We settled into an awkward silence. The horned rabbits on the front line watched me closely; others milled around further behind. A cursory scan told me all the rabbits were no more than level three. Well below the entry requirements for the safe zone.
Half an hour into this, the staring contest stopped and the rabbits decided to test the barrier. They formed several lines and threw themselves at the dome, one group after the other. This went on for a while. Diving head first into an energy barrier wasn’t without cost. Attrition was claiming a rabbit every now and then. Some of the smaller ones sustained bruises; some were knocked out just outside.
It was hard to sleep when the rabbit army was at my gates, laying siege to the safe haven. So I looked at my messages. I had levelled. I had kill notifications for the six rabbits that died crashing into the dome. Go at it all you want.
For a new level I was awarded only one attribute point and one system point. Stingy system. This wasn't a world where stats went into thousands then. At least I wouldn’t die getting a handshake from someone thirty levels higher than me.
Twenty more minutes of mindless charge, after which the horned rabbits decided to go back to staring.
Minutes ticked by. The siege had turned into a waiting game. Their eyes glowed with a blood lust that was hard to put into words. I pulled out the information on my safe circle to see how long I had left before the barrier disappeared. A bit over three hours had elapsed and approximately twice that amount of time remained. But I noticed something else that worried me more. The durability of the barrier had gone down to 84 Points. Did the barrier sustain damage from the relentless attacks of the critters - even from the low level ones it was meant to keep out? I was shaken out of my thoughts when something bombarded against my barrier. The durability of my barrier went down two points right in front of my eyes. I looked up in panic as a second blast rattled my world. I scanned the crowd for the source and noticed that one of the rabbits stood out from the rest of the pack in shape and color. It was larger than most with silver streaks on its black fur.
Night spark.
Level 3
A mutated variant of the horned rabbit.
Silver flames erupted from its horns and shot towards my barrier. Another point of durability dropped. This went on for a few more times and the durability of the barrier had dropped below 80 before I got some respite. Peace lasted about twenty minutes, when the night spark was back at it again. Thud! Thud! The barrier shook violently with each hit. I held my hands to my ears and dropped to the ground. The constant bombardment wasn’t doing any favor to my nerves. The night spark got five more hits in, before the rabbit cavalry decided to test the barrier again with another charge. They kept up this routine for another hour and half. Intermittent spells of bombardment were driving me insane.
Finally, I could take it no more. ’Bring him down! Bring him down!’, I screamed like a mad woman and unleashed a luminous blast at the lightning bunny.
The blast rebounded off the inner wall of the barrier to find my own left shoulder. I was pushed back two or three feet towards the edge of the circle. Pain erupted from my shoulder as I struggled to steady myself. I collapsed to the ground and I felt my left wrist pass through something. My eyes traced the path in shock, as I laid on the ground in agonizing pain. A moment was all it took for the vicious critters to pounce at my exposed hand. I quickly retracted my hand back into safety, as half a dozen rabbits crashed on to the barrier, unable to stop the momentum of their charge. Another second or two and my left hand would’ve been rabbit meal, while my shoulder writhed in pain caused by friendly fire.
Once the pain subsided to manageable levels, I sat up. My shoulder was burned to a crisp. I tried to stay calm and not let the pain overwhelm me. I recounted the events to myself. At least I had confirmation that the barrier didn’t let the magic attacks penetrate either direction. I couldn’t take out the critters with magic from within the comforts of my barrier and I didn’t have any weapons on me to test whether it did the same to weapons. All I could do was wait. One look at the durability stat told me that my own attack had brought down that number by a whopping five percent!
Then I noticed a glowing set of red eyes on the cliff adjoining the circle. There was another visitor I had failed to notice before.
Silver wolf
Level 17
It was level 17! Way beyond my level and my barrier wasn’t strong enough to keep it out. This was a formidable foe and I had no delusions I could outlive this enemy. With all the exits blocked, fleeing wasn’t an option either. My new life was going to be short after all. This was turning out to be quite the welcome party. Regret washed over me, which was shortly replaced with feelings of frustration and anger.
