“What do you think” S’tance asks as he finishes his sweet tea.

Roxie shakes her coin box which rattles with the last of her funds “I think I'm flat broke”

S'tance smiles which mirrors Roxie's own reluctant expression before standing “I think we need to get back to work then”

“Ooo, look at you, taking charge” Roxie hops up and downs her own tea “Smelly sewers and blood shed it is then”

“D-don’t say it like that, people might get the wrong idea” S'tance rubs his neck in as he glances around.

A harsh slap on the back by Roxie gets him to follow her “C’mon, we cleared the south, the West calls for liberation”

“What?” S'tance catches himself from his stumble.

“Dunno, kinda came out” Roxie shrugs as she leads the way.

Later, after gathering their things from the barracks, they stand above another manhole in another alleyway, led by the same guard and go through the same motions, put on masks, turn on lamps, and descend into the tunnels below.

“Good luck down there!” the guard shouts down as they reach the bottom.

“Huh?” Roxie spins around and looks up.

“This lot has given us no end of trouble, so, good luck” the guard gives her a thumbs up.

Roxie reciprocates and steps away to join S'tance, ignoring the scraping sound as the cover is pulled across their entrance.

“You hear that?” Roxie idly asks S'tance as they start walking.

“Hear what? Where?” S'tance stars flicking around in a panic.

Roxie chuckles to herself “What the guard said”

“Oh” he relaxes and stands straight “Yeah”

“C'mon, there's a lot of tunnels to explore” Roxie nods her head as she brings out their map.

They walk through the tunnels for an hour, finding nothing but the darkness and a few rats as investigate every mark on their map.

“Who goes there!” A voice calls out as the pair read the map.

“Roxie and S'tance, adventurers hired by Maxus!” Roxie shouts back as she spots the lamp light of the caller.

The man and his companion approach with hands on their swords and their lanterns raised, but relax as they look at the pair “Good timing, the pack has been spotted at the other end of this block, we're on our way to lend aid”

“Hold on for a second” Roxie fishes around her pouches until she pulls out a wooden saltshaker. She then pools some in the palm of her hand “Hold out your necks”

“What?” the guards step back and put their hands back on their swords.

“It's a test, salt turns black when exposed to an impure soul, it'll even pickup if you being controlled by one, or are an undead” Roxie holds out the salt so they can examine it.

The two continue to hesitate, and so Roxie pulls down her own gorget and presses the salt to her neck for a few seconds before showing it to them.

Still white.

The companion steps forwards and presents his own neck which Roxie repeats the tests.

But when she pulls it back, several small clumps of grey have formed.

S'tance reaches for his sword, whilst the caller steps between them and his companion.

Roxie meanwhile has set to picking out the clumps and throwing them into the river besides them “Don’t worry, well, do. It's a sign that he's suffered spiritual bruising, probably from being around undead”

“What?” the companion questions in a panic whilst clutching at his neck.

“I'd recommend not entering the sewers for several days and take time to rest in an area with lots of people” Roxie then turns to the caller and offers out her hand.

He eyes her and S'tance suspiciously before removing his own gorget and letting Roxie perform the test.

“— and over the river. There” she pulls it back and reveals just a singular lump of grey which is also swiftly plucked and thrown away “I’d recommend just taking some time off” she then motions to put the salt back in the shaker but stops and hands it to S'tance “Open this please”

“So, do you always carry salt around to test people?” The caller asks as Roxie pours the rest of the salt into the shaker.

“No, I want to test one of the mutants, alive and dead. I threw some in the sewage yesterday and they came out as if they weren’t carrying lungs full of water” Roxie packs the shaker away and claps the rest off her hands.

“I think this is something you should tell the head, after we deal with those mutants” The caller guard nods to behind them.

“Yeah, lead the way” Roxie steps aside and gestures out with a hand.

The guards lead them along a winding trail through the sewers, occasionally coming across sighs of life like faeces, blood trails and large gouges out of the stone littering the path until they reached the back of the pack.

But as soon as they appear, the entire front line of them collapses, confusing the shield wall of guards holding them back. Then two start going berserk and attacking everything around them, friends mostly, whilst the rest started meandering around aimlessly.

Too top off the confusion was that all the mutants look exactly the same and that the only obvious mutation is that each possess a large, bony right arm that ends in a massive claw.

Everyone stares at the sight with confusion, but Roxie immediately bolts down the only other path in the T-junction to a large cistern where she spots a light fading down another tunnel.

With a beat of her wings she crosses the pit and jogs after the light “Knew it!”

