“Can someone die just from scent alone?” Varnir grumbled as he covered his face with his hand and shield.

“I—I never imagined a sewer could smell even worse than normal,” Tsarra complained while pinching her nose.

The stench was truly a revolting combination of sewage, rotten eggs, blood, wild animals, and decay. Varnir was right. If scent alone were lethal, that would be the concoction to undo all.

“It’ll only get worse when we fight the undead, so prepare yourselves,” I said.

“Varnir, minimize your shield root usage as well until we say otherwise. We can’t afford to block our path just yet,” Mom said.

Varnir nodded and said, “Got it.”

We marched through the sewers with Varnir and me at the front, Tsarra in the middle, and my mother holding the rear. We walked down the path that hugged the wall while the sewage flowed in a filthy river to our right. The only light we had was the periodic bits that came from holes in the surface. The sewers themselves were smaller than I had expected, or maybe that was because we were in some minor junction.

Regardless, it didn’t take long for us to reach our first fork. The sewer opened up considerably and gave way to a much larger tunnel on either side. But thankfully, there was no need to guess in which direction to go, thanks to the sheer number of blood trails. We took the right path but stopped just a few steps in. With four Elves in a single group and in such a confined space away from the loud city and battle at the walls, we could hear the undead long before they reached us.

We backtracked slightly as they came from both the tunnels in front of us, as we didn’t want to be surrounded. Varnir and I took one tunnel while my mother and Tsarra handled the other. The sloshing of sewage and the barking and crying of animals filled the tunnel as the undead sprinted toward us.

I was wary of using fire magic in such an enclosed space, and there was also a potential for lighting something unforeseen and causing an explosion. If the rotten egg smell was anything to be worried about, there was a good chance it was some type of trapped gas waiting to blow.

I opted to prepare some Earth Lances, and once the creatures were just on the edge of the light, I launched the magic. The earthen spears spun in the air and tore through a group of undead wolves. The others gnashed their teeth and ran into the light; their matted, dirty fur and rotting flesh made for quite a disgusting scene in the dim sewers.

The mouth to the larger sewer pipe still wasn’t significant enough to allow me to use my spear freely with Varnir at my side. I stepped forward and thrust my spear into a lunging wolf’s chest. My blade easily cut into the flesh of the beast, and I used its corpse to block its ally's teeth. The mindless creature bit straight into its ally, and I put my force behind my spear and sent it straight into the creature’s head.

I planted an armored boot on the first and ripped my spear free of their flesh in a spray of decayed blood. The next wave was about to crash into us, so I formed a spell core and launched a barrage of Earth Lances at the snarling beasts. The spells ripped through their ranks, reducing them to globs of flesh and blood, while Varnir speared another and pinned it to the wall to my side.

Then we spent some time dispatching the rest of the monsters with my spells and our two spears. Once again, the undead weren’t an overwhelming threat. They just endlessly ran themselves into us, heedless of the danger and lacking even the most basic of coordination to be expected amongst those types of monsters. Even so, we would run into a new problem.

Varnir whipped the blood off his face and turned to me with a worried expression, “Kaladin…you can’t burn these bodies…can you?”

I thrust my spear into a reviving wolf and nodded. “It’s not that I can't, it's just that I shouldn’t. This putrid smell of rotting eggs tells me there is some gas in the air. Maybe a little bit of fire would be okay, but if I started burning bodies, I would ignite something.”

My mother and Tsarra finished with their side and came over to us. Both of them were unhurt, just covered in blood and stench. “Can we leave and ignite the gas from the surface?” Tsarra questioned.

Mom shook her head pensively. “We have no idea what kind of damage would occur. It may solve our immediate problem while only lightly damaging the city, but it may also collapse this section of the sewers, locking us from our true goal.”

“We press on then. As fast as we can,” I suggested.

The three of them nodded in agreement. Having the undead to our backs was a problem we couldn’t avoid; we had no way of knowing just how many were down here, and since I couldn’t burn them, they would continue to revive regardless of how many times we defeated them. If we got endlessly swarmed before support could arrive, or even worse, the undead managed to collapse the sewers on us…we were all dead.

But leaving the wall to be attacked from behind was also not feasible. So, we had no choice but to move forward.

