The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  Like she thought, it was arranged tiered like a small stadium, with seats for maybe a hundred students. Unlike a real stadium, it wasn't circular—the room was rectangular, with the lecture pit at one end. And in that pit, filled with what appeared to be sewage from some shattered pipes, was the crawler they had been fighting.

  As well as another one.

  It was the same size as the first—ten feet wide, and perhaps two hundred long, coiled up at the bottom of the classroom. It was uninjured, as might be expected, and Akane would have probably called it the mate of the first one if she knew anything about crawler physiology. Earthworms were asexual, but what about these things?

  Once Flynn spotted them, he cursed vehemently, and the others weren't far behind. Derek, however, just frowned.

  “Akane,” he said slowly. “About those grenades my mom got me last Christmas...”

  “At your house,” she said. “On your dresser.”

  He sighed and put his hand against his face. If they were in the dorms, she could have fetched them. It wouldn't have taken ten minutes. But his house was twenty miles away. The crawlers would cause way too much damage, and might even get away before then.

  “Well,” he said, tone tired. “We'll just have to do this like before. Bleed them slowly. Ling and I will keep them off you two,” he nodded at Flynn and Akane, “and Adam will have the axe as a last line of defense.”

  Akane glanced at Adam. He had grabbed a big red fire axe when I wasn't looking. His pistol was probably out of ammo.

  “Start with the wounded one,” Ling said. Akane resisted rolling her eyes. That was the obvious tactic. It was already moving slower than the fresh one, so hopefully, it was near death. Again, earthworms never evolved to be this big, so they were a bit easier to kill, proportionately speaking.

  The smell got worse as they started forward. The dying crawler was bad enough, but the sewage line may as well have reached up and punched her in the gut. She had a few handkerchiefs, so she tied one around her face as a crude mask. It helped a bit. She handed another to Flynn, and he did the same. But in the process, he was distracted, and accidentally kicked one of the loose stadium seats. It bounced down a few steps before stopping.

  The worms turned in their direction.

  “Now,” Derek hissed.

  Akane zipped forward at twenty percent, fast enough to take the lead but still conserve her power. She jumped from about ten feet from the pit, at the same height as the worms. She landed on the wounded one, using her sword to secure her place.

  She thought the crawler screamed. It was hard to tell, with my ability distorting sound. She pulled her blade free and immediately plunged it in again, creating another deep wound. It seemed easier to cut when using her power, but at least that made more sense than her improved jumping ability.

  She let her ability fade before her reservoir emptied completely, in case she needed to make a quick getaway. Flynn reached the worm moments later, and since he wasn't able to match Akane's jumps, just stabbed it in the roof of the mouth. It screamed even louder, and he got splattered with bits and pieces of whatever it was eating. Considering the sewage line, Akane made a mental note to remember that they all needed showers after this.

  The second crawler tried to lunge at her, but a big chunk of concrete struck it in the head. She glanced back at the entrance and saw Ling picking up another piece of the floor as though it was mud, shaping it in her hands.

  But still, she shouldn't be able to throw it that far. Did that mean her ability was really telekinesis, just limited to rock and stone for some reason?

  It wasn't important. They could do more tests later when Laura was around. For now, they had monsters to slay.

  The worm Akane was riding tried to swallow Flynn, its tiny brain finally realizing the easy way to stop him from hurting it. She stabbed it's “face,” distracting it and causing it to rear up in pain. Flynn dodged to the side of the creature and started slashing its flank. The beast screamed again, longer and louder than before.

  It finally began to slow, its dozens of wounds proving too much for it. Akane didn't bother waiting for it to die. She activated her speed at full blast and jumped onto the other one. It was a risk, but they simply weren't prepared for this. They didn't have the luxury of going by the book. If the fresh worm didn't get injured quickly, it would destroy them.

  Almost to prove her point, before she even landed the uninjured crawler surged up the tiers, aiming for Ling. Of course, it couldn't have known that she could mold the concrete into a wall of stone. The beast slammed into it at full force, letting out a keening cry of pain.

