The Troglodyte Horde

The team entered the sewers and began to introduce themselves as they went. There was Trenton, the ace of the team, Sarah, the psychic mage, Vincent, the strategist, and Orion, the defender. Xavier was in the center of the team formation. He was almost embarrassed that they were trying so hard to keep him safe.

Along the way Trenton kept up a running commentary on how and why the group would do certain things. Xavier listened attentively. There was a lot things that he was learning along the way like how to use insect activity to determine things around him. As much as the group was teaching him that didn't stop them from also joking and clowning with him.

Trenton was the worst. Every other comment coming from him seemed to be making fun of Xavier. Xavier gave as good as he got though.

Trenton finally stopped making fun of him long enough to ask him a question. "You're not much like your mother described you. She said you were a polite young man with very good manners."

Xavier smirked at him. "You're not my parents who can seal my magic for the next decade. Besides I'm just finishing what you started."

Trenton smiled, "I suppose that makes some sort of sense. You're a typical smart-ass kid."

Vincent wagged his finger at Trenton. "Play nice with the spoiled rich kid Trenton. Wouldn't want you to get kicked out of the city hunter's squad."

Xavier paused a moment before realizing Vincent was joking with him. It was really hard to deal with this guy. Xavier shook his head to get his focus back. Now that they were getting into the interior of the sewer system, he decided it was time to get a little bit more serious.

Noticing that all the others were starting to talk less and be more observant of their surroundings, Xavier settled himself down. At the front of the formation Trenton stopped and took a knee to observe something on the ground. Curious, Xavier went over to find out what he had found.

"What's up?" Xavier found himself speaking in a tone barely above a whisper.

Trenton pointed at a pile of excrement on the ground. "This is demon creatures' scat." Trenton put his hand just above it. "It's still emitting heat."

Xavier frowned, "Does that mean something?"

Trenton nodded. "It means that the demon creature who left it isn't far away."

Xavier stepped back and went on alert. Observing his surroundings Xavier did his best to look into any places demon creatures could hide. He wasn't able to find anything right away but he couldn't relax. The thing that left that scat couldn't have gone far.

Turning his head Xavier kept looking for the threat. Sarah fixated on a point about twenty yards forward and to the left. Focusing on that spot Xavier tried to see what was there. Not finding anything he looked in confusion at how the whole team was now fixed on the same spot.

Xavier's confusion only grew. "What is it that you're seeing? Is there some sort of ability to see in the dark you guys have that I don't?"

Trenton shook his head. "No. We're just going off Sarah's perception." Trenton shot a glance at Xavier, "She's a psychic mage, remember? She sensed its mental fluctuations."

"Then why can't we see it?" Xavier tried harder to see the demon.

Trenton smiled as he whispered out the side of his mouth, "It's a troglodyte. It's blending into the background. Sarah is sensing its mental fluctuation with her psychic magic. We trust her enough to know something's there but we can use other senses to find it ourselves. It's just faster to trust her."

Trenton motioned for them to be quiet. Vincent began to confidently walk forward like he wasn't even aware of a demon creature in the area. Xavier was about to ask what he was doing but Trenton motioned him quiet again. Getting near the area that the team had focused on, Vincent let down his guard.

Shock and confusion went across Xavier's face. Startled, he was ready to jump in to save him but Trenton reached out and stopped him. He shook his head at Xavier and then whispered, "Just watch."

Xavier watched as Vincent took a few more steps forward and then stopped. Xavier watched in disbelief as he turned his back to the area where the demon creature was supposed to be. There was a sudden burst of soil as a shadow separated from the wall and a creature sprang forward to attack.

Xavier was alarmed as Vincent didn't move. "No!" Suddenly stone spikes burst from the ground and pierced the creature mid-air.

Trenton whispered to Sarah, "Any others?"

She shook her head in the negative. "Let's go."

The group walked up to observe the creature spitted on the rock spikes. Xavier looked at the creature and couldn't help but ask, "What the hell is that?"

Trenton began to point out features of the creature as he talked. "This is a troglodyte. It's a demon creature that was a salamander before the spacial cracks opened. Earth elementium mutated the thing to become a bipedal beast with opposable thumbs." He pointed at the spear in its hands. "They're just intelligent enough to create tools and weapons like this."

Xavier leaned closer to study it. The creature was about four feet tall with a tail about three feet long. It was mostly brown with moss green stripes down its back. It had no eyes and only slits for nostrils. Its mouth was opened wide showing serrated teeth.

"This thing is disgusting." Xavier's nose curled as he did his best to not take in too much of the thing's smell. Suddenly the things claws opened and swung forward. Xavier jumped back to avoid it. "What the hell?"

Trenton laughed at him. "Relax kid. That was a post-mortem response. A few lingering electrical signals within the nerves after death."

Xavier nodded his head nervously. Sarah walked forward and put her hand on the troglodyte's head. Xavier turned and asked, "What's she doing?"

Vincent answered him. "She's attempting to use those final electrical signals in its brain to read its memories. If things go smoothly, we'll be able to use those memories to track more of them down."

Xavier was surprised. He had never heard of this application of psychic magic. Sarah stayed in place like that for another minute before stepping back and sighing. "It's difficult. The memories are fragmented. I think we should go down this way and stay on the left path."

The group took the path Sarah suggested. Eventually they came to an intersection. Sarah raised her hands to slow the party. At the other end of the intersection there were nearly twenty troglodytes. Vincent waved them back around the corner.

