No matter how I thought about it, the description the gods gave of the Underhollow didn’t do it justice. Blue-green grass brushed against my knees, the curled tips snagging on the pockets of my taupe cargo pants as a gentle breeze turned the field into an ocean. Its waves crashed into hills in the distance, and on the right was a rainforest and to the left there was a river and further behind it a waterfall.

The cavern was so vast I was unable to see any of the walls aside from the one we just exited from. Above me was what looked to be a pink sky, even though I knew I was still underground it was difficult to really believe it.

They must have used a portal or something to send me somewhere else. This can’t be under the earth. I was still staring dumbstruck at the scenery when I was knocked off balance and fell into the grass.

Sorry master there was an enemy. Aureus said, adjusting his position in her lap, his eyes darting as he tried to catch sight of it.

You know I’ve been meaning to tell you, just call me Mia. Calling me master feels too distant. I thought while scrambling to grab the pocket knife from my bag. I took the best defensive stance I could, my heart was in my throat and my mouth had begun to dry up.

Several feet away a white furry creature caught my attention, it looked like… a horned rabbit? It was attempting to sneak towards us when I made eye contact with it. This must have set it off, because as soon as our eyes met it dug its feet in and jumped towards me.

A wave of panic hit me, why did I never learn how to fight? I was still trying to prepare myself when a fireball hit it. It screeched loudly, my ears felt like they might burst and thankfully the shock helped me get it together.

The creature flew to my right, missing me by only a couple inches, a gross burn was taking over its left flank. It stood with little difficulty, but it scrambled, running back the way it came.

“Don’t let it escape!” I shouted. “Attack its legs!”

Aureus shot multiple fireballs at one of its front legs, the first and the third hit their mark; it tumbled over itself and before it could regain its bearings I dashed towards it. Unfortunately, when I got there I hesitated while I pulled my knife above my head.

My arms reached their apex, I willed myself to plunge it in the monster’s neck, but it never came down. A flash of gold and a splash of red and it was all over. It wasn’t a clean kill, the fur was singed and blood was splattered onto my arms as it thrashed about. Aureus smiled at me while I sat expressionless in a pool of our kill’s blood.

I was shaking a bit as I pet Aureus praising him for his heroics. There were mixed responses from the gods, “Traveling Spring Painter” was very concerned and even gifted me a bow telling me not to get my hands dirty.

While “Abandoned Bloodied Sword” and “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” complained that I’d have to get used to this soon.

I agreed with the latter more than the former. Unfortunately the world is not kind and especially after the Underhollow popped up mercy was a luxury most could not afford.

Though, despite my cynicism my mom instilled a strong sense of trust and humanity into me throughout her life. So even when my mind told me ‘humans are awful’, ‘they’ll stab you in the back’, ‘kill or be killed’, she was there in my heart reminding me that everyone had good in them and if you gave then they would give back.

I’d spent a good portion of my life reminding myself that my mom was, pitifully, very wrong about that. This time, the cynic side won.

I cleared my head and finally got a good look at it. It was about the size of an adult capybara with a 4 inch horn in the center of its forehead. Sharp claws were hidden under tufts of fur on its feet and its slack jawed mouth revealed pointed dagger-like teeth rather than the iconic rectangular rabbit teeth I was used to.

Although its ears were still what you would expect of a rabbit, I was shocked both at the size of the beast and the swiftness with which Aureus took it down. With one swift bite he had cut deeply into its neck it quickly bled out after, and there I was just holding a hunting knife unable to attack it or defend myself.

I was frustrated with myself. It wasn't even an animal, it was a monster. Why did I hesitate? What if I had gotten injured? I tried to wipe the blood away but it really just smeared around. The river wasn’t too far away, it’d be good to wash myself off and cool my head a moment.

I checked our status windows as I headed towards the river bank, we both had 10 xp. Already, with one kill we were a tenth of the way to level 2. I glanced back at Aureus who was dragging the corpse along behind me and back to the window in front of me. If things continued to go on like this we would level up very quickly, but what about when the enemies get harder? Ah, actually I should’ve checked the horned rabbit’s status window too.

Status Monster Horned Rabbit Level 1 Health 0/50 Mana 0/10 Strength 4 Dexterity 5 Constitution 5 Intelligence 1 Skills Charge, Headbutt Leap, Swift Claw Passives --

“Wow this horned rabbit had a decent amount of health compared to you Aureus! You took down a powerful enemy!”

No, we took down a powerful enemy!

[“Traveling Spring Painter” agrees and says that you both did a great job.]