  Akane's reservoir was empty by this point, though filling—it drained way too quickly at full blast. She had to plunge her sword into the monster's hide just to stay on, never mind actually do any real damage.

  The worm slithered around the wall, which wasn't very wide. By that time, though, Flynn had caught up with them, and cut a wide wound in its side. Adam joined in with his stolen axe, though Akane was a bit worried, since all his combat experience was at range. She wasn't sure he had the instincts to survive melee.

  It quickly became moot. The beast fled away, gushing clear and nauseating blood, with Akane still stuck on top. It seemed to be heading for the exit.

  Derek summoned a barrier, blocking the way. The worm screamed in pain as it bashed its head again, and when it tried to dodge around, he summoned another. And another and another. Every avenue of escape it had was cut off. It finally paused, its tiny brain not sure what to do.

  That was Akane's chance. She ripped out her sword, activated her speed, and started cutting huge chunks out of its back.

  The creature screamed, but its cries were cut off as Derek—wielding Adam's ax—split its head in two with a massive overhead strike, getting completely drenched in a viscous fluid in the process.

  Akane didn't think that would have done much if the crawler was as robust as the earthworm it was based on. They could survive being cut in half, after all. But scaling a creature up that much did more than just leave you with a bigger monster. They couldn't deal with the increased demands of the larger body.

  So, bleeding from dozens of minor wounds and a few much bigger ones, the alley crawler finally went still.

  Akane sighed deeply with relief and slid off its back. Derek caught her and stopped himself just before pulling her close.

  No. It wasn't Derek. It was Flynn. Not Derek. Not.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, looking into her eyes as though searching for something. He did seem genuinely concerned, but how much of that could she really trust?

  “I called MC,” Derek said a few feet away as he flipped his phone closed. “Our employer is outside.” He grimaced. “Let's have a chat with him, shall we?”

  It turned out that “outside,” in this case, meant about ten feet from the door to the lecture hall. He had apparently been informed where they were.

  He was a teacher dressed in an understated suit and tie. He looked about sixty which was positively ancient in Domina. People died young in a city of monsters. It was possible he had just used toys to make himself look older, though.

  “Thank you very much, Mister Huntsman.” He smiled, though there was a hint of strain at the edge of it. “Of course, normally we'd take the property damage out of your pay, but I understand that you prevented far worse.” He reached into his vest and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. “Here you are, as agreed on.”

  Derek glared at the proffered cash, then met the old man's gaze. “Multiply that by twenty-five.”

  Akane thought the man would have a heart attack right then and there. “Twenty-five? Are you completely insane? A simple alley crawler—”

  “Mister Vere,” Derek interrupted, “what do you know about alley crawlers?”

  Their employer stood up a little straighter. “Quite a bit. I teach monster anatomy, you know.” The cadence of his voice changed, and Akane had a feeling he was switching to lecture mode. “They a
re one of the more common types of monster, although they cannot breed. The fey enjoy seeding them through the sewers, and they generally only last a few months before their bodies simply break down.”

  “How big are they, Mister Vere?”

  The teacher blinked. “A foot wide, twenty long. Why?”

  Without a word, Derek led him into the ruined classroom, letting him see the destruction and the two dead two hundred foot-long worms.

  It was almost worth the entire fight just to see his reaction. He stumbled back from the scene, tripping over broken seats and trying to run from the smell. It was worse than before since the blood had mixed with the waste from the broken sewage line in a smell that could only be called unholy. Derek gripped him tightly with one hand, trapping him as surely as if he had put him in a headlock.

  “As you can see,” Derek said calmly, “these worms are about ten times the size of normal. So the reward should be multiplied by ten as well. And, of course, there are two, so the reward should be increased proportionately.” He glared daggers at the cowering man in his grip. “And since you sent me and mine into an extremely dangerous situation with false intelligence, I'm tacking on an extra five.” He leaned in close, terrifying the old bastard even more, and whispered dangerously. “This is me being merciful, Vere. I could ask for fifty and your head on a platter.”

