Urgent Message from new Arrivals

"Hmm... strange." Mark murmured as he stared out the window of the terminal. Clye was busy with her work, so he decided to take some time to watch the monsters outside, but it was eerily quiet for some reason.

"Far less monsters around than usual. I think what I was worried about is starting..." Mark scratched his head and sighed.

"As long as they don't break through near the base we should be able to set up some sort of defense." Mark rubbed his chin as he thought of the battle to come. There wasn't much they could do in the way of defensive structures, so they had to rely on themselves in order to hold back the possible onslaught.

"If only they could reach a higher core density faster... ten mana isn't near enough. We just need a couple more days..." Mark began to pace back and forth as he tried to rack his brain for solutions. The number of bugs that were attacking outside were far greater than anything else. They were the biggest threat, mostly thanks to their numbers.

There were so many outside the past couple days that it almost looked like a sea of red ants. They were far larger than they originally were, but they were still easily crushed by the other monsters. That did little in the way of reducing those numbers though, as it felt almost endless.

A quick search online showed there could be tens of thousands of them, and his side had nowhere near that number. "With these numbers, the only thing we can do is hope for the best. With nowhere to run, we have to make our defense here." Mark said as he turned away from the base and walked back to discuss the upcoming invasion with the others.

...

The sound of footsteps echoed under the deafening wails of the survivors as they stomped their feet down, running as fast as their legs could carry them. The first to fall were the survivors that refused to fight, their bodies naturally being weaker.

A deafening crunch rang out as an elderly woman was caught in a giant ant's mandibles, her leg being sliced off as she screamed in pain, begging for help. Unfortunately, no one present had the ability to assist her, as they were also desperately trying to survive.

"Alima! Some of the group are falling behind!" One of the main fighters screamed to the leader of their ragtag group, as he looked back in horror at the ant's dominating approach.

"There's nothing we can do! There are just too many of them!" Alima forced out of her dry throat as she threw a few traps out using her subclass ability.

"I'm out of mana!" She cried out, as she saw her traps had successfully distracted the horde for a moment.

The survivors, taking the opportunity ran with all their might to the opposite side of the airport, hoping that they could get as far away from the hole as possible.

"Are those people up ahead?!" Someone shouted in surprise as they noticed a small team of people moving about with weapons, clearing out a group of monsters.

"It is! And they all have real weapons, just like Jack!" One of the survivors said, panting slightly from running so much.

"Let me take the lead." A tall elf stepped forward, as he held his sword in his hand and walked briskly towards the group that had just finished their hunt.

"I'll come with you, Jack." A shorter man said as he jogged up to Jack, tapping his fists together and causing sparks to fly.

"Rich, Jack you two be careful, and don't start a needless fight, we're all survivors." Alima ordered, as the two nodded.

...

The other group had noticed them after their battle, waiting for the new arrivals to approach. The team captain stepped forward, extending his hand to the two approaching men.

"Nice to see some fellow survivors. I'm Max, this is my team. You guys are all looking a little worse for wear... Did your base get destroyed?" He asked, shaking the burly elf's hand with a frown.

Surprised, Rich looked the incubus up and down, asking him seriously, "How could you tell?"

"You guys look absolutely exhausted, and Mark, one of our leaders, has been paying close attention to the movements of the monsters outside. All the ants have moved out of our view after days of relentless fighting. He assumed that they got most of what they could out there and decided to go for easier prey inside." Max summarized Mark's thoughts as he watched the eyes of all the survivors look down.

"Seems he was pretty spot on." Jack said, shaking his head sadly. "We lost a lot of good people. There was a hole made by a monster yesterday that they came in through. Hundreds of them flooded the base and slaughtered almost everyone. We are all that's left." Jack pointed to the group of slightly over twenty people behind him as he squeezed his fist in anger.

"Well you guys are more than welcome to join us. We have plenty of food, water, and clothes for everyone." Max beckoned forward as he and his team led the way back to base.

Once everyone arrived and managed to calm down over a warm meal, many began to break down in tears, as the memories of what they had just gone through continuously surfaced in their minds.

Ruby sat next to a woman in her twenties crying over her boyfriend who was ripped apart in front of her eyes. All she could do was rub her back and try to console her.

Mark sat there, sadly watching as he listened to the stories of all these innocent people. Traumas that would take a lifetime to heal being laid out repeatedly as he sat there, helpless to do anything.

A warm hand gently touched his shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts as a soothing voice reached his ears.

"Thank you for taking in my group, I'm Alima Akel; I guess you could call me their leader, though I kind of just bark orders at them." She chuckled slightly, trying to ease the tension, as she sat down next to Mark.

Mark looked her over, as her silky black hair waved about with every refined, elegant movement she made. Her deep brown eyes enraptured him momentarily, before he snapped out of it and responded to her.

"It's no problem, there's strength in numbers. Especially with what we're about to face. Ah, I'm Mark Tellin." Mark quickly shook her hand as he decided to get down to business, avoiding any unnecessary thoughts.

"You guys are welcome to make yourselves at home. We have a dungeon near us that Max can tell you about in more detail if any of your people want to farm it. We also have a large stockpile of mana crystals if any of your people want to try and increase their core density." Mark began explaining the basics before Alima cut him off.

"Wait, wait, wait. Dungeon? Mana crystals? You're going to have to explain a little more there!" Alima gasped as she stared wide eyed at Mark.

"Oh, guess the ant talk really threw me off, sorry. Haha! I'll explain everything to you guys when everyone's managed to calm down. Those ants should take at least a day to get here if they go through all the remaining terminals first. So we should have enough time to get everyone settled and armed." Mark said as he slowly rubbed Jor, causing Alima to raise an eye.

'A spider pet?' She wondered as she nodded her head, looking over the little green and yellow creature that seemed to be enjoying the attention.