The sun hid behind the building, casting a large shadow over the street before it. The glass front was all but destroyed, while the floors looked void of any furnishings. There was a large banner hanging over the front, most of which had been ripped to shreds. Uruvi only needed to read the words, to-let, to understand that it was a brand-new building, ready for occupancy.

  ‘Must be a commercial building, which means open floor space. Plenty of space to fight!’

  She counted and found the building to have eight floors, including the ground floor. The monsters at the ground appeared to be level 4 and 5. “Arya, can you tell me which floor has enemies perfect for my level?”

  “Scanning… You can start with floor 5. It is occupied by levels 8 and 9 Pisacha and Mrugam.”

  “Floor 5, huh?” She counted from the bottom and stopped at the fifth floor. “I think I can make that jump.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Now then. I think I will take my time with the attributes. Let’s talk about Skills and Spells.”

  “Affirmative. You have 1 Skill point and 1 Spell point available.”

  “Got any suggestions for me? I kind of had my eye on Return to Sender Spell.”

  “Affirmative. That is a good choice.”

  The Return to Sender was a secondary spell that could only be cast on top of Barricade. It absorbed the attack from enemies, and a portion of it was redirected back to the enemy.

  “For Skill, I suggest Kickback,” said Arya.

  Kickback – Follow up an attack with another hit, dealing 30 percent of the initial damage.

  “Kickback? Isn’t it just Charge with additional steps?”

  “Negative. Kickback delivers an additional hit. All the multipliers get applied to it as well.”

  She felt a surge of excitement on hearing Arya’s explanation. “Do it!”

  “Affirmative. Kickback and return to sender have been assigned.”

  She turned her attention back towards the building. “Now then. We are full of health, MP, and stamina. What was my rank again?”

  She shot a glance at her screen, while Arya said, “you are rank 45.”

  “Let’s find out how high up we can get. Let the onslaught begin!”

  She leapt high up into the air, adjusting her trajectory towards the edge of the fifth floor. The glass window had been destroyed, exposing the entire floor. Her eyes locked onto a Manv-Pisacha prowling the edge. She flew right into the Pisacha, slicing through it with her axe, and landed right in the middle of the crowd of monsters.

  Her eyes took a quick scan of the sea of monsters. Pisacha of all shapes and sizes filled the floor, while among them she spotted several quadrupeds. They were of various sizes, resembling those she once remembered as pets, while looking as disturbing as the Pisacha. ‘I hope not all animals ended up like you.’

  The monsters crowded around her, baring their fangs and claws. The sea quickly turned violent as the monsters leapt at her in waves. But for Uruvi, they were nothing more than a sea breeze. She swung her axe around in a circle, slashing through the frontline of the Pisacha, pushing them back.

  “Domino!” she shouted as she struck the Pisacha in front of her. The hit propagated through multiple enemies as a few of them fell to the floor.

  She began to hack and slash away at the monsters, each taking a few hits before going down. She had hoped to clear the floor without relying on her Spells, but it appeared to be an impossible task. She began to calculate in her head how efficiently she could deal with the situation. ‘After this floor, I have two more to go before the big boss. I need to be smart about this.’

  Domino and Burning Fury were her low MP spells, consuming just about 15 points each. There was no need for Barricade at the moment, as she was more than capable of dodging the multiple attacks that were thrown at her.

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  Despite being overcrowded, the monsters barely got in each other’s way. They appeared to be extremely well coordinated, including the Mrugam, acting like an army. But that didn’t matter much to her.

  Expertly mixing in her Spells, she began cutting down multiple monsters at once, all while dodging every attack they threw at her. Her body played to the rhythm of battle on its own, letting her focus on strategy and conserving stamina.

  The monsters began to fall in droves, revealing more of them behind. However, at a distance, her eye caught sight of something, or rather someone, who wasn’t grey and black. It was a woman, young and skinny. She was covered in sweat and blood as she hacked away at the monsters with her sword. Her teeth were clenched, and the blue shirt was soaking in her blood.

  ‘Not good! She is going to die!’ Thought Uruvi.

  Suddenly, multiple Pisacha before her froze mid-action. A third woman, carrying a gun and a suitcase, leapt over them and aimed her gun at Uruvi. Several shots flew past her head and into the monster behind her.

  “What are you waiting for, babe?” said the woman as she fell back into the crowd.

  “Domino!” She slammed her axe into the frozen monsters, slicing through them like butter.

