> Valdemar, in his return to ready-to-wear after his sabbatical three years ago, was inspired by the working woman’s style. T-shirt and jeans, worn with chic scarves, chain belts, and cropped jackets dominated the collection.

> —by Olivia Ramstedt, “House of Teilmann’s Spring Ready-to-Wear,” Wanted Magazine, volume 362, no. 7

Israfel

Sewers. It’s always the sewers. They're the bane of my existence.

One of Commander Uriel’s lady friends had been bitten by “some small, fast monster” and my mission was to find it and get rid of it. Since it was probably a weak monster, I can send in some of the new recruits who enlisted four months ago first. I’ll be right behind them in case it was too much for them to handle.

No one likes not having enough information about the monster they’re hunting, but when civilians ask for help, it’s common for them to not know the name of the monster they want us to kill.

Using a map, I divided the area around and inside the abandoned tire factory in a grid and sent Oren, Emil, Nohr, and William to look for anything unusual. They didn’t find anything except for a few of the usual pests. The place was just too exposed for most monsters to use as their den so we had to check the sewers.

All the recruitment posters show ELs and regular soldiers fighting monsters under the blue sky, either on a mountain or a picturesque lake. The recruiters don’t want potential cadets to know that most of our missions are underground.

Sure, there are plenty of monster-hunting missions in the countryside but, let’s face it, our primary objective was to protect Kraej City. Monsters inside the city are always our priority.

Monsters love the sewers. Sooner or later, all monsters in the city end up hiding in a sewer.

“We’re going in,” I said, pointing at the nearest sewer entrance. The rookies all groaned, but they all knew we’d have to do it.

I went down first. The Kraej City sewers were a marvel of ancient and modern urban planning and engineering. They stretched on for miles. Sadly for me, they had been designed to accommodate a man of average height which I definitely was not. The stooped posture I was forced to assume really hurt my neck and back after a few hours.

Single file, we started exploring. Not too long after we entered, we heard the sound of monsters chittering in the distance. Sounds carry in this enclosed space, but I reckoned the monster’s den was in the nearby dead-end I saw on the sewer map.

The rookies got into the formation we’d agreed on beforehand. Sword fighters in front, casters at the back. I’ll be to the side and slightly behind the sword fighters, but I won’t lift a finger unless they were in real trouble.

As we moved closer to where the den probably was, the sound of chittering stopped. The monsters had sensed our presence.

Swords and wands at the ready, we rushed forward as one. As soon as the monsters were in sight, Nohr and William cast their spells.

“Fire!”

“Fire!”

The monsters were spined tuatara, a reptile monster with tough, pebbled skin and beady black eyes. Small but quick, they weren’t much of a threat. The only thing we had to watch out for was their bite which was apt to get infected.

Oren and Emil were doing well fighting together. The space was tight but they didn’t get in each other’s way. Oren showed a real talent for the sword, but he still had a long way to go. Like most young boys, he’d been trained in the basics by the local monster hunters in his hometown. When he’d shown skill and a liking for the sword, they’d advised him to head for Kraej City to make his fortune in the army. Oren’s timing needed work. The boy tended to rush in instead of waiting for the right moment, but he was fast, and his footwork was stable.

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In a few minutes, it was all over except for the cleanup.

“We’ll be back before midnight for once,” I said to the men. “Did anyone get bitten?”

No one had. I cast one big fire spell to reduce the monster corpses to ashes. We didn’t bother to collect their tiny cores since they were worthless.

“I’ll be glad when I can get a hot shower,” said Oren.

“Remember when Emil showered eight times to get rid of the sewer smell? We even told him about the sewer soap,” said William.

“I thought you were joking about that! ‘Sewer soap’ sounds like something that makes you smell like a sewer, not something that gets rid of the sewer smell,” said Emil.

“Yeah, but it’s the only thing that works. Too bad it makes us smell like a whorehouse instead,” said William.

“You always smell like a whorehouse,” said Emil.

“Shut up, I hear something!” I said. The men fell silent. There was a chittering sound coming closer and closer to us. It sounded big. “Get into position.”

This time I took the front middle position, with the two other sword fighters behind me, and the casters behind them. For something so big, the monster made surprisingly little noise.

“Fire!”

“Fire!’

The two fire spells did little damage, but they did give us a lot of light to see the monster with. This spined tuatara, unlike the ones we had fought earlier, was big enough to fill the entire sewer space, from its murky depths to the ceiling. Behind it was a dozen more of its kind.

It lunged toward me, and I cut its foot off. One more slash and its head flew off.

Now the corpse was blocking the way. I took my wand out of my pocket and, after retreating a few steps, cast a much stronger fire spell that turned the corpse to ashes.

When the fire spell died down, Oren and Emil immediately moved to attack the next monster. I let them take care of it. They took a lot longer to kill a tuatara than I had, of course. Whenever the monster moved, it splashed us with sewer water which we couldn’t avoid within the tight confines of the sewer. By the time they dispatched the second, I was sick of it.

“That’s it, I’m taking care of all of them,” I said.

Signaling the men to move to the side, I took the proper stance, feet apart and sword extended, and activated my special skill, Killing Field. Fire anima coated my blade then shot from its tip to delineate a large conical area in front of me. Within that area was the Killing Field where I was invulnerable for three seconds.

Speed, strength, and perception boosted, I moved with precision to mow down the ten remaining monsters. My fire anima-coated blade cut through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter.

Holding a hand up for silence, I listened but couldn’t hear any signs of more monsters. I said, “That’s it, clean this up and we’re done.”

Killing Field had exhausted my anima, so the men would have to take care of the corpses. Since Oren also had a fire artifact, he helped Nohr and William out.

“Your spellcasting has improved a lot,” I said to Oren. His fire spell was now stronger than William’s.

“He’s been going out monster hunting every time he has a day off,” said William.

“Yeah, because he has two cute girlfriends he wants to show off to!” said Nohr.

“Leave some for the rest of us,” said Emil.

“They’re just friends…” said Oren.

“You better remind Asteria to pay me back the money she owes me for dinner,” I said.

“She gave me the money, and I left it on your desk weeks ago,” said Oren. “Don’t you remember?”

“You did? I must have forgotten,” I said.

“For dinner? You didn’t even treat her to a meal? That’s why you’re unpopular with girls,” said Emil. “No one likes a cheapskate.”

“I already have a girlfriend. I don’t need to be popular with other girls,” I said.

“He has a girlfriend? How come I’ve never seen her?” Emil asked William.

“No one’s ever seen her,” said William.

“Then how do we know she really exists?” asked Oren.

“Shut up, I’m not going to introduce my girlfriend to a bunch of good-for-nothings like you guys!” I said.

“You’d better not introduce her to Oren. Ladies love his pretty face too much!” said Nohr.

“Better than your ugly mug anyway,” said Emil.

Now that the battle was over, the combination of adrenaline and high spirits made the men chatty as they collected the cores and set fire to the corpses. The big tuatara’s cores were worth a few hundred credits which we would split among us.

“Ugh, let’s go. I could kill for a hot shower. My back’s killing me,” I said as we finished the cleanup. “By the way, Oren, which one are you really going for, Katja or Asteria?”