“How far until we find these stupid tears?” Sahara asked as she raised her hands to cast a minor spell of illumination. Light flashed through all of the tunnels, giving Sang just enough time to determine which one to go through.
“I figured we’d have found them by now,” Bidane replied. “But this kind of dungeon is just beyond the pale. I can’t make heads or tails of anything.”
“Only tails I’m seeing belong to those retched Ratmen,” Kylian said.
“Wait! I found something!” Kenwar shouted as he pointed excitedly at one of the walls. “It’s a secret door!”
“Perfect! Open it up, but get ready just in case there’s something violent in there,” Van instructed as he cautiously took a step away from his team. He had taken a beating during one of the Ratmen ambushes and his health was only 50 points away from meaning his death. He knew that, if he was hit by one more deranged attack or firebomb, he’d probably end up dead.
“Got it!” Kenwar said as he fiddled with the wall, causing it to pop open.
“Are those the tears?” Sang asked hopefully as she peered into the secret room.
“No, it’s just a ladder. Leading up,” Sahara said.
“Well, maybe it’ll lead to the tears,” Sang said. “Or at least to somewhere that isn’t as claustrophobic as hell. I’ll investigate.” She hastily scampered up the ladder.
“Rat attack!” Kylian shouted, pointing down one of the tunnels. The familiar sound of dozens of skittering feet echoed through the catacombs.
“Now this is my kind of quest!” Capello gleefully shouted as he leapt into the tunnel on the right and spun his axes around. “Come and get it, freaks!”
The hideous, shrieking rat-fiends came running into view at full speed. There were at least fifteen of them, and they were packed together tightly into rows of three.
“Let’s do this!” Capello shouted as he began to slash his blades back and forth, easily killing the first two ranks of rank fiends.
“Van!” Sang called, dropping down from the ladder. “You’ve got to come see what’s upstairs!”
Van, who had been busy playing his war tunes with his bagpipes, hastily slung his pipes over his shoulder and rushed up the ladder. “Handle this fight!” he shouted to the rest of the team as they backed Capello up. On the good side, no matter how many swarms of rat fiends came rushing through, it seemed that Capello was always excited to be fighting against them.
Van climbed the ladder with his own excitement, hoping to see the tears of Saint Alberta, but much to his dismay, Sang led him into an empty room.
“What’s the deal?” Van asked. “There’s nothing here but a few windows.”
“Look!” Sang said as she pointed out of one of the windows. Van peered through and gasped. He could see two massive armies gathering in the distance. They looked as if they were preparing to go to war. Each side carried a different flag, and Van could see the word Melvania on one of the banners.
“What? How the hell are we this far up north?” Van asked.
“I checked my map—apparently, these catacombs run all over the place. This was one of the access points. I guess this cavern system was designed to work like some kind of fast travel option.”
“Sang, this is perfect!” Van said as he looked at the time. About 9 hours of in-game time had gone by, but it would have taken nearly 14 hours to reach Melvania from where they’d been, and that was without wasting time in what was supposed to have been a short side quest.
“So, are we ditching these tears or what?” Sang asked. “Because we need to get moving. If we can join one of those armies, we can count this day a success.”
Van nodded. “Yeah, I’m in favor of skipping, but I’m not sure the rest of the team would be so happy with our decision.”
“Figure it out then,” Sang said. “You’re the one in charge, so I’ll leave it to you.”
“Thanks,” Van said. He paused and really soaked in her compliment. “No, really. Thank you for letting me lead this team. I know you’re frustrated with how much time everything is taking, so it means a lot that you’re willing to accept that we’re not moving as quickly as just the two of us could.”
Sang shrugged. “I’ve got two options, really. I can rage against the unchangeable and drive a wedge between me, you, and the rest of my teammates, or I can just bottle all of that frustration and take it out on whatever army we’re going to be fighting.”
Van laughed. “Good point. Come on and let me see if I can get these guys to ditch the mission.” He quickly climbed back down the ladder to see that the entire team was covered in blood.
“What happened?” Van asked as he rushed to inspect them all. No one was dead, but they were all drenched from head to toe in blood.
“One… one of the rat people exploded!” Sahara said. “He had some kind of bomb strapped to his stomach and, when he died, he just blew up.”
“It was disgusting,” Kylian said.
“Horrible in every way,” Kenwar said. Unlike the rest of the team, however, he was completely clean.
“I dunno, that was pretty fun to me,” Capello said. “I think I look better in red anyway.”
“Well, the good news is that we’re actually right on Melvania’s border, and this ladder is a shortcut, but taking it means we’d have to ditch the—” Van’s words were interrupted as Bidane stormed past him and began to climb up the ladder, leaving bloody hand prints with each step upwards. The rest of the team piled after her.
“Well, that was way easier than I expected,” Van commented as he followed his team. The secret room turned out to be an abandoned tower that was fairly easy to exit. It took quite a bit of walking, but eventually they were able to make their way out of the tower and toward a stream, where the blood-drenched adventurers were then able to clean themselves up enough so that they looked presentable for the Melvanian army.
“Alright, team!” Van said as everyone toweled off and prepared to move toward the armies by the north side of the stream. “We’re going to be talking to some very important people; the Melvanian army happens to be run by a Draco pro by the name of Captain Edwardson. The man is a living legend amongst Draco pros due to the fact that he ran one of the best gaming events in history!”
“Yeah!” Sahara said. “He helped everyone with the Strange Invaders Event a few years ago. He was seriously one of the coolest players, and helped unify every nation to fight against the violent Strangers.”
“Man, that was before I was in this game. Sounded like fun, though,” Kylian said. “So, what made him so great?”
“Primarily, it was because he knew exactly how to lead an army to victory. He’d pull off crazy wins that no one had ever dreamed possible,” Van said. “So, he’s kind of an important type of guy. Draco put him in charge of Melvania’s army because they only go to war against their neighbor, Kyriss. This lets Edwardson create an exciting sense of drama and action without really conquering anything. For some reason, Draco prefers that these two nations perpetually fight. If Edwardson was running his own show, he’d probably have conquered every nation here without breaking a sweat.”
“Nice! So, are we going to recruit him?” Capello asked.
Van shook his head. “I’m afraid not; he’s way too much of a major player. But we are going to try and join him for a bit of time. I’m going to warn everyone now: he’s an extremely discerning type of guy. If he detects any level of smartassery or rudeness from us, he most likely won’t let us join. So, I want everyone on their best behavior—understood?”