The sewer was much bigger than Ratface had expected. She’d never been in a sewer before so she didn’t have anything to compare it to, but she wouldn’t have expected it to be so open. It still smelt bad and the kids in front of them gagged as they moved through the sewer. Ratface had just spent the last month in a junkyard so she didn’t mind the smell so much, but she was surprised to see Tiffany wasn’t having a problem either.
“Once my parents found out I was a druid they made me do all the animal work,” she explained when she caught Ratface looking. Ah. That’d do it.
The group at the front was Franklin and his posse of course. They were grinding through the creatures so efficiently that by the time they got to the two of them which they were little more than chopped meat. So, it had been an easy quest so far. So far Ratface had seen corpses of rats the size of a toddler and alligators the size of an alligator but they’d yet to run into anything worrisome.
Tiffany seemed bothered by their doing nothing, but Ratface had listened and was pretty clear on the details of the quest. They didn’t actually have to murder anything, the sewer just needed to be cleared. If someone else want to do the hard work for her then that was fine.
She enjoyed their easy street right up until they reached a crossroad. There were five paths, and the rest of the groups went off on the other four. Franklin sneered as he walked the two of them but otherwise didn’t engage. Ratface had yet to see him not sneer and was beginning to think that might just be what his face looked like.
Ratface went to trot off before Tiffany brought out a small lantern. Tiffany pulled the sheet off it, and it was filled with glowworms. With a tap they started to glow and they had a small pool of light. Ratface didn’t know why she’d need it; it was still easy to see. She was about to say so before she froze.
Humans had worse eyesight. She’d nearly given herself away on such a small thing.
Tiffany hadn’t seemed to notice, and she smiled at Ratface as she walked next to her.
“Couldn’t afford a glow lantern huh? Smart not to bring a normal one.”
“How come?”
“Big boom.”
With that cheerful message they kept walking through the sewer.
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They’d been walking for a while now and hadn’t run into anything. It had Ratface on edge. At the start when they’d all been together, they’d run into lots but they had just been dregs. They’d yet to run into anything like a monster and while that wasn’t always a guarantee she couldn’t help being nervous it hadn’t happened.
The sewer didn’t help. The damn place had been relatively clear at the entrance but further in the place had been overtaken by the swamp to the point it was basically a jungle. Vines lined the walls and trees had started growing into the tunnels. It wasn’t enough to block them, not yet anyway, but it was enough to hide things from view. Ratface found herself questioning if the noises she heard was dripping water or something sneaking up on them.
The lantern didn’t help either. It let Tiffany see sure, but it also threw up strange shadows that had her twisting and turning. If they didn’t have the damn thing, she’d actually be able to see better but with it on her vision was reduced to just the small amount of light they had.
They turned a corner and Ratface kept peering ahead. She stopped when Tiffany made a faint sound of alarm.
She turned around and the girl’s leg was caught by a vine.
“Can’t you use your druid power on that?” she asked the girl.
“I can’t. It’s not actually alive.”
Ratface grinned ready with a joke as she went to reach down. Weird that a dead vine had caught her. It reminded of how goblins in their own area used platted ferns for traps.
No sooner did the thought finish then was Ratface suddenly alert. She looked around and saw a flit of a shadow.
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With a yell she charged in front of Tiffany. Shield first. She felt the weight on her arm as the shield crashed into something and the pained sound of an alligator reached her ears. She stabbed at it, but it darted backwards.
“There’s a knife in my sheath, use it to get yourself free now,” she commanded Tiffany. She felt the other girl pull the knife out and bend down to cut herself free. It made the light shift as she moved with the lantern and that’s when they struck.
The one she’d been eyeing darted towards her, and she sliced at it. It feinted backwards and from the corner of her vision she saw something lunge at her. She managed to get her shield in front of her just in time, but it just took the bite. The thing scrabbled against her. Trying to push her under the water where it’d have the advantage. She hacked at its arm, and it pulled back.
The two alligators in front of her did something weird then. They stood up.
Ratface hissed. They were both city gators. If she listened now, she could hear others sliding through the water closer to them. The question was whether they were all city gators or if was just these two. She had to wonder if it even mattered.
