EV B2 Chapter 37:

I scanned the red circle and intuited the rules. Obviously, we weren't supposed to leave the circle. And the shapes on the horizon were getting closer. They were coming from every direction, which made me nervous. I wouldn't be able to stand between Alana and our enemies. But as the shapes grew larger, I realized how slow they were moving.

They shuffled along, and at first, I thought we had a genuine zombie horde closing in from all directions. But when I could make out the vines in place of hair and the wooden tree roots, I realized that they were some sort of plant monster. That was actually less fortunate for me—because if they were slow-moving zombies, I could just chop the heads off real quick. But plant monsters didn't necessarily have a head. These did, but I wasn't at all confident that removing them would kill them. I also didn't have any fire magic. And from what I remembered of Alana's spells, she didn't have any particular strength against one of the easiest types of creatures to counter.

My worry spiked again, though, as they kept getting bigger as they got closer—until I realized that each one was nearly twice my height. And there were a dozen coming from all four sides. Nearly three dozen creatures circling around us.

"Okay," I said, moving closer to Alana. "I think I have a plan."

She waited for me to explain.

"You're going to try to inflict terror on half of them down or keep them controlled by either stunning them or limiting their movement with Lead Feet. I'm going to quickly take out the other half as soon as they cross the circle—before they get to you. Then I'll turn around and come help you out. Save your mana. Don't use it unless Mana Bolt is especially effective. Just try to wait it out and let me do most of the killing."

Alana nodded, then looked over my shoulder. Her eyes focused slightly, but she shrugged. "I mean, right now, they're only level one."

I nearly smacked myself. I kept forgetting to use my trait, which was supposed to give me even more information than Identity. I focused my attention on one of the monsters and activated Incisive Gaze.

Vine Shambler. Level one. Weak to fire type magic. Slow and strong.

It didn't really tell me much more than I already knew, but I relayed it to Alana, and she nodded.

I was hoping that my new spell—what was formerly Arcane Piercer but was now Liar's Gambit—would help hack through these things at a more effective rate than if I were just using my sword.

If worse came to worse, I had an axe or two in my bag, but I wasn't at all skilled with them. Well, I supposed I could figure it out as I went.

I limbered up and moved my mana around a little bit, preparing to fight and getting my Fool's Constitution to boost my speed. I wasn't sure how long I could hold them, but well, I moved to the edge of the circle. The second the first Vine Shambler crossed, I flashed towards it with Dance of the Jester, my Liar's Gambit coating my blade.

I didn't have a chance to see its effect activate as the blade bit deep into the monster and sliced right through it in a single swipe, barely slowing down. The arcane edge apparently didn't count its flesh as arcane or magical armor that could stop the sword—it simply cut through everything. The beast toppled, and I was already flashing on to the next and then the next. Not one took more than a single step inside the circle on my side before I turned and saw how Alana had half of them not moving, a few more lying on the ground, stunned, while three shambled closer to her at a pace slower than walking.

She fired a Mana Bolt or two at the one on the right, a smoldering hole in its chest not seeming to slow it down much as she slowly backed up toward me. I looked around, realizing that I had taken down nearly 20 of them in a handful of seconds. I guessed level ones really just didn't have the stats—speed, strength, or constitution—to keep up with me.

I jogged over to Alana and passed her, cutting down all but one of the monsters that she kept stunned.

"You need to recover any mana?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "No. If it had gone on for a little bit longer, I would have started to feel the drain. But for now, I probably still have at least 85%."

"Can you keep one pinned while recovering?"

Alana did a little bit of math in her head and nodded.

"Good. Wait till you're at full, and then I'll kill this one."

By the twelfth wave, when they were at level 12, things started to get more complicated. I was still able to kill them relatively easily, but Alana was having trouble even slowing them down, let alone wholly stopping them like she had at the beginning. Her attack spells were also not very useful, and for the most part, she was just running around in circles, trying to stay ahead of them. But now, they were moving about as fast as she was. It was still very slow for something at level 12 or a level 12 equivalent, but it was becoming a threat. I could already see that we weren't going to be able to make it much farther.

The other issue was that my sword had stopped being able to cleave them in half with a single blow. The magic would still cut deep into the flesh, but the width of the sword was hampered by the general toughness of the Vine Shambler's bodies. I switched to my axe, which worked fairly well. Wielding a small battle axe in each hand, I could chop through things, but it still took some time—several swings and seconds dedicated to fighting one enemy at a time, time I just didn't have anymore.

Still, it was a breeze, and it seemed like whatever god sponsored this challenge had really phoned it in, as nothing changed besides the monsters getting a little bit stronger. They weren't even increasing the number of monsters. I was pretty sure I could get well into wave 50 or 60 if the pace continued—but not while protecting Alana. After that twelfth wave, she was out of mana and panting, and we didn't have the ability to obtain the last bit she needed to recover.

"Are you ready to call it? I think we have an idea of what we need now. Maybe pick up some fire skills or bring some torches with us," I said while Alana recovered her breath.

"No torches," she gasped. "Burn us down, too."

I thought about it for a second and shrugged. "It's probably worth a try, but maybe it won't work."

"Bigger axe?" she asked, almost breathing normally.

I chuckled. "We can try that too. Well, you should get a bit of money for level 12. Not much, but enough to get a weapon or two. And maybe a spell—but not a good one."

"Do you want to continue on yourself? Just let me fall alone?" She asked.

I shook my head. "There's no need for that. We'll just duck out together. We can always come back and try again later today if we want—unless we're a little more prepared."

I wasn't going to be able to finish it and really didn't need the money for now. Just upgrading her equipment a little and increasing her ability to deal with a bit more damage would likely be helpful no matter what she did. She wouldn't be able to fight something that much higher level than her when she was only level one, but she had probably leveled up, too. We could run through her stats, level her up, get her some skills, and maybe see what we could do to get her a class. But for now, I was pretty satisfied. She kept her head on straight during combat. Even if she wasn't skilled, she at least didn't do anything stupid.

"All right. Let's head out," I said as we accepted the exit after completing the round and stepped out—to be greeted by the crow.