  The teacher looked like he might have that heart attack after all. “But... but she said that the second was just backup! That there was no way both would survive!”

  Derek's eyes narrowed to slits. “Explain.”

  Vere swallowed and glanced at the rest of them, perhaps wondering if he could escape if he managed to break Derek's iron grip.

  He started talking.

  “We—the school board, I mean—bought them from the Queen of Eternal Silver last year.” Seeing the looks on their faces, he hurried to continue. “That's the court of Day's Southern Summer.”

  There were thirty-two fey courts, split between the four seasons, the four directions, and then Night and Day. Each court had three members, a Maiden, a Matron and a Crone—the Princess, the Queen, and the Queen-Mother. Obviously, that should have meant that there were ninety-six fey, but with their homunculi, it was impossible to know for sure. There could have been more, less... no one could tell. Not that it mattered.

  “Why bother?” Derek demanded. “You had to know dealing with fey was stupid.”

  The old man flinched from his tone. “Well, yes. But you see, AU was a bit poorly constructed. The school itself is fine, but the sewage system was... not very well thought out.” He shrugged awkwardly. “We needed the worms to handle the overflow.”

  “But...” Akane started, then stopped as everyone turned to her.

  Flynn seemed to figure out what she meant and finished for her. “But how did they get to the surface?”

  Vere licked his lips nervously. “Well... you see, crawlers usually end up above ground for a variety of reasons.” He seemed a bit more sure of himself, now that he was back in lecture mode. “Sometimes the fey release them, but mostly it's because they find a manhole, come out, and then can't figure out how to get back in.”

  Ling raised an eyebrow. “If your manholes are big enough to let one of these things through, no wonder your sewers are screwed up.”

  “Worms can fit through surprisingly small spaces,” Vere said. “Although I'll admit this strains credulity a little.”

  Derek snorted. “The fey probably got bored and let them out for kicks. Probably cracked the black water line down there as well.” He indicated the pit of the lecture hall, still filled with sewage.

  Vere groaned. “We're going to need to have that repaired. This entire floor is going to be useless for a month.”

  “So,” Derek said, still gripping the man by the arm. “Twenty-five times the agreed reward seems fair?”

  Their employer looked at him, then glanced at the dead crawlers again.

  “Two and a half thousand dollars. Agreed.”

  Derek pulled out his phone. “You get all that, MC? Good. Have them take it to my room.” He sighed. “I think we all need long showers.”

  Chapter 25: QUIESCO

  LAURA

  Laura stared at her phone. Derek had just called and wanted to meet up at a coffee shop nearby. Oh, and she should bring Lizzy.

  Silver and gold, that man was annoying.

  “So that was Derek?” Lizzy asked, shuffling her shopping bags in her arms. She was wearing a canary-yellow sundress, despite the declining temperature. She compensated with a long black scarf wrapped a couple times around her neck, but Laura still couldn't understand how she could survive in the cold. “What did he want?”

  “They just finished a monster hunt and wanted to have lunch,” Laura said tiredly. “Over at that cafe near the dorms.”

  “Cool! That could be fun!” They were heading that direction anyway. There was really no reason not to go.

  Dammit, Laura thought.

  Shopping with Elizabeth Greene was an... interesting experience. She seemed to consider it a challenge to buy the most stuff with the least amount of money, despite the fact that she had pretty decent funds from the web animation thing she was a voice actress for. Now, one may think that this wasn't any different from what anyone else did while shopping, but Lizzy didn't care what she bought, so long as she got good deals. Her bags were filled with knickknacks, souvenirs, and all manner of junk she didn't care about in the least.

