Henry had asked Cevian to call a meeting with all crawlers in the citadel, if possible. After around five minutes they were now standing in the biggest cave of the fortress, brazier lit, surrounded by around a hundred crawlers, more than enough for Henry's plan.
When Cevian signaled him they were all here, Henry cleared his throat. "I have a plan to defeat the cutters."
His words caused a wave of murmur, mostly in the crawlers' own language. "We can not fight them, human, we can not. How can we defeat them then, how can we?"
Henry turned his head and saw a crawler cowering at his right, antennas raised. On a whim, he said "hey, you – are you perhaps the same one that led me to the map? And talked to me earlier? Are you their leader?"
The crawler before him twitched his antenna in approval. "Zick, my name is, Zick. I am the leader of the crawlers in the citadel, I am."
"Good. Because they will need a leader if my plan is to work." Henry smiled. Louder he continued "yes, you understood me correctly – we will not run away, we will not out-stubborn them – we will fight them. And we will win. If all of you help, that is."
By this point, he had the attention of the entire room, and Cevian too was eyeing him with curiosity in her eyes.
"Well, don't keep us waiting any longer, will you? Share your fantastic plan already."
Henry threw her a smile. "All in due time." He savored the moment of undivided attention a little longer before he finally raised his voice again.
"I am aware that you are not fighters. The cutters are, which means they outnumber us by a great deal. Cevian and I are skilled warriors, but even we can not take hundreds of them at once."
It was deafeningly silent now, except for the sound of Henry's voice. His memory went back to one of the few classes he'd actually happen to have paid attention in, for what he was now eternally grateful.
"So, what do you do when your enemy outnumbers you? An ancestor of mine, who lived not long after Sandwich himself, once solved that problem with great effectiveness. He even claimed his own strategy was based on one that had, long ago, been used in the Overland."
Henry explained the human general of ancient had been facing an outstandingly superior number of rats, compared to his own strength. What he had done was lead them to a narrow tunnel with multiple sideways, and from there set a trap.
The humans would wait in the side-tunnels and once the rats, that were forced to traverse the tunnel in a column, passed them, they would come out and split the single line of rats into multiple groups to fight separately.
It had been one of the most glorious and unexpected victories the humans had ever celebrated.
Henry's plan now, was simple. They had no narrow tunnel or the number of warriors to split a mass like the cutters into sections like his ancestor had, but they had the crawlers.
"If Cevian and I can swim through the underwater tunnel to get to the cave without the cutters getting a chance to enter the citadel, we can surprise them from behind. From then, we force as many of them as we can out of the big cave into the tunnels that lead out of it. And that's where all of you come into play."
Henry explained that, if the crawlers would open up the front entrance to the citadel the moment the cutters were distracted by him and Cevian, they wouldn't think to immediately take the fortress. Instead, it would allow the crawlers, who hid out in here, to leave and blockade the tunnels he and Cevian would have previously filled with parts of the cutter army, as well as the entrance to the citadel behind them.
"That way Cevian and I can take them out in parts. First, we kill the ones we couldn't force into any of the tunnels. After we dealt with those, you can open up tunnel by tunnel, letting the previously sealed out cutters in – to run into our sword and claws."
After Henry had finished, he was met with grave silence. Though the silence wasn't disapproving or hostile – no, everyone in the room was staring at him in shock, like what he just said sounded too good to be true.
"Henry, that..." Cevian finally raised her voice first, "that is actually... ingenious...!"
He smiled at her briefly. "But we can only do it if you all help.", he addressed the crawlers again. "This is your one chance to finally rid yourself of the threat from the cutters. Because, and I am sure of this, if we defeat them today, they will not bother you again in a long time."
At first, the silence continued, but then Henry suddenly heard a clicking sound. The sound was quickly joined by more of the same kind, and soon every crawler in the room was making it, causing it to become almost deafeningly loud.
"What in the world are they doing?", he asked Cevian and she smiled.
"They are applauding you."
A few hours later, after having eaten and drunk, as well as taken a short nap to regain their strength, Cevian and Henry were standing in the cave below which they saw the river stream.
Beside them was also Zick, who was supposed to lead the crawlers in the citadel out, as soon as Henry gave the signal.
