Runeblade

Yellow wardlights flickered in the Plucked Hen’s common room. They were well made — mimicked the soft luminance of candle fire in their tone, and a gentle waver. But even quality struggled to hold up to a week of hell.

Kaius sat at the makeshift round table that had been arranged in the centre of the common room, with his team at his left. The meeting with the city's leadership seemed unending — half an hour and they had yet to come to a consensus about if they should hole up and wait for something to change, or make a break for it.

He thought it a bit asinine — fleeing was suicide.

As the governor went through an exhaustive account of the state of their supplies, Kaius eyed the lights. That momentary flicker suggested a failure in the circuits that controlled them. Most likely something had loosened in the constant barrage of shudders that occurred during the Tyrants nightly bombardment. If the formation had been laid into the foundation of the building, it wouldn’t have taken all that much.

It would have been an easy fix — even lacking direct knowledge of the script, he would have been able to simply copy the work of whoever had initially laid them.

Not that he had the time. At least the thought of it was a good distraction.

A sudden flash of movement across the table ripped him from his peace. Madra, standing up with a sudden start. The man’s eyes were distant, almost like he was checking his notifications.

His status wouldn’t have left his eyes so wide, nor his face so pale.

Kaius’s stomach dropped. Something unexpected had happened — he doubted the gods would be so kind for it to be something pleasant.

Everyone stared at the earth mage — even his fellow member of Stonespire, Isaac. The other earthmage frowned, concentrating for a moment before his face twisted into an expression of horror.

Gods’ scorn, that wasn’t good.

“Madra, what’s happening?” Ro said calmly. Her voice was still iron hard, accepting no rebuke.

“A breach,” the man gasped. “Deep beneath the walls — barely on the edge of my senses. I would have missed them if I wasn’t scanning to distract myself. They’ve dug a tunnel.”

Pandemonium erupted. Kaius leapt to his feet, reaching for the comforting presence of his blade. They’d gotten into the catacombs? They were doomed. The structures beneath the city were a warren of overlapping paths — it would be almost impossible to hem the creatures in. They would be everywhere.

“Be ready,” He urged Porkchop through their bond — someone was going to have to seal that tunnel, and they were the only full team.

“Always.”

“Focus, mage!” Rieker barked, making Madra blink in shock. “Numbers, movements — anything you can tell us.”

Madra gave the man a shaky nod, before he turned to his fellow stone mage. “Boost me, I need better sight.”

Mana swirled around the pair, quickly racing into Madra's eyes — causing them to burn a vivid brown. He gasped for a second time.

“It’s hard to get a picture of strength, but three larger creatures have tunneled their way in. They must have some sort of natural earth magic — I have almost no influence surrounding them. Beasts are flooding in — movements are consistent with standard forces, though there could be Silvers hidden amongst them.”

The rest of the inn was dead silent. Kaius swallowed thickly. They’d waited for a change, now they had one. He only hoped they were strong enough to survive. If the beasts moved down, towards the ruin…

It would be a slaughter. The noncombatants hiding in those tunnels may as well be trussed up bits of meat even if they fought back. The Castellan could help, but that was a problem all on its own.

An active ruin, friendly to the common man? It would draw the attention of every major power on the continent. Deadacre wouldn’t survive that attention — wars had been fought over less.

And if his command over the automata was discovered, he doubted even being a Platinum delver would help him. He’d immediately become the most wanted man on Vaastivar.

“What are they doing!” Ro hissed. Her eyes flicked to Kaius for a bare moment, dread on her face. She must have come to the same realisation.

“They’re spreading out, and moving up. They must be planning to flood the city.”

“Gods’ scorn,” Rieker whispered.

The guildmaster snapped to the captain of the guard, jerking his head to say the man should join him. “We need to mobilise — get your men on the wall, I’ll get my delvers to cover the sewer entrances large enough for major excursions.”

He switched back to the stone mages. “Can the two of you collapse the tunnel they made — and maybe funnel the creatures to a specific exit?”

Isaac hesitated for a moment before he nodded, “Working over that distance will be tough — Half an hour for the entrance, another half to collapse key routes through the sewers.”

The captain of the guard leaned over the table, inspecting the large map they had been using to plan the battle. It was more than just the streets — with the help of the earthmages, a second page showed the tangled network of sewers beneath the city.

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“What about there?” he said, pointing to an open square in the south-west of the city. It had two large sluicegates leading to major conduits in the tunnels below.

“It’ll work. It’s close enough to the breach, we might be able to shave off a quarter hour or so. We’ll still need teams posted up through the city — no way we catch all of them in our net.”

Rieker nodded, before he stepped away — already barking orders into a communication artefact.

“We’ve got a problem,” Madra hissed. “The creatures that bored their way in have stopped, but I'm picking up movement. Some sort of swarm, and they’re moving down. I think it’s a hive queen.”

Rotten roots. What in all of the hells was a hive queen doing with the Tyrant’s forces? Such beasts never left their territories, existing under constant guard. Plus, Kaius had heard that they were mostly useless in combat — most of their abilities were geared to being hardy and pumping out as many young as possible.

