CHAPTER 31: SECOND WAVE

"Form up!"

Darius’s voice cut across the hills as the three fighters moved to the opposite side, all of them slower in their approach than before.

While Darius and Emerius were tired, Liam was heavily wounded, the ratlings having cut into his flesh dozens of times.

The moment the next pack came over the hill, Charon started counting, his jaw tightening as he reached twenty, then thirty, and finally forty.

’Forty-five more? Can they handle that many?’

He clutched his dagger, considering how to use it should the front line collapse.

"We will take them as we did the first!"

Annie stepped towards Darius, her hand extending as if to grab something, but he jerked back and slapped her limb away, hissing under his breath.

"Not yet."

The action was aggressive; it shocked Charon, but Annie seemed to understand, moving back towards Red.

Unable to see a valid reason for him to hit her, Charon looked at her with confusion.

"What was that for?"

She glanced at him, pausing for a moment before responding.

"We all have our duties. Don’t forget that, ever."

’She doesn’t seem to care that he hit her. But why? Does it have something to do with that glowing sword?’

They hadn’t seen her use it since their escape attempt, which was fine at first, but now they were actively fighting, and it was still nowhere to be seen.

’I don’t like all these secrets. I can’t trust this group if I can’t see their reasoning.’

It was a perpetual flaw of his, being too curious. He needed to know what was going on, or else he felt trapped.

He wanted to be the one holding the cards, instead of guessing what everyone else had.

The second pack of ratlings finally started scaling the hill.

Screaming out in defiance, Liam charged the group, a trail of blood following him as his back bled.

Darius and Emerius were close behind, setting the stage for the battle to go much like the previous one.

However, there were two massive differences: They were tired and injured, and the ratlings were more numerous.

This was made clear the moment they engaged, Emerius moving just slow enough for a blade to stab him in the shoulder.

He spun to disengage, but a spear was thrown after him, piercing his hip.

Emerius screamed in pain and rage as he moved away, Liam hearing him and barging to the left to distract the crowd.

It allowed the swordsman to get away, but it also caused more ratlings to focus on him. Suddenly, he had to contend with over a dozen of the beasts attacking him at once, an untenable amount for even the giant axeman.

Darius, paying attention to the entire battlefield, saw this and called out new orders.

"Pull back! This is not working!"

He then, for the first time, went on the attack, aiming to give Liam some breathing room.

’They can’t win this!’

Charon’s mind raced as he tried to identify the path to victory, but nothing came to him.

Darius’s blade flashed as he cut a path towards Liam. It was effective, felling half a dozen ratlings in short order, but it was tiresome.

By the time he and the brute had made it out of the crowd, he was panting heavily, his sword hanging lethargically by his side.

In spite of his exhaustion, he continued trying to build a new plan, his voice rising above the ratlings’ chitterings.

"We need to thin them out! If your element has any value here, now is the time to use it!"

As he finished speaking, he knelt, murmuring soft words under his breath.

Emerius heard his words and shrugged. His blades flicked out to the sides as his skin grew darker, slowly becoming an inky black. Short tendrils oozed from his flesh, whipping in the air around him.

Charon turned and saw Annie watching with wide eyes.

"Shadow mage..."

’Of course, the impressive shadow magic catches her attention! Gods damn it Warden, why can’t you also be that cool?’

Emerius sprang into action, his actions full of renewed vigor as he twisted through the air.

Gone were any attempts to shield himself, the ratling blades bouncing off his darkened skin, and he instead focused purely on killing as many of the creatures as he could.

The next minute was a horror movie as he killed over a dozen beasts, none of them able to stop his onslaught.

Just as Charon began to wonder why he had waited until now to unleash his power, Emerius jerked himself away from the horde, stumbling towards Red and calling out to them.

"I did my best!"

The shadows left him once he was only a foot away, his body collapsing to the ground in a small heap.

Charon watched him fall in shock, rushing forward to check if he was alive.

His fingers found his neck, pressing into the vein and releasing a sigh of relief as he felt a pulse.

’Gods damn it Emerius, you can’t scare me like that! I thought you were dead!’

Looking back at the horde, he gulped, realizing that he might have spoken too soon.

The ratlings, now unopposed, had been running up the hill with haste, their elongated mouths open to reveal sharp teeth and slobbering tongues. Their makeshift weapons looked even more deadly up close, some of them covered in Liam’s blood, only serving to make them more intimidating.

Steeling his nerves, Charon prepared to engage, acknowledging that he and Annie were the last line of defense should Liam and Darius fail.

