Fang lowered his bow, eyes wide. Marcus swore again before shooting a volley of crossbow bolts at the creature. The Mol woman dropped to all fours, stared right at Fang, then leapt. Richard didn’t think it was possible unless he was seeing it with his own eyes, but the Mol soared over the wall as Marcus kept his crossbow aimed at her, shooting her constantly. Amber screamed, dropping her bow and running away from the woman. Leylah tried to shoot her, too, but the arrows barely nicked her. Even the crossbow bolts seemed to do little harm.

  Fang stood frozen at the spot, staring at the woman with wide eyes.

  “Fang! Run!” Richard shouted.

  The Mol crashed into Fang. Richard watched, horrified, as the impact caused his friend to lose his balance and tumble off the wall. The female Mol shrieked with delight, tearing into Fang’s torso with her claws.

  “No!” Richard almost leapt off the wall himself, but even with the system, self-preservation stopped him.

  Marcus was already gone. He made an enormous leap onto the building’s roof and sprinted across it before jumping down.

  Leylah threw herself off the wall to follow Marcus’s route, but she grunted in pain when she landed on the roof. She lost her footing and scrambled to get a handhold. Richard didn’t have time to see what happened. He sprinted toward the nearest ladder and climbed down it as fast as possible.

  The sun was rising, and in the wall’s shadow, Marcus wrestled the Mol away from Fang. Leylah was on her feet and running with an obvious limp to help them out, groaning with every step she took.

  “Hit your healing ability,” Richard said as he ran past her.

  “I already did.”

  Richard was afraid her fall hurt her more than he realized, but then remembered he had an advanced ability to heal two wounds. Leylah could heal only one. Despite how ripped apart his arms got that night, he was glad Evan suggested he keep hitting his ability to strengthen it.

  He wished he had grabbed a dagger again. He had a simple bow, and that wasn’t much of a weapon without an arrow.

  Marcus struggled with the Mol. The female had an abnormally large tongue. She used it to lap up the blood from Fang’s torn torso as Marcus tried to pull her away. Fang was unconscious on the ground, his spine shattered from the impact.

  Faster than Richard could see, the Mol slammed her elbow into Marcus’s face. Marcus grunted, his cheekbone shattering before it healed itself.

  The Mol pinned Fang to the ground, digging the sharpened ends of her feet into his torso. Even though Marcus rushed forward again to hold her back, she lifted Fang’s unconscious body with her arms and bit into the neck, shrieking in pleasure as she drank. Thin black lines replaced Fang’s bloodstream, traveling across his torn body from where the Mol was drinking. Richard threw himself into action. He grabbed his friend’s body and dragged him away from the Mol. She howled in outrage when Fang was torn from her grasp. Marcus broke her arm to loosen her grip, but the Mol kept her focus on the blood pouring from the torn body.

  Leylah appeared, stabbing the Mol in the chest over and over again as Richard dragged Fang away.

  “Lucy!” Marcus shouted.

  Richard didn’t know where the others were. He was there when Marcus called for all the class leaders, but no one had responded. He glanced up at the wall, the frenzy of the attack reaching a fever pitch, and his heart sank. How much trouble were they in? No one had a spare moment because the Mols did not stop coming.

  The female Mol shrieked, breaking out of Marcus’s grasp. With an enormous shove, Marcus was thrown back, hitting the ground with a nasty thunk. The female grabbed Leylah’s broken leg, lapping up the blood before clamping her fangs over the injuries and drinking. Leylah screamed in pain.

  Lucy materialized out of nowhere next to Richard.

  “Go help. I’ve got him.” Lucy already had her glasses on and touched Fang’s skin, the black lines vanishing.

  Richard didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and ran after the Mol. Leylah’s screams were dying down, and that was what scared him the most. He pulled out his whip, wrapped the cord around the Mol’s neck, and pulled. A Mol could be strangled, right? The frenzy with which this female attacked made him question if his strength really had gotten forty percent stronger.

  Despite the woman’s injuries, she was in such a ravenous state of hunger that she didn’t even notice her arm was broken. As such, Richard got a backhand so powerful he felt like a part of his chest caved in.

  Marcus came next to him, and Richard felt like a child trying to solve a problem before his much older sibling stepped in to fix it. With one strong jerk, Marcus had broken the Mol’s grip from Leylah. Marcus grabbed the Mol by the throat and slammed her against the side of the building, stabbing her in the head repeatedly with his dagger. Richard had to look away, hitting his healing ability as two of his bones snapped together.

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  Marcus waited to make sure the Mol was dead before he tossed the body to the side and turned around, scanning the scene in front of him. Lucy was working rapidly with Fang.

  “Lucy?” Marcus asked.

  “Getting him stable. Bring anyone else who needs me and place them next to me.”

  Marcus nodded, then went to Leylah immediately. Richard walked forward, concerned for both of them. Leylah was awake, but in a stupor. Marcus set her next to Fang, and Lucy barely glanced at her before focusing on Fang again.

  “Is there any basic healing you want me to do?” Marcus asked.

  Lucy pulled out a bottle of healing potion. “Do you have ‘heal disease’?”

  “Not for other people,” Marcus said.

