Roxie peers into the consuming darkness until a nova ignites besides her.

“S-sorry” S'tance holds up the lantern, its coils glowing brightly with mana induced heat.

“It's fine” Roxie stops shielding her face to look to her own where she fiddles with a dial and sets its brightness to max, then hangs it off one of her wings “let’s go”

She then pushes her watchers’ sense out far from their light, causing the sewers many residents to scurry away, until its little more than a general sense all around her of a few tunnels away.

“D-did you feel that?” S'tance starts swinging his lantern around.

“It's me. C'mon, got something down the tunnel to our right” Roxie leads the way unperturbed by the scratching ahead.

S'tance shakily follows behind, still swinging his lantern to find the things hiding in the cracks.

Roxie chuckles, finding those same things a little adorable.

Instead of finding their target, it finds them, gripped to ceiling. It moves with perfect timing to pass over them as they round the corner so they can’t spot it. It licks it maw and readies its bladed tail to pierce S’tance before dragging it far from Roxie. That was its plan before S'tance turns and slashes out its eyes with a sword, he then takes a forwards step with one hand on the pommel, one on the handle and a third touching the blade itself to guide it as he thrusts the blade through the mutants chest.

The next sound in the tunnel is Roxie whistling “I was gonna wait for it to leap but you got it”

S'tance cleans the blade on a rag attached to the sheath before putting it away “It was about too; I saw it start to rock forwards

“Well—” She tilts her head as she thinks “I guess I do have my watchers’ sense pretty spread out, yours is much tighter”

“Right?” he looks at her with a confused look “Well, what are we going to do with it” he turns around and gently kicks the body?

“Take the head, Max mentioned something for a hundred mutants killed and were gonna need proof” Roxie shrugs and steps towards the body.

“But we can’t just carry a bunch of heads with us, especially if we go onto the surface” S’tance glances around, his nervous demeanour returning.

“Why?” she looks at him blankly “Oh shit yeah, panic and stuff” she then returns to the body and starts hacking the head off with her axe “We’ll leave them in the sewers and get a guard to verify the total”

“Yeah” S’tance calms down and turns away from the scene.

He peers into the darkness, holding his lantern high to send out more light. He hears it first. Then cranes his head forwards whilst leaning his antennae ahead. He flinches as he hears it again. a constant sound of slapping against stone and hallow moaning.

“Roxie?” he starts to stumble backwards “Roxie?” he asks again, trying to get a response this time “Roxie, do you hear that?” she resumes hacking the head off as S’tance walks past.

They enter the light. Various malformed bodies, each shuffling towards them. The only sound is their feet on the stone and laboured breaths as their bodies fail them.

Roxie gently sets down her lantern and places the head besides it “Could really do with a spear right now” she stands up and drags the body with her to stand besides S’tance.

She waits, letting them pass the lantern so that the light is in the middle of the pack.

She then throws the corpse into the group of two dozen strong, toppling half their number and sending some into the sewer river as she charges behind it with the axe in her hands. She swings for ones neck as she goes near, forcing her chi into her limbs, cutting it to the bone before wrenching the axe free with more strength than she should use.

She then stingers one on the floor in the chest and, with a twirl, throws it in the rest of the group. she charges to the back of them and turns to swing again, smashing the axe into the chest of one, sending it into the sewer river with a few of the others and her axe.

“Shit” she pulls out her sword and cuts off the hand of one that reaches for her before side stepping and doing the same for the second, nocking that one into the river with her tail. She executes a few of the ones close to her that start getting up before turning her attention to the ones that are standing.

They start limping towards her, clearly acknowledging her as the threat instead of S’tance who takes a breath, sets his lantern on the floor and spears the closest one through the skull. Now being threatened on both sides, the six remaining mutants split evenly and attack. Roxie steps backwards as two lunge and miss, she then steps forwards and smashes in the skull of one with the sword and pierces her tail into the chest of the other where she finishes it off with a dose of poison; S’tance meanwhile makes a wide slash, cutting open the thighs of the first of his before he then transitions into a three handed thrust through the second and third.

