Franklin’s group looked like they’d had it rough. They were covered it cuts and nasty gashes. Spear boy had a particularly gruesome cut down his face from when he’d been dragged under water. The Archer girl looked the least injured but that was only if you ignored the way she was standing. Her arms were trembling, and her fingers dripped blood from where they’d ripped. Didn’t look like she could use them so well either. She was struggling to open her water and had to ask Franklin for help. None of that was great but Ratface didn’t really have anything that could help. All of them had a look in their eyes that said they knew exactly how close they’d come to dying. They’d be a little more prone to running until they got over that. Ratface’s mum had taught her about that look. That the problem with it wasn’t that it made you run but that it took the choice of when away from you. She didn’t know how to deal with it.

Franklin was doing well apart from that look. He stood tall and let his two teammates lean on him. Right now, they needed a pillar, and he was doing the job. Still looked like he’d got in a fight with a bunch of angry cats though.

“You saved us,” Franklin said. He looked like he’d bit into something foul admitting it which actually made it better for her.

“Saved is subjective. You all got some healing potions?”

“Just one.” Franklin pulled one out and dangled it. He went to give it to Spear who had the face wound, but Ratface stopped him.

“Leave it,” Ratface said. That earned her a glare from the two boys. “He’s stopped bleeding. It’s not affecting your vision?” Spear boy shook his head and Ratface nodded. “Then you should give it to your archer. Her hands are messed up and we’re going to need her. I’ll start grabbing her arrows.”

“My name is Anna,” said the Archer but she took the healing potion.

“Albert,” said Spear boy. Ah dang, there went her clever nicknames. Ratface started pulling the arrows out. She had to be careful to not break them when she pulled but she didn’t know how, so it was mostly luck. It was easier then when she’d got her knife stuck anyway.

“So, we’re leaving now?” asked Albert as he came to help her.

“No,” said Franklin and Ratface. They turned to each other in surprise, but Franklin recovered first.

“The clean up group will be coming through soon and they’ll be bigger than the one we faced.”

Ratface nodded. She didn’t have a lot of experience with all strategy, but her mum had hammered in raiding and ambush tactics.

“They told on themselves as well. Dividing us gives us more opportunities to escape which means they had to do it as a necessity. They either don’t have that many left or, more likely, it’s just alligators and rats without a lot of heavy hitters. Get enough of us together and we can either push back or take them entirely.”

The others looked at her in surprise and she shrugged.

“I don’t suppose any of you know the way through? We’re sort of lost here as well,” Ratface finished. Albert stuck up his hand.

“My dad’s part of the group who made the sewers. I don’t know everything, but I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

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“How many more groups?”

“Three or four, five in each. We’re the smallest groups,” that was Franklin.

Ratface wondered if the enemy ambusher had taken those numbers into account. She hoped not. Not many of the other kids had the quality of fighter that they did. If they had as many after them then they might have been overrun.

Well, no point worrying until they got there. Time to pick up their strays.

Albert led the way with Ratface following next to them and Franklin taking the rearguard. Their two ranged fighters were chucked in between them.

The first group they found was a mess. They’d been separated from each other and two of them were fighting desperately to survive while the other three tried to cut a path through to them. They were fighting so hard they didn’t recognise they were getting surrounded.

Ratface went to the three and left the other two to the rest of her group. Of her group she was the least effective at group clearing so she was on yelling at children which she did.

“Fall back you morons,” she roared. The kids flinched and took a step back before they even noticed then looked around and realised what they’d nearly done. Their faces went grim, and they fought to stop the circle from closing.

Ratface kept to the sides. She was still using the knife and sword, and she snipped at the sides to be distracting more than to kill. That wasn’t to say she didn’t kill when she got the chance. Nothing more distracting than dying. She spared a glance for the rest of her group, and they were doing just fine. Franklin was basically working as a battering ram while Anna once again showed off her archery skills. The health potion had helped, it seemed. She was taking it slower than before which was good. Each time Franklin slammed a creature into the water vines rose up to keep it down and Albert was methodically stabbing into them, so they didn’t get back up.

Back on her side, her little group of three had finally gotten into good order and were holding in place. They took out what they could, but their main focus was on not dying which Ratface approved of. The other group was so brutally efficient that all they had to do was hold out until they cleaned up.

They did as much and soon Franklin was next to her making her look bad. The sheer weight and strength he brought in was a little terrifying. Ratface looked at her own abandoned shield and decided the knife and sword combo worked better for her. She was really a stabby girl at heart and she’d struggled to take a full hit on her shield anyway.

They cleaned up and gave the new group a bit of time to recover while they explained the plan and headed off.

The next group wasn’t so lucky. There was only four of them and they flinched when asked about the fifth. Ratface couldn’t see a body but there was also a lack of alligators here. She winced. It must have been a hard choice.

The next group was all there but one kid was had a bandage wrapped around his arm where his hand had once been and another had a cut running across his eye keeping it closed. They used the potion on the eye and thankfully it healed okay. There wasn’t anything they could do about the hand though.

The final group was fine. They’d had the remarkable luck of making a group of four spears and one archer. They’d found a similar spot to where Ratface had found Franklins group and had the sheer numbers to not worry about the swarms like the small group had.

When they finally got the groups together, they all looked to Franklin. It stung but it made sense. He had the fancy armour, and he was loud on the battlefield. Franklin paused then gestured for her to speak. She was surprised but nodded to him. Turns out fighting for your life got rid of the rudeness.

She stood there for a second. What to do now. She wanted to go straight for the exit, but she felt like that was the wrong call. Waiting the monsters out hadn’t been an option at first but with a bigger group time was back on their side. They didn’t know the sewers as well as the monsters either so doubling back opened them to an ambush again.

“Alright listen. We can all agree that this situation sucks,” she began. Not a great start to her speech but oh well. “Now, much as I want to get out of here, there’s still a wall of monsters between us and the way out. I say we go full defence and wait them out.”

“Wont they flank us?” asked one kid.

“Buddy, we’re already flanked. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we’ve all been swarmed.” That seemed to stop any arguments, but the kid had a point. They needed to make a funnel so the numbers wouldn’t get them. She turned to Tiffany.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got enough juice to help make defences, do you?” she asked. Tiffany nodded and Ratface grinned.

Time to ruin someone’s day.