"Let's go!"

  Asher exploded from cover, his spear a silver blur.

  He drove the point into the leg joint of the closest Skitterjaw, crippling its charge.

  "Focus fire!" he barked at the girls, his voice cutting through their panic.

  The girl with the shield, jolted by the command, reinforced her barrier with all her might. The one with fireballs, seeing an actual opening, concentrated her next blast on the injured creature. It shrieked and curled up.

  Ryn moved at the same time, but not toward the fight. He slipped past the chaos unnoticed, placing himself between the circling monsters and the cowering woman and child. He stood there, one hand slightly raised, his eyes tracking the skittering movements.

  With their arrival, the battle turned around swiftly.

  In a few seconds, two more Skitterjaws fell to their combined assault.

  But one, the largest and fastest, used the distraction of its falling brethren. It feinted at Asher, then scuttled sideways with shocking speed, its serrated mandibles aimed directly at the toddler in the old woman's arms.

  The shield-girl gasped, too far to intervene. The fire-girl was out of Arcana, her hands smoking helplessly.

  Ryn, who had been watching its path the whole time, simply turned to the grandmother.

  "Excuse me," he said, calm as ever.

  He then placed a hand on her shoulder and one on the toddler's back.

  Pop.

  They vanished.

  The Skitterjaw's lunge met empty air. Its momentum carried it headfirst into the metal wall with a sickening crunch.

  Asher and the two girls stared, stunned as they reappeared instantly, three feet to the left, in the safety of a corner.

  Their gazes turned to Asher in unison.

  That was... Teleportation!

  A rare, high-difficulty Flux ability. And he had just used it on two other people!

  The pieces clicked into place in Asher's mind with shocking clarity.

  'This guy isn't ordinary at all!'

  But, he quickly shoved his shock down. Now wasn't the time to ponder.

  "Kill it!" he shouted, snapping the girls out of their daze.

  Seizing the chance, they unleashed everything they had left, finishing off the stunned beast and the final straggler.

  As the silence returned, the adrenaline crash hit them all at once.

  The shield-girl's barrier flickered out, and she slumped against a luggage rack, gasping for air. The fire-girl slid down the wall, her face pale and slick with sweat. Asher leaned heavily on his spear, his limbs trembling from the constant rune activation.

  "We need to stop," Ryn's voice cut through the panting silence. "There are no monsters nearby, so we should rest and recover as much as possible. And... that room should be safe."

  He pointed to a compartment at the far end of the carriage, its door hanging open but structurally intact.

  No one argued.

  Ryn took the lead, while they staggered after him, helping the elderly woman and child.

  The compartment was relatively clean compared with the others. They barricaded the broken door with a toppled bunk and collapsed onto seats or the floor.

  Ryn stood on guard by the door, looking as fresh as when he boarded.

  Asher focused on his breathing, cycling his depleted Arcana, feeling a trickle of energy return.

  The two girls were in even worse shape, their cores dangerously strained.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  After some time, Asher opened his eyes, the grim reality setting in.

  "We need to leave," He said, forcing himself to stand. His legs felt like lead, but his mind was much clearer now. "We're sitting targets if something bigger comes. We have to move while we still have some strength."

  He exchanged a glance with Ryn.

  "The surroundings are clear," Ryn replied.

  "Good, then here's how we are gonna move," Asher directed. "I'll take point. Clara, Maya," he said, using the names the girls had hastily given, "you two shield the middle, protect Grandma and the kid. Conserve your energy and use basic runes or spells only."

  "Ryn," he paused, "you watch our backs."

  "...Alright."

  Ryn moved to the rear of the group, his posture relaxed but his eyes scanning the flickering shadows behind them.

  Then, they moved out.

  The new formation worked as well as Asher anticipated.

  With him probing ahead and Ryn silently neutralizing any threat that tried to flank or ambush from the rear: a stray Vicious Rat dispatched with a teleported piece of debris, a lurking Corrosive Slime diverted by a precisely dropped luggage crate, and so on.

  They also met a few other survivors, but they refused to join them, preferring to stay hidden, which Asher found a bit reassuring since there were already enough people in his small group.

  Finally, after twenty minutes of slow but steady progress, they pushed through a sealed bulkhead door and stumbled into the relative quiet of the head carriages.

  "We are here!" The girls exclaimed in joy.

  Asher put his shoulder against the door and pushed.

  But, it didn't budge at all.

  "Hmm?"

  He tried channeling a trickle of Arcana into the access panel. It beeped a dull red, denying entry.