“You’re right! We got our first kill! We should celebrate and play in the river, right Aureus?”

We can’t yet, there’s still many more on the way

“Many more… we used 15 mana on just the one, we won’t have enough mana for all of them if we aren’t careful. But, we have to make it work, let's do it!” I was trying to be optimistic but the vague mention of many set me on edge.

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” is cheering you on.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” is cheering you on.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” notes that it's common for animals to live in groups.]

Aureus, are they close by?

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I lost sight of them but they should be here any second.

I nodded at Aureus as I awkwardly notched my first arrow into the new bow I was gifted. I’d never held a bow before this moment, my hand shook as I prepared to fight with everything on the line.

A wake formed in the sea of grass, there you are I thought as I pulled the bow string back aiming as best as I could then loosed the arrow. I waited and watched intently but the speed of the beast creating the wake didn’t falter and no noise rang out. I must have missed. I grabbed another arrow and tried again. As I pulled the string back I saw something white growing in my peripheral vision.

Panicking, I spun around aiming at the monster who was bounding towards us. Aureus, they’ll probably come at us at the same time so keep an eye out for another one I’ll figure things out over here.

Luckily this time I had a much closer target, but I was unable to notch the arrow properly before firing. The arrow glanced off its chest causing a minor wound. It was only a couple feet away, I was hastily trying to notch the next arrow.

It grew closer and I gave up on the arrows for now, it wasn’t time to learn to wield a new weapon. I pulled out my knife again. Aiming for a weak point is the only thing I can really do at the moment, I’m not strong enough to fight it head on.

As it leaped towards my chest I dodged to the left, we traded wounds, its front claws caught my right shoulder and my knife cut through its abdomen. Unfortunately, the wound I inflicted on it was shallow. I decided that it was likely due to the fact that it was a weapon from earth.

Staggering I clutched at the wound, the rabbits gave me no time to rest as two came charging out while the first was slowed by its injury. Aureus! I had no time to explain, but it didn’t matter.

The rabbit that was approaching behind me was hit square in the jaw with a ball of earth, it slid a couple feet and thankfully there weren’t any signs of it getting up after that. That time I just dropped to a kneeling position as the monster leaped over me and it swung its claws narrowly missing my face and sent a lock of my hair fluttering away with the wind.

As I fell I swung wildly at its stomach, hoping for any sort of damage. I never had been lucky. The knife did plunge itself into its stomach, but it was slick from blood and the knife was ripped from my hand. As my grip failed I watched in horror as the rabbit and my only effective weapon soared past me.

Damn it! I was already panting heavily, and I was struggling to use my right arm properly. For a moment the rabbits that I could see weren’t on the offensive, the first that I'd attacked was watching intently while the rabbit that had stolen my knife was struggling to stand a few feet behind me.

I knew I had to take advantage of its weakness or we might die. Another arrow flies, thankfully it met its mark, the rabbit that escaped with my weapon collapsed with it protruding from its neck.

Master, there are more coming.

Seriously?! How many?

I don’t know, I think, six?

Ok… Ok. Just... Don’t use magic if possible, just attack it directly. Maybe we can conserve mana... Let’s prepare to greet our new guests.

Yes Master.

Quickly I ran to the weapon thief, my hands shook as I pulled the slick dagger from its stomach. Rolling backwards just in time to avoid getting impaled by the final rabbit of the original trio.

It didn’t take long for six more rabbits to appear from the grass, I was surrounded. Two of the three that we had been fighting were down, but fighting just those three was already hard enough. Now we had to face seven.

It felt like hours of barely dodging while the rabbits systematically charged at me. They would attack in intervals so that if I dodged one the next would be there to slice through me wherever I dodged to. It didn’t take long for surface level cuts to accumulate on my arms and legs. I had no choice but to dodge and wait for Aureus to kill them, there was no chance for me to notch an arrow or aim or even try to slash at them as they attacked.

One by one Aureus picked them off, we adopted a strategy of attacking with magic just before they landed when they jumped at me. They had numbers and strategy, but they were just monsters and the formation became predictable pretty quickly. But even though we were reducing their numbers I was running out of stamina and struggling to dodge their attacks. Once we had gotten down to four, they changed their tactic and two of them suddenly rushed me.

I jumped hoping they would run beneath me, but a searing pain caught my leg. Shit, another one charged? I looked down towards my injury momentarily, but just as I looked back up I was greeted with another rabbit, inches away from my face. My blood ran cold, right when I was expecting death, a hard thump hit my head and shoulders. Followed by a sharp pain and a thud as I landed on top of the two I’d attempted to jump over.

