Tanlin stared at the hero with dawning horror. His eyes flickered away, down the tunnel: he could run… but Adrian was faster. His brothers had bought him precious seconds, but in the end it didn’t matter. Here he was, the monster clad in the flesh of a man.

Tanlin could do nothing but watch as the hero approached with mocking slowness. Tanlin didn’t move except to take hiccupping breaths, petrified as he was right there in the muck. It was then that he noticed it: Adrian’s shirt, the right sleeve of it, was in tatters. One faint trickle of red creeping down Adrian’s knee! For a moment a brief surge of triumph flashed through Tanlin’s mind - his brothers had managed to damage a hero! Not by much, but to even draw blood was a feat few ordinary men could boast of. But as Adrian advanced with dead fish eyes and a grin so wide it seemed like his face was splitting in two, Tanlin’s hope faded. But still, that half second was enough to bring him out of his stunned paralysis. He mirrored the hero’s movement, retreating towards the grate behind him, being careful to keep his small companion out of sight.

The thin layer of scummy water splashed in concert with the menacing footsteps of the hero, but Tanlin’s eyes narrowed as he focused his hearing.

Another set of splashes?

His back bumped up against the grate fixed to the wall, partially obscuring the clear ray of moonlight shining through it. And then, it clicked as a pained roar of fury erupted behind Adrian. Tanlin swiftly yanked out the knife embedded in his shoulder, throwing it towards the hero as the massive, bloodied form of the half-orc Glenson surged to meet Adrian in a powerful grapple. The knife hurtled towards its destination, but Tanlin turned towards the grate and his young charge without waiting to see the results.

Tanlin looked towards her with a cocky smile, full of a bravado he desperately hoped she wouldn’t see was false. “Alright kiddo, looks like you’ve gotta get to the winner’s circle yourself.” He grasped the rusty iron grate with both hands, forcibly stilling his shaking muscles as he pulled bars open, trying to ignore Glenson’s screams of agony.

Stolen novel; please report.

The metal of the grate shrieked as Glenson’s screams began to fade. He kicked at one instead, and the rusty bars snapped under Tanlin’s frantic blows, the only noise in a sewer now as quiet as a grave.

Tanlin hoisted the panicking girl up into the opening he had made in the bars of the grate, ignoring the squelching of the tattered skin on his hands and the horrified screaming as the girl looked behind him.

A brutal impact tore its way through Tanlin’s chest, and he watched his little cooking buddy pass out of sight, away from the grate, away from his fallen brothers, but most importantly, away from the monster clad in the flesh of a man.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Adrian shook his hand free of the scarred elf’s rib cage, allowing the body to fall to the floor with a thud.

Well, guess that’s that. I don’t hear any more people running around.

Still, Adrian couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.

Let’s see… dumbass orc dude whose body I’ve chopped into five different pieces to make sure he’s dead this time, check. Elf who tried to escape through a grate on the wall that was too small for him, and even if he had made it would have probably died from the fall?

Adrian walked towards the splintered iron bars of the grate, observing the drop down to the next bit of drainage. Yup. I reckon that’s maybe 20 – no, 30 feet? And then you’ve got the pile of trash left from the last time this place had a flooding problem. I didn’t catch what he threw down there, but eh. Whatever.

He shrugged. A few muttered words gathered the winds to the palm of his hand and his daggers flew up flew to his belt.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad of a distraction. Now all that’s left is to tie up lose ends, and maybe get some payback for that stupid bitch Elena.” Adrian grinned with a gleeful joy sparkling in his eyes. His hands brushed towards his pockets, withdrawing a matchbook and kindling.

However, with his hands finding nothing else in his pockets, Adrian’s grin faltered as he realized that he had forgotten the most important thing of all:

Marshmallows.

“Fuckin’ hell.” Adrian muttered as he casually stepped over the dismembered remains of the orc’s corpse. “Guess it’s gonna be a barbeque without some ‘mallows.”