"Security comes first. We must ensure the security of our people." Apollo looked Bagel over.

  "We are prepared to enter in a non-aggression pact with you. We are also prepared to work with you to make sure that you have enough food. Food is the number one problem that the humans are facing, but we've brought things that we think could help the cause."

  Ashley lowered her thick tote bag filled with peanut butter and various snacks foods that the guild has agreed would be the most suitable thing for a hungry squirrel. Several thick oatmeal bars toppled out as she said it down. There were so many that she didn't even attempt to pick them up. Bagel was ready to summon one of his human mobs too distribute it, but it appeared that the squirrels would just hold on for a second as they all all chittered.

  Ashley stood back up. "This is a gift from the turtleback adventure was guild. We understand that things might be slightly different out here but we are all deck bearers and we are all fighting against the system. If we need to hold the government accountable, then we will do our utmost. Understand that I only represent a vocal minority within the city."

  Bagel nodded. "The adventurers guild might be a vocal minority but they are a minority that is helping stabilize the city."

  "Neither of you can guarantee us to become citizens or equal rights akin to what humans would have or would even give other humans. But if we got to find our own space then we will."

  The squirrels all turned to Apollo, staring for a long moment. "This might be the start of something big but if my senses are correct, we're about to be overwhelmed."

  "Apologies for the timing."

  Bagel didn't have to remember what the Central Park mob was. Several of them were bearing down on their location as what had to be dozens of squirrels pulled their decks.

  Most of the squirrels summon the same mob which showed up in a red. Was he surprised that the squirrels all had a fire type? It looked like a squirrel no. Was he surprised that it was a slightly less dark shade of the normal mob? Also no.

  But the ferocity of every single squirrel around him as they launched into battle made him sit upright and take notice. He hadn't wanted to but he had to because they were yelling at the top of their lungs. Squirrels were loud and high-pitched. He'd never encountered it before. Sure he could get owl but their noises? Their noises made him regret so much.

  In one smooth motion, the squirrels had established a outer ring of defenders. As they moved inwards Bagel, realized that he had made it to the inner ring and started summoning his own cards starting with a possum dragon. Not every single card the squirrels used was a fire based summon. Several were in fact sporting water types as if the squirrels knew that they needed to diversify their actions.

  Bagel weaved around, taking a moment to leap on top of his opossum dragon as it climbed up to about 10 ft into the air. From there, it started launching dragon attacks of opportunity at wherever it wanted to. He didn't want to keep it from choosing its own Target, but at the same time, he was never going to be able to select better targets than it selected for itself.

  He was sad that some of the best combat advice he'd ever gotten was to let the mobs work the way they wanted to work without interference as much as possible. It wasn't bad that it worked. It was great that it worked.

  He just thought that it might need more intervention. He was surprised that he could let it do its own thing and not even need to intervene.

  "Ashley?" He said.

  "On defense. Meatball you are with me!"

  The tiny cat jumped onto her shoulders as the two summoned their heavy hitters. Meatballs Foreghost joined the battlefield and began to attack the wave of mobs. Bagel spotted one of the larger boss mobs in the back. A large elephant-sized Vine creature that made him think that this was going to be like one of the first dungeon outbreaks that they'd experienced.

  He was grateful when the squirrels took that on head first. At least ten of the flame summons took up spots around the vine mob and began to lay into it, doing their best to cook it to a crisp.

  Bagel didn't have an opinion on the grilling time or temperature of such a beast. But what he did have was weeks of experience dealing with electric types. He's summoned a pizza rat when he saw several Golden eagle mobs flying up into the air at the same time.

  "Meatball?"

  She tracked his line of sight before he turned. "I see it boss."

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  And then he was airborne, his possum dragon had more head points than those beasts and we'll be able to knock at least one of them out of the sky. But he was going to need either her Foreghost or Janet too to bring down the other.

  A of laser beam arced past him on his side heading towards the second Golden eagle.

  That would have to do. He didn't expect it being a large battle, but as he looked out, virtually, every single community could see had summoned something that was running as fast as they could. The swarm looked like came out of a dungeon that had to be somewhere in the center of Central Park or just south of them.

  It was going to be very important for him to figure out where that was, but also he really wasn't sure where that was. If he went into that dungeon, he wasn't sure that he could kill all the mobs that had just overflowed.

  But it was just his luck that the city would decide to push out this problem right now to...

  He dodged a beam attack, or rather his possum dragon did. Bagel held on for dear life, happy for once that the fur on the dragon would adapt to his claws because there was no other way that he would be remotely happy about this.

