Wave Two has begun!

  Roland was out of the gate a few seconds after the announcement. The rats were back.

  “Got eyes on them!” Bob called out from the mound as Roland looked up the road and spotted them. There seemed to be more than last time and about a third of them were larger than humans. He recognized his old sparring partner, the biggest rat of all (so far):

  Ratling Champion (Beastkin)

  F-Grade Minor Lieutenant

  Health 100 Endurance 75 Mana 35

  At least a dozen copies of the Champion he’d killed on his first night on the job were headed their way.

  The Champions were going to take multiple shots to bring down unless someone landed a critical hit on the head or heart. Even Roland couldn’t one-shot them reliably, except with Coup de Grace.

  I’ll just have to kill them all, he decided.

  The first shots rang out before Roland reached the leading edge of the rat horde.

  Reaper’s Dash! Uncanny Charge!

  He ghosted through the leading Minions, wiping them out by the half dozen, then charged toward the nearest Champion. A few smaller Ratlings were sent flying as he rammed past them and smashed into the lieutenant.

  The impact sent the big critter reeling back. Roland, not bothering to summon the naginata, used a Coup de Grace-powered Spirit Weapon to stab it in the face and neck. One down.

  The Ratlings hadn’t been crowding their leaders, which gave Roland enough clearance to call his naginata and begin carving his way toward the next lieutenant.

  Dozens of critters kept heading down the hill toward the landfill, but Roland ignored them. The important thing was to kill off the Champions; one of those big monsters could wipe out the rest of the party if it got into close quarters.

  The staccato gun reports, the screeches of the rats as he slaughtered them, and his own labored breathing mixed into a symphony of chaos. He sliced off the top of a Champion’s head, knocked two Ratlings away on the backswing, and somersaulted over three more before landing before the next lieutenant.

  Unlike the one he had fought off I-95, this furry had a weapon, a car axle fashioned into a club. Roland deflected a heavy swing with the naginata’s shaft and snap-kicked a spiked foot into the monster’s groin, doubling it over in the perfect position to behead it. As its head rolled away, a confused expression on its ratty face, another Lieutenant blindsided Roland and smashed its club – a four-foot weightlifting rod – right onto his melon.

  His helmet absorbed most of the damage, but some energy from the massive impact got through the fifty points of protection and rang his bell. Literally: a gong echoed inside his brain as he got a big dose of adult-onset shaken-baby syndrome.

  Roland was flung into half a dozen rats, killing one on impact, and ended up in a tangle of furry limbs. He woke up from the brief concussion-induced blackout to the sensation of multiple sets of teeth gnawing uselessly on his leather jacket and more painfully on his less protected legs. The little Ratlings tried to bite and claw him as the Champion closed in, metal bar held high for a killing blow.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Reaper’s Dash!

  Roland teleported through the Champion, leaving the rats he’d been tangled with dead in his wake. His Vital Energy was nice and high; he dumped much of it into his Health and Mana as he moved.

  A spinning kick tipped with a spirit blade sent the Champion to the ground, clutching a shattered knee. That left Roland with a second or two of peace. The gunfire was growing fast and furious. He forced himself to focus and drove the naginata’s point into the spine of the big rat, finishing it off.

  He looked down the road. A dozen Ratlings and a Champion were already through the gate and halfway to the bottom of the mound.

  Uncanny Charge! Uncanny Charge!

  He crashed through the mass of rats like a freight train, not stopping to finish off the critters he ran over or sent spinning into the night; he left their scattered bodies behind him, screeching rats nursing broken bones.

  The Champion in the lead reached the bottom of the Trash Hill; Roland realized everyone with a gun was shooting at it, letting the minions move forward unmolested. He couldn’t blame them.

  He Reaper Dashed toward it, wiping out any Ratling or Marauder he passed through. Emerging from ghost world a few feet behind the Champion, Roland delivered a killing naginata strike to its head. It collapsed at his feet.

  Two Marauders tackled Roland a moment later, grabbing his legs and taking him to the ground. More piled on, taking advantage of his phase ability’s cooldown. Once again, he was covered with furry monsters, biting and stabbing at him.

  As he struggled, he caught a glimpse of another Champion racing up toward the party.

  His friends could take it out. They had to.

  He slashed and stabbed the rats trying to hold him down with his spirit blades, sending limbs and other bits and pieces flying off amidst spurts of blood. The deeper boom of a shotgun added a sense of urgency to the fight. Bob, he guessed as he wiped out every minion around him and jumped to his feet. His cousin had loaded seven sabot-discarding slugs into one of the Kel-Tec’s dual magazines. More damage and penetration; they might do the trick.

  They did. The limp body of the Champion who bypassed him rolled down the mound and came to a stop a few feet away, bleeding from a bunch of big holes.

  A few more Ratlings were heading up, but Roland saw four other Lieutenants coming closer, with twice as many minions in tow. He had to get to them first.

  A flurry of pistol shots and a loud zapping sound followed Roland as he hunted down one Champion, then another. He nailed a third with Dread Glare’s new Evolution, Judgment Gaze, which delivered enough damage to finish it off in under two seconds.

  The fourth Champion was too far to reach, so he summoned his shotgun for the first time in the fight. One twelve-gauge blast kneecapped the big rat, and a second put it out of everyone’s misery. No lieutenants were left, so he emptied the rest of the tubular magazine on any minion that was moving, wiping them out.

  He turned to the mound just long enough to see that half a dozen Ratlings had almost overrun the position. Bob and Barton were using spears to keep them at bay while Josh and Wendy shot from behind them – way too dangerous but they had no choice – and Dahlia used her souped-up Taser on a rat, dropping it.

  No Ratlings were alive around him; another seven or eight, and a single remaining Lieutenant, brought up the rear of the wave. They were still crossing the junkyard on the way to Trash Hill, and Roland went after them before they could get any closer.

  Reaper’s Dash! Uncanny Charge!

  He exterminated the minions by ghosting through them. The lieutenant lived long enough to get slammed to the ground when Roland charged into him. He summoned and used Coup de Grace to drive the naginata into the monster’s chest. After that, he charged up the mound, hoping he wasn’t too late.

  Two Ratlings remained, trying to get past Barton and Bob’s spears. Josh had his .45 out and had drawn a bead on one of them but kept hesitating; the melee fighters were moving around too much to give him a clear shot.

  “Bloodykee, I call on thee!” Dahlia screamed, aiming an empty Taser at the rat going after Barton even as Roland chopped down the one fighting Bob.

  An honest-to-God tiny black lightning bolt emerged from the empty weapon and burned into the Ratling for three points of damage, staggering and stunning it. Barton’s frantic spear thrust sank into the paralyzed critter’s upper chest, which proved to be just enough to bring it to zero hit points before Roland could get to it.

  Roland turned to Dahlia to congratulate her but saw her lying face-down on the mound; her Mana was zeroed out; so was half of her Health, even though she had no visible wounds.

  I knew I liked her, Raven said, landing next to her. That makes it two different spells she’s cast without the System’s assistance. She paid for it, but it didn’t kill her. The little lady’s got potential.

  If she’s still alive at the end of this, Roland replied.

  He looked at the time. Four minutes and thirty seconds until the next wave.