We didn’t leave back through the same tunnel we originally entered. Ragual took me across the lake, over a bunch of massive unused lilypads, to a whole different area. What struck me wasn’t that it was guarded, although it was. I’d talked to a few guards when they were off duty or heading this way, so that was no surprise. I knew they guarded various entrances to their village.

  What was a surprise, was that it was completely and totally blocked off. There was a massive light shining down on the entrance. Actually, a ton of lights now that I thought about it. Everything around this area was covered in glowing moss and actual iron lanterns filled with something to cause an even brighter glow. It all shined down upon a rock, blocking a tunnel.

  None of that boded well. They kept an entrance with a triple digit power level creature open but blocked this one? That was scary. My rise out of these sewers already seemed like they were going to be difficult.

  Ragual grabbed a stick nearby, stuck it into one of the lanterns, and took it back out. Whatever was in them very clearly wasn’t fire, but that didn’t stop Ragual’s torch from going up in flames in moments. I looked at the end, recognizing the same cloth that my bandages, bedding, and underwear were made out of. I glanced down and then back at Ragual who only huffed and rolled his eyes in amusement.

  I made a note to stay away from his torch. I didn’t want those parts of me becoming extra crispy any time soon.

  Ragual handed me the torch for a moment, amused at my small despairing look at him, while he went up to the boulder blocking the path.

  And then he began to push.

  Slowly, painfully slowly, the rock began to move. I could see the sweat dripping down from my friend's body, exertion clear across his form. The giant boulder at least seemed to be greased to an extent but it was still incredibly heavy. Finally, there was a suction of air and the boulder practically popped out of the tunnel.

  I walked forward, following after him, lighting the way. He was busy moving the boulder, getting ready to push it back in. I looked around this new opening, grimacing.

  It was dark. The second we were out, I could already see Ragual’s eyes practically swerving in panic, looking at all the darkness. The only light was from the opening and the torch I currently held in my hand. As fast as Ragual could, he reblocked the exit and I grimaced at the fact that he’d have to come back and do this alone.

  Previously, I’d felt like I was in a sewer made by a madman and then a natural cavern chiseled out of the side of it. Now I simply felt like I was in an underground crevice. The stone brick was back from what little light I could see but it was pitch black. I couldn’t even hear any running water or tell if we were in a tunnel or not.

  Ragual took a breath and then almost frantically took back the torch, spinning around, and my mindset changed in a moment.

  I’d been too safe for too long. The sewers were dangerous. Ragual was worried, fearing the dark. And I was standing around as if it was my first day in here. I stopped, froze, and let my instincts born from months of survival here roll over me. My ears perked up and my hand practically flew to my vambrace, turning on the light function, and then examining every crack and crevice.

  A hint of movement out the corner of my eye had my heart skipping a beat.

  Danger.

  I snapped, pointing, Ragual looking over. Instincts flared and I turned around, just as he turned, pointing behind him with my vambrace held forward.

  It ran.

  It had been aiming for Ragual in that singular moment while he was turned and when it noticed me, it ran.

  I stared, mouth agape, while Ragual kept my back safe. Just before it had run off, I’d gotten a good look at it through the shadows. And it had seemed to look like… well… it stood on two legs and was green but…

  Was that a turtle?

  *****

  For the first time in a long time, I cursed my power to see power levels. Not because it constantly reminded me of how weak I was, like in the older days. But because it only worked if I could actually see above someone’s head. Hats weren’t an issue, but if someone stood at a doorway and the top part blocked it, I wouldn’t be able to see it. Even for me, I couldn’t simply lay on my back and see it, I had to tilt my head up.

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  And now I was learning that darkness worked the exact same for it. Three times. We’d nearly been ambushed three times but whatever these creatures were that hunted us were fast. The moment the light so much as began glancing at them, they were moving away, back into the dark. It was to the point I was genuinely horrified if Ragual would be able to make it back after he led me out of here.

  And each of those three times, although I’d gotten a glance at the creatures, I wasn’t able to see their power level. It was too dark. I’d at least always roughly known the power level of others and not having that luxury was… unpleasant to say the least. It felt like I was blind in more ways than one and the darkness was already bad enough. It was only a matter of time before we fought and if we continued like this-

  Ragual’s torch flickered out and I tackled him.

  Something came flying through the dark, hitting the stone with a horrifying tink.

