Chapter 25 – Sewer Surfin’ (Patreon)

Jimmy didn’t like the large room. The pool of light their lantern cast marked them out as easy targets, but nothing had attacked them yet.

Worse, there were still no monsters. It was eerie and unnatural. This was the System’s multiverse and all that junk. There ought to be some monsters crawling around. Jimmy didn’t like that one bit.

Glenn was still tracking the Rogue, but he was getting confused. Their target kept moving, and though Glenn could tell the direction he was in, he couldn’t tell how far he was.

The man could be many rooms away, miles even, or in this very room. The latter didn’t seem likely. They had been in here for several minutes already and the Rogue hadn’t engaged them.

He began to let a little bit of tension bleed out from his shoulders.

“Elsie, go check the far end of the room, take the second lantern and Gretchen with you,” Jimmy relayed to the others. “He came through here, but we don’t know exactly where. Best not to get ambushed.”

The flaxen-haired Archer nodded, picked up the lantern and headed out with the rather dumpy-looking Mage trailing behind her and clutching her spellbook as if it was a teddy bear.

Jimmy shook his head. Gretchen was more than capable enough in a fight, but by looking at her you’d think she would faint right away at the first sight of blood, not turn somebody inside out with that explosive magic of hers.

She was somebody to watch out for. You got that sometimes in new recruits that looked fresh off the farm. Something dark awakened inside them when they smelled the blood and sweat of the battlefield.

“Smells like an overflowing toilet in here,” Austin complained, poking at a slimy slab of stone near where they came in from. “Who would even have a sewer? Nobody’s alive right?”

“Maybe it’s an ancient cesspit,” Glenn offered reluctantly. “We don’t know how magic works here, right? Maybe it was kept preserved for some reason or it’s just a weird confluence of events predicated on unknown variables.”

Rochelle groaned like a teenager having to sit through a lecture. “I hate it when he talks like that.”

Glenn raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, just because we’re tracking down this Rogue doesn’t mean I can’t take in the sights, right?”

Austin shook his head. “While you’re busy sightseeing, I’ll be the one dealing the killing blow to the Rogue. Show him what we do to traitors.”

Something stirred in the room. Jimmy couldn’t tell what it was, but suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck were standing. “Get down!” he yelled, grabbing the most valuable of the group, Glenn, and pulling him to the filthy floor.

A whistling sound echoed across the huge stone room. Two black daggers outlined in purple-red light suddenly sprouted from the necks of Rochelle and Austin.

Jimmy could only stare in horror as the blood poured out like a faucet around the small black blades lodged in their necks. Still holding onto Glenn’s cloak, he cursed and rolled back up the slightly slanted room toward where they came.

His only thoughts were to find cover. They had just walked right into an ambush!

***

Luke ignored the notifications while he watched the remaining 4 scurry about, separated. It was all he could ask for, and they had even blatantly told him what they were here for.

All doubt erased from his mind, Luke stalked the distant pair toward the far side of the room. The Gladiator and the Archer were alerted to his presence, and the Archer seemed to be able to track him.

While it would normally make sense to take out the Archer first, he was protected by the Gladiator. Though Luke was getting good with his knives, he wasn’t sure he could get a quick kill like that again. Besides, he wasn’t about to let that other group pincer him while he tried to take out the Archer.

He turned to the two lambs, lost in the night, alone and confused after that shout of warning. The lantern that the Warrior had been holding was dropped to the ground in a pool of brackish water, leaving the Archer and Gladiator far out of its illuminating glow.

The Mage and Archer, on the other hand, had been examining a cavernous opening that led deeper into the sewers. Luke had been hoping there was another way forward other than down there.

The stones that way were covered in a thick and slippery slime and the floor suddenly slanted sharply down. One step over that lip and he wasn’t confident of his ability to get back up.

Taking out two more knives that he charged with his [Lacerate] skill, Luke tossed them at the stranded duo.

They flew true and should have scored mortal blows. A foot before they were to reach their intended targets, the blades hit a shimmering barrier and were deflected by a flash of light.

“Over there!” the woman shouted, holding out a spellbook and chanting.

Luke suddenly felt his skin prickle with heat as if he had stuck his head into a roaring hot oven. He dashed forward as fast as he could, a wave of heat and light flashing against his back.

He managed to recover enough to keep his footing. Another spell was already sliding toward him.

He didn’t know enough about magic to understand how it worked, but clearly the Mage was more skilled than he expected. Perhaps it would have been better to take her out first.

The Archer at her side, having gotten a good look at Luke backlit by the explosion of fire, drew an arrow and let fly. A look of distressing glee on his features.

These people aren’t entirely right in the head, Luke decided.

Luke poured on the speed, moving while wrapping more shadows around him. The Mage hounded him, creating explosions of fire and light that made running and dodging difficult.