’Why am I even doing this? I don’t know these people! I should turn tail and run!’

His eyes flicked to Emerius’ body, memories of how he had chosen to save him against the Mangled Monstrosity flashing in his mind.

’Am I strong enough to carry him away?’

He considered the option of throwing the blonde swordsman over his shoulders and making a run for it, but he knew it was a bad plan.

’He’s too heavy for me, and if the others die to the ratlings, they will chase us down. Even if I could carry him, I’d be too slow to outrun these vermin.’

Turning to look down the opposite side of the hill, away from the battle, Charon lingered.

’Just run!’

His body screamed at him to flee, to make it to safety, damn everyone else, but he knew he couldn’t. Shouldn’t.

That wasn’t what a hero would do, right?

’Why do I even care about heroes anymore! There aren’t any here, and if they were, they’d run too!’

Just as he fought to convince himself, something changed in Darius.

As the ratlings charged at him, his quiet whispering turned into a normal volume, and then into shouting.

Strange words of worship and praise to the God of Life echoed across the plains.

With more than a little effort, Darius raised his sword and swung it to the side, a large blade of light forming in the air.

For a moment, it hung there, unmoving, before Darius finished his prayer.

The blade shot off towards the crowd, scything through the small beasts with ease. Bodies were cut in half, heads were removed from necks, and limbs were removed, blood exploding in all directions as more than half of the horde was killed in one fell swoop.

Liam watched it happen and roared, grabbing Darius’ body as it went limp and throwing it back towards the group.

With one last battle cry, he surged towards the disoriented ratlings, killing three before they even noticed he had struck again.

It wasn’t long before that changed yet again.

More weapons struck at Liam, cutting him to the point that his bare chest had more open wounds than skin. Even in his last-ditch attempt to finish the horde, his body had taken too much damage.

His face was in a constant grimace, his attacks coming slower and slower until he couldn’t take anymore.

Moving away from the horde, he fell to his knees in front of Red. The colossal waraxe fell to his side, his hands cut to ribbons.

"I can... I can hold them here! Come on you little shits, I’ll turn you into a big fat stew!"

Only three of the ratlings remained, but their rage knew no bounds, screaming and hissing at the last of them.

Looking from Emerius, to Darius and Liam, and then finally to the rats, Charon knew it was now his turn to fight.

’Here goes my best attempt...’

Charon stepped in front of Liam and held his dagger out, watching as the first ratling attacked.

Remembering how the battle with Professor Thalt went, he kept his cool and didn’t rush to engage, instead letting the beast strike first.

The rodent was fast, but it only had a short dagger, and Charon was able to lean out of range and then jerk his own weapon forward.

It pierced the ratling between the eyes, blood spurting out and covering the front of his robe and chains.

Struggling not to vomit, Charon turned to the next ratling, hoping to distract himself with the battle.

This one held a broken spear, the end cleanly cut off by Darius’s magical strike.

Luckily, the beast didn’t seem to notice this and stabbed it at Charon. The flat end hit his chest hard, but only bruised him.

Remembering how Emerius would fight, Charon spun with the blow, moving towards the creature and denying it the use of its weapon.

His dagger pierced its skull before it managed to react.

Grinning at his work, Charon felt proud to have killed two so easily.

’This isn’t that hard! I’m sure if there were very many more, it would’ve been tough, but these guys aren’t even close to as skilled as Professor Thalt was!’

In the middle of his self-congratulating, the final ratling attacked, its rusty shortsword coming out of nowhere and burying itself in Charon’s robe.

More shocked than anything, he struck with his dagger and skewered its chest, stupidly releasing the weapon in the process.

The ratling reeled in pain, but the emotion quickly morphed into fury. It launched itself at him, its blade raised high.

Scrambling out of the way, Charon watched it land on the ground mere inches away.

Unsure of what else to do, he kicked it, causing it to roll out. Its limbs lashed out in every direction in a final bid for survival, but Charon was having none of it.

Slamming his foot down on its face, he heard a nasty crunch, but didn’t relent. He did it again and again until it had stopped struggling, and only then did he reach down and jerk his knife from its chest.

With one last motion, he brought the dagger down and pierced the ratling’s brain, finally allowing himself to fall back on the hillside with a painful sigh.

A strange feeling filled his chest with every breath, building more and more until it reached a breaking point and burst, flooding his veins with a cool, calming energy.

As his head fell back on the grass to rest, he heard a familiar noise just a few inches away.

Chains rattling.