The fleeing person has stopped and turns to confront Roxie, raising his lantern high not caring that it illuminates the inside of his hood, showing that he is nothing but a skeleton.

Roxie stops to start checking her surroundings, but a hand launches out of the water, grabbing her by the leg and pulling her towards it. She growls and grabs the thick tendons that are keeping the hand attached to hidden body, digs her heels in and pulls it out, as it breaches the skeleton flees, leaving Roxie attached to the mutant.

She draws her sword and cuts off the hand to follow the man but has to stop as she comes to a junction with not light to follow him. She focuses and pushes her senses out, only to dodge to the side as a spike breaks the ground where she was. Above her is another knife tailed mutant with the necromancer clutched to it, hiding on the ceiling. They stare as they size the other up, trying to find a way to get what they want.

Roxie's the first to move. She throws her sword at the mutant, missing but spooking it into action where it launches down with its tail again. This time however, Roxie steps to the side and grabs it as it's pulled back, dragging it with her as she moves backwards, forcefully ripping it's claws out of the stonework.

Roxie drags it close to stab it in the neck with her stinger, injecting her venom to deal with it as she dashes to pursue the skeleton that threw itself down another tunnel. As she gathers speed and reaches to it, they crumble, their bones scattering out of the black robe.

Slowing to stop, she stares down to the bones. They’re immediately stomped into the brickwork as Roxie vents her frustration on them until she collects herself.

Taking a deep breath, she focuses her sense out and immediately rewarded; under lose stone besides her are various other skeletons, each lined up in a resting position, each wearing robes and holding a lantern and a rolled parchment, all with a fading trace of mana on them that is linked to a large ball of gemstone sand that has wisps coming off down the tunnel. Knowing that it exists, the trail becomes obvious as she notices the various warped divots and bumps that show hastily scattered mana, the persons attempt at covering their tracks.

Stepping back to retrieve her sword, she looks down where she came to find no one following, then down to the rotted neck of the mutant she killed, staring back with human eyes, clutching at its throat even in death.

She walks away and digs up one of the skeletons and retrieves the parchment, opening it reveals it as a large map of this block of sewers with various spots marked on it. She pockets the map and sets off following the trail. Keeping her sense out for the marks of hastily dispelled mana, Roxie travels for nearly an hour down the tunnels, occasionally spotting more mutants who either watch her pass or hiss as she comes closer.

The trail leads her to a section of wall where a doorway had been bricked in, so not wasting time, Roxie steps back, charges chi into her leg and kicks the lose brick to reveal a staircase upwards. Drawing her sword, she ascends to the wooden wall at its end where various voices can be heard.

Curious to hear, she pushes her watchers’ sense through the wall to hear people being barked at to move boxes, complaints about the labour and a few questions about an odd smell.

Trying not to spook them, she lets more of her sense through and counts around six men on the first floor of the warehouse and one on the second wearing the same face as the mutants, only not twisted and stretched, all arguing and moving around a pair of carts loaded with crates of food. Someone complains about a smell and orders someone to check it out.

A pair of men walk over to where Roxie is hiding and start to lift the wall. Thinking fast, she charges the wall, knocking the pair over and trapping them under it, she then charges the carts but is stopped by a wall of dirt that raises between them and her.

Twisting to face the man above, she barely dodges the hand that’s launched at her but manages to slash the tendons, cutting only enough to draw blood. The new mutant stands over two meters tall with massive clawed hands raised as it observes her with dead eyes.

The man on the banister above smirks at Roxie, and so she throws her sword at him. As he dodges, she runs and leaps up to him with a beat of her wings, only to get caught by the mutant which starts to crush her as the man above watches on with glee.

Roxie struggles and swings her tail forwards to stab the mutant’s thumb, injecting her poison which quickly rots it away, easing the pressure as she falls to the floor with the other hand firmly attached to her. Noticing her freedom, Roxie takes several steps back and notices a yellow figure next to her.

“S'tance?” Roxie questions as she struggles the other hand off her.

“You have a lot to explain after this” S'tance readies himself with three hands on his sword and the last on his sheath.

Roxie just mumbles “Look at you” whilst dashing with her claws out.

The abominations stump contracts, stopping the bleeding. The necromancer points forwards, which provokes it to charge, meeting her halfway and swiping with its remaining hand; Roxie ducks under the swipe and stabs her tail into the abominations leg, tripping it and injecting what little poison she has left. It smashes into the dirt and S’tance swiftly decapitates it with an underhand swing.

The body then lurches and throws him through the dirt wall with its stump, revealing that the doors to the warehouse are wide open and the carts are gone.

