Desaray and her group slowly made their way to the end of the alley, bringing them to Central Park West.  They had to cross the street here to enter Bethesda Terrace. If they follow Terrace Dr. all the way to 5th Ave, they would be close to the Lenox Hill Hospital. 

A fenrir, two dragons, and two humans stood at the edge of the road, looking back and forth at the long line of abandoned cars. Becky couldn’t help but wrinkle her brow. “It doesn’t make sense. Besides the one body we have seen so far, there are no others around. It’s like they all disappeared without a trace.” 

“Becky, I think you might be correct in this assumption. After all, with the number of people in New York City, just the Upper West Side would have a good number of people. Yet there was barely anyone running earlier when the first goblin showed up. As we still do not know what happened or what is causing any of this, we must keep going and hope that Mike can get proper treatment.” Desaray sighed and looked at Mike and then at Jake, who was sweating. “Jake, I want to get you a system as well if you want but first, we need you to bring Mike into the hospital. The three of us can not go close to the hospital if it is being guarded.”

Jake nodded his head. He could understand this fact. “Then please keep me alive until then.” 
    
“Don’t worry. As long as we are not in serious trouble, I will stop at nothing to protect you at this time. I think this goes for Becky and Yu as well, right?” Desaray looked at the two girls, who nodded their heads. “So, while it is not a complete promise, we will do what we can.”

“Alright.” Jake clenched his fists. He understood that Desaray was not backing down from her earlier statement. But at least he knew they would not just leave him if things were not too bad yet.

The group carefully crossed the street and stepped into Bethesda Terrace, a part of Central Park known for and known for its prominent displays of art and architecture. What was normally a busy part of the part who came here to look at the sights was now nothing but a ghost town with no foot traffic at all. 

“Desa, shouldn’t we just walk straight across instead of taking Terrace Dr.?” Yu asked. She did not see a reason to be taking the main road through if they could just cut through the park.

    “Yeah, you are right. I wasn’t thinking right before. I was thinking there would be more people, and it would be dangerous, but… ” Desaray looked at the foggy path ahead and could feel that there were a few monsters ahead of them but could not determine where they were exactly. She was still getting used to this kind of six-sense thing. She wondered if Becky and Yu had this same feeling. “Becky, Yu, do you sense anything ahead of us?”

“Now that you mention it. I smell something… stinky but am unsure what it is exactly.” Yu replied. As part of a wolf-type race, her senses were quite sharp already, but as a fenrir, they were even sharper than a dragon’s. 

“I can smell sense something, but I can’t figure out where it is,” Becky replied. She had her snout in the air and was smelling around. 

“I am the same. Yu, it will be up to you to help determine if something is closer than it should be and a threat. Without your warning, we might end up in a dangerous position.” Desaray did not want anything bad to happen to those here. While she might throw Jake under the bus, the rest were good people. 

“On it!” Yu nodded as she extended her claws. Desaray was surprised that Yu was doing things so naturally, then again, it was the same for her. It just came naturally.

Natural instincts seemed to have been ingrained within them after they evolved, which helped them cope with the sudden change of stature and race. If it was not for this, all three of them would not be as they are now and would still be trying to deal with the sudden change.

They walked for about ten minutes before Yu smelt something getting closer. “Desa….”

“Mmm… It’s big. Yu, stay by Jake and Mike. Becky, you take the left side I will go right. Remember, it takes about five seconds to charge your attack. It is also voice-activated, as I said before. Take a deep breath before you start your attack. I do not know what your attack is like or if it uses mana, so try to pay attention to whatever is happening. I will freeze it with my ice breath.” Desaray gave out orders which everyone quickly put into action. She had become the group’s leader without anyone making a single complaint about it.

    “Desa, you sound like a raid leader.” Becky teased as she took her position.

“As of now, we have to take every fight as if we are fighting a raid boss. This is just how it is. So pay attention. This is not some VR game; this is real life.” Desaray did not want to leave room for error. She wanted to keep everyone from getting harmed. She just hoped it would not come down to abandoning someone. This would not sit well with her.

 “I know!”