The thug looked from face to face before he said, “Fine, just set me free.”

  Tabor and Milessa climbed down into the sewer. Gianna pulled out ten silver and set it down on one of the crates. Jackson looked at her. “You need to get down there. I can’t untie him while you are still up here.”

  She looked like she wanted to say something but then did as he asked. Jackson then threw all the rest of the weapons in the room down into the sewer before cutting the ropes binding their captive most of the way.

  “You should be able to break those now. Just wait for me to get down the hole and then cover it up. If you keep the deal and cover the grate, I will make sure you get ten more silver. You can collect it at the temple of Shanelle. I will leave it there with instructions to give it to you, but I will need to know your name.”

  As Jackson jumped down into the hole, the thug called out, “The name’s Little Will.”

  He shouted back up, “The silver will be there in three days.”

  Chapter Five

  “Sewer, sewer, here comes the brewer. Its smell is no lure, but its punch can skewer.”—Line from a song sung by a particularly lousy bard in Konig.

  Sewers under Konig, Capital of Albia—Jackson Nelson

  The first thing that Jackson noticed about the sewer was that it was not nearly as filthy as he had expected. It was wide and well built, with large stones that were held together by mortar. He had to imagine that earth magic of some kind had been used to make up for the lack of modern tools. There was a stream of water that clearly had waste in it running down the middle of the sewer. It was about three feet wide, and on each side was a stone walkway, which was about two feet wide. All in all, the sewer tunnel was about six feet high from the walkway to the top of the tunnel.

  “Tabor, do you know if this leads outside the city?” Jackson asked.

  His friend looked at the two girls and winced before saying, “No, I don’t think it does. That would make for pretty poor defenses if it did.”

  “It’s okay. Keep your secrets and all. We just need to find a way out of here and out of the city,” Gianna said.

  “I’m actually worried that there might be something else down here in the sewers,” Jackson said.

  “What? Why?” Milessa asked.

  “Because that thug, Little Will, said that rats were not the worst thing down here.”

  “He was just pulling your leg, my friend.” Tabor laughed.

  “Such people can’t be trusted,” Gianna said while nodding in agreement.

  “Maybe, but keep your eyes open. No, wait a minute. Let me try something.” With that, Jackson closed his eyes. Technically it wasn’t required, but so far, he had found it easier to focus if he didn’t have visual input while using his esoteric sense.

  He spent the fifty mana and sent the pulse out. In response he got back a map of everything within five thousand feet. He focused on the impressions left in his mind and tried to sort through them. To the best of his ability, he ignored what was above and below the sewer.

  What it left him with was a vague map of the network of tunnels that comprised the sewer. More disturbing than that were the life-forms he sensed moving. Definitely more than rats. Truth be told, he detected nothing rat-sized, which in and of itself was eerie. How could there be no rats in a place like this? Instead, the creatures seemed to vary from about half his size to three-quarters his size.

  More than the size of the creatures, though, was how they were moving. His voice shuddered a bit as he said, “Guys, we have a problem. There is some stuff moving down here. And wait, don’t interrupt me. This is important. No, it isn’t rats. They are way too big for that. If they are rats, then they are monstrous. Besides, rats don’t typically climb on walls.”

  He paused for a second, shaking his head. “No, don’t give me that look, Milessa. I know what a spider is, and if they are spiders, then they are massive. Some of them are nearly as big as Gianna. There are dozens of them too. Worse, they give off some kind of dark, eerie energy. It isn’t at all the sense of life and well-being I get from you all when I am using my esoteric sense.”

  The others all looked at Jackson for a minute. Then Tabor asked, “So do we try to climb back up the grate?”

  “No,” Gianna snapped forcefully.

  “I understand that you don’t want to give up. I’m telling you, though, if there were a way up, I would insist on going back up. There isn’t, though. It appears that Little Will did his part and blocked the grate.”

  “So what now, then?” Milessa asked as she conjured a ball of light into her hand. Jackson breathed a sigh of relief and heard the others do the same when that light sprang into existence. It is hard to underestimate the value of light in a dark place, especially with the specter of monsters moving around.

  “I think we make our way to the nearest ladder. Which, if I remember my mental map correctly, is a couple of turns and about a quarter mile in a generally northern direction. We need to have weapons and spells at the ready. Maybe we should have a brief discussion about what each of us is bringing to the table.”

  “Well, I am mostly a fighter build. I use a sword and have a few skills to enhance my defense and offense. It’s nothing super impressive yet. No magic for me, not gifted like some. As far as level, I’m fifteen and have a good amount of health and armor,” Tabor said.

  Milessa looked at Gianna, who nodded, before she answered, “I’m a healer and have a good deal of illusion magic. One of my best tricks is a light attack that blinds the eyes like I used back up there. I can direct it or make just a burst. Oh, and I’m level eleven, so not very far into Tier 2.”

  “I’m level fifteen like Tabor, but more of a monk type build. I have several methods of moving, mitigating damage, and a powerful axe. Or if I’m dealing with human-type opponents, my unarmed combat is pretty good. No magic other than the expanded senses yet.”

