Many of the combat-oriented guilds were already fighting to hold the monsters back while the citizens retreated to more fortified locations. Even as their small group joined the fray the monsters were relentless and endless as they pushed into the city. "Damnit! It's just one right after the others!"

Repede continued to display his skills with that dagger in his mouth, bringing down more monsters than Strider could with her bulk and fangs or the stalkers aid.

"Fus…Ro…Dah!" Deesh's shout knocked several monsters off the bridge that weren't outright disintegrated while using one hand to unleash a flurry of lightning bolts that jumped from monster to monster. "Keep fighting! Hold the bridge!" Deesh's stalkers leaped out to finish an injured monster.

Karol and Rita were back-to-back as they brought down monster that tried to pass them, "I-it's strange to see this many."

Rita used her scroll as a tiger's paw lashed out to swat a monster, "You're right. Just how many are there?"

Shadow used the butt of her rifle to smash one monster skull in, "More than my magazines can keep up with. If these idiots would backed off, I could use Thunderlord and do better add control so everyone can reorganize."

Aile had been using Model FX to blast as many as she could and punch anything that got too close, but she hesitated a few shots because of how hectic the battle was or accidently friendly fire. Many of the combatants weren't used to fighting alongside one another and the sheer volume of monsters rushing through. Because of this a group of monsters managed to pass her as they rushed toward the retreating citizens. "Model H!" Aile's armor flashed as it transformed into the green armor with wings and she boosted toward the monsters, slicing them to pieces. Unfortunately they were the bait as more rush ahead from another flank as they targeted citizens who were helping others, "Yuri!"

Another group had broken through the line of warriors as Yuri tried to get to them using a ranged arte skill, "Damn! I'm not gonna make it!"

In a flash of white, a muscular old man came out of nowhere with a massive sword in one hand as he easily cut each monsters down with a single swing. "Come on ya filthy maggots, I'll take the lot of ya! Come see how it feels ta get beat down by an old man!"

Yuri was amazed, "Who's the geezer?"

"It's the Don!" Karol screamed, "Don Whitehorse!"

Every guild member roared in excitement, "It's the Don! The Don is here!"

"Let's kick this monster scum outta here!"

"Defend the city!"

"Nobody messes with the Clouds of Dawn!" Just seeing the Don fighting was giving the people a new vigor to fight even harder than ever before.

The guilds were pushing the monsters back to the bridge now, leaving Estelle the time to heal the injured. Her attention, however, was pulled away when she heard the uniform marching of Imperial Knights. It was Flynn, along with a detachment of knights, "Allow us to offer our help subduing the monsters!"

Don glanced back to Flynn, "Hold your horses, knight-boy! We couldn't live with ourselves if we let the Knights do our dirty work. Now get the hell outta here!"

"But sir! With the barrier down, now isn't the time to—"

"You're annoying. Even if I tell you, you won't understand." Don Whitehorse turned to everyone fighting now, "Everyone here chose ta leave the empire and join a guild. Someone who'd crawl back ta the empire when the goin' got rough… You won't find someone like that in this town. These're the rules of the life we've chosen. It's up to us to make sure those rules don't get broken."

Yuri watched carefully as he listened to the Don's words, "I see… Never bending your beliefs, no matter what… so this is a true guild."

Don roared out as he rushed with his men, "Come on, you lot! Let's get to work!"

As the guilds worked to push the monsters out of the city, Rita was dusting her hands as she found the others, "Hey, you there! Lead the way."

Karol quickly yelled back to her, "I have a name you know! Wh-where are we going, anyway?"

Deesh looked up, "To fix the real problem. Unless the barrier is restored, these monsters will overrun us in time."

Aile's visor appeared again as she looked to the fighting, "I've done a scan of the horde, and what we've faced so far barely scratches their numbers. That bridge was funneling most of the monster. It should help limit the damage."

Karol quickly guided them to the blastia controls, upon their arrival however they found the guards lying in a pool of blood. Estelle quickly moved to their side to see if she could help, but Deesh and Aile already knew the answer as they both looked away.