"You ready?", Henry asked him while shouldering his sword and making sure all his pockets were sealed tightly. It would be a hassle to fight the cutters being wet from the river, but they had no choice.
"We will help you, human, we will", Zick assured him. Henry turned to Cevian, already meaning to ask her to go first and lead the way out when the crawler raised his voice again.
"Believes in us human, believes in us?"
The question caught Henry by surprise. He froze for a split second, giving it some thought. Then, with a firm voice, he spoke the truth "Yes. Yes, I believe this will work. I believe in you."
The crawler lowered his head in gratitude and respect, and Henry managed to nod in his direction as well. Cevian was about to jump into the water when she suddenly turned back to him. "Hey, Henry – I think there is one part that you didn't consider."
He furrowed his brows. "What are you talking about?"
She sighed. "How in the world are we supposed to fight the cutters – without light? We can't carry any fuel or torches, not through the water."
Henry froze first – but then chuckled lightly. "Ohh don't worry about light. I have us covered."
"And how?", she insisted.
The exiled prince grinned. "That is a surprise. Just trust me, okay?"
Cevian eyed him skeptically, and mumbled "I swear if this becomes the reason why your plan fails, I will make you regret your life.", but she eventually gave in and jumped into the water. Henry followed.
The swim took them around five minutes, though it seemed much longer. The water was icy and Henry feared he might get a cold if he stayed in it for too long, but they had no choice.
Cevian directed them through the tunnel, and when they eventually reached the exit that led to the cave and was high enough so that the water didn't fill it, they were both wet to the bone and shivering from the cold.
"Dammit, I didn't think this through!", Henry complained while rubbing his hands against each other to regain feeling in them. Cevian shook herself and the water from her fur gave Henry another cold shower.
"Hey! Watch out!", he called.
"Oh, sorry!", she didn't sound sorry at all.
When they had at least somewhat warmed up, they sneaked further towards the cave and eventually glanced out. Henry snapped his fingers a few times into the darkness and the scene, that unfolded before him, was unnerving. The cutters had surrounded the citadel, he saw them as one mass of creatures, most of them were sitting on the fortress itself.
It seemed like they were trying to break the stone with their razor-sharp jaws. They hadn't succeeded yet, but Henry surely thought it was possible if they were given enough time.
"We need to start!", Henry whispered. Cevian nodded. The exiled prince used his echolocation to get an idea of the room. He located the two other exit tunnels, and suddenly asked himself how they were supposed to chase the cutters into three tunnels, with only two fighters.
Just when he was about to voice his concern, he noticed a big, loose rock hanging over the biggest exit, the one from where the cutters had mainly come from. He still sensed a lot of them in that tunnel and informed Cevian quickly.
"That's how we'll start. We drop the rock before the biggest entrance. Then, the rest of them is immediately sealed in here, and we can take care of the other two tunnels personally."
Cevian nodded.
"Hey, can you take care of the rock? It's pretty far up there and pretty heavy, I don't think I can climb that in the darkness. Besides, I have to make light."
Cevian eyed him curiously, still waiting for an explanation on how exactly he wanted to make light, but Henry still remained silent on that. Eventually, she nodded. "I can do that. Though it'll be difficult to drop the rock exactly so that it will seal the entrance. But I'll manage."
They sat in silence for a while, mentally preparing themselves for the upcoming battle.
Eventually, Henry gave a short, dry laugh. "How in the world am I even here now – like, am I ACTUALLY doing this? Am I leading a bunch of crawlers into battle against an army of cutters?"
Cevian nodded. "Yes, you are. We are."
Henry shook his head. "If I told my half-a-year-younger self about this, he'd laugh at me. But here we are..."
"Here we are", Cevian agreed, staring out into the dark cave. After a short period of silence, she asked "But if this seems so ridiculous to you – why ARE you even doing this? Why are you leading this attack – and not just holding out in the citadel and hope for rescue, or for the cutters to give up?"
Henry pondered, then answered, with resolve in his voice, "Because I once promised myself that, before I die, the universe would have to fight me for every ounce of life in my body. And this attack is the best chance we'll get."
It was too dark and Henry wasn't sure, but he thought he saw her smile at that. "That is an admirable attitude. I'm sure Thanatos would approve."
