Andries hadn't said anything in reply to her more than obvious statement. Instead he'd just cleaned his staff off and started walking into the sewers once more. Unwilling to stay there on her own with gods knows what coming for her, she'd had no choice but to follow him. Cursing, she'd pressed on, wading as quickly through the muck as she could.

"Glad you could join me," he chuckled.

“Seriously, piss off”, she snapped, not willing to let him get away with any attempt at humour. Like with the fat plug, he'd made a serious misjudgement in a mission he thought she was capable of, and now she was paying the price for that mistake. Unlike the last time where she'd vomited and nearly drowned in it, this time it looked like she was going to be torn limb-from-limb and the marrow sucked from her bones by whatever creatures the Emperor had seen fit to place upon this earth.

Why does the Celestial Court even let these damned creatures exist? Why haven't they purged the sewers? It wasn't as if they didn't have the resources to do it. An army of trillions, weapons capable of erasing life utterly from existence in the blink of an eye so thoroughly it would be as if they never existed.

"I can hear something," Andries crouched down, cocking his head as if he'd be able to hear better if he did.

"Like what?" she asked after a few seconds of listening herself. She hadn't been able to hear a thing, bar the usual noises of a working sewer. She'd never thought that she would have got used to hearing such sounds and then considered them to be normal. It was surprising as to how loud the sewers were. Gurgling, echoes, the squeak of rats, popping of bubbles. There was never anything that someone would really call 'silence'.

"Sub-sonic almost," he whispered. "I don't know what it is, but I can almost feel the damn thing. It's making my bowels vibrate. You seriously can't feel that?"

She tried to feel what he was describing. There was no vibration, but now she was actually trying to feel what he was talking about, she could feel her guts unsettled. She'd put that down to nerves. But if he was feeling the same thing, and didn't think it was his own nerves, then she was willing to bow to his superior experience.

"Where's it coming from?" she whispered. All she could feel was butterflies in her stomach. And butterflies didn't have a particular source.

"Can't tell," he laid a hand onto the surface of the river of effluent. "That way."

"How the hells did you work out what direction that was coming from?"

"Put your hand on the river, you'll feel it vibrating, and for some reason it feels as though it's coming from that direction," he slowly raised up from his knees, staff before him now, ready to strike at any moment. "Best we find whatever it is before whatever it is finds us."

She couldn't argue with that logic. She didn't like feeling as though she was prey and turning the tables on whatever the damned creature was could only be a good idea. Right?

"Let's do this, all I want to do is finish this damned mission and get back to the barracks. I'm fucking knackered, and this is looking like the fat plug mission all over again. And we haven't even agreed a split on the profits. If there are any profits to be made," she said pointedly.

"I'm sure there will be something that you'll be happy with," he snapped back, clearly getting tired of her constant griping. "These things usually drop at least something of value. And yes, we'll split it, fifty-fifty this time. The Scavenger Queen will be happy to see you again, she hasn't stopped talking about you. Was rather taken with the way you renegotiated our deal."

"How often do you go and see her?" she asked, both surprised and pleased to hear that the Queen had approved of her. She'd liked the bowed old woman.

"About once a week. My SCAVENGER skill is up to ninety-five per cent. That's the highest skill level you can get to in any skill. There's always got to be a factor for failure after all. I manage to find something every time I go out and hunt. That, and she's my mother."

That stopped her in her tracks. Whilst she knew intellectually that Andries must have had a mother, after all no-one sprang into existence unless by miracle. But she had never considered the fact that his mother would be down here with him.

"Mother?"

"Well, adopted mother to be honest," he said. "I came down here when I was quite young. She took me under my wing. Must have been my winning smile. Taught me everything I knew before I got transferred to the Sewer Company when I hit sixteen."

The way he spoke surprised her. There was no bitterness, no sadness, just an acceptance of the circumstances and a willingness to do as well as he could given those circumstances. It was at that moment that she realised just how much she respected him. Okay, so he could be annoying, and constantly seemed to put her in danger without giving it a second thought, but he had an approach to life she couldn't help but admire.