I readied myself for an attack that never came. The wolf merely waited in the shadows. "It thinks it can not get past the barrier”, realization dawned on me. Dozens of unconscious or dead rabbits lying next to the barrier had served as a deterrent.
I looked through the skill shop to search for something that could help. Perhaps a wide area attack to obliterate the rabbits and make an opening? - there was none.
Half an hour went by. Then all hell broke loose. Tired of waiting for the barrier to come down, the shadowy figure on the cliff switched its attention to other targets. It left its place on the cliff and descended upon the assembled rabbits. Sharp claws and fangs tore into them as the small beasts bolted in all directions. Some launched themselves at the wolf in a desperate attempt, leaving minor bite marks along the silver fur, while others clung to the large beast from its shoulders and neck. The wolf shook them off with effortless ease. Every time a rabbit dropped to the ground, a sharp claw followed soon behind to finish them off. Their numbers began to diminish steadily as the wolf devolved into a murderous rage. The rabbits continued to charge at the wolf, dozens at a time. The wolf swatted at them with its paws as they were sent flying in all directions. Some smashed into the barrier and dropped dead. Soon the battlefield was littered with corpses of the stubborn rabbits.The wolf was bathed in blood and gore, and not all of it belonged to its victims. Sensing defeat, the remaining rabbits didn’t linger around. The wolf locked eyes with me and gave the barrier an appraising glance before chasing after the fleeing rabbits.
Their screams and howls began to grow more distant and suddenly there was just eerie silence. There were one or two rabbits just outside the barrier that were on the verge of death. I considered stepping out to finish them off for easy experience points. ‘To hell with that, I’m never leaving this circle’. Having witnessed the carnage first hand, I refused to leave the safety of my barrier. I stepped back to the far corner of my safe circle and dropped to my knees. I knew the wolf would return once it had its fun with the rabbits. ‘Perhaps it will have a go at the barrier this time’, I thought.
Half an hour passed without incident. I struggled to keep my eyes open. Fatigue took over me as I slowly drifted into sleep. I dreamt of stat screens and colorless blobs. I was back in that same hall that led to the eighty-first gate. I was in the midst of tinkering with my stats and skills. I didn’t appear pleased. Endless tinkering. Never satisfied.
“I know the perfect skill for you”, a female voice said from behind me. It was the goddess. “You’ll thank me later. Here, I’ll add it for you..”, she said, as her hands tried to reach for my status screen. I quickly smacked her fingers. It was instinctive. Of course, I didn’t want her incompetent self anywhere near my build, but I had perhaps gone too far. She was a goddess afterall. She was taken aback. One or two assistants who were in the room and witnessed the incident were also in shock. She looked at me in disbelief, tears welling up, before she ran out of the room crying. I started to wonder how much power a gateway goddess actually wielded. Probably not much, I told myself.
I was suddenly woken up from my dream by the sound of leaves rustling. I stood up in full attention and stared at the source of the noise. The shrubs to my left shook vigorously and something leapt off the bushes. But the frame of the figure was much smaller than I expected. Then two more figures jumped out and then another half a dozen came out of hiding. It wasn’t the wolf, but the rabbit cavalry. Persistent critters had come back for a second round. Soon, there were over a dozen of them and I noticed the distinguishing silver streaks on the black fur of the Night spark. They had given the wolf the slip and returned for their coveted prize. I looked at the timer on my safety net. Just over two hours left, while the durability stood just above forty points. If they charged at the barrier with their lower numbers, the barrier would wear them down before I had to fight them directly. .
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But no head-on assault came. Instead, the familiar lightning began to accumulate on the Night spark. Then it released it all at once and the barrier shook in a violent explosion, enough to give me nightmares for months. Once, twice, thrice and then it waited like before for the lightning to charge up. If I still held hope that the rabbits would exhaust themselves on the barrier, it was quickly extinguished. This time, the normal rabbits didn’t follow the lightning fire with an assault of their own. They merely waited. How long before they joined the fray? These creatures were most likely nocturnal as I hadn’t met any of them on the road during the day. An attack was imminent before dawn.