  As they fell, they revealed the woman shooting her way through the crowd. She leapt behind Uruvi and slammed her suitcase into another line of Pisacha. “Aye, aye, what is this? An axe-wielding baddie?” She said, wearing a cheeky smile on her face.

  Uruvi got a good look at her. She was lean and short, much like Uruvi, but fairer than most Uruvi knew of. Her jet-black hair was slicked back to make a short ponytail. Her sharp face was adorned by a pair of large spectacles. She wore a white shirt, buttoned up to her collar, with sleeves folded up to her elbows, and a black shirt that was cut just beneath her knees. She slammed another Pisacha with her small, brown suitcase and turned towards Uruvi. “The name is Rambha. What’s yours?”

  “Uruvi.”

  “Nice meeting you, Uruvi. How about we quickly clear up this floor? Two kiddos here are fighting for their dear life,” said Rambha.

  “Two?”

  “Yeah. A girl to your left and a guy to your right.” She spun the pistol around her index finger and said, “shall we get to it then, babe?”

  Despite all the enemies she had fought until then, Uruvi had finally found her greatest adversary. An extrovert. She simply nodded, and Rambha flashed a smile before spinning around.

  Several bullets were fired off from Rambha’s gun, striking the Pisacha. The effect of each bullet appeared to be random. Some froze, some were knocked back, while still others exploded on the spot. They weren’t powerful enough to deal a great amount of damage, but it was enough for Uruvi to swoop in and cleave their bodies in half.

  “How many rounds do you have in that thing? I haven’t seen you reload once!” said Uruvi.

  “They aren’t physical bullets, babe.” Rambha looked back at her and said, “they are magic!”

  ‘Haha… Very pun-ny…’ She thought.

  Rambha sent a flurry of bullets towards the Pisacha that surrounded the injured young girl, before dashing towards her.

  Meanwhile, Uruvi slashed her way in the other direction until she heard someone say, “stay back, you fucking creatures!”

  She cut down a few more and saw the man Rambha was talking about. He was stabbing his way through the monsters with his pike, while using the blunt end to push back any that got too close to him. It wasn’t effective, but it kept him alive.

  The onslaught continued as she cleared the monsters surrounding him. The man did his part, cutting down any that were out of her reach. They quickly cleared the monsters on their side and rushed to help the other ladies, where Rambha was doing most of the fighting.

  Uruvi held the girl up by her shoulder, gently holding on to her. “You can heal up?” she asked.

  The girl nodded and cast, ”rejuvenate.”

  After making sure that the girl could stand on her own, she returned to killing the remaining monsters. The three of them made quick work of the rest and finally cleared the floor.

  The man fell on his knees, panting, while the girl sat back on the floor.

  “Are you doing okay, darling?” Rambha asked the girl.

  The girl shook her head and said, “no. I am not.”

  “Heal yourself,” Uruvi said to the man.

  “Hold on, I need my breath back,” he said, still panting.

  “You guys looked severely unprepared. What happened?” asked Uruvi.

  “We came here with Ashwin Anna (Anna means brother in the South Indian languages). Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Pisachi showed up, and a swarm of monsters followed it. We came down to hold them off, but… they overwhelmed us,” the girl explained.

  The man got back up on his feet and cast Rejuvenate. “Well, that was a nightmare, and we got seven more floors of these.”

  The girl appeared to be on the verge of tears.

  Rambha walked over to the edge and looked down. “Is it just you two, or are there anymore upstairs?”

  “The rest are on the terrace,” said the man.

  “I can see more people headed our way,” said Rambha.

  Suddenly, a group of Pisacha came tumbling down the stairs. The girl let out a blood-curdling scream as she scrambled and hid behind Uruvi.

  “Can you guys jump from here?” asked Uruvi.

  The girl shook her head, but the man said, “I can. I will take her.”

  They rushed over to the edge, where they prepared to jump. The girl held onto the man tightly as he took in a deep breath and leapt into the air. She watched as they reached the ground, when suddenly a giant plume of air appeared beneath them, slowing their descent.

  “Whoa! What was that?” said Uruvi.

  “Seems like he had more tricks up his sleeve,” replied Rambha.

  They looked back inside and saw another swarm of monsters rushing at them. “Looks like the stairs are not an option,” said Rambha.

  “We jump?” asked Uruvi.

  “We jump,” replied Rambha.