I quickly looked around, desperately trying to get a grasp of the situation.

Another ‘Purifier’ formed out of the ruby haze, one of too many.

“Master!” She said, exasperated.

“Master!” Repeated another.

I didn’t say anything, couldn’t bring myself to do more than stare, frozen even if I was aware of the vague sense of danger somewhere out there. I knew that they could, after some effort, even tell me what killed them in the first place, but I completely and utterly failed in directing them.

Occasional bursts of the bright fire flashed in between the trees as the monsters beyond the camp limit became aware of the assailants, and most likely attempted to fight back.

Unsuccessfully, red mist kept spitting replacements for the fallen. It gave me no idea how many enemies we might be facing, or why they were significantly more successful than before. I knew I should probably do something, anything, but I didn’t know what exactly.

My heart raced, but my mind was blank, I had no solution to this. I was, once again, the observer, unable to act despite knowing I should.

More than twenty, maybe thirty ‘Purifiers’ were down only to be recreated in my vicinity, giving me a sense of this unseen threat.

Luckily for me, the monsters didn’t need my direction. They didn’t need me at all, I thought, overwhelmed by the sense of helplessness and uselessness.

The assembling cohort of monsters didn’t wait though. Tama and Miwah took a back-to-back stance with me pressed in the middle, either to shield me from the attack or to simply imply prevent me from fumbling between them and the enemy.

Tama start lobbing a few fireballs into the forest where they detonated violently, almost at random, evidently trying to blast the large area without me even having the chance to really see what she was aiming at. A shrine and its few supporting structures were still situated in the middle forest, with trees blocking the view from the direction the buildings were not.

Respawned ‘Purifiers’ massed around me and formed a defensive circle. Instead of chasing the unseen enemy hiding in trees, they held back.

There must have been thirty of them, a sizeable crowd, all recreated after the adversary that took them out very quickly. I could feel their restlessness, their anger, twitching tails and ears, ready to release their flaming powers.

Rest took a different approach: All the ‘Eviscerators’ disappeared into their cloak of invisibility at masse, leaving only the floating patches of distorted air behind, impossible to tell where any of the individual shadowy canines were. A sweeping gaze around the courtyard gave the impression of the desert mirage for a short moment before it all went still.

At that point, all the fiery vulpine variants were slain and reborn, gathering around me, with only a handful of survivors retreating back to camp on foot. Those few remained lurking on the edge of the clearing, stepping back and forth, probably the lookout.

Tama threw another few blazing bolts into the surrounding greenery, with a few more explosions and starting a few more localized fires flickering in between the gaps of trees.

For a short moment, there was silence, with only gusts of wind sweeping the forest, carrying the smell of burning everywhere.

Only a few ‘Purifiers’ loitered around at the edges of the camp where they made an easy target, seemingly at random, though I could barely see them sandwiched between my protectors.

“For Master!” They chanted in their screechy voices, taunting the enemy with the only words they seem to speak: “For Master! For Master!”

Then I took a glimpse of it, the movement among the greenery.

One shadow. Two. Three at the very least.

A figure pounced out of the cover of the bushes, and with a single slash of his blade cut the lone fox monster apart, its blood splattering everywhere.

That was what ‘Purifiers’ waited for.

In an instant, the area was set ablaze in one massive conflagration before the body even hit the ground.

An attacker, a figure in the dark flowing robes, gushed away the flames with a swing of the sword before disappearing into the woods, in almost a dance-like move, only to motivate the fiery monsters to simply incinerate all the possible cover.

“For Master!”

Another lone ‘Purifier’ lurking too close to the trees fell to the blade. As bait, I finally understood the purpose of the stragglers not seeking the safety of the rest of the mob.

The stealthy assailant escaped the flames more narrowly than before as more of the greenery around was being scorched, and another few more explosions swept the offending leaves and bushes, and with it, places to hide.

