The man gestured toward Eika with his right hand, and the vermin stopped retreating from her, and instead began to advance once again. "Run girl!" L called out to her as V grabbed her arm. "Move back, they are moving toward us as well now." V pulled L back with him as he slowly retreated. The advance of the vermin was not... fast. They still seemed to be devouring everything other than dirt as they moved forward. From the middle of the horde, Eika roared again and jumped, landing horizontally on a wall of a collapsing house, nearly instantly pushing off again to jump to the opposite roof. Rather than retreat with L and V however, Eika shot toward the Champion of Vermin with a frankly blinding speed. She slammed her shoulder directly into the man's head, snapping it backward. As he fell a second time, once again his body was swarmed. Eika quickly jumped back out of the sea of vermin, searching for his next revival. If it was a revival.

"The girl has become quite powerful." L spoke with approval as she watched. "Although, unless he has a limited amount of lives, she is just going to exhaust herself." V shook his head "It's worse than that. Remember when you found her passed out? Think of this sort of like that strange demon form you used once. I'm certain that eventually she will suddenly pass out. I will explain what I know about her after we live through this." Frowning L responded "Yes that is probably true. It will be double unfortunate if she passes out in the middle of the horde, where we cannot retrieve her. On that subject..." She gestured as Eika tore the man's head off, three deaths so far. "I am forced to assume he cannot do this forever. My guess is that there is no numerical limit such as the Champion of Life's skill, but is dependent on the body being eaten by his swarm. They made quite an effort to devour his body every time." V looked at the sky as he spoke. "I agree that is the most likely case, however, I do not currently have a plan to stop him from reviving. Even if we somehow could kill all of the rodent sized vermin, what about the flying ones? And the occasional cloud of bugs we have seen? While alive, it seems as if he can only give the swarm generic commands. Notice how they are coming after us, but slowly? It’s possible their thought patterns are too simple to directly control. However, they clearly go into a frenzy for his body every time he dies. If we tried to get near him and pull his body from the horde, surely we would be swarmed as well. Perhaps if we only had to keep him from being eaten for a few seconds before he officially "died" that would work, but what if he has to be dead for hours beforehand? Or even worse, every single member of his swarm needs to be dead as well?"

As Eika scanned the horde for the fourth revival of the man, she found it hard to think. Her thoughts came quicker and stronger than ever before. She felt as if she had drunk a thousand cups of tea in one gulp, she struggled to think calmly as she awaited his next arrival. She felt even stronger than the last time this had happened, back in the city. She supposed that made sense, as she had a stronger class now. She also could barely even string two thoughts together last time, maybe she was getting used to this... transformation? She rocketed herself toward the man as he rose from his horde again. Killing him as easily as the last few times, and retreated just as easily. Eika realized that she had taken small bites and stings of varying types, only a few so far, but if this man could come back to life over and over and over, she would eventually be too hurt to continue. She hoped that V and L, who had retreated some ways away, could come up with something soon. Being near all the rats and bugs and other vermin was sort of disgusting as well. As Eika scanned the area, she realized she had not seen Luna. Presumably she was left behind when they sprinted to the town, but she should probably be here by now if she was following them...

V and L considered the situation. "If the horde cannot travel particularly quickly, we could attempt to convince the people of this town to leave, they might be able to outrun the vermin. Especially if the horde intends to eat the entire village. That way we saved them, and we can just... also run away." V said hopefully, even though he already suspected L would not be happy with the suggestion. "If you order me to do so, I will flee this place. However, these villagers will not survive if they abandon their homes. Even if they survived with no supplies, where would they go? Any other nearby village would not be able to take them in. These fringe villages are not normally bastions of plenty. None of them could afford another entire village's worth of refugees." V shrugged "Cool great. So, what do you suggest we do?" L sheathed her sword, and crossed her arms. "How certain are you that the swarm is following his direct commands, and will return to normal should he be unable?" Shaking his head, he responded with a tinge of bitterness in his voice "Only a little? It's not like I have had hours to study their behavior. Why?" L gestured at Eika as she responded. "Well, perhaps we could capture him. If we blind him and destroy his ears and eyes, make it so he has no idea what is going on around him, perhaps we could abscond with him. If he cannot give commands to the swarm, perhaps we can escape far enough away that we could kill him safely." V nodded, a studious look on his face.

"I assume we are not knocking him out for fear of it simply causing the same frenzy as when he dies?" L shrugged "I simply figured it was a good precaution. I am not sure how many chances we will get to actually carry the man out of the swarm. "Oh, hi guys! I found som- Wow that is a lot of animals!" Luna had wandered up to them, carrying a large rat in her arms as she scratched its stomach. "Girl! The rats are eating people! Drop it right now!" L gripped her sword, but V placed his hand on her arm. "Where were you?" He asked, trying to sound pleasant. If Luna was carrying a rat, perhaps it could give some insight into the situation. Also, to be perfectly honest, V had grown to trust Luna when it came to dangerous situations.... Well, to a certain extent anyway. "Oh well, I was walking around the city and some man was being attacked by these rats, so I shooed the rats away but this one tried biting me so I picked him up. He only wanted some scratchings!" She scratched the rats tiny chin as it lazed around in her arms. "Before I met you guys, sometimes rats and stuff would steal my food. Sometimes we would fight over the same good stuff found in the trash piles. Sometimes I would look for a place to sleep, and wander into a place where these guys were sleeping. They are good luck to have around! It normally means no one will disturb you while you get some rest. They were always so hungry, they used to be my...ri... reval... rival! Now that I have food though, they are just friendly creatures!" Luna looked at Eika as she shot across a roof. "Oh wow. Eika's awesome!! I wanna jump and run like that!"

