The highway was in front of Lena, Reidar, and Jake. A gray scar that marred the planet like a closed wound. But one that still caused pain. The cracked pavement was slowly being reclaimed by vegetation that grew with unnatural vigor.

Lena sat with her back against a rusted guardrail, sharpening her blades while Jake worked on preparing their evening meal. Reidar was keeping an eye on the surroundings.

They'd been traveling for days since leaving the last settlement, pushing east toward Creamont. The journey had been relatively quiet, with a few scattered monster encounters, nothing they couldn't handle. After months of constant crisis, the monotony was welcome.

Almost.

"Something's wrong," Lena said suddenly. Something was worrying her; it was most likely tied to her trait.

Reidar looked at her. "What is it?"

"I don't know yet." Lena's eyes scanned the tree line to the east, her trait allowing her senses to pick up something the others couldn't. "But I feel—"

The tremor hit before she finished speaking. It started as a barely perceptible vibration through the ground, then intensified.

Reidar scrambled to his feet. Jake abandoned the cooking fire.

"That's not an earthquake," Reidar said. "That's—"

"Movement." Lena completed his thought, her face going pale. "A lot of movement. They are coming this way."

The sound reached them next. It was a cacophony of snarls, screeches, and panicked monster noises. Sounds that didn't belong to any of those creatures.

The trees themselves began to shake as massive things pushed through the undergrowth.

"Defensive positions!" Lena shouted, already moving to join Reidar at the forward point.

"Jake, get behind us!" Lena said. "Should we take to the sky?" She asked, turning to Reidar.

"It's too dangerous. Besides, we should take this chance to level up a little." He paused. "Can you tell me what it is?"

Lena shook her head. "No. But they are monsters; I can tell you this."

They got their answer seconds later when the first monster broke from the treeline. It was a sort of corrupted deer, Level 108. Its antlers had grown into grotesque spikes, and its eyes were blood red, as if that thing had some kind of disease.

However, Lena noticed it wasn't charging toward them in attack; it was fleeing in absolute panic, running with the desperate speed of prey being hunted.

Then the second appeared. And the third. And suddenly the tree line erupted with movement as dozens, then hundreds of corrupted animals, the monsters, burst onto the highway in a stampeding horde.

"Oh, fuck," Lena couldn't help but swear.

The monsters came in a chaotic wave. What was weird was that different species were not attacking each other. It looked like they were too scared.

"They're not hunting," Lena realized. "They're running from something."

"It doesn't matter!" Reidar said. "They're about to run us over!"

Reidar moved fast. He cast Summon Feral Pack without hesitation, and five massive wolves materialized beside him.

Next came the Rift-Sprites. Hundreds of them spilled into existence. They took positions along the highway, forming a barrier between the stampeding horde and the three travelers.

Jake added his contribution. Reidar gave him the Summon Spectral Knights skill, and he immediately used it. He was still low level, so they were not going to be that useful, but at least they were going to give time to Reidar.

Lena drew both her daggers and took position at the front. She would fight the way she always did, not using Reidar's shared skills.

"Here they come!" she shouted.

The corrupted deer hit the line first. They crashed into the spectral knights, just trying to break through, to escape whatever chased them.

The knights held their ground, blocking the monsters that were trying to head to the group. That forced the monsters to slow down. Most of them circled the army of summoned creatures and went past the group, but not all the monsters wanted to flee.

A sort of corrupted boar saw Reidar and charged. It was on level 102. It was fast, far faster than it should have been, its legs pumping as it bore down on them.

A Rift-Sprite intercepted it, launching a stone bullet point-blank into its face. The bullet pierced the creature's skull and killed it. Another one of such monsters followed.

Lena moved to meet it. She sidestepped its charge and then drove both blades into its neck from behind. The creature shrieked and collapsed.

More monsters pressed forward. A pack of something wolfish, level 105 each, charged at Jake.

But the spectral knights stepped in, their swords meeting the beasts mid-stride.

The knights were too many for them to lose. They made short work of them.

The thousand-strong stampede split around Reidar's defensive line like water around a stone. They did not want to fight. They wanted to escape. Whatever pursued them was worse than any obstacle in their path.

The creatures flowed past on both sides of the highway and disappeared into the distance.

Reidar held his ground with his summons, and Jake stayed right there with them. The few panicked monsters that dared to attack were quickly cut down or burned away.

The highway went quiet in minutes. The shaking stopped. The screams and growls of the fleeing monsters died down, leaving only the echo of their panic behind.

Reidar looked at Lena.

"Whatever they were running from," he said, "it's still out there."

Lena wiped blood from her blades. "It didn't follow them through our line. That's good."

"But it is still chasing them." Reidar gestured east, toward the direction the monsters came from. "Which means it's coming from Creamont's direction."

Jake stood frozen, the wooden spoon still gripped in his trembling hand.

"What was that?" he asked.

"A stampede," Lena said. "Monsters running from something worse."

"A predator," Reidar added. "Something at the top of the food chain in that forest."

He looked back at the treeline. Something that had driven a thousand creatures to flee in absolute panic.

"We should keep moving," Lena said. "Before dark. If that thing comes this way, I'd rather be on the road than camping."

Reidar nodded. They had been planning to stop for the night, but the prudent choice was to push on. Distance was safety.

They packed quickly. Jake abandoned the half-prepared meal. Reidar took stock of their supplies. They had enough to eat cold rations while walking and enough water from the canteens they carried.

"Are we sure it is prudent to go east? The monsters came from there, after all." Reidar asked Lena.

"I don't know… It's weird."

"What's weird?"

"I can't find any strong will in that direction. Either they are too far, or…"

"Or it is not a monster, is it?"

"Yeah…"

"So?"

"So the choice is yours. It's your parents who are in Creamont, not mine. They are already dead."

"Shit." He paused to think. "Then we are going. If there is a monster strong enough to scare all those in the area, we need to kill it."

They moved down the highway on top of Reidar's summoned creatures. The sun was setting, setting the sky ablaze in streaks of orange and crimson. Ahead, the forest pulled back, giving way to an open road that cut through the land like a wound.

The silence of the day had been a lie. Night was coming, and with it, who knew what.

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