-Joseph Campbell

With Moira now added to his party, John turned to the others. One by one he sent out the invites, starting with Seras, then grabbing the Nekos. It wasn't until he got to the invite for Lunaya that a menu popped up over his outstretched arm, its ruby glow annoyingly impossible to ignore.

ERROR: Party is full. Convert to a Raid Group?

"Sure, seems pretty-"

Before John could even finish his sentence another warning popped up when he hit "Yes".

WARNING! Converting to a Raid Group will have the following effects:
-Maximum party size will be increased to 25
-Enemies in Barriers will no longer grant EXP
-Enemies in Barriers will be converted to Elites and scaled to the average party level.
-Purified Party Members may gain Bonuses as a result of finishing Raids
-All Dungeon Barriers formed will be converted to Raid Barriers, increasing their size, difficulty, and rewards tremendously. Some gear may only be found in Raids.

"Huh. File that one away for later…" John mused, casting his eyes back toward the others.

"Anyone not wanna go? I can only bring five people in this party."

Lunaya's hand jumped up, which surprised John considering how quick she had been to use her claws on him earlier. Seras opened her mouth to say something, but when she glanced over and saw Lunaya's hand in the air, she immediately went quiet.

"Seras, we don't have to have five, if you don't want to come-"

"N-no! I was gonna ask if I could go… I want to help," Seras said, nodding with a resolution John hadn't seen from her in quite a while. It was actually quite a relief, and John could almost feel the tension lifting from his face as she spoke.

"Oh. Well, that's perfect then," John said, smiling. "Everything works out. Moira, are you ready?"

"Always. Form your Barrier and let me see what you've been training with," Moira said with confidence.

John focused on the Dungeon Barrier creation screen. It seemed like there were a few new options available since his Reincarnation, even though the skill hadn't mentioned unlocking any new choices for him. What caught his eye immediately was that there was a "Randomize" button under all the other choices.

Randomize
This option will randomly select an enemy type and level between one and the user’s current maximum level, then form a dungeon based on the randomly selected enemies. All experience gains, loot drops, and resource nodes in this dungeon will be increased by 25%. If you successfully complete the dungeon, you will receive a special reward randomly selected from a unique loot table.

John hesitated with his finger over the button. On the one hand, he was literally back to step one of his leveling process, which meant there was a lot that could go wrong. On the other hand, what was the worst that could happen? Even at level 13, he was sure Moira could take down any of the dungeon's inhabitants, and it wasn't exactly as if Seras and the Nekos couldn't take care of themselves.

John hit the button, and his abilities kicked into action, and though nothing immediately affected the world around them, John could feel a strange sense as a second plane warped in around them. If that wasn't enough, he got another pop-up menu confirming the action.

Dungeon Barrier formed!
Enemies: Harpies
Level: 8
Loot and Experience Bonuses Active

"Alright, it's there," John noted, receiving a nod from Moira. "Just one thing before we go - the Nekos don't use their mana, so let me refresh what I used for that Barrier."

With his new Skill Point placed in Siphon John was thankfully able to refill his mana from the Nekos without having to wrestle them to the ground. Considering they were too busy playing with each other and darting around between Moira's legs to even notice the party being formed, that was a big help. Moira still found time to roll her eyes as she nearly stepped on one of them, but John was set, and the group was formed.

"Aaaand here we go!"

John willed himself and his summons through the rift between dimensions, into the Barrier that had formed. Moira didn't transport with them to his surprise, but she came in a moment later, appearing in an instant as if John had simply blinked and missed her appearance. The Barrier was similar to the environment they had left, with the trees still visible in the distance and the lake presumably somewhere to their south.

"This Barrier has a strange energy to it," Moira noted. "What exactly are your specifications for it?"

"I don't… really know much about the specifications; my abilities seem to take care of most of the details. All I know is that the Barrier is filled with a few enemies, apparently harpies, and that I get bonuses if we beat all of them. There's always been a Boss or Mini-Boss at the end, too." John felt Moira's judging gaze on him for a moment longer before she turned to glance at the expanse of grass and trees across the horizon.

"Well, if my memory of encounters in the Order's roleplaying sessions serves, the nearest location that makes sense for those creatures to dwell would be the forest."

"Yeah… one more thing… they're a little higher level than I thought they would be. Level eight, actually, and I just reset my level, that's why my mana's so low. I'm pretty weak, even with these gifts your father gave me. Should be no problem for you though, you were level twenty last I looked, and these three are all only a few levels below the enemies."