Rita had already moved to repair the blastia. "Let's see…" Rita pulled up the information now, "If it's like this, I should be able to do something. The core's intact, so I just need to fix the formula… huh?" The patterns here were altered. This is…amplification? And this formula…it's the same as back in Ehmead Hill and Nor Harbor…

Shadow was looking over her shoulder, "Do you mind if I have Shade help too? He'd be able to speed things up if he can interface with this."

"Bad move…" a group of the red eyes was behind Rita with one of them ready to strike.

Shadow rushed to cover for Rita, taking the blade through her chest. She started coughing but laughing at the same time. "You dumb bastard…" laughing as her left hand starting glowing, she grappled him and jumped away from Rita. Gripping the light even tighter causing it to explode in her fist resulting in smaller explosions that vaporized the two.

"Shadow!" Yuri rushed forward, knocking back another of the assassins to cover Rita. Deesh had disappeared, only to end up behind the third assassins as she plunge her own dagger through his heart.

Aile rush forward as she rammed into one of the remaining assassins down to the ground and pointed her weapon at him, "Don't move." Instead of allowing his capture, the assassin broke one of his molars, causing a hidden capsule to break as he swallowed a substance to killed himself. "Such a waste," kicking the corpse aside.

Shade somehow appeared out of nowhere, as his shell opened with his core exposed as an energy field surrounded it. When his shell closed the energy released in a wave that caused Shadow to suddenly appear as if nothing happened. "Argh, damn sneak attacks! Almost as bad as invis hunters."

Most of the group was confused, as Estelle hesitated to touch her, "But how? You disintegrated."

"Yeah, that happens a lot. I mean I've been shot, stabbed, beaten, exploded, disintegrated, and that's just a day in the Crucible. Our fun 'training' exercises."

Deesh huffed, "I was trying to avoid this. But you'll get used to it if you stick around her."

Shadow joke, "You mean now you get to use your plans that involve me dying again?"

"Only because it's a useful surprise for anyone who doesn't know."

More red eyes jumped out of the shadows, rushing to attack Rita. A blast of energy shot off the red eye's blade, "Stay way!" Aile had transformed to her X form without anyone seeing her change and her right arm looking more like a cannon.

The assassin pulled his other arm up, but Aile didn't try to stop him, lowering her arm. Instead, a sword slashed his back, with Flynn and the Knight charging in, "Forward! Don't let them take one step towards the console!"

More of the blue cloaked rogues rushed out of the shadows to match the Knights' numbers, everyone keeping them away from Rita. The air filled with the sounds of monsters roaring and blade clashing against blade. As long as the barrier was down these red-eyed assassins would throw as many men as it took to keep it that way.

Karol did his best with his giant broken sword as Repede and Strider rushed into battle with the deepstalkers behind them.

Estelle was holding one of the assassin's back with her shield, though it was Deesh who finished him with a dagger through his neck as she was trying to hold another off with her sword. Yuri punched one in the face, "Rita, we can't hold them forever!"

"I know!" Rita's fingers were typing even faster now, "Hold on…just a little more…" Rita was sweating a little under this kind of pressure, but her fingers were moving like lightning, "Got it!"

With a final key strike, the blastia started glowing again as the barrier projected around the city and pushed out any remaining monsters. At that very moment, the red eyes immediately pulled back into the shadows leaving behind their fallen.

Aile smiled at the sight, "I never thought I'd be glad to see something like that. Well done, Rita."

"We were lucky the core was still intact."

Sodia had examined one of the fallen assassins, "Lieutenant…"

"I know…" Flynn looked to one of the bodies, "The red eyes again…" Deesh could only assume that Flynn had a run in with these bastards before saving Yuri in Nor Harbor. Flynn marched toward the edge of town, "All right, time to clean up the monsters outside the barrier! The guilds won't be able to complain if we fight monsters outside the city."

As the knights marched away, Yuri moved toward the Union headquarters. "The city is safe. Now let's get down to business and find the Don."

One of the citizens recognized Yuri fighting to help defend the town. "You're looking for the Don? Sorry to say this but, he's not in the city right now."

"He won't be back for a while. He just went chasing after the monsters. I think he wants to take out the monster nests in one fell swoop."

"What? He already left?!"

Yuri was just as upset as Karol, "Damn it. We don't have time to just wait for him to come back…"

"Hey," Rita then suggested, "if we can't do what we came here to do, let's go and finish my errand."