  They all looked at Gianna, who blushed. Jackson couldn’t help but think she looked cute like that but then tried to discipline his thoughts. “And you are level zero, correct?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I have a good number of magical items. I have an amulet of shielding, two epic health rings, and four different wands that I can attack with, including fire, ice, electric, and paralyzing.” She seemed nervous, which was unusual for the princess, who typically had self-confidence in abundance.

  “Okay, well, obviously, Tabor and I will be the ones to take the hits. Milessa, you focus on healing or distracting enemies when you can. Gianna, you blast stuff as long as you can stay behind us. Hopefully, if we hurry, we won’t run into too many of whatever these things are,” Jackson said.

  He sighed when no one challenged his orders, since they all needed to be working in unison. Jackson took the lead with the princess behind him, Milessa behind her, and Tabor in the rear. It only made sense given he was the one with the map, however limited, in his head.

  As they came up to the first corner, Gianna came up closer to him and whispered, “So what aren’t you telling us?”

  Her question surprised Jackson. He didn’t know her well at all, but she had been perceptive enough to see through his confidence and realize he was holding something back. Not that he wanted to hide anything from them. Rather, he had calculated that he didn’t have enough information to determine what it was. Jackson decided that without that information, he would only be guessing. Such a guess was either useless or likely to scare them.

  He had, however, sensed something else. There were vaguely people-shaped life signs, always right up against the wall and never moving. Worse, while they had some life signs of humans, those signs were fading. There was even, for lack of a better word, a film of corruption on them. Jackson didn’t know what to make of it, and since it scared him, he didn’t know what to tell the others.

  “There is something else, but I don’t know what it is. I don’t think it is a threat to us, but if we get close enough, I will check again. Okay?” he asked the princess, hoping she would accept the flimsy explanation.

  “Okay… for now,” she replied.

  They couldn’t have any further discussion because about that time, Jackson heard the clacking sound of bone spikes chipping into the stone and mortar of the wall. He drew out his axe and said, “Get behind me. Milessa, light, please.”

  A moment later, a soft blue light sprang into existence twenty feet in front of him. It wasn’t blinding but pushed back the shadows, and he could see that it wasn’t just one but three creatures coming at him. Two on the wall to his left, and another one was on the ceiling.

  For a moment, it was all that he could do to stare at them. He didn’t know quite what to make of them. They were an awful mishmash of parts, and nothing seemed right about them. The general form was something akin to a bat if the bat was the size of a large rottweiler.

  They were black and furry but had bare patches of pink skin scattered all over. The heads had the long ears of a bat and protruding fangs, but the face was more akin to a goblin, while the nose was piglike. Their front legs, or maybe he should call them arms, had a webbed membrane that stretched back to their torso. Those limbs ended in claws with three talons. The elbow joints had a wicked-looking six-inch boney spike protruding from them.

  That spike, along with a matching one from the knee joint, were how they were climbing along the wall. The rear legs ended in feet that appeared capable of standing up, with three front talons and a rear talon. A whiplike tail that ended in a spiked tip rounded out their appearance.

  Worse, there wasn’t enough room for more than one person to fight along the walkway, so Tabor couldn’t stand beside him. At least the light seemed to bother them, which he figured was a small blessing. Especially now that they had seen him. The slavering jaws of the closest creature were only ten feet from him when it screeched. All he could think was, “Great, now it’s calling the family to dinner. Well, at least we know what happened to the rats.”

  Once it was within a few feet, it sprang at him. With equal celerity, he lashed out with his wind axe. The weapon’s inherent magic made his strike faster than it would have otherwise been, and the blade bit deeply into the creature, neatly severing one of the outstretched arms and causing forty-two damage. The blow caused the creature’s leap to be thrown off trajectory, and it ended up thrashing about on the ground in front of him.

  He brought down the blade once, twice, three more times, and still, the creature was alive. By this point, he had done almost 200 damage to it, yet it was thrashing about. The other creatures were closing in on it, and the first to reach it started eating the severed parts of the first one rather than trying to attack him.

  While Jackson was busy trying to hack his first foe into pieces, the beast on the ceiling had managed to get relatively close. Fortunately, a bright orange stream of fire flashed past him and over his head. He was too focused on his own fight to be bothered by the roaring heat that threatened to scorch him. The screeching sound and smell of burning hair told him that Gianna’s wand must have downed that one.

  Still, he focused on finishing the one in front of him. He finally managed to behead it. Even then, the next creature continued its grisly feast, gobbling down piece after bloody piece. Fighting back the urge to vomit, Jackson realized that the beast was growing larger as it ate.

  It wasn’t a massive change, but now that he had finished up most of its former comrade, the fiend was probably 10% bigger. That was all Jackson needed to see. He didn’t intend to give it a chance to eat any more.

  Jackson moved forward with precision, yet allowed his Air Core to accelerate his movement till he practically flew forward across the few feet that separated him from the creature. He swung his foot up under it and felt a satisfying crunch as he lifted it up. It was heavy, but his newly earned strength was up to the task.

