by Sever Bronny
“It’s crucial we surprise the necromancer and capture its Exot ring first,” Augum reminded them. “Otherwise my father will be alerted.”
“And that’s exactly what worries me,” Leera muttered.
Augum surveyed the area around the alley. “All clear,” and strode rapidly across the cobbled street, the girls in tow. The rain pattered hard against his hood. A flash of lightning lit up rows of densely-packed masonry and brick. The ensuing rumble of thunder reverberated along with the anxiety in Augum’s heart. The city was dark in the storm, the street oil lamps blown out by the wind. There was an ominous tension in the air. He could feel people watching them from slits between closed shutters. The harsh scent of burning houses was in the air.
Augum strode through the open doorway, finding overturned oaken furniture and a cold hearth. The shadow of Erika Scarson stood in the corner with folded arms, sneering. He ignored her. Somewhere on the floor above there were frantic scuffing sounds against the planks, sounds that slowly eased. The trio tiptoed over to the foot of a rustic staircase, where they paused.
“You two concentrate on the necromancer,” Bridget whispered. “Leave the walkers to me. Use Centarro if you have to.”
Above, the scuffling ceased altogether. Augum exchanged a dark look with the girls before leading the way at a creep, blood racing as he readied for a fight. He peeked over the second-floor banister. The walkers stood idly near a wall while the hooded necromancer was performing the ritual on the body of a middle-aged man, who lay in a pool of blood.
Augum saw an opportunity—the necromancer, who had their back turned to them, was near defenseless while performing the ritual.
“Head,” Augum mouthed to Leera. “On three. One … two … three—” and the two of them smacked their wrists together. “ANNIHILO!” while Bridget cast the same spell against one of the walkers. The necromancer’s head blew off and one walker was sent flying through a window.
The remaining walkers immediately turned to dust.
“Didn’t even need to use this,” Leera said, allowing her short sword to disappear.
Augum yanked off the necromancer’s Exot ring, noticing the fingers had scaly black skin. He placed the ring on a nearby rustic table and readied to perform Disenchant on the Object Track enchantment infused with the ring.
“Wait,” Bridget said. “We don’t need this ring, do we?”
Augum shrugged. “I guess we don’t, why?”
“Our signature is to disenchant Object Track. If we do so here, in town, away from the gates, Sparkstone will know we’re up to something else.”
“Good point.” Augum replaced the Exot ring back onto that scaly hand. “Now it’ll appear a stray warlock took revenge.”
Leera slapped Augum and Bridget’s backs. “Let’s find those sewers.”
“Hey, you!” a woman’s voice called when they stepped back outside into the rain. The trio glanced up, finding a dark-skinned elderly woman leaning out a window from a house across the street.
“You know how many lives you just saved?” she asked, raising a hand.
The trio each raised a hand in return but said nothing, keeping their hoods drawn. It was best to keep going.
“Bless you!” she called as they hurried along. “Bless you …!”
They searched for a sewer entrance, finding plenty of barred grates, but none that allowed access.
The streets seemed to darken further as a chill wind whipped their necrophyte robes. Suddenly a flash of lightning briefly lit a distant hulking monster—a jagged mountain of a castle towering over the city, blacker than the night. The sight made Augum freeze in his tracks, reminding him of a vision he had long forgotten—that of a distant dark shape as he was tumbling end over end above the Tallows, caught in a fierce windstorm. That shape had been Mt. Barrow, and it had marked a massive change in his life.
Augum’s skin rose at a sound that reached him from an intersection ahead. It was a rhythmic stomping and it only meant one thing. The trio instantly bolted for cover, finding it in a nearby alley. They watched as a stream of black-armored soldiers soon emerged from the intersection, marching in tight formation.
“That’s a whole company,” Augum said, noting the sheer numbers—two hundred soldiers marching as one. Their helmed heads faced forward. But were they even human? If they were human, how did they feel about seeing the undead raiding their homes, tormenting their families, their friends and neighbors? But what he didn’t see was somewhat heartening—Dreadnought equipment. There was none to be found amongst the ranks. It was ordinary steel, steel most susceptible to arcanery and warfare.
