Saga had played many different MMO and RPGs throughout her old life, and there was one thing in almost every genre of games that nobody cared for.

Sewer levels.

Saga was unfortunate enough to learn that in real life, where you could smell the surroundings and feel the filthy water cling to you, it was far worse than any poorly lit and boring set of corridors that generally made up the bulk of a sewer level. Instead, it was not only poorly lit, but it was almost hazy with the gaseous smell of refuse. This was worst than walking down the old tunnel near their old apartment complex, where you could tell many a drunkard had used it as a place to take a leak.

“Ugh.” Saga let out disgusted noise as they moved along a tunnel that at least had the decency to provide them with a small stone sidewalk that let them avoid most of the muck. Their eyes swept the tunnel for rats the entire time, not wanting to be caught out like at the tavern. Sasha seemed to agree, as she handed Saga a piece of perfumed cloth before tying one across her lower face. Saga followed suit and sighed in relief as it at least helped mask the worst of it.

“I hate sewers”

“You make it sound like you been down the sewers before on your old world.”

“Not exactly.” Saga said, trying to figure out how one explains video games and the two decades of said video games insisting on having a sewer level. The berserker wasn’t sure they could convince Sasha that it was an awful thing. Because she had no concept of droll, gray sewer levels full of annoying enemies. They decided that this might be too much to take in when Sasha needed to be focused on the task the two had set up for themselves.

Instead, the two simply continued deeper into the sewers. So far, it had been mostly lit with little crystals, fastened into the walls. Light Affinity was fairly common in the north, provided you were born in the summer when the sun simply didn’t set but more or less stayed in the sky for the entire night as well as day.

“Where are all the rats?”

“What do you mean. Did you expect a bunch of myriad undead as soon as we went down there”

“No. I mean. There are no normal rats. No lizards, not even flies. There is nothing..” Sasha said, eyes narrowing as she peered around the corner. Saga hadn’t thought about it, but she was right. They had been so preoccupied with the damn smell and unpleasantness of the sewers as a whole that she had completely missed the fact they didn’t see anything scutter about. There should at the very least be cockroaches and flies and other crawling things. But there was nothing.

“I don’t like this.”

***

Not too far away from the two, Arvan and his lot were shadowing the two, using smaller side tunnels and passages to keep out of sight. Arvan was an experienced killer, the Hounds had paid him well for these talents in the past, and he had taken this job without thinking too much about it. To kill two upstart warriors, neither past level 10 wasn’t outside of his wheelhouse. He was only level 9, but with Kalina and her particular skills, he was confident in a smooth and relatively easy job. Especially now that the two had moved into the sewers. It was a stroke of good luck that the two had decided to go underground, leaving them without witnesses to their inevitable end.

But Arvan had honed his senses for nearly a decade, and he felt something was off with these tunnels. He had been down here before, many a criminal had. But last time, there had been rats and cockroaches scurrying out of his way, even the occasional larger, aggressive critter that made its lair down here. But he could not see or sense a single living thing.

“Kalina.” He said voice low as to only have the fellow cutthroat hear with their hobgoblin traveling companion none the wiser. The young hob had a debt to pay, one owned to Arvans boss. The two of them did not trust the nerves of the hobgoblin healer one bit. Which is why Arvan kept him in the dark. What good was a plan if it hinged on some flakey nobody running away at the first sign of trouble?

“Yeah, boss?

“You still got those things we got off the alchemist, yeah?”

“I do. I am not sure we should use them down here.”

“I’d agree, but keep them in mind. My instincts are telling me something is wrong down here. I want to kill those two and get the hell out of dodge as soon as we are able.”

“Got it.”

***

The deeper the two of them went, the more unnerving it felt. After an hour of searching for any kind of life, even the smallest of the creature, they had come up empty. The two warriors stopped to take stock of the situation.

“This is pretty bad, isn’t it”

“I’d say so. We were to stamp out Myriad undead before they got out of hand. But if everything down here was already dead, it has progressed well past that point. We need to go back and get back up. Someone stronger than us need to take care of this.” Sasha said, her face belying just how she felt this situation was. For their part, Saga could only guess just how bad this whole situation was. But the idea of a sewer's worth of rats being turned or eaten by something nastier was enough to make their hair stand on end.

“Do we turn back?”

“Yeah. I rather not have a situation like at the tavern.”

“You can say that again”

But just as the two were about to turn back, something screamed in the back of Saga's head. They never felt such a feeling before and they were gripped by sudden and desperate urgency to raise their shield. Without thinking their arm went up, shields at the ready as they braced themselves. Sasha's eyes went wide as she seemed to have felt something similar.

Seconds later, an arrow flew through the dark of the tunnel, burying itself into Sasha's shoulder. She yelped in pain, falling back a step. “Ambush” She grunted, eyes wild and looking for the hidden archer. But before Saga could move to cover the Axedancer, footsteps approached them at a sprint. They stared as out of the shadows, a dwarven woman with a buzzcut came barreling out of a side tunnel. She had a smaller shield and an ax at the ready.

