The Culling Totals
Global Death Count: 6,555,147,239
Community Death Count: 101,113
A somber silence swallowed the noise of several rapidly elevating arguments in the hall as each member of the Raid saw that the Tamer's with their savage Dragonlings had outdone each of the previous waves in terms of human lives. The city of Everett once had a population of over one-hundred-thousand. Now, almost the entire city was dead.
The Band of the Hawk ultimately decided to take a vote on whether to stay at the stronghold. The majority ruled to stay, and that's what they did. Garath fervently disagreed with the decision but didn't let his empty title of Raid Leader go to his head. Instead, he decided to use the remainder of the half-hour before the seventh wave to prepare his Raid group as best he could.
With every member of The Band gathered in the main hall of the old school building, he stood on a chair and projected his words over the crowd of voices.
"Votes are in, we're going to stay here. So far, we've been able to keep the monsters out of the building and our strategy has been working. I'd be lying if I didn’t tell you that I am worried that the last two waves may be designed to bring down structures," he told them. A worried murmur traveled through the crowd and Garath raised his hands for quiet. "I don't know that for a fact, but I think we seriously need to consider it as a possibility. Now, if that IS the case, I want everyone to stay together. Some of you have seen me shifting in and out of House Cat form and I want to teach everyone how to do it because evading attacks is much easier with the reflexes of a... well, cat. I honestly don't know the specifics, but I can tell you how I learned to do it. First, I made eye contact with my cat and felt a prickly feeling start to grow on the back of my neck, I focused on that feeling and willed it to grow until my whole body was tingling - and that's pretty much it," he said anticlimactically. "After a few seconds of that I was a cat. My cat is here with us, her name is Tarzan. I'll hold her in my lap here on this chair and I want three of you to come up at a time, stare into her eyes, and focus on the tingling."
With that, he stepped down from the chair and proceeded to teach as many of the group as he could. Before long the main hall was much less crowded because its inhabitants were several times smaller. Dozens of cats in all shapes, sizes, and colors were wandering around meowing at each other incomprehensibly.
"I forgot about that," Garath called over the Raid com, still in his natural form. "When you try to speak out loud in cat form it just comes out as a meow. Project your thoughts by thinking the words at whoever you are trying to talk to. Oh! One more thing. In House Cat form, the damage you take from attacks is increased by 150%. So, you know... try not to get hit a lot."
Once the group more or less got the hang of their Beastscape Ability, Garath explained his back up plan in the case that the building were to become unsafe. The plan was simple, everyone was to shift into House Cat form and make their way as a group with all possible haste toward the Navy base.
With ten minutes remaining before 18:00 and the seventh wave, the melee fighters stood at the ready outside the building and formed up defensively. The ranged fighters, now in various feline and human forms, stood in a tight circle behind them. The healers, all in human form (at Garath’s express direction, he didn’t need his healers taking any more damage than they had to), took their positions just inside the doors.
"It's so quiet," said Athios.
The sun, barely peeking over the western horizon now, was sending its final rays of light for the day in red beams to streak across the smoke-filled lavender sky. All was still. "Where are the orbs?"
"Yeah,” Athios agreed, her voice just more than a whisper. “They usually appear right after the death count prompt."
Garath glanced at her chest just below the bust, where she had been impaled by a Ghoul during the second wave. The dark blood stain still surrounded the hole that rusted scimitar had made. He noticed her noticing him staring at her chest and promptly looked away.
"I kind of doubt they're running late," he said quickly. "But I guess there are still a few minutes..."
In nervous silence, The Band of the Hawk waited. Not a single person had made it to their stronghold during the break before the ever encroaching seventh wave.
Garath kept his MENU panels open and watched as the seconds made their unabridged march toward 18:00 hours. When the last second of supposed safety had elapsed, a blinding white light bathed the entire planet, seeming to come from every angle at once. The flash came and went in an instant, dissipating and leaving the group standing outside the building partially blinded.
With dark and light spots clouding his vision, Garath looked around frantically, searching for any sign of danger. He saw nothing but what he heard nearly made his heart stop in his chest. A deep thrum filled the air and it was growing louder each second. Garath felt like something was wrong. He turned this way and that, his eyes and ears straining to provide him with some hint about what his gut was screaming at him to understand. Then he realized it, the sky had gone completely dark. Between recovering from the partial blindness and the fear of what would follow it, Garath hadn't noticed the difference in lighting