The soldiers soon disappeared around a corner.
“We’re in the heart of the enemy,” Leera whispered.
“Look over here,” Bridget said behind them. She was crouching before an iron sewer cover, which she lifted telekinetically and set aside. Augum and Leera gathered round, peering into the darkness below.
Bridget pinched her nose. “Stinks down there.”
Leera gave her a look. “It’s a sewer. What do you expect, roses?”
Bridget ignored her and dug out the map. “Remember, we’re searching for the hub.”
“Shyneo.” Augum’s palm lit up with lightning. He swung onto a rusted iron ladder embedded into the sewer wall and began descending, the girls following right behind after lighting their palms as well. He heard the cover slide back on above. He jumped the last bit, landing on slippery ground beside a channel of rapidly-flowing water rising right to the edge of the floor.
“Run-off from the storm,” Leera said, landing beside him and removing her hood. “At least it helps with the smell.”
Bridget consulted the map briefly. “This way, I think,” and began walking.
The tunnel was round and made from giant blocks of masonry patched with old white mortar. At the apex of the ceiling were enormous keystone blocks. Water poured from street grates above, splashing into the river. Other than these dim grates that flashed with occasional lightning, their palms were the only sources of light.
The sewer was a giant grid that roughly mirrored the city above. Thinner intersecting tunnels merged with the larger one they followed, forcing them to jump four-foot divides.
A ways down the tunnels, Bridget suddenly froze and extinguished her light, prompting Augum and Leera to immediately do the same.
“I hear something,” she whispered.
Augum could hear it too—the scuff of boots on slippery ground. Then there was a splash and a scream.
“Father—!” a girl’s voice shouted.
“Harold, get back on the ledge!” a woman cried. “Harold—!”
A pale light flared in an intersecting tunnel ahead just as a pair of limbs was seen splashing around in the rapid waters. The trio sprang into action.
“Fish him out with Telekinesis—” Augum said.
An ebony-skinned woman soon emerged from around the corner followed by a young girl with an arcanely-lit palm and a matching air ring around her arm. The girl shrieked upon seeing the trio.
“Momma! Necrophytes! AAAAAAAH!”
The girl, who looked a bit younger than the trio, was wearing nothing more than rags while the mother wore a heavily-patched gown and was burdened by many over-stuffed sacks.
“We can help!” Bridget said before focusing on the drowning man, who obviously couldn’t swim. The trio pulled on him as if embroiled in an invisible tug-of-war. The man was heavy and in a full-on panic, making it difficult to maintain an arcane grip. Nonetheless, they finally managed to drag him out of the water. He flopped onto the landing like a gasping beached whale. The man had olive skin, a potbelly and a receding hairline.
“Oh, Harold!” The woman quickly dropped her sacks and attended to her husband, eyeing the trio warily.
“You going to report us?” the girl asked weakly. She had choppy short hair and held tightly onto two filthy rucksacks. Her palm flickered out but her single air ring stubbornly clung onto her arm.
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“No, of course not,” Leera replied. “Are you from the academy?”
The girl slowly shook her head. “Nope.”
“You’re not going to tell no one we were here, will you?” the woman asked.
“No, we won’t,” Bridget said. “What’s going on up there?”
The woman gave her an odd look.
“We’re not part of the Legion,” Augum added, taking a gamble. “We’re undercover. We’re part of the Resistance.”
The woman’s eyes softened. “There ain’t no Resistance, only slaughter. And you’d be fools for not leaving the city.”
“Why?”
“His Lordship has gone mad. He’s turning us poor souls into the undead. Turning us by the hundreds … maybe thousands. He says we failed him. We failed in the Great Quest. He says he has to do everything himself. He says we’re no good as servants.”
“I lost the food,” the man gasped, sitting up and coughing. “I done lost the sack of food in the waters!”
