With her nose tucked underneath the collar of her robe, Teresa began to claw her way out from the collapsed cave. The rock covering her was rather brittle, but even so it was pretty damn hard to break through with such a limited range of motion.

Her fingers cracked the surface of any boulder she tried to push past, and while she wasn't exactly clearing the cave in a dignified manner she was still able to push her body through the rubble. Teresa's main concern was breathing.

She had once killed a group of monstrous deer by suffocating them in poisonous gas. The gas itself hadn't been what killed them, it had been the lack of breathable air. Teresa felt like she could hold her breath a lot longer than a normal human, but she wasn't sure to what extent. She had never thought to test something like that.

Rock and soil continued to brush past her as she struggled through the cave, hoping she was going in the right direction. The whole cave had been a single, narrow passageway, so as long as she followed the loose bits of earth she should be fine. She occasionally found a solid surface that was far too large, which hinted that she had dug herself towards a wall. Teresa simply altered course a little and continued her way out, moving at a respectable pace.

If she had tried to take Preston Waln with her like this, he would have certainly died along the way. There were several instances where a large rock slammed into the back of Teresa's head, and if not for her Fortitude it would have hurt like hell, possibly killing her. Instead, she was just really uncomfortable rather than smushed into a pancake.

It only took a little over a minute for her to escape, as she made her way through she found two people rapidly digging away at the collapsed tunnel. Jake and Jim were trying to get through as fast as they could, though the narrow tunnel didn't allow them to stand shoulder to shoulder. It probably didn't help that Jim was a massive human being, but it was the thought that counted.

"I'm fine!" Teresa yelled as she broke free, covered in soil and dust.

"We're surrounded by monsters, are you good to fight?" Jake asked, helping her out.

"Yeah, what's the plan?"

"Aside from 'don't die,' I have no idea. Did you find Thomas?"

"No, nobody from Angelo's party was down there."

"Then who was talking?"

"That comes later. How many monsters are we talking about here?"

"Thousands. We're lucky enough that some of them are fighting each other, but even so we're surrounded on all sides. Mordecai and a few of the long distance rangers have been shooting any monster that looks remotely explosive, but it's only just started."

Their situation did not sound good, and once they made their way outside Teresa saw for herself just how bad things were. Thousands of monsters were scattered across the terrain, gradually making their way closer in between skirmishes with other monsters.

She had seen firsthand how effective a monster lure was this deep in the Contaminated Zone when they used one against Chernobyl, but now multiple had been used. Unfortunately, as much as the monsters may attack one another, Teresa did not see a single one attack a Portal.

Preston ran over to check on her, though she quickly dismissed his concerns. Randall and Sarah were with the other rangers, trying to pick off the monsters sooner rather than later.

"Their levels are lower to the south, we should break through there and maneuver around." Nikolas was saying to Ezio.

"We can't retreat again, we don't have the time!"

"We can't advance if we're dead."

"It's not like they're shooting at us, it will be easier than dealing with the Avatars." Ezio retorted. "This isn't an attempt to kill us, it's an attempt to slow us down. Everything Angelo and even Chernobyl has done has halted our advance just a little longer. If we keep retreating every time there's danger, we'll never make it."

"I don't know about that, it definitely feels like they're trying to kill us. Some of those monsters have a level nearly three times higher than our weakest members."

"Tomorrow there will be more, retreating requires time we don't have. You want to get through this with no more casualties, but that simply isn't possible Nikolas. We need to keep going."

"I don't like the way he's phrasing it, but Ezio is right." Teresa interrupted. "If we retreat today, there will be another problem tomorrow we'll have to deal with, then another the next day, and it'll continue until we get overrun. Everyone is in good condition, we need to think about what we can do to get through."

"Why not just use another monster lure?" Preston asked. "If we can get someone through the horde, they can activate a lure in the heart of the Contaminated Zone again. I'm sure this many monsters would mess some stuff up, and someone has to have an extra."

"It wouldn't work." Ezio dismissed. "Whoever we sent would have to be capable of getting past the monsters on their own as fast as possible. Not only would they need a high Agility to avoid most of the high damage attacks, they would need a high Fortitude to survive the area of effect attacks that do land. They would need the resource pools to sustain themselves, the-"

"Okay, I get it, I'll do it. I've already played the role of being bait enough to be used to it." Teresa said, rolling her eyes. "Since it's relevant now, my class is Jack Of All Trades. My stats are pretty evenly divided, my lowest is a 94 in everything but Intelligence and Wisdom, which are 102 and 97 respectively."

"That's insane, how many points do you get per level?" Ezio asked incredulously.

"One in everything, and an extra point in my lowest stat. If multiple stats are tied for lowest, they each get a point. I get no Unallocated Points though."

"That's… monstrous."

"My class upgraded after beating the Tutorial, didn't yours?"

"Yeah, to a legendary F ranked class, but we can have this talk later. Even if you got through, the rest of Angelo's party would be waiting for you, and they will definitely overwhelm you. We won't get through this by having someone play hero, our best bet is a combined effort, unless you think you can take on four Completionists after getting through that horde at once by yourself." Ezio said.

