Eli watched the titan soldiers run, lobbing spells into any of them who found their bravery and decided to try and stand their ground. Isla and Zee did the same as they moved towards him, while Naz cut straight through them with a few easy swings of her axe. In moments the four of them were left standing in a field of dead bodies.

  As they approached the few surviving Acridari soldiers, Eli saw they were in bad shape. There were only six soldiers still on their feet, each of them holding a bladed weapon of some sort. The mountain of dead Titan soldiers around them stood as a testament to their bravery and determination in the face of overwhelming odds, and the other six soldiers laying on the ground or propped up against the stone outcropping behind them demonstrated how close to the brink they’d come.

  When the closest one looked up at Eli a purple aura flared to life around her. She dropped into a fighting stance and held a pair of hand scythes out to either side, the sharp curves of the blade hooking around each arm. Seeing her move he slung his hammer around his back before shaking his head and holding up both hands.

  “Easy now. We’re friendlies.” Eli said slowly.

  He took a moment to examine the soldiers one by one. Each of them wore a tunic over their hard exoskeletons with cutouts at the back for their wings, as well as a bandolier filled with potions, paper scrolls, and various other items hidden in pockets. Eli saw that they each had white markings on their shoulders and shins that looked like they’d been painted on. Gradually though, his gaze moved back to the closest Acridari and realized that he recognized her as female due to the curve of her hips and bosom.

  Why does an insect have breasts? He thought to himself.

  Deciding he didn’t want an answer to that question, he locked eyes with her causing her to cock her head slightly and dismiss whatever spell she was about to cast. “You’re not with the Titans, that’s certainly true.” She said, her voice just as robotic as Tzhexil’s only higher pitched.

  Seeing that she didn’t trust them yet Eli triggered his transformation back to his human form. To remove all doubt as to who he was he summoned his mana during the transformation, causing his body to glow with a golden light. The Acridari woman’s jaw dropped slightly before she hastily tucked her scythes back into her belt.

  “My apologies, Royal Blood.” She said quickly. “We didn’t know-”

  “It’s fine.” Eli said, waving her off as he approached the rest of the way. “You can call me Eli. Do you have any injured?”

  “Yes.” She said before pointing to the trio of soldiers propped up against the rock behind them. “Why?”

  “I’m going to heal them. While I do that, you’re going to tell me and these lovely ladies behind me everything you know about the situation on the ground here.”

  Even though he didn’t know enough about Acridari social cues to read her emotions completely, the stunned silence that greeted him spoke volumes. He wondered for a moment whether her surprise was due to the fact that he demanded a report, or whether it was because he said he was going to heal her comrades.

  Probably the latter. Eli thought as he knelt next to the first Acridari soldier, calling his brimming mana reserves to the forefront of his mind. Ares doesn’t strike me as someone who does a lot of ‘healing’.

  Eli waved his hands in a complex formation before shouting the words of power. “Guérir líkami!”

  As the various stab-wounds on the man’s body began to stitch themselves together, Zee began her interrogation. “Name and rank, soldier.” She demanded.

  “Captain Krithaan, 4th Acridari infantry battalion.” She replied crisply.

  “What was your mission?” Zee asked.

  “We got word from some survivors that there was a pocket of civilians trapped inside the colony – children, elderly, and injured. Our mission was to extract them to the surface, then signal for transport away from the front lines.”

  The soldier under Eli’s care stirred before opening his insectoid eyes and looking at him. He continued to pour mana into the man, fusing the holes in his exoskeleton back together and mending the tears in his wings. When he finished he patted the man on the knee twice before turning back to the Acridari captain.

  “Wait, surface?” Eli asked.

  “Our colony is built under the ground, like all Acridari colonies.” Captain Krithaan replied. “You…knew that though, right?”

  “He’s a new Royal Blood here. He’s learning.” Zee said before continuing her questioning. “What happened to your extraction? I take it things didn’t go according to plan?”

  She clicked her mandibles several times before responding. “The ratkin got smart and ambushed us in the tunnels. Some of my squads are probably still trapped in there.”

  “Guérir líkami!” Eli cried once more, starting the process of healing the second soldier.

