'Mistake' was the only word Kaleb could use to describe their assault on the pet shop. As soon as the group set foot into the roiling horde of fur and teeth they were set upon from all sides. One suicidal beast with a crooked bleeding horn on its forehead hopped higher and further than any rabbit in history, It sailed over the jabbing spears of the minions below and twisted in mid air to avoid a smack from Jacks axe. Lisa could only briefly scream as it brushed past her now useless bow and the horn sunk fully into her eye. She dropped like a sack of potatoes and the others stuttered to a halt. That was the worst thing they could of done as the beasts around them where inspired by their comrade and began throwing themselves at the group. Most didn't have a conveniently placed horn so had to spin in the air to stab at the group of stunned humans which at least slowed them down a bit.

Kaleb was the first to break out of his shock, “Back to the wall!” he screamed but the others weren't responding. He grabbed Eddy and tried to shake some sense into him just in time for a spike of red bone to pierce the man through the chest. He crumbled in on himself screaming drawing the attention of the others. A minion died as it intercepted an axe aiming for Kaleb's head. Jack was screaming at him but he had no idea what he was saying. He swung again and this time the axe glowed with a red light. Kaleb dropped to the ground in a dodge and ordered his minions to attack. He saw Derek's mace fall to the ground and the big man followed it a few seconds later. Jack was torn apart from the minions around him and the horde surrounding monsters finished him off.

Kaleb conjured three minions on the run and yelled back for the others to come to him. Addie was the only one still in the fight but she briefly flickered and was suddenly gone. Kaleb couldn't spare the time to look for her as he sprinted for the wall. The wall that now had no entrance thanks to Eddy closing it behind them. “Fuck!” Kaleb swerved to the left narrowly dodging another rabbit javelin. He had just enough mana to conjure a rough shield made of wooden planks tied together with what looked like leather. He didn't care how it looked so long as it stop a rabbit. He broke free of the horde at its western edge and ran down the semi familiar Church Street.

The street was free of the rabbit horde but a few determined monsters still chased him. He eyed the church from which the street got its name and he could see the flickering lights of candles inside. He held a brief thought of joining the people inside but quickly decided that avoiding the religious during doomsday was probably for the best. Kaleb ordered his ragged minions to turn and fight while he burst through the door of a small shop. Nothing followed him in and he frantically searched the place for monsters, knocking over card displays and kicking open the cupboard doors. It was clear and seemingly untouched by the hell outside. Kaleb conjured light that glowed pure sterile white a and a minion and told it to go get the others and bring them back. The light hovered above him as he moved until he thought of it going to the ceiling and it quickly did. 'That's handy.'

[Spell: Conjure Minion increased to Rank 2!]

Spell Rank Up! Conjure minion is Rank 2

Kaleb was surprised to rank up a spell so quickly and crouched behind the checkout counter to read the description of his improved spell.

Spell List Description Duration Mana Cost Rank Conjure Minion Conjure a customizable minon 3 Hours Medium Rank 2

'It doesn't say small or limited customization anymore and the duration has tripled!' Kaleb waned to dive into creating new types of minions but the shop wasn't a safe enough place to stare at magic screens for hours on end. The door rattled open making him jump up in fright. Only a few of his minions had survived the fighting or the mad dash for survival and six that made it into the shop behind his messenger minion were scarred and limping. Two were red so the blood was barely noticeable but the three blues and the brown looked like they'd fought a wood chipper to a draw. “If the durations tripled then so has the number of minions.” he wondered aloud as he thought of replacing them. It again took him way too long to figure out the basic maths and after pulling out his phone to double check with the calculator he was sure he could now have fifty four minions if he used the spell every ten minutes.

“That's an insane power increase. I don't even know what I did to increase the Rank.” He thought back on everything he'd done so far. 'Is it because I used it so much?' he wasn't sure and didn't think it would be that simple but it was all he could think of. He put it to the back of his mind with everything else that had happened and ordered his minions to block the door as best they could, while he hunkered behind the counter and started conjuring a lot more to help them.