  The summon slammed into the golden eagle mid flight, wrapping it's long body around on of it's wings. Bagel hadn't seen this attack up close yet and now he was very concerned about reliability.

  As in he didn't know how much he he was going to be able to rely on his own pause to keep him aloft. This was the exact time that he realized that he probably should have brought Janet on this mission. But someone had to run the shop and keep things going. And it couldn't be him if he was running this.

  However, if there was a dungeon surge then he needed to go back to Turtle Bay. He wouldn't be able to do that the way that he was now. Sure, you can make it a little bit and then some another thing but then he would be in the middle of a monster wave. This one looked like it was going to be as thick and as occupied as Staten Island had been.

  The damn beasts were as far as he could see. And then they got closer. And all of a sudden Bagel realized that the eagle wasn't flying anymore and the possum was not letting go, which meant that he, and the two of them were falling.

  "Oh sweet Jellicle cats, I only have nine lives..."

  It wasn't even that far, and they were on the ground. He'd expected them to hit harder but apparently the possum dragon had pulled up at the last second, releasing the golden eagle and trying to shear off its wing. He felt warm as they stopped right next to the circle of fire squirrels.

  Bagel felts the heat and looked at his hand of cards. He had considered riding on a pizza rat in a while even though it wouldn't hurt him. But for once, he summoned one and mounted it.

  The pizza rat was a size of a medium dog, giving him just enough room to stay on and observe its static attacks against tinier Vine monsters.

  The possum dragon thrashed behind him making a loud thwack as it hulked the eagle into the ground.

  Bagel found himself surrounded by Vines. These individual Vine mobs had to be some of the ones it had about 40 hit points. They did ten damage per hit but there were hundreds. It had to have been another growth or plant type dungeon to spawn all of these.

  He turned to face it in a direction away from the thwacking sound.

  Pizza rats were terrible at fighting. They always died. But there was one thing that they were good at. And that was being fast and bagel once again regretted his choice of deck for the second time that day as he realized that he was going to have to hold on to another summoned mob in order to save his life.

  The pizza rat was fast. Faster than any single vine mob. It weaved in and out. Bagel checked his hand of cards again. He has two summons out on the field and he could use another. He had two restocks and one chef card in his hand.

  "Why not?" He summoned, using his last open slot to bring the chef out.

  The chef materialized in the center of the vines who were all looking at Bagel. It wasn't the first time that he saw a very happy mob, but that chef looked like it was ready to just kill. Of course then it would make a nice salad for them with all the vines if everything else worked out.

  That was going to be one of the things that he would need to key to himself. They didn't look delicious. They didn't even look particularly nutritious or tasty. But he would not object to eating one of those. Especially if he could just get the pizza rat to settle down.

  The pizza rat moved as he withdrew an Omega rat. It was time to promote his mount. He tapped the card, turning his pizza rat into a more advanced Omega rat as they sprinted around.

  The effect was immediate, it grew underneath him. He felt much more stable. The Omega rat was about the size of a great Dane.

  It gave him that much more leverage and more security and that was when the possum dragon finally disengaged from the golden eagle. He could see it rising up and starting to attack Vine beasts next to it. The flames from the nearby Vine elephant were phenomenal.

  Really, being up next to a giant flaming mob that was on a fire type was something he hadn't expected and then it turned or rather it began moving its direction because Vine beasts could face in any direction and start moving that way.

  He found himself tromping through a clutch of tiny Vine beasts on his Omega rat. The larger frame meant that the basket ball sized lumps could be ignored if the Omega rat-still an electric type-was fast enough.

  It was up to the task.

  Unfortunately, Bagel did not like testing out the things that he knew would work and being utterly convinced that he should never leave the bodega again.

  Emergency procedures were for others to follow now him.

  But each time he got and pulled out, more and more Murphy's law violations were happening.He'd had it. "I've had enough of these Vine beasts in this damn Central Park zone!"

  Bagel kept going. He would draw them away from the squirrels and their negotiation circle and give me ball and Ashley sometime to make a pathway for them to exit.

  Potentially, the squirrels would follow them but this was where they lived so he wasn't sure if they were going to do anything about it. Now all they had to do was survive. He broke through the exterior of the vine beasts lines, where the road... He could kiss the road, it looked so inviting.

  Bagel never had an estimation for how many fire squirrels he'd ever seen one place but whatever that was previously, now... There were too many.