Roxie lets her sword drop inside the head of the second mutant and pulls her gloves taught and pushes her claws through the finger slits, she then charges and slashes apart the last ones chest before spinning behind it and smashing her stinger into its back, sending it to join the other mutants in the sewer water.

“Phew. That was easy” Roxie steps to the edge and crouches down.

“Y-yeah, easy” S'tance looks down at the two bodies and tries pulling his sword out “Little help”

“In a minuet, just getting my axe” As she says this, a mutant lunges out of the water and starts gnawing on her shin “Wrong one” she then stabs her stinger into its skull with enough force to cave it in.

Meanwhile, the mutant S'tance disabled is starting to stand and shamble towards him “Roxie?!”

“What?” another one lunges out, spewing water from its lungs as it resumes the biting “How many did I push in here?”

“Roxie help!” S'tance squeaks as he gives up on his sword and starts backing off.

“This is why you always carry two weapons S’tance—” as the second slips underwater to join the first, a third comes up “Where's my axe you bastards!” Roxie forces her watchers sense through the water, finding the mutant absconding with her axe down the river “Knew it!” she then stands up and walks away, pulling the teeth out of the jaw of the one still chewing on her boot as she comes up behind the one threatening S'tance and smashes its head against the wall, grinding it in for good measure.

“What, what's going on?” S'tance looks around in a panic.

Satisfied, she moves to the speared pair, puts her boot atop the pile and drags out S’tance's sword “These things are being controlled, need to crush their heads before they become undead”

“That one's got your sword!” S'tance points to a new arrival, similar to the first mutant they killed which hisses at them and runs away with Roxie’s sword in its hands “We have to get it!”

“No!” Roxie grabs him by the shoulder and forces him to stop before he moves “That's what they want, I’m faster than you so we'll end up separated, and easy pickings” she hand him his own sword.

As if agreeing with her statement, the mutant has stopped at the edge of the lamplight to stare at them.

Roxie in response calmly walks forwards, grabs the head from besides her lantern and hurls it without warning, smashing it into the head of the thieving mutant and stunning it, at which point Roxie charges and tackles it to start mauling it with her claws and tail, making sure to smash it's head against the ground every chance she gets until it stops struggling.

Taking deep breaths, Roxie stands and retrieves her sword, then cleans it using a rag S’tance offers before sheathing it “Not my best throw... anyways, lets finish these off and go, I need a nap”

After decapitating the mutants that are still on the side, Roxie pulls out the maps and starts guiding the two through the sewers again to a manhole closer to a barracks. By the time they reach the ladder S'tance looks like he's about to fall asleep and Roxie's not far behind him, even as they climb up and emerge to the surface where they're greeted by swearing and cursing as the people around the hole smell them.

After a bit of meandering, they make their way to the barracks where they're ushered through inside where their clothes taken and given a bed.

Roxie naturally rouses from her sleep only to pull the covers over her head and curl up more until the urge takes over and she stumbles out of the room and eventually finds someone.

“Kitchen is over there” he thumbs behind him to a set of double doors before she even asks the question.

She slowly blinks before mumbling “Toilets”

“Oh, same way but take the right later on, it'll be on your right” he gestures the directions with his hands, waiting for Roxie to nod before letting her stumble past.

After relieving herself, Roxie skips back to her room where a man is knocking her door “What?”

The man jumps away “Wah, oh miss Altflight—” he clears his throat “Maxus has paid you a bonus for yours and S’tance's performance yesterday and to tell you to move to the next block on your list” The man hands her a heavy but thin metal box “I’ll deliver S'tance his share”

Roxie watches him walk over to the door besides hers and start knocking it before opening the box and counting the contents, her eyes going wider as she counts, she then quickly rushes into her room, grab her bag and sword before rushing out and nearly toppling over S'tance “Hey!”

“Hey, did you get the money?” He asks holding up his own coin box.

“Yeah, gonna go shopping, got more than a few things on my list” Roxie continues walking down the hall.