L shook her head "I don't think that was helpful. The rat's reaction to her is probably a peculiarity of the girl, her blessing, or whatever strange powers protect her." V pursed his lips "Probably, but it would lend credence to the idea that it is not direct mind control, but generic commands. Since whatever is going on with Luna seemingly overrides the command to 'eat everything/everyone.'" L acquiesced "Yes, I suppose you're right. We still have no real way to implement the capture of the Champion." V considered, "Well, actually. Eika could probably do it. She might be strong enough to carry him with her and escape the horde, rather than kill him. I can send you guys "orders" remember? Unless you suddenly have a new idea, I will have Eika try to capture the guy and bring him to us. We should be ready to assist, or flee, depending." L nodded, but gestured at Luna "What about her?" Shaking his head V responded "Eh, she will be fine." L looked at Luna dubiously. Setting the rat down Luna raised one of her arms in a fist pumping motion. "I’ll help too! The little fluffy and crawly things are being sort of annoying! Gotta set them right!" V looked at L once more "If you’re ready?"

Eika had started to feel a little exhausted, she wondered how many more times she could do this. She was happy that Luna had apparently reunited with L and V, although she was carrying a rat. It was not attacking her, so Eika supposed that the situation was under control. As she scanned the area, she suddenly had the distinct impression that V wanted her to capture and escape with the Champion of Vermin. Her eyes became large and she became excited. Her new class must have given her the ability to read minds! ...wait no. Eika remembered that this had happened once before in the hideout in the city. It was some sort of ability V had gained when he added letters to his name. She tried to gauge if she was strong enough to jump up to one of the rooftops while carrying the man. If he was unconscious, it would probably not be too difficult. However, even though he had so far been unable, or unwilling to try and stop her from killing him, there was no guarantee that he would just willingly be kidnapped. Eika prepared to knock the man out, instead of kill him the next time he showed up.

"Well, we should be ready for anything. We have no idea what class he is, for all we know he is some sort of mega kill mage of death." V and L watched as Eika launched herself once again toward the man. As she made contact, she knocked the wind out of him with her initial hit, and quickly punched him in the back of the head. "Oh... that's not... exactly what I wanted..." V's voice was filled with regret at the situation that was developing. L cursed, and Luna pleasantly commented on Eika's strength. As Eika began to bound away, carrying the man, the situation became so much worse than any of them could have possibly imagined. It was not wrong to say that the swarm went into a frenzy, but rather than a focused one intending to devour the man’s body, the frenzy was a universal one. Every single bug an animal in the area completely lost its mind. Attacking everything with wild abandon. Where once was a slow-moving horde, devouring everything that fell within its reach, now was a chaotic mass of vermin running in every direction, attacking everything. Eika escaped the center of the mass, sort of. She tried to jump onto a nearby overturned cart, but a few of the horde had instantly jumped on her and were clawing and biting both her and the man. Her jump was unsteady, and caused her to hit the side of the cart, and fall into the vermin. She roared as she fell, which temporarily caused a short pause in the swarm around her, but was covered again quickly. She jumped again, but was significantly weighed down, and only made it a small ways toward them.

"Save Eika!" V yelled over the squealing, buzzing, growling, and other horrid noises that had approached a deafening level. L drew her weapon and charged forward. The vermin had already started attacking them. Although it was sort of disgusting, V discovered that simply grabbing the animals and crushing them in his hands was far more effective than using a weapon. "Woh! They are really running everywhere!!!" Luna squealed, a crow landed on her head and squawked loudly as she yelled. V tried to retreat, defend himself, and keep an eye on Luna and L at the same time. L was trying to fight through the vermin, the chaos was both good and bad in this regard. The horde was no longer a solid wall of biting and scratching, but now it was total chaos, even though L might not be the primary target any longer, the simple chaos made it difficult for her to make any forward progress. V wondered if she could summon up that blue fire on command, and realized he probably should have examined that possibility before this point. He checked Eika, she was hopping awkwardly toward L, carrying the man. Parts of him had been eaten, a few fingers and some of his foot. Eika had been damaged fairly badly. Her face was covered in blood and one of her arms seemed to be losing its grip. 

Sighing, V decided it was time to try something that he had specifically not mentioned as a possibility. First, it had a low chance of working. Secondly, he could not imagine that if this did work, it was going to be a good experience for him. He grabbed another one of the furry monsters biting him, and activated Forceful Use. V had figured that the swarm was being used as a weapon by the Champion. It did not seem like he considered them family or friends, he seemed like a crazy person who was wielding rats and bugs like one would wield a sword. If the Champion of Vermin considered them a weapon, and was using his blessing to command them as one, in theory this would work. V was instantly overwhelmed with an indescribable sensation. It was like his mind was part of chorus of a billion animal cries. His arms were a part of a trillion skittering legs. He had a feeling going into this that it was going to be a really bad time, but this was something else entirely. He could not even formulate proper thoughts any longer, his instincts were simply screaming for silence. He screamed for peace, for a reprieve from the madness.