Chapter 32: Friendly Fire

I left my team to protect the one man we'd rescued and ran in the direction of the scream, a spell-candle lit the way and another was ready to go in my bandolier, charged with mana but not lit, longsword sheathed as I ran. "Load them up, hurry now Shazbla, do not dawdle your feet when the Surface Dogs suddenly decide to become Stalactite-Hounds. So sensitive about the freedom of their men aren't they?"

A second raspy voice answered the first, echoing up from one of the twisting tunnels. "I think it is the slaughter of their women and younglings they dislike so viscerally."

I slowed my pace in favour of a stealthy approach instead. The voices began to argue. "No, even the surface dog would not prize the weaker sex and useless ages so much as to confront us with force. They come because we take the feeble one they call men and thus jeopardise what little capability their backwards societies have."

Shazbla seemed to be a scholar on surface dwellers in comparison to his friend. "They don't like either option but I can promise you from my experiences in the interrogation burrows. The surfacers are truly that backwards, I can truly promise you that. When we return to the city you should ask the new one. The one with the stupid ears on her head, covered in fur and pointed like a Froglodyte's spear tip"

Shazbla's friend clucked his tongue in the darkness as I quietly approached, candle snuffed as I honed in on the sound of their voices. "Ah well, we shall ask them now instead. Human! Answer our question and we may even let you go afterwards." The voice was cruel, excited at the idea of inflicting pain.

I struck the big wood-wicked candle with a thought and a gesture, drawing my sword a moment after and coming face to grubby face with a Derro warrior at the end of the corridor, the tunnel seemed to turn into another chamber at that point so I couldn't be sure how many of them there were but If I attacked they would have the advantage of a chokepoint where I could not dodge and multiple of them could stand side by side and create an impregnable wall of polearms. Good thing I had a fist full of napalm up my sleeve.

The second Derro, Shazbla himself it seemed called out in alarm. "Graylong no, that is the big light, the flaming death!"

I unleashed my big light, my flaming death and Graylong died hideously, his burning body collapsing face down when he tried to run from the hungering inferno. I hopped over the corpse and was grateful the magical fire extinguished so quick after concentration ended instead of sticking around like napalm. "Do not run Shazbla. Show me to the slaves, the one with the stupid ears in particular but any will do."

Shazbla cringed and simpered but he led me where I wanted to go, the two twisted humanoids had been loading up a cart with mushrooms that had been grown and harvested in this room, I suspected they were similarly expendable troops that the higher-ups had judged to be worth even less than the mushrooms and thus worth sacrificing.

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My new guide was invaluable to me though, leading me unerringly through an improbable series of branching paths that led me ever downwards, all under the harsh supervision of my candle's radiance. "Please Surfacer, do not burn me. I swear I will be a faithful servant for as long as you have me. I will bring forth sumptuous victuals and dig you the finest of burrows. I will capture the prettiest and softest of women and sacrifice the blood of men to whichever Pact Master you would have me obey, my loyalty to clan is fickle and my treachery is boundless."

I ignored the scout armoured humanoid for the most part, only adding the occasional "I'll think about it" as we rapidly approached the target. The target turned out to be a chasm beneath the earth, another of the claw-wielding juggernauts stood by the edge of it, he had been corralling a cat-eared woman over to a crowd of miserable slaves standing under heavy guard at the edge of said chasm where a gondola of the same porous wood I kept seeing was waiting for them. I saw Farrah look up at the staggering and nonsensical glow my candle gave off with equal parts hope and disappointment. "We have slain your delaying party and Shazbla here has seen the magical might I wield and the ruthlessness with which I dispense it. Give me the slaves and I will allow you to depart with your lives."

I think I did a good job of seeming intimidating but the Juggernaut had a lot more spine than Shazbla did. "Kill any who won't fit in the Gondola, give them to the worms below."

I raised my candle and Shazbla cringed in fear. "Wait, wait, wait Priest Kazlo, hear out the Surface Dog."

Priest Kazlo raised a hand, forestalling the mass execution, leaving the troops poised but unmoving.

"Thank you Worm-Priest, Give me half the slaves and I will allow you to leave with the others. Shazbla will attest to my ability to carry out my threats if you disobey me. "

The Juggernaut seemed strangely pleased with my address and I suspected Worm-Priest might be an actual rank they had in his cult. "An offer to be sure, but I don't think you have the power to smite us. Not without killing your own people, I hear Surface-Dogs don't do that kind of thing."

He was way too smug on that point, obviously having only run into extremely goody-two shoes types. Most people would kill their loved ones in a second if they knew the hell that awaited them within the cult. "No, I'll show you how little I care about collateral if you want."

I had the second candle in hand now. The one I'd enchanted with shrapnel and force. It was the second candle-grenade I'd crafted, the one I'd precharged with mana to maximum power. I raised it to throw and lit it off the Dragonwick candle. "Last chance to take the deal" I warned.

Kazlo waved his hand and I threw the lit candle just as the Derro by his side hurled short spears that I had to dive back into the tunnel to avoid. The candle flipped end over end and then landed at Farrah's feet. She smiled even as she braced for obliteration.

Before I had left them, Karl and Luna had extracted a promise from me, If I couldn't save the people the Derro were taking deeper then I would grant them mercy, the man we had recovered already would have a short and painful life even if he survived the journey home. His body was suffused with the poisonous excretions he'd been forced to toil within and the Overseer's venom hadn't helped either.

The candle detonated and shrapnel tore through the crowd below.