Another seemingly careless ‘Purifier’ was dead, carved apart by the sword, the enemy even more narrowly escaping with their flowing black robes briefly catching fire as proof they aren’t entirely immune to the power.

An assassin rolled back into the cover narrowly evading being roasted alive.

The next patch of scrubs went away with the blast. The perimeter of the camp slowly turned into an inferno, with the only approach being either through all heat or in between the buildings.

I took a glimpse of them. The trio of black-dressed figures dashed away from the fiery destruction, only to disappear as they left my view once more.

A burning tree collapsed on the ground crushing that ornamental gateway, and both went down in the cloud of dust, rubble and flames.

In another few, tense seconds that felt longer than they actually were, the enemy made a move.

Then, all of the sudden, two of those black-robed assassins, took the opportunity to slip in between the buildings to leap straight at us cutting down whoever stood in their way.

They killed the few ‘Purifiers’ with effortless ease, spraying the area with their blood. I, once again, just froze, couldn’t make myself move regardless of what was happening in front of my eyes. One of the smaller vulpines took the swing intended for me with her own body, while Tama pushed me away.

The Assassins' moment of triumph was immediately overturned as they were jumped by thirty ‘Eviscerators’ appearing from the thin air and attacking them from all directions in a massive, vicious ambush.

Even extensively outnumbered, and surprised, those black-robed warriors could fight. They slew a couple of Eviscerators in an impressive display of the logic-defying sword skills, but ultimately they succumbed to the sheer numbers mixed with the fearless ferocity of the monsters.

As the two mysterious warriors died screaming, literally torn apart by bloodthirsty monsters who tore him limb for limb in a horrifying display of rage, an uncaring system announced another of those messages invading my view once more.

 

 

Abruptly, everything around me was this ruby mist. A bloodlike haze that had taken the bodies, and made them anew, one that has been giving birth to the monsters too many times already, fueling the grinder… yet they never did it on such scale as it did now.

For a few seconds, everything was this crimson murk, and then everything was monsters.

“Master! Master!” A small horde cried in unison, giggling in their triumph, enemies dead, their numbers growing.

Abruptly though, a missile - not a projectile, sword, thrown as one in the way I wouldn’t think was possible - pierced through a couple of monsters only to end up lodged deeply into Miwah’s chest. Even that scavenged armour she wore didn’t help. I didn’t realise it until droplets of warm blood landed on my face.

She shielded me from harm once again.

The werewolf collapsed on the ground into the puddle of gore, a blade of the long sword protruding from her chest. I threw myself to her, without any thought, without an idea what exactly I would or should do, only to watch her slowly fade away while coughing blood. Her blue wolfish eyes showed no fear, but I was terrified, despite the fact I saw her perish already only to be re-created to fight again.

The horde of monsters sparked into action long before that. They caught up to the last assassin very quickly, I heard the human cry in pain as he burned.

I tried to stop the bleeding with my hands. I couldn’t. Miwah breathed out, coughed out the last, and the ruby mist claimed her, body and all the gore disintegrating into the wind, with the mismatched pieces she wore falling to the ground with nothing to hold them. A few eyeblinks later, she was no more.

And in a few beats, she was back among the living, unharmed and whole.

I hugged her. She was perfectly comfortable with that, it even inspired a few of her smaller lookalikes to join. It wasn’t the right place, and it certainly wasn’t the right time, but they didn’t seem to mind it at all.

Perhaps they were always affectionate, even in moments like this, or perhaps it was a good way to put the obstacle between me and ranged attacks.

They pushed me down, while others watched their surrounding. No more attacks came, however, everyone seem to stay alert. Few slipped away to the crowd, possibly to confirm we are, indeed, alone.

“I don’t want you to die for me. I don’t want anyone to die for me,” I said. I had enough of all that fighting.

“I don’t die unless you do. Stay alive, Master.” Miwah answered, her voice pleasant and calming. Unlike me, she was completely undisturbed by the idea of death and violence. Recreated by the system each time she perished, she may not have a human perspective on dying, I realized.