Most of her was screaming to run but she ignored that part. Even if she ignored that she’d be leaving Tiffany, an ambush was designed to make you make stupid decisions. She couldn’t give in to instinct.
Besides, she couldn’t let a bunch of gators trick a goblin.
She pretended she was going to help Tiffany and they both charged her. The moment they did, she darted away from Tiffany. Their movement didn’t stop and soon she was on the side of the one with the injured arm. She shoved into it with her shield. With her weight and the pain from its arm, it stumbled back into its friend. The two got tangled up for a moment and that was all Ratface needed to slam the sword into the first one’s neck. It thrashed but she pulled her sword out and stepped back so it’s thrashing only messed up its friend. The friend tried but couldn’t move and watch Ratface at the same. It looked away as it skirted around and Ratface used the blind spot to dart in. She hacked into its head until it stopped moving.
She eyed the corpses until she was sure they were corpses and then quickly went over to help Tiffany. She grabbed the knife off the girl who had made no headway and felt about in the water. Yeah, it was a pretty standard trap that’d wrapped around her. She pushed down on it which made a little bit less tension then flicked the knife through it to cut her out. Tiffany stumbled but she was free and now they could run so long as they run carefully.
Ratface listened and tried to work out if there were more noises coming from behind them or in front of them. She couldn’t tell so she went with her gut.
They’d push forward. If it was her ambush, she’d put more behind them to cut off their escape.
She grabbed Tiffany and pulled the woman after her. Watching for the next thing that’d come out at them.
“I don’t suppose you have a way to slow them down behind us?” Ratface asked.
“One but it’ll cut us off from that way too.” Ratface frowned. There were no good options so she’d choose the least bad.
“Do it. With monsters chasing it’s cut off from us anyway. Your way is less bitey.”
Tiffany raised her staff for a moment until it glowed green then swept it across the path behind them. The growth that was already there shot up. Trees twisted around the tunnel and vines wrapped around them making not quite a wall but something that’d at least stop a bunch of smart gators from getting through.
That just left whatever was ahead of them. Ratface slowed their pace down but kept them moving quickly. She was keeping an eye out for anything log shaped.
She saw one sitting innocently across the water and she grinned and stabbed down.
The gator caught her sword it its teeth and locked it in. Not a winning move in her mind as she’d just stab it with the knife.
In the pause two rats that were half her size leaped towards her. She managed to backhand one away with her shield but the other one was coming right at her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Halmir came to her aid. He jumped off her head and onto the rats back. He bit into it and the big rat screamed as they both fell into the water. Ratface let out a cry, but she didn’t have time to help.
The gator hadn’t been idle while this had been happening. It started to roll and Ratface let go of the sword before she could be pulled with it. She pulled out her knife and slammed it down into the rolling gator. It punctured its skin, and its own roll did the rest.
The other rat jumped at her, but vines shot up out of the ground. They latched onto the rat and pulled it into the water. Ratface watched as the water bubbled for a moment then stopped.
Ratface looked in the water for Halmir but couldn’t find him. She started to panic until she saw felt claws too tiny to be the big rat latch onto her leg. Halmir skuttled up her leg looking drenched and panicked but otherwise okay. A moment later the other rats body floated up. Its neck had been savaged. Halmir must have grabbed on and not let go.
Three more city gators came for them out of the water and Ratface grabbed her sword and got ready for them.
Tiffany grabbed two with her vine and held them up while Ratface fought the last one. Tiffany had even managed to grab this one’s legs and without it being able to jump away Ratface made short work of it. Killing the two that Tiffany had was more of a formality than anything.
Ratface eyed the druid with respect.
“Whoever thinks druids suck are morons,” she told the other girl who was obviously pleased by the comment.
With the fight over the sewer was suddenly quiet again. The two girls shared a smile then glanced back the way they’d come from.
That was blocked off. Either Tiffany's work or the imminent danger stopping them. They trudged forward carefully. Ratface kept an eye out and watched for more traps. In the downtime her mind kept drifting to one thing.
No gator was smart enough to plan this.