“BLACKY DUCK” I scream towards the black lion-beastman, who ducks under a killing branch, before tearing through a trunk.

In quick succession the other treants a torn into by the rest of the group, no casualties taken.

Wave 4 Complete!

Personal Kills: 8

Total Deaths: 2.5

MVP: Zzoid: 68

…

..

.

2.5 deaths? What does that mean? How does someone have half a death?

Well anyways, thank god that wave is over; it was horrible!

Can’t believe both the black panther-beastlady and the white tiger were killed in that.

Those leaves were just insanely damaging and by the end most of the treants had leaves…

Actually I’m pretty amazed we only had those 2 (and a half) casualties.

Lying in the ashen field, I don’t care about the crunching feeling on my back. It’s been a long 2 hours of dodging around trying not to die.

At least my dodge skill leveled up.

“That wash poor” Darlene comments from the sidelines...

If it wasn’t for her, Marty would’ve been helping us…damn old lady.

She may be an oracle or whatever, but having 2 people die on me is not worth her title.

Zzoid

I know, I want to use her as a meatshield too but she’s an Oracle…might be useful to learn from her. Even if she did get 2 of us killed.

Gnashing my teeth at Zzoid’s message, he isn’t wrong.

If she’s an Oracle that sounds like something magical…so letting her die would get rid of an entire Npc questline/skill tree/whatnot other benefits.

Damn Npc’s. Though I’m not going to let her hog Marty anymore.

“Darlene” I walk over to her, nodding at Casper who drops the skin bag of candy in my hand mid stride. “You, are going to let Marty fight with us”

“Sure”

…

..

.

Eh? I thought you would’ve refused or something?! I mean you hogged him the entire last wave…so why let him go now?

“My death isn’t certain now” Marty explains(?) as he stands up.

Wait, so I think I need to know what an Oracle is to understand what’s going on.

“Uhuh…”

I quickly follow Marty as he saunters towards Casper’s Carriage.

“Hey, what’s an Oracle?”

“Oh right, you msut seem angry because your friends died”

No, I never would be angry thatpeople died because of some old woman. And they just happen to be people I’m working with too.

I just respond with a look.

“An Oracle is someone who has premonitions of sorts. In her particular case, her visions are specifically death of people in her vicinity”

“So you were going to die against the treants?”

“Yes”

“According to Darlene” Just sort of skeptical here...

“Look” He tries to place a hand on my shoulder, but it’s out of reach “Last time we didn’t believe in her, half the village was wiped out”

Well that was blunt and my Aiag, really? Half the village!?

“So she knew you were going to die and took you off the field, but what about the ones that did die?”

“She only sees the deaths of those in the village, you’re orphans, she couldn’t see your deaths”

Huh…so maybe it’s a death could happen anytime sort of thing or the fact that it’s because we don’t actually die she can’t have a vision of our deaths…huh, quite interesting indeed.

“We’re alive!” Someone I believe tries to shout but their voice is pretty hoarse.

Oh it’s Dillydally.

Everyone on his side seems pretty worn out, even Roirra and Regnar. But I do notice there is only one Gristle…

OH! That’s the .5 death!? Wow who would’ve guessed.

“2 deaths on your side though…” Dillydally gives me a pitied look.

“There will be more to come that’s for sure, lets just try to make sure those casualities are minimum”

Everyone nods at that.

“So which Npc is coming to join us now?” Zzoid JESUS! Stop talking into my ear like that!

Seems like he’s not the only one who’s spotted the trend of 1 Npc joining us every wave…

Well we’ve got Daren, Jarken, Jenna, Nathan and a few more we haven’t met

…

..

.

This is going to be quite a lot of waves…

Anyways, enough thinking about the far future, we should get ready for what’s coming now.

“Ok so how much candy did everyone get?”

Everyone shouts out and Squirrel counts up.

“372”

Hmm added with our candy from last time we can get a 4th person to 100 too…

“Ok, so we need to pick 4 people, I suggest Tikari, Kandien, Jerriah and Kookle?” I just randomly name 3 of the more muscly looking Squad Animal.

No one seems against i-

“Excuse me, but why them, why not BoneCrusher or you, or even Zzoid?” The blue deer-beastlady cocks her head in confusion.

“You see deer, we can’t afford for Zzoid to have a bad affecting candy and stacking effects may be bad in itself”

She sort of understands and Zzoid gives me a light chuckle, noticing what I did.

Alright, candy time…and let’s hope none of them end up like Allie…who thankfully seems to have stopped. But she’s now unconscious on the ground; probably from violently retching for 2 hours and a bit straight.

