Robo-rats chased after us, but they dove headfirst into the corrosive goop that was the remains of a gelatinous cube. The first wave was completely subsumed by the remains of the ooze, but the following waves climbed over the ones in front of them. We didn’t stay to watch, but I assumed they’d get past the whole thing in two or three bunches. Probably would have been better to try to focus them into a narrow line, though.

  “You recognized that creature,” Rositsa commented as we rounded the bend in the sewers. “Was it from your world?”

  “Oh yeah, sure. Or one like it.”

  “... Is that not worrisome?” Rositsa asked.

  I shook my head. “Not really. Doctor Doomsday opened tons of portals, many of which were to my old world. We see things like that all the time. It’s not like you and the others who came here through your own sacrifices. A thing could have easily slipped into the sewers and survived from one of the previous incidents.”

  Just in case, I paid attention to my magical senses. I wasn’t really picking up anything but us, so there probably wasn’t any sort of portal extremely nearby. Though I could vaguely sense the mass of rats because of the super tech that made them function.

  “They’re still coming,” I said. “We can probably outrun them but they might just chase us out onto the streets. Let me try something. Everyone get ready to fight just in case it doesn’t work.”

  Punk Monk readied herself- holding my staff at the ready. It was a mage’s staff in only the broadest sense, having one magical ability. Other than that, it was mostly good for hitting things. Twirl looked at his rapier, doubtless thinking it inadequate for fighting against a swarm. Bandage wouldn’t do much better either.

  It would have been good if I could set people on fire. In the good, defensive way of course. I could already do that the other way. But a Fire Shield would be quite useful right now.

  I kind of wanted to save these points for some experimentation after a level or two, but they kind of were for spending, and would still have enough to pick up any other things. Having encountered swarms more than a few times, it seemed worthwhile enough.

  “Midnight. Fire Shield is a 10th rank spell. Prepare to split the cost for Multicasting if things go wrong. Targets will be all of us.”

  “Got it,” he nodded from my shoulder. I normally wouldn’t have to specify the targets, but if he presumed it placed a wall… under my control it shouldn’t have been an issue, but it was better to be clear.

  I very quickly purchased the spell as rats between a few inches and two feet in length began to round the corner en mass. “Rodentia! We’re not down here looking for you, so you can call off your rat army!”

  The rat army continued to charge towards us.

  “Well, I tried,” I shrugged. “Midnight, Fire Shield!”

  Saving points for situations like this was great. I gathered 15 mana- since it was a 10th rank spell, triple that would have been 30. Far more than I could gather alone. Fortunately, with Multicasting now having 5 upgrades it had gained an additional target. So first I would get Midnight and myself, then Rositsa, Punk Monk, Bandage, and finally Twirl. A total of five targets, with Midnight and myself still counting as one.

  Maybe it was because I used weird alterations to the spell the first time I used it, but it didn’t feel good. Instead of casting the spell, I felt more like it was just sort of coming out of me. Given the circumstances I wasn’t able to review that immediately.

  It worked, at least. Spheres of fire appeared around us- and I didn’t get burnt by Midnight nor he by me. Perhaps I had been a bit too hasty with a heretofore unused spell, but it had all made sense at the time. Either way, Midnight’s little sphere simply faded into me- like the rest of ours did with the ground and walls.

  Punk Monk leapt to the front and swept her borrowed staff. She managed to batter away a whole pack of robo-rats, but the fire did not extend along with the staff. It passed through harmlessly, but the fire only came into play when the robot rats got right up to her. The first ones leapt towards her from the swarm, passing into the fire as she twisted her body. It wasn’t so strong that it immediately disintegrated them, but the smaller ones were fully collapsed and the others were staggering around.

  The damage was greater for those that charged along the ground and were inside the sphere for longer. Speaking of the spell, while it added an orangish hue over my vision and I could see where it ended, it didn’t particularly interrupt my vision. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be used very often. Not that I was actually current on what spells people used commonly. I was at least a year out of date, and I’d never really been aware of more than what my study materials said.

  Punk Monk’s fast feet kept her from being chewed up by robo-rats that didn’t care about silly things like self preservation, and Twirl was inspired by her efforts, taking a position that covered most of the rest of the hallway with the fire around him. He aimed the thrusts of his rapier at the larger specimens, stepping in and out of groups of rats to catch them on fire while keeping his feet safe.

  Given the sheer quantity of attackers, some slipped through the frontlines. Rositsa didn’t seem particularly pleased with the fire around her, which I might have thought about, and she didn’t seem to have any particularly useful methods for fighting robots.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Bandage had just finished applying Shield of Faith to most of us individually- the vampire excepted- and fearlessly waded into the flow slipping past our frontline. She didn’t have any offensive spells that would be particularly good in this situation, but she did have a large truncheon. There hadn’t been anything like a silver mace sitting around in storage, and such materials really worked if the weapon got inside someone through stabbing or cutting. Or sustained contact. So a truncheon it was. When we got to actual vampires she could add some holy magic to it.

  Maybe we should have gotten Punk Monk a silver spear or something, because I was having to kick the larger rats coming towards me. Midnight was making use of his Celmothian battle suit to zap the mass of rats, conserving mana.