They sat in silence for a while longer, but eventually, Henry felt the cold from his still wet clothes getting uncomfortable again. He turned to face the nibbler. "Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
"Hey, the moment you see fire, you drop the stone. I'll give you a minute to reach it."
They nodded at each other to signal they had understood and were ready. Then he watched her disappear into the darkness.
Henry counted in his head while struggling to open the wet leather pocket at his belt. When he finally did it, he was already at twenty. It wasn't easy to draw and dry his sword with a cloth in the darkness, and apply the correct amount of ignifer. At least the pot Teslas and he had made it in was waterproof. Henry almost cut himself on the blade and proceeded to use a cloth to prevent any accidents.
Eventually, he had applied approximately as much of the flammable mixture as he had decided to try, after having used too much last time. He had also focused more on the tip than the part of the sword closer to his hand, to prevent the flame from getting too big again.
Henry stored the ignifer away again, and his count reached fifty. He fetched his firestones, took position in the tunnel entrance, and counted down the last ten seconds.
Then he ignited the sword.
The blade lit on fire in a hissing jet flame, like last time, that Cevian couldn't have missed. The cutters hadn't missed it either though. He saw every single of them twitch, and turn to his direction.
Bang. A loud noise let Henry jerk around, the flaming sword was illuminating his surroundings even better than he'd expected.
Cevian, who was standing on a small ledge atop the biggest tunnel entry, had dropped the stone exactly as he had wanted her to, sealing the exit shut – and the cutters, that had remained in it, out. The last thing Henry saw was her staring at him, wide-eyed, and registered it must be because of the sword, then he stopped thinking.
Henry took a big, flying leap over the rows of cutters that had immediately targeted him. He swung his burning sword at them and they drew back, in fear of the fire. Henry registered all of them had now left the citadel to fight him and Cevian, who had leaped down and was leading the cutters, that had started chasing her, into the other tunnel. He had to get a move on.
Henry jumped over as many of them as he could, and when he had enough of them behind him, he chased them into the tunnel he and Cevian had come out of. It wasn't a huge amount that he managed to trap, but it had to suffice. From the corner of an eye, he saw Cevian jumping out of her tunnel, and knew it was time to give the signal to the crawlers.
Henry gave out a high-pitched scream, that Cevian picked up. In the blink of an eye, a stream of crawlers seemingly broke out of the earth around where he and Cevian had entered the citadel and parted into three groups. The first, and smallest, group stayed behind to block the entrance to the citadel, the second instantly sealed the nibbler's tunnel with their bodies, trapping the cutters she had led in, out.
The third almost swept Henry off his feet while doing the exact same thing with his tunnel. He managed to give the crawlers on his side a quick thumbs-up, before joining Cevian in the middle of the cave, that was now a battlefield.
"It's working!" He screamed while standing back to back with the nibbler, swinging his sword at all approaching cutters. There were much fewer of them in the room now, and Henry was indeed confident he and Cevian could take them.
"It is!" She responded while tearing her claws through the rows of attackers. "But – a flaming sword – REALLY?"
Henry would have laughed, hadn't he been fighting for his life. "What – are you not satisfied?"
Cevian didn't answer him and Henry found himself preoccupied with the battle as well. In only a few minutes they had killed every single cutter that had remained in the room, and stared at their work, panting heavily.
"Well, at least I'm not cold anymore", the exiled prince gave a short laugh. "Ready for the next wave?"
He knew that, the longer it took them to kill the current wave of cutters, the more crawlers would die trying to keep the rest out.
Cevian nodded, and Henry swung his burning sword in the direction of the tunnel the nibbler had been supposed to fill. The wall of crawlers immediately caved and joined to reinforce the other tunnel. Though Henry saw some motionlessly remaining on the floor as well.
They finished this wave of cutters even faster than the first one, and Henry soon gave the signal to release the ones he had forced into his tunnel. It was even less than Cevian had trapped, and they finished them off without any issues as well.
Heavily panting and not even a little cold anymore, Henry and Cevian took a few seconds off before opening the last tunnel – the one the nibbler had sealed with the stone.
