Richard was cleared to do some farmwork after drinking another potion. He hated it more the second time and constantly wheezed to keep the fire in his lungs at bay. He was glad everyone had already spread the fertilizer. His job was to walk outside with a watering can and get the ground wet. They had lost the farmer who could make rain come down on the plants. Despite how much they had worked to rebuild what they lost, these small reminders of the people and abilities they no longer had always felt like a sledgehammer to the gut.

  They worked long into the night, and most of Richard’s job was to spread water everywhere. Since his lungs still felt like they’d be on fire with any amount of movement, he was glad for a small job like this.

  Lucy asked Richard to remain in the healer’s building overnight, and also asked him to go to bed well before everyone else did. Richard shouldn’t fight it, because he felt the exhaustion, but everyone else had been pushing themselves to their full extent, and he felt guilty going to bed so early.

  When he tried to explain this to Lucy, she simply folded her arms and stared at him. “Pushing yourself? You mean, let me just pull a random example out of my inventory here, but say, I don’t know, a newbie entering the forest and fighting a chaos beast. And then that same newbie deciding to go down to the beach where not one boss, but two nearly eat him alive? And you think perhaps this newbie should push himself by staying up as late as the older kids?” Lucy stared at him long enough for Richard to squirm.

  “Okay, fine,” Richard said. “I’ll go to bed early.”

  “Great. I love it when patients listen to me.”

  Richard grumbled as he entered the healers and got into bed. Leylah was still asleep. Maybe she woke up and had something to eat and he missed it, but no doubt that girl was exhausted.

  He placed a hand under his head and looked at the ceiling, not feeling that tired. His lungs still threatened to reignite with every breath he took. Eventually his lungs would get better, but for now, he had to be careful.

  It wasn’t until he heard the scream that Richard realized he had fallen asleep. He shot up in bed, his mind groggy.

  The scream sounded again, and Richard threw off his covers. Whoever was screaming, they couldn’t be that far. They sounded in pain. Scared. Leylah groaned, also throwing off the covers.

  Leylah grabbed a cup for a weapon. “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know.” Richard rushed through the healers with his brain still foggy. “I don’t—”

  The ringing in his ears returned in full force. Richard shoved his palms against his ears, trying to force it to go away. He could have almost sworn this was nothing more than a dream because his mind was still so foggy, but the ringing. Was it happening again? The screaming was cut short, and a pit formed in Richard’s stomach.

  It wasn’t until the bell rang that Richard realized he was back in bed asleep. He shot out, stumbling a bit. His heaving chest reminded him that his lungs were still tender, though maybe not as prone to bursting into flames. Richard glanced around, eyes wide. His brain didn’t feel nearly as groggy, and every toll of the bell brought a deeper fear.

  “Leylah?” Richard’s voice was hoarse.

  Shouting came from outside, and Richard stumbled out of bed as the bell didn’t stop ringing. They were right by the wall.

  “Leylah.”

  She was fast asleep, but there were too many bells. This wasn’t for the guards; this was… this was the attack all over again. Had he gone even further back in time? Or was this just another attack on the wall? Either way, they were in deep shit. Base two couldn’t handle another attack on the wall.

  The door burst open, and Lucy appeared. Outside, Richard could see the dawn light filtering through.

  “What’s going on?” Richard asked.

  “There are too many creatures surrounding the wall. They’re afraid they might breach it again. Orders for every newbie to go up the wall and shoot anything that moves outside.”

  Richard might have imagined it, but as soon as Lucy said about newbies shooting something, Leylah was out of bed and rubbing her eyes. Lucy gave her a look that Richard almost could have defined as admiration.

  “The nearest ladder is by the gates. Come on, hurry.”

  Richard and Leylah followed without question. Once outside the healers, the early dawn light helped Richard see better. People were moving around fast. Izzy, Evan, and Shrub were on the wall, shooting arrows at whatever creatures were screeching below. Leylah was already halfway up the ladder before Richard fully shook himself awake. If he hadn’t woken up at the healers, he would have thought he had jumped back in time a few days. What he couldn’t wrap his mind around was how this was happening again. Especially when he hadn’t died.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He sped up the ladder, then Izzy handed Richard and Leylah a simple bow and arrow before following them to a spot on the wall. “This is what we’ll call practicing on demand.” Izzy showed off the bow. “I was going to teach you this in a few days when the farmlands were not as desperate, but now seems as good of time as any. Follow my lead.”

  Richard swallowed, then followed Izzy’s instructions. Below was a mass of dark creatures that the early dawn light was showing in more detail.

  “Nock the arrow, pull back the string, aim at a creature, and shoot. The more you practice, the better you’ll be. Use the regular arrows. Timick’s modified ones are not for newbies to use.” Izzy grabbed an arrow from the quiver strapped to her leg, pulled back the string at an inhumanly fast rate, then let the arrow fly. As soon as it hit, an electric current went through the creatures, and they shrieked in pain. Richard swallowed as he lifted his bow, trying to aim as best he could. He would rather do this in the comfort and security of the armory, but he also didn’t want to die.

