Right when my hand hit the door while I was telling Kasidy to get a move on it, I got a pop-up.

Castle Westiral Welcomes its liege

Open escape passage 4

Yes/No

I took a quick look at my hand, and sure enough, on my good hand, I was still wearing the signet ring I got in the tower. It granted me full access to Castle Westiral, which I thought was the tower, as all the locks there had just opened for me. It didn’t matter much right now as I needed in.

I selected to open the escape passage, and the door swung open. Light poured out the door showing a well-appointed hallway. The floor had a red runner, and the walls were wood paneling.

I flashed Kasidy a grin and pointed in. “Doors open, boys! Head on up!”

Up to this point, the rats had just been attacking like rats. Sure, they were huge, but they were scratching stone air and doing physical damage. However, whatever the monster was, with the big eyes, took the time to express its displeasure with our current actions.

A green stream of what appeared to be a liquid slammed into the dome. Renfry yelled as it turned solid for the first time in this fight. As the stream hit, it washed over the whole dome, and even from the back, I had problems seeing in.

It was already loud in the stairwell from the rats screeching and the clicking of nails on the stone. However, when the attack hit, the noise level went up. The rats near the dome weren’t spared as the attack bounced onto them. The screeching we heard from the rats attacking turned into loud screaming as a hissing sound washed over the battle from where the green liquid touched flesh.

The putrid smell of what could only be acid-eating rat flesh washed over me as I yelled. “Move it!”

I saw charging out from the front of the dome Irwin’s earth elemental Sparkles. He was far bigger than I had seen before. When Kasidy had named him, he was only a couple of feet high. But Dave had been angry that he broke the bar when Irwin first called him forth. Now I knew why, through the stone steps I felt each time his foot hit the ground.

The dome cleared as I watched Renfry come running back up the stairs. Over his shoulder was a limp Irwin; in his other hand was my standard and my totem. Behind him came a rat screech that was far too loud.

I shoved Kasidy through the door as Renfry made the last few steps. The rats that weren’t melting in the acid attack of the giant behind them were surging up the stairs again. The never-ending tide of rats was once again chasing us.

Renfry yelled. “Through the door!”

I shook my head. “You go first. I don’t know if it will slam behind me!”

I wished right then and there that I had a good area attack. It wasn’t the first time I made that wish, and it likely wouldn’t be the last time. I pulled my sword loose and thought about how nice it would have been to have the katana fixed. I couldn’t even keep the rats very far away with this.

As Renfry came up the stairs, I ran down to meet him and the horde. He was being weighed down by both Irwin and a rat. One had managed to jump onto Irwin and was trying to eat through him to Renfry. I slid my blade into that rat’s body.

Then I kicked the next one down and yelled over my shoulder. “Kas, we need your song!”

The slight distraction of looking over my shoulder was all it took for two rats to jump at me. The one on the right was easy to deal with and took the tip of my sword in the body. However, the second one, which was slightly to the first’s left, was a completely different story.

My blade was weighed down by the body of the first, and while I was tipping it off, I wasn’t in a place to use it. The dead rat also pulled my body to the side just far enough that I started to lose balance, which meant I turned ever so slightly to my right. So when the second rat hit me, it was full on my left arm.

Now my left arm had my shield and was armored, which meant that the rat couldn’t do much. Well, not much, other than knock me to the steps. My right hand hit the stone floor, making me loosen my grip. Between the rat’s body still around my blade and the impact on the stone, my sword slipped from my hand.

The real problem wasn’t that I lost my grip. It was that the rat that I had just killed went over the side of the stairs with my sword still in it, which meant that my level five cored sword was now on the way to the bottom, past all of the rats and the giant rat monster that was still fighting Sparkles.

Now the rat that knocked me over was also still on me. Since I was on the ground, I made a convenient target for the rest of the rats coming up the stairs. I started to thrash and kick to try to get them off of me. I tossed one and then felt the teeth of another bit my face.

I punched that one with my now free hand, but another had latched onto my left foot. I pumped my leg as hard as possible, but the beast held on. Then the weight got even heavier as more started to climb on me and try to find holes in my armor.

I had never had a fear of rats before today. However, this mess of giant rats had changed my mind, and I was now freaking out. They weighed too much for me to throw off. I twisted to get my hand to my knife and started pulling it out.

Then I heard cutting through the screaming rats, the most beautiful voice ever. Kasidy was singing her song! The rats lost balance and started to stagger. A few fell off the steps next to me, and then I saw one on top of me fly off.

The next thing I knew, Renfry grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to standing. I flashed him a grin, but he had a grim look on his face. Then he helped me limp back up to the door.

I took a look at my debuff. I had lost about seventy-five health and picked up three bleeding debuffs, a limp, and two disease counters. Kasidy stepped through the open door, and while I could see her singing, her voice stopped, which meant that all the rats started to run back up at us.

We passed through the door, and then Renfry let go of me as he pulled the door shut. I stumbled over a passed-out Irwin, caught myself on the wall, and slid down it. Then I fished out my health potion and downed it. My Hp refilled, but my disease counters were still there. So I pulled out a talisman from around my neck and activated it. Both counters disappeared, and I was left with a twenty-minute limp.

I sighed and then started to laugh. “Well, that could have gone better.”

Kasidy smiled, but Renfry gave me the stank eye. “My lord, you shouldn’t have charged the horde. We almost lost you. My life is tied to yours now, which means that while you might engage in combat, we don’t want you to take risks that could be avoided.”

I slumped my shoulders a little. He was right to some extent that I shouldn’t have taken the risk, but I didn’t know I would fall at the time. I shook my head a bit.

I looked over at Renfry. “I hear what you are saying, and you’re right. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have. At the time, I was trying to save you and Irwin. I didn’t know that I would trip and fall.”

He nodded. “Calling Kasidy was the right move, but you should have had her ready at the start, not as an afterthought. She didn’t know that you needed her until I got to the top and asked why she hadn’t started her song.”

I nodded slowly and pointed at Irwin. “Mana overdraw?”

Renfry nodded. “He put everything he had into his elemental when he saw the big monster’s eyes.”

I sighed and pulled out a mana potion. “Help me get this in him. We can’t be without our healer.”

Renfry held Irwin’s head as we roughly poured a potion into his mouth. Once we got a good bit in, we clamped his mouth shut. Finally, nature took its course, and he started to swallow. A few moments later, Irwin’s color started to come back.

I looked over at Kasidy and asked. “How are you holding up?”

She shrugged. “This is more adventure than I ever wanted… but I am okay for now.”

“Good; once Irwin is up, we are going to move on. We need to get to Blink today.”

Renfry was looking around the tunnel and asked. “How did you get the door open?”

I laughed. “It asked me if I wanted to open the escape tunnel. It turns out this is part of the castle, which might mean we have a direct shot at the lich. If he doesn’t know where the tunnel is, he might not have it guarded.”

Kasidy gave a bit of a chuckle. “Even so, he might not have it guarded, it didn’t open up for anyone but you, and we are in your retinue.”

Renfry dipped his head slightly. “She has a good point, my lord. If you were the only one able to access the tunnels, he might not have the guarded. Then again, since he knows you are here, we might expect some heavy resistance on the other end.”

Irwin moaned and started to move, which caused me to give a tight smile. “Looks like we can get moving soon.”

* * *