With a far greater sense of urgency, we reformed and jogged through the sewers. At first, the number of undead we encountered was sporadic and minor, but as we got closer, their numbers grew, and so did their composition.

“Raise your shield!” I ordered Varnir.

Twang.

Varnir reacted instantly and raised his shield to block an incoming arrow that tried to take his head. The animal monsters were behind us now, and in front of us was a group of moving Skeletons, two archers, and some warriors. Their uniforms were in tatters, their flesh completely gone, so there was no way of telling who or what they used to be, if anything. It also didn’t matter.

An Earth Lance raced through the air and shattered one of the archers into an explosion of white bones while a bolt of water ripped the torso off the other. Varnir and I engaged the warriors. One wielded a rusty sword, the other a busted and rusted handaxe with a rotting shield. I took on the shield Skeleton.

As I approached, the monster sluggishly raised its axe for an overhead strike. My spear went directly into its elbow joint, destroying the bone into splinters. I swept across and battered the shield with my spear, using it like a staff. The skeleton staggered backward, and I broke its leg in half with a stomp, only to send my spear into its hollow skull. The creature stopped moving entirely, but that would not last. Varnir made short work of his skeleton, and we were on the move once more.

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That was until the ground started shaking. A loud crashing noise could be heard coming from our left through the walls of the sewers. It was getting closer to us, so we backed off, only for the wall to explode and give away to a cloud of dust and debris.

Something snaked through the dust, aiming directly at me, and I barely managed to step back in time to dodge it. A massive, fleshy tail swept the air away, and a creature I had never seen before gave a blood-curdling screech through its sharp, teethed maw that brought sheer pain to my ears.

What the hell is that thing?

A massive pink flesh-colored body filled the sewer pipe. It had multiple gaping and pestilent wounds along its body, but it had no eyes or even a face. And where its face should be was rotting and decaying flesh. It looked like some large mutated rodent or maybe a mole of some type.

I sent multiple Stone Lances into its exposed side, but the magic was nullified and broke apart against its thick skin. Tsarra’s water magic fell short as well, and the creature bounded toward us. With a swing of its giant paw with razor-sharp claws, we moved back as the creature destroyed another wall of the sewers.

“This is not good! It’s going to bring down the entire system!” Varnir shouted.

“Use your shield! Pin it down!” I shouted back as I sprinted toward the creature.

I dodged the tail swipe that ripped up the ground and sent sewage everywhere and used my spear to slice off a portion of it. The Mythril alloy easily cut the beast’s tail, letting it fall into the sewage with a splash. The creature screamed in pain as its massive body smacked against the ceiling and walls of the tunnel, shaking it. Varnir’s roots snaked across the roof and walls to surround the creature.

Was it panicking because it was attacked or because it could still feel some pain? I bet it’s just a natural reaction engraved into the body, maybe the tail was important for sensing things. Well, whatever.

Varnir’s roots stabbed down at the creature’s body, but they broke apart in splinters. However, repeated strikes eventually found a foothold and pitched into the monster. I dodged underneath its foreleg swipe once again as the sharp metal claws nearly cleaved me in half. From underneath it, I pierced its torso and, with a mana-enhanced body, I stood up, toppling the creature onto its side.

There was a flash of movement to my side, followed by a final screech from the creature as its head dropped to the ground with a wet thud. With a single strike of her swords, my mother decapitated the monster in the blink of an eye, and she wasn’t even using any of her Lightning Blade techniques. But we had no time to marvel at her as the undead were approaching from both sides of the tunnel.

“Tsarra, send a wave of water down the way we came! Varnir, use your roots to block our behind as well! We’ll push forward!” I shouted.

My mother and I led the charge into the incoming undead while a wave of water swept the encroaching ones away. Varnir’s roots made a defensible wall that covered both the monster's hole and our backs.

A new type of undead reached us as well. It was a heart-wrenching sight to see the freshly risen corpses shamble toward us. Most of them still looked like they could be alive except for the splats of blood on their clothing or the arms missing from a few of them. In truth, they were already gone. Perhaps it would be a mercy to set them free at the end of the day.

My mother and I crashed into the wall of corpses and cut them all down. My spear thrusts went through their heads, crushing their brains and dropping them to the ground. My swings sent their heads flying, and Mom was doing much the same. Tsarra and Varnir made it back to us as we cut down the undead. But from the corner of my eye, I spotted a glint and reared my head back.