  “Ratkin.” Isla said softly. “Fitting name for cowards.”

  “Did they have more forces than you anticipated?” Zee asked, ignoring Isla’s remark. “You seem well trained. A large enough force could blow through them, even if they did ambush you.”

  “No.” Captain Krithaan shook her head. “We knew the strength of the enemy. I was given less than half of the soldiers I requested for the raid – they told me that civilian extraction ‘wasn’t a strategic priority’.”

  Naz grunted. “Fuck that.”

  The second soldier bolted awake as Eli ripped a knife out of her arm, healing the wound just as quickly as it appeared. She stared at him for a moment before leaning back and closing her eyes, unable to find the strength to keep them open. He dumped a sizable amount of mana into the spell before relenting, hoping that it would be enough to keep her alive.

  “And you volunteered for the mission anyways?” Zee questioned.

  “Yes. I grew up in this colony. I’m not leaving them to die.”

  A pit formed in Eli’s stomach when he realized that the final soldier had already passed away. He reverently placed one hand on the woman’s shoulder before standing and turning away. His sadness turned into a roiling anger the more he thought about the woman’s story, and in the few steps it took to reach them he’d made up his mind.

  “What’s your magic like? What can you do?”

  “I’m a blademaster.” She replied simply before seeing the confused looks on their faces. “My blades are linked to my magic. My spells increase the range of my strikes beyond the actual blade, and increase my ability to puncture through weapons, armour, and bone.”

  “That sounds useful. And the rest of your squad?”

  She nodded to the ones who were standing in turn. “Those 2 are blademasters as well. The rest of them specialize in light magic, mostly making hard-light shields for us.” She paused. “Why do you ask, Royal Blood?”

  Zee saw the look on Eli’s face and nodded. “I think it’s safe to say Athena was telling the truth about how ruthless the Titans are, at least?”

  “You’re damn right.” Eli said before addressing Captain Krithaan. “Captain, we’re going to help you complete your mission. Assuming you’ll have us.” Eli said, shaking his head when the two recently-injured soldiers staggered to their feet. “Not you two though. I may have healed your wounds, but you’ve both lost a decent amount of blood. You’re not ready for another battle just yet.”

  “We can fight.” One of them insisted. “This is our home too.”

  “That’s why I need you to keep the tunnel exit secure while we go in. I don’t want anyone surprising us from behind.”

  Zee placed a hand on his arm, turning him to face her intense gaze. “Are you sure about this?”

  “You dare question my mate’s judgement?” Isla snarled.

  Eli shook his head at Isla before turning to Zee. “Yeah, I’m sure. Look – we just mopped the floor with these troops out here. If all that’s waiting for us down there is more of these ratkin, then we’ll be in and out in an hour.”

  “There’ll be stronger troops waiting down there. Mutated ratkin, larger even than you.” Krithaan warned. “And a lot more of this fodder.”

  “Good.” Naz grinned. “I’d hate for my skills to get dull fighting puny rats.”

  “I promise we’ll pull back if we find anything we can’t handle.” Eli said. “Deal?”

  Zee sighed, nodded, then turned to Krithaan. “Take us to the tunnel.”

  The Acridari captain nodded wordlessly before carefully starting to pick her way across the field of bodies. Her squad quickly fell in behind her, with Eli and his women acting as a rearguard. Once they were deeper into the forest Krithaan accelerated their pace to a light jog, stopping in front of an ornate tunnel entrance a few minutes later.

  While the site wasn’t as gory as the battlefield they’d just left, it came close. Acridari bodies lay next to mountains of ratkin ones, their mixed blood pooling on the grey brick road leading into the tunnel. As his eyes moved towards the rectangular entryway he saw that the tunnel itself was only about 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, and was dotted with magical lights that revealed a gentle downwards slope.

  “This is the tunnel to your colony?” Isla questioned. “I hoped it would be…bigger.”

  “This is a service entrance.” Krithaan clarified. “Many of the larger tunnels were destroyed, and the ones left standing have tens of thousands of ratkin defending them.”

