Chapter 184 No One Left Behind

Not a moment after the barricade was properly fortified, the rumble of the vermin horde was heard before continuously slamming and scratching followed.

"...You weren't kidding, were you? There really are…a swarm of rats attacking us…" Xiaodan gulped.

"Yeah…" He nodded.

"What now?" Sol asked.

Ma-Ri paused for a moment before answering, "We have two options as of now: we can wait them out, or we can attempt to flee this building."

Yeong-Un didn't seem to buy the leader's answer as he huffed, putting his hands on his sides in contention, "I think yer' missin' an option there!"

"Huh?" Sol looked at the abrasive man..

"We can also squash all of them!" Yeong-Un said, clenching his fist.

To the majority of the group that were unaware of the vermin horde's true nature, this actually seemed like a reasonable choice as they looked towards both Ma-Ri and the red-haired assassin.

He answered, keeping his arms folded over his chest as he shook his head.

"That's not much of an option," he said.

"Huh? Why not?" Yeong-Un raised an eyebrow.

"We tried wiping them out, but they just keep coming endlessly," he said, "I caught a glimpse at what the System called this horde–all of the rats are under one entity: "The Unending Horde"--to make it worse, it was level forty."

The answers he gave seemed to dim the mood as Xiaodan, who seemed to harbor a phobia of rodents, looked one moment away from heaving.

"I see–well, then…" Korain rested his claymore on his shoulder, "I personally think we can hold the fort as we are, but the choice is yours, Boss."

Ma-Ri kept her rapier in hand as she looked at the barricade, which was trembling from the constant force pressing against it from behind.

"We'll–"

–Before the choice could fall from her lips, the tiled ceiling suddenly caved in as a mass of bundled black crashed down, quickly scurrying–it was the vermin.

"They got in!?" Eunji called out.

"Shit!" Yeong-Un drew his swords swiftly.

Within moments, they were surrounded by the swarm of tumorous vermin that poured in from the broken ceiling.

"Watch each other's backs!" Ma-Ri commanded.

Everybody found the person nearest to them as the group became scattered throughout the floor quickly, coming into pairs.

He was back-to-back with Ma-Ri, holding off the swarms of rodents that had filled the floor.

Sol and Yeong-Un were together, fending off the plague personified by the vermin.

Korain and Eunji stayed close, but it was mostly an effort of the burly man using the length of his claymore to sweep through the surrounding rodents, protecting the white mage vigorously.

"Damn! There's too many of 'em!" Korain said, entering his [Abandon] state as he swept through the rodents.

Yelling back from across the room, Sol was jabbing his spear downward against the salivating rodents, "--You weren't kidding! There isn't an end to them!"

However, while most of the group had fallen into a makeshift strategy of holding each other's backs, one was left alone, having been driven off into a corner by the tidal wave of black-pelt rodents that swarmed forth.

"Xiaodan–!" He yelled out, using his dark-infused daggers to cut away at the rodents.

He tried taking a step forward to try and get closer to the lonesome, silver-haired man, but didn't even have enough of a chance to do so.

…Crap! If I try to help Xiaodan, I'll be leaving Ma-Ri open from behind! He thought.

"Try and get over here—!!!" He screamed out towards Xiaodan.

It was worse than it originally was in the basement. The rodents had grown tenfold more aggressive, lunging towards them like hopping fleas with their buck teeth constantly clamping down in hunger for their flesh.

"Ghh…! I can't!" Xiaodan called back.

The silver-haired adrogyngous figure was in a precarious spot as he relied solely on his own body as his weapon, meaning he was constantly putting his own flesh near the plague-carrying vermin.

Still, with swift enough chops, kicks, and punches, Xiaodan was able to hold his corner, though it was a brutal effort.

"Shit…!" He spat out, clenching his teeth as his back pressed against Ma-Ri's.

Ma-Ri spoke to him while using her light-bearing needle to stab through the heads of the rodents with pinpoint precision, "...If you deem it necessary, go to his aid."

"I can't do that! Even you can't hold this many off alone!" He said.

"--" Ma-Ri paused for a moment, holding a strained expression though she composed herself, "...Perhaps, perhaps not. However, if you believe you can make a difference in securing the life of that one, then…I won't reprimand you for such a choice."

He didn't respond, but he took those words in as he focused on slashing through the grotesque horde that continuously piled into the room.

All the while the group was put to the brink against the sea of plague-bearing vermin, the barricade was still being tested by an ungodly number of them.

