Escape plan

"Hello, Leo. Fancy us meeting you here," Michael's condescending tone made Leo flush. Two other men dressed in black clothing stood behind him. "I have been waiting for the chance to have this little chat with you ever since the day Alexis showed up.

Standing quickly as he spoke, Leo began to nervously ramble while attempting to move forwards.

"As much as I'd love to keep talking, and believe me I would, we should walk and talk. Or better yet, jog and talk."

With a swift motion, Michael punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him, and causing him to fall to his knees in pain.

"Don't interrupt, it's not polite. See, not all of us are born on the same level. Some, are filthy trash, others, powerful and wealthy. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Leo looked up at Michael for a moment, and heard the sounds of skittering and squeaking coming from behind him. "Fuck it," he said, rolling into the sewer canal, and landing in the water with a resounding splash.

"Why you-"

(*SQUEAK!*)

Michael turned and saw a wave of giant rats approaching. "Run!" he screamed, turning towards his two companions, only to find them meters ahead of him already sprinting away.

Drawing his knives, Michael followed suit, throwing out attacks whenever a rat approached too closely. Rounding the corner ahead, Michael heard the sudden screams of pain from the two thugs in the darkness, followed by the sounds of ripping flesh and cracking bone. Michael began to shake in fear.

Scrambling in the darkness, Michael quickly pulled out a small mana lantern and activated it. As the light in the lantern grew, it revealed a massive sized creature ripping his companions apart. Covered in dark brown fur, two large red eyes, and a strange whipcord tail.

Michael paled at the sight of a rat the size of a plough horse. Hearing the approaching horde of rats behind him, and with the monstrous rat ahead, Michael set down his lantern, drew more knives to throw at the giant rat as a distraction, and immediately began to pray.

-

Several hours earlier

-

Michael smiled deeply at her words. "What if I can offer you more than just another body to complete a job?"

The bartender, hearing this, began to smile in return. "What do you have to offer?"

"A solo Blessed. No member of his guild or gods family has met with him, he has no backer yet, and he has barely any training. An easy kill for an assassin looking to gain the experience from taking out another Blessed."

The bartenders smile deepened. "An excellent offer. You can take two men. Bring him here alive, and we will auction him off to the highest bidder, fifty-fifty. Alianna," she introduced herself with a slight bow.

"Michael," he replied, smiling deeply at her words.

It was a win-win for him. Kill the upstart street urchin, no one could prove it was Michael, and he'd make a killing selling him off to this highest bidder. He turned to leave.

"Oh, but Michael."

"Yes?"

The silence stretched on for a moment as the bartender locked eyes with him. Michael felt a chill begin to run down his back, and felt the urge to hide.

"Don't screw this up."

-

Leo watched Michael struggle with indecision from the waters beside him. Michaels mumbled platitudes towards whatever deity he could think of made Leo chuckle silently.

He was at a turning point. He could try to help Michael escape, despite the fact that Michael was a torturing bully who had, on several occasions, attempted to kill him. Or he could leave him to die.

Leo turned back around and swam quietly towards the wall where he'd found a canal aqueduct. Prying it open, he made it halfway in before stopping. "Dammit," he muttered to himself, turning back towards Michael.

Michael was panicking. The monstrous rat had almost finished it's meal, the rat swarm was getting closer by the second, and here he was, caught between the two, waiting to die. Beginning to hyperventilate, Michaels thoughts began to degenerate.

'I'm going to die down here to rats. Filthy gutter rats. They're going to swarm all over me, rip me to pieces and eat me! I have to run. Where do I go? What do-'

"Hey dumbass. Over here."

Michael's chain of thought was broken by the sound of a familiar voice coming from below him. Looking downwards, he saw Leo in the faint light of his lantern, chest deep in sewer water. Next to him, he saw an open grate.

"You just gonna stand there like a lemon? Move!" With those words, Leo quickly slipped into the duct, no longer waiting on Michael. Hearing a loud splash behind him, Leo shook his head. 'He's just going to try to kill me again when my backs turned. Stupid, Leo, Stupid,' he thought to himself.

The two young men came out in a parallel section of the system, drenched in sewer waters, but very much alive.

"Let's talk about how you're gonna pay me back for this, Mike," Leo said with a smirk.