Talia set her feet, tightened her grip, and faced the funnel again.
The blond man sank down beside Dom just behind Talia. The warmth that bubbled in her chest at the unspoken support startled her — but she pushed it down, bracing as the next wave hit the funnel.
She slipped straight into battle rhythm, Hunter's Vision flickering to life without her meaning to activate it.
Something moved wrong.
A boar — low, wide, hugging shadows. The scouts had missed it.
[Kill Count: 1041]
"Dom — right wall, fifty metres. Boar incoming," she snapped.
A murmur ran through the defenders.
But Dom stood instantly.
The boar burst from the dark, charging straight for the shield wall —
and Dom met it head-on, cleaving it down to ash.
"That was close. How'd you know, Talia?"
"I'm a ranger just outside town. Good perception — practically a sixth sense. Helped me survive the mole minefield."
She shuddered and refocused.
[Kill Count: 1047]
Then—
A sharp, wrong thunk.
Stone on stone. Deep. Dangerous.
Talia's head snapped toward the noise. She looked to the blond man.
"Swap a sec — I need to check something."
"On it." He jumped into place.
Talia moved to the wall, pressed her ear against the concrete, closed her eyes, and pushed her hunter's vision outward.
Nothing.
Further.
Nothing—
Then—
There.
Twenty meters ahead of the shield line: a ceiling pillar.
A crack.
Each time beasts brushed past, tiny flakes of debris fell.
Not moles.
Structural failure.
She strode toward Joel — but before she reached him, voices echoed from the tunnel mouth.
The experts had arrived.
Joel swapped out of the line and met them quickly.
He briefed them in clipped sentences — moles, overwhelming waves, the structural state, their decision to collapse the tunnel rather than keep dying in it.
The structural engineer nodded grimly.
"We thought the same on the way in. If Earth's going down, we take as many of these bastards with us as we can."
"I've got my tools. Just need a weak point to start from."
Talia stepped forward.
"Right ceiling beam. Twenty meters in. It's shedding debris whenever beasts brush it."
The structural engineer jogged in, inspected — and swore.
"Yeah. That's it. We weaken that beam, the entire midsection drops. It's already holding on by habit."
"Timed charge?" Joel asked.
The demolition tech grinned. "Small one. Controlled."
"We're ready. How about you guys — ready to set the charge?" Joel asked.
"Yeah, I got my gear with me. Just need your team to keep me safe."
"We've got that covered."
Talia, Joel, Dom and the blonde-haired Reno formed the spearhead.
Behind them:
six shield fighters,
the demolition expert,
two ranged torch-bearers,
and four melee specialists.
Pushing past the barricade they charged twenty meters into the wave, to the charge point.
Talia and Dom fronted the assault —
Dom's greatsword sweeping brutal arcs,
Talia's spear threading through gaps with surgical precision.
[Kill Count: 1085]
Reno guarded the flanks.
Joel anchored the middle.
It was like going against a stampede of beasts.
You couldn't stop swinging or you were dead.
You couldn't let your feet stop moving or you were dead.
You had to trust the team to drag you out if you got caught — but you didn't stop.
Cats dropped from overhead beams.
Possums skittered along conduits, falling like living knives.
The ranged took out the aerial targets, or snapped shots in when someone was in trouble.
[Kill Count: 1123]
The charge team moved as a piercing lance — tight formation, brutal efficiency.
"Five meters!" the demolition expert shouted.
Dom smashed a bear aside.
Talia pinned a fox to a pillar.
Reno slashed a wolf.
A gliding possum hung midair with a bolt through it, momentum carrying its corpse into the wall.
[Kill Count: 1169]
They reached the cracked beam. Reversing their formation, they prepared to protect.
"Hold them!"
"Range help!"
"Thirty seconds to plant!"
"Bear coming Dom, switch sides."
"Right side assist!"
"Dom, behind you!"
[Kill Count: 1241]
The explosive was slapped into place, adhesive plates bracing its edges, wires connected, remote armed.
"GO!"
The team retreated the way they came — shredding the wave as they withdrew.
[Kill Count: 1273]
[Kill Count: 1298]
[Kill Count: 1345]
They broke through to the shield line. Reaching safety.
Joel issued retreat orders as people sagged against the wall to catch breath.
"Still good to fight?" he asked the elite team.
Talia, Dom, Reno, the blond man — all nodded.
"Good."
He turned to the rest.
"The rest of you fall back and build a barricade ten metres outside the tunnel mouth. Teagan, monitor the build. Once it's complete, we'll do a slow progressive retreat and then drop this sucker. Clear?"
"CLEAR!"
"Scatter!"
The tunnel exploded into movement — defenders clearing debris, others hauling scrap for the front barricade. Teagan — an impressively built female firefighter — barked orders, then jogged toward the entrance.
Talia turned away, finally checking her leg. It had been hammered by beasts during the charge, and the ache was sharper than before.
She found a long skirt in her space 'collected from where? didn't matter', slipped it on and removed her pants, and winced at the bleeding edges of the reopened wound.
Already, the E-Rank formula had worked wonders: even with the re-tear, the damage was shallow compared to the original. Swelling and angry redness flared again from overuse, but the deeper tissue was still knitting faster than normal biology ever could.
While she was staring at her thigh in wonder at the magic of the E-Rank First Aid Kit, Joel Arrived.
