Lena gained ground on the kid. Her wolf was pushing harder now, muscles bunching and releasing with each stride. But the child didn't slow. If anything, he looked more determined to escape the woman.

"Slow down! I'm not going to hurt you!"

The kid didn't reply.

Reidar swung into the side street, his spectral knights made a barricade against the pursuing swarm.

The bug monsters were the first to reach them.

"Hold the line!"

The spectral knights raised their swords, ready to face the oncoming horde. 30 wolves and 10 knights of level 80 filled the space between the two streets and started clashing with the monstrosities.

Reidar didn't wait to see the outcome. He urged his wolf forward, followed by the other one he summoned, and reached the end of the street just in time to see Lena turn another corner. But they were barely visible in the distance. Reidar swore under his breath, and urged his wolf to go faster.

He couldn't let Lena get too far ahead. They needed to stick together, especially in this dangerous place. The city was a labyrinth of ruins, and who knew they might end up meeting?

He trusted Lena wasn't going to be killed easily, but…

The battle behind him raged on. The spectral knights and the ten primal packs clashed with the bug monsters. Swords and fangs flashed as they hacked and tore at the chitinous exoskeletons.

\[Level 81 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

\[You have gained 1620 C.L.A.S.P. Points.\]

\[You have earned 511 Survival Points.\]

\[Level 80 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

\[You have gained 1500 C.L.A.S.P. Points.\]

\[You have earned 450 survival points.\]

\[Level 80 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

\[Level 79 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

\[Level 77 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

\[Level 84 Chitinous Ravager defeated.\]

…

…

…

\[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 90.\]

\[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.\]

As they chased the child, Reidar couldn't help but wonder about him. Why was he running? What was he afraid of? And why did Lena seem so determined to catch him? Questions swirled in Reidar's mind, but there was no time to ponder them now. He had to focus on the chase, on keeping Lena in sight.

As he was thinking that, a roar echoed from his left. A Glimmerfang emerged from an alley.

"SHIT!"

Reidar ordered his other wolf to kill or at least stall it, and the two began wrestling.

He left the two fighting. The spectral knights were still holding the other monsters, and luckily, at some point, the commotion started luring the monsters there, rather than on Reidar, and later, he stopped receiving kill notifications.

It wasn't that the battle ended, but more like his spectral knights and primal packs had been decimated.

Reidar actually lost sight of Lena, so he wandered around the city while hearing the horrifying chorus of monsters snarling and fighting from a distance.

"Where the hell did go?"

His wolf was now walking, rather than running, also because, for the time being, there was no way monsters would attack him. They were all near the entrance to the street he blocked with the spectral knights.

<The monsters here are too strong…>

The creatures were turning stronger at an unprecedented speed, and Reidar wondered if people would survive or adapt to these changes. Both in Havenwood and Three Lakes, humans were barely holding on when the monsters were weaker, so this surge of power didn't make Reidar hope for the best. Quite the contrary.

…

…

…

At some point, Reidar passed an alley, where he saw Lena's mount, waiting. He approached and looked inside the alley.

It was narrow, choked with rubble and rusted metal. A single door stood at the far end, wide open. Darkness pooled inside the opening.

"Lena must have entered."

His wolf whined low, ears pinned back, then Reidar slipped off.

Reidar dismissed the primal pack and called up a fresh batch of spectral knights. They were a lot quieter than the bone militia, as there were no rattling bones or clattering joints.

He stepped through the doorway, his knights forming a tight shield around him.

They were in some kind of lobby.

<This must have been an apartment complex.>

A wide staircase ascended into shadow, its steps littered with shattered concrete and splintered wood.

Pale light from a cracked window high above sliced through them, illuminating dust motes dancing in the stale air.

The railing was a twisted ruin of rusted metal, and dark stains streaked the walls where water had seeped down because of the cracks that the apocalypse or the monsters made.

He ordered his knights to go forward. They went up the stairs. Reidar followed. On the first floor, they found a hallway lined with identical, closed doors. There were no signs of life, only the oppressive stillness of abandonment and ruin.

Reidar didn't dare shout to call for Lena, because he knew monsters might hear him, and in this building he might get into a lot of problems.

He kept ascending, as on each floor there were only closed doors and silence.

On the last floor, at the end of the corridor, a single door stood ajar, a sliver of weak light spilling into the hallway.

His knights fanned out. The silence was absolute until Reidar got close enough to the door, and there, he heard a voice.

"It's ok. You don't have to be afraid."

A faint, shaky breath was the only reply to Lena's words. Reidar slowed his steps, listening. The woman had found the kid. He signaled his knights to hold position as he stepped through the door.

Reidar went inside the apartment. It was in better shape than he had expected. A worn-out rug lay in the middle of the room, and a small table stood against the wall, covered with old papers and a couple of rusty cans.

Lena knelt on the kitchen floor, her back turned to the door. A boy was curled up against the wall, his eyes huge and scared. He looked thin, with messy hair and dirt smeared across his cheeks. His clothes were worn and torn, but they were clean, like he'd tried his best to keep himself looking decent, even now.

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