"So not that then, got it." Teresa said, thinking. Maybe they could just throw a monster lure or launch it somehow over the horde? No, that was too far. Using another monster lure wouldn't solve their problems. Could they strategically use them to attract monsters hostile to one another closer? Sure, but that would invite more risk and by the time that worked they would be swarmed.

Okay, forget monster lures. Did they have another item they could use? She had a flashbang, a spare human evolution thinga-mcbobber that they hadn't figured out who to give to yet, a Strength boosting guitar, boomerang, empty handgun, a couple weapons… nope. She could give the guitar to someone, but the item was still level 0. She wasn't even sure it would have an effect on most of the people nearby and it would take someone out of the fight to operate.

She went through as many ideas as she could in the span of just a few seconds. Most of them would simply make things worse or would blatantly not work.

Maybe she was overthinking it. The army had a lot of practice working together in formation, alternating with each other to preserve resources and to negate the effects of skill cooldowns. It would be rough, but possible. There was no perfect solution to their situation.

"A normal push is our only real option. We don't have to kill all of them, just enough to pass through. Then once we've made it, we can use a monster lure again to help attack Chernobyl." Teresa said.

"Now you get it. Let's get moving." Ezio said as he began barking out orders.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Are you sure about this?" Nikolas asked, looking at Teresa.

"If you have a better idea I'm all ears, but we aren't in the same position as we were yesterday. We stayed put because we were all hurt and low on resources, now we are as close to prepared as we can expect ourselves to be. It's time, either Chernobyl dies today or we do." Teresa responded. Nikolas nodded, and began to coordinate The Mall's forces.

Everyone was already in position, and after a few item handouts everyone was ready. Preston downed an Agility Pill, something they had gotten from a Radioactive Portal that increased one's Agility stat by 5 for 20 minutes. Several light warrior types began to down one, as they had received a container that held 10 of those pills. They prevented anyone from using potions during that time period, and other buffing pills would have no effect. Not that they had an extra, Teresa's dad actually had gone through a whole bottle himself while he had been alone in the Contaminated Zone.

The army steadily approached the northern edge of the monsters. The monsters formed a full ring around their initial position that had been gradually closing in. Rather than charging in recklessly, the army held their position just short of the monster horde and began firing spells and projectiles to thin their numbers where possible.

They avoided targeting monsters that were already fighting each other, trying to pick at the ones that were now heading straight towards them. Mana arrows glanced harmlessly off many of the high level monsters, even Mana bullets seemed to do negligible damage. It wasn't unless they hit a weak point such as the eyes that they actually did anything.

Fortitude still increased the durability of one's eyes, but nevertheless they remained more vulnerable than the rest of the body. The various monsters that were struck there were blinded, while a few other high level creatures that didn't specialize in Fortitude were shot down as they approached.

Alternatively, a pack of Barium Wolves, which looked like massive blue wolves with six legs, were able to simply dodge most of the projectiles due to their high Agility. It wasn't until they got in range for the mages that they had any problems, where spells began to affect them. Green vines shot out from a mage and began to herd the wolves, grabbing the ones that braved the strange plant and holding them in place to be peppered by attacks.

Another mage shot out a black haze that was easy enough for most people to see through, but for anyone standing in it they were blinded and unable to see projectiles coming. A totem sprouted out of the ground amidst the high Fortitude Minotaurs, made of a black obsidian. A Minotaur immediately smashed it, only to be covered in a strange rot that began eating away at its skin. It affected all the Minotaurs nearby, slowly corrupting their flesh and rendering them incapacitated.

Teresa chose to hold off for now, as not everyone was attacking immediately. They needed to be careful about resource consumption, and at the moment the army was handling the initial line of monsters just fine.

Clyde, the healer that had gotten the skill <Featherfall>, shot purple balls of energy that were immediately absorbed by a Minotaur. Right after, the ranger in his party fired an arrow that managed to pierce the same Minotaur's skull, as Clyde's <Weakness Of The Flesh> reduced a target's Fortitude and the ranger's <Pierce> added, well, piercing power.

A group of Ethereal Sharks swam through the air on the army's right flank, and that was something Teresa could manage herself. She activated <Suffocate> in her right hand and <Embers> in her left, using careful strikes to attack the ethereal monsters. <Suffocate> shot holes straight through the creatures, though the holes began to regenerate. Did they have a high Vitality or something? Did ethereal monsters even have a Vitality attribute? Whatever, <Embers> set the monsters ablaze, preventing them from recovering in time.

Turns out <Embers> did ignite ethereal opponents, as Teresa hadn't done anything special with her spell. A part of her wondered how they would react to Restoration Magic. Preston had once mentioned that she should have tried using it against the skeletons in the Tutorial since they were undead, though Teresa wasn't sure if ethereal monsters were in the same category.

Unfortunately, Teresa did not have enough time to experiment and observe the results, so she continued to plow through the ethereal monsters. Her extremely high level <Mana Control> helped with ensuring she used only the bare minimum on each monster, tuning her spells on the fly to account for various levels so as to not expend unnecessary Mana.

