The roof I'd just blinked onto shuddered under me as the horde stacked itself higher, bodies clawing over bodies until the whole street was a tide of snarling flesh.
Orcs crushed goblins underfoot, trolls shoved kobolds into the stone just to climb higher, and hell-hounds snapped and foamed as they spewed flames, setting the house on fire.
The house groaned like it knew it wasn't built for this, dust spilling from every crack.
And above, the air ripped open.
Harpies shrieked down in spirals, the sound like glass breaking inside my skull.
Manananggals folded their wings tight and dove headfirst.
Giant bats, bigger than horses, cut through the smoke in jagged arcs, blotting out the moon for a heartbeat before they fell into their dives.
Behind them, flies the size of dogs hovered with wings buzzing like bone saws and green spit boiling at their maws.
Fire-gals flickered in and out of the smoke, their small bodies burning bright within the haze, their violet flame trailing like napalm that stuck to wherever it touched.
The sky itself felt like it was falling on me, wings and fire and screams converging all at once.
I tugged the sling of the rifle tight against my chest, and pulled out the pistol, and the broken blade in with the other hand.
My heart thundered loud and fast as blood ran hot enough to feel like static in my veins.
[Well, you wanted attention… here you go.]
The swarm hit the walls of the house like a tidal wave.
And the roof trembled under their weight.
Claws raking shingles, jaws snapping at air just a breath below me.
While I hurled the sword across the street.
The blade spun once before slamming into the flat roof of a house in a burst of sparks.
The horde had climbed on to the roof by then.
Claws reached.
Fangs snapped.
Harpies screamed down, wings slicing the smoke as their shadows swallowed me whole.
I waited until the last heartbeat, until yellow eyes filled my vision…
… and the world cracked blue.
The rooftop, the claws, the teeth - gone.
I dropped back into existence on the other roof, fingers tight around the sword.
The house behind me vanished under a wave of bodies as monsters piled over it in a frenzy, tearing at stone like they'd rip the city itself apart just to drag me back.
The house was gone.
Nothing left but a writhing mountain of claws and fangs, tearing into stone where I'd stood a heartbeat ago.
I lifted the pistol, snapped off a few rounds into the mass.
Didn't wait to see if they hit.
Damage wasn't the point.
Attention was.
Then I turned and ran.
The colosseum was ten kilometres out, and the plan was never to fight here.
The plan was to drag the tide there, every last one of them.
My cloak snapped behind me as I broke into the maddest sprint my legs could manage.
My boots hammered against the roof while my heart pounding so loud it blurred with the screams.
A wet hiss cut the night.
And I reacted just in time.
Acid spat from a fly the size of a horse, burned holes straight through my cloak.
The stink of melting cloth choked my throat.
I rolled low, barely slipping the glob as it sizzled against the roof and ate the shingles raw.
[Good thing it's got auto repair…]
The edge of the roof came up fast.
I already had already arched my sword hand back.
One snap of my wrist and it spun over to the other end, glass shards flying as it punched through the window of the next house.
My hand closed on empty air.
Blue cracked the world again, and I was gone just as a Manananggal slammed down on the point where I'd been.
The roof shattered under its claws, wings thrashing, shriek tearing the night in half.
I reappeared in the dark of the house, glass crunching under my boots, sword humming in my palm.
My lungs burned as I sucked in all the air I could through that grin on face.
[One step ahead. That's all I need.]
I had barely stolen a breath when the wall beside me cracked like paper.
Fingers the size of beams shoved through, stone snapping like chalk.
The entire roof lifted.
And staring in was a troll's face.
Skin blotched gray-green, eyes burning yellow like a lantern in swamp water.
Its gaze locked on me.
Instinct screamed louder than thought.
Years of Endlessness, reflexes carved in panic and grind - my hand already hurled the sword.
The blade spun, as it tore through the air.
Not into the troll's face.
Into the chest of a harpy just behind its head.
The bird-thing screamed a pitch that stabbed straight into the ear, while it thrashed as the sword buried deep.
Blue sparked again...
And my hand closed around the hilt as I blinked into existence, hanging off it while my body swung like dead weight from the blade jammed into its chest.
The harpy shrieked harder, wings beating wild, but life was spilling out of it fast.
Its flight faltered, every flap weaker, every beat heavier under my weight.
And then gravity won.
The blade slipped free with a wet tear, and I dropped.
Back-first onto another roof.
Five meters. Nothing much.
To a mortal spine? Hell.
Air punched out from my lungs, as pain riped up my ribs.
[Cry about it later!]
I scrambled up, ears full of the horde closing in, the thunder of claws and howls rushing closer.
I had barely staggered a step forward.
And the world yanked back.
My cloak jerked tight around my throat, hauling me skyward as I gagged.
Feet left the roof.
I twisted, choking and thrashing as I saw it.
A gargoyle with it's grey wings beating the air and claws knotted in my cloak.
It dragged me into the sky like a fish snagged by a hook as stars popped into my vision.
The cloak bit into my neck, cutting breath as my vision flashed black at the edges.
I holstered the pistol and the sword by refle before both hands clawed at the knot, fumbling the fabric loose.
And the moment it freed-
I fell.
Not five meters this time.
Much higher.
Wind roared in my ears, and the city spun as I fell straight into the vortex of monsters below.
[Okay… This one's gonna hurt.]