Bridget didn’t hesitate. “Take ours.” She removed the rucksack from her back and began digging through it. “We can find some along the way if need be.” She withdrew their supplies and placed them in a pile in front of her. Bread, apples, prunes, cheese, salted dried beef and fish. The works.
“Suddenly I’m hungry,” Leera muttered to Augum.
The girl eyed it warily before striding over and snatching it, then quickly retreated to her mother’s side, stuffing the food into a sack.
The man nodded beyond the trio. “There a way out that way?”
“We don’t know,” Bridget replied. “Just got down here ourselves. We’re searching for the sewer hub. A big round room of tunnels.”
“Then you want to turn into our tunnel back that way,” the man said. “Then turn left. It’s a ways up there.”
“But there’s monsters,” the girl whispered, right before the grates lit up with several flashes of silent lightning. Thunder rumbled through the sewers moments later.
“What kind of monsters?” Bridget asked delicately. “Walkers? Reavers? Wraiths—?”
The girl had a distant look on her face. “They took Bumper from us …”
“Bumper was our hound,” the woman said. “Bless that old mutt’s soul. Attacked a monster, giving us time to get away …”
There was a distant set of rapid clacks from where the family had come from, making the trio exchange knowing looks.
“Thanks for the grub and help,” the man quickly said, helped to his feet by the woman. “Best we get going.”
“Shyneo,” the girl said, relighting her palm. She studied their faces a moment. “You three look like the wanted ones on them posters.”
“We get that a lot,” Leera said.
The girl shrugged. “I hope you’re them. I hope you came to make revenge on what they done to folks.” Then she hurried by, the mother and father following without a backward glance.
“Hope they make it out of the city all right,” Bridget said, watching them disappear into the darkness.
The trio took a right and then a left while listening for the telltale clack of the undead, stopping at an intersection of three tunnels. Bridget consulted the map. “This isn’t the hub. Supposed to be round and much larger.” She indicated the tunnel ahead. “I think it’s that way.”
Leera pointed at something floating in the water. “What’s that?”
They watched as the oblong shape bobbed closer.
“A body,” Bridget gasped, edging away from the waters.
They watched it disappear into the darkness behind.
Just as they were about to set off, the sound of a sharp voice echoed from ahead and the trio instinctively snuffed their palm lights.
“Sounded like a command,” Augum whispered, listening intently. He hoped it wasn’t a necromancer. Trying to surprise one and steal its Exot ring before it could notify the Lord of the Legion would be a tough challenge in such confined quarters.
They crouched quietly near the wall, surrounded by darkness and the occasional flash of lightning. The water lapped at the edges of the landing as it rushed by. Augum had mostly gotten used to the stench.
There came a series of low growls.
“Smell something, my pets?” a woman said from an offshoot tunnel ahead. She had a gravelly voice, as if having smoked a pipe all her life.
Augum felt his muscles tense as he readied a spell on his lips.
“That’s it, loves, hunt out the hiding swine. Go get ‘em, my pets. Get!” There was a snapping sound and the rush of canine feet.
A flash of lightning abruptly lit up jagged black teeth and a snout just as it rounded the corner.
“Hellhounds!” Augum spat, followed by, “BAKA!” but he evidently missed in the darkness, for he got barreled over with an “OOF!”
“BAKA!” Bridget shouted, sending a second hellhound flying into the water, where it splashed like a fish caught on a line.
Meanwhile, Augum fought with the hellhound on top of him. It was a giant one, larger than a wolf, red eyes gleaming. Its jaws snapped ferociously at his face as he held its squishy neck, barely able to keep it at bay. Its skin was loose, threatening to slough off, making the grip difficult to hold. He was all too aware that a single bite from those teeth would lead to a serious poisoning which, if not treated immediately, would quickly result in death. If they had any forethought, they would have brought the Oxy plant, an antidote.
“Summano arma!” Leera shouted, flaring a short sword into her hand. She stabbed the monster in the ribs, but it was so large it barely noticed.
