Rotten Sewers

While there was darkness that George had seen because of how he had lived, right now wasn't the time. Malik had been the only one to spot the odd movement of the trashy wood piled nest that the enormous rats had made. 

While he did feel that he could say or do something, he felt that keeping their lives safe was the best option. Because the yelling and attempts of Maxamillain to combat what George said had drawn a lot of attention. Right now, the smaller venomous rats were hearing their voices like a beacon. A beacon that said food had been delivered!

When Malik pushed off the ground and slashed another of the smaller venomous rats, everyone could not help but find his agility to be amazing. He was much faster than what he had demonstrated before. Furthermore, there were six more rats that had left the next trying to push ahead toward them. 

Malik held out a hand and an earth spike raised itself from the tunnel floor, but it was smaller, it wasn't a spike, but it was a needle that broke up right at the perfect height for Malik to throw it. Miraculously, it pierced the eye of another venomous rat. His angelic eyes had spotted the perfect target for him to act on. 

"Damn it!" George brought out his own dagger as he swore. This was trouble over and over, but he had to do something too. 

His movements had a lightness about them that came with someone who had to sneak around for their entire early life. However, when he slashed at the rat jumping toward him, George proved that his slashes were very intricate. 

He had faked the wide slash that everyone saw him using, in a single twist of his hips, the slash changed to a pierce as Geroge stabbed the venomous rat out of the air. The monster was dead and thrown off of his dagger in the next moment before George whipped out with a kick to knock two more back. 

"They are not cute at all. I like the thunder mice that people keep as pets because of their fluffy fur." While not a popular pet anymore, Lina preferred the cute monsters just like anyone else would. But she had mostly commented on this because she and her water spirit partner had begun to work together. 

Small water bullets peppered the area in front of them. If they were to hit someone, they would be taking on their role as Swiss cheese from then on. For a monster as small as these venomous rats, they just became dead meat for Malik to collect later. 

"You know you should be protecting me, right?" Tiffany slammed her long handled hammer down causing a large crack to form in the stone floor. She also reduced another venomous rat in to a pancake. The act was enough to snap Maxamillian out of his own head. 

What George had said to him had brought him to a different place in his mind that he had never been. The idea that the guards were failing and even accepting bribes needed to be wrong. He had been raised his whole life being told his family was an anchor for the protection of the people and city.

His family had been able to rise as nobles because they had raised guards. Because they had stood for what a guard should be overall. Now he was being told that an entire section of the city just saw them as useless, if they even saw them in the first place!?

"It's nothing. I will be fine." Maximilian gathered his wits and took a defensive stance. His armor was made of higher class iron while the same could be said for his shield which had been carved with wind and earth runes. Both made it tougher and lighter.

When he dashed forward a slight distance, he managed to slam the remaining. Three venomous rats right in to the path of Malik. In a single motion, Malik mimicked Tiffany. The earth formed a hammer head in his metal staff slamming on to the three stunned venomous rats. 

"Now, we will freeze that nest and send it down the sewer properly." Malik used frost ring and focused the mana to freeze the next before slamming it with his staff. It drifted down the water finally letting the flow properly move. 

"George, you know what you did wrong. Maxamillian, you can handle whatever it is you are stuck on later. Both of you are not in the wrong here. You only have one point of view." As much as Malik wanted to just tell the two to solve their problems, it wasn't possible right now. 

George would need to see good faith. He would need to see the guards properly patrolling the poorest sections of the city to make sure the hiding criminals were chased out and jailed. 

Maxamillian needed to see the real state of things. He had to step out of his silver spring on to the real ground on which everyone treads. He knew it too, especially since his perception of how guards worked was attacked without his ability to even rebuttal it.

"Would you ever use a more oval shield with a spike on the bottom? Or a more squat shield with a front that has spikes?" Out of everything going on, Tiffany was building a shield in her mind that would work for Maximilian's fighting style.

"I am a dual shield guardian. I was able to go beyond just one shield for defense and offense." The class Maximilian had was definitely rare. However, Malik felt that there was probably a better class for him. But changing classes was nearly impossible without the right situation and materials.

It was something he could think of in the back of his mind at a later time. 

"There was a nest here but they were only small ones. Is that better or worse?" Seeing that Lina trusted Malik entirely with this, Maxamillian became the odd one out since this was his first time with any of the group. 

Not that Tiffany had gone inside dungeons, but she always had a forging contract with Malik. She was able to cooperate with her since he had watched her forge multiple things at this point. Along with providing materials to her. 

"I would predict worse." Malik's pause proved his mind was worrying about what else this might mean. "If they established nests because the smaller ones got out, then it would make sense that we might see larger ones before we get to the dungeon." 

"If that's the case, we should have the shield at the front." Lina knew that to be safer since she could use water spirit magic from behind Maxamillian.

"I'm leading, I'm the one that knows where we are going." Since George knew the sewers, this also made sense. 

"Then Maximilian takes the lead with George at his side. No arguing, just teamwork based on survival. I don't care what's wrong or what happens, work together while I try to spot anything hiding." His angelic eyes were the sharpest. Even George had the feeling that Malik would spot something unfamiliar before him.

There was silence while they moved now, but it allowed them to hear the skitter of small claws on stone. Allowed them to hear the distant flow of water where the sewer tunnels turned. 

From what Malik could tell, there were no more rats within their immediate vicinity. There was a lot of proof that they had been here though. 

Small bones from what the venomous rats had ganged up on and killed down here. The same with pieces of insect monsters, the rot eating cockroaches were considered a beneficial monster in the sewers as long as they were not left to grow too high in numbers. It cut down on waste.

But their group had not seen a single one. A bad sign for the city after this incident was handled. The city was large though, just because the venomous rats had spilled out here did not mean every sewer was this way. Just the immediate area underneath the poorer districts near the walls. 

The smell began to get worse though. Almost burning Malik's nose which was more sensitive due to the body he had. Due to the dragon heart increasing his senses greatly.

It wasn't the scent he had before. This one was like rotting metal. It didn't make sense compared to what he had smelled before. Well, until they were stopped by George who pointed out some broken old planks. 

"This was part of a small hutch to sleep in when we had to come down here. It's all broken. The kids made it out when I brought them to the guild, but they had already been running from one hut to another." 

"It shouldn't be like this, should it?" Lina's worry was very clear in her voice.

"Some older people, will come down here if they think the kids have food or money. They will break this stuff. But those red spots on the floor tell me they didn't find the kids since I took them away." 

Now everyone wondered what they had found. Or what had found them.