  I didn’t want to spend that much more on this battle either. If the tide of rats didn’t let up, we might really have to run. I did cast Grease at the middle of the pack, hoping to slow them down. And when they got to the people with fire around them, they should be extra flammable. Good for stopping them before they actually bit anyone too much.

  We were all doing our best to stand around the most rats without actually letting them get close enough to chew on us. The fire magic could only work so quickly, and against opponents with no fear they would risk everything for a single scratch. Fortunately we had a couple layers of magic to help mitigate such damage before it actually got to us. Rositsa was far less worried about the rats than she was about the fire, so she was able to also try to move among them despite her misgivings.

  Our defenses were certainly being worn down a bit. The tide of rats did seem to be slowing down, though. Then I realized it was because they were building up into a sort of wall.

  A woman wearing a rat mask- Rodentia herself- stepped out behind them. “Foolish heroes! You’ll never find my lair! It might not even be near here!” Before I could respond, the woman’s head turned as she scanned our setup. “Your flaming defenses won’t avail you now that I am here!”

  She turned a dial on her weapon- the cheese ray? Midnight shot a few bursts of lasers at her, but her adaptive rat shielding blocked them. It was impressive at how the swarms managed to sort of rise up to cover her.

  I ducked to the side as Rodentia aimed at me, but the beam of her weapon curved and struck me directly. So she wasn’t just quick with her aim now but actively cheating. Was that what the dial did?

  My fire shield melted in front of me. A layer of goopy, whitish yellow cheese formed in its place as part of the magic just… disappeared. The rest of the spell sort of filled in the empty space, but it felt… thinner?

  “How do you even have a counter for something you’ve never seen before?” I complained.

  “Foolish young man. Don’t you know that a scientist must be prepared for any situation? They told me that a brie setting was impossible, but I’ve proven them wrong!”

  Oh, it was brie. That made sense. As she began to shoot at the front lines, some of her rats rushed forward to eat the remains of our fire shield. It was seemingly about time to think about potential retreat options.

  She hadn’t actually answered my questions, and I now had more. “Who are you even talking to that they’re telling you these things make no sense? Are you part of a villain league now?”

  It was unfortunate that she could talk and shoot at the same time, but I supposed that was an important skill for a villain to have. “I’m still independent. I was talking about my advisors.”

  “Villain advisors?”

  “Rat advisors, obviously!”

  “That’s nice. Did you make them?”

  Twirl had just discovered a movement pattern that caused the twisting beams to curve how he wanted to strike the wall. The wall just got a coating of some sort of chalky looking substance. It was less impressive than the normal cheese ray effects from this angle.

  “I did make them. Who else could I trust but my own creations?” Rodentia shot at my head, negating about half of my remaining Fire Shield. “Your defenses weaken! Prepare for your defeat! Take the vampire with you and stop hogging my sewers! Or someone’s sewers, since my base isn’t here. Also take the other ones!”

  “Oh, you know where they are?” I asked. “We’re actually here to get rid of them. Rositsa’s not the sewer dwelling variety.”

  “Preposterous! She registers the same to my rat eyes.”

  “Are those… special?” I asked.

  “Obviously they detect what sort of cheeses people have interacted with. By the way, you are quite lacking young man. I should expect better of someone with access to mercenary funds.”

  Rositsa took the opportunity to speak for herself. “Just because I’m from the same world doesn’t mean we’re friends. Those guys are…” she frowned. “The sort to kill dairy cows to get their milk. But I’m for… responsible ranching.”

  “Well I’m for irresponsible fanching,” the villain turned up her nose. “We should cover every square inch of the planet in dairy cows, and then take the opportunity to colonize other planets so we can have more. But I understand your point.” The swarm suddenly pulled back in an unnervingly synchronous way. The verbal command came a moment later, which confirmed some things. “Rat swarm, pull back!” Rodentia pointed her cheese ray upward. Midnight got the picture, and stopped attempting to wear her down. “Hmm. You may have sent your ooze to consume my minions and then melted thousands of them, but if you can help get rid of the vampires we can call that milk under the bridge. They’ve been drawing far too much attention here.”

  “We didn’t send the ooze either. It attacked us before your rat swarm did.”

  “A likely story. Next you’ll say my minions swarmed you first,” Rodentia chittered slightly.

  I shrugged. “Shouldn’t you have recordings or something?” Maybe they had to be locally uploaded.

  She tilted her head. “One moment,” the woman said. “There’s a message for me.” In a truly disturbing display, some of her robotic rats shifted into a vague approximation of me, repeating the message I had yelled at them. “Oh, you were here for the vampires. You should have just said so.”

  We did. Twice now at minimum.

  “Listen, I have to go make sure my base is secure. A base that definitely isn’t here. But I’ll give you a map to find where those vampires are hanging out. I thought they would be fine since they only seem to drink blood, but they come and go at all hours of the night and they’re constantly setting off my alarms. Which… extend all throughout the sewers. And not just here. Because my base is elsewhere.”

  Rodentia was either a very bad liar, or an excellent one. I’d let someone else figure that out later. “Great. Where are those guys?” I asked. “We’ll stop disturbing your wide ranging sensors and be on our way.”