“Yeah, give me a second, I will meet you out front” he then dives into his room, leaving Roxie to make her own way out.

They meet up and head into town, using the maps to find the shopping areas around the city. The first shop on their escapade is a small brick building with various books of science stacked on shelves and crates of casting aids such as tomes made from heat resistant paper, tools made from various materials and containers for various materials. Roxie walks up to the counter where a woman wearing a full-face shield is currently shaping a staff on a lathe in the back.

Before she does anything else, the woman stops and approaches the counter, pulling up her face shield to look at her “Need something?”

“Uh, yeah, a double m-valve air tank, a book on aerodynamics and one on mana shaping and finally, do you have a focus that could fit on my tail?” she raises her tail onto the counter.

The woman’s eyes go wide “Uhh, I think I have some sort of sleeve” She walks around to Roxie's side and starts opening drawers and pulling out various sleeves, encrusted with gemstones that poke through both sides of the fabric.

After trying a few on, Roxie settles on a black one to match her tail “This'll do”

The woman then rushes around and retrieves the rest of what Roxie requested and places them on the counter “Will this be all? I have some mana cores for sale”

Roxie perks up at the offer but just shakes her head “Nah, I’m gonna hunt my own” she states this with a sure smile.

The woman pauses and a grin forms on her own face “If that's the case, I’d suggest you head over to Shingle-brow smithy. Have a map, it’s a little out the way”

After noting the directions, Roxie pays for her things and leaves with a note that promises a discount for the blacksmith which ends up being a twenty minuet walk away, deep in a set of side alleys.

Roxie enters first into the small smithy, coughing as the door kicks up dust which covers everything except for the weapons on display which all glint in the little light that the pair let in.

“Well I’ll be a monkey shit, proper customers!” a small dwarf with a brow the same colour as shingles approaches them, stamping prints into the dust below.

“Your friend said you might be lonely” Roxie smiles as she hands over the note.

The dwarf scrutinizes the paper “Crap, and now I have t' give y' a discount” despite what he says, a smile creeps over his face “Gimme a sec t' pull out the old green blades” he then totters back the way he came, not reacting to the tide of dust behind him.

S'tance meanwhile has disappeared amongst the displays, picking up and examining every sword that's similar to his.

Roxie walks up behind him and claps a hand on his shoulder “Hey”

“Wah!” S'tance jumps and drops the large knife he was looking at “Crap”

“I hope y' not breaking anything!” the blacksmith emerges and drops a large crate atop the counter at the back and beckons them over.

Roxie immediately dives in and pulls out an odd shaped longsword “Woh an execution sword” she unsheathes the sword, showing off the flat tip and un-tapered length “Haven’t seen one of these before”

“Is that what's it’s called. A rubbish novel came out and the hero used one of these, called it the ‘mage executioner', yeah, got more than a few commissions for these so I made a batch. Last one y'll find not hanging on a wall” he starts organising the blades Roxie displaced getting to the sword.

“Yeah, angels used them all the time, would fly down and cut people in half with them” she looks the blade up and down before sheathing it and setting it on the counter.

S'tance steps up besides Roxie and peeks into the box “What's special about these?”

“They're made from Oriculam, it disrupts mana from anything. Good for stopping spells, or, killing a mana beast. At least without it exploding in your face” Roxie smiles as holds the sword by the handle.

S'tance leans into the box and starts fishing out small throwing knives “These please”

“Y' know how t' throw these?” the dwarf asks with a cocked brow.

S'tance nods and the dwarf shrugs before disappearing in the workshop behind him and returning with a thin pouch which he fits the knifes in “That all y' looking for?”

“Any bows and arrows?” Roxie muses as she rubs her chin.

“Won’t find a bow in this city ‘cept for crossbows” he shakes his head at the statement.

“Fine, that'll be it” Roxie pulls out her coin box and S'tance does the same.

After paying, they start making their way back to the barracks but are stopped by the smell of fresh bread and stop to eat at a tea house.