Where the hell had the Tyrant even found one? Insectile beasts that could proliferate like that were priority targets — they were far too dangerous to be left alone.

If the creature’s young were heading towards the ruin… The Tyrant must have known there were people down there the whole time. The new born creatures would be weak…but so were those sheltering in the tunnels.

Ro met his eyes, her face filled with firm conviction. “Go, we need that queen dead.”

He nodded. “Where?”

Madra tapped the map — a section of sewers only a few blocks further into the city from the square they were planning to funnel the incursion into. “Beneath here — they’ve found some sort of open chamber in the catacombs."

Kaius nodded, before turning to his team. “Let's go. The longer we take to wipe them out, the more chances people die.”

There was no reason to wait. After days of battle, they had long since taken to moving fully kitted at all times. While he felt the cold chill of dread, Kaius couldn’t say that he was shocked by the development.

He’d always known something was coming — some tragedy the Tyrant had held in reserve for their darkest day. Carnage was in the air. This was the creature's last gambit, its last challenge before they would face it in the field. He felt it in his very bones.

Right as he moved towards the door, a bell toll struck him full in the chest. He paled — that was the sign of an incoming attack.

A runner burst through the door to the inn, chest heaving as he looked at them with wild eyes. Every single pair of eyes rested on the man, their silence heavy with dread.

“Massive push — they’re sending everything at the eastern gate.”

By the bloody gods. If it was a final gambit, it was a rotten good one.

Kaius gripped the hilt of his blade, meeting Ro’s eyes.

“Go! We’ll handle this part,” she urged.

He obeyed, running for the door with his team hot on his heels.

…

The sewers were even more rank than he remembered. Damp cobble covered in a green-brown slime surrounded him on all sides as he ran along one side of the tunnel. It was one of the larger ones — a thoroughfare big enough that he and Porkchop could move side by side.

To their right, a stream of shit and offal flowed. It had rained twice in the last week — deluges that had pulled rotting meat and viscera into the black rivers that ran beneath the streets. A grand testament to the situation they had found themselves in.

Turning a corner, Kaius spotted six beasts — lurking, furred things with claws as long as his arm. Driven by a Tyrant’s mania, they cared little for the grime of their surroundings. So much so that two of them waded though the chest high sewerage.

They hit the creatures like a typhoon, barely breaking stride as they left shattered bodies in their wake. His target fell cut in two, while Porkchop simply crushed the other barring their path.

**Ding! You have slain Shaggy-maned Turos - Level 108 Viperclaw! Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of significantly lower level!**

Kenva dealt with the ones wading through the muck — no way they were jumping in that.

“I smell it,” Porkchop said, growling deep in his throat.

“I think we all do, friend!” Ianmus gasped from behind them.

“No, not the sewer. The hive queen. I wasn’t sure at first, given where we are, but its musk is all over the beasts we’ve fought. Pheromone markers.”

“You recognise it,” Kaius said grimly. It was obvious with their bond, and Porkchop wouldn’t bring it up unless it was relevant.

“I do. It’s a creature known to the dens — one of the few we are taught to scent from a young age. Native second tier when fully grown, though when well established they can get much stronger. The system calls them Golden Ceratin, but the closest translation of our name for them would be the Reaving Plague.”

Great, just great — that didn’t sound like something they should worry about at all. He groaned, resigning himself for a brutal fight.

“What a joyful and totally not ominous name!” Kenva said, echoing his opinion, “I assume you memorised them for their defenceless nature and delicious, gooey interior?”

They took a left, gunning hard for their destination — the faster they arrived, the better.

“I wish. They’re hive creatures, like Madra guessed. When the nest is attacked, the queen produces thousands of spawn that burrow away and flee — each one matures into a warrior, and if the conditions are right, one will find a forgotten hole to mature into a new queen. We hunted them immediately if they were found — let them get established and it is a nightmare to root them out.”

“So Deadacre’s got an infestation, then,” Kaius said grimly.

“Maybe. It really shouldn't be here — I've never heard of one leaving its nest, nor do they have a tendency to roam far once a territory has been established. If the Tyrant is controlling them, maybe the grubs won't scatter like they normally do. Madra said they were heading down — they’re weak. Even the non-combatants should stand a chance against them — as long as they don’t get bitten. They can secrete a nasty acid.”

Acidic, because of course they were. Another problem for the pile. Regardless of how the Tyrant’s control worked, they would still need to treat Porkchop’s information as a credible threat. Hunting down the grubs to the last sounded like it would be a nightmare.

They had Madra and Isaac to help, but that was a problem all on its own. The mages were aware of the existence of the ruin, but they’d been kept far from it. If they got too close, they might be able to sense the sealed lower levels that were still very much active.

Of course, the ruin was warded against such things, but Kaius didn’t want to risk it unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Well, if it's as bad as you say, we best hurry up and put the beast down. The sooner we can stop that queen from producing more larva, the better,” Kaius said.

They ran, leaving bodies in their wake as they pushed deeper into the sewers.