I hadn’t looked at my messages in a while. There were twenty-eight new kill notifications. I was awarded minor experience points for most of the wolf’s kills because the rabbits had bumped into the barrier earlier that night. I was up to level four and was closing in on the next level, despite being cooped inside most of the night. I didn’t even have to think where attribute points went. Agility was pushed up to five. Three of the points had come from the level ups and being a null magic pioneer had contributed the rest. Soon there would be no walls to hide behind. Out in the open every point in agility counted.
The darkness of the night slowly receded. The nightspark’s attacks were still fifteen to twenty minutes apart. We sat and glared at each other during the time in between, bloodlust clear in their eyes. Then just as the dawn broke, the normal rabbits charged at the barrier.
Within an hour and half since their return, the nightspark and the chargers had brought the barrier close to its last breath. It was teetering on the edge of collapse and there wasn’t much time left on the clock either. Around fifteen of them stood on the other side and I didn’t expect to come out unscathed. I was done cowering behind the walls. I had to be proactive. I had to be quick - step out, step in, a couple of light blasts in between. Hit and run. How many attempts before they noticed the pattern? Enough to thin their numbers, I hoped.
I was suddenly greeted by a system message that said my safe haven skill was eligible for a rank upgrade. The skill had been put to a lot of work and the rank up wasn’t surprising. I spent a system point to confirm the rank up. Safe haven-2 came with an additional twenty minutes of duration and an extra 10 points in durability. I punched the air jubilantly at the new lease of life..
I slowly walked up to the edge of the barrier, which caused some reaction. So I just stood there for five minutes, admiring the dome like an idiot. Once they thought I wasn’t up to anything, they relaxed their guard. There were two clusters of rabbits huddled together in close proximity. As much as I wanted to take out the night spark early, my dexterity wasn’t anything to write home about. I had confirmed with the system that dexterity was the governing attribute for ranged accuracy. Night spark had never come too close either. It had just finished its last attack and was replenishing mana. It was the perfect time to step out. I mentally picked out my first two targets, took one step out of the barrier, tossed two luminous blasts from my hands and immediately withdrew to the safety of my barrier. I turned around to look at my results. One of the blasts had managed a direct hit at one of the bunnies and had fully taken it out. The other blast had landed somewhere in between a pair, who were both still standing, but looked significantly worse for wear. Some of the bunnies had even reacted to me stepping out and had instinctively thrown themselves at the barrier - not in a more restrained way they conducted themselves during the charge, but in a more brutal way, fueled by bloodlust. That worked out to my advantage as well, leaving them slightly more bruised than they would have with a more cautious charge at the barrier. Every bit counts, I told myself.
I managed to kill two more and wounded another in three more forays out into their territory. It didn’t take long for the rabbits to adapt. Half the crew stayed back for their running start - for when they had to charge, while the rest hung around near the edge of the dome to stop me from stepping out. They took turns and charged the barrier and once a group was done charging they swapped roles with those that stayed in wait. I was also missing more often, as they knew what to expect. The returns were diminishing, while the risk was going up.
The night spark had also adapted. It appeared to fire fewer spells this time. It was keeping a spell or two in reserve. I looked at my messages again. I was up to level five. Another point went into agility. I was almost at the start line with that stat.
The rabbit cavalry was looking increasingly bruised and battered. Their movement became slow. They didn’t have enough bodies to spread the attrition around. I attempted to merely stick my hand out of the barrier and throw a luminous blast at one, but the flow of magic was quickly cut off and the spell failed to take effect. That made it clear that I had to fully step out of the dome to be able to perform magic.
One of the bunnies, who had been knocked out after their last charge, laid just outside the barrier. At level one, it stood no chance to gain an entry into the dome, but I wanted to see if the rules could be bent. My right hand pushed out of the barrier and dragged the rabbit in. The others were startled. At that moment, I knew exactly how to turn the tide of the battle. I stared right at a group of rabbits outside, painted my face with the most villainous smirk I could muster and shot a luminous blast point-blank at the rabbit I pulled in.
