Slowly the world came back into focus. Tom made to rub his eyes when he realized his hands were tied behind his back. He pulled on the ropes and they got tighter when he struggled. They must be using some kind of constrictor knot. The events of the first strike on Pecos Clem's camp that had gone so horribly wrong came back to him as he adjusted to the dim light around him.

He and the others had been moved inside the cave. If he leaned out to look around the corner, he could see outside the entrance from where they sat him—night had fallen so he had been out for a while. Looking around, a few others had come to as well, but more were still knocked out. When his eyes landed on the back of the room, there were several scantily dressed fishwomen sitting at a table and sipping on what Tom presumed to be tea based on the fact that they were using teacups.

"Hello," Tom began slowly, trying to engage them in conversation.

"Well, I'll be. You're finally awake, are you? Poor thing must be in some kinda pain from that bump on the noggin you got." One of the fishwomen said in a thick southern belle accent as she got up and moved over to him.

"Are you all the um....people from the town that Pecos Clem took?" Tom asked the ladies as he tried to think of the most politically correct way to refer to them.

"Uh oh. I know that look. Honey, we are the women of negotiable affection that you are referring to. But I appreciate your attempt at tact." The fishwoman continued.

"Right, so we are here to rescue you," Tom winced as he moved and his head began to pound from the beating.

"Don't move just yet darlin'. You need to get your wits about you first." The lady said, moving to grab a towel and walking over to wipe his brow. "We appreciate the thought, but you all are in here with us now. Not a lot you can do from the inside."

"That's not true. We can fight our way out. Our only concern was your safety and if you all are here, then you just come with us and we get the hell out of here." Tom said as she wiped the cool wet towel over his forehead.

"You sure think highly of yourself. Pecos Clem is not someone to mess with. Better to just give him what he wants and play ball." The woman said to him.

"I'm Tom by the way," Tom said, extending a hand to shake.

"Petunia, WAIT!" Petunia suddenly gasped.

"Shhhhh. Don't go getting too excited. We don't want any special attention." Tom said putting a finger to his lips.

"How did you get your hands out?" Petunia whispered to him, and the other women got up to come over too.

"Just stored the rope in my inventory. As long as I'm touching something and it isn't overly large, I can put it in my inventory. Learned that little trick from a previous capture." Tom replied, smiling up at them.

"Saying things like previous capture doesn't exactly fill us with confidence," Petunia said giving him a skeptical look.

"We are here, aren't we? So we clearly made it out. And we made them pay for it too." Tom replied, a hard look coming over him.

"I see. Then we will help however we can too. What do you need us to do?" Petunia asked.

Tom laid out the basics of a plan for them. They had to wait around for the others to wake up, but a little water from a jug in the corner of the room cured most of them of their unconsciousness. Petunia emptied the jug on Jay first, who woke up with a start. When she moved over to Derek and dumped the contents out again on his head Tom became immediately intrigued by the item.

"What is that?" Tom said pointing at the jug.

"What? A jug of water?" Petunia looked at the item curious why Tom was interested in it.

"But you dumped it out and then dumped it out again. Is it a trick jug?" Tom continued, now thoroughly invested in it.

"Oh, that's just the enchantments on it. It has one to fill it, one for water, because you have to fill it with something specific, and a top-off enchantment so it doesn't overflow." Petunia replied pointing to three symbols, one on the bottom, one on the side, and one near the lip of the jug.

Staring at the object in genuine wonder, Tom couldn't help but think of the applications of such an object.

"Can anyone make them?" Tom asked.

"No, I think only Enchanters can do that. You need to know about runes to be able to make them." Petunia said. "But I don't know a thing about them other than that's the basics of how they work."

"And Enchanter is a profession?" Tom asked.

"Well, honey, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were new to all this. Of course, it's a profession." Petunia replied with a chuckle that reminded Tom of windchimes.

"You really want to focus on a magic jug after all we've seen and where we are?" Derek said rubbing the back of his head where he had been struck.

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"Sorry, you're right. Not the time. We have to get out of here and we have to take down Clem." Tom said.

"Right. And the plan is not great." Derek replied.

"The situation isn't great. If you have any better ideas, I'm all ears." Tom said putting his hands on his hips and waiting.

"No. It'll have to do. I just remember how our last plan went." Derek said gesturing to the room.

"That was the dolphin's fault. We can do this." Tom said firmly as he hadn't wanted to admit they should have gone back on the road to avoid the incident.

"Fine. But we should bring in Bron." Derek offered.

"Familiars can't be in the dungeon," Tom said remembering Jerky and Squirrel were removed for that reason.

"Isn't he a summons? That is likely different. Can you just try?" Derek asked, still squinting slightly showing he was still feeling the headache.

"I guess I can try. But I haven't summoned him yet because I didn't think it was allowed." Tom explained.

"I just want to play as many of our cards as we can. No sense in holding back if we don't have to." Derek retorted, getting annoyed at arguing over this subject.