"Hey, Talia, how's your—Medic!"
"Joel, it's not that bad. I can do it myself," she said, reaching for a normal earth kit.
"Dale decides that, not you. Your 'not bad' scares me. How are you even fighting like that?" Joel and Dom stared with the exact faces of men discovering they might be working with a cheerful masochist.
Dale — a round, panting man — shuffled over.
"Joel, Teagan, and now you — I refuse to run again today. I swear I've sprinted more in the last twelve hours than in the last twelve years." he wheezed.
But he knelt beside her anyway.
Bandages peeled back.
His eyes widened.
The third scar had torn open. Swollen edges, bleeding.
"You're lucky," Dale said flatly. "Two centimetres more and this would've been ruined. Normally I'd tell you a week off that leg—"
Talia shook her head immediately.
He sighed. "—but given the situation and your utter insanity, I'll say it's workable. Don't know how you're thinking clearly through that pain though."
"E-Rank emergency kit and purpose," Talia said simply. "End of the world and all that. I want a good seat in the next one."
"Fair. Sit still while I fix this. And don't do any big moves. Tear this again and you'll lose mobility permanently. That'll ruin your retirement plans."
"True." She nodded. "Thank you. Can you strap my shoulder while your here?"
That earned her a scathing look all around. Dale just started strapping while muttering under his breath about 'irresponsible patients'.
She refastened the wrap and tugged the armored fabric back into place, extra tight over the fresh bandage.
Turning, she saw Joel, Dom, and Luke now watching her.
Luke? When did he join the hover-circle?
Some people just… show up like they were always family, a smile formed.
"I'm fine," she insisted.
Five voices muttered, "You are NOT."
She half-turned — the blond man, Reno was smiling too.
Talia scoffed. "No harems, guys. I'll have to reject your advances."
Their dumbfounded expressions made her crack up.
Joel smirked. "Showing your true colours? Well, lucky for you all of us except Luke are taken. Tough break — hope you two are happy together."
The men burst out laughing at her expense.
Joel crouched in front of her, expression shifting serious.
"Talia… I'd like my family and I to follow you in the new world. Is that alright?"
She blinked.
"Why? You should have your own Territory Lord ticket by now. Your team would follow you. You could build your own place. Why trust me?"
Joel took his time answering.
"When you talked about the moles earlier, I knew you must've hit fifty kills by then. That told me a lot. But when you reached town, you didn't hide and grind kills alone. You didn't try to take over. You helped quietly. You shared vital information freely. That's a leader I can hand my family to. And… I'm not the type to chase status."
Talia felt heat creep into her cheeks.
She also bristled slightly at "chasing status," but let it go.
"The last hour is binding hour," she said finally. "Meet me at the Industrial Blockade. That'll be my last loop. I don't know if it's purely family-based or if proximity helps. If you want to come, be there."
Joel nodded once.
"Alright — cuteness over. Talia's patched, my wife is back, and the barricade is done. Ready?" Dale broke into the discussion and his wife, Teagan nodded behind him.
Joel swept the tunnel. Only the skeleton crew and elites remained.
"Let's finish this."
Talia limped to her position, spear ready.
The last stand of the underpass began.
Talia could feel the difference of her shoulder already the fresh strapping anchored the joint. It still burned, but the wild, tearing edge of the pain dulled to something she could box up and work around.
Ten minutes later Teagan waved.
"Pull back!" Joel called.
Defenders grabbed car doors, shielding partners.
Talia covered her partner — strike, retreat, strike, retreat —
The HUD seemed to have a metronome going the way the kill count rose.
[Kill Count: 1364]
[Kill Count: 1381]
[Kill Count: 1402]
[Kill Count: 1420]
—until the tunnel mouth came into view.
"Remote — do it!"
The elite team sprinted to the outer defence line and turned back.
Thirty seconds later—
A muffled boom.
Then—
KRRRRRAAAAAAANG—
Steel snapped.
Concrete tore.
The midsection of the tunnel collapsed like a giant jaw slamming shut.
A shockwave of dust blasted outward.
Then silence.
One beep.
Two.
Then hundreds.
[Shared Kill Event: Structural Collapse]
[Eligible Contributors: 49]
[Total Beasts Eliminated: 3,920]
[Distributed Kill Count: +80 Each]
Talia's HUD updated:
[Kill Count: 1500]
[Reward #1500 Pending → Building Slot + 1]
A teenager screamed in delight. "I GOT EIGHTY KILLS — YES!!"
A firefighter fell to her knees, clutching a new chestpiece.
A cop whispered, "I can protect my family now…"
Someone else shouted:
"WE'RE DEFINITELY GETTING MOVED TO THE NEW WORLD!"
Hope surged like wildfire.
Talia checked her own kill count again.
[Kill Count: 1500]
"Good," she murmured. "But I want to work harder. Almost done. Hopefully the new world won't be this intense."
She raised a hand to the group.
"I'm moving out. See you later!"
Luke saluted with his mace. The rest just waved and moved back to the clean-up.
"We'll be there!"
She swung onto her bike, groaning as her leg protested.
Eight hours 40 mins left.
All blockades cleared.
She kicked the engine alive.
"Homestretch," she muttered.
And turned toward the East Blockade to begin her final loop.