The sounds of battle echoed through the underground subway station. Above ground, the city had begun to be reclaimed by nature with shoots of grass and tree roots breaking through the concrete and pavement.

  But down here, the air was cooler and with the exception of the debris everywhere, it almost looked like the station was still in use. It was deceptively peaceful and if not for the current state of things, the station would’ve served as a nice respite from the dangers of the world.

  Grim pumped his feet and leapt over the turnstile. His knees and their thousands of tiny injuries screamed in pain, but he’d have to push past it. Behind him, he could hear Halmae do the same as they followed the sounds of battle. The main subway platform was just one level down, but the echoes rang in from elsewhere.

  Grim spoke his thoughts aloud.

  “They must be over by the express platform.”

  “Goddamn young idiots, we told them to wait behind,” Halmae shouted between breaths. Worry creased her brows as her wizened hair whipped back behind her. Normally, they’d both be wearing heavy plate or scale armor, but they’d decided on lighter fare for this job.

  Neither said it, but they were both worried. The city was dangerous enough at the edges, but they were miles in and underground no less. Things lived and died in these tunnels that had never seen a human before. Dangerous things.

  “They’re just up ahead,” he hissed.

  The upper levels of the station were built into an “L” shape. As the pair approached the bend, they leapt down stairs and swept past an errant pile of refuse.

  Another level down, Grim thought. Basement level two.

  The echoes continued and now they were close enough to hear it. A familiar scraping of metal against concrete and the low pitch of growls.

  Before Grim had a chance to guess, they moved past a pylon and saw the two players barely holding their own against two full-sized lycans.

  Halmae’s eyes widened as she immediately took stock of the scene before barking off orders.

  “I’ll defend these two! You go for the axe!”

  Instinctively, Grim nodded and picked up speed while Halmae broke off to deal with her chosen opponent.

  One lycan was attacking a rogue and a hunter who were putting up a pitiful defense against the comparatively massive monster. Until she’d pointed him out, Grim hadn’t seen the barbarian but he could see the monster circling something collapsed on the floor.

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  When he was in range, Grim drew one of his hand axes and threw it with all his might. The axe was still spinning through the air as he reached down to pick up the fallen fighter’s axe without missing a step.

  The lycan didn’t know what hit it as the axe crashed into its shoulder sending it stumbling backwards. Before it had time to draw a breath, Grim was on it spinning around with a back-swing that would’ve split a car in half much less this monster of flesh and bone.

  Whether by luck or skill, the monster stumbled backwards just out of range of the attack. By the time Grim had steadied himself, the lycan had pulled the axe out of its shoulder and let out a ferocious roar.

  The action made Grim smirk. Shows of force were always a good opportunity to take stock of one’s surroundings. His partner was pushing her opponent back while the two players she was defending were getting back to their feet. It looked like they’d made it just in time for those two. The barbarian, however, had lost a lot of blood. More than enough to be lethal, but barbies were a stubborn lot. If they were going to save him, he’d have to end this fight quickly.

  The glint of light on metal caught his eye.

  “Steel-claws,” he mumbled.

  Lycans were uncommon and dangerous enough, but in all his years as a player, Grim had never encountered one of their variants. Suddenly, the barbarian’s injuries made perfect sense.

  The monster leapt at him, claws outstretched but Grim was already moving backwards and bringing the huge double-headed axe around to counter attack.

  The lycan didn’t know what hit it until it pulled back a bloody nub. It howled in pain and even with the stench of blood in the air, Grim could smell the rotten flesh on its breath. The thing hadn’t eaten recently, but whatever it was had hunted regularly.

  Grim swung the axe around again, letting his momentum do the heavy lifting until the axe met the monster’s flesh and bone before cleaving straight through it all like butter.

  Across from him, he could see Halmae deal an equally deadly blow with her two-handed sword and send the head of the lycan flying.

  “That was quick,” Halmae quipped. Her armor was bloodied, but she looked otherwise unharmed.

  The rogue shook his head, “No, it wasn’t. And thank you, ma’am.”

  The axe felt heavy in his hands, so Grim dropped it to the floor letting the blade bury itself into the tiles. It made a loud Chunk that made the other two players flinch.

  “We told you to stay on basement level one,” he growled, the aggression easily evident in his voice. “So why the hell are the three of you here?”

  The hunter cleared her throat and did her best to straighten her back. “We decided to come down and see if this level was clear. We were going to head back up once we-”

  Before she could finish, Halmae was scolding her with the tone of a grandmother whose annoyance was more than evident.

  “You realize these two are beyond anything the three of you are capable of taking on, don’t you?”

  The hunter shrank under the combined weight of Grim and Halmae’s gazes.

  She pointed at the barbarian lying still in a puddle of his own blood. “He engaged them as soon as we saw them and we thought we could back him up, but…”

  Halmae nodded with a sense of self-satisfaction while Grim would’ve rather dealt the foolhardy player a swift kick.

  The barbarian was still, but Grim could still make out ripples around his mouth in the puddle of blood he had fallen into.

  “This one’s still breathing,” he called out.