The floor quaked beneath the march of the vermin; their mangled claws skittering around with their mutated forms, bearing an abnormal amount of muscularity to their cancerous forms.

"...Ma-Ri, what's the plan here?!" Korain shouted out with his booming voice.

"Yeah–we can't hold them off forever!" Yeong-Un added.

While Ma-Ri took time to come up with an answer, he couldn't blame her despite the woman holding the burden of leadership amongst the group.

…She's responsible for everybody here; her decisions bear that kind of responsibility. She has to make those sort of decisions while fighting just as hard as us, he thought.

He used a [Twilight Cutter] to carve through a good chunk of rodents, though the clear space in the floor was filled right back up by more of the swarm.

Feeling the pressure of the swarm, he spoke to the woman behind him without looking back, "--We should evacuate, Ma-Ri."

"How do you figure we should do that…?" Ma-Ri asked, sweating as she continuously thrust her rapier against the unending vermin.

"The same way we came in–we're going to jump," he said.

"--"

"There's another building–we can make it," he assured her.

Ma-Ri was silent for a moment at this suggestion as the two continued slaughtering the vermin with only centimeters of leeway in their defense.

"Alright," Ma-Ri agreed.

He felt relieved that his suggestion went through, listening in as the commanding figure of the group sucked in a breath before yelling out:

"Head for the eastward window! We're going to jump to the next building-!" Ma-Ri boomed out.

This command was heard by each of them as the group began to make their way through the horde, with the duos staying back-to-back while doing so.

"C'mon!"

Korain punched the window out without wasting a moment, hoisting Eunji up and leaping out of the building with her in hand.

"--Comin' through!"

"Eek!"

Yeong-Un and Sol leapt out a few moments after, with even the timid Sol not hesitating with the vermin nipping towards his ankles.

Ma-Ri and himself closed in near the shattered window, seeing the lower building that was an easily manageable jump, though he caught a glimpse of the state of the block:

"That's…"

Below, the streets were utterly swarmed with vermin, likely millions, as an underestimate. Still, the other building seemed untouched, at least by its roof.

Ma-Ri was in front of him, with him nearest to the window as the girl fended off the rats while he prepared to jump.

"Hurry now, Jeong-Hui!" Ma-Ri urged him.

"I know, I'm–"

Before he could finish, he glanced back as his stomach dropped–seeing that Xiaodan was still kept into a corner, helplessly defending himself against the horde.

"--You got ahead!" He called out.

Pushing through, he began relentlessly slashing through the horde as he trudged through a path of his own creation towards the lonesome, silver-haired boy.

"Jeong-Hui–!!!" Ma-Ri yelled out to him, reaching out.

He didn't look back, only calling to her again, "Go ahead! I'll be right behind you!"

The black-haired young woman clenched her teeth, unable to respond as she finally listened, bringing herself through the window while looking back once more, "--You better be right behind me, Jeong-Hui!"

"I will!"

Ma-Ri leapt from the building, leaving just himself and the cornered Xiaodan in the rat-infested skyscraper now.

"Ngh…!" Xiaodan winced.

"Xiaodan!" He called out.

As he inched closer, his heart stopped as he saw bite marks placed across the body of the lithe China-borne young man.

"--"

The obvious teeth marks of the rodents were embedded into Xiaodan's fists, arms, legs, torso, and even cheeks, leaving him bleeding from a dozen spots.

He pushed on despite the dread bubbling in his stomach, forging a path between the two as he swept his daggers through the leaping rodents.

"...Jeong-Hui…!" Xiaodan looked at him desperately.

"I've got you!" He assured him.

By now, the floors were slick with the black blood of the countlessly slain vermin, and cluttered with the entrails and torn corpses of those very creatures.

With just a little bit more space between them, but the floors being too flooded with rodents for him to take the next step he reached out to Xiaodan.

"--Come on! I've got you!" He assured him again.

Xiaodan looked at him again with desperate eyes, having countless holes drilled through his robes and skin alike before accepting his outreached, helping hand.

He grabbed onto Xiaodan's forearm, and Xiaodan held his, before he pulled the smaller and younger adolescent over.

"...Let's get out of here!" He said anxiously.

"Y-yeah!" Xiaodan nodded, running alongside him now.

While running beside the injured, bite-inflicted young man, he noticed Xiaodan was noticeably more sluggish and less graceful in movement than usual; nearly tripping over his own feet as he caught him.

"...Sorry," Xiaodan apologized, breathing heavily.

"Save it for when we make it out of this!" He said impatiently.