  “You were smart to choose this entrance.” Eli said, moving towards it. “Their whole strategy seems to revolve around swarming you with numbers, but their numbers don’t mean much if they’re all being funneled into a narrow tunnel.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “It sounds like your magic would also be very effective in a small space without much room to dodge.” Naz added.

  “We thought so too, until the mutated ratkin freaks came. They could withstand our magic long enough to start killing our blademasters, and there were so many of them…” She trailed off.

  “We’re not going to let that happen again.” Eli assured her. “Now come on.”

  After posting a pair of guards at the tunnel entrance, the group of them started the long trek down to the colony. Eli and Krithaan lead the group side-by-side, with Isla right behind them. Zee and Naz mingled among the 5 other soldiers, asking a series of questions about the best ways to kill ratkin.

  “This is good craftsmanship.” Eli said as they passed a set of scorch marks along the wall next to what must have been a dozen ratkin bodies. “Your people fought hard in this tunnel with magic, and it’s still standing.”

  “These tunnels have stood for almost a thousand years.” Kirthaan said proudly. “I only wish you could see the colony in all its glory.”

  He opened his mouth to ask another question, but closed it when he heard chittering accompanied by the sound of dozens of footsteps. His hands gripped his hammer tightly and he froze for a moment, turning back to make sure the rest of the party heard it too. When he was satisfied they were ready he turned back to face the threat, rolling his shoulders and triggering a transformation into his orcish form in preparation for the fight.

  “My mate.” Isla said, placing a hand on his arm. “I would like to strike first.”

  “Be my guest.” Eli said.

  Isla stepped in front and held both hands in front of her, willing an enormous fireball to appear. It grew to half the width of the tunnel before she launched it downwards at the quickly advancing ratkin, the flames licking the floor as it shot ahead. Even though they must have been 200 feet away Eli still had to shield his eyes as it impacted the front ranks before exploding with the illumination of a small sun for a millisecond.

  When it faded, Eli saw that the front ranks of ratkin had been incinerated. Based on the size of the explosion and how tightly packed the enemy soldiers formation was, he guessed that the blast had killed at least 50 of them. Some part of him hoped that the continued sound of footsteps were from the few survivors running away from them, instead of running to take their fallen comrades’ places. Another, more orcish part of his brain that loved a good fight was glad that he was wrong.

  “Can you do that again?” Krithaan asked Isla.

  “Yes.” Isla nodded, holding up her hands again.

  “Save it.” Eli said, placing a hand on hers and lowering them. “I want you to keep at least some mana in reserve in case we run up against some big uglies.”

  “What’s the plan then?” Zee asked.

  Eli grinned his orcish grin then looked at Naz. “Hey babe. Wanna go break some heads?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” She grinned back at him as she interlaced her fingers with his.

  Eli kissed her before beginning to casually walk towards the oncoming horde. It was an oddly romantic scene: the two orcs hand-in-hand, Naz holding her axe over her shoulder with her free hand, Eli doing the same with his hammer on the other side. When the slavering ratkin came within 30 feet of them they let go of each other’s hands and began to glow gold, the knowledge of generations of orcish warriors entering their minds and guiding their movements.

  The ratkin never stood a chance.

  If a hot knife passed through butter easily, Eli and Naz hit the front rank like a laser beam through butter. Every swing of his hammer atomized more of the crazed creatures while blowing yet more of them backwards. Each time he drew his hammer back she jumped into the fray, lopping off heads with a maniacal laugh before deftly leaping backwards the moment he was ready for another strike. The two of them moved completely in-sync with one another as if they’d practiced this particular dance of blood and gore hundreds of times.

  Just when Eli started to think the rest of the mission would be easy, a dozen lumbering beasts came around a bend in the tunnel and charged at them. He recognized them as being the same size as the ones guarding the spellcasters earlier, only their hoods were thrown back to reveal their mutilated rat-like faces. Their bare arms bulged with muscles of their own, and they had to hunch over to fit the tunnel. Concerningly, each of them carried an enormous weapon in either hand – axes, cleavers, and maces seemed to be the standard with the occasional spear or halberd mixed in.

