Giant squirrels swarmed the road outside the dungeon, surrounding Anika and her companions, as well as Philip, Panu, and Sinaya. They had established a defensive position with Philip and Hawthorn forming the north and south points of their circle, and Panu and Sinaya taking up positions on the east and west. The seven members of the Capy pack filled in the ring of defenders protecting Anika and Lily on the inside as the ranged fighters, and Epona roamed the line, ready to trample any critters that made it through.

  Hawthorn had built Lily a mound of dirt to stand on top of, allowing her better sight lines to use her telekinetic Aether powers. She stood atop it like a queen, ordering her polymorphed capybara companions around and slinging her favorite rock into the faces of the squirrel horde. In addition to Lily’s hill, small defensive walls built of dirt and stone set up by Hawthorn and Philip before the eruption started as well as holes dug into the surrounding ground improved their defensive position.

  The entrance to the dungeon, through which Anika and her group had entered for the past week in preparation for the Eruption, lay at the end of the short path leading away from the road where the heroes made their stand. Pastures surrounded them, allowing them an open field of view to ensure no monsters escaped. To their east and west, within view, but not close enough to assist against each other’s monsters, other groups of acolytes and priests battled beasts leaping the short fence surrounding the dungeon, or spawning just outside the barrier.

  Philip demonstrated his improved skills after training with Zali, alternating between thrusting his trident into squirrels and casting Earth spells, using floating walls of Earth to intercept squirrels attempting to breach the circle. Hawthorn, though less experienced in his powers as the newest addition to the team, had learned a great deal in their week of fast paced leveling leading up to the eruption. He clawed and bit approaching squirrels, using earth walls to herd the rodents towards his dangerous natural weapons.

  Sinaya and Panu, on the other hand, brought quick death on the approaching monsters. While Sinaya favored her weapon, the meteor hammer’s rapid strikes preventing any creatures from entering melee range, Panu favored fire. He used his sword to finish off any squirrels that closed in on him, but most died to discs of flame searing into their skulls a good distance away from the party.

  The party had a zone to cover, with other teams assigned to different areas around the dungeon. The squirrels having more claws than brains, they aggressively attacked the team, funneling themselves towards the defenders and allowing them to maintain their optimal position. If monsters began to escape away from the containment zone, however, Anika and her party would need to pursue.

  Another wave of squirrels spawned, this one containing two Scurry Captains. The first immediately fell, as everyone inundated it with spells and magical attacks, the elemental explosion leaving not even a spare ear tuft behind. The second approached from the east. Panu quickly erected a fiery dome around the creature, preventing its forward movement and leaving it scorched and screaming. He followed up with a crushing fiery explosion that closed in on the mini-boss before erupting with acrid smoke smelling of burnt hair and charred meat.

  Anika had to admit, despite Panu’s flirtatious proclivities, he knew how to put on a good show in a fight. His magic manipulation seamlessly integrated with his magical spells, and he casually finished off monsters using his fire-infused sword with Zorro-like efficiency. The monsters spawned and died at a frenzied pace, and his fire powered firepower seemed endless. Anika did worry, however, that he would run out of magical resources eventually, but with the increased ambient chaos energy around them, even her own low-stat Anima regenerated her magical resources efficiently.

  “Pantopu incoming!” Sinaya called, and Anika turned to face her side of the circle. A small herd of pantopu ran towards the group, their spikey porcupine bodies moving bobbing atop their quickly moving antelope legs.

  “Prioritize pantopu over the squirrels,” Anika commanded, “and call out if you see any other new monsters.” Anika took aim at a pantope with her bow, managing a surprising headshot on one of the members of the herd, causing it to fall forward. The pantopu didn’t require much damage to kill, making them more threatening than the squirrels only due to their size and higher speed.

  So far, the group had mostly encountered squirrels, with the occasional group of low level scouring slimes (which they mostly ignored) or lidoks. Anika assumed that the ambient Chaos would continue to build and release more powerful monsters before expending itself, though she had no idea how long that would take. She wondered why the gods could predict when and where the eruption would start, yet couldn’t provide any information on how long the magic would overflow its containment.

  Catching sight of a new group of pantopu running toward the group, Anika quickly cast her Water Spray, targeting the lead monster with two spouts of water. The front monster collapsed, causing the herd members directly behind it to stumble and fall into it, injuring themselves on their fellow monster’s oversized porcupine spikes. Lily’s favorite rock flew over and began smashing into the heads of the squishy creatures while Anika summoned her “hydrorb” water ball and joined Lily in smashing heads.

  Looking around, she noticed an increase in non-squirrel monsters, including a few lidoks currently throwing their ‘rocks’ at Philip and a flock of giant hummingbirds headed towards Sinaya. It looked like the battle would get more intense before it ended, and Anika worried that they wouldn’t succeed in holding their established formation if some of the more dangerous mobs began to spawn around them. They could always fall back down the road, but that would increase the risk of monsters rampaging across the countryside to other towns or temples.

  “It looks like things are starting to ramp up, take out the most dangerous monsters first, and if you see more boss monsters spawn, call out so we can take them down quickly!”

  —-

  Morigan sat in her chair, irritably staring at the wall of her room, the same position she had maintained for many hours over her time in this world. In the morning, the temple had clanked and clanged and reverberated with the sounds of preparation for battle as acolytes and warriors of all kinds ran up and down the halls preparing to deploy to the dungeon for the eruption. Morigan had no interest in fighting for the people that kidnapped her and the early morning preparations had woken her from a sound sleep, leaving her in such a disgruntled mood she didn’t even want to leave the room and take advantage of the likely empty bathroom. So she sat in the chair.