  Weapons. My mind sped up. Projectiles. Bad, that was bad. Ragual wasn’t a slouch, in fact, he seemed to have experience with this sort of thing before as he grabbed my arm with the vambrace and pointed it not at where the projectiles had come from, but upwards.

  I finally fully saw our attackers.

  Green, humanoid, turtles. Their face was a bit monstrous but no more than Ragual’s own really. Intelligence sparked in those eyes but unlike Ragual’s I saw nothing but malevolence there. The one above was descending, a smile on their green bald head, daggers held in both hands.

  Two legs shot out, one toad and one human, slamming into the being's stomach and launching it back. Ragual tackled it immediately while I dived, barely missing being hit by more things being thrown in the dark. Quickly shining my Vambrace in that direction revealed another turtle, throwing stuff with surprising skill. I tried to dodge out of the way this time but light went both ways. I couldn’t dodge all of them and felt three slam into my arm and one into my stomach, hurting like a bitch. Pain wasn’t new but I hadn’t missed it either.

  My thoughts spun fast, not knowing what to do. Those projectiles seemed more annoying than dangerous, distracting, made to have me go after it. If I did that I’d be leaving Ragual alone in the dark, he’d be screwed fast. For once my brain didn’t know what to do and it almost caught me.

  We’d almost been ambushed three times.

  A fucking sword nearly took my head off. The only reason I survived was I saw the grin on the turtle creature in front of me and the slight movement of its eyes rise. I dodged, more out of a sudden panic of fear, and saw a bone sword carved to a sharp edge flow past my widening eyes. The- the turtle hadn’t even made a noise! It was like it had just suddenly appeared to my left!

  I kicked at its legs, nearly losing my foot in the process. I risked a glance back at Ragual, only to see him fighting off another turtle, this one wielding what looked like a thin bone club in its hands. The one that had been throwing what I belatedly realized were pieces of sharp bone came running in, wielding two chunks of bone, connected to another chunk of bones, via chain. Nunchucks. The turtle had nunchucks.

  My mind blanked as I realized I was fighting monsters with weapons and two of them at once. With Ki, with more power, their weapons would be useless.

  They weren’t useless right now though. For the first time since I’d gained power, I felt not just weak, but strangely defenseless.

  I backpedaled fast, keeping the light on the turtles approaching, and finally got a good look at their power levels. It wasn’t anything good for me.

  [10]

  [10]

  I kept the turtles in my sight as they approached, before taking a risk and spinning around, slamming my foot into the turtle with the daggers and giving Ragual some breathing room to fight. By the time I turned around-

  A sword was inches from my eye. A panicked duck cut a line across my hair, only for two rising slabs of bone to come for my face. I didn’t think, there wasn’t time. I pushed forward with my body, wanting to simply not be slammed in the face, and ended up flipping over, my foot slamming into the turtle with a sword.

  He backed away for a moment, stunned.

  Then it was a blur as I rapidly dodged two angry turtles. The sword cut lines across my flesh whenever I failed to move fast enough and the nunchucks felt like they’d break bone whenever they hit me. I wasn’t able to get a hit in, my entire mind focused on simply trying to stay alive. Their teamwork was incredible and the cold realization that without Ragual I’d have had to fight all four of them left me in a cold sweat as I rapidly tried and failed to fight back.

  A cry came from behind me and then in almost the blink of an eye, the turtles jumped back, vanishing into the dark. I turned fast, only to see Ragual with bleeding puncture marks across his arm and blood that clearly wasn’t his on his fist.

  My breathing felt panicked as I rapidly swung my Vambrace’s light around. None of their weapons, besides the small four pointed bone spurs, were left behind. They’d attacked, barely been hurt, and then fled the moment one of them seemed in trouble.

  This was bad. Very bad. They were stronger, faster, more skilled, armed with weapons they knew how to use, and had incredible teamwork. Not to mention they ambushed in the dark. Ragual quickly picked up his torch and to my shock, pulled something off that relighted the flame on it.

  I’d thought the light had gone out, but on a closer look, something had been thrown so fast over it that I’d missed it. It’d completely covered it and looked like a rat pelt of all things.

  Ah, right of course. To make matters even worse, our enemies were intelligent and tactical enough to try to get rid of our light so they could kill us from the dark. Only one thing I knew of through stories fought like that.

  We were dealing with Ninjas.

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