  Then, as it was airborne and fumbling to extend its arms, he sliced the axe into the side of the beast’s head. The blow became a critical strike and dealt just short of 100 damage. Not enough to kill it but enough to make it screech in agony. Three more quick slashes finished it, and he only took one claw wound to his thigh.

  He was glad that he was wearing his moon elf leathers beneath the trousers he wore to blend in, as they took the worst of it. Even then, the shallow gashes were itching and burning and made him quite uncomfortable. Jackson shook his leg, though, and then focused on the wave of incoming creatures.

  Jackson noticed another dozen of the creatures headed his way. He didn’t know how they could handle them all. He called out, “Are we still clear in the back?”

  Tabor yelled up, “All good back here. Do you need to switch?”

  “Not yet, but I wanna back up to the turn in the tunnel so it will be harder for them to overrun me.”

  With that, he kept his axe out in front and started moving backward. The way the creatures fought each other for the front position was the only thing that prevented a stampede. They all seemed quite eager to be the first to get a Jackson-flavored snack. As he reached the corner, he heard Gianna say, “I won’t be able to hit much with my wand from here.”

  “That’s okay. If the creatures are swarming over me, you won’t be able to blast them without flambeing me, anyway. At least you are getting some XP,” Jackson said, trying to put a positive spin on their situation.

  All the while, he was racking his brain for how to get out of here. He was confident that if he had been on his own, he could have made a run for it. Unfortunately, Tabor couldn’t keep up with him, let alone the level zero princess.

  As the creatures came screeching and clawing their way over each other, Jackson delivered slashing attacks in rapid succession. He gave up full-power swings in order to keep the weapon between him and them as best he could. Still, at best, it was only a stalling tactic. At the worst, he was allowing an opportunity for more of the monsters to arrive.

  The creatures were durable and implacable, never stopping in their pursuit of a Jackson-flavored treat. Soon he was taking cuts. He gave better than he got. His axe gave him greater reach, and its penetrating blade cut deadly wounds. Still, the tears and gashes were starting to add up.

  Then it happened. Jackson slipped on some blood, and he went down to his knee. In a heartbeat, the creatures swarmed over him and were biting down at every exposed inch.

  Gianna cried out, “No! Jackson!”

  Tabor tried to push forward past them while Milessa turned to Gianna and said, “We need to hide. Maybe our invisibility will get us past them.”

  Yet all their fears were for naught, as Jackson had activated the second effect of his Lesser Earth Ring. His skin took on the toughness of stone for six seconds. Now he could resist the first fifty points of damage from each attack, effectively making him immune to any but their most devastating attacks.

  That didn’t change the fact that Jackson was trapped. He had to surge up with all of his strength. His sudden assault threw half the fiends into the running sewage, where they squawked about and started biting at one another. He had underestimated his own strength, so that he launched two of the creatures behind him. It would be okay though. He trusted Tabor to handle those. The final three ended up in a jumbled pile on the walkway before him.

  Jackson made the most of his remaining seconds of near invulnerability. He stepped on them, smashing arm bones while slashing at heads and throats with his axe. When the effect wore off, he had managed to kill all three and turned to help his friend.

  Gianna had used her frost wand to freeze the water around the creatures below. The flow of water would eventually break it up, even if their struggles didn’t. At least for the moment, the ice held fast those in it. Milessa had blasted beams of light to blind one creature while Tabor finished the other. Then he turned his attention to the blinded one, making quick work of it.

  “How long will the ice last?” Jackson asked.

  “Not long enough; they are already starting to crack it,” Gianna replied.

  Jackson paused for a second until he heard a voice in his head. “Victors never hesitate.”

  Whatever the source, the voice was enough impetus for Jackson to leap down onto the ice and start beheading the five trapped creatures. Tabor joined him a moment later in time to finish the last one before partially losing his foot and soaking his foot in the rancid water.

  Once they were all back on the walkway, Milessa said, “That was too close, my princess.”

  “I don’t know. That was amazing. Look at how much XP we got from those things,” Gianna said even as her eyes glazed over.

  Jackson’s entire body ached from dozens of minor cuts in his skin. None were what he would call serious, but they all had that same burning, itching sensation. Worse, it was spreading. He almost felt feverish.

  Thinking he just needed to catch his breath, he activated his esoteric sense for one second. This told him that while there were still many more of the creatures down in the sewer, none were very close to them now. So he closed his eyes for a moment.

  Then Jackson looked at the notifications he had received so far, one of which he had forgotten about:

  Your party has survived an ambush and defeated 5 thugs:

  4 level 3 thugs: 19 XP

  1 level 5 thug: 8 XP.

  Ambush bonus: 100 XP for being instrumental in detecting and overcoming the ambush.

  Your party has defeated 13 Tier 2 Lesser Scree-leeches (Lvl 12): 889 XP (after applying numerical bonus, item penalty, and racial bonus).

  Congratulations. Ding! You have gained sufficient XP to reach level 16 and 17.

  You have 50 new character points. You have 118 unspent character points.

  You have 6 new stat points. You have 6 unspent stat points.

  Jackson lost focus on his own notifications when he heard Gianna yell, “Yes, I have 682 XP. I just passed level five.”