I raced across the camp, darting between the tents. Why the orcs even needed tents underground was beyond me, but they didn’t seem to do things logically. They were almost like little computers that hadn’t been programmed properly.

  Still, the tents gave me cover. I raced between them until I reached the hallway that we’d come from. I sprinted down it, skittered around the corner, then raced to the door that we’d slammed shut in behind us.

  I paused at the door for a few seconds, debating if I should do this. But then a scream echoed in through from the orc camp—a human scream, and not a Dupe. It was one of the prisoners. We weren’t going to make it out.

  Ripping the door open, I waved the clump of singed wool and shouted, “Over here, you big lump! Come get me!”

  For a moment, the mole didn’t move. It was nearly impossible to see. I only had the flickering light from the hall behind me to work with, and that wasn’t much. I could barely see an outline of the mole, no matter how hard I strained my eyes.

  Then the tentacles on the mole’s star-shaped nose flared blue. Rings of turquoise light pulsed through them, and electricity crackled on their tips.

  I swallowed, but I didn’t wait. I’d seen so many movies where someone waited until it was obvious that a monster was chasing them before they ran, and I wasn’t gonna be that guy. Sprinting away, I waved the clump of wool behind me and shouted, “Come get me! You eat meat, don’t you?”

  I couldn’t think of what else to say. My Focus wasn't perfect yet, not in a situation like this, and I wasn’t confident enough to come up with something cool to say.

  Continuing to sprint, I raced back to the orc camp. I rammed my shoulder in the hallway wall to help change direction, then raced back forward. Snarling and slathering, the mole chased behind me. It bashed through the corner with ease, spraying stone dust into the hallway. Chunks smashed into my ankles and something clinked off the back of my hauberk.

  When I arrived in the hall, I turned, but I couldn’t just let the mole go free. I needed it to take out the ogre. I let it get a little closer, until one of its tentacles whipped toward my leg. It had stinging barbs at the end, and as it whipped through the air, it crackled with electricity.

  “Oh shit,” I whispered. I fell forward, and without breaking my pace, I continued crawling along the floor until I was closer to the ogre. As I ran, I wrapped the chunk of wool around the tip of my spear.

  But my plan had a massive flaw. The wool came from the roasting mutton—which smelled worse than what I was holding. Surely, it would attract the mole over my little lump.

  The creature was a predator, though. It would be more attracted to something that was moving. I waved the spear, drawing the mole’s attention and convincing the beast to run past the roasting mutton.

  When I was in range of the ogre, I threw the spear. It sailed through the air and pierced into the beast’s back. It did about as much as the arrows poking into the beast’s front—not much—but it marked the ogre.

  I leapt to the side and down to my stomach, trying to stay as quiet as I could, and the mole raced past me. It leapt into the air and tackled the ogre, flinging the beast to the side and wrapping it with electrified tentacles. It cleared the way for us.

  “Come on!” I shouted. “Get to the exit!”

  Ticks, Shave, Romance, and Elf were all still alive, and they raced after me. About three quarters of the prisoners were still alive, and one of them tossed me an orc spear. I took it and gave it a whirl. It wasn’t as good as the spear I’d been using, but it would work for the time being.

  The prisoners raced out of the corner of the room and grouped up with me, and Shave and Romance cut down two orcs as they ran. A few more orcs leapt at the mole, trying to skewer it and knock it off the back of the ogre.

  We ran back to the center of the chamber. Despite the chaos the mole had caused, the orcs were still protecting the way out. They lined up shoulder to shoulder, two rows thick. At least ten of them were blocking the way.

  “Sarge?” Ticks shouted. “What’re we doing? What’s the plan?”

  “I need my squad with me. We make a wedge. Romance, you’re the tip. Levi and I are his flanks, and Ticks and Elf keep up the side. We break through their lines, then we make a run for it.”

  I nodded, then took up the position. I hadn’t been drilled on all the formations yet, but that didn’t really matter. Shave described it well enough. The prisoners filled in behind us, their eyes filled with terror. Most of them looked intent on fighting to the end, though.

  But I wished I had a shield. I really needed one, especially with those orc spears pointing right toward us.

  Before we charged, the mole and the ogre tumbled back across the cavern. The ogre gave one last shudder before falling still, and the mole ripped off the ogre’s face, revealing a hole of nothing but black gore. Then, without waiting, it charged off to the side of the cavern, chasing after another cluster of orcs and tearing through a tent.

  “Get the presence!” Shave commanded, rushing forward. “We can’t leave it behind.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “We have to get our brothers out of here!” Ticks exclaimed, rushing forward and running up to Shave’s side.

  The others and I stayed in formation as we followed Shave, but it didn’t take long. I ripped off the ogre’s skirt of chainmail, then wrapped it around my left arm to use as a shield while Shave siphoned the Presence.

  As soon as he finished harvesting an inch-wide sphere of white mist from the ogre’s chest, we continued the push. Romance led the way, slowly picking up speed so we didn’t break out of formation too badly, until we reached the doorway—which the orcs were blocking.

  There was no true gate, but the orcs were enough of a barrier. Romance triggered his resonance Skill as we approached, sending a wave of force rushing toward the orcs. It flung one back into the spear of a beast waiting behind, and made the rest of them stumble. When I arrived, I batted a spear away with my armour-wrapped arm, then drove my spear into an orc’s chest. It warbled and fell backward, dead.

