We were standing on what appeared to be the last landing in the steps. They had gone down in a square spiral all the way to the sewer. We were almost to the bottom when Irwin gave us away, and the rats reacted.

I was hopeful that they wouldn’t be much of a problem. However, that hope was tossed aside as soon as they started up the stairs. It was like a wave of rat flowing upward. The stairs were just wide enough that three of these rodents that were clearly unusual in size fit side by side.

Kasidy triggered the stone air of my Standard just in time for the front row of the rat wave to hit mid-jump and bounce off. The second row proved that the rats were more of allies of circumstance than truth as they bit at their rebuffed comrades.

Renfry was completely worthless at this point. He was too jammed up to sheath his sword and lacked the room to advance. With the limitations on the dome making it so he couldn’t attack with something he was holding, he glanced behind to see about retreating instead.

I yelled. “Back up fully to the landing. We can spread here. Irwin hit them with some fire. Renfry, you have a bow. Use it!”

I took a moment to try to find the back line of the rats. The problem was that all I saw were eyes. There were hundreds of them, each twenty or thirty pounds of hunger. I wasn’t happy about this at all, but we didn’t have many choices left.

Irwin’s spell lit up the stairs, and I was even less impressed with what we were facing. The rats up front were the small ones, as the ones further back were the size of Saint Bernards. The huge rats were muscling their way through the mob.

Kasidy shrieked and pointed the rats weren’t just using the stairs. They were climbing up the walls and onto our landing. Most of my attacks were great for taking out a single target. My rain attacks wouldn’t work here, but I did have my Totem.

As Irwin made the room smell like a BBQ pit, I placed my totem on our outer flank. Then, I figured out what I had done wrong in its design. I had never thought about angled attacks always dealing with straight lines. The rats couldn’t get up onto the landing because of the dome. However, they could attack the dome without the Totem attacking them because of the line of sight.

I would happily leave the totem if it meant that we could retreat. The problem was we couldn’t withdraw that far since the shop above was filled with undead who wanted to kill us.

Irwin stopped channeling his fire jet, and the rats surged forward again. They were running over the burning remains of their kin to get to us. Worse yet, or perhaps better still, some were stopping for a bite to eat on their way, which caused a massive pile-up just in time for Irwin to light up again.

The flame he was producing made me jealous as I felt the heat roll off his attack. It took him just around thirty seconds of full power channeling to run short enough on mana to stop. Then he downed another potion. After the third go-through, I was completely worried.

The rats seemed at least to be never-ending in their numbers. They were just piling up higher and higher as they came for us. At least the ones climbing up the walls couldn’t bring the same numbers as they weren’t dying. The real problem, however, was the ones that were coming from above now.

They had climbed up the wall and were now coming down the steps at us. This was more problematic than the ones from below, as we were now completely surrounded. I quickly looked over the edge and saw that the mass climbing was about equal to those coming up the stairs.

I shook my head. This wouldn’t end well for us if they could keep the pressure on for any length of time. We needed to withdraw. Perhaps all the way to the secret door so they couldn’t get in behind.

I yelled. “Irwin, toast them, and then we back up as you top off. Renfry, only shoot if the big ones are coming. Kasidy! Pass me the standard, and you sing the rats a song; let’s see if we can disengage.”

I took the standard and checked the charge. I was even more unhappy. While each hit couldn’t do much damage, there were so many that the shield was dropping fast. We only had a few minutes left on the shield, and then it would have to recharge or get force charged by one of us.

Irwin lit them up again as we all started to back up. The ones circling above us started to jump onto the dome and attack it directly. Then Kasidy’s song started.

What they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder isn’t just for visual arts. Nope, while I loved her song, many people would tell me what happened with the rats was gruesome. However, I found them jumping off the steps and falling off the wall a thing of beauty.

Just as soon as our way up was cleared, I called out. “Up!”

We turned and walked quickly. I didn’t want us to trip and fall with enemies around, and the rats kept attacking our lower edge. Which meant that if one of us tripped and the standard kept going, they would be done for.

We got up to the next landing, and Irwin was ready for another blast of fire. We paused just long enough for him to light them up and then moved. We did this for the five minutes making our way back up. We weren’t giving the rats a chance to pile up on the Stone Air dome from the standard, so it was just trickling down in mana.

Renfry asked. “How long can we keep this up?”

Irwin answered right before firing off the jet. “Not long enough; I am down to just three mana potions.”

I growled. “We are going to keep moving until we get to that other door. See if there is a way we can bust through it. It will be better to fight them in a hallway.”

With that, we pulled up another five flights without stopping. I passed Renfry the standard and said. “Hold them here; Kasidy and I are going to try to get through that door. Bring the Totem with you when you pull back.”

I sat the Totem down and aimed it at the stairs as Renfry said. “Hurry, my lord. We can only hold them here for a minute or two, and then we’ll have to keep going if we want to have a shot with the undead.”

I grimaced and nodded. Then Kasidy and I headed back up to the next landing. It was dark, but we had a little light to work from when she spun up one of her active skills. A light appeared on her. It only gave a few feet of visible light, but it was enough for us to move.

As we got up to the door, I asked her. “Have you ever picked a magical door?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know if there is a normal lock or not.”

The last time I was at the door, I didn’t pay it much heed. It didn’t open, so we moved on. This time, however, I took a good look at it. The door was heavy wood with bands of Iron wrapped around it. The handle was some sort of black metal shaped into a horse’s head.

Kasidy pointed at the top of the door. “They wrote something up there. Too bad it was so long ago that I can’t even recognize the language.”

I nodded. “Would like to know if it were a warning or an invitation.”

Kasidy ran her hand down the seam of the door. “Oh, it’s a warning, but the question is what type. Could be saying there is something terrible down there, or it could be saying that only the right people can go in.”

“Yeah, let’s hope it’s the second. Now, have you found anything you can pick?”

Kasidy huffed. “There’s no lock on the door, and nothing happens when I pull. The seam around the edge is almost too thin to see. So I don’t think we’re prying it open.”

Renfry yelled from below. “Something huge is coming! Not sure how long you have!”

I looked down and saw the light reflecting in the eyes of something massive. The eyes each had to be the size of my fist, which meant it was a huge beast. It wasn’t moving fast, but it was coming up the stairs like impending doom.

I slapped the door with my hand open, saying. “We are running out…”

When my hand hit the door, I got a pop-up.

* * *