  "Damn it!" he cursed, slapping the cold metal. "It's locked from the inside."

  The girls' eyes widened, fear enveloping their hearts.

  "O-Open! Please!" Clara shouted, pounding on the door with a fist. "There are people out here!"

  "Open the door!" Maya joined her friend.

  "Don't bother. They can't hear you," Asher said, his own frustration evident in his tone. "The command car is at the very front. This is just the first-class buffer. Unless there's a Master Arcanist in there, they won't be able to hear us at all."

  "W-what?"

  "No way!"

  The hope that had carried them this far began to curdle in the cramped space.

  "Don't cry, child. It's going to be ok." The elderly woman hugged the toddler tighter.

  Just then, Ryn spoke up, his voice cutting through the growing despair.

  "Guys." He was looking back the way they'd come, down the shadowy corridor of the carriage they'd just sealed. "...They're coming... A lot of them."

  Everyone froze.

  For a second, there was only silence. Then they heard it.

  "Clatter..."

  "Clle..."

  Asher's chest tightened. 'This isn't right.'

  The dream memories replayed in his mind, still blurred and fractured, but clear on one thing: monsters were supposed to be scattered, not moving in large groups.

  Something was wrong, but he had no time to spare.

  "No other choice," he muttered, more to himself than anyone. He stepped forward, his expression hardening with resolve. "Guys, I have a way. But it won't last long."

  He pulled a small vial of murky blue liquid from his pouch, a second-grade Arcana Boost Potion.

  He uncorked it and downed it in one grimacing gulp.

  'Urgh, it tastes awful.'

  However, a moment later, sudden warmth flooded his veins, a shaky surge of energy refilling his depleted core. It wouldn't last long, but it was the only thing he could afford.

  Next, he produced a palm-sized, intricately carved rune crystal.

  He knelt and pressed it to the floor at their feet, channeling the potion-boosted Arcana into it. The crystal glowed, and lines of pale blue light spread from it, weaving into a complex circular pattern that rose to form a faint, shimmering dome around their group.

  "An invisibility barrier?!" Clara, the Rune Arcanist girl, gasped, recognizing the advanced pattern. "That's a Third-Circle Rune! You can cast that?"

  "Barely," Asher admitted through gritted teeth, already feeling the strain. "And only for a minute, maybe less. So listen closely. The barrier masks our sight and smell, and most of our energy signature, but not the sound. So don't move and don't speak. Don't even breathe loudly. If we are lucky, they might leave after not finding anything. If we aren't… be ready to fight for your lives the second the barrier drops."

  Everyone nodded grimly.

  The grandma clamped a hand over the toddler's mouth, her own eyes wide with terror.

  Ryn, still watching the approaching corridor, finally glanced back at the huddled group under the shimmering dome. His gaze lingered on the grandmother and child for a brief moment before returning to the shadows.

  "...They're here," he whispered.

  The next moment, shadows poured into the far end of the carriage.

  Dozens of eyes flickered to life in the dark.

  "Clatter… Clatter…"

  The sounds of claws and chittering filled the air, a wall of noise pressing towards their fragile bubble.

  No one dared to make a sound, for if they did, the fragile light would shatter, and the darkness would swallow them whole.

  The monsters flooded into the dim light of the carriage: a seething mass of Skitterjaws, Glimmerfangs, and other, less nameable things, all moving with a chilling, unified purpose.

  They sniffed the air, heads swiveling, mandibles clicking.

  They passed within feet of the shimmering dome.

  One Glimmerfang stopped right in front of Asher, its snout inches from the barrier.

  "!"

  The girls huddled together, hands clamped over their own mouths, tears streaming silently.

  Asher knelt at the center, his entire body trembling like a tuning fork. Sweat poured down his temples, stinging his eyes. His vision was starting to blur at the edges.

  Every second felt like it was peeling a layer of his soul away.

  Ryn remained a step behind him, posture loose but coiled, eyes tracking every movement in the dark.

  'Go… just go…' Asher pleaded silently, his heart hammering against his ribs so hard he feared the monsters would hear it.

  The lead monster snorted, shook its head, and turned away.

  The tide began to recede. Losing interest, the creatures started to shuffle back the way they came.

  The tension in the dome snapped. Relief, heavy and intoxicating, crashed through the group. The grandmother, sensing the danger passing, relaxed her grip just a fraction.

  "WAAAH—!"

  The piercing cry of the child shattered the silence like a hammer on glass.

  Asher stared in horror as hundreds of glowing eyes snapped back toward them.

  'F**k.'