"Let's worry less about the number of their levels and more about the number of foes we have to face," Moira replied, thoughtfully staring off toward the trees as she pulled the pendant from her neck and brought forth her hammer and shield. "Without my armor, we will have to be cautious."

"Yeah, all of us. Seras, you're the strongest out of the rest of us, keep everyone safe, okay?"

"Y-yeah! No problem, Master," Seras exclaimed, nodding with a firmness that lifted John's spirits a little.

"Alright, everyone stay safe and move together!"

The makeshift band of adventurers moved together, with Moira leading the way and John and Seras to either side of the Nekos. Now that they were in a Barrier, the catgirls seemed to thankfully understand the need to not go running off; while they were hardly in military formation, they avoided straying too far from their numerous protectors.

A few minutes later and despite their slow pace, they had already approached to within fifty yards of the first trees. Moira still held her shield aloft, arm unwavering the entire way. John felt not nearly so confident, with his newly reduced level and the cloak around his shoulders barely bringing his health up to a reasonable level.

As they crossed to within a few yards of the treeline, all of them jumped when a spattering of leaves sprayed down on the trail deeper inside the forest, accompanied by the distant sound of wings fluttering and a strange chirping sound. The peaceful noise would've normally calmed John down, but…

"They are upon us!"

Moira's shield lit with a light that John was all too familiar with, but this time the light was intensified - even in the fading daylight, he was able to clearly see it from the other side as it flashed across the forest. Had John not been on the other side of the shield, he was quite certain it would have seared his retinas. Instead, it merely caused him to flinch and close his eyes reflexively as the forest lit up around them. The pleasant chirping was replaced by a chorus of screeches, then the sound of several impacts. When John could see again, he noted three harpies appeared to have been in the very early stages of their arcs down toward the travelling group and two of them had crashed into the foliage as a result of Moira's display. They tried futilely to regain their flight on the way down but ended up only slightly slowing their falls, crashing into the dirt below. The third managed to sway awkwardly between branches, barely avoiding the same fall its sisters had taken.

"Strike them now," Moira called out, raising her hammer, "and let the Lady strike them from this earth!"

A bolt of light reached out from Moira's hammer, streaking into the air and colliding with the chest of the swaying harpy. She screeched and for a moment struggled with the act of flight, before surrendering to gravity's eternal efforts and finally crashing to the ground.

"Get them!" John echoed, his battle cry considerably less dramatic in comparison to Moira's religion-fueled spellcasting. All the same, the Nekos leaped into action. Maera dove on the nearest of the blinded harpies and began to tear into it with her claws. Mithra took a more difficult but impressive route, climbing one of the nearby trunks and leaping from it to catch the third harpy in mid-fall and tear into her with claw and fang. Seras leapt onto the harpy Moira had knocked down with her smiting spell, her fists pounding into its head repeatedly.

Notifications flooded John, damage and health lost as the harpies began to fight back. He targeted the one that seemed to take the least damage - the one Maera had pinned - and opened his inventory just long enough to withdraw the sword Lord Brighton had so recently gifted him.

Compared to his adrenaline fueled rush earlier, it seemed to take a lot more effort to swing the blade - or perhaps that was simply his lower Strength. Either way, he did manage to bring it down accurately on the legs of the screaming bird, not wanting to risk Maera's safety as she was wildly flailing her claws across the exposed face of the birdlike creature.

49 DMG!

"Not as good as the other blade, then," John noted aloud as he kept swinging, hoping to disable the harpy. By the time he got his second damage notification, though, the harpy had recovered most of its senses and flung Maera off almost effortlessly, the Neko yowling frantically as she was thrown several feet into the air.

Instead of offense, John found himself thoroughly focused on avoiding the incoming claws as the hideous bird-like creature reared up in full and focused her efforts on tearing into the nearest threat. Her legs were far from scrawny, like a more toned version of a chicken's, and every slash they made took part of John's flesh, too fast for him to dodge entirely. In two swipes a third of his health was gone, and he was unable to mount an effective counter.

Seras plunged into the way before John could be hit a third time, blocking one strike with her left arm. Even as the talons were sinking in, her right arm was striking forward with great , catching the harpy again and again as Seras continued to batter it, mindless of the strikes she was taking.

"Seras, enough," John called out, seeing her health bar deplete rapidly as she took blow after blow. Despite John's warnings she didn’t stop until the harpy was dead, a combination of all three of them assaulting it just barely enough to bring it down, with Seras' health bar dwindling to under a quarter and her arm bleeding profusely. Maera seemed mostly unharmed, climbing to her feet with just a few bruises and her HP in the clear.

