Excerpt from a talk by an experienced monster hunter to a group of new recruits (name unknown)
“Most people will tell you that Vine Road is the most dangerous part of Hollowcrest but my experience argues with that. For me, the most dangerous part of the city is the maintenance tunnels that run under our feet. Some of the deadliest monsters that I have encountered have come out of the maintenance tunnels. You hear stories of a monster causing havoc in Sky Stone? It will have come out of one of those tunnels.
“If you really want to learn to handle the deadliest things out there, go down to the tunnels. But be warned, there’s a damn good chance you won’t come back!”
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“Don’t worry about it,” Roy said as the group looked at the area where the grate was meant to lead into the basement of the building. “It’s only rock and there’s more than one reason that I’m here.”
Jake looked at her. “You can deal with this?”
She nodded and proceeded to cast an impressive Tier 3 stone-shaping spell that smoothly made a round portal sufficiently large for each of them to fit through. They helped each other through the gap in the stone.
The group found themselves standing in a basement but not quite where they were expecting. The room looked like an unused storage room but the good news is that there was no one else in sight.
“Now what?” Jackson asked as one of his men went to the door and eased it open a little to see if there was anyone in whatever was beyond the room.
“We need to find where they are keeping Gneico so splitting up might be the best bet,” Silt said. “The blueprint I saw of the building just showed a large basement but somewhere along the lines, they broke the room up into storage areas.”
Roy split the group sending Jackson and one of his men with Drak while Jake, Silt and the other guy whose name Jake still didn’t know would head in the other direction. Both of Jackson’s guys had a combination of perception and wind essences that meant they could send a simple broadcast so that when one of the groups found what they were looking for, they could let the other group know where to go.
Jake nodded to Drak. “Be careful,” he said. “And keep out of trouble?”
Drak grinned, although a little less exuberantly than usual. “Same to you.”
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Drak, Jackson and the unnamed guy headed to the left when they came out of the storage room. Jackson took the lead, proceeding cautiously along the mostly darkened corridors. They came across a series of storage rooms with nothing in them until they found another one that had a series of crates in it.
“Let’s check it in case there’s anything we can use,” Drak suggested.
Jackson nodded and gestured for his man to stay at the door while he followed the dragonkin into the room.
They checked a series of boxes and mostly found foodstuff and fabric that looked like it was destined to be made into clothes. Drak did find a small chest and when he opened it, the shimmer was unmistakable - it was filled with gold coins. His dragon side came to the fore and he hid it in his pocket, not wanting to share it with anyone.
“Let’s move on,” Jackson said and Drak nodded.
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Jake also found himself in the middle of the group with Silt in the lead and Roy bringing up the rear. They went to the right outside the storage room and like the other group, found a series of empty storage rooms.
“There’s not much going on down here,” Silt observed in a hushed voice.
“Not right now but there must be some reason they created all this storage,” Roy said frowning. “Guess that’s not our problem right now though.”
They continued to walk until Silt held up her hand, stopping the group. She pushed herself against the wall and the others did the same as a mixed group of figures passed them. Gang members, Jake guessed, judging by their clothes and the snippets of banter he heard from them.
Once they were clear, Silt gestured in the direction they had gone. “Good chance they will lead us there,” she whispered.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Roy nodded so the group started to move in the direction that the men had gone.
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Drak followed Jackson, somewhat disorientated in the dark and featureless corridors between the storage rooms. They had checked a few more and found almost nothing so had stopped checking.
They took a right turn and a short while later, took another left turn. Drak now felt they were walking parallel to the original corridor they had walked into, just a distance away.
“Who are you?” a voice bellowed abruptly from behind them.
Drak spun to see a tall lizardfolk standing in the corridor, beside an open storage room door that they hadn’t checked. He looked confused more than anything but that probably wouldn’t last for long.
Jackson approached the guy and was about to do something when Drak remembered his creepy hitchhiker. He reached up, grabbed the Myphler that was still on his shoulder and threw it at the lizardman.
