(Path of the Dragon Mage: Nomad) 9. Trapped (Patreon)

The countdown reached zero. The ground firmed under Corvus’s feet and the world once again became insubstantial around him.

He had the space of time of a single breath before he realized he was in deep trouble.

You have been scratched for 1 HP

You have been bitten for 5 HP

You have been scratched for 2 HP

He stood at the bottom of a high walled canyon — high stone on either side and the cold stars twinkling overhead. The ground around him was dark. Moving. Thousands and thousands of furry rat bodies scrabbling around, climbing over one another. It was a living carpet that bit and scratched indiscriminately.

Corvus yelped and jumped back, only to step on something that squeaked and thrashed. He tried to put his foot somewhere else, but there was nowhere to step that wasn’t taken.

A sharp pain on his ankle

You have been bitten for 5 HP.

Sidestepping, he pinwheeled his arms and, in slow motion horror, felt himself lose his balance.

Corvus!

A pearlescent claw hooked the collar of his jacket and pushed him back upright. Charm had been transported to this place as well. And beyond her stood Gwen and Roan with their horses, all exclaiming in shock and disgust, then pain.

You have been scratched for 2 HP.

You have been scratched for 1 HP

Another sharp pain at his ankle. He kicked out but stood calf-deep in a living carpet of ratkin. The frantic, chittering creatures bit and clawed at each other and especially at newcomers within their mist.

Corvus bent to knock away a small foot-sized level one ratkin trying to scramble up his pants. Gwen cried out in surprise and pain as she was scratched, too.

Roan yelled. “Get to the walls!”

The ratkin were so deep it was impossible to step without squishing one. He stepped high, wincing both at every crunch and the scratches and bites that came from frenzied ratkin.

Charm didn’t bother. With a roar, she leapt into the air, scattering ratkin with the wind of her wings. Some tried to cling onto her scales but slipped and fell back into the seething mass.

The horses let out shrilling neighs, bucking and stomping. They didn’t take well to hundreds of biting scratching creatures at their hoofs. Even Roan and Gwen couldn’t calm them down.

“Charm! Clear a path!” Corvus yelled.

More and more ratkin were trying to climb his legs. He was in real danger of being swamped over. The bites and scratches were minor but they added up. Nearly fifty of his health points were gone.

Charm managed to gain a little height in the narrow canyon. She flipped over in air and rocketed back. Her jaws parted and although Corvus couldn’t see it, he knew the silver threads between her scales coalesced to a moon breath rune.

A beam of silver light erupted from her jaws and struck the ratkin in front of NightShade and CloudStrike. Most were blown to either side to create an empty path riddled by dying, heavily burned ratkin.

The horses surged forward to the empty space. They weren’t the only ones. In a half breath, it was filled by hundreds of wriggling bodies, but Charm had not been idle. She swept forward with another targeted moon breath.

A cluster of higher leveled ratkin were swept away or leapt back into the living carpet, squealing. They had been squatting on a flattish rock which sat above the worst of the mass.

“There!” Corvus yelled. “Get the horses up on that rock!”

Roan and Gwen didn’t need to be told twice. Gwen managed to leap astride NightShade’s back and kicked him forward. NightShade galloped a few paces before his footfalls took him into the air. A few galloping steps took him to the flat rock.

Roan ran just ahead of CloudStrike, bringing down his hammer in sweeping arcs that knocked half dead ratkin away to either side. A larger ratkin launched itself out of the mass to clamp teeth onto CloudStrike's hind end. She squealed, kicking, and made a final leap to the top of the flat rock. It stood only a couple of feet above the fray but gave them a little bit of respite. They needed it. No one had come out unscathed and legs of the horses streamed with blood.

There was barely room for the two horses on the rock. Even less with the bulky Roan. Gwen still sat upon NightShade.

Corvus was the last to scramble up, squeezing in between NightShade and the wall. The ratkins surged to cover the path behind him as if it had never been blasted away. They had made less than zero dent in their numbers. There were uncountable thousands all clustered in this part of the canyon alone.

"What in all of the worlds!" Roan snarled. “Why are we here? Where is here?”

“I don't know and I don't know," Corvus snapped. He pulled out squares of parchment from his pockets. On each had been carefully inscribed with the Knit Flesh rune. With the ease of long practice, he sliced the pad of his thumb, smeared blood on the back of each rune, and then slapped them on the horses rumps.

The runes activated and the horses bites and scratches were sealed. Corvus made a mental note to purge all of them for infection later on. Those ratkin bites could not be clean.

“You two okay?” he asked Gwen and Roan.

“I’m okay. See to the horses, first,” Gwen said.

“I’ll keep.” Roan used his hammer to keep the worst of the ratkin back from scrambling up the rock. CloudStrike’s flashing hoofs stomped the ones which got past him. “Anyone got any bright ideas on how to get out of here? Wherever here is,” he muttered.

Gwen wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Maybe those runes are a sort of area-wide pest control. Funnel them into a ravine to eat each other and die.”