  “You don’t need those eyes, sameface!” an orc snarled, swinging a rusty scimitar at my face.

  I leaned back, dodging the swipe. “I’d like to keep them!”

  “No, no, tasty, they are!”

  I didn’t think I was going to be having an argument with orcs about whether I got to keep my eyes or not, and I didn’t say anything else when the orc swung back in the opposite direction. The scimitar lodged in the haft of my spear, sticking in. I wrenched it to the side, and a prisoner leapt forward, aiming to end the orc, but instead, she took a spear to the heart.

  There were two orcs on me now. I kicked away the beast with the scimitar and leaned away from the second’s spear jab. It still caught me on the shoulder, ripping a tiny gash in my chainmail. The orc snarled something about how pitiful it was to lose a juicy prisoner, but I didn’t catch it all.

  Elf rushed in a moment later, and he bashed the orc’s head with his axe. The orc collapsed to the side. I struck the scimitar-wielding orc with the haft of my spear, knocking it in the nose, then rammed my spear into its neck. I snatched up its weapon as well and ripped off the sheet of rusty chainmail covering its neck, then sprinted with the rest of my squad.

  Though we hadn’t killed every orc, we’d cleared a route, and we could get through. I sprinted with the others, pushing toward the opening, then racing back through the halls toward the outside.

  We kept running, and I only slowed to let the prisoners get ahead of us, before taking up the rear. An orc chased after us, and Shave shouted, “Levi! Bow!” He tossed it back to me, along with a few arrows.

  I was no master archer, and hitting a target while running away from it was harder than trying to shoot a deer. My first shot missed, and my second only grazed the orc’s cheek. The third stuck it in the eye, which hadn’t been intentional. I fired the fourth arrow backward as well, and it nailed the orc in the bicep. Not enough to kill it, but enough to debilitate the beast.

  Then I continued running. We didn’t stop even once we were out of the Labyrinth. We just aimed for the town that had been raided and ran. I couldn’t remember how far it was, but eventually, the hollering of the orcs stopped. We slowed to a brisk walk and kept a watch behind us to make sure that nothing snuck up.

  When we made it back to the town, I was exhausted, but I was alive. The sun was setting again, and the lookouts around the city called out as we approached. A few of the former prisoners raced back ahead of us. Children ran up to a young man and surrounded him. A captured apprentice returned to the village cooper, who welcomed him with a hug. A woman and man caught each other and held a long kiss.

  For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know how to feel, and I was too exhausted to process most of it. Everything was hazy, and I barely remembered an old man rushing up to me and asking about his daughter. I replied that I hadn’t seen her, even though I was pretty sure I’d seen the orcs kill her, based on the description he gave.

  But it wasn’t long before the taverner dragged us away into his inn-tavern combination, insisting that we stay the night, and Shave reluctantly agreed. We took a room and stored our equipment, and I quickly took stock of everything I’d acquired. The ogre’s scale mail, a chunk of chainmail from a fallen orc, an orc spear, and a few Presences. But without a reading slate, I couldn’t assess my Skills or attributes.

  For now, though, there wasn’t much left to do. We descended back to the tavern, where we drank and sang. There was plenty of ale and sausage and bread, and almost everyone wanted to thank us for bringing the prisoners back.

  After a few hours, my mind exhausted and my body just about to collapse, I staggered over to a lattice window and looked out into the street. My mind was a little groggy from the ale now, which didn’t help.

  “No orcs out there tonight,” Ticks said, stepping up behind me. “You’ll be fine.”

  “I’m not worried,” I replied. I was still trying to process everything. The orcs were monsters. They couldn’t be reasoned with, and someone had to fight them. I wanted to ask ‘why me?’, but I could just as easily ask ‘why not me?’ Besides, we’d done a good thing.

  Still, I couldn’t help clenching my fists. Almost a third of the prisoners had died. Sure, all of them would have died or suffered much worse fates if we hadn’t, but they shouldn’t have died at all.

  Why was the army so poorly equipped? Why did it feel like no one was taking any of this seriously? Why did they practically let this happen?

  And if the orcs were getting ready to raid the southern regions of Gate, then the Warlord or the Ealdorman or whoever was just letting more and more of this happen. Battalions like ours wouldn’t be enough to stop it.

  If I truly wanted to make a difference, I needed to become a sapper as soon as possible. I couldn’t be certain that it was the solution to all my problems, and it certainly wouldn’t be the end. But I’d be able to help more.

  From what I’d gathered, most Dupes with sapper potential distinguished themselves at Homecamp and went to Castle Urcia or a different estate for training. It was rare, but not impossible, to become a sapper later in your career.

  “How long do you think it’ll be before there’s another orc raid?” I asked. “And do you think we’ll be able to defend against it?”

  “We’ll do our best,” Ticks said. “That’s all we can do.”

  “I…suppose. But there has to be something more. Can the Ealdorman not move an army in place? There has to be some other way of protecting the front lines.”

  “The Ealdormen are chosen by the Warlords,” Ticks replied. “To question their judgement is to question the Warlord’s. Be careful with what you say.”

  I nodded. “I—yeah. Alright.”

  “Good thinking with the mole,” Ticks replied. “You saved us. I’ve requested that the ogre’s presence go to you.”

  Again, I nodded. “To me?”

  “Of any of us, you’re the only one who stands a chance at going somewhere in your life. You’ve got yourself a fresh start. So don’t get killed too soon.”