The first feral ape slammed into his shield like a battering ram. His posture held, but he could feel his feet sliding backwards on the uneven stone. Slobbering fangs scraped along the top of the shield, gouging the silvery metal.

  Sam twisted and let the monkey’s momentum throw it off balance as he let it through, giving it a shove for good measure. The twang of a bowstring sounded a moment later, followed by a howl of pain.

  This technique was one they practiced repeatedly. Sam and Molly would create firing lanes, sending through select enemies for Siel to pick off. It worked well against hordes of smaller opponents, but they'd never had a chance to test it against so many.

  Sam could feel the writhing bodies pressing against his legs, their nails ineffectually scraping against his armour. He kicked out and saw one of the apes fly back into the crowd, its chest caved in by the force of the blow. He took the opportunity to inspect it.

  [Bereft Simian - Iron - Uncommon]

  Once worshipers of Bast, these mortals abandoned their principles and turned their backs on the faith. Cursed by their goddess, they reverted to lesser forms. Every waking moment is spent in agony, living with the regret of knowing they are denied her light.

  Sam’s face twisted as he read the description. Once again, it seemed, the Arbiter was using real people as monsters in a Dungeon. There was a good chance that at one time these creatures had been human. If anything, it only steeled Sam’s resolve, knowing he was putting them out of their misery.

  Individually, the creatures weren't very powerful, but already he could feel himself being overwhelmed. He swapped to his hammer, taking advantage of the shorter reach, raining down blows from behind his shield.

  Beside him, Molly thrashed, using her hooves as much as he tusks. Not for the first time, Sam was glad for the addition of an extra body in the front line. The battle would have been nearly impossible if he’d been forced to take on all the creatures at once.

  “Sam, pull back, but be ready to jump!” The words rang in his mind as Siel loosed another arrow into the crowd. It took one of the simians between the eyes, and he grinned as it collapsed in a tangled mess of limbs.

  Sam took a step back, and then another, giving way to the press of bodies. Doing so brought him farther down the bridge, and he had to ward off a few of the monkeys that jumped at him from the high ground.

  “Get back now!” Siel cried, and Sam leapt backwards, cracking the stone beneath his boots. Beside him, Molly spun and charged back down the bridge.

  Siel’s aura flashed, and a line of green vines sprang up from the floor of the bridge. They caught the monkeys at chest height, momentarily stymying their advance. She set three arrows on her bowstring, turning it to the side. Additional vines trailed from their fletching, and she loosed them into the fray.

  All the vines were interconnected, and as the arrows flew, they created a web of leafy netting among the remaining monsters. The vines crisscrossed, forming a rough grid. Where they touched, they fused, trapping the apes in small, open pockets.

  What had become a mindless charge was suddenly halted in its tracks. Sam took advantage of the chaos to move in with his spear. He stored his shield and lunged with two hands, mind devoid of anything but the plunging black metal.

  The simians clawed at each other and themselves in an attempt to savage their prey. Bloody gouts flew through the air as they desperately tried to reach him, but Sam was like a ghost as he darted between their lines.

  Their Iron Tier reflexes were no match for his speed, and before long, the bridge was painted red with the blood of the dead simians. He pulled his spear from the final corpse, relieved to hear a familiar chime.

  [Quest 2/3 - Survive the Bereft of Bast]

  Defeat Waves 1/5

  No sooner had he cleaned the blood from the blade than he detected a familiar grinding coming from the opposite waterfall.

  Siel let out a curse as she stored corpses, retrieving her arrows. “We must hurry; if they're able to cross the bridge and enter the temple, we won't be able to contain them.”

  Sam grunted his assent, and they took off at a sprint towards the next wave. Familiar shapes descended from the cliff, but interspersed among them were larger, more imposing forms.

  If the regular monkeys were the size of chimpanzees, then these new monsters were closer to a fully grown gorilla. Their broad shoulders and wide stance closed the distance easily, and Sam swore under his breath as they streamed across the bridge.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Okay, new plan,” he said, skidding to a halt. “We need to find a place to defend. There's no way we can keep running around trying to get ahead of them.”

  “What if we kept the last one alive? It would give us time to reposition before the next wave.”

  Sam gave a small shrug. “It's a good idea, but we can't forget about the timer. We still have no idea how much time we’ll need for the third quest. Let's try it if we can, but don't get hurt attempting it.”

  “Agreed,” Siel replied, pointing to a building on the other side of the plaza. “That building doesn't have many entrances; it could be a good place to hole up.”

  Sam nodded, noting the doorway at the top of a steep flight of steps. “That could work,” he said, giving it a quick once-over. “And not many windows, either. Let's give it a shot.”

  They continued their breakneck charge, finally reaching the tall, square building that sat in a corner of the central plaza. The main entrance sat at the top of a narrow staircase, carved from the same stone as the building.