“ANNIHILO!” a woman’s voice shouted, followed by a grunt from Bridget. For a horrifying moment, Augum thought she had been hit, only to see her bark leaf shield disappear before she replied with, “ANNIHILO!” This time it was the other women that grunted, apparently blocking the strike with her own shield. Augum saw a flash of fire before the hellhound on top of him began jerking its head so violently Augum accidentally let go. In that moment, the opposing warlock cried, “Voidus vis!” and all went dark. Augum then felt a horrifying ripping in his neck. His body was suddenly thrashed about violently before being tossed into the water like a rag doll. The last thing he was aware of before slipping into the eternal abyss of death … was being held in a loving embrace.
Shadows
There came a series of low growls.
“Smell something, my pets?” a woman said from an offshoot tunnel ahead. She had a gravelly voice, as if having smoked a pipe all her life.
Suddenly Leera, who had been crouching behind Augum in the darkness, blinked into existence in front of him, her palm now lit. She was pale as death as she screamed, “Light your palms! Hellhounds ahead—!”
Before Augum could even figure out what in Sithesia was going on, the enemy woman finished saying, “Go get ‘em, my pets. Get!” There was a snapping sound and the rush of canine feet.
“Shyneo!” Augum and Bridget said, lighting their palms.
Leera screamed before raising her shield, blocking an invisible strike from her left. But it had been a phantom attack, no doubt from a shadow only she could see. Augum yanked her back while raising his own shield just in time, taking the brunt of a hellhound lunge from the front, and fully conscious Leera had to have had very good reason to have finally successfully cast Cron for the first time in her life.
Two hellhounds rabidly scratched and gnawed on Augum’s black lightning shield, which he refused to drop, for the path was just thin enough and his shield just wide enough to hold them at bay.
“DUCK!” Leera screamed at Bridget, dragging Augum down with her. Bridget, who was about to cast her First Offensive, ducked instead just as the enemy woman shouted, “ANNIHILO!”
A giant fireball seared the air overhead as it whooshed by, slamming into a distant wall behind them, briefly lighting up the tunnel.
“Don’t drop your shield in the darkness!” Leera said, voice tinged with panic.
“Voidus v
is!” the enemy woman snapped even before Leera had finished speaking. Leera’s palm light snuffed as they were enveloped in thick darkness.
“Hold shields!” Leera shouted as she thrashed on the ground beside Augum, seemingly under attack from a shadow.
There was the slap of wrists smacking into each other beside Augum’s head. “ANNIHILO!” but the thump indicating a hit sounded like stone. Bridget had missed her target.
“Paralizo carcusa cemente!” the enemy woman shouted, and Augum felt Bridget freeze beside him.
Every fiber of his being was telling him to drop the shield and attack, but Leera kept repeating, “Hold, hold, hold …” Considering that she had cast Cron and his shield was taking a massive beating, he held firm, leaning his body into it and refusing to allow his concentration to falter.
Leera briefly popped up, shouting, “Voidus vis!” casting her own Darkness spell, followed quickly by, “Summano elementus minimus!” only to curse when the spell failed. It fleetingly occurred to Augum she was not in ideal fighting form, likely due to a harrowing casting of Cron.
“BAKA!” the woman shouted, and Augum felt his shield take a strong shove. He grunted from the effort of keeping it up.
“Hold it, hold it, hold it!” Leera kept saying, while he kept thinking, Risk it, risk it, risk it! He wanted to counter attack.
Suddenly there was a splash just ahead. The woman had dived into the water!
“NOW!” Leera screamed.
Augum instantly dropped his shield and shoved the air directly before his crouched position. “BAKA!” he and Leera shouted simultaneously. There was a dual canine yelp and the sound of two bodies tumbling, followed by a single splash, meaning one hellhound was still on the path.
“Woman and hellhound in the water!” Augum reported.
“Get the hounds, I got the woman—” and Leera dove into the water while Augum charged. The moment he emerged from both darkness clouds, his knee accidentally connected with the hellhound’s snout. He instinctively followed up with a kick from his other leg. “Summano arma!” There was nothing more comforting than feeling that lightning long sword crackle to life in his fist.
