The wall is going to present a problem as well, there is a gap between the last houses and the wall. Not to mention the houses are only one story while the wall is about four. I will have to cross the open area on the ground and then climb the wall, even I can't jump that high.

That is where I expect to be attacked, but there may still be traps before I reach that point. Then I remember that the west gate was open when I passed it earlier, I didn't approach because of the golems. Instead of climbing the wall maybe I can just run through the gate, as long as I move quickly the golems shouldn't have time to attack me.

In fact the golems should be able to at least slow down the driders if not kill most of them. But I don't want to move straight towards the gate, that would give the controller time to respond. Instead I start moving north, away from the gate, as much as I can while still moving west.

Hopefully this will cause the controller to move most of its troops ahead of me and leave a mostly open path to the gate. As expected I start seeing driders on the roofs ahead of me, but there aren't many yet so I just cut them down. After cutting down two more driders I jump to the next roof, now there are only three rows of houses left before the wall.

At the peak of my next jump I am finally able to see the clear area before the wall. There are hundreds of driders and thousands of undead spread out in the open area waiting for me. The controller really doesn't want me to reach the wall, this seems like an awful lot of effort for just me and Kechara.

Then again we are probably the first ones to find this place in a long time, possibly thousands of years. If that is the case I wonder what the spiders have been eating, there must be other life somewhere down here for them to feed on. Not important right now, as I cut down another three driders and jump to the next roof.

There is only one more row of houses ahead of me, so after cutting down the lone drider on this roof I move to the end of the roof. Instead of jumping across I drop down to the alley that is between the houses. I take off running at full speed due south, I try to avoid being seen as much as possible.

The longer it takes the controller to realize what I am doing the better my odds of making it out through the gate are. Kechara makes a few soft protesting noises and I can feel her grip on me getting weaker. It isn't really a surprise, she is still young, and has been holding on to me through a lot of intense movements for a while now.

Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do except encourage her to hold on for just a few more minutes. Using the alleys between the row of houses I run flat out all the way to the main road leading to the west gate. With all this running, jumping, and fighting even I am getting fairly worn out, I am going to need to rest soon.

There is nowhere safe to rest in the city though, if I stop for even a minute to catch my breath I will end up surrounded. So when I finally run out into the main street I immediately turn right and head for the gate. It is wide open just like I remember, I was half worried the driders would have closed it.

As I am running towards the gate I see driders and undead start entering the street ahead of me, both from the north and south side. So I didn't fool the controller completely, it still had some forces lying in wait here. Putting on a burst of speed I try to make it past them before they can block the entire street.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough speed to get through all of them, but I do pass most of them. There are only a few dozen driders and undead between me and the gate. Now I am glad that I saved my sacred power, I start throwing wind blades with every step.

Not only am I throwing them at the ones in front of me but also at the ones to my sides. I have to keep them from slowing me down, my only hope now is to get through the gate. If I stop now, with as tired as I am, they will be able to overwhelm me fairly quickly.

Aiming at the drider's mid sections and the heads of the undead I am able to kill a dozen in a few steps. It is a good thing I have a decent pool of sacred power because doing so burned through several hundred points. No longer worrying about saving my power I throw out dozens of wind blades as I get to within fifty feet of the gate.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Wind Blade has progressed to level 3!

Wind Blade

Level: 3

SP Cost: 45

Blades fired: 2 Damage per blade: Int x2

While that would have been more helpful if it had happened a minute ago, I am not going to complain. After throwing a few more wind blades everything in front of me is dead and I have a clear path to the gate. Lengthening my stride I put everything I have left into my speed, I want to get out the gate and out of the golems range as fast as I possibly can.

As I pass under the gate I can already see the golems starting to move, behind me are more driders than I want to count. Dashing past the golems I turn left and head south along the lake's shore. Glancing back I am expecting to see the golems going crazy attacking the driders but they aren't moving.

The driders are flooding out of the gate and onto the lake shore to chase me. Luckily their undead minions are too slow to keep up, but with the golems ignoring the driders my plan is ruined. Then I realize the mistake I made, the driders are made from the inhabitants of the city, so the defenses don't recognize them as enemies.