We cautiously approached the river of fire even as the feeling of being hunted closed in around us. I knew I wasn’t alone in straining my eyes and ears for a hint of whatever Nine Claws had noticed. As we got closer to the winding barrier blocking our path, it became clear it was less of a river of fire and more of a stream of molten rock that was so hot it made the air shift. If it had been made of water we could have jumped over it with a running start and possibly paid the price of a wet foot if someone accidentally slipped. As it was…I had treated my share of burns and I didn’t even want to consider what touching that molten rock would do compared to a cooking fire.

Even Nine Claws hesitated in the face of the unnatural obstacle. She had been confident and collected from the beginning, not even showing much more than determination when she announced we were being hunted, but it was clear this obstacle hadn’t been in her plans. Of course, I still didn’t trust how she was so assured of where she was headed in the first place when, from what I knew, she hadn’t been in the inner valleys before, but Mishtaw had gotten her to be our guide so it made sense that she’d have skills that paired well with traversing it.

No way back and no way forward. Not without danger or any assurance that where’d we end up would be better than the plain we were standing in. If it was a pack of monsters after us than they’d be able to surround us and trap us against the lava stream, but at the same time we had more room to maneuver on the plain and the stream meant we had one side we knew we weren’t being hunted from. And having even that little bit of assurance in such a foggy landscape could be helpful.

Nine Claws seemed to have come the same conclusion. “We’ll make our stand here. Those of you with spears cover the sides and stab at anything at comes close. Everyone else, cover the spear wielders with your slings. Keep your backs to the…stream but don’t get so careless that you let something slip up behind you or accidentally step in it.”

Everyone nodded and Prevna asked, “What will you be doing?”

“Malady and I will fight what’s hunting us.” Nine Claws focused on her firestarter and started a conversation we had no context to understand. “Impressions are coming from First and Third, but some of the others have sent weaker signals. Might be a swarm. I’ll keep the Claws separated for now but if we need more power I’ll merge them.”

Malady didn’t so much as frown despite what little sense what Nine Claws had said made. It made me wish more whisper women were open about their skills and abilities, so it didn’t feel like I was in the middle of a guessing game as soon those things became relevant.

Rather the firestarter calmly set down her giant pack and flipped its top flap open. “Fire edges?”

“Those aren’t Her trees but we also shouldn’t risk putting this whole place ablaze without any water nearby.”

Malady pulled a club nearly the length of my arm out of her bag. It was carved with clear skill given how smooth it looked but it also looked somewhat discolored in splotches. Like it had hit too many things for Malady to completely clean the blood away.

“Smash and bash then.”

Nine Claws nodded back and they headed back into the fog until they were just on the edge of what we could see. Prevna positioned herself front and center of our group, spear in hand and at the ready, while Kuma and Jika took up position on either side of her. They had a spear each too and this time we would be fighting a group we didn’t have to worry about killing.

Gard kept a protective hold on Colt while I set myself up behind the spear wielders before I had to face an obvious problem. They were all taller than me.

Even if I preferred using my sling to hit any encroaching enemies I’d be more likely to nail one of them in the head or miss an attacker because they were blocking my view. I didn’t necessarily want to be on the front line with a spear but I’d be more use there than standing in the back unable to do anything.

I poked Kuma and Jika before crossing my arms when they glanced back at me. “Which one of you is better with a sling?”

Jika looked confused by the question but I saw the realization in Kuma’s eyes when she looked between our front line and me. She handed me her spear. “I’ll switch you. No doubt you got more practice fighting than we do. My good arm is fine too so I shouldn’t have trouble flinging stones either.”

It was more of an explanation than the situation strictly warranted but I could tell she was trying not to embarrass me by coming up with a reason for the switch other than that I was too short to do a good job at providing support.

I took her place on the left with the spear while Gard and Kuma readied their slings. Prevna gave me an amused glance as I stepped up next to her before she refocused on the fog ahead of us and the silhouettes of Nine Claws and Malady.

Lights appeared in the fog, similar to how the river of fire had looked before we got close to it, but these lights were much smaller and they bobbed and weaved instead of staying in place. At first there was only a handful before the number doubled and doubled again. It didn’t take long for the stretch of fog around us to be filled with dozens of seemingly floating lights, though they all stayed close to the ground. A swarm, just like Nine Claws had said.

With the lights came a slurping, sucking sound and the stench of something decaying. We all tensed further. The sound didn’t time well with the movements of the lights and seemed to be heavier than what their darting movements implied. I didn’t have much time to figure out much more than that before the first light managed to swing wide of Nine Claw’s and Malady’s position.

An enlarged rat with patchy fur and glowing front teeth burst out of the fog. I stared at it for a moment longer than I should have before a spectral cat leapt out of the fog from the side, snatched the rat up by its neck, shook the rat once, twice, and broke its neck. The spectral cat dropped the downed rat and was racing after other prey before the rat’s foot gave a final twitch.

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It happened so quickly and the cat blended in so well with the fog that I doubted what I had seen at first before it happened again. At that point I couldn’t deny spectral cats were battling on the field and seemed to be on our side given the dead rats they left behind. I spared a glance for where Malady was bludgeoning rats to death while Nine Claws slashed at them with her hands. Perhaps the cats were her blessing.

We speared a handful of rats that got too close before a cat could take them out while the slurping, sucking sound got louder. As it did the press of rats increased.