First up is Jerriah apparently; he seems pretty excited(?) to eat the candy. I mean you do get a random/maybe cool effect so I guess it’s exciting.

…

..

.

Nothing happened? Oh its one of these.

“Jerriah, do you feel fine?” Squirrel asks.

…

..

.

“Yes, I feel perfectly fine”

Took some time to think about it didn’t you?

“Try walking” SirStripy calls from above. Oh almost forgot about him. Poor poor soul all alone up there.

…

..

.

He begins walking normally. Huh, maybe we’ll find out what it is later.

“Hey, everyone, run to the back of Jerriah” Zzoid calls out from somewhere. Ooh seems like he’s figured something out?

Eagerly, everyone sprint behind Jerriah, and then look at him, as he stands there looking into empty space.

Suddenly he swivels around.

“Ah how’d you get there so fast?”

What? Wait, what?

“Punch him” Zzoid whispers to me in my ears. STOP that please….it’s really putting me on edge aaagh.

But I do comply as I have an inkling what’s happening.

Punching Jerriah in the face

…

..

.

“Ow” His reaction is comically delayed, to the point of I hit him 5 seconds ago and he just reacted to it “What was that for?”

“You my friend, have lag” I retort.

Wow, playing VR with lag, that’s pretty weird.

“Lag? Like the 999 ping sort of thing?” He responds after a bit, definitely lag.

“Probably not that high, but you’ve got lag…and that’s probably your candy effect oddly enough”

“What?” Mostly everyone looks shocked, a few confused as to what lag is (poor non-gamers) and Jerriah finally echoes after a short delay.

Lag as a candy effect, never would’ve thought of that as a possibility.

He’s going to have a hard time this next wave…

“Right so we must move on, Jerriah good luck” I quickly get Kandien to finish his off (he was muching them away all this time…probably wanted to enjoy them).

…

..

.

Once again nothing happening…

Walking…nothing.

Speaking…normal.

Punching him in the face…bleeds and reacts normally…

“That actually hurt quite a bit” He complains as he licks the blood dripping onto his lips. “Mmm, damn that tastes good”

…

..

.

Not worrying at all Kandien…not worrying at all…

He sees us looking at him worriedly.

“Oh no you don’t understand it doesn’t tast like blood… look taste it” He wipes some off and hands it to me…erm I’d rather not.

But then again for purposes of curiousity let’s try it.

…

..

.

It’s like fruity red wine…oh my.

So his blood tastes like red wine, that’s…odd?

“It tastes like wine” I tell the others, to which they all look at me funny, hey I am being serious here.

Suddenly Kandien shouts as a bite imprint appears on his arm. Zzoid!

“Mmm, you are quite the scrumptious thing” Please, that is scarring to hear in so many ways.

“You bit me!”

“I wanted to see whether you tasted like bread” Excuse me what? “And mmm that’s some pretty nice bread tasting skin you have there”

…

..

.

Right…this isn’t weird/cannibalistic at all…

Kandien oddend like the rest of us, takes a small bite of himself, half-crying in the process (I mean you are biting yourself).

“He’s right…I taste like bread”

So he’s become a meal?

Wait I swear I’ve hear about this kind of thing before; the flesh is bread and the blood wine…gah where did I hear about that?

Well wherever I heard it doesn’t really matter right now…he’s now edible(?), well more so than before…quite disturbing and yet delicious.

Anyways…lets move on…because although my satiety is low I’m not going to start eati-

“Woah my satiety increased by 20 with just that bite”

…

..

.

Zzoid, disgusting…but informative…

Still not going to eat him though (cannibalism is a no for me).

I’ll live with my 1/3 satiety for now, and my decency as a human being(well ogre being).

So moving on to Kookle…he immediately jumps onto Kandien biting and tearing into him with a gnawing madness, woah.

Dragging him off Kandien oh my not a nice sight.

Knocking the frothing at the mouth, crazy eyed rooster…we head over to Casper, letting Dillydally get some tendons to die him up with…why is everything slightly spoopy and disturbing right now…

Quickly forgetting about the turned raving mad Kookle, onto Squirrel, who’s just lightly chomping on her last one.

Once again I don’t see any effect on her, but damn I never noticed how cute she looked with those small whiskers and squirrely cute face.

And her loose curly aurburn hair compliments her nutty brown eyes perfectly. God I could stare deep into those gorgeous eyes, counting the tiny green specks within for hours.

“Boss” Hmm never noticed how nice her voice is; it’s just so cute and light pitched and her lips are small yet compact, smooth, soft… “Boss”.

“Yes Tikari, what is it?” It just feels wrong to not use her name, such a lovely name.