  He considered ordering a halt for a moment, debating whether to hit them with a barrage of spells to soften them up. His plans went out the window when Naz darted ahead, roaring out a challenge as she plowed through the ranks of chaff to get to the real threats. Based on her reckless abandon he knew she’d completely given in to the orcish blood rage, and that there was little he could do to stop her short of physically restraining her. He summoned his mana and cast a spell before charging in after her.

  “Protego!”

  The ice elemental flickered to life above his shoulder just as Naz made first contact with the new enemy. With the dexterity of a dancer she dodged a clumsy overhead blow from a cleaver before slashing out with her axe, the strike embedding itself into the creature’s knee. It screamed in pain but to Naz’s frustration the blade hadn’t passed through its leg like she intended, instead getting stuck in its thick layers of skin and muscle. She ducked to avoid the creature’s retaliatory horizontal mace-swipe before yanking the blade back, throwing the creature off balance. It fixed its beady, angry eyes on Naz as it recovered, ignoring the fact that Eli was right behind her.

  “Arennis!”

  A pressurized stream of sand shot out of Eli’s hand, blinding the creature instantly and forcing it backwards. It fell into the creature behind it as it clawed at its eyes, desperately trying to get the sand out. While he could have poured enough mana into the spell to punch a hole cleanly through the ratkin giant, the sight of them stumbling caused Eli to reconsider his tactics.

  “Zee! Quicksand, on my mark!” He shouted before pushing ahead alongside Naz.

  The two orcs quickly went to work on the blinded creature, taking chunks out of its toughened hide until it collapsed backwards. Knowing that he needed Naz to back off for what he had planned he grabbed her before she could leap into the breach, pulling her behind him. The movement left him open from behind though – an opening that the next ratkin giant was only too happy to take advantage of as it thrust a halberd towards his open back.

  The weapon snapped when it hit a wall of ice that wasn’t there a moment ago, causing its owner to shake its head in surprise. The wall disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, leading to even more confusion on the ratkin’s part. It tried to strike again only to find its mace embedded in yet another wall of ice – one that disappeared just as quickly. The entire event took less than 5 seconds, but gave Eli more than enough time to haul Naz further away from the front line and bark an order.

  “Quicksand!” He shouted.

  Zee didn’t waste a second. “Wa'sim wa'tauqib!”

  A swirling pool of quicksand appeared between them and the Titan forces, rapidly expanding to cover the width of the tunnel and almost 20 feet of its length. The ratkin giants who were caught in it quickly found themselves sinking, their increased mass weighing them down and preventing them from escaping. She poured mana into maintaining the spell as the enemies stopped their advance, hissing ineffectually at them while their comrades drowned in sand.

  As she did, Eli pressed Naz against the grey brick wall and kissed her passionately. Her first adrenaline-fueled instincts told her to shove him away, but the second his lips met hers they quickly reversed themselves and demanded that she pull him closer. When she slipped her tongue into his mouth and began to grind her hips against his leg he reluctantly pulled back, causing her to whimper with need slightly.

  “Naz.” He growled at her. “You back with me?”

  She shook her head and snorted. “Yeah. You’re going to need to fuck me later though.”

  “Consider it a promise.” Eli said before turning back to the teeming masses and summoning his own mana.

  “Trahere!”

  Eli aimed the spell at the giant ratkin furthest away from him – the one at the very back of the line. It pulled the creature forward through the tunnel, forcing all those in front of it into the sand trap. He grinned savagely when the creature he had in his magical grip was suspended over the swirling sand, the rest of its comrades already drowning beneath him. Then he let go of the spell and left the giant rat to a similar fate.

  Zee kept the spell up for another 45 seconds until there were no traces of the rats left. As she released it she pulled out her pistol and drilled several small ratkin in the backs of their heads as they retreated, killing them instantly. She stopped when they disappeared further down the tunnel, holstering the weapon before turning back to Eli.

  “Thank you babe.” He said softly.

  She winked at him in response. “I think I’m going to need some of what Naz is getting later too.”

  “That can be arranged.” Eli replied.

  “And what do I get?” Isla pouted, feeling left out.

  Eli looked at the draconic woman before smiling genuinely at her. “You’ve been such a good girl, so you deserve a treat too. What would you like?”