The abomination starts to stand whilst Roxie barrels through the thin wall to join S’tance as the necromancer drops down to run after her, his skin bulging and bright red whilst a wicked look resolves in his eyes.

Spotting his sprint, Roxie picks up S’tance and shields them both with a chi charged wing as the necromancer bursts, exploding in a burst of flames that launches them across the street and into the doors of another warehouse as the one they were in is obliterated alongside the ones next to it.

Roxie screams out and clutches her shoulder before she asks, “You alright?”

“No. The abyss was that” S’tance rubs his neck as he stares at the crater that was the warehouse.

Roxie tries to shift into a more comfortable position but ends up reduced to huffing as she brushes her shoulder whilst trying to push out the dented leather.

S’tance notices her plight and helps to push the leather and wire back to shape, relieving the pressure on her shoulder “There”

Roxie manages to speak between huffs “Thanks. That. Fucking. Hurt” she then rests her head on smashed remains of a wooden door.

It doesn’t take long after for the guards to arrive with medical aid. They quickly begin working to cordon off the area and tend to the injured, carting off those who’s in critical condition and checking those nearby. Roxie is brought to a hospital where she’s treated for burns to her wing but is cleared of any breaks or concussion whilst S’tance walks away with a minor fracture in his neck carapace and a bandage.

After getting checked out, the two are called to Maxus’ manor where they’re guided to the dining room; the table is surrounded by Maxus and various brightly decorated guards and is smothered in maps and charts which get ignored when they enter the room.

“Hey” Roxie gives a half-hearted wave as she becomes the centre of attention.

Wolf steps around the table and up to her “First things first, you two in fighting condition?”

Roxie dismissively waves at Wolf “Need some sleep and a bath but I’m good”

S’tance meanwhile rubs where the break appeared in his neck “Got another break now” he then shrugs and looks away.

“Good. Now, what happened?” Wolf steps back and to the side to allow everyone present at the table to see the pair.

Roxie quickly explains everything that happened the moment she ran off from the guards but continues on “I’m pretty sure I know who’s doing this” Roxie pauses for everyone’s attention “It’s a group called the ‘undead, bio ascension’, UBA, they’re a group of necromancers who make their own bodies”

“Alright, what evidence do you have of this?” one of the guards asks, looking behind to his assistant who get ready to write more down.

“First, the necromancer body hopped to a live vessel, which would be difficult to get for any other group, second, they exploded, something only UBA necromancers do when they need to escape and third, the carts that left had a lot of food, something they need to make new bodies” Roxie looks around the room to the guards who start a small frenzy of discussion.

As they do this, Roxie leans over to S’tance “How did you find me?”

S’tance pulls out a compass that points to Roxie “The guard head that we were going to help had a couple of these and gave one to me after you ran off”

Roxie and S’tance’s attention are drawn when Maxus calls to Wolf “The two remains in the warehouse have identified the group as the Shunned Sons, we’re going to investigate if they have any hideouts in the eastern block of the city. Until we find it, your group is to rest and re-arm” he then extended a hand to the open archway out of the room “Also, seeing as you’re here, please enjoy my hospitality, you deserve it”

They nod and follow Gregory out of the main hall and into separate rooms to wait for their baths.

Roxie sighs as the door closes and starts peeling the rest of her armour off, the top half being already removed by the doctors, and settles on the bed.

She pulls up her shirt and tentatively pokes at the large bruise the abomination left on her, completely tinting her middle purple as well as most of her arms. She hisses and takes in a couple sharp breaths as she pokes it to see how bad it is and decides that she's had worse.

A gentle knocking comes from the door “Lady Roxie? Your bath is ready”

Roxie walks out the room and nods to Gregory “Thanks, that was quick”

“I thought a lady such as yourself would be particularly interested in cleaning up after today” Gregory makes a shallow bow and leading the way.

“Pfft. Me. A lady” Roxie chuckles as she follows Gregory to the baths.

She spends nearly two hours in the bath, so content with the hot and scented water that she didn’t even wash herself. In fact, she only got out because Wolf dragged her out.

“let go” Roxie drones as Wolf drags her through the hallway by the scruff of her neck.

Wolf doesn’t answer until he’s opened her door and drop her in “You’re shrivelled”

Roxie is about halfway upright before she’s hit in the face by a mass of white towels that knocks her back down. Roxie opts for staying on the carpet and wrapping herself in the towels instead of getting up.

A while later, another person intrudes on her “Miss Roxie? Dinner is ready, please be dressed” she then pauses for a moment “Or would you prefer that I bring the food up?”