Deesh started to head toward one of the bridges, "Agreed. There's no point in us waiting until the Don returns. We settle this matter and by the time we return the Don will probably have returned to Dahngrest as well."

Aile seemed to agree, "If anything else, it'll also give the guilds here time to recover and cool their heads after such a horrifying assault. So, what are we waiting for? To the forest of Keiv Moc."

A shadow was hiding on the rooftops as it watched this little group of adventurers leaving, "Going to Keiv Moc, are they? What a coincidence…"

As they cut through the wilderness to reach Keiv Moc Karol finally had to ask Yuri and Estelle, "Come to think of it, why was Flynn in Dahngrest? The empire and the Union have never gotten along, so Knights don't show up here often."

Yuri had his own suspicious already, "I doubt they're here to see the sights, either. It's gotta be tied up in one of their duties."

Deesh snorted, "However what that duty is, has me concerned. An imperial authority and a coalition of various factions doesn't always work well together."

Aile didn't look as worried, "I think we should trust Flynn. He seems to be an upstanding model soldier, if not a little too rigid about rules and regulations from time to time." She then glanced back to Yuri, "Except around you."

Shadow was trying to be hopeful, "Maybe it's some kind of diplomatic mission. They do have that fortress city not too far from here. Probably want to keep those people safe and off any sort of hit list for the radical groups."

Estelle wasn't as worried about his mission as she was about Flynn himself, "But do you think Flynn's all right? Those guild people were being really mean to him."

Deesh scoffed, "Mean? The Don was lenient. If he was mean, he'd have knocked Flynn out of commission with a good hard strike with the pommel of that sword. Or a punch."

"And I don't think even that would have stopped him for long." Yuri smiled, "Flynn's no delicate little flower. He can take some heat. Don't forget. Before he was a knight, he had to make it on the streets of the lower quarter, with me."

"Although…" Aile's visor was active again, "It is a little disconcerting how well timed that monster assault was."

Karol wasn't following. "What do you mean?"

Aile pointed back toward Dahngrest, "The alarm was a signal to when the monsters were attacking. It's been like that for a while, yes?" Pausing a moment to see Karol nod to confirm, "But the barrier just happened to fail suddenly while Flynn was in the city in talks with the Don? And of the guilds we saw defending the city, there were hardly any members of the Hunting Blades from what I could tell. That of course is relative to the individuals we saw at Caer Bocram."

Karol corrected Aile, "That's because the barrier has never failed before. When monster attack guilds would attack them just outside the barrier."

Shadow nodded, "Exactly the point. The timing of it all was too perfect. Someone made sure that the city wasn't at full strength when the monsters attacked while Flynn was there."

Deesh nodded, "Whoever is pulling the strings wants to see Flynn dead or at minimum his mission a failure, that much is certain. But for now, we should focus on one thing at a time. Our group is too small and specialized to do anything more."

It wasn't much longer before the party reached the rain drenched forest of Keiv Moc, and many of them were amazed at the sights. Estelle was enthralled by the majesty of the forest, "I had no idea trees this big existed…"

Deesh placed her hand onto one of the giant tree roots that tore through the land. "Some can. However, these trees are in pain. Their growth is unnatural, forced upon them at an accelerated rate…" Her glanced looked to some of the fungi that even her stalkers were not willing to get near, "And though they may not be related, those mushrooms shouldn't be that large either. Their spores are deadly enough when they were the size of a person's palm."

Rita picked up a vine, "It's just like you said, Karol. It's like what happened at Heliord when the blastia went berserk."

Aile was doing her own analysis of the flora with a holographic visor appearing over her eyes, "These plants are oversaturated with aer. But unlike Heliord, this doesn't seem like this is the first time these plants have experienced and adjusted to this phenomenon." Aile however quickly dropped into a defensive stance as her Model X armor digitized onto her and she had her left arm cannon at the ready, "Someone's coming…"

The group was ready to attack, however Deesh, Repede and Strider were the first to ease up. Deesh, however, snarled, "It's him…"

And out of the bushes, Raven stepped out, "Hey, what a coincidence!"

Rita was still ready to blast him into next week, though Yuri managed to keep her at bay "What the hell are you doing in a place like this?"

