Those explosions were a problem. Each time they killed one of the Grimfangs, for some kind of reason, the monsters exploded.

This meant that either they had to attack from a distance, like in Reidar and Lysa's case; be fast enough to get out of range, like in Lena's case; or simply act as a distraction, as in Torren's case.

Torren did the best he could to not kill the monsters and get out when the others dealt the damaging blow, but it wasn't easy. At the same time, Jorik protected the group as best as he could.

As for Reidar, thanks to his summons, he was not in danger, as he remained within Jorik's barrier.

His summons were a mess, though. The blasts kept catching them off guard, so Reidar had to keep bringing them back again and again, which consumed his mana.

If it wasn't for the Guardian Shade and the Arcane Leech, he would have ended his mana already. From this point of view, Jorik wasn't in a better situation, which actually made Reidar understand one of the weaknesses that a summoner had. Mana was a problem because monsters died often.

Arcane Leech helped a little, but it only worked on Reidar's own attacks—not his summons. That's why he kept throwing Fireballs. If his creatures could've given him mana back, he wouldn't have needed to.

The Guardian Shade did its part, too. It wasn't a massive boost, but it took some of the pressure off Reidar, and it was a pretty easy skill to get. What really worked in Reidar's favor, though, was his trait. Sure, it ate up a lot of mana, but it meant his summons always had the right skills ready for any fight. That let him level up fast, and having creatures five or six levels higher than the enemy? That made all the difference.

<Now I get why they had problems making this on their own. Luckily, once I level up enough, we should not have problems.>

"Focus fire on the last one!" Lena's voice sliced through the chaos.

"Everything you have left!"

The last Grimfang, a scarred alpha with jagged crystal spikes jutting from its matted fur, refused to back down. Reidar's Bone Militia swarmed it, rusty swords slipping past its defenses. The beast thrashed wildly, but ten skeletons against one were too much. In the end, even such a beast went down.

[Grimfang Alpha defeated.]

[Skill Proficiency Increased: Summon Bone Militia (+3.1%).]

[You have gained 800 C.L.A.S.P. Points.]

[You have earned 240 survival points.]

Silence returned to the area. Though the battle lasted less than 10 minutes, the toll was clear in the survivors' eyes.

Jorik leaned against the ground as his barrier faded. Torren's breath came in heavy pulls, his huge Zweihänder planted tip-down in the dirt as he could not hold it anymore.

The others weren't doing much better. Lysa and Lena tried to keep their cool, but Reidar could see right through it. He watched Lena straighten up, putting that tough mask back on, the one she never took off.

He got why she did it. She was in charge here, and leaders couldn't show weakness, not even when they were just as worn out as everyone else.

But Lysa's silence was weird. It felt lived in, not just performed. She cleaned her blades, revealing nothing. Reidar studied her for a moment, wondering what made her like that. Some brutal past, something that happened during the apocalypse?

<Something that happened earlier? Perhaps, Anyway, I don't know her enough to care.>

Then Torren approached Reidar, wiping gore from his face with his forearm.

"That was great," he said.

"The summons?"

"Indeed. They made the difference." His gaze went over Reidar's monster army, at least what remained of it.

Reidar surveyed the scattered, smoking remains of the Grimfangs. These weren't the level 35 monsters Lena's team said they fought. These were stronger, pushing into the mid and low forties.

Even with his disposable summons taking the worst of the hits, the elite fighters around him were pushed to their absolute limits. Jorik's barrier flickered dangerously at some point, and Torren's powerful swings had grown sluggish. Without the constant pressure from his Bone Militia and Primal Pack aggroing the monsters, someone would've been caught in a blast or ripped apart by fangs.

Reidar's presence didn't just help; it was the only reason they were all still standing.

He nodded. "It'll get easier once I level further. My summons will hit harder and last longer."

Jorik pushed off the tree. "It will. No question." Across the clearing, even Lysa offered a curt nod of agreement.

"We better move," Lysa said. "The blood will sure attract other monsters, and I don't want to be here when they arrive."

Lysa was right. The scent of blood and the tremendous blasts from Jorik and Reidar's spells had been likely heard from miles away. Every predator in the forest likely heard it.

<Hey! Wait, SHE TALKED!>

Without another word, Lena led the group away from the gore-strewn clearing. They moved at a punishing pace on Reidar's summoned wolves.

He didn't like the others doing that, but at that point it wasn't like he could tell them no.

As the area grew more rugged, the earth under their feet shifted from soft ground to hard stone.

Jagged cliffs of gray rock pushed through the canopy, and so did the group through monsters heading in the battle site's direction. Until there were no more battles.

The group even gained two levels, with Reidar getting to level 39, which made the fights easier since the summons got stronger.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, they finally reached the quarry, a huge, unnatural scar in the earth, like a dark, gaping mouth cut into the sheer cliff.

Old machinery scars marked the rock, with rusted conveyor belts hanging broken like dead vines. The ground leading up was a wasteland of crushed stone and deep, frozen tire tracks.

Silence covered everything, swallowing all sound. It felt less like a place and more like a trap.

"Here," Lena said. "We camp here."

The group nodded, but not Reidar.

"Out here? Right in the open?"

"It's worse inside," Lena said. "Whatever's in charge down there hasn't sent its kids out this far. Not yet. Out here, we've got space to move. In there..." She let the thought hang.

Reidar knew she was right. The cave meant ambushes, tight spaces, and things they couldn't predict or see. But staying out here didn't feel much safer.

Lena turned to him. "Can your creatures keep watch through the night?"

All eyes were on him. Admitting the limitation felt like handing them a key to his weaknesses. He hesitated, then shook his head, since it wasn't like he could tell them yes and be forced to stay awake all night and the following nights.

"No. The summons… they don't last forever. I'd have to recast the spell every so often."

He didn't say how often, though.

Lena's expression didn't change, but he saw the slight tightening around her eyes. She'd been counting on that advantage. "Fine," she said.

"We do it the old way. Watch shifts. Miller, you're first. You're the freshest. Jorik, you're second. I'll take the third. Lysa, the fourth. Torren, you're last watch."

Torren, who had been leaning heavily on his sword, merely grunted in acknowledgment.

The order made a brutal kind of sense. Reidar, running on mana instead of muscle, really was the least tired, followed by Jorik. Torren, who'd done most of the heavy lifting, got the longest stretch of sleep.

Without another word, the others got to work setting up a camp, aided by the bone militia, who did the heavy lifting.

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