  On the other hand, she did buy a bit of winter clothing for herself. When she was buying things she actually needed, her brain apparently turned off. Laura had to keep her from buying a two hundred dollar sweater that wasn't noticeably different than the twenty dollar one a couple stores down. That was why she dragged Laura to these things. She needed a chaperone.

  For her part, Laura just bought a jacket, some underwear, and more ammo for her Occisor. She was pretty much out since the attack a few days ago, and it wouldn't do to run dry in the middle of a mission.

  “Laura! Lizzy! Over here!”

  Laura glanced up to see Ling waving them over; they already had a couple tables pulled together. They were wearing different clothes than this morning and had picked up another member: An ambiguously dark-skinned baseline with a long black bag next to him—probably a sword like Akane's.

  Lizzy ran over, weaving through the tables with her big bags, and Laura followed close behind, a little reserved. They came in at the middle of a conversation.

  “I just don't get how you can leave them behind,” Derek said in an annoyed tone.

  “I didn't think I'd need anything more than the Sica,” Adam replied. “I won't make that mistake again, trust me.”

  “Hey guys,” Laura grunted.

  Everyone looked up and greeted them warmly, especially Derek, though he only had eyes for Lizzy.

  “Hisashiburi desu ne, Ken-chan!” Lizzy said to Akane. “Kono otoko-no-ko wa dare desu ka?”

  “Hello, Elizabeth,” Akane said in English—very pointedly in English.

  This was one of the strange things about Lizzy. She couldn't learn facts about history or science to save her life, but her language skills were incredible. Laura didn't even know how many she spoke, but Japanese was apparently one of them. She had tried to do the same thing to Laura with Spanish, but Laura had never had any interest in her own heritage, and she wasn't particularly good with languages anyway. Eventually, Lizzy had given up.

  Before Lizzy could launch into a whole conversation in a language only one of them understood, Laura plopped down in the nearest chair and set her bags on the table. “So what happened with the crawler?” She nodded at the baseline. “And who's the new guy?”

  “I'm Flynn,” he said, offering his hand to shake. Laura took it. “I'm in Akane's kendo class.”

  Lizzy nearly jumped out of her seat. “That's perfect!” She dug around in her bags for a moment before finally pulling out a small carved wooden statuette of a giant in a combat stance. A tr
oll, judging by the claws. She placed it carefully on the table in front of him. “There, that's yours.”

  Flynn blinked and picked it up. “This is amazing detail... where did you find it?”

  “Somebody makes them... somewhere,” Lizzy said cheerfully, not caring that she couldn't even remember something that had happened less than an hour ago. “They're really good.”

  He held it carefully. “And you bought it... for me?”

  She laughed. “No, of course not. But I knew it would be a good present for someone, and then you showed up.” She smiled widely. “Isn't that what they call fate?”

  “I...” He nodded in thanks. “Thank you. I'll treasure it.”

  Laura knew that Lizzy might be dumb as a sack of rocks, but she found ways to do kind things for others, no matter the circumstances. Not to mention that she seemed to always know the right kind of gift for each person; Flynn clearly liked wood carvings. Was it luck that she had chosen that one, or something else?

  Of course, it would probably break in about a week. Lizzy had a good heart, but she wasn't very good at buying things that would stand the test of time. Actually, that explained a lot of her shopping.

  “Ii hito desu ne,” she said. Though she was still looking at Flynn, she was obviously talking to Akane. “Kareshi desu ka?”

  Akane coughed, struggling to breathe. Flynn immediately patted her on the back, trying to help her get out whatever she was choking on; she waved him away, and he stopped quickly.

  “Naraba, hontōni kareshi desu nē?” Lizzy pressed excitedly.

  Akane finally managed to reply. “By Musashi's gravestone, stop talking.”

  Adam spoke up. “Uh, for those of us who don't speak Japanese...” Akane made a cutting motion with her hand, and the matter was closed.

  There was an awkward silence for a moment, which Laura managed to break before it dragged on too long. “So why'd you all change clothes? I thought you were just hunting crawlers.”