"Same as before, I'll tank, fight, you work around and see if you can get them from the flank or rear," he ordered.

"Makes sense, want to craft some explosives?" she asked hopefully, knowing in her heart that if it had been a good idea he'd already have done so.

"I'd bloody love to, but not here. These sewers haven't been explored for a long time, which means that the air won't have been flushed for just as long. Set off an explosion here and we could bring this whole sector down upon our crisped heads from accumulated gasses."

"Well, okay. That's reasonable. Would have been nice to have a little bit of boom," she sighed, gripping her staff tightly. Her stomach felt as though it was made of jelly, the vibrations getting stronger with each step. "You got nothing in your primer, or past experience to let you know what's making this noise?"

"Nope, not a clue. I mostly kill mogwai, and the occasional jiangshi ," she turned to see that he was gripping his own weapon just as tightly. "If I had to make a guess, I'd say it was a ghoul, since we're hunting jiangshi and ghouls hang around with them. Or so I’ve been told."

"Ghoul, you keep saying that, anything about them in the primer?" she made to open it, placing her hands together as if she was praying before hinging them at the blade as if opening a book from legend.

"Well, it's not really a good idea to start reading it now. Just make sure you do some reading when we get back, okay?"

The vibrating was stronger, it felt as though her eyes were dancing in her skull, a visual migraine. She stumbled, her balance off.

What the fuck's happening?

"It's coming!" That was all the warning she had before a maggot-white creature, tooth-filled maw open so wide it looked like even Andries’ head would fit in, barrelled towards them out of the darkness. Arms outstretched it reached for Andries, fingers as long as her arm tipped with nails longer than her hand hooked into claws as it charged.

"Ghoul! Definitely a ghoul!" She could feel the anxiety in his voice as his earlier conjecture proved correct.

The vibrating was stronger, and she realised that it was some sort of sonic attack. Her balance was off, and she saw Andries stagger, shaking his head as he did so. Not wanting to leave Andries vulnerable she counter-charged, meeting it just as it was about to strike her friend.

Up close it was even more disgusting. Milk-white, with cream-coloured pustules covering its body, its limbs were all out of proportion. Arms longer than its legs, spine jutting from its tightly-pulled skin. Just as visible were its ribs, if she had the time she would have been able to count each and every one. It looked as though it was starving.

All this took a split-second to register. Staff jabbing forward she blocked first one, then another claw, batting them away but doing no damage to the creature itself.

It spun, faster than her eyes could register, almost as if it reversed itself through its own body. Stunned, she barely blocked its follow up attack. This opening allowed Andries to leap into the fray, slashing his blade across its back, sending milk-white ichor spraying through the air. It reversed again, the cut on its back now facing her.

This is worse than the damned jiangshi! Still, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. activating SEWER COMBAT, she thrust at the nearest target box.

HIT!10% DAMAGE

BACKSTAB!

DOUBLE DAMAGE!

She'd managed to not only max out the damage of her staff, but the fact that she was attacking its back meant that she'd doubled it. It screeched, its health bar dropping much further than it had when Andries had attacked it. The vibrating stopped, as if it couldn't use its mouth for more than two things at the same time.

I'll count that as a small blessing, she thought just as a claw slashed across her visor, nails shrieking as they carved deep into the visor, crazing her vision. Although her face wasn't cut, the blow rang her head.

DAMAGE! 5%

SOAK 10%

STUNNED!

KNOCKED BACK!

HEALTH 95%

She didn't need the notification to tell her that. Could have done without it to if she was honest. Pressing home its attack, the ghoul thrust both hands out at the same time, aiming for her midsection. Blocking one, she shrieked as the iron-hard claws of the other punched into her midsection.

