The world around us seemed to stop. Our demon opponents hadn’t started to attack again after their momentary retreat, instead standing near the boss. The greater demon remained there in the road with a calm demeanor, seemingly unfazed. I couldn’t help but think it saw us as bugs.

  His placid smile was eerie, and the smoldering oak tree above cast orange reddish hues that amplified the intensity of his aura. He never once looked at Ryan’s body, now slumped on the moist earth covered in deep red—a massive amount of his own blood. No… we were something lower than bugs.

  I couldn’t stop from scowling. It didn’t seem there was much counter-play to be had in this situation. Had Ryan made a mistake? Been out of position? Lacked focus? I didn’t think any of those things were true. In fact, he was in one of the safest positions. None of us were lacking in focus either. A deep unease was building in me rapidly.

  There was a trend forming, or maybe that trend was always there, but only now amplified by increasing monster difficulty and levels. Death was only one ability away—one millisecond away. Outside of our tanks, I didn’t know if any of us could have survived such a devastating blow.

  I cast a fresh Bone Armor and moved my Medusa’s shield to my back, my biggest blind spot.

  “Let’s move back away from the debris,” I said. We were standing on a pile of demon corpses, a blood soaked earth. The limitations of that devastating spell weren’t clear to me yet, but blood was the medium no doubt, and that meant we were standing on a land of death.

  “Tanks, back to back,” Lucas added. There were five of them now, and with the proper formation we had a shield on each side of us. A facade… the formation would not do much good if the spike came from the center of our group. And now we were so crowded together, it would take a few of us with it.

  Such negative thoughts were coming to me now, and logic didn’t help much to fight them off. I tried to convince myself that Ryan was in such bad shape because of his cloth armor. Surely, the blood spear couldn’t pierce steel just as easily… surely?

  We made it five steps before the clangor of metal exploded in the silence. “I’m alright!” It was Richard on our right flank sporting a gash along his hip. There was a light tear on his shield, but the blood spear hadn’t pierced his body.” I managed to deflect it, just barely.” I could see that a few more inches would have had him impaled as well.

  The mood visibly soured as we all appreciated that even the tanks would find it hard to come out of this battle unscathed. And yet all we could do was try and find better, safer footing. Somewhere with less blood, less opportunity for our foe to strike.

  It was between the abodes we found ourselves, where the bloodstained ground reached only to the very front of our wall, where our tanks now stood. We needed a little bit more time, but the boss was no longer so careless. We couldn’t make any corrections to our line up before the greater demon was rushing in our direction.

  Oddly though, the lesser demons at its side didn’t go directly for us. They avoided our shield wall, and even the abodes we had squeezed ourselves between, opting to run right past us. I suddenly worried for our flank, but had to trust Mark and Glenn for at least these few moments. The boss was coming and I needed to focus on that.

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  Alan didn’t wait for the demon boss’s arrival, opting to charge onto the battlefield and meet him a dozen feet away ahead of us. Blood-soaked ground surrounded Alan, but that was a risk he himself decided to take on behalf of us all and I appreciated his choice. We had only seen one skill, and without knowing what else the boss might be capable of… having him on top of our entire party seemed foolish. No, suicidal.

  Still, Alan wasn’t just a tank for show. He truly had embraced the role beautifully, and was easily two or three times more durable than even me with Bone Armor up. Could he come out unscathed? Probably not, but I hoped his beefiness would keep him from dying in one hit.

  Thomas had kept his MP nearly topped off as was planned, but without Ryan the remaining healing would be tough on Rebekah.

  “Safety first,” I said to everyone. My own group had heard this phrase dozens of times, but it caught the newcomers by surprise. “Nothing is more important than your life. Also, don’t make it hard on the healers.” I added.

  It was easier to give orders now than before on account of no one being able to desert. We were all in it together, trapped between these abodes on the very ground that may become our graves. Running wasn’t an option anymore.

  “Give Alan some time to build up aggro.” Lucas halted anyone from starting to fight, and for good reason. The melee battle was a literal brawl. Despite looking like a scrawny old man, the greater demon moved with such ferocity and swiftness it left us speechless. There was no time for Alan to think about anything else other than attack and defend. Still, he was adapting in real time, and becoming more and more comfortable with each exchange.

  Once our attacks started to hinder and slow the greater demon, it would get even easier for Alan. The brief respite gave me a moment to worry about where the other demons had gone. They had not flanked our rear after half a minute, which was strange. “Do you see them?” I asked Mark and Glenn who were waiting, steadfast.

  “Nothing.” They said.

  I spent Spikey #1 to take a peek, as I could gather intel safely through his eyes. The thought there was an ambush building behind crossed my mind, and so Spikey #1 moved carefully. It was as I was about to turn the corner when metal clanged in the direction Spikey was heading, which was behind us.

  The pack of demons were there in the back of all three abodes, they had formed around the quartermaster. I suddenly had a bad feeling, and that was replaced by an even greater one as the quartermaster, whom I thought was something similar to an AI or shop keeper in a video game, removed a sword from thin air.

  I had never considered the demons would attack the quartermaster. In fact, I’d not even considered him being attackable. What happened if the quartermaster died? If I couldn’t spawn a new one, that would be the end of our rewards, the end of our scaling?

  Could we even survive if we didn’t have access to them? It was impossible to answer that question, obviously. But that was not a risk that could be taken. “Bethany, Marcus, Rebekah with me,” I said urgently.

  “What’s going on?” Marcus asked.

  “Thomas can you handle it here for now?” I asked, ignoring Marcus for the time being. Thomas would be responsible for healing Alan and anyone that was injured over here all on his own.

  “I can handle it, don’t take long.” He was too focused to even turn around. This was a lot like our current party setup anyway, which he was the only healer in. Still, I could tell there was a lot of trust in me to be quick about it.

  “Let’s go, the demons are attacking the quartermaster.”

  “Attacking it for what?” Rebekah asked.

  “I don’t know, but if they kill him I think we might not be able to get rewards anymore.” If I could just respawn him it wouldn’t matter if the demons killed him. My assumption had been they wouldn’t bother with the quartermaster. The fact he was being targeted led me to believe it was one life for him and then gone.

  More clanging sounded behind us, and I could hear Alan let out a visceral growl. The party window showed he took a big hit, but Thomas quickly healed him up. I just needed to trust them and focus on my own fight for the moment. “Don’t die.” I whispered some silly prayer to myself and then turned the corner.