In front of my face was the edge of a sword that had moved far faster than what the usual undead was capable of. The undead had stabbed through the exposed rib cage of a zombie and up at me in an attempt at a stealth attack. When the much larger undead pushed forward, I saw its glowing orange eyes in its otherwise lifeless head.

It was the corpse of a guard that had been turned into a Dread Knight, a high-ranking undead of at least a threat level of one hundred and fifty. Unlike the ones I faced in the Iron Citadel, this undead still had its flesh and blood. The guard moved with far more finesse than any of the other undead as we exchanged blows of sword and spear for a moment.

“Move!” Tsarra shouted.

I jumped back as a bolt of water smashed into the creature’s chest, knocking it back slightly. I fired an Earth Lance at it, and the creature tried to block it with its sword, but it failed. My spell impacted it dead center of the stomach and, with a sickening crunch of bone and armor, pinned the Dread Knight to the wall.

“We must be getting closer! Push past these last Zombies, and Tsarra will wipe them out again with more magic!” I ordered.

There was only a small group of Zombies now, and we cut a path through them. The sewer was splattered in muck, blood, and guts as we painted the stone floor and walls red. Once we broke through, Tsarra formed a spell core, and another massive wave of water swept away the reviving corpses down the drain.

We continued our run down the pipe, and it wasn’t long before our light began to expand into a new place and mixed with the light from the surface. A large sewer junction was in front of us, as was a small horde of Zombies and Skeletons. And in the center, protected by a retinue, was a monster I had never seen in person, but did know about.

“A Dullahan…that wasn’t reported by the scouts to be in the mix,” I said.

The Dullahan carried its bearded head in one arm and a hammer in the other. Its armor looked to be made of iron, and judging by its short stature, it must have been a Dwarf at one point. The iron armor held no signifying markings but somehow still looked to be in a pristine state. Surrounding the Dullahan were two Dwarven Dread Knights wearing similar iron armor with hammers and a group of freshly risen Human Dread Knights out of the guards and soldiers from the surface.

“Kal…this may be dangerous,” Mom whispered.

I looked up at the sunlight coming down and had an idea. “It will be.”

“Everyone! Get close! Varnir, wrap us up in some roots, but leave the top open!” I ordered.

We huddled together as the Zombies staggered forward, and Skeletons began firing arrows at us. Varnir’s roots snaked out from his shield into a barrier, which I doubled up with my own earth magic. From the exposed hole in the top, I used both my hands to make two separate spell cores.

“Wait!? What are you doing?!” Vanir shouted.

“Making some noise. Cover your ears if you want to keep your hearing,” I said calmly.

I released the first earth spell, and the top began to cover us. Just before it did, I launched a Fireball straight into the ceiling. Luckily, I was correct when I counted on that room having more ventilation than the pipes, as the smell of rotten eggs was minimal. Our immediate surroundings didn’t explode into a ball of fire, but once my spell hit the roof and I sealed the top, it was only a few heartbeats before the chain reaction started.

The noxious sewer gas began exploding just like we had anticipated. I continually renewed my earth wall from the inside to make sure it didn’t crumble from the falling debris or explosions. My ears rang from the pain of the explosives and the crashing ceiling, but I continued to recast my earth magic to protect us.

Finally, I felt the earth around us stop shaking, and Tsarra tugged on my arm. When I turned to see her mouth opening, I realized I couldn’t hear anything anymore. Well, everything besides the incessant ringing that made me want to die.

Oops. Hearing can be optional for now. I can get them fixed later.

I read his lips, and he told me to drop the stone barrier around us. When I did so, the sunlight streamed down on top of us. The overall damage was rather considerable. The entire ceiling had collapsed, and we had to crawl out from under it. But it looked like most of the undead had been reduced to nothing.

All the undead besides the Dullahan and his two Dwarven Dread Knights. The three looked to be uninjured, and instead, their burning orange eyes seemed to glare at us in pure hatred. I had expected them to at least be bothered by the collapsing ceiling, but I guess they were strong to begin with.

There was no doubt that this Dullahan was the mastermind behind the sewer attack. It must have controlled that mole monster and invaded from there. Once we took out the Dullahan and collapsed the entry point, the city would be safer.

Alright, let’s take this thing down.