Master! Are you alright? His eyes popped into view, it must have been Aureus that pushed me back to the ground, the floor beneath me began scrambling to get out from under me and something yanked back on my left leg. I looked down to see a horn impaled through my calf, it was odd I couldn’t feel any pain from it.

Numbly I grabbed my knife, swinging it down on the rabbit lodged in my leg. It didn’t do much, I lost rational thinking and just grabbed the thing by the back of its neck and yanked it from my leg as I stood up. My legs were caught by its claws as it struggled to free itself from my grip.

I threw it down as I put my foot on the back of its neck. Aureus was behind me slicing through the two I’d crushed under my weight. Not long after he was there tearing into the animal I had been glaring down at. Unfortunately this caused me to relax for just a moment, and all the pain and exhaustion hit me at once.

The shadow of something I had forgotten loomed over me. A pit formed in my stomach as I looked up to find the last rabbit before me, readying itself yet again. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I pulled out my bow and arrows yet again, there weren’t many left.

The first rabbit, surprisingly enough, ended up as our final opponent. Its comrades laid dying at my feet. Blood slid down my face and into my left eye, that rabbit must have cut my forehead. I fired the few arrows I that were remaining and of course only two met their mark.

My legs ached, screaming at me that they couldn’t go on. I desperately tried but couldn’t move them and I was beginning to feel faint from the blood loss. The grass around us had flattened due to our battle and both sides were running out of steam.

I glanced quickly at our status windows. We had 15 mana. It had to be enough. I looked at Aureus, he was flying to my right, panting heavily. He looked as though he may burst into tears, and for the first time I noticed there were four gashes in his chest.

My heart sank, he’d taken that attack for me earlier when he pushed me out of the way. He could've died, he doesn't have enough health to do stuff like that! I pushed the thought down, it wasn’t the time.

This is it, it's all or nothing. When he charges in for the last time, aim for his left foot, he always jumps off of that one. If we can disrupt his momentum we can get him. Once he falls, aim for the spots where he's injured. Shape your shots as something pointy if you can. It's okay! We got this!

Truthfully, it was a coin toss. We could very easily die here, but I wasn't about to give up without a fight. This asshole injured my precious baby, even if I went down he was going to be coming with me. My grip tightened on my knife and I lowered my stance.

My legs would give out any second, “Come on! You stupid rabbit coward!” I taunted, it worked. He dashed towards me preparing to jump, and tripped over the wind ball Aureus shot. He conjured up a fireball, but didn’t shoot. It was still growing in size. He needed time, so I had to buy it for him.

My left leg failed me, I sank to one knee and prepared myself for the end. It was me or him, or both. He struggled to his feet while I tried to do the same. I couldn’t. My body refused to listen to me. I looked up at Aureus, his face stiff with concentration.

We can do this. We have to do this. With one final push of effort our enemy hurled himself at me. The only thing left I could do was avoid a fatal injury and wait. I lifted my arms in front of me and pushed against his charge, I liked to think it slowed him some.

Not more than a second after my knife pierced his chest, his horn sunk into my abdomen. Desperately I gripped the creature's fur as I wrestled my knife from it's flesh. Once it was free I brought it down multiple times, but I had no strength left, the injuries I could inflict with my shaking arms and that old knife were all superficial. Just as I thought I was done for, a ten inch spear of fire skewered the horned rabbit.

I fell backwards, I knew I’d likely die from the injuries I’d sustained, but I got him, that bastard died too. My head was swimming, and tears mingled with the sweat and blood on my face. I lie on the grass, wondering what would happen to Aureus. Our souls were linked, but he was his own life form so would he live on? Can he heal from his injuries? I closed my eyes and my mother’s smiling face greeted me, and I thought to myself that it wasn’t the worst death I could’ve ended up with.

DING! A system window brought with it freedom from the injuries and exhaustion I was suffering from. I laughed and a couple tears made tracks through the blood on my face as I held a sobbing and shaking Aureus.

Did it hurt? I'm sorry. Everything's okay. I told you, we got this! I had my work cut out for me wiping snot and tears from his face. He was proper open mouth bawling, for a moment I’d worried he would attract more enemies. I banished the thought quickly though, since if there were enemies around they would have been attracted to the sound of our fight much earlier.

Everything is not okay! You almost died! It seemed like he was going to continue, to say something else, but he didn’t. I sat with him for a long time, caressing his back until he finally calmed down.