"Let's help the others-"

John was about to lead the charge back toward the rest of the party but found Moira standing over two corpses instead, one the harpy that she had knocked out with her blinding light and the other the one which had been tackled by Mithra. The other Neko twin was lightly wounded but far less than either Maera or Seras, her HP bar barely touched. Probably thanks to Moira, whose bloody hammer showed that after her initial blinding and smiting had passed she was still effective against any foes she could bring to the ground.

"-or not," John finished in surprise. His EXP bar filled a small amount from the kills, not as much as he'd hoped, but split five ways it was actually quite impressive, especially with the 25% bonus he got. With the threat taken care of for the moment, John got to work on taking care of his teammates. Now that he was back to level one, Maera was a bit harder to heal, but she'd only lost a little over a dozen points of health; thanks to his new items, his perks, and the Skill points John had spent, it was only 31 points of mana to heal her to full. Seras was a bit farther, but with Siphon John knew that he could probably-

ERROR: Target is immune to conventional healing spells.

"Shit," John swore, standing up. "I can't heal her; must be because she's a vampire."

"Undead do not typically take well to holy arts… she will have to be careful, lest you be deprived of a summon."

"She's not a summon," John grumbled, eyeing Seras warily. "Come on, Seras. Stick with me, we don’t have any way to get you back and I don’t want you trying to leave this forest on your own. You do not fight any of these things, you’re too hurt, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Master."

John took a quick moment to dash around and check out what he had gotten from the harpies as loot. Other than their bodies, the only things he could find were several feathers, labeled as Harpy Feathers, and claws (or pieces thereof) labeled in a similar fashion. He was a bit put-off, as he'd hoped their high levels would yield something more valuable, but at least he might be able to Craft something with a decent enchantment if he got enough of them by the end of the dungeon.

Together they resumed their journey into the forest. John knew the zone was quite sizable, but given that he'd never been into the forest until the hour prior when Moira had screamed, he had no idea of its layout. No one spoke, except for the occasional sound from one of the Nekos, and with every step John expected to hear another rustling of leaves and the sound of wings.

Instead, the first thing he heard was what sounded like metal-on-metal, and suddenly Moira was being pressed backward between the rest of the group.

"This one is fast!"

Moira said that even while she was bringing her hammer down. The harpy that had struck at her with its talons had been extraordinarily quick, that was true, but its hollow bones cracked easily under Moira's hammer.

Weapon Vulnerability! Party Member: 132 DMG!
Bleed (Internal) Inflicted!

The harpy folded as easily as its bones had, not quite dead yet but certainly no longer capable of fighting, its chest cavity now more "cavity" and less "chest" without something like Gamer's Body to protect it. But it wasn't alone; with their sister fallen, four more harpies swooped in from different angles now that the Shield Warden had been pressed back from her point at the lead, swiping and clawing and biting from so many directions John had to himself to focus on just one, rather than be overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of combat.

John still had his sword in his hand, thankfully, and so he was reasonably capable of flailing about with enough potential for harm to dissuade the harpy above him, but it was significantly faster than him. Even with his advantage in range, the claws struck at him on occasion, slowly whittling away his health while he failed to land even a single blow.

Glancing Blow! -12 HP
Glancing Blow! -8 HP
-26 HP!

Just those three hits alone brought him down so low in health that he panicked a little and reacted more strongly. Above the handle of his blade, a fiery orb formed, surprising John that he could conjure one up without even removing his hand from the blade. John flicked his wrist upwards and sent the orb flying into the harpy, but it was too fast for a direct hit. As it swung out of the way, the orb connected with some of the feathers on its elongated arms, igniting them and spraying the rest of its load across the tree behind the beast.

Glancing Blow! 41 DMG

As the forest ignited with crimson light, the harpy shrieked and fluttered in the air. But even as she was struggling to stay aloft and simultaneously put out her burning plumage, John was beset by another threat.

"Myaster!"

John turned in time to see a harpy finish kicking Maera away from it, having taken to the ground for combat. The moment the Neko was out of its immediate threat zone, it darted for John at full speed. Even out of the air, it was lightning fast, and the downed Neko could do nothing but shout at John to warn him. John raised his sword, hoping to do what Moira had and strike one decisive blow that would put it out of the fight, whether it had hitpoints left or not.

