Kaelen looked at his hand, flexing and unflexing. The ugly rats around him hesitated before their next attack, giving him a chance to marvel at his work.

  “Hey!” Jade shouted. “Good bloody job, mate! I always believed in ya! Now do it again and ain’t never stop!”

  As if Kaelen needed an invitation. After that disappointing fight in the Gnometown alleyway, it felt unbelievably good to finally let go. It was like scratching an itch he couldn’t reach before.

  One after another, bloaters met his ire. For the first time in a long while, ever since awakening in this ridiculous new era, Kaelen felt something that approximated real joy. His magic worked when he wanted it. He pulled out different spells from his endless bag of tricks:

  [Thunder Burst]

  [Moon’s Bane]

  [Shadow Bolt]

  Remembering what Jade warned him about, he made sure not to use any fire-based magic. But it wasn’t like he needed it. Even his weakest spells exploded these wretched creatures into gory bits.

  The more of these pathetic creatures he destroyed, the more he craved this battle to continue. The rats obliged. Another wave of eyes appeared. Then another. Then, more scraping from the sides as bloaters squeezed through cracks and secondary channels. They came from everywhere, masses of them, hissing through split lips, tumbling over one another in their frenzy.

  “A'ight,” Jade said, backing up rapidly. “I know I said ‘thousands’, but they ain’t supposed to be many.”

  “There are always more vermin than one expects,” Kaelen said calmly. “Stand back.”

  [Moon Bolt]

  He burned four rodents in quick succession. But for every one that fell, three more pushed forward. His spells illuminated the tunnel in flashes, briefly revealing ugly little bodies that blotted out the floor. A wave of living filth, with their patchy fur and slick skin stretched tight over misshapen limbs.

  Kaelen noted. Despite their madness, there was an unnerving awareness behind their eyes.

  “If we’re lucky, maybe ya could block the tunnel with their bodies,” Jade noted, stepping back as another bloater burst against the wall in a spray of dark sludge.

  “A mage does not rely on luck. But do feel free to step in.”

  Kaelen didn’t truly expect the girl to be of any use, but surprisingly, she darted forward just enough to get a clear line of sight and flicked her wrist. Something thin and metallic flashed before embedding itself in a swollen eye of one of the bloaters. The creature spasmed and dropped.

  The girl didn’t pause. Another flick. Two needles this time, flying in a tight arc that curved unnaturally midair before striking the joints of a lunging rat. It collapsed mid-leap, limbs folding uselessly beneath it.

  Kaelen spared Jade a glance.

  “[Needle Dancer]?” he asked absently, incinerating a cluster that tried to flank them.

  “Aye, somethin’ like that,” she shot back, already reaching for more. “I ain’t one of ‘em Seven Sword Saints, but for a few spheres, I might as well kill a few bastards.”

  Where she pulled these blades and needles from, Kaelen could not tell. They seemed to appear between her fingers, thin slivers of steel catching light from his spells before vanishing into rat flesh. Some of them pinned bloaters to the walls, others ricocheted off stone to find their target.

  The swarm soon adapted. A few of the larger bloaters hung back now, pushing smaller rats forward as their living shields.

  He wondered where mere rats would pick up on such tactics.

  Jade pivoted without question, sending a fan of blades across the wall. Six more rats dropped, but more kept coming.

  “Keep the pressure,” Kaelen murmured. He scorched a path ahead with one of his spells, but the creatures quickly filled in the space.

  Jade’s breathing grew heavier over time, but surprisingly, her movements sharpened rather than slowed. Each throw was faster than the last, more confident. If the girl was afraid, she was good at swallowing that fear down.

  A bloater the size of a small hound forced its way to the front of the swarm. Three needles struck its face in rapid succession, two in the eyes, one in the soft spot between them. The creature collapsed at her feet.

  “I’m close,” Jade announced. “Real close.”

  “To death?” Kaelen asked dryly.

  “To leveling up, ya prat!”