DAMAGE! 20%

SOAK 20%

BLEEDING @15% PER SECOND

HEALTH 75%

Her suit had now taken thirty per cent of the damage she would have if she hadn't been wearing it and was down to seventy per cent integrity. And the more it was worn down, the more damage she'd receive. Clutching at her guts, she dropped to her knees, unable to focus beyond the pain.

"Mai! Keep fighting!" Andries' voice seemed to come from the end of a tunnel. Bile rose into her mouth as her probing fingers reached into the gaping wound in her stomach. Whilst it hadn't done as much damage as she’d thought due to the pain she was experiencing, it had still well and truly opened her up. The effluent splashed as the creature spun to fight Andries, covering Mai in a shower of unmentionables.

At least if I die from being eaten, I won't die from sepsis and whatever nasty diseases are floating around in this fucking sewer. The urge to lie down as shock started to set in was nearly overwhelming. She just felt so tired. Pain pulsed up and down her body. Her thoughts were scattered.

"Treat your fucking wounds!" It was as if Andries was shouting into her ear his voice was so loud. Without thought she triggered the skill, gasping in relief as the searing agony was stopped in one blessed moment.

Finally able to focus on something other than her own misery, she pushed herself to her feet, snatched up her staff and leaped back into the fight. With her SEWER COMBAT skill still running, she targeted the box offering the best chance at both success, and a critical strike. Noting with satisfaction that Andries had reduced its health bar to less than fifty per cent, she rammed her staff forward.

It hit dead centre.

CRITICAL HIT! 30% DAMAGE

BACKSTAB!

FLAWLESS STRIKE! +10% DAMAGE!

The change in its health bar was drastic, dropping a full third of the way down. Wailing, the ghoul clutched at where her staff had struck. Hitting with such precision had shattered its ribs with a horrendous crunch. Such was the power of her thrust that the ghoul was forced forward, stumbling, and wailing, clearing space for both Andries and Mai to attack simultaneously.

KILL!

GHOUL HUNTER 5%

"Fuck me!" Mai dropped to her knees, utterly exhausted. Sweat dripped from her forehead onto her visor, the helmet's internal fans doing little to dry the moisture. "They're harder than the damned vamps! We can't keep doing this. We need a party."

She panted out the words, drawing a breath nearly every other one, limbs shaking, chest heaving. Barely able to raise her head, she looked over at Andries. He too was slumped over, his hazmat suit looking as if it needed to be scrapped. The red SOAK bar showed his suit was down to only ten per cent SOAK. Another couple of hits and it would have been useless against the ghoul.

"And to get a bloody title, I have to kill twenty of those! How many have you killed?" she gasped before sucking on her suit's internal water bladder. It was warm and slightly salty, but at the moment it was the best thing she'd ever tasted.

"Um, that's my first. I've killed a couple of jiangshi before, but this was my first ghoul. Primer said nothing about them being able to reverse direction through themselves. I mean, that's utterly fucked up!" He leant on his staff, looking down at the corpse of the ghoul. "Still, I hear their teeth are worth a good few credits. Something about the poison stored in the ..."

Mai glowered as he trailed off.

"You. Fucking. What," it wasn't a question. "You knew they had poisonous bites and forgot to tell me?" Groaning, she pushed herself to her feet, raising her staff.

"Well, hang on," he held a hand palm out towards her, "I thought that if I mentioned that you might not want to come on the mission."

HIT! 5% DAMAGE

WINDED!

ASSAULTING A CITIZEN – 10 UC FINE

Mai looked down snarling in blind fury as Andries gasped for air, both hands clutching his stomach. Best damned 10 UC I ever spent.

"We're going back, and we're going to get some help. Understand?"

As he wheezed and nodded, still unable to speak, she opened up her items menu, scrolled down to TOOLS and selected PLIERS. Accepting the one per BIO-MASS cost, she formed them, knelt down, and proceeded to carefully extract the dead ghoul's teeth.

"These are mine. You don't get a share in this."

She watched as he nodded, clearly knowing he wasn't going to win that argument.