Henry told all remaining crawlers to return to the citadel and wait in there – their job was done. It had costed the lives of more than a dozen of them, but his plan had worked like a charm.
"This wave will be as big as the first one, if not bigger." Cevian managed to say after catching her breath.
Henry stared down at his legs and tried to combat the pain that now took hold after the adrenaline from the battle had started to fade. The lower halves of his pants were torn to blood-stained pieces, and his legs were covered in countless cuts, that burned like fire. There were even some on his lower arms, from cutters that had risen up to their hind legs to attack him more effectively.
Henry gritted his teeth, trying to fight the pain, and exchanged a glance with Cevian. "I know. Let's just hope we can finish this."
She nodded, and with joined efforts, they pushed the boulder out of the way that blocked the last and biggest tunnel. A hoard of cutters streamed out of it like a black river of bodies and for the first time, Henry felt a sting of fear. That was more than the first wave. Would they actually be able to take them?
He and Cevian stood back to back again, Henry gripped his burning sword with both hands, the nibbler menacingly spread her front paws with the sharp talons and bared her teeth. They sounded another battle cry when the wave of cutters hit them.
Henry blindly swung his sword at them, tearing through body after body. Adrenaline had grabbed hold of him again and all he saw was the mass of attackers before them.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but after a while, his arms started getting heavy. Henry tried to scream again, but his voice was coarse and all that came out was a cough. With the last of his strength, he swung his sword at the lines of cutters that were still coming.
We won't make it, he meekly thought. It's too many.
When his legs were already about to cave in, a huge shadow suddenly swept over Henry's head, sounding a harrowing, eerie scream, that echoed from the walls and permeated every cell in his body.
For a second Henry thought he was dreaming, until the shadow screamed, in a very familiar voice – "JUMP!"
He didn't hesitate for a second. As well as his tired, bruised legs allowed it, Henry started running, disregarding all cutters in his way. With the last of his strength, he leaped in the air, spreading his legs. Thanatos caught him immediately, and a swell of relief hit Henry like a tidal wave. For a second he pressed his face into the flier's fur, closed his eyes and allowed himself to be eternally grateful he had an ally like him.
"My theory of you getting into trouble, the second I leave you alone, seems to have proven itself to be true." Thanatos' voice was a little mocking.
"You know, maybe you're right. But you can make fun of me later, we have to kill those little shits down there before Cevian gets –"
But when Henry raised his head to check on the nibbler, he saw someone was already fighting alongside her.
"You actually saved Cylindra!", he cried, raising his sword again.
"Of course I did. What did you think?"
There was no time for explanations. Filled with the fresh hope and energy the reinforcement had brought, Henry raised his sword and joined Thanatos' battle cry, which sounded even more unearthly than before.
They tore through the rows of cutters with considerably more ease now. After they had eliminated some that had threatened the grounded nibblers from behind, Henry asked if Thanatos could fly upside down for a little.
"If you can hold on", was the response.
Henry wrapped his legs tightly around the flier's neck and made sure to hold on with his left hand as strongly as he could. Then Thanatos turned upside down and flew as close to the ground as he could. Henry stretched out his sword and with a single swipe struck down more cutters than he had in all the time since on Thanatos' back.
The remains of the army were defeated in mere minutes.
None of them could believe it when the battle was actually over. Thanatos flew a few extra rounds around the cave to make sure all cutters were dead, and both nibblers bared their claws and teeth, standing back to back for a while longer until they finally realized it was over.
They had won.
Carefully, the flier finally landed in the middle of the cave, next to Cevian and Cylindra. Both of them were bleeding from cuts around the lower halves of their bodies, and Henry's legs weren't any better.
"We... we won!" Cevian finally exclaimed and fell over from exhaustion. Cylindra and Henry followed, while the exiled prince carefully held his still burning sword away from everyone.
Around a minute after the four of them had defeated the cutter army, Henry suddenly felt something touch his arm. He jerked around and was faced with a crawler that had left the citadel, since that the battle was over.
Only now they realized he wasn't alone either. Henry suspected all of the crawlers, who had survived, had assembled around them now.
He looked at the one who had approached him. "Zick? That you?"
"It is me, Zick, it is me."
"We won." It was all Henry had the strength to say.
