Along blue lit streets, small grey houses rise tightly together under a tall canopy. A suffocating path, just the width of a tunnel, lays ahead. Bodies are strewn along the length of it.
Lizards and rats alike leak ounces of blood from too many orifices. The chief takes in the sight for but a second, worrying more about the bodies that are still alive. His heart thumps in his throat, pushing from within like a hard fist.
His squadron stands thirteen strong. The six vanguard soldiers and seven spearmen. Archers don’t have any mettle, he thinks. This, however, isn’t the time to be opinionated.
Around him, his men are visibly shaken but regaining their posture. Something the rats did, hurt his men in their minds, causing them to lose the mettle they worked their whole lives to develop. In the distance, running and falling lizardmen scream frantically, blind with fear and panic as if they were children at war. Beyond them he sees the rats rallying, preparing to catch and hunt down his unorganized soldiers. Terrified screams pierce his ears. It unsettles him to see the vermin display a higher degree of sophistication than his own troops.
Above him lay the real fear. To add insult to injury, fifty plus rats stare down at him with mad red eyes. The beasts crowd the ceiling of the buildings along the streets, standing upon each other, blending into an indistinguishable mass of blackness, a tumor growing from the roof.
The chief expects them to jump down to rip them limb from limb, but they seem to stagger there up on the rooftop. Almost uncertain. Why? Is it because of the prince’s burst of magic?
‘Let’s go.’ He says to the remaining soldiers. They stagger as he speaks but don’t move.
‘Go where?’ The young prince asks, his voice shaking. ‘How?’
‘The soldiers that have fled are running into their deaths. They’re effected with something, somehow. We need to rally them. That, or they all die.’
‘After them? Deeper into the town? But the rats here…?’
‘We don’t stand a chance.’ None of the soldiers take their eyes of the rats staring down at them from above. The chief doesn’t blame them. ‘Go before they realize.’ None of his soldiers move. ‘GO!’ He says, his loud voice shocking them out of a haze.
Gingerly the soldiers take their eyes of the enemy above and look to their comrades deeper in the city, and see Xass up ahead, sword in hand. Running. They turn and start running after him. The chief takes Bronq and Phath by the shoulders.
‘Stay here with me, we’re the vanguard now, look.’
The two soldiers look up to see the same red mist spreading out and cascading upon them, the silhouettes of rats dropping from the sky in the darkness.
A feeling of dread covers them like a weighed blanked, immobilizing them. Something is very wrong with the red smoke like substance, like it presses them towards a state of insanity. He has to steel his nerves, taking great effort as he sees dozens of shapes moving and creeping around him. The savages are ready to plunge cursed daggers into him.
Several shapes shake with intent, and fling themselves at them. He shakily unsheathes his sword but isn’t fast enough to swing it.
He hears an amused chuckle.
Two clubs swing around him like a red blur, colliding with the shapes, exploding into raging fires, licking his scales with a pleasant heat. Bronq and Phath have stepped in front of him, their muscles rippling with power as their tan vests struggle to hold their shape, their stone clubs exploding with magic from the large red rubies etched into the tip. Swinging widely, the two drakes blow the red haze away with violent flames.
He can feel wet blood from the rats splashing at his legs and arms. When the smoke clears around them, he sees body parts spread around the floor, so many pieces that it becomes difficult to determine just how many rats they originated from. In the smoke beyond, hundred eyes still shine with madness. Next him however, the two hulking soldiers grin and chuckle like maniacs.
‘This is amazing, Bronq! Isn’t it?’
‘The boss is going to be so jealous when he hears about this.’
‘Finally, we rampage.’
The Lizardmen shake with anticipation. if the chief sees madness in the rats’ eyes, he wonders what the rats see in Bronq and Phath.
Because the rats are not attacking.
---
Xass feels the stone ground reverberate through his spine as he runs towards the fray. He leans so far forward that his bronze tail swings about violently through the air, the golden threads waving tensely on his black tunic. Before him he sees frantic Lizardmen tripping their way through the narrow street, wildly swinging knives and spears at the approaching ratmen.
He stares helplessly as four soldiers clash with a ratman each.
One ratman gets its shoulder impaled by spear, getting pushed back. Another ratman flings at the long weapon, slamming it into the ground and breaking the wooden shaft. Both ratmen jump the lone soldier.
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Another Lizardman collides fatally with his knife into the enemies’ stomach, but a yellow ivory object gets jammed in his shoulder in the process. It is now a question of who dies faster.
In their panic none of the soldiers look out for each other.
Xass sees all four die.
He runs to save the next seven. The soldiers are about to collide with the enemy, and he is still some way off.
He can do this.
This way it’s easier to aim.
It is a bit intensive to use magic so soon, but he gathers his soul to his throat until he feels the heat building up, wanting to escape. Just as he feels the energy within him will explode to pieces, just as his soldiers are about to run into death, he bellows.
‘Snake den!’
From within him, seven golden streaks of flame burst from his jaws. The firy apparitions soar through the air, buzzing with heat, before striking down the ratmen in front of flustered army men. The rats explode into flame and smoke, filling the street with putrid stench.
The soldiers stand still, shaken and overcome by the smell and bright lights as Xass runs past them, sword drawn, catching their eyes for a second before their shoulder are jammed aside by the other nine, roaring Lizardmen. Their broad shields drawn up; they crash into a shocked dozen ratmen. As the beasts stumble, spears flash and blood flows from half of the savages.
