183 Held At Bay
The claws of the tumorous vermin were beginning to peek through the sides, bottom, and top of the door as he commanded all of his strength to keep the door firmly closed, but it was becoming a more difficult task from moment to moment.
Shit…What kind of enemy even is this?! How do we beat something that doesn’t have a limit…? He questioned.
While he faced the door, beginning to sweat as he pushed his palms against the flat surface of the door while the squeeks of the vermin reverberated against his ears like a skin-crawling orchestra, Ma-Ri seemed to catch something in her view.
“Jeong-Hui…”
“Yeah–?” He replied through a strained tone.
“Can you hold the door alone, for just a bit?” Ma-Ri looked at him, sweating as well.
It was a question that almost felt like a joke to him by how badly the two of them together were doing in the wild endeavor. While Ma-Ri was a large degree higher than him in level, her strength stat was hardly over his due to the fact she was somebody specced into agility by a large margin.
Still, he looked to the side at the woman, meeting her icy-blue gaze and nodding.
“…I’ve got it,” he told her.
Ma-Ri nodded silently and moved forward, leaving him to handle the door by himself.
The moment the white-and-black uniformed woman had stepped away, he felt the full-force of the Unending Plague press against the door, forcing him to place his entire body against it with all of his muscles working overtime.
He kept his back to it, looking forward as he watched Ma-Ri sprint over to the object that caught her eye: a vending machine.
“…Is that gonna be enough to hold them back?!” He called out.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
Against his back, he could feel the ravenous forces of the repugnant swarm against the door as he watched Ma-Ri begin to push the tall vending machine over.
“It’ll have to be!” Ma-Ri replied.
BOOM.
He nearly lost his footing, almost stumbling forward as a sudden explosion of force slammed against the door, almost removing it from its hinges as the sight of the black-furred rodents now could be seen, attempting to squeeze past the cracks.
What the hell was that?! He thought.
“Ma-Ri!” He yelled.
“–I’m going as fast as I can!” Ma-Ri yelled back, sliding the heavy machine across the smooth floor.
Again and again, the countless rodents on the other side of the door pressed with supernatural, tenacious strength as he clenched his teeth and strained himself to his limits to keep that door held.
I’m not…going to last! He thought.
Before his strength could give in to the swarm locked behind him, feeling the caved-in door press against his back, he looked forward to see Ma-Ri raising her leg up from behind the vending machine.
“Move!” Ma-Ri commanded.
He was confused for a moment but nodded, jumping out of the way just in time as the youthful leader launched a powerful kick directly against the vending machine.
Just before the swarm of infected vermin could bust down the door, the out-of-order machine swiftly scraped across the floor before slamming against the door, sealing it shut with its dense form.
“–“
He caught his breath, looking at the new blockade of the basement door before turning to Ma-Ri, who looked just as shocked that it had worked.
“…Good thinking,” he said through a breath.
“Yeah,” Ma-Ri nodded, “Good job holding it.”
As the two stood side-by-side, still hearing scratches and squeaks beyond the blocked door, they regained their breath.
“What the hell do we do now?…I’m sure you’re not satisfied with this solution,” he said, looking at the young woman.
Ma-Ri shook her head as her dark locks swayed, “No. It’s only a temporary bandage that will be scraped off eventually.”
“So, do you want to wipe them out? I’m not seeing how it’s possible,” he asked.
“…I have yet to figure out how as well, so our best option would be to find a new place of residence until tomorrow,” Ma-Ri said.
As that solution was put into words, they both naturally looked to the front entrance of the building, which was boarded off but could easily be undone for the group to leave.
Though, looking towards the boarded windows, the momentary reprieve they felt was completely shattered.
Squeak. Squeak. Scratch. Scratch.
Beyond those dusty, stained windows, a sea of fuzzy black could be seen, constantly pulsating and moving erratically. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
It seemed to have only been out there for a few moments as the windows began to bulge forward with the weight of the endless vermin, beginning to croak as the fragile material struggled to hold it back.