  Another rat leapt from the pile. She caught it midair with a blade that curved upward and flashed Kaelen a feral grin.

  “Ya probably leveled up already. Must’ve killed a hundred of ‘em.”

  It would take a solid week of this pointless battle for Kaelen’s experience bar to move even a fraction.

  When he noticed a small glow engulf Jade, he knew that she indeed leveled up. This wasn’t the best timing, though, as the girl got immediately distracted, picking her next ability from the list.

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  “Whatever shall I pick? Hmm,” she murmured to herself as Kaelen killed the bloaters around her. The feather in her hair trembled slightly as she contemplated her next ability. “Oh, that’s a good one, methinks.”

  She joined the fight again, not revealing what she picked – not that Kaelen was interested in finding out. Whatever it was, it didn’t help them stave off the hordes of smelly creatures.

  As they continued killing off countless rats while slowly ceding ground, Kaelen heard a strange sound coming from behind them. Expecting the worst, he glanced over his shoulder.

  Dark shapes seeped out of the branching passage. He saw long, slick bodies with rubbery flesh and countless tendrils, all of different sizes. The tentacles dragged across brick and sewage, pulling their bulk forward. They had slitted, dull eyes and wide, circular mouths with rows upon rows of tiny, razor-sharp teeth.

  He heard Jade gasp: “Dung-eater!”

  “Who?”

  Even in this desperate situation, Jade couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Dung-eater. He who eats dung, duh! Ya cityfolk really stupid. Ya been sleepin’ for the last century or somethin’?”

  “They look familiar,” Kaelen muttered, evading one of the tendrils that tried to grab his leg. “Though we had simpler names for them.”

  The nearest dung-eater slapped a tentacle against the ground and surged toward them. Jade was frantically turning her head left to right, trying to assess the situation. Behind them, bloaters advanced. Ahead, more writhing limbs emerged.

  Kaelen weighed his options. He could burn a path through the bloaters but risk missing Jade in the chaos. Or he could turn his wrath on the dung-eaters, but doing so would open them to attack from behind.

  “Hurry!” Jade shouted. “They be closin’ in!”

  Her voice cracked. Fear, real fear, stripped all attitude from it.

  , Kaelen mused. True to his words, Jade soon shrieked in a decidedly non-adult fashion.

  When Kaelen turned, he saw that one of the dung-eaters had already wrapped a tentacle around her ankle. She clawed at the tunnel floor, kicking with her free leg, but the creature dragged her toward its gaping mouth. Her fingers slipped on the wet stone. She screamed again.

  Kaelen exhaled sharply.

  He thrust his hand forward. A precise bolt of energy slammed into the tentacle, slicing it cleanly. The burnt limb recoiled, shriveling. Jade scrambled backward, gasping.

  “Behind you!” Jade and Kaelen screamed at each other at the same time.

  Just as another tentacle tried to grab the girl, a bloater leapt at Kaelen. He grabbed it mid-air and crushed its skull with a burst of heat, tossing its smoldering carcass aside. He swept his arm in a broad arc. [Shadow Wall] roared outward, clearing a narrow circle. But the creatures kept coming from all directions.

  Jade clung to his coat, shaking. “Too many. There’s just too many o’ these bloody sons of piss!”

  “I am aware,” Kaelen said flatly. He scanned the tunnel for exits. None presented themselves. The only open route was upward, through a maintenance hatch above them. It was too high for Jade, possibly too high even for him if his wound decided now was a good time to remind him of its existence.

  More bloaters surged. A dung-eater’s tentacle lashed toward Jade again. Kaelen incinerated it without looking, though whether it was one creature or several, he couldn’t quite tell. It was a tangle of tentacles.

  Sweat began to gather at his temple. Too many damn monsters in such a narrow space. There was hardly enough air to breathe. And the smell…

  “We climb,” he ordered.

  “What? Up there?” Jade looked at the hatch. “Ya nuts?”

  “I will not have you question me, girl. Climb.”