It was a theory that fit the evidence but didn’t quite ring right to Corvus. “Charm, are there any ratkin up top?"

Charm, who’d been flapping hard to keep aloft, bobbed her head. I’ll see.

Her answer came swiftly. There are no ratkin up here, but the earth is split many times, and deeply.

The images she relayed to him supported her words. This patch of land was shattered by zig-zagged narrow canyons. From high up, it looked like the flaky top of a pastry.

As usual when he shared senses with Charm, he received impressions from her sensitive hearing and, sometimes, smell. That's how he became aware that those other ravines – all of them as far as Charm could tell – were as filled with ratkin as this one.

This was a mega-swarm.

Not good news, but for now at least up top was clear of the demon creatures. He turned to the others.

"Gwen, you and NightShade will be safe up there."

She nodded. She had her bow out and an arrow knocked, but those were single-use weapons. Arrows would be less than useless compared to the thousands of swarming ratkin.

"NightShade can carry double. I'll take you two one at a time–" She stopped and her face went bloodless with realization.

She and NightShade could gallop on the air and escape. NightShade could even return for Corvus because Charm couldn't lift him. However, CloudStrike didn't have the ability to step on moonbeams.

And Roan would never leave his horse.

"Get out of here," Roan said. "Don't be an idiot."

"No, I'm not leaving. I'll help," she insisted.

Corvus stepped forward. "He's right. You're the fastest on land. We need you to get up there and search a path out of the canyon for CloudStrike. Charm can't think like a horse. We need someone who knows what CloudStrike can tackle. It's got to be you."

"And hurry up!" Roan added, smacking an ambitious ratkin away. Now that Corvus was properly looking, he saw rat bites on his hands and legs. Pulling another rune, he primed it with blood. Only three more of these. He had to be sparing, but Roan was taking on the bulk of the work.

Gwen looked torn, then cursed. "Stay alive!" she ordered and kicked NightShade forward.

The stallion leapt from the rock. His hooves flashed and he galloped higher and higher, free of the ravine and the hungry ratkin.

A new surge of chittering ratkin tried to climb the rock as if maddened by the sight of the horse getting away.

Roan's hammer swept down like he was scything a field. CloudStrike danced on the ones who got past him. Now there was more room on the rock, she could maneuver easier.

Corvus threw a bladed dart no bigger than his thumb at a large ratkin. He struck it clean between the eyes and it fell back, thrashing.

He had only about twenty darts left. He had to be careful.

Once the worst of the surge had past, he slapped the rune on the back of Roan's neck. It activated – closing the bites, though it did nothing for the blood he'd lost.

Roan nodded in thanks and glanced up at the lip of the canyon. Gwen was nowhere in sight. She'd escaped as cleanly as if NightShade had wings of his own.

A complicated expression crossed Roan's face, but when he glanced at Corvus, he was all business.

"Got any more cool magic?"

"Yes," Corvus said, "But it's the type which will backfire on us."

He could create fire from runes easily enough. Ratkin feared fire, too. But the runes were mana hungry, would take time to set up, and would only burn for a short period.

His best bet was the mana daggers Larissa had gifted him. There were three types: The mana boom needle he could charge and explode, the Deadly Bouquet which would release a poison gas, and the Wild Garden which would conjure meat-eating vines.

Unfortunately, the cloud of gas would be as lethal to Roan and CloudStrike as the ratkin. The gas was heavy and the air was still but misjudging its potency had almost killed Gwen once. Corvus wasn't willing to do it again.

The Wild Garden's vines were even harder to control. The vines would grow and spread as they feasted on bodies, and he never knew how far they would spread which meant he couldn’t throw the dagger close.

Through Charm's eyes, he saw Gwen on NightShade racing across the landscape. If anyone could find a way out, it would be her.

"I'll use poison gas if we get overwhelmed," Corvus said.

Roan grunted and slammed his hammer down on a rat which had become too bold. The insides sprayed everywhere and he kicked it to the seething mass below. "If the worst happens, you try to scramble up this wall."

"I won't leave you and CloudStrike," Corvus said.

"Too bad. That's an order. You're Horse Folk and I'm my dad's heir. I outrank you in matters of combat."

"You're really trying to play rank games with me?" Corvus demanded. "I'm a prince."

"You don’t see me bowing to you."

Corvus rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter. That wall is unclimbable anyway."

He doubted Roan could see it with only the bright moonlight to go by, but Corvus saw it clearly with his night vision. The canyon wall was a sheer drop and scratched smooth from thousands upon thousands of little rat claws. From the way the scratches thinned and stopped about halfway up, none had managed the entire climb.

Charm's voice broke into his thoughts.

Gwen says the land slopes up at the end of this canyon, but there's a problem.

She went over the images and Corvus winced.

"What is it?" Roan demanded, seeing his expression.

"The land slopes up at the other end of this canyon – might be enough for CloudStrike to climb. But... remember the Queen Rat we fought during that one swarm when we were kids?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well there's about thirty of them guarding the way out, and they're all a lot larger."