The rangers and the mages stopped once the Minotaurs and Barium Wolves fell, allowing the next group of monsters to get closer while the army advanced as well. Tri-Horned Kobolds, monsters that looked like a humanoid rat with three horns wielding shoddy shortswords, managed to advance undisturbed. They slammed against the frontline of tanks, smashing their swords into the raised shields of the human forces.

The light warrior archetypes stood behind the tanks, finding opportunities to stab and cut the monsters while the tanks kept them occupied. The Kobolds had surprisingly fast reaction times, immediately moving in response to the human counter attacks. It didn't matter against the speed displayed by the light warriors, whose blades moved faster than the kobolds' bodies.

Kobolds fell in droves while the healers helped anyone who got hurt and used their Mana to repair the damage done to the tanks' equipment. The tanks weren't using very much Mana, and no one dared to use <Taunt> when there were so many monsters that were distracting themselves fighting each other.

Teresa finished off the Ethereal Sharks on her own and pulled her Mana recharging staff out of her <Inventory>. She wasn't low yet, she had been very conservative with her Mana consumption, but in the meantime there was no harm in making the most of her momentary lull.

HP: (1401/1480)

Stamina: (1386/1480)

Mana: (1102/1532)

Instances of <Light Shield> appeared in the sky as another group of Kobolds began firing arrows at the army, only to be swiftly eliminated by a returning barrage from the rangers in the army.

Teresa's break only lasted about 60 seconds before there was an opportunity to contribute again without being wasteful. Salt Homunculus, very small humanoid mounds of sentient salt, were slowly pushing closer while ignoring any arrow or spell that struck them. Rather than waste Mana on compensating for their resistance, a few heavy hitters began to advance to meet them.

Teresa advanced with them. Jake, Noel, Chris, Jim and herself would hopefully be all that was needed. Noel was the tank from Jim's party, who was interestingly enough also a bodybuilder. Maybe the System liked grouping together like-minded individuals.

Chris was the tank from Erika's party, though he seemed to have a pretty standard build as far tanks went. They were all from group four, meaning they weren't diverting a huge amount of army resources to deal with this one group of monsters.

As soon as the monsters were close enough, Teresa summoned her club above her head and crushed the first Salt Homunculus that got close. It crushed the creature just as it jumped at her, sending a plume of salt into the air that made her cough. Jim punched one's head off while Jake decapitated one with his axe, each sending clouds of salt into the air.

There was something wrong with that salt, as it consumed Restoration Mana from her active <Facilitated Restoration> buff. She launched a front kick at another Homunculus that jumped at her, knocking it back into another creature of the same type.

She repeated the process of putting her club away and summoning it again, this time carefully aiming to hit them just with the very end of the club. It crushed the two monsters, sending the plume back towards the rest of the monsters.

"Don't breathe in the salt, it'll drain your healing buffs!" Teresa called out.

"Got it!" Jake replied, while Chris slammed the edge of his shield into a monster's head, using the object to ensure nothing blew back on him.

They continued while slowly moving with the army, a constant advance in a sea of monsters. The Salt monsters were a problem, they had a high Fortitude and a degree of sentience that left them more capable of thought than many of the monsters they had faced before. They were careful with their attacks, trying to counter immediately after a heavy hitter struck one down.

The monsters also had the Strength to be worrisome. They weren't really damaging the tanks through their armor, but if enough got close several could hold you down and render you immobile. Dealing with these guys was a slow process, but that was fine. Their goal wasn't to kill all of the monsters, it was simply to create an opening to press through.

Two more minutes passed as Teresa and the heavy hitters struck down the creatures, until another group of monsters began attacking the Salt Homunculus from behind. This got their attention, and allowed the humans to also divert their attention.

HP: (1385/1480)

Stamina: (1198/1480)

Mana: (1121/1532)

Teresa fell back and regrouped with the rest of her party, checking in on how they were doing. Sarah and her dad were actively firing at a swarm of Radflies, giant bulbous green insects that were trying to dive bomb the army. Each dead Radfly blew up into a mess of green acid. If one died above the army, a <Light Shield> was needed to deal with the liquid.

Preston was dealing with a group of Paralytic Fungi, cutting them apart and running before the spores could affect him as two mages assisted with <Embers>. Teresa went over to help out herself, burning the monsters while Preston kept their attention.

HP: (1386/1480)

Stamina: (1201/1480)

Mana: (1050/1532)

Teresa heard yelling from the front face of the army, and turned to see a crowd of various monsters building up too fast for them to deal with. They were bundled together closely, and the specific varieties of creatures were not hostile to one another.

A flash of light that made even Teresa wince highlighted the battlefield, covering everything with a shade of orange. An ocean of fire spilled out in front of the army, melting through even the tougher creatures. It gave them an opening of several hundred meters, which the army continued to press through cautiously.

Ezio could only use his nuclear <Embers> so many times in one day, though the exact number was still unknown to her. Regardless, he bought them more space, which they needed to take advantage of.

Unfortunately, shortly after this, the army began taking casualties.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.