  Lucy emptied the entire bottle all over Fang’s chest. “Then leave me to it.”

  Marcus nodded, then stood up and turned toward Richard. “You still up for the fight?”

  Richard didn’t answer. The Mol never got him, except for the hit in the chest. Instead, he pulled out his bow and glanced at the wall where he saw the dwindling bucket of arrows. Marcus nodded, and the two of them raced off for the nearest ladder.

  Richard didn’t feel numb to the experience, but he was surprised that they were still fighting these creatures twenty minutes later. They kept pouring out of the forest, and the dead bodies were piling high enough that the Mols could soon breach the wall. Izzy and Evan eventually left the safety of the wall to loot the bodies of the dead so they wouldn’t pile so high. Richard watched, amazed, as the mounds disappeared. Izzy and Evan took turns protecting each other while the other filled their inventory.

  Amber killed one Mol before she crumpled into a ball and sobbed. Marcus told her they had it covered, and she could leave if she wanted to. She did, climbing down the ladder. Richard saw Marcus watched her as she left, noting where she disappeared to before focusing on the fight again.

  Another ten minutes went by before Richard could safely lower his bow and watch the more experienced archers take the Mol’s down before they even reached the wall.

  “Richard? Have you leveled up yet?” Marcus asked.

  This brought Richard out of his head. He glanced at Marcus, then at his experience bar. “Oh. Uh… I’ve been at level nine for a while now.” Sometimes he really needed to remember Order’s system, and that he could have got another ability.

  Marcus shook his head, then lifted his crossbow and sent a volley of bolts, all three of them hitting their targets. “A newbie already at level nine. This apocalypse is too chaotic.”

  “Should I…” Richard trailed off.

  “Yes, yes. We’re fine here. Let the orb level you up and get your last ability.”

  Richard nodded, not too sad he was leaving the fight. It had to mean they were winning. He climbed down the ladder, feeling the weight on his shoulders. He didn’t realize how badly his hands shook until he placed the bow in his inventory.

  Level nine. He didn’t even remember how long it had been since he got here. It felt like an eternity. But Marcus’s casual surprise that a newbie was already at level nine helped him realize just how much trouble they were in. He should be grateful for any amount of help from Order, but he felt sick to his stomach. They were in deep shit right now, and barely surviving. Fang was hopefully in a state of recovery, Amber had a mental breakdown, and Leylah… Leylah seemed the only one ready to take on this crazier life.

  Richard folded his arms, trying to keep his shoulders straight, so he wasn’t curling into himself. He headed for the orb when he heard someone whispering, urgent and tense. He told himself he shouldn’t eavesdrop, because he didn’t want to know what was going on. But he almost couldn’t help himself, especially as he got closer.

  “—you’ll succeed as a guard?”

  It was Izzy. Richard slowed to a stop, even though he wanted to keep going. The problem was Izzy was between the armory and mess hall, and if Richard kept walking, she would no doubt see him.

  “Do you really think you can stop me from being a guard?”

  That was Leylah. Richard flinched, wishing he had kept going. If they gave him strange looks, he could return the look and keep going, but he wasn’t sure if he could pretend he wasn’t hearing this.

  “I can’t stop you, no. But after your actions in the past couple of days, I doubt you’d last two weeks as a guard. Not because you don’t have the abilities, but because you’re too reckless. Recklessness gets you killed out here.”

  “A guard protects,” Leylah said. “It’s what Jace told me before he died.”

  “Yes, a guard protects. That includes themselves. On the beach, Marcus told you to leave. You didn’t listen and almost got yourself killed. This morning, you threw yourself off the wall without proper training. Richard had more of an effect on the battle than you did because he used his head and went down the ladder. Always choose the safe option so you can get to a fight fast and in one piece.” Izzy sighed, and Richard remained by the wall, too afraid to move. He could have used the silence to walk by and pretend he heard nothing, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Honestly, he sided with Izzy on this, but he wasn’t sure if Leylah wanted to hear it.

  “You’re a great person, Leylah. I just want to see you survive longer than a week. Okay?” Izzy asked.

  Richard heard footsteps and was alarmed into action as he pretended to walk. He moved past the alleyway as Izzy passed him without another thought. Leylah remained with her back to Richard, frozen like a statue. He debated whether to talk to her, but then remembered how horrible he was at giving advice and that it would be better for everyone involved if Richard snuck away.

  Which is when Leylah turned around and spotted Richard, her eyes widening.

  “I, uh… I never… I’m not good…”

  He really needed to shut up sometimes.

  “Did you hear?” Leylah asked.

  Richard’s shoulders slumped. If there was one thing he couldn’t do convincingly, it was lying. “Yeah. Toward the end. Just some of it. I was… heading for the orb. Leveled up and everything.”

  “Oh, yeah? What level are you at?”

  “Nine,” Richard said.

  “Oh.” Leylah glanced at her own levels, then at her feet. “Oh,” she said again.

  Richard wanted desperately to disappear because this was another one of those hard conversations. The only thing he considered was inviting Leylah to lunch, but she was already walking away.

  “Leylah?”

  “They’re still fighting, and I’ve had my rest. I need to help them.”

  Richard didn’t know what else to do but let the poor woman go.