Eventually she would run out of mana, but all they needed was to get one good shot to slow him down. He was confident his mana would outlast hers. While his shadow powers drank it up, it seemed likely that explosive magic spells took a lot of energy to cast.

I only have a few seconds before that other Archer starts shooting at me too, then I’ll be pinned down.

Luke did the only thing he could think of. He ran away. His skills were suited for ambush, bursts of damage and speed. Not a long protracted battle with him on the defensive.

If he had been able to push through that barrier and land either a [Poison] or [Bleed] affliction, things might have gone more in his favor and swayed his quick decision.

It was just his luck that the Mage and Archer were skilled ranged combatants. He might have been able to rush them, but that barrier bothered him.

There was likely a way to defeat it. Luke wasn’t sure he could do it before the other two joined the fray. His only advantage was that they lost him if he moved swiftly and clung to the shadows.

Without any health potions, he couldn’t take extreme risks with his life. Instead, he had another tactic to try.

Eventually, they would find him or get lucky with a spell that blasted away his shadows with fire and light. However, while they were trying to flush him out, they weren’t actually hurting him.

Each spell drained the Mage’s mana further.

Luke ran silently toward the sluice gates where he had taken out the first two would-be assassins, carefully skirting the lantern’s pool of light.

He could hear a hushed conversation to his left as he backed up right next to the foul-smelling slabs of stone leaking tiny rivulets of water.

I hope this works.Taking two throwing knives, Luke tossed them at the Mage and Archer again, successfully drawing their full attention.

He wished he had a barrier like that. It must tell her where the attack came from, because she immediately zeroed in on his position and began chanting.

The heat rose uncomfortably all around him, the shadow-darkened air sparkling like a heat haze. At the last moment, Luke dashed to the side and jumped for all he was worth.

The force of the explosion slammed into his back, carrying him far to the side and up a sloped stone embankment.

There was a horrendous sound of ripping stone and squealing metal as the sluice gates shattered. Rattling chains, like the haunted and damned, filled the room with terrible noise.

But it wasn’t the only sound Luke heard.

Just beneath the shattering stone and clinking chains, he heard a deep, ominous gurgle. His shadow vision saw the wave of fetid water as it rushed out from wherever it had been stored.

The parts of the sluice gate that weren’t damaged or destroyed met with the wall of water and vanished in the torrent that quickly flooded the room.

Luke felt himself being dragged along with the powerful current. With few options left, he pulled out two daggers and stabbed them into the stone to serve as anchors. He didn’t dare risk his swords. There was no regenerating them with mana if he lost them.

He looked over his shoulder as the sewer waters rushed out with a vengeance. Gray-brown foaming water whipped at his body, tugging him along with incredible turbulence.

If he was in trouble, it was nothing compared to the Mage and Archer. The lantern near the dead bodies was carried away first, so they managed to get a glimpse of both Luke and the waters as they passed by him.

Luke could hardly believe his eyes as the Mage, rather than getting to higher ground, began spellcasting again.

She must have thought that barrier of hers would keep her safe.

She was wrong.

Just as the conflagration would have roasted Luke to a crisp, the wall of foaming water crashed into the Mage and Archer. The barrier held for a moment and then flickered. It faded after the repeated pounding assault of detritus swept up by the water.

Water tugged at their feet and cascaded into the spillway behind. The spell went wide as the Mage was pulled down, screaming, into the watery darkness beyond.

He tried in vain to make sure none of that foul water got into his mouth. His eyes were already a lost cause. Don’t get pink eye, don’t get pink eye, he chanted the mantra miserably to himself as he struggled to hold on.

That was the least of his problems. The duo below was gone, but he was about to join them, and worse, the water was now on fire.

Magical flames from the Mage’s spell ignited the flow of bubbling water, lighting up the massive room and threatening to both burn and drown Luke.

He made an executive decision and let go just as a large piece of soggy driftwood streamed past. Letting one hand go of his dagger, he grabbed onto the wide plank and rolled onto it.

It was larger than his body and worn smooth throughout the years of damp down here. Somehow, it had managed to avoid rotting into a spongy mush.

An arrow streaked through the now well-lit room and caught him in the calf just as he was getting to his hands and knees.

He clenched his teeth, stifling a shout of pain as he took the world’s worst flume ride into the depths of the sewer.

Luke had no time to worry about the Archer and Gladiator behind him. He reached behind him and used one of his knives to cut the arrow at the shaft sticking out his leg.

Luke clenched his teeth. Every movement of the arrow sent jolts of agony through his bleeding calf, but he didn’t want to risk hitting it any more than he was already going to.

Because he had just reached the lip of the spillway and he saw, lit by streaks of fire and foam, just how much trash and debris he was going to have to avoid.

If he went under the foul water, he might as well just give up. Staying on top was the only option.

And that was how Luke took an impromptu surfing lesson in a sewer.