Party Member: -29 HP!

"No!"

John watched Seras’ hitpoints vanish - all but the very last one. Confused and frightened, John double-checked, but even though he was sure Seras had barely had twenty hitpoints left and the notification was far more, she still had a single point. The harpy struck again, bringing its teeth aroudn for a follow-up attack.

Party Member: -24 HP!

Seras' health didn't move, and John briefly thought of the description for her True Vampire ability. Seras moved to attack the harpy in return for her wounds, bloodied arms lashing out in rapid punches. The harpy ducked and wove, avoiding most of the strikes, and opened its mouth wide. John was running toward Seras, her health bar sending adrenaline surging through his veins. The harpy's head began to extend toward Seras' neck as John's feet left the ground, body carrying him to tackle the beast.

-29 HP!

John was brought to a near- state by the teeth that sunk into his side, but the pain was the worst part - unlike most of the strikes that hit him, these teeth were not quick, nor did they leave his body shortly after entering. With Gamer's Body unable to heal wounds that had not been vacated, John found himself wrestling with a harpy, desperately trying to avoid a fatal blow from one of her lashing talons.

"The Lady holds this one, he shall not fall!

You have been blessed! Temporary shield: 100 HP

John barely had time to see the message, much less fully comprehend it, but the pain in his side faded a little as Moira rushed in from nowhere, hammer abandoned for the moment as she physically pried the harpy away from John, throwing it to the ground before pulling out her hammer once more.

Party Member: 123 Damage!

The harpy crumpled, and though John whirled in an attempt to find another target, he could see none. All four had been dispatched, while he was focused on the two assailing him. Moira seemed to have done most of the work; the Nekos were both worse for the wear, and though they'd gotten their licks in, Maera and Mithra seemed too clingy to each other and too frightened as a whole to have been very effective. Then there was Seras…

"What were you thinking, John?" Moira chastised, stepping in front of him as he considered the injured vampiress. She pointed accusingly at him with the hand that bore her hammer, the head coming dangerously close to slamming into John’s temple. "You weakened yourself to the point that they nearly slaughter you, and yet you risk your life for a creature of yours? Whatever strange form of summoning this is, no undead is worth your life-"

"She's not a summon, or a creature," John spat, too concerned to deal with Moira's attitude just now. He turned away in a huff before she could continue.

Ignoring his own dwindling health bar and Moira's arm that tried to grab him to hold his attention, John himself forward and pulled Seras up. Her skin was sliced open in multiple places, Hellsing's classical gory nature more than replicated in the free flows of blood coating her limbs and soaking through John's loose-fitting clothing - the parts of it that hadn’t gotten shredded, that was.

"Seras, what the fuck were you thinking?! I told you not to put yourself in harm’s way, and you almost got yourself killed! You might be a vampire, but if that thing had damaged your heart, or cut off your head…"

"I… I'm sorry," Seras whispered, blood pooling at the corner of her blue eyes. The vampire tears shocked John, calming his rage in an instant and rendering him momentarily silent.

"I just wanted to be useful to you. I wanted to do something meaningful."

John knew there was something more to that. He could hear it in Seras' voice, in her tone. But he couldn't just worry about Seras in that moment; Maera and Mithra were wounded too, and more harpies could dive onto them at any second if they hadn’t just cleared out the last of them. Even if they had, there was still a boss around. John couldn’t let Seras stay with them when she was like this, and he didn’t have the time to handle her emotions.

"You're done. Maera, Mithra, take Seras and get out of the forest; go back to where we started. When this Barrier fades you should be back at the campsite."

"Master!"

The cry came from both Maera and Seras at once, but John held a hand up and they went silent.

"No. This is not debatable. I will not risk your lives for this. This is my fault, and I won't hear any more objections. Seras… we will have a long talk when I get back, do you understand me?"

"…Yes, Master."

Seras hung her head. John almost broke seeing the dejection in her eyes, but he tried to stay stalwart as Maera wrapped an arm around the blonde woman's shoulders and they all began to limp off the way they had come. John didn’t turn his eyes until they had disappeared from view and he was certain they would not be ambushed or turn around to come back to him.

"John Newman, what exactly are those creatures to you?"

Moira's tone seemed less judgemental for just a moment, more curious than anything else. All the same, he couldn't meet her gaze, mostly because he had no answer. Amidst the chaos of the last few days, that was one of many aspects of his power he had yet to dwell on.

"…Come on, Moira. Let's go before something else shows up."