A/N: I was advised by the site to publish my FL apoc first for WSA (the annual contest)~ The Oasis one would be uploaded a bit later instead ;)
Hope to see you in both of them~
...
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On the side of the mercenary wing, the mercenaries were also going all out with their battles. There were not as many of them in the inn compared to adventurers, but there was still a good hundred or so.
Considering how mercenaries were famous for not going to the danger zone, this was already an impressive number!
Besides, they had to perform well otherwise the Innkeeper's bias would go totally towards the adventurers!
The Innkeeper's bias was too important! Who wouldn't want to get a chance to eat his specially made high-level essence food? The highest-leveled ones were difficult to cook en masse, so naturally not everyone could eat them!
Don't get them wrong, the current food (they were given essence meal at the start of the day for free, while the rest of the meal was eaten in the canteen) was extremely delicious even at Class D and Class C. This made people even more tempted to eat the Class B and above dishes!
The Innkeeper even said that he would feed the top 10 best performers (Master Pang would be judge) with his highest-level food! Who wouldn't be energized like this?
There were those whose main goal was to eat, while there were also those who simply wanted to contribute and, perhaps, cover some former embarrassments.
Clen was one of the mercenaries from before that had gotten into conflict with the inn when it was still new. He was the one Katnia tagged as 'relatively decent', and he somehow survived Katton and the rest's hunting at the time, though barely so.
Interestingly, he survived because he had the least contact with Katnia, and therefore lesser amount of scent on her. Otherwise, the halfkin's sharp noses would've found him before he could go too far.
As luck would have it, he—injured and nearly bleeding to death—was found by a passing caravan at some point.
He was pirated by Ren's dad a few weeks ago, after encountering each other by chance during a mission. Clen did not know he'd ever return to this place, let alone fight along side the beastkin, but here they are...
There were about a handful of beastkin and a dozen halfkins in the area, and they positioned themselves at the center area created by the two wings.
The brave beastblood practically camped outside the barrier for efficiency, heading in only when their stats were low and their skills were all in cooldown, which only happened a handful of times the past several hours. It was quite impressive.
Clen was a bit conscious when fighting alongside this display of strength. He definitely did not want to get in the way of the beastkin, especially Katnia, considering he was part of the party who had kidnapped her once.
It didn't matter that his family had been taken hostage at the time, so he had to follow in the team's new mission. The fact of the matter was that he joined in the transgression, so he never considered himself to be innocent.
It was not that the beastkin did not recognize him. In fact, when he entered the barrier, he was almost attacked by a few of them. There were mediators in the location and, after apologizing sincerely for what he had done, he also had to pay a lot of penalties.
Fortunately, he had been looking for the places where the halfkins were sold before and had already rescued a few; the negotiations wouldn't have been so smooth.
He was tasked with finding the rest as well. If he survived this war, that is.
Still, even after all that, things were naturally awkward.
Clen forced himself to focus on the battle at hand. He was not weak. Rather, his fighting capability was superior—otherwise Ren's uncle wouldn't bother with him, even going as far as offering a guild job to his wife.
However, due to various factors—one of which was the consciousness of the beastkin, and another was the mental tiredness after half a day of fighting—he missed an attack and was bitten on the leg.
"AHH!"
It went through his defense equipment, and he could feel the teeth touching the bones.
In his pain, he failed to react fast enough. He could only watch two other rabid beasts push others to get a bite of him. One of them was even a fortified-level monster.
Clen thought: Would he be the first death in the inn?
Unexpectedly, before the other two monsters could eat him up, he felt his body lifted up. The next thing he knew, he was already behind the barrier.
He blinked and turned his head, seeing Katton sneering at him.
"Tsk, annoying as always."
"..."
…
This interaction was seen by several other people, some of whom were more interested than others.
"Amazing…they're working so well…" This was Winona, a cleric and Reesa's friend, alongside her husband, Selan.
The two of them had faced quite a number of problems as a couple. It was really interesting to see humans and beastkin work together. Don't look at them being all awkward and not even speaking, but their synergy started working at some point, without any of the party noticing it.
The couple did not know that the second time they'd go to the Inn would be at this situation, but it was entirely on purpose. They actually brought their five year old here, though he was mostly staying in the tent far from the easements.
They believed that this inn was the safest. It was a bit shameful to bring a dependent, but they were all each other had and they would not be rest assured to part from the child during an aphelion phase.
The presence of the child there also inspired them to work harder than others. And seeing other teams work hard also let them grow as fighters.
They had gone through their life as a couple filled with contemptuous stares, mockery and sometimes outright bullying. Since they married, they had never stayed in a place for more than a year, just to keep the peace.
Seeing their kind fighting harmoniously with humans made them feel hopeful for the future.
Considering they were surrounded by tens of thousands of monsters, just having the thought alone felt like a miracle.