  He lifted her by the collar – light as a rag – and shoved her upward. “Grab the protrusion.”

  “The what?!”

  “The pipe, damn you!”

  “Oh! That thing!”

  She grabbed the pipe, swinging her legs wildly as she tried to find purchase. Kaelen blocked another bloater, then leapt and grabbed the next pipe with his good side. The wound tugged sharply, threatening to pull him back down. He grit his teeth and hauled himself upward.

  “Keep climbing,” he barked.

  “I’m tryin’!”

  A tentacle snapped up at them, slapping the wall inches from Jade’s shoe. She screamed and scurried higher. Kaelen kicked the creature back and climbed again. The bloaters piled beneath them, trying to leap, but slipping on one another. It looked like they were building a living tower from the bodies of their fallen kin.

  The hatch was old iron, rusted but intact.

  “Open it,” Kaelen said.

  “I… I don’t got no key!”

  “Then push, girl!”

  She pushed. Nothing.

  “Harder.”

  “I pushin’!”

  Kaelen looked down. A dung-eater was scaling the wall with unnatural flexibility, pulling itself upward with three tentacles while a fourth reached for Jade.

  Kaelen snarled and blasted the thing off the wall. It screeched as it fell back into the swarm. He then reached up and planted his hand against the hatch. He didn’t have time for finesse, so he simply it.

  The hatch popped open with a loud metallic crack.

  Jade scrambled up and through the opening. Kaelen climbed after her, dragging himself out just as another tentacle shot up from below. He wanted to close the hatch behind him, but he was a moment too late.

  Rats poured in, followed by larger shadows. Not one, but several dung-eaters, their tentacles slapping stone as they hauled themselves upward. Kaelen staggered back, putting a good dozen feet between himself and the oncoming horde.

  Kaelen thrust his palm forward and released a controlled flame. The gas that filled the tunnel behind the rats ignited instantly, and the world turned white.

  The explosion slammed outward in a concussive wall that ripped through the tunnel, vaporizing bloaters mid-surge and tearing the dung-eater apart in a spray of burning sludge and shattered flesh. The blast raced down the corridor in both directions, collapsing weaker sections and sealing others behind falling debris.

  [Fire Shield]

  He cast the spell half a heartbeat too late.

  Kaelen never considered how much gas had built up there. The force of the explosion hit him like a siege ram. His shield flared into existence just as the shockwave reached him, absorbing the worst of the heat but not the momentum. The ground vanished beneath his feet.

  His back collided with something.

  He had been thrown clean off his feet, his body caught in the blast and hurled straight into her. The impact drove the air from his lungs as they were flung backward together, tumbling across the stone in a fiery whirlwind.

  They hit hard. Kaelen’s shoulder slammed into the wall. Jade’s elbow cracked against his ribs. They skidded to a stop in a heap, the remains of his [Fire Shield] dissipating around them in flickers of fading heat.

  For a long moment, there was only ringing silence and drifting smoke.

  Kaelen coughed once and forced himself upright, every joint protesting. His wound screamed in response, hot and sharp as a blacksmith's knife, but it held. All in all, he wasn’t looking the worse for wear.

  Jade groaned and rolled off him, clutching her side. “Next time,” she wheezed, “maybe warn me before ya blow up the godsdamn tunnel.”

  He dusted off his clothes. “I figured you were so smart, you didn’t need any warnings.”

  She laughed weakly, then winced. “Ya funny bloody clown, ain’tcha.”

  Kaelen was already scanning the ruined tunnel. The passage behind them collapsed completely, a wall of broken stone and twisted pipe blocking pursuit. Ahead, the fire had burned itself out, leaving scorched brick and the charred remains of things that would not be moving again.

  Jade pushed herself into a sitting position and looked at the destruction. “A'ight, remind me never to complain about yer magic again.”

  Kaelen offered her a hand. “Remind me not to underestimate sewer rats. impudent little girls.”

  She took his hand.