Beyond them, Xass starts his own melee, deflecting large carved fangs and claws from about five different ratmen. All of them focus their best efforts to get even a nick on his scales. But the blade slithers off their limbs and bites into their throats. Even when the rats feel they’ll rip through the young prince, a metal sensation catches the makeshift knife, rendering it useless.
Within moments, but a dozen rats are left standing in the street.
The seven lost soldiers take in the spectacle. They were about to throw their lives away, but their comrades intervened. Now they pick their weapons back up and will return the favor. Roaring, they rally together and turn around. Half a dozen of the beasts are sneaking up on them.
Before them the rats are fleeing, behind them they run into sturdy resistance. They survive the first encounter with minimal losses.
Xass decides it’s time to dive deeper into this city. The army runs behind him into a wide plaza beneath a large sun stone, where throngs of soldiers brawl with the savage rats seeping in from narrow streets.
---
‘Fuckety fuck, fuck!’
‘Brynn! Where is Bart?’
‘I don’t fucking know. He was just fucking here. This place is a goddamn mess.’
Two heavily armored rats run through a wide plaza filled with violent rats and lizards. None of the creatures pay them too much mind, as they are hellbent on killing each other. Every now and then though, a large bulking lizard appears, wielding a giant club the size of a person.
Like now!
The giant brown scaled marauder grins toothily. He raises his wooden club, ready to flatten the two rats, as Brynn flies through the air like a blur of shadows, lands on the lizard’s head, and starts to knife him repeatedly in the eyes. The giant crashes onto the ground in an explosion of blood.
Brynn is tense, taut like a bowstring. She remembers how the savage ratmen flowed into the small house. She remembers Amethyst, weeping on the floor in a corner. She can't do anything to help her. Jump into the fray, murder at sight. That's all she's good for. Protecting is out of her reach, yet she really wants to protect this girl. Even though they're so close to finding Anite, she feels useless.
Not wasting a second she runs onwards.
Amethyst tries her darndest to keep up with the brazen warrior. A momentary quiet, blankets the battlefield as tens of shocked eyes watch them run.
A brave rat steps in front of Amethyst, blocking her path. The small inventor barely manages to catch her heart as it leaps from a chest. What is she going to do? In front of her she can see the yellow misshapen teeth curl into a smile. Its black eyes look barely alive.
The putrid smell of the battlefield hits her. She didn't notice it while running, but now, while she is forced to stand still, she smells everything. Blood, vomit, piss, shit, everything that can leave the body is covering the stone streets of these ruins.
She can see Brynn moving ahead in the distance. She whimpers and feels her eyes water. Her throat hurts. She can't be left alone.
Taking out her knife, she starts running, pointing it forwards.
The dirty rat grins and runs at her too. Taking wild clumsy steps it swings around a stained knife, made of something white and yellow. The two ratmen collide and the weapon bounces off Amethyst her armor. Her knife however, lands with its blade into the head of the savage ratman. Its blade so sharp that the point seamlessly splits skin and exits through the skull like soft butter.
The ratman turns weak and hangs limb in her arms.
She throws it off her in disgust and looks around her wildly, breathing just bare, shallow breaths. The two groups of monsters have continued their struggle to kill each other, but she can see how some of the ratmen are disengaged and creeping in her direction. Eyes dark with intent.
She can see Brynn still.
She starts running.
Running.
Running.
She finally does it. She kills someone. Why does it not feel good? She is useful again. She is reaffirming her worth to the group, to the kingdom. And Bart won't have to protect her anymore. Then why does she feel so dirty? Does this not give her worth? Maybe she's making a mistake. Maybe she wants to be protected. If only Bart was there, she would feel safe again.
Finally she catches up to Brynn.
‘He’ll be fine. The little dipshit is not as useless as to die to any of these posers. For now, let’s try to hold on to Anite’s trail. I believe his stench is leading us up those stairs carved into the wall.’
---
Bart is lost. It is painfully clear. His friends are not to his left. They are also not to his right. In fact, his friends are nowhere to be found. He thinks it happened a few minutes ago. They ran from the large space into this large plaza, straight through a mob of rats, into a mob of lizards. they had never seen that many before.
Behind them one of the rats started screaming gutteral sounds, crazily waved his arms, and turned a crazy green color. It threw towards them what looked like a green blob.
By a hairs breath he dodged it and saw how the orb collided with, and burned through the row of lizards behind him, leaving death lizards in piles of purple and red gore. He heard the wet sound it made as the melted bodies hit and splashed on the ground. He smelled the acrid smell, so foul he could almost taste it and he hurled. His feet started running as his eyes teared up. Only a minute later did he realize his friends did not run the same direction.
Now Bart is lost.
And he is alone.
Bart does not thrive when he is alone.
Frantically he runs forward, hoping he’ll find his friends. He blocks a lizard shield with his shield and stabs a ratman in the face. It feels to him like he’s running from death itself. All the while managing to cut down everything that tries to stop him. God this is terrible. This is really what all this adventuring stuff is about. Simply cut before you are cut.
In the distance he see one of few large streets connecting to the plaza. He flips a mental coin and runs to it.
Dear god let his friends be there. No way Brynn would keep Amethyst safe.