Hours of conjuring later had brought him fifty four minions without any additional modifications as of yet and a whole lot of guilt. During the fight and his escape he hadn't really been able to process what was happening but he saw it all with new eyes now. He hadn't meant to use Eddy as a human shield. he'd grabbed him to try and help but that wasn't what Jack saw when his brother got impaled. The minions on Dereks side had abandoned him to intercept Jack leaving Derek to be swarmed. Kaleb had no idea what happened to Addie, she'd done some kind of teleporting spell and vanished before his eyes.

“I abandoned them.” he said quietly sitting on top of the counter swinging his legs back and forth. He was filled with mixed emotions however, Jack would of killed him and he felt justified in protecting himself from the grieving man. “I barely even knew them!” he said exasperated. “What? Am I supposed to just let them kill me?” he asked his room full of minions. They stared back at him with blank expressions. “I would of died, you would of all vanished and then they would of died anyway. This isn't my fault.”

The minions were as helpful as mannequins just soullessly staring at him. “Stop looking at me!”

The door rattled and the minions blocking it jumped in surprise. 'I need to stop shouting.' he chastised himself. The door rattled again followed by deep grunting from several animals. Kaleb went to the mostly covered window and peeked out. “What the fuck am I looking at.” The things outside were like hunched over bipedal pigs but they still had normal pig arms and legs. They had short bristles growing all over them making them seem darker in colour. “What the hell is this patch doing?”

Thankfully there weren't many of them and despite their slightly humanoid appearance they still were mostly pig. Without looking away from the window he ordered his minions. “Reds and blues, go outside and attack the pigs. Don't chase them if they run away.” The two groups of eleven followed his commands straight away and stormed out into the surprised pigs. Their grunts turned to squeals but they were effected the same as the other animals and fought to the last pig person was dead. He hadn't lost a single minion and they happily piled back into the shop. Kaleb briefly considered conjuring water to clean the blood off of them but it wouldn't be worth the effort. They would no doubt be covered again soon.

Kaleb was reluctant to go back outside but he knew if he didn't go soon then he'd stuck in the shop overnight with the number of minions depleting over time while he slept. He pulled out his phone and tried to work out a route back to the main square with the police. One day of hell wasn't enough to stop the GPS on his phone from working so he quickly plotted a route that would let him loop around the block, as far as his app was concerned it would only take seven minutes to walk. Before he left he had ten green minions grab as much of the tinned food and bottled water they could fit into plastic bags and tied several to each of them, He could conjure water but not enough to help the number of people at the square. .

Spell List Description Duration Mana Cost Rank Spell gained: Conjure food Conjures an edible block of food 48 Hours Low Rank 1

Kaleb was way too curious about what a block of food was and instantly cast the spell. A perfect cube, one meter long on all sides plopped onto the floor. It was an unappetising brown and slightly spongy. He tore a bit off and quickly put it in his mouth before he could think too much. The taste wasn't horrible, instead it was just very plain like oats or boiled rice without a sauce. 'Guess I cant expect too much from magically generated blocks of food, Though if this is what the creators of this shit show eat I think I'd prefer the simulation.'

Thinking about going outside was worse than being there. Once he'd taken the first step and had his horde of minions surround him the panic faded away. “I can do this.” he repeated that to himself constantly as he followed the map on his phone, speeding up slightly as the tall building began to block the dying light. 'I can't believe its only been one day.' It was hard to think that yesterday his biggest problem was not having any new games to play and now he'd faced death countless times and could shoot magic food cubes from his fingers.

The few monsters still on the streets at this time found better places to be when they saw his army coming and it was only ten minutes before he reached a high wall blocking his sight of the square. Before he could take more than a few steps down the street guns began firing at his army. Six minions fell immediately and Kaleb dropped low and scrambled back around the corner. He saw more minions wounded by bullets and some killed outright before they were able to scurry after him. 'I really need to stop approaching scared people with a horde of monsters.' Kaleb broke into the closest building and made his way to the top floor. He found an open apartment door and quickly checked to make sure the house was empty before barricading himself in.

He piled wardrobes at the door and covered all the windows before setting his phone alarm for two hours from now. 'I wake up and refresh some minions every two hours and get what sleep I can.' He thought eyeing the door warily. It would have been safer to sleep in the square but getting killed now after surviving all day seemed pointless. 'Would of been safer to just stay in my damn house.' he thought bitterly but he knew he didn't mean it. Despite the horror of the day he still felt excited for what would happen next and quickly fell asleep with a smile.