Rise Of The Hoarder

>RUMBLEEE!!!<

Daniel and the rest of the Subjugation team members had been interrupted from their sleep due to the rumbling of the very earth.

They all came out of their tents, wondering what the cause could be. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good!

Daniel tried to contain the frenzied crowd who bombarded him with questions he couldn’t answer since he was in the same confused state as everyone else.

“Calm down, everyone. Let’s do a headcount first!” Daniel declared, trying to sort through his thoughts.

The people calmed down a little, and through the aid of Tasha and Dave, the Subjugation team was able to perform a headcount. Unfortunately for everyone, they were a number short.

“One person is missing!”

The ground shook once more, now growing more intense. The unease with a member missing, coupled with the approaching devastation no one knew of caused a large uproar among the group. If nothing was done, the whole squad would enter a state of anarchy.

“Hey, do something…” Tasha nudged Daniel who seemed flustered and nervous.

He turned to see the older woman. She was hiding her nervousness quite well, so Daniel couldn’t sense an iota of fear and anxiety from Tasha.

“I… um… I… what should I do?” He whispered to her.

Shocked by his question, she gave him a disbelieving glare. She was still recoiling from her near-death experience and her talk with Jeremy, yet Daniel was trying to get her to do his work for him?

The noise grew louder as people began to see waves of smoke coming from a distance.

“Hey, look there!”

“What the fvck is that?!”

“Shit! Are we screwed?”

Conjectures and side comments leaked out of the masses, causing them to give in to their primal instincts. The only thing humans knew how to do when confronted with something they didn’t understand or couldn’t handle.

Usually, that would be to run. However, with the presence of someone of accountability who served as the source of confidence for everyone else, the focus of everyone shifted from the approaching danger to Daniel. Brainwashed by the notion of hierarchy, they all stared at him for an answer.

“Leader… what should we do?”

Daniel froze, entrapped in the expectations of others. He was scared too! Frightened beyond belief, yet everyone expected a solution from him!

‘I don’t even know what the hell is going on!’

He turned to look at Melissa for some sort of emotional support, but she was too concerned for her life that she didn’t even pay any heed to his emotional needs.

“I… we should… we should…”

Daniel’s voice cracked as his body trembled. Any moment now, and he would crumble under the pressure.

“That’s enough!” A voice sharply spoke, cutting through the air of unease.

Everyone’s eyes instantly darted to the source of the sound, and to their surprise… it was Jeremy!

Daniel’s eyes bulged in shock, but also relief that the attention of everyone had shifted away from him.

“Instead of throwing questions at our leader, we should try coming up with solutions ourselves. After feeling the rumbling sound for a while, only one thing comes to mind!” Jeremy stated, pausing for effect.

Everyone gulped as they had a faint idea of what he wanted to say.

“A Stampede!”

The rattles in everyone’s bones increased instantly.

“T-then, what should we do?!”

“Even when those Demons chased the first squad, the quake was nowhere as intense as this!”

“For us to feel it from this distance… just how many are they?!”

Questions were raised as panic began to spread once again, consuming everyone present.

However, once again, Jeremy wasn’t going to let chaos take over.

“We have to take action. The more time we spend thinking like this, the more time they have to gain ground. We have to run and hide… before it’s too late!” He exclaimed.

Daniel instantly snapped out of his daze the moment Jeremy said this.

“Everyone, Jeremy is right! We need to take action now! Forget the tents and everything else that might slow us down! We need to move… and fast!”

The people nodded in their panic, wanting only to escape from the terrible situation that confronted them.

“Let’s move!”

********************************

As expected, the Subjugation Squad began its retreat as we ran through the woods to get further away from the rumbling that grew louder by the second.

A wicked grin formed on my face as I ran behind everyone else, pretending to struggle in keeping up with everyone else. It would be suspicious otherwise.

‘Everything has gone better than I hoped!’ I thought amusedly.

In the first instance, I watched everyone panic from my distance while I was in the woods and close to the base.

Using <Camouflage>, I snuck closer to them and activated my <Rule> Skill to send waves of intimidation throughout the base.

This caused even greater anxiety in the minds of everyone, including the strong-willed Daniel. I also watched as Tasha recounted her trauma with me and stood, petrified.

Still, in order not to take any chances, I activated <Steal> and took away the ‘Intelligence’ Stats of everyone present, allowing them to further sink into despair as they turned to Daniel for a solution.

Calculating the perfect moment to step in, I did so at the most opportune time, instantly turning the situation around. Their attention tilted to me, and once I got everyone’s notice, I made my voice known.

Of course, I mitigated the effects of <Rule> on Daniel at this point, causing him to retain some of his mental prowess. He agreed with me, giving the final order for our group to flee.

Abandoning base, everyone ran as fast as they could, hoping to rest by a checkpoint along the way. I used this chance to touch all the equipment within our base while everyone ran and took them into [Subspace].

‘They might come in handy later…’ I reasoned.

Thankfully, in their state of panic, Daniel and the upper echelon of our squad forgot all about the Hobgoblin Demon Cores already captured, giving me over a hundred more Cores for free.

‘All according to plan! Now then… I suppose I should soon begin…’ I grinned wickedly.