The creature let out a shriek and sunk its claws into the first thing it encountered as it flew through the air, which just happened to be the lizardman’s face. He gave a shout of surprise but before he could reach any further, Jackson closed the gap between the two. As the lizardman threw the furry creature to the ground, Jackson landed a solid punch and knocked him out cold.
He glanced back at Drak. “Good distraction,” he said.
Drak nodded. He crossed to the prone figure and did a quick check of his pockets, swiping a couple of gold coins he had. As he turned, the Myphler looked at him so he scooped it up and put it back on his shoulder. The little guy had been helpful once, who knew when he could help again?
Jackson backtracked a little and checked the rooms they hadn’t looked in, just in case. But there were no other signs of anyone in them so the group continued on their way.
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Silt’s tracking abilities meant that Jake’s group could follow the men without being too close but they stopped abruptly when the noise levels ahead of them suddenly increased dramatically.
Silt held up her hand for them to stop and went on ahead herself, keeping low to the ground to reduce the chance of being seen. She went around a corner after a careful check and came back a minute or so later. She gestured for them to head back the way they had come until they went around another corner.
“This is the place, just ahead,” she said quietly. “There’s about fifteen guys in there with Gneico and another two people that look like prisoners.”
“I’ll tell the others,” Jackson’s guy said, retreating a few steps from the group to communicate.
A short time later, Drak’s group joined them. Roy quickly laid out the plan which was simple enough - hit them hard and fast and take out as many of them on the first sweep through the room. Drak’s lock-picking talents meant he had the job of freeing Gneico and they decided to free the other two prisoners at the same time. Jake was stationed at the door with the job of making sure that no one left the room to go for reinforcements.
Roy went in first with Silt behind her, Jackson then his two men. Drak peeled straight off and headed towards the prisoners while Jake took up his position at the door. The fight was a brutal one, a mixture of physical brawling and the use of spells and essences, with Silt in particular being very dangerous with her use of fire and ice.
To help them out, Jake threw a couple of potions into the groups of men, one of which made one of them float into the air, where he flailed uselessly until Jackson grabbed his leg, pulled him down and punched him in the face. The other was one of the backsap adhesive potions which promptly stuck one of the man’s foot to the ground and allowed one of Jackson’s guys to stop him even further.
As Jake watched, Drak freed Gneico and turned to the woman beside him. At the same time, over half of the group of gang members were down in the first few minutes of their attack but the remaining ones were rallying somewhat.
Silt flashed out her electricity essence and shocked two of the men standing close to each other. The pair jittered madly for a moment then fell to the floor, their clothes smoking slightly.
Roy, meanwhile, used a combination of physical force and her earth abilities to grab stones and rocks from around the room and toss them at the men attacking her. Other times, her fists seem to become like rocks and struck with enough force to break bones.
The fight didn’t last long and by the time Drak had freed the three prisoners, the rest of the group had finished off the gang members with only a few minor injuries. Jake hadn’t needed to stop anyone.
“We are getting you all out of here,” Jake heard Drak telling the other two people before heading to where his partner was standing.
Gneico, meanwhile, had made his way across to Roy. She laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled. They spoke for a moment.
“Wonder if there’s more than just a working relationship there,” Drak wondered, watching them.
Jake glanced at him and then at the two. The height difference alone…
“No scratch that, they are talking about something to do with a rebellion,” Drak said frowning.
“None of our business,” Jake said. “We’ve got our own problems to handle.”
Drak nodded, still frowning slightly.
“Let’s get out of here,” Roy said a little louder so everyone could hear.
Jackson took the lead followed by Silt, Roy and Gneico, the two freed prisoners then Jake and Drak with Jackson’s two guys bringing up the rear. They retraced their steps to the opening in the stone that Roy created for them to enter.
Jackson went through the opening to make sure there was nothing nasty waiting in the tunnels for them. Silt stood to one side and gestured for the two freed prisoners to go down, which they did. Gneico was about to follow them when the pressure in the room suddenly changed.
There was the sound of air being displaced and one of Jackson’s guys gave a muted yell, falling to the floor. Jake looked to the other and saw he was holding a javelin that had impaled him through the stomach, blood gushing from the wound.
They were not alone.