Chapter 9: Ambush!

Ragnar and Harald left Izmit later that day. Garn and Denuve stayed behind to keep an eye on the town in case anything turned up.

They walked a quick pace, wanting to get to Burland Castle before night. The road was clear of activity, save a few villagers heading to Izmit.

Once they neared the tunnel, Ragnar could see the top of the tower Harald had mentioned. It poked through the canopy of a large forest and a few birds circled over top of it. Few people knew exactly where the tower had come from but there were some rumors. It was said that, when Burland was in its infancy, it was used as a guard tower. If any invasion fleets were to come to Burland, the guards in the tower would be able to spot them well before they neared the coast. However, such an invasion never did come, mainly due to the fact that none of the empires of old wished to bother with the remote country. So, the tower was eventually abandoned.

Ragnar wondered if it might be a better idea if he should go to the tower right now and confront Sandor, Darnell, and Mandrake. However, he decided not to. They had gone there more than a day ago and were probably long gone. He'd be able to talk with them when this mission was over.

"Ragnar!" he heard Harald call from up ahead. The soldier rushed forward and saw Harald studying the ground in front of the tunnel. There were several tiny tracks. They didn't look like anything an animal would leave. These tracks were much too uniform. And they were leading out of the tunnel.

"Beetle-men," Ragnar mused.

"Are you sure?" Harald asked, looking at his friend.

"No," Ragnar replied, "but it sure looks like the kind of tracks a large walking insect might leave."

"That means that they've already braved the tunnel," Harald muttered, rubbing his chin. After a moment, he asked. "Do you think that there might still be some in here?"

Ragnar shrugged. He couldn't tell the number of beetle-men in the tracks. For all he knew, it was just a couple of scouts like he had encountered. "All the same," he said, rubbing his mustache, "I think we should equip our shields." Harald nodded and they undid their shields from their backs and strapped them on their preferred arm. Then, swords in one hand and a torch in the other, the two soldiers went into the tunnel.

The mud was drier than when Ragnar first went through but it was still difficult to walk down the steep entrance without sliding a bit. Sunlight filtered in for a little ways but soon the soldiers were solely relying on their torches for light. Knowing that that wouldn't be enough to see into the tributary tunnels, the soldiers quickly increased their sense of hearing as well as sight.

Aside from the sound of running water, the tunnel was still very quiet. Ragnar didn't notice the stench of rotting healers anymore, so the slimes were probably aware of their presence, just too timid to attack.

Soon, they came to the underground lake. The soldiers strained to hear any movement but all they could hear was running water. Ragnar didn't like it. If there were beetle-men in the tunnel, he wanted them to at least make some sort of indication they were around. If they were noisy enough by the road, why couldn't they be just as noisy here?

They passed the lake and made their way through the southern half of the tunnel. It was still very quiet. "Be careful," Ragnar whispered. "There's a bunch of dead healers around the corner here, and there were quite a few slimes skittering among them." Harald nodded and gripped his sword tighter.

Ragnar noticed the smell had gone down and when he rounded the corner, he saw why. Only a few scraps of the healers were still around. Everything else had been eaten since Ragnar was last here. He didn't like that. When he came through here before, the amount of slimes he saw couldn't have eaten all of the corpses he saw. There had to be more lurking around, but where?

The soldiers crept forward slowly, not wanting to attract attention to them and to listen for any kind of movement other than their own.

They were about to round another corner when Harald stopped short. Ragnar looked at Harald, wondering what he was doing. Harald motioned to the corner and to a wall beyond it. Ragnar looked there and saw something he hadn't seen before. The shadow of a beetle-man!

Ragnar grabbed his sword tighter and nodded to Harald. Harald nodded back and the two soldiers stuck their torches into the ground and silently put their backs up against the wall. It was a certainty the monsters had seen their light by now and would attack. Hopefully they would be able to catch them by surprise.

Seconds later, five beetle-men burst around the corner, screeching some sort of battle charge. They were larger than the ones Ragnar had fought but he and Harald still towered over them.

Just as the beetle-men rounded the corner, Harald, being closer, struck out. The first beetle-man caught a copper blade at the neck, and thick, green fluid spilled out. Harald tried to wedge his sword back out but it was caught in the hard exoskeleton. Ragnar quickly went to his aid.

Sword extended, he charged the beetle-men, roaring like a bear in an attempt to scare them. The beetle-men, seeing how one of their comrades had fallen so quickly, backed up. They started to make clicking noises, tiny feelers between their mandibles moving rapidly.

Harald finally got his sword free and joined Ragnar. "Two against four," he said to Ragnar. "I like those odds."

The beetle-men charged, their giant jaws chomping savagely.

