26 – A Desperate Plan

  Andy descended. He’d dropped his Unseen Stalker spell sometime during the battle above, so he recast it. When he heard the confused whispers exchanged between Lucy and Omar, he paused and hissed, “I’m here, just hiding.” Then he turned and continued down. He could see warm figures ahead, lurking inside a wide tunnel at the next landing. That was when he realized the stairs didn’t continue beyond that point, though the shaft certainly did. He didn’t care; the rat horde had taken his friends into the tunnel; he was sure of it.

  The only other option, as far as he could figure, was that they might have tossed Frank and Bella over the edge. Surely that would have killed them, though, and wouldn’t the System have announced the quest’s failure if that were the case? No, they were alive, and they were down that steeply sloping passage where, even now, Andy could see more than a handful of bright figures—all bipedal rat people.

  He’d meant what he said about not being too late. The thought of Bella and Frank being eaten alive by rats was enough to push any qualms about violence into the back of his mind as he descended the last few steps, inhaled deeply, and cast Brimstone Breath at the crowd of rat people.

  Mana rushed into his chest, hot and energizing, and despite his already deep breath, he felt his lungs expand almost painfully. Reflexively, he coughed out a great gout of hot smoke. It streamed from his mouth—far more than he could have possibly held in his lungs. Somehow, the cinder-filled smoke didn’t burn or scald his throat. All he felt was warmth and relief as it jetted forth, releasing the pressure in his lungs and engulfing the rat creatures.

  The cloud he projected was bright orange in his Smoke Sight, hotter than the creatures, and they erupted in screams and chitters as they ran, desperate to get out of the cone-shaped cloud—or maybe it was the fact that their fur and scraps of clothing had caught fire. Two charged right off the landing, screaming as they fell, their glowing bodies fading to dim sparks in the distant depths. Several more ran deeper into the tunnel, only to collapse, rolling and writhing on the ground. One charged for the stairs, but Andy’s spear was waiting, and it didn’t make it past the first step.

  Andy had no love for the rat people, but he hated the sounds of their agony, so he darted forward, aware that he was breathing his own smoke, but it didn’t bother him—more evidence of the strange nature of magic. He stabbed the three thrashing bodies, ending their agony, then he looked at his mana report: 175/360. He felt a chill of stress run down his spine; he hadn’t thought he’d used that much, but he hadn’t accounted for his Smoke Lance, Smoke Sight, and Unseen Stalker spells; they all ate a chunk of mana.

  “Andy?” Lucy called from the stairs.

  “Here,” he said, hurrying out of the tunnel.

  “Was that your spell?” Omar asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Damn, dude. I’ve got some fire spells, but nothing like that.”

  The statement confused Andy momentarily. He’d grown so used to Omar with a weapon in his hand, lately a spear, that he’d forgotten his class was Pyre Sentinel. He couldn’t focus on that now, anyway; images kept rushing through his mind—rat claws and teeth sinking into Bella’s and Frank’s flesh. “Yeah, I just got it.” He jerked his spear toward the tunnel. “Heading down.”

  “We’ll be right behind you,” Lucy hastily called after him.

  He took only a half-dozen steps before the System hit him with a message:

  ***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve slain a group of vermin, earning enough experience to gain a level in your Brimstone Stalker class. For your efforts, you’ve gained another Improvement Point.***

  He grunted, swiping the message away. He was focused on the task at hand, but a small part of him recognized that he’d just hit level ten in his new class, and nothing momentous had happened. Maybe the System just didn’t care about round numbers. He could feel his mana feeding his Unseen Stalker spell, so he didn’t have to wonder if it had dropped during the fight. He kept moving, drifting into the darkness.

  Worry and stress made him hurry, so he practically jogged down the steep incline. He came to a T and looked left and right. One tunnel was flat; the other descended sharply. “Damn it,” he hissed, unsure what to do. Could Lucy’s tracking help? He looked up the sloping passage and whispered hoarsely, “Hurry!”

  The sound of shoes slapping on stone preceded their arrival, and Andy waved an arm in case his spell was making him difficult to see. “Lucy, can you track?”

  “Already am—didn’t want to lose you. There are tons of tracks going down to the right.”

  “That’s where I’m going, then.”

  Lucy started to say something, but Andy was already moving. The air grew dank and musty, with the sharp ammonia of urine that made his eyes water. The tunnel curved slowly to the right, and a bright figure appeared in the distance, then another and another. Andy checked his mana: 257/360. He slowed, watching as they approached, just to see if more were coming. It was only three though—all bipedal, all carrying weapons.

  He charged forward, and he got close enough to stab the lead figure before any of them noticed him. As his spear punched through its chest, he cast Smoke Cloud. Again, he felt the hot rush of mana, and though his vision was strange in the gray-scale light of his Smoke Sight, he was aware of the cloud of hot smoke that billowed out of him, filling the hallway. The rat-people squealed, and he knew they had to be closing their eyes against the hot, cinder-filled air. Andy darted forward, stabbing high and low.

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  It was overkill; he was so much faster and stronger than the little ratmen that he hit them each two or three times before they even fell to the ground. Meanwhile, he’d filled the corridor with smoke, and he didn’t know how much it would affect Lucy and Omar. His urgent need not to fail the quest—not to let Bella and Frank die—wouldn’t let him wait to find out; he charged forward, continuing down the slope, trusting that Lucy would be able to track him if they fell too far behind.

  The gray shades of his vision lightened in the distance, and he saw the outline of a high, arched opening. Andy slowed, wondering if the brightness meant there was light ahead. He didn’t have to wait long to find out; as the opening grew larger in his perspective, he saw, across a vast cavern, the dancing white lights of a big fire. Even though he could see clearly, he knew that fire would be throwing huge shadows and that, with his Unseen Stalker spell, he ought to be able to sneak around, especially with the thick, reeking air to mask his scent.

