Veldon had never counted how many times he swung his swords.
In battle, anything unrelated to victory was unnecessary.
Including tallying kills.
Against an endless tide of weak enemies, no weapon outperformed the twin straight swords in his hands. The logic was simple—alternate strikes with both arms, and one could deliver nearly double the killing force of most other weapons.
Between swings, he glanced back.
Standing two or even three heads taller than most of the crowd allowed him a clear view of the rear. He saw Mia catching up—behind her, a wall of flame roared skyward.
Good.
Relief lasted less than a breath. Turning back, Veldon swept a horizontal arc with one blade, cleaving three Clanrats cleanly in half.
Ahead, he spotted a bridge spanning a canal that cut through the residential quarter. More importantly, there were no Skaven visible on the far side.
Instinct told him immediately—
That bridge would become a choke point.
The people behind him…
Hm.
Colorless.
After several seconds of thought, he coined the term for the civilians following him.
Mia had said this was not the Lands Between. These people had never seen the Erdtree, never known Grace. They were not Tarnished who had lost it.
Colorless suited them.
Perhaps these Colorless civilians could escape across that bridge.
But he also knew the Skaven would not relent.
He thought as he killed.
The one he had just cut down seemed larger than the others. Armored.
Irrelevant.
As the spearhead of the formation, Veldon reached the bridge first, drenched head to toe in rat blood.
"Across!" he barked coldly, ensuring his hoarse voice carried to the civilians fighting in his wake.
"Cross the bridge! Move!"
The men relayed his command, and the pace quickened.
The Skaven could not halt these humans wreathed in golden light. In horror, they discovered their daggers and crude blades could scarcely kill them. Wounds knit before the eye. Even poorly aimed strikes failed to bite deep.
Meanwhile, the once-cowering townsfolk smashed Skaven skulls with clubs and hacked off heads with scavenged knives.
Blessing of the Erdtree granted them near-limitless vitality.
Erdtree's Oath filled their bodies with strength, toughening flesh beyond mortal norm.
Rats and humans clashed in chaotic melee. The citizens poured every ounce of rage into the invaders who had slaughtered their kin. Skaven corpses formed a filthy carpet across the street, and the brave trampled it without hesitation.
In that moment, a ridiculous thought took root in Skaven minds—
Humans were invincible.
Panicked rats leapt from both sides of the bridge into the canal below.
Veldon halted at the bridge's edge. Stragglers always attempted to slip past. He would not allow them to reach the elderly and children clustered mid-column.
And he would not move until Mia arrived.
"Cross! Keep moving!"
The front ranks had already broken through and now saw the clear street beyond the bridge.
Humans, unlike Skaven, possessed order. Chaotic—but ordered. They streamed across the narrow stone span.
Mia saw Veldon.
That meant the vanguard was safe.
But behind her—
The fire wall lasted less than ten seconds.
When it vanished, the churning rat tide surged forward.
"Go!"
Five seconds after the last civilian's foot struck the bridge, Mia brushed past Veldon.
They ran side by side toward the far bank—
And then—
From the bridge's midpoint, a massive, fur-covered hand shot up over the edge.
Then another.
Then a grotesque rat head the size of a hound's body.
A Rat Ogre.
A twisted abomination born of Skaven foul craft.
It hauled itself onto the bridge like some monstrous gorilla, even hunched it stood taller than Veldon. Fully upright, it would reach three meters.
A pure amalgamation of muscle and rage.
It pounded both fists against the stone. The bridge trembled.
With a roar, it charged.
Mia conjured a whip of flame.
She lashed her arm.
The fiery strand curved through the air and cracked across the Rat Ogre's face.
A charred welt split its features. Fur ignited. The blow blinded it.
The monster went berserk, howling and flailing blindly. Veldon rushed in, sidestepped a smashing fist, and thrust both blades forward.
One straight.
One angled upward.
One pierced through the jaw into the brain.
The other drove through the chest into the heart.
Perfect coordination.
Veldon planted a boot against the corpse and kicked free his swords.
The Rat Ogre toppled backward.
Its massive body struck the bridge—
And the impact shook the structure.
The shaking intensified.
Stone cracked.
Before Mia's eyes, the center of the bridge collapsed.
The Rat Ogre's corpse and shattered masonry plunged into the canal—
And from the broken edge, more enormous, fur-covered hands clawed upward.
More Rat Ogres.
Two of them.
They had smashed the bridge supports from below and climbed up the fractured pillars. Now they stood before Mia and Veldon, roaring.
Mia felt her scalp prickle.
Behind them—
The Skaven were nearly upon them.
She lashed again with her flame-whip, striking the advancing monsters. They raised their arms to shield their faces and pushed forward through the fire.
Veldon shifted closer to her.
"There's another bridge three hundred yards west!" someone shouted from across the canal.
"Head to the Palace District! Don't stop!" Mia yelled back.
She cast another wall of flame at the Rat Ogres' feet.
But they did not retreat.
They charged through it.
One raised its massive fist, intent on crushing her into paste.
Mia twisted aside at the last instant. The blow smashed empty stone.
Veldon stepped in, blades flashing. Deep cuts split the creature's forearm to the bone.
It roared and staggered back.
The second Rat Ogre, still smoldering, barreled forward.
Veldon crossed his swords before his chest—
The creature's upward claw strike shattered his guard.
He was thrown several meters backward.
The Rat Ogre lunged to pursue—
A massive fireball slammed into its face.
"Are you alright?" Mia grabbed Veldon instinctively—an almost comical sight given their height difference.
Without waiting for a reply, she pressed a quick heal against his chest.
"The blessing still holds," Veldon replied.
Her reflex had cost energy.
The Rat Ogre clawed at its burning face, tearing flesh away in agony. Blood and bone were exposed, yet the flames clung to it like a curse, spreading down its thick fur.
It writhed and rolled—
Until the heat boiled its brain within its skull.
The other, wounded Rat Ogre prowled behind its dying companion's burning corpse, snarling—but hesitating.
"Now!" Mia snapped.
They turned and ran back the way they had come.
Behind them, the pursuing Skaven faltered. Slave rats, Clanrats—even Stormvermin hesitated at the sight of the Rat Ogre's horrific death.
For generations, Skaven warlords and Grey Seers had relied on one method to control their cowardly kind:
Before battle, slaughter one of their own in brutal fashion—and declare that this is the fate of cowards.
Fear made them obedient.
By sheer coincidence, the Rat Ogre's gruesome end had accomplished something similar.
Mia knew it would not last.
She cast another wall of flame across the street.
Fire raced along piles of Skaven corpses.
She couldn't help thinking—
Humanity evolving to lose most of its body hair was truly a wise decision.
The living Skaven shrank from the flames.
Seizing the moment, Mia and Veldon slipped into a side alley—
And turned toward the direction the citizens had indicated.