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Chapter 45 - The Gnashing Horde

The high-pitched shriek of the pale creature echoed off the marble and glass of the lobby, a piercing sound that drilled into their skulls. As the rest of the pack swarmed into view behind it, their spindly limbs clicking on the floor, Kai's mind was already working, his Observe skill cutting through the initial shock.

[Gnawer]

[Level: 4]

[A pack-based scavenger drawn to the scent of blood and decay. Weak individually, but dangerous in large numbers due to their speed and ferocity.]

Level 4. Weaker than the Ember Hounds, but there were at least a dozen of them. Their eyeless faces and wide, teeth-filled mouths were a vision of primal, hungry horror.

"Staircase is a choke point!" Kai yelled, his voice snapping Elara and Ben out of their frozen terror. "We hold them here! Don't let them surround us!"

There was no time to run. The first Gnawer leaped from the second-floor gallery, its long limbs absorbing the impact as it landed silently on the lobby floor. It then launched itself at them, a blur of bone-white skin and snapping teeth.

Kai met the charge head-on, his autoclave-lid shield taking the brunt of the impact. The creature was light, but its ferocity was stunning. It scrabbled at the steel, its needle-like teeth scraping uselessly against the metal. Kai shoved it back and thrust his saber into its chest. It went down with a wet crunch and a final, gurgling whine.

[You have slain a Level 4 Gnawer.]

[XP Gained: 50]

[XP: 875/1000]

But the rest of the pack was already swarming down the grand staircase, a pale, chittering tide of limbs and teeth.

"Elara, with me!" Kai commanded, planting his feet at the base of the stairs.

This was Elara's first true test with her new skill. She stepped up beside her brother, her fear replaced by a cold, focused calm. She held her two sabers in a low, ready guard, the shorter blade in her left hand for parrying, the longer cavalry sword in her right for striking. She was no longer just a girl with a club; she was a swordswoman.

The first wave of Gnawers hit them. Kai was a rock, his shield a solid wall, his saber a short, vicious spear that punched through the attackers' soft bodies. Beside him, Elara was a whirlwind. She wasn't as strong as Kai, but she was faster, more fluid. She parried a lunging Gnawer's attack with her short blade, the screech of metal on teeth echoing in the lobby, and answered with a swift, diagonal cut from her long blade that nearly severed the creature's arm.

She was clumsy, her footwork still hesitant, but the instincts from the skill book were there. She knew where to cut, how to block, how to move. For every blow she took on her blades, she delivered two in return, her initial fear burning away into a focused, fighting rage.

They were holding the line, a small island of steel and defiance against a tide of monsters. But there were too many. For every two they killed, three more scrambled over their fallen kin to take their place. A Gnawer slipped past Kai's guard and raked its claws across his arm, tearing through the thick lab coat. Another one leaped at Elara, forcing her back, her twin blades a desperate blur of defense.

"There are too many!" she yelled, her arms starting to burn with fatigue.

"Ben! Flash-bang! Now!" Kai roared, kicking a Gnawer away from his legs.

From the relative safety behind them, Ben fumbled in his satchel and pulled out Device Alpha. With a trembling hand, he lit the fuse and hurled it over their heads, into the thickest part of the Gnawer horde on the staircase.

The flask shattered. A split-second later, the lab-made concoction detonated with a blinding, white-hot flash and a deafening CRACK that was far louder than any gunshot.

The effect on the photosensitive, sound-based creatures was catastrophic. The entire pack shrieked in unison, a high-pitched sound of agony. They recoiled from the sensory assault, stumbling into each other, their eyeless heads thrashing in confusion and pain.

"It's our chance! Go!" Kai yelled.

They didn't wait. They turned and ran, sprinting for the shattered front doors. They burst out into the gray pre-dawn light, leaving the disoriented, shrieking horde behind them.

Kai risked a glance at the quad. Their luck was holding. The Collector patrol was at the far end of its route, their purple eyes just visible in the distance. Their 90-second window was open.

"Move!" he commanded.

They ran, their heavy packs thudding against their backs, the precious supplies a testament to their victory. They retraced their path, a silent, desperate dash from the union, past the central statue, to the welcoming shadows of the science building.

They slipped back into the silent lobby and made their way to the third-floor lab, their hearts pounding a triumphant rhythm against their ribs. With a final, collective grunt, they shoved the heavy steel table back in front of the door, sealing themselves in.

They dropped their packs to the floor and collapsed against the walls, panting, bleeding, but alive. They had faced a horde, scavenged what they needed, and escaped. For the first time, it felt like they hadn't just survived. They had won.

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