A Hero's Downfall by Tony Johnson

Author:Tony Johnson [Johnson, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798610074344
Published: 2020-03-02T22:00:00+00:00

27

The three saw a horde of monsters coming down the sewer pipe behind them. Two orcs carrying torches while another held a flaming sword. Around them, at least four other weapon-carrying monsters could be seen based on the metal gleaming in the firelight.

The three turned to run, but the same manhole that the skeleton and orc came down opened again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Kari yelled in frustration. As soon as she uttered her words of despair, a shadowed monster descended the ladder. The final rays of the setting sun briefly illuminated the monster, but, once the sewer entrance above closed, it was lost in darkness.

Suddenly, an arrow flew at them from the dark void. It whizzed past Kari, narrowly missing her.

“We’re trapped!” Steve said. There’s a monster in front of us and a horde behind us!

“No, we’re not!” Ty claimed as he handed Kari his scimitar. He bent down and picked up the body of the dead orc and yelled, “Get behind me!”

Kari, then Steve, got in a single-file line behind Ty and followed closely as he ran forward, using the orc’s body as a shield against the incoming arrows.

If this orc hadn’t already been dead, he surely would be by now, Ty thought, hearing the third arrow slam into the monster’s back. Once he got close enough to the monster archer, he tossed the orc to the side and ducked.

Kari, who was right behind him, closed her eyes and swung Ty’s scimitar with all her strength. She didn’t know what she hit, but she felt the blade bite into something. Daring to look, she saw that the large monster that had been firing at them was a black-and-white-furred minotaur. The scimitar had sunk halfway through the side of its neck.

Seeing Kari struggling to pull it out of the wound, Ty said, “Leave it! Take these!” he took the quiver of arrows off the dead minotaur’s back and handed it to Kari who discarded her empty one.

With the fierce growls of the mob of monsters getting louder behind them, the companions continued sprinting as they ran parallel to the sewer river. This time, however, Kari was the caboose of the group and began firing arrows behind her, trying to slow the monsters down.

“Something else is attacking them!” she said in surprise.

Momentarily confused as to what else would be attacking the monsters, Steve and Ty looked back, squinted, and saw that the Halfling wasn’t wrong. A handful of four-legged, gray creatures were attacking the monsters in the horde.

“I thought you said rats wouldn’t attack!” Kari questioned Ty.

“Those aren’t rats, they’re direrats. They must’ve been disturbed when Steve kicked the skeleton into the water.”

Four more of the sharp-teethed rodents scurried out of the sewer river and aggressively launched themselves into the horde.

Kari conserved her arrows and let the direrats be the ones to help slow the approaching monsters.

“Now’s our chance to lose them once and for all! Come on!” Steve yelled.

Heading farther into the sewers, it wasn’t long before they once again felt safe.

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