"Alright then. Let's try to lure them over a few at a time to wipe them out." He looked around at the party. "Orion, do what you do."

Orion had always been the silent one of the group. He kept that attitude now. A simple nod and then he walked back around the corner. Xavier prepared himself. Orion came flying back around the corner moving much faster than Xavier anticipated.

"Run! Infernal troglodyte!" Xavier was grabbed by Trenton as he took off after Orion. Xavier got his feet under him and began to run on his own. The rest of the group was around him. Suddenly, the ground under his feet began to slide forward at the same time and increased the speed of the group. Wind hit their backs and further increased their speeds.

As they flashed around corners through the sewers Xavier kept seeing the bursts of elementium as Orion continuously cast the two spells. They turned the next corner and Vincent began to swear profusely. They must have got turned around somewhere because they were in a dead end.

Vincent swore a few more times and then turned to Orion. "Set up some earthen ramparts. Let's force them to split up and come at us in smaller numbers. Put ripples in the floor to force their footing to be unsteady."

He turned and kept issuing other commands. "Sarah, make their minds foggy when they get out here. Trenton, use your discretion and pick off the ones that get around the edges. Xavier us the space spell telekinesis to attack the joints of the troglodytes."

Xavier nodded and took a deep breath to calm himself. The sounds of the troglodytes grew louder. Scraping claws and the thwacking of spear butts against the floor echoed into the room.

Xavier felt really nervous listening to the sounds of demon creatures. The fear he felt was gone nearly instantly when the beasts rounded the corner though. The first of them hit the ripples in the floor and promptly fell on its face.

Xavier's mouth fell open. The tension he had been feeling drained right out of him. "Shake yourself out of it boy. Here come the rest." Trenton slapped him on the shoulder.

The rest of the troglodytes came stampeding around the corner. Some were thrown off by the uneven floor. Others began to stumble about due to Sarah's psychic magic. Orion began to send gusts of wind at them destabilizing them even further.

Very few of the troglodytes kept their feet under them. Vincent and Trenton began to use their magic to pick the troglodytes off one by one. Vincent was shooting sharp projectiles of stone at them while Trenton was launching fistfuls of flames and burning them to ashes. Xavier began to use his spacial magic: telekinesis to create sledgehammers of force that he slammed into the knees and elbows of the troglodytes.

Whenever he had a chance Xavier would also take the opportunity to smash the skulls of troglodytes with the same spell. For a moment Xavier thought that they would be able to defeat them without the troglodytes even getting close to them but it was short lived. A troglodyte different from the others rounded the corner.

It looked the same in body structure with exceptional coloring. It was bright red with only a few brown spots on its belly. Its appearance changed everything. Waving its spear, it caused the rippled earth to smooth giving the troglodytes the ability to sprint towards the party. They were in close range before the party could stop them.

Orion stepped forward and cast an odd variation of earth magic Xavier had never seen. The earth rose and formed six terracotta warriors which lined up in front of the party and forced the troglodytes back. More surprisingly the warriors moved, albeit slowly. They raised their arms and joined hands to form a barricade.

The troglodytes slowly forced the terracotta warriors back making the party slowly retreat as well. Spells continued to fly but Xavier was swiftly discovering that so long as it wasn't an instant kill shot, they healed at an incredible rate. Finally, they couldn't retreat anymore as their backs were now against the wall. The terracotta now stopped and earth rose to wrap around their legs keeping them in place.

There were about twelve of the troglodytes left at this point but now that the terracotta were stationary, they began to take immense damage. They began to crumble one by one. The troglodytes began to get in through the gaps one at a time. Vincent and Trenton began to concentrate fire on those who got through.

Xavier focused on the ones in the back attempting to stem the flow. Seeing that the situation was too close to tell Xavier no longer held back. He summoned his goshawk and began to focus his spacial magic trying to find ways to insta-kill them.

One of the troglodytes broke through and rushed Trenton. He took a step back to give himself enough room to respond but slipped on a loose stone. Hitting the ground, he was helpless to the troglodyte rushing him, spear pointed at his chest. Xavier rushed into the space between them and slipped to the inside of the beast's spear.

Getting close he began to spin spacial magic in his palm and struck out towards its head forcing its neck to snap and its head to spin halfway around on its body. The troglodyte dropped. Xavier stomped on the end of its fallen spear sending it into the air. He caught it with his magic and sent it flying straight into the next troglodyte coming through the gap.

This gave the team enough time to recover. At last, only the infernal troglodyte was left. With the five of them working together it only lasted a few moments before the goshawk swept in and slashed its throat decapitating it. A hush fell where the only sound heard was the panting of the party.

After several long moments of recovery, the party began to discuss their next steps. Vincent summarized, "This is disconcerting. The presence of an infernal troglodyte suggests there's a lot more of these things."

The others all agreed and decided to continue scouting out the sewers so that they could get more information for a larger hunting party. They came back onto the intersection that they had met the troglodytes in earlier. Going down the tunnel the party stopped in front of a new tunnel that shouldn't be there. It was rough made unlike the man-made sewers.

Vincent frowned in concern. "If there's enough of them to dig out their own tunnels that's a serious issue. We need to try to map out these new tunnels and see if we can get an accurate count of them."

The party continued down the newly made tunnel and finally came to its end where it opened into a massive cavern. Orion crept forward and poked his head into the cavern. He came back white faced in fear.

"What is it Orion? How many are there?" Vincent grabbed the swaying Orion steading him.

Orion gulped a few times. "Thousands. There're thousands in there." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "It's a full troglodyte horde."