“Kill the rat people,” I ordered the original Grulnok and Lillia. They charged forward to engage the foe as I hustled over to the crates holding the automatons. My summoner had said that if I needed help, there were three of the crates that I should activate. I pulled the instruction paper from my storage pouch to remember which were the correct crates. Once sure I was hitting the right ones, I began to activate the three crates it indicated, number 7, 9, and 14.
I ran by, hitting my hand on each crate to activate them. The doors seemed to open painfully slowly, and I didn’t have time to wait for whatever was inside to do its job. Readying my javelin, I scanned for targets. The rats were swarming over my remaining team, and more than one appeared out of nowhere to try and backstab my minions. Targeting a rat thing that appeared behind Lillia, I fed mana to activate the javelin and threw.
Typically, my aim with thrown weapons was abysmal, but the weapon’s ability caused the javelin to fly true. Bolts of electricity coursed up and down the weapon and when it hit the rat creature I had targeted, the charge of electricity slammed into the monster causing it to stiffen and shake as the energy tore into it. It was overkill, the javelin alone, having pierced deep into the monster’s side, would have likely been enough to kill it, but without the magic of the weapon, I’d have probably missed the target.
“Fight back-to-back if you can!” I shouted over to my minions. They moved as I had ordered, their new position denying the stealthy rats any chance to sneak up on them. They were also doing a good job at thinning out the number of enemies. Lillia was focused more on defense, but as I watched, she thrust her spear forward and skewered a rat creature in the throat.
Grulnok already had a half dozen corpses around him, and he was taking the lead to push my pair of minions closer to the open drain that the rats were emerging from. The first of the automaton defenders was walking from its crate now. Each was similar to the workers, but where the workers had a single, broomstick-sized piece of wood for arms and legs, the warrior automatons had two. It wasn’t much of an improvement at first glance, but when the first warrior walked to a closed crate and opened it, I could see how they might prove to be a help.
Inside the newly opened crate was a rack with three sets of armor, and various weapons that the automatons began to equip. It was going to take them a minute or two to get fully equipped, but it looked like my minions were holding off the attackers for the time being.
Grulnok and Lillia finished off the last rat creatures in the basement and then stood guard over the opening as the automatons finished equipping themselves. I tried to issue them orders and as long as it was something simple like “stay here and guard against the rats”, they seemed fine. If I tried to order them with anything more complex, they just stood there.
Once fully equipped, I had to admit that the automatons did look a bit more formidable. Each now wore a steel breastplate and greaves, and wielded a curved sword in one hand, and a small, round steel shield in the other. They were slow, but when I ordered one to cover the sewer opening, it easily hacked a rat man that was trying to climb out.
For the most part, the rat creatures were done trying to pour out of the sewer, but I could still hear them moving around down below, which meant there were more of them. The sound of breaking glass from upstairs caught my attention. I ordered two of the automaton guards to cover the entrance while I took the third, and my two surviving minions back up to the first floor so I could check things out.
I made it to the top of the stairs when another window was broken. The shop was huge, and it took me a minute to find which ones had been broken. It was the two windows near the front door. While the glass had been shattered, the iron grates were still in place. Before I could reach the windows to check on what had broken them, I heard fighting outside.
Just in front of the shop, another city watch patrol of five was engaged with a swarm of the rat men. The rats were armed and equipped just like the ones from the basement, and it looked like they were losing the fight against the better equipped and trained guards. One guard was down and given the stealth attacks the rats had dropped on my Grulnok duplicate, I could see how they brought down one of the tougher guards.
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I spotted several more rat men pouring from the alleyway next to the shop, these disappeared from my sight as soon as they neared the street. They were too fast for me to get an accurate count, but it looked like there were more than a few. There were alarm bells starting to ring out throughout the city and I could see the glow from more than one fire in the distance.
A hairy hand grasped the grate in front of me, forcing me to step back. The rat man was holding a slim piece of metal in his other hand which he was trying to slip into the grate’s lock. The automaton guard didn’t hesitate, stepping forward and thrusting his blade through the broken window to skewer the rat man.
“Look out, more of the rats are stealthed and heading toward you!” I shouted to the guards. One looked my way and nodded before ordering the others in his group to form a circle to prevent anyone from sneaking up behind them.
“If we fight our way over there, can you let us in?” One of the guards, the oldest of the bunch, a weathered man with greying hair, shouted in reply.
“Yes, push your way toward the front door. Call out when you’re ready for me to open it,” I instructed before positioning myself in front of the door, ready to unlock and throw it open as soon as the town guards made their way over.
“Lillia, patrol the store and make sure none of the rats are picking the locks on the windows,” I ordered. With the automaton and Grulnok to back me up, I figured we could hold the door against the rat men until the guards got here, but it would be for naught if the rats were already pouring in through some other window.
The sounds of combat grew closer and less than a minute later, the guards knocked on the door and shouted that they were ready. I unlocked and threw one of the double doors open, allowing three of the surviving guards to make their way in. Grulnok slammed the door closed in the face of a half dozen rat men, who scampered off once the door was locked.
For good measure, I had my orc minion heave the locking beam up from the floor and slide it into place. The door was heavy and solid, but the rats had already shown they could be sneaky and pick locks. With the bar in place, they couldn’t open the door, even if they managed to pick the lock on it.
“Thank you, I don’t think we’d have made it much longer out there on the streets,” one of the guards, a young woman with blood and sweat streaking her face said. I noted that the older man who had spoken earlier was not with them. He must have fallen while I was waiting at the door.
“Glad to help, what’s going on out there? I took a job as security for this place, expecting to chase off vandals or maybe someone trying to break in. I didn’t expect rat monsters to come pouring out of the sewers,” I said.
“It’s the Verminfolk. Normally, the sewer teams keep their numbers down, but somehow, their population exploded without us detecting them. I suspect they’re assaulting the whole city given the alarm bells,” the woman said, gazing out the open window near the door.
“Will any help be coming?” I asked.
“The alarm is being raised, so the army, palace guard, and any off-duty town watch should respond. It’ll take them time to get armed and organized though,” the woman said.
“Sergeant Haynes,” one of the younger guards said to the woman I was speaking with. “It looks like the palace is on fire.”
The guard had been looking out of one of the side windows and while I couldn’t make out any palace, they seemed convinced the glow of flames in the distance was positioned where the palace was located.
“I don’t think we can count on the palace guard, or any of the army units stationed near there coming to help us anytime soon. It’s best if we just hunker down and hold this shop for the time being. Going outside would be suicide,” the woman, who was apparently Sergeant Haynes, said.
It was then that I felt my connection to Lillia cut off abruptly. I looked around the shop for her, but she had been deeper in the store looking for anything trying to slip into the store. Before I could shout a warning to the guards, my minion, and the automaton. I felt a pair of blows slam into my back. The pain hit a moment later and I found myself falling to the floor unable to stop as I smacked face first into the polished wood.
You have been stabbed in the back and killed by a Verminfolk Stalker. This summoning session is now complete.
Your performance rating is calculated as Good.
Your rewards will reflect the summoning tier of 1, rank 7, and your performance rating of Good.
You have earned 9 experience points.
You have earned 7 summoning points.
You will now be returned to your personal space.