Tom cast his Summon Demonic Creature skill and was very happy to find that it was completed and Bron rose out of the summoning circle.

"Excellent! It worked!" Tom cheered quietly.

"What worked?" Bron asked.

"Summoning you. I was worried since we were in a dungeon that didn't allow familiars that you couldn't be with us." Tom explained to the elephant man.

"Oh. That isn't the same thing. Familiars are bonded to you and we have only confirmed contracts with you." Bron told them, explaining the difference. "By the way, you said we are in a dungeon. But this appears to be underwater. So where the hell are we?"

Tom spent some time getting Bron caught up on what had been happening and what they were planning to do.

"That does sound like the best course of action. But can I make one additional suggestion?" Bron asked, looking directly at Tom.

"Sure! Anything you think will help." Tom replied, excited at the prospect of a fresh idea on the table.

"Chickens," Bron said flatly.

"Chickens?" Tom asked, confused what Bron meant. Then it hit him, "Ohhhhh, chickens!"

Tom and the others discussed the final bits of the plan and then went over it once more in its entirety. When they felt confident they all knew what to do, Tom had them get ready for the fight to come. Moving to the side, Tom summoned nine of the abyssal chickens and then chugged a mana potion from his inventory. He felt totally drained after the effort like his mind was in a fog, but as his mana climbed, he recovered from his mental fatigue.

Summoning another round of nine abyssal chickens, Tom let his mana refill naturally this time. With a total of eighteen chickens, they should have enough to do what they needed. When Tom felt better, he moved to the corner and looked around at the tunnels. Guards were posted at the entrance, while other members of Clem's gang were moving around doing different tasks or talking to one another.

Looking back at the team, Tom nodded once. they all moved forward and Tom sent the chickens out into the hallway with one message, If it isn't anyone in this room, kill it. Tom wasn't sure how well the chickens would understand facial recognition, but they looked at every face in the room before they exited.

Loud chicken squawks could suddenly be heard in the hallways followed by outbursts of confusion, then screams of pain. Peering around the corner, Tom saw several fishmen either flailing limbs about as they screamed and ran, abyssal chickens hanging off of them by their mouths, or standing still and trying to pry the tenacious creatures off of their legs.

"NOW!" Tom yelled as he charged around the corner, a handgun in both hands.

Shots rang out as everyone rushed out into the hallways killing the fishmen as they moved. Screams were cut short when a bullet found their head, and new screams began when the victims were not killed instantly. An alarm sounded from further in the cave and more fishmen began to rush out of adjoining hallways.

Bron, who did not have a gun, and clearly didn't need one, raised his arms to cover his face when a group of fishmen exited a room off to the side and sliced them into sushi bits after he got close enough. His thick skin seemed to be excellent protection against bullets as they bounced off of him. Petunia and her friends even got in on the action as they had grabbed pans from a crate and were currently beating a man to death with them as an abyssal chicken tugged at his leg like a dog with a rope.

Several chickens were killed with the arrival of the new fishmen, but in the confusion and proximity, so were several of their companions. When one fishman went down, the chickens attached to them would immediately swarm a new target. Soon the fishmen ranks were thinned enough that the chickens were all focusing on individual fishmen and they swarmed on them like ants on a picnic, the body going down in a scream as they tore them apart with their sharp teeth.

One particularly unlucky minion found himself face to mouth with an abyssal chicken that had launched itself off of a crate and latched onto his face with his jaws. Tom almost missed the man as he laughed at the sight of the man waving his head back and forth letting out a muffled scream trying to dislodge the creature in a scene straight out of a slapstick comedy.

When the last one was dead, the team headed to the back of the cave where they knew Pecos Clem would be waiting for them. As they entered the room at the end of the long hall, there was a large set of doors blocking the way. Tom pushed on them, but they appeared to be barred from the other side. Bron pushed his way to the front and nodded at Tom. With a giant heave, he launched his bulk at the door and there was a crack from the other side.

Tom prepared this time as well as Derek with his shield and as all three of them rammed the door at once, the bar on the other side splintered and the doors flung open. Sitting on a large marble throne on a slightly raised platform at the far end of the room was a large man with a huge cowboy hat.

"Pecos Clem, I presume?" Tom said panting slightly from the exertion.

"That'd be me. And you are far more resourceful than I gave you credit for." Clem replied to Tom.

"Well, first impressions can never really be trusted," Tom said across the distance.

"So it seems. That display you put on outside was amusing. Though stupid." Clem said.

"Not everything goes according to plan. Sometimes you roll with the punches." Tom offered, feeling embarrassed suddenly by their original performance. "But the jig is up!"

"Oh, I don't think so," Clem said smiling.

Tom suddenly heard the sounds of guns being cocked and looked around the room to see fishmen coming out of every conceivable hiding spot to point them at him. His team moved into a circle pointing their weapons back and realizing they were way outgunned here. The chickens growled at the enemy from near his feet.

"I think I have shown enough mercy here. It's time to die now." Pecos Clem said, a mask of pure evil pleasure on his face.