I still wasn’t accepting the sacrifices made.

Another three monsters respawned nearby. I flinched, expecting another assault. It didn’t come.

“Three enemies dead. One got away. He is badly wounded he won’t get far.” Tama concluded. For a moment, I didn’t do or say anything, lost, slightly confused, I merely held on to Miwah. She didn’t object.

“Don’t chase him, it could be a trap,” I said. The only reasonable thing I had done since the start of the ambush. Though I was concerned, I wanted to be cautious.

“Only a couple of us, as long as we have the scent, we will hunt him down.” Miwah objected and I could feel her tense, as she once again gazed blindly in the distance. I was more certain now it was their way to direct their lesser kin, even at distances, though I was not in the mood to question her ability. As uncomfortable as I felt before getting close to them, I still kept holding onto the shadowy werewolf, for some reason, I couldn’t explain to myself, let alone them.

They, however, seem to act like this was perfectly normal behaviour, just until Tama remarked:

“I am starting to feel a little jealous, Master,” Tama remarked, in an almost teasing tone, just like other monsters the fire vixen was entirely nonchalant when there was no immediate danger present, and entirely ruthless there was one.

All of a sudden, I started to feel awkward about the entire thing though I began to feel that I find the presence of my monsters calming, a safe place in the storm that was this entire world I was unwillingly thrust into.

So I pushed away from the hug, slowly uncomfortable with the fact that ‘my monsters’ line of thought.

I looked around. While the buildings were mostly intact, a lot of greenery was badly scorched and smouldering, with a few flickering flames at some spots and the persistent stench of burning lingered in the air, heavy and unpleasant. Assailants met their brutal end, and I better not looked in that direction.

“I hate this world.” I sighed.

It was frightening how quickly Tama reacted to that remark:

“Yes, Master. We will see this world burn.”

As unsettling it was on its own it also helped me realize the scale of what ‘my monsters’ posed - there were, once again, more of them. Much more, significantly, with a gathering crowd around. They looked at me, with an expectation in their eyes, and some even yelped the usual “Master!” line at me.

I was nervous.

“Thank you, thank you all!” I said to them. I didn’t sound confident, at least to my own ears, and it was the worst speech ever. But I meant what I said.

I was answered with a cry by their screechy girlish voices cheering “For Master!”

Definitely more uncomfortable with the attention I was given, I stayed silent and didn’t even react to Tama that decided it was her turn hanging to me. Sensing the most crushing expectations, I tried the command them, something I wasn’t competent in, let alone comfortable with, doing. How does one feed an army?

“Hurry out, ladies. Secure this camp so we can all rest.” Was the best I came up with. The gathering of monsters erupted in a flurry of activity.

The fact they still eagerly accepted orders despite I couldn’t do anything to help them was still a small shock.

I started to feel the weight of responsibility and was already slightly distressed by my future prospect when I asked for the “Overview”. It confirmed that I had all the reasons to be at the very least worried about the future.

 

 

One again, I silently asked myself: How could one feed an army and what would happen if my monsters went hungry? I almost shivered at the thought. Their numbers rose at an insane rate.

Their numbers were fueled by the conflict, I suspected that stronger or more numbers the enemies, more creatures had to be thrown at the problem to make it go away - until the solution became the problem.

With my mind concentrated on the possibility easy, almost magical solution to this issue, the upcoming crisis, I tried the more obvious command.

“Select third skill.”

I was a little surprised this actually worked, and the new screen invaded my vision in its usual monochromatic blandness.

A result was almost equally worrying as it was unhelpful, with a little explanation of what to expect after I select one of those. There doesn’t seem to be any logic behind why this should be called ‘elements’. Naming convention behind the skills was somewhere between irritating and ominous - I thought later, as there was nothing even remotely exciting or cool about any of it when all this madness actually happened to the person.

With a deep breath and brief consideration, I did my choice.