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  The remains of her breakfast, too much meat again, sat cold on the tray delivered to her as part of the early morning preparations. She doubted anyone would bring her lunch with everything going on, so she had suffered through the meal that had sat out for several hours before she felt like getting out of bed. What was the point of waking up early and getting ready for the day when all she had to do was sit in the same wretched chair.

  Heavily caught up in her irascible musings, Morigan started when she felt something large and heavy hit her in the wing, which draped over the arms of the chair like a bedraggled blanket. Grumbling indignantly, she pushed herself to her feet and looked around, ready to yell at whatever foolish acolyte or priest had decided to invade her privacy and, even worse, throw something at her. She saw nothing as she looked towards the door… until her eyes fell towards the ground.

  On the floor between her and the door sat a pair of monkey-like creatures, one of which held a large rock in its hand, the second having just released one. Morigan yelped and barely cast Air Shield in front of her before the projectile coming impacted her chest. Reacting without thinking, she let out a Wind Burst that knocked the creatures away from her and into the door, the powerful wind slamming them hard enough into the door to daze the two creatures. Unfortunately, the circular Wind Burst also sent her chair shooting back into her dresser, and she heard a crack as wood splintered.

  Feeling no remorse for the damage to the temple, she finished the creatures off by battering them with her Gust spell while yelling, “How did you get into my room!”

  She glared around the room as the monster fell, expecting more to appear, before relaxing slightly upon seeing no other signs of invading creatures.

  *Princess, I believe the Priests may have underestimated the scope of the Chaos Eruption.* The voice of Storm, her companion, echoed in her head.

  “I figured that out myself,” Morigan snapped at her magical scepter. “And I am going to go give those incompetent priests an earful!”

  *I don’t believe you will have much success, they are all at the dungeons.*

  Ignoring his words, but grabbing the sapient scepter, Morigan stomped out of the room towards the meeting rooms they summoned her to when she deigned to leave the room. She saw no one, and the silence of the temple’s normally lively halls disconcerted her, not that she would admit that to anyone. The meeting rooms stood empty, and the offices for the head priests of each element, including the horrible Nilendi, showed no signs of life.

  As she stormed around the temple, she encountered several more small monsters - more of the monkey creatures and strange oversized squirrels. She ruthlessly destroyed them with her wind powers, taking out some of her rage over the whole situation on the beasts. None caused her any difficulty, she killed them quickly while also causing collateral damage to several tables, paintings, and tapestries in the halls and rooms she stalked through. Serves them right.

  Eventually, she found herself outside the temple, having run into no more than a few acolytes who cowered in her presence as she rampaged through the building. None of them knew anything useful or how to find someone in charge to yell at. She yelled at them in passing, but they couldn’t suffice to lessen her fury.

  Once outside, she noticed other monsters scattered around the temple grounds and roads. None gathered in large groups, and most sat around on the ground like animals. She knew monsters when she saw them, however, and these creatures would attack if she moved too close to them. She didn’t see any sign of the higher ranking trainers or acolytes. They couldn’t have all gone to the dungeon, leaving their home completely undefended, could they? How stupid were these people!

  She had no responsibility to these priests and gods who stole her from her home and family, conspiring to make her, a princess, a part of their problems. She had no intention of cleaning up their mess caused by lack of defense at home. If the monsters rampaged around the temple, that would be the result of their own incompetence. They would have to kill them on their way back from the dungeon, and possibly suffer damage to some of the surrounding structures if any larger beasts manifested, and that would serve them right.

  A noise from the direction of the road she had never ventured down broke her from her thoughts, causing her to turn towards the commotion. Two women, one Pireta and one Kineta, ran up the road that Morigan now saw led to a small village. They pulled a small wooden rickshaw with two small bodies inside, a young female Kineta and a young male Pireta. As they got within hearing range, the Pireta woman called out to Morigan.

  “Help! Our children were attacked and need healing!”

  “Monsters are running around the village!” The Kineta pulled a hand off the cart momentarily to gesture back towards the village.

  Morigan stared blankly at the women, her rage draining as she saw the bleeding children in the cart. She remembered the first time she had suffered a monster attack as a child, recalling the piercing pain and the blood that leaked from the large gash that ran down her belly and onto her thigh. She stood frozen in her memory, unsure how to act or what to do, her anger warring with her trauma.

  —-------

  “How did we miss this?” Fire raged.

  “We didn’t expect the Chaos Eruption to cause manifestations so far from the dungeon!” Earth answered querulously.

  “All the powerful priests are deployed to the Asiwek dungeon preparing for that eruption. The remainder are at the Kanewek dungeon. Some can return to the town and temple, but we also risk monsters traveling further away and impacting other towns.” Aether answered, ever able to maintain his calm.

  “We need to get a message to the priests immediately, they have no way to know the town is under attack!” Water yelled.

  “We have to take the risk of monsters traveling. We can send out patrols after the Eruption ends.” Air began tapping on his console, ready to alert his priests.

  “Monsters manifested in the temple! That means no one is safe in their own homes! We need to alert Asiwek to prepare.” Earth cried.

  “Alert the Kanewek priests first. Once they are falling back to the town and temple, begin alerting Asiwek to prepare.” Aether commanded, hoping they would have enough forces to counter a situation far worse than they planned for.

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