Roxie peeks from her cocoon “Up please”

The woman leaves and returns shortly after with a tray and places it on the large desk, leaving Roxie to squirm over and eat. The woman later returns to retrieve the clean plate whilst Roxie has moved to the bed and made herself a nest from the bed and the towels. She stays like this for two days before she receives a visitor.

They sit on the bed next to her and gently rocks her “Hey, want to go out?”

Roxie pulls her head out of a towel to look up at S'tance with sunken eyes “Mmm, later”

“Hey, what's up?” S'tance asks with worry.

“I'm just so—” she lets out a long yawn “Tired. I dunno why”

“Maybe some exercise will wake you up?” S'tance asks shrugging.

“Sure, could go for a run or something” she reluctantly starts untangling herself.

S'tance tenses a little and asks, “Maybe some sparring, maybe?”

“Sure—” She then kicks him off the bed “Now out. And go get your gear on, I don’t hold back”

S'tance nearly skips out of the room as Roxie starts laboriously dressing and gearing up, thankful that the servants have laundered her clothes and succeeded in getting the stink out. As she steps out, she's met by the elven servant that's been feeding the past few days.

“Your friend is in the back garden, just through the man hallway” She smiles and steps into her room as Roxie hops down the steps.

She meanders through the mansion, catching a wisp of heated discussion from the dining hall, and through a large conservatory into the garden.

She quickly scans over the hedges and benches until she spots S'tance standing in a circle of packed dirt. To the side is an old man sitting on a large bench with his back to a shed, smoking a pipe whilst appraising Roxie.

She jogs over to S'tance and nods towards the guest “Who's the old man”

“I’m the most powerful person your ever gonna meet” he takes a long drag of his pipe as Roxie cocks an eyebrow “I finance near all of Maxus’ operation and—” he points his pipe at her “Own the tunnels you've been clearing these past days. Titus New, remember it”

“Right, guess you’ve got power in connections and money kinda person” Roxie perks up as she turns to S’tance “Right, do we have any training swords?”

S’tance looks to his sword “Umm”

Titus stands up and opens the shed before tossing out a pair of wooden swords and sitting back down. Roxie and S’tance shrug then pick up the swords before getting into fighting stance.

Roxie steps forwards and thrusts; S’tance responds by stepping back and slashing her wrist.

“One to the boy!” The old man calls out with a chuckle.

Roxie growls a little before getting back in stance and S’tance does the same. Roxie leads again by swinging left by feinting when S’tance raises his guard to thrust for his head which he ducks under only for Roxie to change it downwards and hit the top of his helmet.

“Owe” S’tance rubs his head through the helmet.

Titus meanwhile chuckles and calls out “One for the girl”

S’tance stands back up and, when the two are ready, leads the attack with a lunge; Roxie however leans away and catches the sword, then pulls him onto hers.

“Two for the girl” Titus announces with a puff of smoke.

They continue sparring long into the day, barely stopping to eat and rest or replace their swords when Roxie’s overzealousness breaks them, all whilst even attracting Maxus and the various guard captains to come outside and watch.

Roxie is left sitting on the dirt trying to get some breath as S'tance is leaning over and rolling his shoulder.

“S'tance—” she waits until she has his attention “fuck you”

S'tance just chuckles in response which Roxie soon joins in, eventually backed by the onlookers clapping.

Maxus announces “Well, I think we should all retire for the night” as he stands.

The others leave, talking amongst themselves about their performance which causes Roxie to smile. The pair are guided by the maid to the kitchen where Roxie is given an ice pack for her black eye and S’tance starts unbandaging his arms, letting the broken fragments of his carapace fall out for it to heal properly before he starts rubbing an ointment on what’s left.

“My lady?” Gregory stands to the side of the table presenting an axe and sword.

“Hey?” Roxie looks between him and the weapons “Those for me?” she points to the offered weapons.

He then places them on the table “Of course my lady, Maxus decided that you going unarmed tomorrow would not be a wise decision”

“Tomorrow!?” Roxie questions as she bolts upright.

“Oh, yes, they were going to tell you but got caught up in your display” he coughs lightly “Eyewitnesses report a large figure limping away from the explosion and absconding into the sewers. It then proceeded to devour any life it came across on its way to the eastern blocks where it was seen emerging and then hiding in another building. This morning we got reports of carts laden with food entering that same building”

“Sounds like our place, great” Roxie puts down the ice pack and starts checking over her new weapons as S'tance finishes his bandaging.