“HELLO, HANDSOME!” She yelled, her voice discordant and hoarse. It held malice and such killing intent that it made Saga hesitate. The hesitation that the brigand seized upon. She tossed her ax at Saga's head, making the Berserker angle the shield to cover themselves. But the second that shield rose even a little bit, the brigand dove into something of a slide. Skidding across the ground at a blitz, actually kicking one of Saga's legs out from under them. Saga tipped forward, trying to roll. But as they did, the dwarven lady slashed out with her shield across one of her legs. The sides of the small buckler were sharper than a knife's edge, slicing into her leg.

[You have suffered the effect of Hamstring. Speed greatly reduced]

“Fuck” Saga snarled, trying to retreat towards a wall. But it was evident they were being outmatched, The ax that had bounced off their shield was somehow still mid-air and changed its trajectory to fling itself at them. It smashed down against their shield, forcing Saga to step back and put weight on the hurt leg. The woman was on them before Saga could even grunt in pain, another ax in hand. This one looked a little heftier, and Saga figured it had to be her main weapon. The blow to their shield confirmed their suspicion as the shield shook from the strike, driving Saga back another painful step.

“I heard you were reincarnated. It's been a while since I killed you guys. I wonder if you get reincarnated somewhere else” The woman mocked Saga as she dodged a thrust of the berserker's spear. It was clumsy as Saga kept stumbling from the bad leg and trying to keep their wits about them.

Meanwhile, Sasha was weaving around and dodging an arrow that flew at her face with unerring accuracy. Outside of the first arrow, none of them had truly hit their mark, but several scratches and cuts told of near misses. Neither of them could keep this up for too long, and their attackers knew it. They were keeping the two separate, and exploiting the obvious weakness of either warrior with cold and ruthless efficiency. Saga felt dread mount in the pits of their stomach, as they had not been prepared in the slightest for such enemies. IT showed that while levels weren’t everything, combat experience was.

***

Arval let loose arrow after arrow as he had brought more than enough. By the end of it the young woman with the axes would be turned into a morbid pincushion. He admitted that he was a little impressed by her form as her movements were tight and quick, making her as small a target as possible. But she had no shield and no idea as to where he was shooting from. His favorite tool was his ‘Guided Arrow’ ability. He could make his arrows curve and hit from odd angles, keeping his position within the shadows almost impossible to guess.

He casually let another arrow lose, watching as the woman dodged away from it last minute yet again, seemingly unaware she was driven into a corner with each arrow. This was hardly a fair fight, and Arval felt a small tinge of pity for the two lovers. They were full of raw potential. Potential that was about to be wasted for some spoiled kids' grudge. But such was his business. It was cruel and uncaring, and he was too much as much of a professional to be anything but the embodiment of those very principles.

“Don’t hold this against me, young souls.” He imbued one of his arrows with his spiritual affinity, the arrow being magically coated with an ugly, purple sheen. He pulled back the string, and let loose. The arrow flew not for the ax-wielding warrior, but the back of the one with the shield.

The one that's known as Saga. His primary target.

He watched with the same kind of satisfaction that he imagined a smith had for a perfectly crafted blade. The arrow hit home just as the poor warrior moved to press the attack against his companion.

***

Saga was on the backfoot, retreating away from the endless blows of the lady's axes. That damn flying axed would loop around and come in at odd angles, leading to frantic and poorly centered defense on Saga's part. They were so preoccupied, that they didn’t even register Sasha yelling at them to turn around.

The pain that shot through their body as the arrow embedded itself inside them was mindnumbing. Their entire body lit up with searing pain as if someone just poured acid into an open wound. They stumbled, barely getting the shield up to block another swing of the woman's ax. They fell backward, onto the ground, scrambling away from the woman who darted in to try and finish them. The respite of not being pelted with arrows had allowed Sasha to act, however, and she roared in anger as she intercepted the other warrior. Finally allowed to engage some in proper combat, her tight and measured swings were wider and far sloppier than Saga was used to seeing.

They realized that the axedancer had lost her cool, and it was their fault.

***

The ax-dancer was a much trickier opponent for Kalina, who had to dodge and block a flurry of blows that seemed to speed up with every swing. But the woman was clearly in a state of anger and emotional turmoil, making those slick and controlled moves she had been showcasing absent. Instead, the swings while wild and aggressive were far too telegraphed for Kalina to be seriously worried. She took her time, retreating and giving up a little space to give the angry warrior the

When she stepped in close enough, she darted forward in the lounge, reflecting one ax with her shield and trying the other up with her own to tie Sasha up for her flying ax to easily land. What they did not expect was for the warrior before them to drive her skull down onto the bridge of her nose. She grunted in pain as she staggered, their Axe missing its target as the connection between weapon and wielder was briefly interrupted. Sasha pressed her opportunity, pushing in and getting close, choking the trip of her axes to be just under the head, all but punching one of the blades into the chest of Kalina who let out a pained grunt as it guts trough her brigandine. She stumbled backward, punching out with her sharp buckler to get Sasha to back off.

"You're not half bad," Kalina said, grinning wildly. "Too bad your little Paramore is about to kick the bucket." She taunted as Sasha stared daggers at her. That fierce expression soon turned into one of horror as more green light lit up the darkness as the group's healer made himself known. Kalina felt the rush of healing magic, and the pain of their her slowly reknitting itself." And there are is three of us. Time for you to meet the gods."

Sasha tightened her guard, eyes narrowing.

She would not go quietly.

Kalina respected that.

She'd give the woman a warrior's end.