"We won." The crawler echoed. "He has saved us, Wielder of Light, he has saved us."
"Wielder of – wait, what?" Henry looked around. The name echoed among all crawlers around them, they broke into their applause again, repeating "He has saved us, Wielder of Light", over and over.
"Henry, I think they mean you – !" Cevian's voice was clouded with pain – she had a few nasty cuts around her chest area that they would need to bandage soon, but the pride and joy in her voice were still dominant.
"Wielder of Light", Henry carefully repeated the name, "oh, you mean because of my sword – !" That exact moment the fire from the blade made a hissing sound and went out – what timing.
Thanatos gave a dry chuckle. "That seems to also be a thing now – not only do you get in trouble every time I leave you, but you also always somehow manage to gain a new name."
They all laughed at that, more from relief than anything else.
In a more serious voice, Cevian added, while looking around – "They won't forget this anytime soon. What you did for them today, all of the crawlers in the Underland will remember you for it", she eyed him for a second, "even if you only did it to save your own hide."
Henry chuckled a little. "Oh well, let's just call it – mutual need."
Cevian smiled knowingly. "However you may call it – you are their savior now. You will be the boy with the flaming sword, who led the crawlers into victory against an army of cutters, for the rest of your life.", she added. "Whether you like it or not."
An hour passed, which the two nibblers and Henry used to dry off the last remaining river water and patch up their worst wounds, while Thanatos kept watch, in case the cutters would return – or any other nasty surprises should await them.
The crawlers had given the "Wielder of Light" and his friends all the cloths they had and Henry had purified as much water as the little pot he had, allowed, to clean their wounds and quench their thirst.
Cevian was the worst case, her chest bled badly, as well as all of her limbs. Henry's legs were colored in a uniform red of the blood from countless cuts, and his pants had been torn to shreds around his lower legs.
While tending to their wounds, Cylindra told them that Thanatos had saved her, when the cutters had attacked, and carried her into the tunnel that Henry and Cevian had sealed off with the boulder during the battle. They had hidden out near a river, unable to pass the cutters due to the tunnel having a very low ceiling further in. Then, the ants had all disappeared all of a sudden, turned out that had happened because Cevian and Henry had opened up the tunnel again. Only then the flier and the nibbler had been able to come to their friends' aid.
After they had tended to the worst injuries and drank a little, they all agreed they needed to go back to the colony.
"Hey, at least the cutters will know not to bother you anymore", Henry said to Zick when he disclosed they needed to leave.
"Your clothes are damaged, want to take anything, want to?"
At first, Henry didn't understand what the crawler meant, but when he led him to a stash of leather and furs, that should have probably served as trading goods, Henry understood Zick was offering him gifts. Apparently, Thanatos had been right, back in the rat prison – the crawlers were generous when you helped them.
Cevian eyed him dismissively, when he accepted the offer without hesitation, picking up enough leather and fur to get a whole new set of clothes. When Henry discovered some elongated rat bones beneath the materials, he was ecstatic. "This is the exact thing Teslas asked me to bring, now he can finally reinforce my rat tooth dagger!" For so long he hadn't been able to use it in fear it might break – now he had the materials to finally change that. About time.
Zick had no objections to Henry taking the bones as well, and when the exiled prince finally left the citadel, loaded with gifts, Thanatos shook his head at him. "Henry, they thanked you, praised you – entitled you the "Wielder of Light", and what do you do – you rob them blank!"
The exiled prince grinned and shrugged. "Hey, they OFFERED me the stuff. What was I supposed to do – refuse?"
Cevian, Cylindra, and Thanatos exchanged disdainful glances, all silently shaking their head at his apparent lack of humility. But nothing could have ruined Henry's mood now.
He had already climbed Thanatos' back, this time joined by Cevian, who was too injured to run, when he took a brief look through his new materials. Excited for all the new fashion possibilities they opened up, he exclaimed – "Hey, Death – I think I'm going to get a coat."
"Great for you." The flier couldn't be less enthusiastic.
When Thanatos finally lifted up in the air, Henry saw a singular crawler standing at the entrance to the citadel, watching them leave. Cevian and Cylindra cried "Run like the river, Zick!", and after a moment of hesitation, Henry uttered the words himself.
"Run like the river."