“The Unending Plague.”
He grabbed Ma-Ri’s wrist, tugging her towards the corridor, “–We’ve got to move! That’s going to burst any moment!”
Ma-Ri was in shock for a moment before nodding, moving alongside him as they both looked back.
From what they could tell, by the pressure that seemed to be applied from the exterior by the weight of the endless vermin from all sides of the building, the Unending Plague likely had filled the streets.
“There has to be thousands–no, hundreds of thousands? Millions?” Ma-Ri questioned.
“I don’t know, but it’s way too much to handle! We’ve got to get everybody up!” He yelled out.
It was a race up the stairs as the two were lost of words, only focused on ascending the lengthy steps while the sounds of the vermin plague became more and more daunting by the moment.
SHATTER.
With the sound of glass shattering, it was by the next moment that the sounds of the grotesque rats could be heard entering through the hole of the entrance.
SHATTER. SHATTER. SHATTER.
–More windows, more entry points for the rodents. It was audible for them even multiple stories high by now.
“Shit!…They’re already getting in!” He called out, glancing back.
It was distant, but it made his stomach sink: watching the sea of black vermin swarming onto the ground floor as he followed beside her up the stairs.
“Just focus on what’s ahead!” Ma-Ri told him.
What came to his mind in a situation like this were memories of his encounter with the horde of monstrous centipedes, which he fought alongside Sol to repel.
However, this was vastly different in scope; it felt truly unending and dreadful.
The two reached the desired floor, busting in without any care for noise as he immediately yelled out–
“Get up-!!! We’re under attack! Red Alert! Code Red!” He yelled out whatever came to mind.
Within moments, most of the group had sprung up awake. In the hellish apocalypse, it was a necessary requirement to be able to wake up at the fall of a leaf and be ready for whatever was coming.
“What’s goin’ on–?” Yeong-Un asked.
Korain rose to his feet, holding his claymore already, “Yeah, what’s the situation?”
“Vermin. An endless swarm of them–they’ll be on this floor in less than a minute,” Ma-Ri told the group without missing a beat.
Though it was clearly something that took even those who had fought through hell thus far aback.
“Vermin…? Like, rats?” Sol asked.
“Uegh…” Xiaodan shivered at the thought of it.
Ma-Ri nodded, “There’s no time to explain. Barricade the entrance to the floor. Now!”
With an order given, even if it was in the face of something that seemed unbelievable, they didn’t question it any further–quickly scattering around the floor to assemble whatever they could to fortify a proper blockade.
“Coming through!” Korain warned, hoisting an entire sofa over his shoulder.
Yeong-Un rushed in before the burly man, “Hold it a min’! Here!”
The blue-haired young man laid out office dividers to act as a makeshift wall, lining them up before nodding to Korain for the man to plant down the heavy item.
“Hyup!” Korain breathed out before bringing the sofa down with one arm.
He gathered what he could find, but an office space was hardly a flourishing market for heavy, protective objects.
…This’ll have to do! He thought.
Hoisting a desk in his arms, he planted it down atop the sofa, with Xiaodan tossing a few chairs in for good measure.
“–There!” Xiaodan said anxiously.
Sol was pushing a heavy, wooden shelf across the floor, scooting it forward with some trouble as he noticed, rushing over and getting beside the bandana-wearing adolescent and assisting him.
“Let me pitch in, too!” Yeong-Un said.
Together, the three pushed the dense shelf in front of the makeshift, thrown together barricade at last, getting out of the way as the finishing touches were left to the white mage:
Eunji held her staff high, pointing it towards the jumbled mess of heavy objects, “Cast: Forest Binds!”
Sprouting from the walls around the barricade, thick tree roots extended and curved, forming a sturdy ribcage around the blockade to supplement its toughness.
“…Is that good enough?” Eunji asked, breathing out with a worried look in her amethyst eyes.
Ma-Ri looked on, squinting at the state of the blockade and nodding, “It’ll hold.”