Kuma and Gard knocked rats out or off course with the rocks they threw with their slings to ease the pressure on Prevna, Jika, and me. I’d hear the whistling wind up of a sling twirling before a rock shot out over my head. Sometimes I’d also hear a whimper from Colt but he did the best thing he could in this situation—stay still and out of the way. If he had gone sprinting away out of fear he likely would have been swarmed before we could get to him and we could have been overwhelmed too if we tried to go after him.

My world narrowed down to the spear in my hands, Prevna’s movements, and the rats bursting through the fog one after another. The dead ones piled around our feet, forming a bit of morbid barrier, but one we also had to be careful not to slip on.

Then something whipped through the fog and met the ground with an awful slap, breaking my concentration. A long tendril stretched out along the ground from near where Nine Claws and Malady were still fighting. It looked like a mass of lakeweed and algae all tangled together even though it was longer than me twice over and moving as no plant should. I traced it back to its main body, though I couldn’t make it out clearly in fog. More plant matter moving as if it was alive in a large mound and other tentacles trying to snag prey.

The distraction cost us.

Jika screamed as a rat sank its burning teeth into her arm. I smelled burning flesh and then suddenly I had to cover Prevna’s position as well as my own since she instinctively went to help the other girl. Kuma snatched up the spear Jika dropped and shoved her out of the way to help me keep the rest of the rats at bay. A commotion happened behind me as Prevna and Gard cursed but I just kept stabbing rats and hoped the one on Jika’s arm didn’t bite me from behind.

There was a high pitched squeal and a moment later Prevna took up my old spot on the left while I shifted my focus to just protecting the middle. I tuned out Jika’s gasps and crying even though the training I could never fully divorce myself from was insisting I treat the wound as soon as possible.

During the moments we got to breathe between the rush of endless rats I took in what I could of the other fight. Now spectral cats were no longer dashing around the field, instead, at some point, a giant spectral cat had risen up beside Nine Claws and was directly battling the plant monster. The cat had two heads and nine whip-like tails, and it seemed more…solid than the smaller cats had. It tore into the monster while plant tendrils tried to smack and strangle it into submission. In some places where the plant monster was concentrating its efforts the spectral cat blended in more with the fog, like it was losing the ability to maintain its form.

Nine Claws was no longer fighting. She stood still, very focused on the fight between monsters, while Malady laid waste to the rats that dared try to attack her. Sometimes Nine Claws spared enough attention to toss something from her pouches into a crowd of rats, but that was as much as she contributed to fighting the mass of smaller enemies.

Part of me was worried about them getting overwhelmed but we couldn’t go help. I knew they had separated from us so they could fight without needing to worry about adjusting their fighting to us or protecting the group. Trying to join them would likely just become a costly distraction leading to both them and us being overwhelmed by the unending rats.

But I didn’t like seeing Nine Claws in the middle of the battle seemingly unable to fully defend herself while she concentrated on her large cat.

The fight dragged on and on as the storming heat and constant battle drained us. Prevna went to whack a rat away from us with her spear and it caught the spear in its mouth. The wood instantly charred and began to smolder. I killed the rat for her and it dropped off her spear, but a handful of stabs later and the spear broke where the rat’s bite had weakened it.

Kuma and I shared a look before we wordlessly shifted to cover ground between us. Prevna batted away more rats where she could and used her sling on other ones, but the fight became more exhausting as we had to take on more rats each. And the cracks in our guard widened now that front line had been reduced to two.

Another desperate fight broke out behind me as a rat darted around my reach and beelined for the group I was protecting. My first instinct was to throw myself in front of it at the thought it might get Prevna but I had to ruthlessly squash that down.

Kuma wouldn’t hold long on the front line alone and I didn’t want to be useless after getting injured again.

A victory cry came from behind me. It sounded like Gard had killed the errant rat. We kept fighting.

And slowly I realized the tide of rats was ebbing from their previous numbers. We kept our guard up even as we got longer and longer moments to breathe and recover from killing rats.

I took the chance to see how the battle between monsters was going before breathing a sigh of relief. The spectral cat had pinned the plant monster underneath its massive front paws and was savaging it with both of its heads. Plant matter got flung through the fog and splattered down onto the ground.

Not long after that the rats stopped coming completely and the spectral cat burst apart into nine normal sized cats before those cats disappeared too. Nine Claws slowly lowered herself to the ground in a way that I think was supposed to make it seem like she wasn’t exhausted, so I didn’t comment on it as we finally edged over to her and Malady.

Malady also didn’t look nearly as put together or uptight as she had since we met her. Instead, she had a slight feral look to her eyes and some of her hair had come loose. Her air of ready violence was only heightened by the blood clinging to her club.

Most people didn’t use clubs as good branches were usually relegated to spears that were more useful for hunting and pine trees didn’t tend to wide enough branches to make a decent club, but Malady had certainly proven how effective they could be.

Nine Claws glanced up at us. “Good fight. Keep an eye for stragglers but let’s rest a moment before finding a campsite not covered in carnage.”

I got odd looks but I soaked some moss in water and pressed it against Jika’s burn bite before binding the wound. That much couldn’t be counted as healing I was sure since it was little more than what the average person would do. She hadn’t wanted me to take charge of it but I didn’t give her much choice.

Others had also gotten bit or scratched from the rats claws and I did what I could for them as well while brushing off any questions. Overall, we had come out of the fight relatively unscathed despite the sheer number of enemies we had faced. I had, surprisingly and contrary to most fights, come out of it with practically no new wounds except for a couple scratches from one tenacious rat. My spear had served me well at keeping them at bay.