The group dithered along the road, their eyes staying sharp, snapping to each shadow and mouvement. The clones were wary, this deep into monster infested territory made by the dungeon unnerved them. Each building gave an advantage to ambush predators, each rooftop was a prime spot for a nest. Any alleyway was a potentially deadly stampede for boars and bulls.

What had once been fortifications, now fully abandoned by their soldiers, by fear or death, made it harder and harder to predict the positions of monsters. To a normal citizen who had never travelled beyond the walls of the city, monsters were stupid things, only fueled by the anger of Skorn for man. At least that was Alex's conception, until he fought the gremlins and Glen Crows.

In each encounter, the monsters kept using tactics similar to what Alex himself could devise. It was a stark reminder that life wasn't easy, that it wouldn't have a back route. Well, that was true if you weren't a noble.

Still, the clones held their nerves. Their concentration sharp even without [Singular Focus]. The sounds of battle echoed through the city, smoke and bright lights giving a spectacle to whoever looked.

A clone, in the rear, whistled in a low tone. Everybody halted, and looked back to see that the clone was motioning north. In a somewhat practiced movement, the clones reoriented themselves towards the north. The five melee combatants taking the front and readying their black swords, the two clones behind them drew their bows and prepared for the monsters.

It was a dull thudding that first reached their ears, then came a soft clapping and then a cacophony of sounds. A horde of monsters surged out of a street, their momentum large enough to destroy the buildings that were in their way. It was composed of various monsters, the clones spotted gremlins, wolves, dogs, giant wasps, and other random monsters.

At the head of the horde was a lion with a mane made of darkness. All of its body was black minus its white eyes. The lion set its milky eyes on the clones and roared, and the shadows around them grew. The world became increasingly dark, the light from Mercy withering away under the lion's spell.

Light was becoming scarce, and the horde was getting harder and harder to see, if this continued they might not even see their clones. 

"Bunch up, close rank!" One of the clones shouted and the clones obliged, quickly coming together, so close they were touching each other's shoulders.

"We need to retreat to a choke point, this road is too open. We could be flanked." The clones rushed towards an alleyway, just before the darkness closed around them. All that left in the world were the clones, the ground, and the walls of the alleyway. All the sounds had disappeared, all that was left was the eerie silence and the breaths of the clones.

*What do we do?" The voice of the clone was muffled, as if he was speaking from far away. "We can't run away now, the horde must be coming our way."

"We hold and kill as much as we can, our death does not matter." They said.

"Well, I guess Alex isn't getting any of the gear back." A clone scoffed. "Eh, he could loot more from the dead soldiers around."

A clone in back crouched and activated [Singular Focus], he touched the ground with his hand and felt small vibrations. They were getting stronger, yet not as fast as he thought they would. Several seconds passed by, and the vibrations crescendoed and started to recede.

Coming out of [Singular Focus], he was glad for the darkness for removing the sensory overload. 

"They are gone." Just as he said that, the darkness started to abate. Finally, the clones bathed in Mercy's light and the sounds of the world came back.

"What the fuck?" Someone said. "Seriously, and here I was preparing to die a glorious death."

The road was destroyed, the houses nearby were desecrated with monster shit and piss. Overall it looked horrible and smelled horrible, it even made the person assigned [Singular Focus] duty wish they were back in the spell-induced darkness.

"We should go deeper, with the dungeon beret of such a force it should be easier to reach." The clone said. And as if Skorn heard him, a pack of dogs, black hounds and other assortments of dog-like creatures rounded around the corner.

With no magical darkness-inducing lion in their pack, and the clones far more confident in their chances of a straight up fight, they met the dogs with fury.

There was a fair distance between the two groups, and it was enough for the clones to consider switching out their swords and shields for bows. They all drew their bows simultaneously, and released after two breaths. The arrows streaked through the sky and punctured the fur-hide of the dogs. The next volley came and dealt the same damage.

The monsters weren't stationary either, and they were lunging towards them with their maws and snarls filled with drools and blood. The injured and killed were left behind.

The five frontal clones returned their bows to their backs, and equipped the sword and shield. Among them, the one in the center of the formation, shouted.

"Steady men, hold the line!" That clone was the leader, the [Leadership] skill acting through him. It didn't matter really who was designated as the leader considering they all had the same level in the skill, but after experimenting they concluded that a leader was best put in the center of his men.

[Leadership] was an elusive skill, as its effects were kind of hard to measure. At first he had wondered if it even had an effect other than giving him the instincts of a leader, but after a bit of playing around with it Alex had figured out its benefits. Generally it made unit cohesion much much better, as the communication and understanding of each soldier increased. It also boosted the subordinates skills by a small smidge, like really small.

The only reason he was even able to spot the skill boost was by having two of his clones arm wrestle, which revealed the difference in their [Physical Conditioning] skill.

It was why, when the leader said.

"Brace!"

They fucking braced hard against the dog charge.

---

and if you have any critics please send them to me, I would appreciate.

All the love for Mambell, the beta reader for this story. (I forgot to send him this chapter for a beta read, ops.)