"Ya know, out for a forest stroll, takin' in the nature…"

Rita turned away from him, "Something smells fishy…"

"What? Where's my welcome?"

Shadow pointed at him, "That's an old saying where I'm from, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' You already earned our ire, birdman, don't think we'll just be giddy to see you right now."

Raven winked, "Aw, ya don't mean that. I can come in handy ya know."

Karol was hesitant to even interpret that, "…You're not thinking of coming with us, right?"

"Of course! It's lonely bein' out here all by my lonesome." After his grand gesture about the forest around him, he waited for a reply, though the silence wasn't helping. "What, no dice?"

Rita swiftly turned back to point at him, "You'd better watch your back. If you try anything funny, you're dead." And just as quickly marching away.

"Hey, ya don't really think my story stinks that bad, do ya?"

"Yeah, the stench is sort of coming off of you in waves." Strider even covered her face, though Deesh wasn't certain if it was in response to Yuri's wordplay, or simply she caught a bad scent.

"Really…!?" Raven then mockingly sniffing himself.

Yuri started to walk off too, "I can't take responsibility for what I'll do if you make any sudden moves. Don't forget that."

Aile was leading the group now, tracking the aer anomaly to its source. But as they continued along, the group couldn't help but noticed the annoying tail still following from a distance.

After a while, Aile stopped, and everyone glanced back to Raven, who nonchalantly waved to them, "Aww, don't mind me. Do whatever you came to do."

Estelle turned to Yuri, "What should we do about him?"

Yuri had an idea, "Do you know any tricks that'll convince us you're worth keeping around?"

"Do I look like some kinda street magician ta you?" Even though Raven was picking his ear, he seemed to have found something of interest. As he walked toward it, he waved to Karol, "Hey, you. C'mere a second."

"What? M-me…?"

The two of them disappeared into the foliage, much to the group's concern. It was only more concerning when Raven rushed back to them without Karol in sight. "Huh? What do you want with Karol?"

Karol's remarkable lungs screamed in horror as he stumbled his way back, "Don't just leave me here!"

Behind him was a giant praying mantis that was trying to attack him. Raven cheered Karol on, however, "Show 'im what for, kid!"

"W-why me?" Karol tried his best to stand up to the massive monster, and yet, unlike other encounters Karol was swinging his broken sword wildly. Aile and Shadow were about to rush out to help, as was Yuri, but Raven stopped them. He drew out a bow from his loose jacket as he carefully aimed at the bug. He fired, and the arrow clearly struck its lower thorax, though the mantis didn't seem fazed at all as it continued to swipe at Karol. After a while, Karol booked it the first chance he got. "O-okay, this isn't funny anymore!"

Raven lazily wrapped his arms behind his head despite the oncoming danger, "Should be any minute now…"

Karol managed to get behind the group, but the mantis stopped its approach. The insect convulsed before it started to budge then erupted into a pile of bug goo. "It exploded from the inside!" Aile's scans only confirmed Rita's hasty assessment. Raven somehow cause a kind of aer congestion within the monster's body that went into a feedback loop until it burst.

Deesh snarled, "What sort of magic was that?!"

Raven smiled, "Ya just wait for 'em to let their guard down, give 'em a little poke and then…bam!"

Rita was impressed, despite how much she hated him, "Jeez…I bet you're great at parties."

"I suppose that was good enough."

Aile was surprised by Estelle's open acceptance. "Really?"

"Yes."

Yuri didn't seem to mind now, "All right…"

Karol really didn't want to go through something like that again. "A-are you kidding…?"

"Hey, ya mean I passed? I can stay?"

Yuri glanced to Rita, "It'll be much easier to do things to him if we keep him nearby."

Raven's happy mood suddenly soured, "Whaddya mean 'things'…?"

Rita started thinking now, "Oh…Hadn't thought of that."

Deesh, however, caught on as to why Yuri accepted beforehand as she gave a slightly toothy grin. "Keep your friends in sight and your enemies in arm's reach…"

Raven shuddered, "Okay. I just got a little chill up my spine."

Estelle smiled, courteously stepping aside, "Well then, Mr. Raven, after you."

"…Right," less confident now of his standing with the group.