Ragnar used the same technique on the lead monster as he used before. As the beetle-man got close enough, he brought his sword down and caught the monster's jaws with his blade. He then threw the monster down to the ground and smashed its spine with his foot.

Harald fended off the second attacker with his shield, then crouched low into a spin, his sword extended. The beetle-man managed to dodge the attack, though, and charged forward, ready to bite into Harald's open flank. However, Harald had used the missed attack as an advantage and continued his spin. By the time the beetle-man got to Harald, his shield was there waiting. The shield smashed into the giant insect and the monster flew against the wall, where it crumpled to the floor.

Ragnar's attack on the first beetle-man left him momentarily open for another to attack. The fourth beetle-man lunged forward, bit through his clothes, and pierced his skin. Ragnar grunted in pain but it didn't slow his attack. He glared down at the beetle-man, fury in his eyes. The beetle-man released its grip on Ragnar and pointed its blue eyes up. It saw Ragnar, saw him bring his blade up high, then no more.

Harald quickly stood up when he heard Ragnar grunt. He saw his friend finish off the beetle-man that attacked by jamming his sword through its head but he was wide open to an attack by the last one. The remaining beetle-man realized this too, but saw that it could never defeat the skilled soldiers. Deciding its own life was more important, it ran back up the tunnel. Harald knew that if it got out, it could get reinforcements. Grabbing his torch, he chased after the beetle-man.

The shorter monster knew that it was futile to try and outpace the soldier, so it darted into a tributary tunnel, hoping to lose Harald. Harald stopped short. He had no clue how deep this tributary was and Ragnar was still back there, possibly badly injured. But if he did leave, the beetle-man could double-back and they could have a whole platoon of beetle-men waiting for them at the outside. Gritting his teeth, Harald entered the tributary.

The tunnel wasn't very big but Harald still had enough room to maneuver easily. He strained to listen for movement. He faintly heard running steps ahead but that was all. Eventually, the steps stopped. Harald stopped as well, trying to listen for any details. All he heard was the low hum of river-water roaring high above. Either the beetle-man had come to a dead end or it had stopped to ambush him.

Harald kept on creeping further. A moment later, he heard an ear piercing screech ahead, then a splat as if something had fallen into the mud. Harald stopped, wondering if he should continue. His curiosity got the better of him and he proceeded.

The soldier's torchlight revealed the cause of the screech as soon as he found the monster. In front of him lay the beetle-man, its face in the mud. Slithering all over it were little green blobs: babbles!

Harald gasped and slowly started to back away. Babbles were quite dangerous if one of them latched on. Their poison would eventually slow you down and several more would come to cover you, eventually absorbing the entire body. It was a fate no one would want to share, even if it was on your worst enemy.

Hoping not to attract the vile little monsters, Harald slowly turned and got ready to run back the other way. Before he was about to escape the babble lair, he felt a piercing pain on his leg.

It had taken a while but Ragnar finally managed to pull his sword out of the beetle-man's head. He couldn't believe he had done such a stupid thing. Of all the finest training a royal soldier could have, he resulted to brute strength above all other tactics.

He saw Harald run off in chase of the last beetle-man, so Ragnar followed him. As he walked, he checked the wound the beetle-man had given him. It wasn't as bad as Ragnar had thought. The beetle-man had only pierced the skin. It would sting for a while but that was all.

He suddenly heard an ear-piercing screech from one of the tributaries. Looks like Harald got it, Ragnar thought triumphantly. He waited by the tributary entrance, keeping an eye out for any other beetle-men or worse.

After a few moments, Harald limped out of the tributary. He looked weak and was clutching his leg. At first, Ragnar thought the beetle-man had somehow wounded his friend but when he looked at the spot Harald was clutching, he saw there was green slime oozing from out of his fingers.

"By the Master!" Ragnar gasped. There was a babble stuck on Harald's leg. He went to help his friend but Harald held up his other hand, shaking his head.

"It will only latch onto you," Harald said, gritting his teeth. Once in the additional light of Ragnar's torch, he dug his hand down underneath the green slime and twisted his hand around. The babble latched onto his hand and began to pulsate, trying to suck on the blood there. Still gritting his teeth, Harald closed his eyes and began to beat his hand against the wall. Ragnar winced at seeing his friend abuse himself like this.

After a minute of this, the babble slipped off of Harald's hand. It tried to slither away back into the darkness but Harald undid his shield, put it over top of the babble, and pressed down. In a few moments, green slime oozed out on all sides of the shield. Harald brought his shield up, and green slime covered the ground and shield. There was no way the babble could have survived.

Ragnar rushed over to his friend and caught him before he collapsed. Harald managed to look up at Ragnar, and whispered, "We've got to get out of here, fast!"

Ragnar nodded and carried his friend out of the tunnel.