  The male and female creatures below were dressed in tattered, yet formal clothes. He saw a ripped and worn dinner coat on one male, and the female had a dark blue dress that would have been stunning if it weren’t torn and dirty. They were skeletal thin, but their mouths were plump and red, with fangs poking through. The eyes were flames, their movements jerky. For Richard, these creatures seemed like a cross between vampires and zombies, their skin rotting in places.

  Richard shot one, aiming for the eye, but missing it entirely. The arrow dug into another creature’s thigh, and it kept going like that injury was nothing.

  “What are these things?” Richard asked.

  “A Mol,” Evan said next to him. Richard’s brow furrowed as he got another arrow ready. Evan shot one in the face as it was climbing the tower toward him. “Minion of Lust.”

  Richard pulled back the drawstring and tried again. His stomach churned with contained fear as he kept pretending this was simply an exercise in archery. His aim was off again, nicking a creature’s cheek before slamming into another creature’s eye. Richard didn’t even consider that good luck. He had to keep pretending that he was living like the time anomaly wouldn’t save him again.

  His thoughts nagged at him as he grabbed another arrow. There had already been a time jump. He and Leylah woke up to someone screaming. Who had screamed? Had the attack happened? Was it a bunch of Mols sneaking over the wall and already starting their attack?

  Their bucket of arrows was empty, so Leylah gestured for him to follow. Marcus was trying to coax Fang and Amber into shooting a Mol, so Leylah and Richard hurried over to help them with their bucket.

  “Hey.” Richard stood next to a trembling Amber. He nocked an arrow and shot a creature. “You okay?”

  It was a stupid thing to ask. The look on Amber’s face told him as much. She had tears streaking down her face as she stared at Richard with a look of horror.

  “Do I look okay?”

  Richard had hoped that the casual way in which he shot his arrow would help Amber not be so scared. Now he realized it probably looked far cockier than he meant it to be.

  “It’s alright; they won’t get past the wall,” Richard said.

  He didn’t actually know if that was true, but when Marcus leaned over and shot four creatures climbing up the wall in quick succession, he felt a bit more confident. Fang was getting closer to Richard, his bow shaking.

  “Fang, come on,” Richard said. “You and Amber have to level up.”

  Fang whimpered, lifting his bow to aim. It trembled.

  Marcus aimed his bow. “This kind of thing takes time, Richard.”

  “I can’t.” Fang squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. “I… don’t want to kill another human being.”

  Richard glanced at the creatures he at first clocked as a vampire/zombie hybrid. He lifted his own bow and was surprised how easy it was to shoot another creature down.

  “They’re… not?” Richard really was not all that great at giving comforting speeches. He remembered his own thoughts when faced with the splicers. When he saw how much pain they were in, he felt a twinge of sympathy. Why couldn’t he express that experience to Fang? “If you don’t kill them, they kill us,” Richard said.

  Marcus glanced at Richard with a slightly raised eyebrow. Richard didn’t know why the scavenger leader was looking at him like that. It was true, wasn’t it? Once again, he said the eventual lesson he learned after the splicers without actually expressing the thing that might have brought Fang comfort. Someone else needed to take over this job, but Marcus was distracted shooting at a group of Mols that were climbing over their dead to reach the wall.

  Amber closed her eyes tight, aimed toward the mass, and shot. Richard doubted she wanted congratulations, so he kept to his own archery practice. Izzy, Evan, and Shrub were running across the walls, shooting with the magical arrows at places that were in danger of the Mol’s climbing over. Amber tried again, and Richard figured the best thing to do was to leave her to it.

  The Mols kept coming. It was what alarmed Richard the most. They were pouring out of the forest, coming toward the wall in a dead sprint, joining the continuing mass of creatures trying to climb the wall. Where were they all coming from?

  Leylah kept telling Fang to shoot, but when Fang finally let the arrow go, it flew over the heads of the creatures before burying in the dead ground. Leylah shot him a glare. Richard didn’t know how to feel about Fang, and he felt bad for wondering why Order bothered to bring him here. He then immediately regretted that thought. Of course Fang must have had a reason, just not one Richard knew about.

  “Shit,” Marcus said under his breath.

  Richard immediately tensed. If Marcus, a man who could shoot down a dozen Mols in under a minute, suddenly got stressed and pulled out his dagger, Richard wasn’t sure if he was ready for whatever was happening. He shot another Mol, then followed Marcus’s line of sight to three creatures battling each other.

  “Is that… good?” Richard asked. He didn’t believe it for a second. Not with how Marcus was holding himself, never tearing his eyes off the three battling Mols. Richard kept shooting the ones in the front.

  The three creatures attacked each other, a swirl of dust and a chorus of shrieking. Richard had been so distracted by the fangs that he didn’t notice how deadly those claws looked. One female grabbed a male and bit into his skeletal neck, and Richard could not shake the image of vampires from his mind. A different male noticed the attack and ran up to stop her, but the female simply dropped the lifeless man and broke the other male’s neck before sucking more from the already dead creature.

  “What the hell?” Richard asked.

  Marcus touched his ear, his voice low but urgent. “Izzy. Timick. Dmitri. Elwyndor. We’ve got a strong female, green dress, just sucked two creatures to death. Eastern wall.”

  The female turned, black ichor dripping from her mouth as she snarled. Her gaze scanned the group of survivors on the wall before falling on Fang.