Ellie gestured to either side, as she slowly approached the edge of her lookout. Far below were a dozen ratmen holding torches of green flame in one hand, and wicked curved daggers the other. Before them on a stone platform lay a terrified woman, her bare stomache painted with the markings of a sacrifice.To Ellie"s left appeared a goats head, Fial the Faun pulling free his little bow. At this distance, the Faun Sharpshooter wouldn"t miss, but he couldn"t take all down them alone and Ellie wasn"t good enough with the bow just yet to help.
Ellie contorted her hands to form several symbols above her, and then led her party below. They scrambled down the rock in this pitch-black cavern, a gruff wall of bearded steel leading them. While only tall as Ellie, Dwargon was four times wider under all that plate, and wielded a thick square shield and mace. Silent as always Dwargon led them from the front, a black-furred Satyr with a h.e.l.l flame axe right behind him.
Then came Ellie and Armen, Armen being the magical elf who even now freed continued to wear that fine dark suit of an apprentice butler. Armen wound small flames like fireflies around his knuckles and walked with silence only Fial could match.
Meanwhile Ellie the rogue felt dumb and stupid, her throwing knife pouches now filled with bandages and potions. Yet they waited for her instruction, the weakest amongst them somehow in charge.
Again she wondered why Scab had to leave her. He was a p.r.i.c.k, but at least they had matched each other strength for strength. This new party...it made Ellie feel as if she should have just stayed home.
Splitting up, Dwargon went left while the Satyr Warlock went right. Ellie had heard his name a few times and never been able to p.r.o.nounce it, and so they had nicknamed her Rams.
Ellie waited, about to give the signal as Dwargon and Rams got in position to attack - a deep howl filled the cavern as Dwargon charged, the slapping of steel-toed feet shattering the hissing silence.
"Foolish old man!" Ellie yelled, leaping forward, twin knives in hand. Over her shoulder, Armen cast a bolt of ice that froze a ratman whole, while Rams crashed into the ratmen right flank with her burning axe ripping through one ratman"s shoulder to slice through another"s belly.
"Armen! hold your magic for larger threats!" Ellie yelled behind her, dodging a ratman"s spear thrust to use [critical-strike] and stab it through the eye.
As another ratman was about to stab her in the side a well-timed arrow slammed into the creature"s head.
Ellie raised her hand in thanks, Fial"s arrows continued to fall in a carefully placed order to take out those ratmen who proved more of a threat.
Ellie entered the battle again, facing off against a ratman wielding a broken sword. Soon their sparing was interrupted by a wave of fur, as the ratmen once again summoned the creatures of whisker and tail to a.s.sault them.
"Who has the girl?" Ellie yelled, Rams immediately diverting to charge towards the chained woman. "I didn"t mean get her - Fial cover her, Armen drive away these rats!"
Arrows picked off those who would disrupt Rams while Armen unleashes a cone of cold that froze a swathe of rats and chilled many more. Fleeing with an army of squeaks, the rats were banished for now.
But not the ratmen, and has Ellie turned to Dwargon her heart sank. He was surrounded by several of the creatures, his gore coated mace slamming through skull and spine while taking several hits apiece. The dwarf had entered one of his states again and was clearly going far beyond what he could handle to keep the ratmen in check.
Out of party members, and quite sure Armen was low on mana, Ellie charged herself. The ratmen turned on her immediately, their fast hands and sharp blades delivering a series of shallow wounds no matter how much she focused on dodging.
"Blasted girl!" roared Dwargon, his first words in a week that wasn"t "mead", and fought with a renewed fury. So awful was the splattering of blood, the ratmen began to panic, then flee.
Fial got some more shots in as they slinked away into the dark, Ellie already nursing her wounds with ointment while Rams brought the shivering girl back in her arms. The woman was wide eyed as she looked up at Rams, yet calmed upon seeing Ellie.
"Human?" The woman whispered, "are you adventurers?"
"Of the Hero Guild ma"am. If you don"t mind, could Rams here hold you until we get out? The rest of us need our hands free in case the rats try something you see," Ellie said smiling, despite the sting of her wounds, it was her duty to rea.s.sure the rescued.
Smiling herself beneath layers of muck, the woman began to sniffle as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Hey, it"s ok. We"re here now," Ellie whispered and indicated to Dwargon to do his thing. As Ellie rea.s.sured the freed captive, Dwargon stepped beside the stone slab she had been chained too and used [smash] to blast it wide open.
Within they found a withered ratman corpse like the rest. Dwargon pulled out a shining blade just Ellie"s size and scrawled with the picture of rats with crowns. Light in her hands, well balanced, and with a keen edge Ellie promptly replaced on of her old iron daggers with those old Rat Empire steel. A small sceptre was found too, cracked down the middle but still with a wisp of magic sweet as rain on it. Ellie gave it to Armen, pulled out the plush cloth to sell and indicated to Rams to do her work.
The Satyr Warlock used her h.e.l.lfire axe to set the body aflame, and ensuring this rite was not to be tried again. The second this week, Ellie wondered how many corpses in this land of the Rat Empire remained.
Even now she could make out the faded markings of footpaths on the floor, their edges inscribed with imagery of dancing whiskers. Long forgotten roads caked in dust drove in every direction and into grand tunnels turned musty cave.
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"Let"s go before the Royal Rats arrived," Ellie muttered, the party hastily ascending to the surface.
"Royal rats?" the captive woman said pensively.
"That dead rat thing, other adventurers have gotten to the ceremony too late. Each one equips a bunch of ratmen in gear hidden throughout this network, makes them h.e.l.la strong. We call "em Royals."
What Ellie left out was that the creation of a Rat n.o.ble was more like the raising of a Lich, and the Royals were closer to the definition master Kenji gave for a "Death Knight".
Speaking of Master Kenji, wasn"t he running a cla.s.s on leadership today?
Ellie hurried her step, having just realised. While it was her duty to go on these quests with so many of the senior adventurers being sent to start chapter houses in faraway places, Ellie would very much be lying if she didn"t admit she loved those lessons. There was something about growing in a safe environment, far away from the grime of reality, that made her wistful for a life where she could seek such an education as a scholar.
Laughing, she waved away her companions confused looks. An education for an orphan girl? Ellie really was losing the plot, surely she should stop wasting time on dreams so absurd as that.