“Ehe nothing”

*Badump*

Please don’t utter such an innocent laugh, it might stop this heart of mine.

“Hey buddy”

AAAAGHERGHEHGH ZZOID!!

“DAMMIT ZZOID, MY HEART ALMOST GAVE OUT THERE!” I round on the invisible air, hoping to Aiag he’s behind me.

“Sure looked like it. But I don’t think it was me who was going to do that”

“What are you talking about?” Seriously, what are you talking about Zzoid?

“Boss” Oh that voice it sends shivers down my spine, in a good way, not like Zzoids voice does. “You’re in love with me?”

I hold her gently by the side of her shoulders, looking deep within her. “Love is too weak a word for what I feel for you”

“Oh Boss” She holds her tiny hands up to her mouth and giggles, blushing slightly while she bats her small eyelashes. I lose myself in those nutty brown eyes of hers.

“Hey Casanova, before you do start reciting poetry, you may want to hear something”

Zzoid, I almost didn’t hear you, almost. But your breath is right in my ear so it’s distracting me from this visage of cute Aphrodite in front of me.

“What is it?”

“The candy effect is making you fall in love with her”

…

..

.

“How dare you say my love, nay, my utter being’s desire to spend an eternity gazing into her eyes is the effect of a candy…even if it is true. Even if it is just the effect of that damnable candy, I cannot deny this feeling, this tugging of my soul, begging to intertwine with hers”

“So you understand it’s the candy’s effect…mostly?” Sneaky bugger.

“It doesn’t matter what I know is the truth, my heart is the only truth I can listen to right now, the only truth that is right now. And my heart tells me that it will only keep beating in the presence of Aphrodite’s twin”

“Wow, Tikari you really did a number on him” Dillydally comments from the side.

“I am amazed none of you can see this…this divine cuteness of hers, the way she speaks, her laughs…” Oh just thinking about them is like breathing the freshest air.

“Boss…please take care of me” She giggles with immense cuteness, looking downwards, face blushing ever so lightly.

I hold her head with a meaty hand, raising her chin to look up straight into my eyes. “I shall”

…

..

.

*CRACK*

I feel like someone broke a rib of mine. Yep, they did and I’m on the floor and it hurts quite a bit.

What was that?

“Tikari you alright?” That’s Dillydally’s voice?

“…Yes, yes, just didn’t expect that"

I shouldn’t have done that. I should not have done that…But her lips were just ahh so indescribable and it felt like the right moment and ahh why did I just do that!? Why is my mind able to work now, actually telling me off for following my heart?!?

I UNDERSTAND THIS IS JUST CANDY, BUT I CAN’T STOP THIS FEELING IN MY HEART!

Standing up, I try me best not to look at Tikari, or I might lose myself in her eyes again.

“Well that was…interesting” Thanks for the input Zzoid, really not helping my mind and heart’s battle…

“please…distance” I manage to say, closing my eyes and thinking of art…like the way her hair curls perfectly over her shoulder…Aaagh stop thinking, please stop thinking…

Oddly enough, my heart is subsiding…

Opening one eye, I spot Tikari standing far far away, standing red-faced and trying not to look at me…

She is still extremely cute, but it’s not the heart thumping, time stopping love that I was feeling moments earlier…it’s more like I usually look at her, albeit her facial features are that much more expressed in my vision.

Hmm…so the candy effect is weaker when she’s further away…wait why did I get targeted anyway!?

I can’t believe I did that…well I can because she’s really cute when she looks at me with her big nutty eyes, BUT STILL really out of line...

Really wish I had something to distract all of us from the slight awkwardness that I put us into…

Wave 5: Critters

Remaining Monsters: 6321

…

..

.

Well I did ask for a distraction…

“SQUAD ANIMAL TO THE NORTH GATE”

“REST OF US REMAIN HERE”

“Roirra, Regnar and Marty, please head with the Elfling” Darlene hackles as the Npc’s look at both gates.

Well no Npc’s for us then? Or do we get a new one?

“Well seems like there’s a party going on and I wasn’t invited” A burly voice comes from the Tavern and sure enough Daren struts outside holding a massive sword. Damn why is everyone so dangerous all of a sudden (though kind of grateful he's here!)?

When I say massive, I mean easily longer than 6 feet, almost as tall as Daren (He is actually pretty tall, never really noticed it, probably because he’s always hunched behind the bar).

“You’re invited to come face death with us Daren” I call out to him, and he gives me an average look (rather positive seeing as though the majority of the Npc’s here don’t like me).

“What are we dying to then?”

“Critters, so squirrels and bunnies most likely”

“Critters you say?” He raises an eyebrow.

