unknown predator, group together!” The soldiers huddled close, eyes scouring the surroundings. Walter was in the middle, the peacekeepers around him with bored expressions. “If your shoulders aren’t touching then you aren’t in formation! Only look forward and make sure to shout the moment you see something!”

They stayed like that for a few moments, the forest was deafeningly silent. Only the occasional tree branch swaying in the wind could be heard, the animals all murdered by the incoming surge. Every time a bush moved or leaves rustled the whole group tensed, some even seemed pale, not used to this type of stress. Derb was one of them. He usually fought head-on, what was so strong that Walter had to tell them to stick together? He swallowed dryly as his eyes zipped left and right, cursing the ever-so-slight hindrance the armor gave to his eyesight.

The tension was thick until Walter clapped his hands. “Whatever was out there is gone, everyone back to walking.” Confused murmurs reverberated all around, before everyone started forming again. Derb was shocked, demons were usually too stupid to care about dying. Whatever this was was probably on hunter rank, top end rank at that. He didn’t know if there were demons who focused on ambush or not, he only ever read up on demons who were similar to the ones he summoned after all. Whatever it was, it was smart enough to hide, which scared him.

How was no one as cautious as him? All the warriors looked as if everything was fine while the peacekeepers looked the same amount of bored they always did. Maybe he was overthinking it… like he always did. He sighed as he followed along in formation, putting himself in the middle of the group just in case. He wished he could take out Connor or Jack, but they weren;t as resistant to poison as him. Not to mention the fact that the moment they’re poisoned they can’t be brought back into his soul or else he’d be poisoned as well.

He didn’t even think about sending out the goblins, those little bastards would probably get bitten by something and refuse to tell him. They already seemed to think they were their own little group and not his summons. It was annoying but actually sort of efficient. Learning how to take care of themselves was actually turning them much smarter so he hadn’t bothered taking their free will away. He’d make sure to banish them into the void if he ever spotted mutiny, however. He already had to watch out for Jack but his strength was worth the trouble. The goblins’ weren’t.

Something fell on him, breaking his thought process. He almost shrieked but noticed after slapping it off that it was just a tree branch. He discreetly looked around to check if anyone had noticed his freak out. Fortunately, nobody seemed to catch it. He decided to take his sword out, it always made him feel more comfortable when he felt the weight of it on his hand. The thing was massive and weighed even more than it looked, but it started feeling so natural to have it on him. He felt like he’d float away without the sword or armor, which might actually be true at this point considering his skinny frame. He promised himself to a buffet the moment he went back to town and focused on his surroundings.

He knew that one of the peacekeepers probably had a scouting spell, which was how they were able to detect monsters without seeing them. It probably made his caution worthless, but he didn’t rule out a monster with countermeasures to them. Poison attribute monsters were especially sneaky, ruling out strength for a slow kill. They were perfect for humans because we had an antidote, but it wasn’t uncommon for lower ranking poison demons to take out higher ranking demons just because they got a good bite off.

That usually changed once they hit “Brute” rank, though. They usually grew big enough to defend themselves, the poison mostly meant to finish anything that ran off. The group suddenly came to a halt. Walter in the front had Put his hand out in a pause, Uttering one sentence. “We’re here, gather into two groups and expect no rest.”