Chapter 72: Chapter 71: Of Hunters and Prey

A small rat was something easy to deal with, a bigger rat would be a little concerning. But these giant critters were a completely different issue, specially when Gabrielle discovered there were more than just one. The beasts would push the manhole’s cover right out of their way as the first ten climbed their way out, pushing one against the other in a desperate fit and running towards the redhead with primal hunger burning in their eyes. 

 

Gabrielle’s first impulse was, of course, to stand her ground and cut through the stampede with her sword, but she had underestimated how thick these creature’s bones were exactly. A single swing was enough to get her blade stuck on the neck on a squirming, screaming rat, while the others swarmed her. They pushed her away with their bodies and immediately tried to pin her down, biting so hard that she could feel the metal on her armoured pants denting. 

 

“Lucrece!”

 

The lancer arrived quickly, surprised that Gabrielle would call for something as simple as rats. She couldn’t believe her eye when seeing the girl punching and struggling to keep the monsters away from her body, throwing away the creatures that managed to climb up her back before they could sink their teeth on her neck. 

 

With their sheer numbers these vermin had easily turned the street into a sea of fur, disease and blood, flowing from the sewers into the city. 

 

“Gabi!”

 

Stepping on some of the swirling, stampeding wretches, Luci would make her way to the girl and help her hit, skewer and stab away the monstrosities, creating a very small perimeter to breathe. A little oasis in a desert of shaking, biting sands. She would lay down a hand to help Gabi stand right back up, pushing the rats biting at her armour and bandages. Some red hairs could be seen, pulled right from between the linen.

 

“Where did all of these rats come from!?” Even after feeling the bite of these creatures and their flesh trembling on her halberd, Lucrece still couldn’t believe what was happening. She panted, pushing a critter away. “I thought it was a ‘small problem’. This isn’t a ‘small problem’!”

 

“They come were there’s food and refuse to live off, it only makes sense a city this big has this many rats.” Gabrielle had no other option but to punch the rats that got too close to Lucrece. To her it was only logical to find such opposition. After all, she had no frame of reference. “I need to recover my sword.”

 

“Sure, I would agree if they were regular rats!” The lancer would take a moment to spike one of the running beasts right between the eyes, only for its body to be covered by three more. “Bloody saints there’s no end to them!”

 

The sword maiden would look around herself, so calm for someone literally fighting for her life. She was focused on her sword… where did that rat with the cut neck go? It couldn’t had gone very far! 

 

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The bartender observed it all from behind a set of curtains, standing in his bedroom while his wife simply looked at him from the bed. “Those poor fools”, he thought, “there’s no end to that horde.”. And indeed, it didn’t seem like it at all. Many newcomers and other fortune seeking fellows had tried and failed to contain it before, to the point where there was quite a sizable reward for the hero who managed to rid the city of such pestilence.

 

He should had told them that, instead of trying to push them into danger and then plan to profit on their effort. But it was not very likely that they would have survived anyways.

 

“This is why people don’t talk to you anymore, honey.” The bartender’s wife sighed in disappointment, slowly shaking her head. “Was this necessary, really?”

 

“Think about it, Hanna. If they die, nothing would have changed. If they survive, we will be rat-free for a few days and all for a room’s worth! And if they fail, we simply shoo them away. It is perfect planning, woman!”

 

“I am just saying, it would had been much more profitable to just invest in sponsoring them to solve the problem to make sure they succeed, and get a portion of the reward.”

 

“That would require money and I am not spending a dime, we are already behind schedule this month!”

 

“You need to learn about investments, Oleg.”

 

“And you need to learn to shut up about economics already, woman!”

 

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Cutting through the beasts was a futile exercise, for they just kept coming from the depths of the sewers. Rats on a warpath, jumping and trying to latch onto the girls’ faces, furiously biting on armour to try and reach the delicious flesh within. It had been but a few moments and the girls already had piled up several corpses around themselves, blood falling from the bite marks on their faces and shoulders. Every unarmored limb as at risk here.

 

And what was even worse: Gabrielle still couldn’t find her sword among the many critters swarming them, no matter how much she looked. Until the creature peeked its wounded head from one of the corners on the street. The bastard still had the blade stuck on the wound, probably keeping it from getting even worse.

 

“There’s no end to them! At this pace we’ll end up buried!” Lucrece would hate to admit it outloud, but her legs were starting to fail her. She was now trying to retreat, staking her way across the river of rats towards the Tavern. “Retreat, retreat!”

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“I need my sword!” Gabrielle demanded, still punching each rat that tried to enter her space. “I can’t let them take it!”

 

“Gabi I will get you a new sword, retreat!”

 

“No! You are going to use that money!”

 

“This is NOT  the moment to get stubborn, you daft—”

 

Lucrece flinched, her legs finally slipping and her body hitting the stone road with all her weight. She could feel a myriad little clawed paws scratching and pulling at her brigandine, teeth sinking on her shoulders with enough force to make the girl scream.

 

“Luci!”

 

The redhead would immediately rush to her friend’s rescue, pushing everything in her way aside and covering the lancer’s body with her own, trying to keep the rats from biting any more. But there was no end to the horde, and the swarm soon covered both girls…

 

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“It’s the end.” The bartender said, letting out a soft sigh and closing the curtains. “Poor girls, so young… this is what happens when you try to get into a world made for men.”

 

“Was that last part of the comment necessary?” Hannah asked with a frown, the much taller and stronger woman crossed her arms.

 

“W-Well, I am just saying that sellswords are usually men, and that’s for a good reason.” Oleg the taverner tried to defend his ‘sound logic’. “Men are better with pain, stronger, just made for violence, you know?”

 

“Bullshit. You never took a sword in your life and you are a man, aren’t you?”

 

“Listen! I’ve had this issue with my back that kept me from joining the army, that’s not something you should mock and—!”

 

A roaring thunder would suddenly shake the whole building, the falling of lightning illuminated the city for a whole moment… and then, it passed.

 

“What, a storm!? But if it was perfectly starry!” Oleg blinked.

 

“Do you hear rain?”

 

“I don’t hear anything.”

 

Hanna blinked, and soon after the taverner would catch on as well. Nothing. No rain, no skittering, no squeaking. Just the silence of the night…

 

Pulling the curtains open again, Oleg looked out the window and saw a street littered with black blotches, burnt remains and nothing more. His eyes widened, and even more when he heard the door being loudly banged. Both owners of the tavern looked at each other for a moment, before walking down together to open the door.

 

A short girl carried a much taller, unconscious one in her arms, both of them full of bites and scratch marks bleeding down on the floor. Her wide, unblinking eyes sparkled blue like the Moon rising behind her. Oleg and Hanna stared, dumbfounded, as the wind blew and brushed away what remained of Gabrielle’s bandages, exposing that bright, wicked red hair.

 

“It is done.” She said, just asking for permission to walk in.

 

The bartender was more than ready to slam the door on that witch’s face, but Hanna stopped him. She knew an opportunity when she saw it.

 

“Of course, come here.” The woman offered with a smile. “Let’s see those wounds of yours.”

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