“RATS” Zzoid shouts in realisation as Daren simultaneously swivels back round towards his tavern, watching the doors burst open with a stream of two-legged rats, black bristly fur and dark red eyes.

Also they’re the size of a small person, which is kind of equivalent’s to a goblins size in my now tall body and eyes.

“MY INN” He shouts and rushes towards the rats, sword already ripped from it’s back strap and gliding down, cutting through 3 of the monsters like butter.

“INCOMING FROM OUTSIDE” SirStripy shouts causing everyone to turn the the outside, spotting a large mass of Rabbits and Squirrels, all large, black and mean looking.

Oh no…this isn’t going to end well.

“ZZOID, GLORIOUS WITH ME, REST OF YOU DEFEND WITH YOUR LIVES” Thankfully my brain is working full again, albeit some small worrying consciousness for Tikari.

The three (hopefully) of us rush towards the growing mass of moon steroided rats, already surrounding Daren, who expertly cuts more and more down, swinging his huge, plain looking sword around and around and around.

Punching a rat, my arm goes through it’s soft skin, killing it and I immediately plow through to the next.

Thank Aaig these don’t seem to have more than 50 hp…so they’ll be an easy clean up.

Pushing the oncoming tide back to the door within moments, easily slaughtering a dozen of them and only receiving a quarter of my health worth of damage (only 2 damage a hit thankfully), I scream at Daren to get onto the field with Zzoid, while Glorious and I hold the doorway.

He reluctantly leaves, only probably because he notices A rabbit heading for Darlene.

Luckily the rats only want to come out through the doors, not trying to break the wooden walls…yet.

Soon the corpses pile up, blocking us from view of the constant swarming mass of seething rats, but only for a moment.

They begin tearing through their dead brethren, faces appearing within the mass of corpses.

In half shock I punch one, killing it and then punch another, kicking a third as its face pops out.

It’s a game of whack a mole but with scary rats and heart failures every few seconds from jump scares…

“Glorious go help the others” I speak brokenly towards him, mind full focusing on the rats that slowly swarm towards me, popping out here and there and over there too.

He rushes off and now it’s just me, literally just wailing as I flail my fists in every direction, beginning to prioritise those that have a decent amount of their arms through the wall, some even scratching me.

Left, right, kick, kick, kickickickickickick punchpunchpunchpunch headbutt!

More just keep coming, even though the wall of corpses has been rebuilt over and over again by newcomers, the rats still keep coming completely and utterly uncaring of what’s going on.

But suddenly…it stops.

No more come…not a single one.

I’m literally standing on corpses, facing a literal wall of corpses, reaching the ceiling which thankfully I can reach (since I am tall enough, halleluliah to being a 7 foot ogre).

The smashing of glass catches my attention and I rush outside, spotting a rat skittering towards the village square from the alleyway.

Before I can get to it, someone else does; the blue deer-beastlady rams it with her head, knocking it to the ground where she stomps it, punching the next one that comes.

Smashing from the other side of the house and sure enough their jumping out that sides’ window too.

Vaulting over the railing, I land in the alleyway between the Tavern and Jenna’s, already faced by a growing horde of rats…and a less than happy health bar.

Grabbing the first one, it’s quite small compared to me, so I use it as a bat against its will.

With a makeshift(?) weapon I bat away the oncoming rats, squishing them on either wall, the one I’m swinging long dead.

Though many still get through, scratching me before I kick them down, or ram them into the wall with my body, crushing them…

Many minutes pass and I reach the window, face peering inside, to see another rat jump out.

Punching it back inside, it bowls into a dozen others, which stand up and rush towards me.

I simply keep punching inside the window, hitting it doesn’t matter where but hitting nonetheless.

Soon a small wall of rats forms in front of the window; a few even dangling half out, almost making it out.

They aren’t too bright that’s for sure and their damage is only enough collectively to bring me to the red zone at this very moment.

But this very moment, I don’t have any rats to worry about.

Satisfied the window is sufficiently blocked by rats, I haggardly sprint to the other side, spotting the deer-beastlady covered in blood and rather hating her life right now.

She must’ve not enjoyed doing this quest back at the start.

Screaming her head off in disgust she flails her fists in the direction of the rats, killing them yes, but nowhere near as effectively as me (probably because picking them up isn’t really viable for her).

Jumping in behind her, she almost kills me and I grab a rat about to swipe at her, chucking it at the small crowd that pushes our way.

Thank Aiag the alleyway is only 2-3 people wide.

She notices me(phew) and stops flailing around completely wildly…but still some pretty mad flailing.