  Inside, he could make out the shape of a large altar. It stood on a raised dais in the center of the room, illuminated by the last rays of sunlight. It gave the space an otherworldly appearance, with each corner cast in the deepest of shadows.

  The main floor of the building had only a single entrance, and Sam took up position in the doorway. Molly fell in beside him, and he was content in knowing that it would be nearly impossible for anything to get past them.

  It was strange to think, but he'd grown accustomed to fighting beside the War Boar as the weeks passed. At first, he’d been forced to dedicate a not-insignificant chunk of his concentration to not getting trampled. However, as the days went on, he started to learn her habits. She had a particular rhythm she used when dealing with multiple monsters, and it became an easy enough thing to dart around her and shore up any points of weakness.

  “What if they don't chase us?” Siel’s voice rang in the vacant hall. “What if they spread out across the city and we're forced to pursue them?”

  “They won’t,” Sam replied, more confident than he felt. “They're locked onto us. This quest isn't about us hunting them down, not really. It's about endurance, and testing our resolve—our ability to weather the storm."

  Sure enough, the sound of slapping bare feet soon echoed along the boulevard, and Sam could see the pack making a beeline for their building. His initial impression of the larger simians hadn't been far off, and while the total number of monkeys had reduced, they were forced to deal with more elites.

  The first gorilla charged up the stairs and barrelled into Sam without fanfare or ceremony. It pounded its oversized fist into his shield, and the force of it drove him back a step. Molly stepped in and gored it with her tusks, but it barely registered the impact.

  It took Sam decapitating it with his spear for the body to finally collapse. If the smaller simians were mindless berserkers, then this new threat was like a walking tank. It seemed to have no issue shrugging off catastrophic damage, and only immediately fatal blows were enough to stop it swinging.

  The wave progressed, and Sam dealt with four more of the elites. Siel’s instincts had been spot on; the temple was the perfect place to defend. She was able to stand upon the central plinth and had a fantastic overview of the proceedings. Arrow after arrow fell among the encroaching horde, piercing flesh and breaking bone. Her long, leaf-shaped arrowheads pierced deep, her creeping vines weighing them down, allowing Sam to strike the killing blow.

  The door was small enough that the monsters were forced down to nearly single file. His arm burned as he struck again and again, and for the first time in a long time, he found his chest burning with exertion.

  His ascent to Bronze had done wonders for his constitution, but it hadn’t made him a god. For the first time since he’d risen from Iron, he truly felt drained. He raised his hammer to strike the final blow on one of the simians, only to find that it was already dead, strangled by a [Creeping Arrow] in its neck. He searched frantically for the next one, only to find that the stairwell was empty.

  “Shit,” he muttered as the chime sounded again. He collapsed to the floor, not even bothering to avoid the puddle of blood. They’d finished the second wave without even meaning to.

  “I’m sorry,” Siel said, joining them by the door. “I didn’t realize it was the last one. I think we can afford to take a break after the next wave. Let’s prioritize keeping one alive.”

  “Agreed,” Sam wheezed, trying to force air into his lungs.

  Siel walked over to the entrance and began summoning thick cords of vine. She used it to create a makeshift barrier out of the corpses, further narrowing the threshold.

  Sam was impressed by how fast she could manipulate the vines. It was a complete contrast to her first, simple constructs. The vines now moved like serpents, snaking their way up the sides of the door and burrowing into the cracks in the stone.

  Before long, they had a nearly solid barrier built into the doorframe. It stood about four feet high, allowing Sam to attack from the high ground. It meant that Molly would be back in the room, but the trade-off was worth it. They still didn’t know if there were any other ways into the building, and she could be deployed to plug those gaps if needed.

  The now familiar sound of slapping feet soon reached Sam’s ears, and he stuck his head out of the doorway to try to get a grasp of where the enemy was coming from. After a few seconds, he spotted the new wave charging in from the plaza.

  The group was much more clustered than in previous iterations, and it moved at a more reasonable pace. To his dismay, the column was made up almost entirely of the tankier gorillas, and many of them were now carrying simple wooden clubs.

  At the rear of the group, a new kind of monster loped behind the rest. It reminded Sam of pictures he’d seen of early neanderthals. It wore simple, Egyptian-style armour, with a golden metal disk around its neck. In its hand, it brandished a whip, cracking it overhead like some kind of ancient slave driver. The rest of the creatures cringed before it, and its aura shone almost as bright as those of the four temple bosses.

  It turned its head and stared up at Sam, seemingly aware that he was looking at it. Its tanned, brown skin cracked as it smiled, revealing a set of dirty, broken teeth. It cracked the whip again, increasing the pace to an all-out sprint. Howls and cries rose from the approaching wave, sending shivers down Sam’s spine.

  The leader barked a command, and the column split into smaller groups, setting out to surround the building. Sam swore and retreated inside.

  Siel looked at him questioningly. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “We may have a problem.”