Rabbits lost all sense of self preservation. They threw themselves at the barrier, over and over. These creatures were already prone to bouts of mindless rage, but now they lost all control. Even the night spark fully exhausted the mana it was saving up and shot a lightning bolt. It had lost all composure and was rushing in to hurl itself at the barrier for the first time that night. This was my chance. I had thought that I would have to get through the cavalry first before I could get close enough to the night spark to make sure my shots found their target. But he was coming to me now. I quickly looked around and assessed the battlefield. There were around four rabbits either fully knocked out or struggling to get up. A couple more crawling with great effort. They weren’t a threat, despite being reasonably close enough to the edge of the barrier. Couple more bunnies were running in the opposite direction, to get enough of a running start to begin their next charge. The last one seemed to be the sanest of all. It was waiting for me to step out. It had somehow calmed itself.
I was brought out of my thoughts by the sight of the night spark crashing into the barrier. It was pushed back by the barrier, but was somehow about to land gracefully on its feet. Time to act, I told myself. I quickly exited and cast a luminous blast at the night spark. At this range, with the night spark mid air and unable to adjust, I was unlikely to miss. Almost at the same time, I raised a vanishing shield in between my neck and the most composed rabbit. I wasn’t reacting to its movement. I wasn’t perhaps fast enough to react at this range. No, the placement of the shield was premeditated. I had seen enough of these creatures to know exactly where they would aim first. The blue light of the vanishing shield blinked into existence knocking the creature back. I saw no reason to wait around to observe the results. So I dove right back into the dome.
When I looked back I saw that the night spark was seriously wounded and the second rabbit was stunned. The injured night spark was already trying to distance itself from the edge of the barrier. I needed to take advantage of this and finish them off, but the two other horned rabbits who were preparing their next charge were halfway to the dome. Based on their path, I could guess the trajectory of their leap. I picked a target closest to me and moved to position myself in its path, but on this side of the barrier. Just as the rabbit’s leap was repelled by the barrier, I pushed my hand out and tugged the rabbit by the horn. I was hoping to pull it just enough to leave it suspended halfway between both sides of the barrier. It was an experiment, but I had assumed that if I let go of the rabbit just as it was passing through the barrier, the level requirements might deny it passage and leave it trapped midway in the barrier, or perhaps even sever it in half. But I had misjudged how the skill would react. Once I had grabbed it from outside and directed it inside, the system treated it as me granting permission and the rabbit passed through the barrier without trouble. Now I had a horned rabbit loose inside the barrier. But I was one-on-one against the level two rabbit and that improved my chances significantly. It wasn’t in perfect health either after repeatedly ramming its horn into the barrier. The rabbit showed signs he was about to leap. I prepared my vanishing shield and let it materialize a few inches away from my neck. The rabbit had seen my last fight and wasn’t going for my neck, but my heart. I adjusted last minute and tilted my body just enough for the rabbit to tear into my shoulder instead. It hung from its horn which was still lodged to my shoulder. I screamed in pain, but instinctively blasted the rabbit with the light spell. Then again. It hung limply by its horn. With another scream, I detached the rabbit.
The last standing rabbit outside the dome looked around the battlefield, realized it was a lost cause and fled the scene. It was anticlimactic. I knew I couldn’t stop. I went around finishing off the grievously injured or knocked out rabbits. I didn’t want the night spark charging up another spell. So I started with it. All it took was another luminous blast to bring down the severely wounded glass cannon.
Then the barrier flickered one last time and disappeared. It had done its job. I was sprawled out on the grass, fully spent. ‘Just a little longer’, I thought.
I suspected that the wolf didn’t come out fully unharmed from his fight with the rabbits. I was sure it was out there somewhere, licking its minor wounds, biding time; perhaps too clever to fight an unknown threat while wounded. I recalled the carnage and those glowing red eyes that were locked on me. That wolf would always give me nightmares.