Staying behind her (I’m assuming she’s got higher health), I keep picking up rats, tossing them into the crowds, dealing a bit of damage to them, but mostly just knocking them down, allowing her to stomp away at them with ‘eeek’s.

Finally, we reach the window and I take over (since I can see into the window easily and she can’t).

Same as before, just punching inside, killing rat after rat until the window is blocked by their corpses.

“JOAT THE FRONT” She screams at me and I swivel round, to see her get overrun by half a dozen of them.

Oh no if I let her die that’d be bad on me!

Sprinting over to her, I start grabbing and flinging them away just a little bit (not enough to kill them honestly, but enough to get them away and that’s what matters.

Phew she’s alive!

Grabbing one, I pile into a group of them, knocking them to the floor before I start whirlwinding the one I’ve grabbed around.

Immediately there’s a small empty circle around me where everything has been blasted away either by the blow or the loose hanging claws of the dead rat I’m whirlwinding around.

I don’t know how long I kept spinning, but when I stopped, I retched my insides from dizziness…onto the corpse of a blue deer-beastlady

…

..

.

OH NO I PK’D HER!?!

WHAT DID I DO?

I didn’t even notice! Everything was just a blur when I was spinning and I must’ve gotten too close to her!

This is bad, real bad.

I just Pk’d her and this death is permanent!

Though I really don’t have time for that as I’m on 8 hp and there’s still maybe a dozen rats trying to make their way past the crowds of corpses on the stairs and rails of Daren’s tavern.

Slaughtering them, only taking 5 points of damage (EEK I’M WAYYY TOO CLOSE TO DEATH FOR MY OWN GOOD), I back away, still dizzy, from the slaughterhouse and towards the well, leaning on the stone knackered.

My satiety is getting pretty low again so I take time to draw water from the well, drink it and watch my hp slowly increase to double digits.

Back at 10 hp, I stand up and pant my way to the outside, where the ending of a battle is ensuing; Thousands…literally thousands of dead animals lie in a ragged mess on the edge of the field, a fair number slashed apart but most of them looking like they’ve been beaten to death.

And I do notice a wide ring of charred corpses over yonder.

Standing, still dodging razor sharp claws are the others and I quickly rush towards them, just sidestepping the pointed buck teeth of the squirrels as they head towards my knee.

Everything is oddly not as big and menacing as usual…because I’m looking down at them probably.

Kicking the squirrel away, the owl-beastman finishes it off, mace splatting brains everywhere.

What is with the graphics of this game!?

I got to find a setting where there’s not guts flying everywhere, eugh!

-8

AAAH

Roundhouse kicking the rabbit in the throat (lucky hit) it chokes and spurts blood over me before dying.

Seriously these graphics, pretty scarring (though I did enable graphical realism in the beginning settings…so I am the only one to blame for this…).

Thankfully nothing else attacks my 2 hp self and I swerve around spotting Daren cleaving a squirrel in two from head to feet, growling in the process.

Wave 5 Completed!

Personal Kills: 632

Total deaths:3.5

MVP: Marty: 822

WE DID IT.

AND 3.5 DEATHS!? WE’RE GOING TO BE WIPED OUT AT THIS RATE!

Everyone trudges to the well, lying down while someone slowly drags some water up.

“So who’s dead?” I ask, as I pull up the water, since I believe I had one of the easiest times, comparatively.

“Gristle and Allie” so 1.5 deaths there…damn, Gristle was a pretty tanky guy too.

Allie? But she was just unconscio-oh…did she get caught by the rats mid battle?

Oh no that’s another death that’s my fault. This is terrible!

At least Kookle is alive, yet raving mad and tied to Casper's Carriage...

Also where’s Tikari!?

“She’s at a distance to let you think” Good thinking Dillydally, I guess.

Phew, was scared for a moment.

ANYWAYS, damnable heart…

“Blue deer is dead…” I gulp as I look at the floor, feeling an invisible pat trying to reach my shoulder.

“Glorious died too…though he burnt a few dozen with his breath on the way out” Charmine grimaces. Seems like she’s been having a hard time, probably from the huge gore factor.

Though seeing as though no one’s having a traumatic breakdown I'm impressed with everyone (barring the fact that I've personally seem mostly everyone here be sick after the combat ended)… and the proud look on Dillydally’s eyes tells me he’s thinking the same thing too.

Gulping down my share of water, I look abruptly towards the horizon, where surely more things that want to kill us will be coming soon...

“Count your candy everyone…we’ve got some more hell to get through before this is over…”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Corner:

Oh la la, why is everyone dying!? Anyways hope you enjoyed this.

Im planning to get this arc done in the next few days because i'm losing internet for two weeks in a few days....

Soo it's a race against time!

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD