15) It all comes down on me [ The problems with contracted labor ]

  Hrmmm…

  So I had my Skeleton facing off against the aged, one eyed Ratling… who I didn’t really think was much of an issue for my Summons.

  The Ratling seems to be in good health, even muscular, as far as the scrawny, underfed samples of the creatures I had seen so far.

  But… The old Ratling is just a Beast, and worse than that, he is a Tamed Beast.

  Ratlings are a race that were never chosen by a God, so they don’t have Classes. Instead, they have Cores, just like any other Beast. But Tamed creatures don’t have Cores either. Not unless they were Tamed after they became old enough to start developing a Core. A situation in which my Innate Knowledge was telling me that a Beast with a Core would need a Tamer that was one Tier higher than the Beast's Tier to Tame it.

  So, even an older, seemingly more experienced Ratling like the one eyed one, was at best a fair fight for my Skeleton, whose Fear Aura has to be doing at least something to the older Ratling.

  The problem was the Boar that Ratling was riding on.

  Even without a Core, which isn’t guaranteed as the Goblin had said something about rentals, the Boar was rather... large.

  With both the Ratling and the Board working together… my Skeleton didn’t stand a chance.

  So I changed things up a bit, not that even with such an effort on my part, the odds weren't still impossible. But instead of two, the Ratling and the Boar, against one, I could make it two against two.

  I commanded the Skeleton to pick up the still flaming Snail that was resting in the shattered remains of the box below my Boney Summons's feet and had the Skeleton toss it directly at Mister One Eye with the anthropoid's Fire Aura still…

  Well, fired up, I guess would be the best term for it.

  The Skeleton was still going to lose, badly, but at least this way it wasn’t just going to be trampled underfoot in a one sided fight.

  Up above, as I looked up through Caesar's eyes through the now slightly thinned out white smoke, expecting to see a Ratling feet descending the rope from the shaft above.

  But instead of a bony Ratling’s foot, I saw a set of widening eyes in a Ratling face as its head peeked down from the hole in the ceiling into my outer corridor, as it looked around to see what was waiting for it down below.

  Then the first thing it saw was my orangish red scaled Fire Lizard looking back at it.

  Then the Ratling got to see the wrong end of a Salamander's Fire breath.

  It has time to scream out the beginning of a warning in a squeaky voice. “Brace for-”

  Then the fire washed over them, then past them to go up the shaft, and it keeps going…

  Until the first Ratling, on fire, and screaming, came falling from above, flailing in the air as they dropped, straight on top of Caesar, who I had placed directly below the shaft leading up to the surface.

  Hrmmm…

  While that was unexpected, it was still the best place for my Fire Lizard to stand in order to breathe flames up the shaft, despite it putting Caesar directly in the best place to get body slammed by a falling Ratling.

  Almost immediately after Caesar was partially crushed by the first Ratling, two more came down in a more controlled manner. Each of them landed feet first in turn onto the burning Ratling, a rather rude impact on their own, which didn’t do Caesar, who was still underneath the trampled Ratling, much good either.

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  The two additional Ratling half stepped, half rolled off the burnt one, before standing up on either side of the piled up Ratling and Salamander in front of them.

  One of the new arrivals began rolling the Burning Ratling along the floor while using the edge of the dark brown cloak it was wearing to try to put out the flames on its cohort, while the second drop in Ratlting raised its hatchet high above the still slightly stunned Caesar-

  Nope. No free shot for you.

  On the floor in front of the shelves, my Core was half hidden in, my Innate Summons abruptly appeared before me, with the cloud of orangy red magic left in Caesar's former place swiftly fading away as I directly recalled it after first Unsummoning, then Resummoning my Innate Summons.

  I should probably practice doing that some more.

  Down below in the drainage tunnel, my Skeleton was being half shoved, half carried ahead of the directly controlled, green eyed Boar and half crushed below its heavy hooves.

  Despite the charging Boar crushing half of the Skeleton ribs as it kept taking steps forward while trying to crush my Summons, the Skeleton was still beating somewhat ineffectively at the Beast with my Summon’s new hammer as it was pushed along the side of the walkway beside the drainage tunnel.

  Before the Born had rushed forward, I would swear that I had seen the one eyed Ratling give my Skeleton a wink before the Ratling had dove off of the Boar’s back and into the drainage water after dropping it’s long handled club and catching the Fire Snail in it’s hands.

  Or it might have just blinked, what with only having the one eye it was hard to tell? And choosing to carry my Fire Snail into the water had almost instantly destroyed my Summons as the water immediately shut down my Summons's Fire Aura, and then began rapidly dissolving the Fire Snail.

  With a thought, my Fire Snail immediately joined Caesar on the floor in front of my Core. While the Snail couldn’t suffer, I felt that seeing it slowly turn into melting sludge might be encouraging to the Ratling.

  Despite being Tamed, none of the Ratlings really seemed to want to be here, fighting for their lives.

  I couldn’t help but sympathise.

  In the outer corridor, one of the Ratlings, the one who had tried to chop Caesar, stood between the other Ratlings while staring out into the smoke with its hatchet in one hand and a small metal shield in the other.

  Behind it, the Ratling, which had been rolling around the burning one, was helping the scorched Ratling to its feet. Then, a length of rope dropped down from the shaft, still scorched and smoldering.

  A fourth Ratling almost immediately dropped down as well. After looking around, the new arrival then whispered. “Our way out is gone, brothers. It's win or die.”

  Or… Viola, please offer the other Ratling the chance to leave.

  My Fairy looked around wildly as she hovered in the still, thick white smoke.

  “...Fell? What other Ratling?”

  -The four who made the smoke and then climbed down the shaft?-

  Didn’t she? No, wait. She didn’t see them.

  -Just please tell the Ratling on the other end of the room that Torb still hasn’t made his way up the shaft, and so the four of them are badly outnumbered. I want you to give them a chance to get out of here alive.-

  I mean, it’s not like they have Cores or Classes. Killing them doesn't do anything for me but remove them as dangers, and getting them to leave does the same thing without the distraction involved in fighting them.

  Viola shrugged, then began yelling. “Oy, you four! The greenskin twerp is getting held up down below. He sent you lot in as a sacrifice! So Fell wants me to tell you to run, even if you can’t break your commands since you’re Tamed.”

  The Fairy tilted her head sadly to one side. “That seemed kinda mean to me Fell. They can’t choose to save themselves. Offering to let them go is just twisting the knife.” Then she grinned. “Do it again!”

  Oh.

  As the Skeleton went poof under the hooves of the Boar after it reared up to stomp on my Summons bones a couple of times, I prepared to send the Skeleton in up top to put a dose of fear into the Four better armed Ratling. Followed up by an attack from the Spider, which had made its way along the ceiling, along with the Air Hawk, who was perched on top of the one Ratling corpse near Viola

  This is when I was surprised by the Forth Ratling. “We give up. Pax Enforca.”

  The Ratling dropped its hatchet onto the ground, then drew and dropped a long bladed knife. The other three Ratlings followed suit, with the one having to help the burned Ratling disarm.

  What?

  Viola asked out loud, “What?”

  The fourth Ratling shrugged. “Our Master Rill Torb was contracted to supply her younger brother with us four Elites to aid him. We are under orders not to fight to the death.” Holding his hands out to the side with his palm pointing toward Viola, the Ratling began to back up with the other three joining him until their backs began to hit the wall with the short door behind them.

  All four Ratling cross their arms in front of them, before repeating in chorus. “By the Code of the Enforcer, we abandon this Contract.”

  Their leader followed that up by explaining that, “We will stand here until this fight is over, then leave here, unarmed, for so long as no one attacks us.”

  I… I actually know this. It's a God thing. By calling on the Enforcer, if they break their word, the Enforcer will name them Vile. It might even affect their Master, Peel Tob, as well.

  Of course, they can justify getting around it with some sort of clever reasoning, so I’m not about to leave them unwatched. And I wasn’t going to only watch them with the Dire Roach from the shaft above, who had made its way down to the point it could see the four Ratlings, thought the thinning smoke.

  I wanted one of my Summons visibly keeping an eye on them so that the Ratling wouldn’t get tempted, one that I could spare from fighting to save myself.

  Oh, look who just became useful.

  “Air Fish.”

  Floating up from my Summoning circle in the floor of the outer hall, the ridiculous creature rose into the air and then bobbed gently up and down as it turned sideways to keep one of its large, rounded eyes aimed at the four Tamed Elites.

  Good, that's one thing done. Now I just had to deal with the second set of Lizards who had managed to race up the downward shaft from the drainage tunnel and into my outer hall while I was dealing with those four.