  Emboldened by those thoughts, he pushed ahead, and as his perspective shifted, he realized the cavern floor was steeply sloped. As he saw more and more of the depths, he slowed and eventually stopped, pressing against the stone of the tunnel opening. The far end of the cavern, a good fifty yards down a steep, stone-strewn slope, was positively crawling with amber figures.

  There were too many, moving too quickly, for Andy to count, but there had to be more than a hundred rats and ratmen intermingled down there, and, beyond them, the big fire burned. Andy didn’t have eyes for the rats, the ratmen, or the fire, though—his eyes were fixed on the gigantic rat curled up atop a nest the size of a king-sized bed.

  His Smoke Sight didn’t allow for too many details at that distance, but it looked like the nest was composed of piles of clothes, trash, and even leaf-covered branches. Andy couldn’t guess how it all got down there into the depths of the mesa. Beside the giant rat and its nest, between it and the bonfire, Andy saw two larger humanoid figures—bound by ropes that were somehow fastened to the stone wall.

  Andy’s desire to save his friends overwhelmed his caution, and he crept forward, entering the giant cavern. He darted toward a large boulder and crouched behind it, watching. Off to his left, far from the bonfire, he saw a pool of water near the cavern wall. Many rat-people were there, some swimming, some dipping their hands into the water before eating…something.

  “Urgh—urgh!” the great rat groaned. Andy jerked his gaze toward the monstrous thing just in time to see, with a splash of amniotic fluid, a handful of small, naked rats fall from its hindquarters onto the damp cavern floor. The little things squealed and wriggled, and half a dozen rat-people hurried forward to collect them. As Andy watched, eyes wide, mouth hanging open, they carried the newborn, not-yet-giant rats out through a small tunnel entrance behind the rat nest.

  The gigantic rat rolled over, its ponderous bulk rippling under its fur, then it curled into a ball and seemed to fall asleep. Andy shook his head, snapping himself out of his stunned stupor. The task ahead seemed impossible—too daunting—and yet… He couldn’t leave Bella and Frank to the mercy of those creatures.

  He scanned the tunnel walls, wondering if there were more passages he’d missed. He didn’t see any, but an idea began to take shape in his mind. He turned and, as quietly as he could, padded back to the tunnel where he’d entered. When he reached the mouth and looked up the long, steep slope, he saw the amber silhouettes of Lucy and Omar, and hurried toward them. “Stop there,” he hissed, drawing near.

  “Andy! You had us worried!”

  “I know; I’m sorry.” Andy shook his head, glancing over his shoulder—nothing approached. His thoughts fought each other, trying to get out of his mouth, so it took a moment to gather his words. “Listen. I’m going to try something crazy. I have to try to help Bella and Frank, though. I can’t let them get eaten alive or…worse—God, I don’t have a clue what those things might do!”

  Omar shook his head, whispering, “We’re with you, man. What’s the story?”

  “I have a plan for you, for sure,” Andy replied, nodding. “I’m going to pull an army of those damn rats into this tunnel. I’ll use the narrow part here on the steep part of the slope, and I’ll get as many as I can with my spell. You two will be further up. Lucy, you can back me up with your bow, and Omar, your job will be to kill anything that gets past me before it can get to Lucy.”

  Lucy nodded, face determined. She responded through clenched teeth, her voice almost a growl, “We can do that.”

  Andy smiled, looking from her to Omar, then back again, steeling himself for the hard part. “If they overwhelm me, though, you guys need to run back to the stairs. You need to warn the others and set up a proper defense. You might have to just hold them off at the stairwell until it’s safe to get out, ’cause I don’t think they’re gonna stop until the mother is dead.”

  “The mother?” Omar asked.

  Andy nodded. “We have to hurry! You didn’t see how many there are! And Frank and Bella…” He trailed off, his stress, his heart hammering, making the words stick in his throat.

  “Andy, I—” Lucy started to say, but Omar cut her off.

  “You’re sure there’s no time to get help?”

  “They have them tied up next to the mother—a rat the size of a damn hippo. If she gets hungry…”

  “So it’s hopeless,” Lucy said, moving closer and grabbing Andy’s shirt, like she’d stop him from taking off again. “Why throw your life away?”

  Andy shook his head. “It’s not hopeless, Luce. If I can get them to chase me into this tunnel—into my smoke—there’s a chance. We just need to stay mobile and use this long-ass passageway. If that giant rat comes through, I’m gonna need you to take it down.”

  She lifted her other hand, bow clutched tightly. “I got a new favored enemy—vermin.”

  Andy grinned fiercely. “That’s our Monster Hunter! You still have gigantic fauna, right?”

  Her eyes widened. “Think it’ll stack?”

  Omar snorted, and Andy shrugged. “Let’s hope so. We good with the plan?”

  “Not really…” Lucy said, gently tugging on his shirt.

  Omar nodded, slapping Andy’s shoulder. “It’s like you said, man; we have to try.” He nodded to Lucy. “I’ll make sure she gets away.”

  She growled. “I’m not a damsel—”

  “It’s not like that,” Omar said, clicking his tongue. “You’re faster, and I can hold them at bay with my spear—not as good as Andy, but…” He shrugged.

  Andy felt the urgency in his gut, felt the desperate need to act, so he started to turn, but Lucy tugged his shirt. When he looked at her, she was already standing on her tiptoes, and her lips found his before he could react. It was a quick, simple kiss, but Andy still smiled, irrationally pleased with himself.

  She let go of his shirt and gave him a gentle shove. “For luck. Now go get those rats. My arrows will be waiting.”