A Werewolf In Under-Town

Alien Blood Absorbed: You have been showered in the blood of a Ignianite. Xang is pleased. Small amount of experience has been given to the Thick Skin mutation.

Alien Blood Absorbed: You have been showered in the blood of a Seigalian. Xang is pleased. However, you have failed to learn an Enemy skill at this time.

Alien Blood Absorbed…

Shaggy trudged through the sewer water as he flicked each system message away. Technically, he wouldn't have called getting his claws wet with blood being 'showered.' But he would not complain about getting experience. It seemed that only a few enemies granted the boost, too. It was a welcome surprise, but not something he was going to write home about.

Shaggy's attention was grabbed when his senses picked up on noises ahead of them. Levy went stock still and Shaggy grew out his claws. A small rat scurried away from them. Overturning some trash as it ran along the sewer walkway. They'd been down here for almost twenty minutes with no sign of drones or supers. Shaggy was getting paranoid.

"Do you think we can go up yet?" He asked as Levy started moving again.

"Let's do one more circle round and then pop up."

Shaggy groaned as he rubbed his nose. The sewers weren't absolutely rank around here, but his heightened senses did not make things easy. Levy chuckled and rubbed his shoulders as they walked. Keeping his claws out, Shaggy turned a corner and asked.

"Have you gotten the 'Showered in Blood' notification yet?"

"Excuse me?"

Shaggy brought the notification back up and sent it over to Levy, who stopped walking.

"Honey. This is huge! You can level up your mutations by fighting other people."

Shaggy shook his head as he sent the over the dozen or so similar messages. Levy's eyes scanned each one. Her face falling as she realized it worked sparingly.

Levy nodded at the information, closing the windows and walking beside him. "Not as good as I thought. Even so, it's a hell of a boost, right?"

Shaggy nodded. "Its not bad. I just wished it worked more consistently."

"Maybe it will if we upgrade Xang's Artifact?"

"Doesn't that require 'the blood of the powerful' or something?"

"Yep. We just need to test a few sources until we figure out what the Lamp considers powerful."

Shaggy spared a glance down at his sharp claws and human arms. "Why didn't we try my blood? Hell, why didn't we try the blood of all the Legion founders?"

Levy stopped walking and stared at him for a good ten seconds before she slapped her forehead. "Damn it! Why didn't we think of that!?"

Shaggy grabbed his wife's arm and pulled her to his side. Given her a side hug, Shaggy thought of a few excuses to placate her. "Love, we were kind of busy at the time. You'd just become head priestess. We'd gotten an enormous boon for the cave, and there was a flood of information coming in. It makes sense that we didn't think of everything."

"Still, draining your blood should've been my first thought! I'm slipping."

"That is a concerning statement that we are going to circle back to. But for now, let's focus on getting home safely and then trying it. If it doesn't work, that means we're going to have to start abducting bosses."

"That's going to be a pain in the ass."

"We'll make it work. Besides, I reckon the HLO will send us a fleet of do-gooders to try it on eventually."

"True. But we'll have to get those damn communicators off them. Not to mention any other tracking devices they might have. We don't want to lead people to the cave."

"Meh. That's not a huge issue. We'll manage. How did that fight go, anyway?"

"I bit his ass, and he ducked out. His handler or partner warned him off after a few exchanges. He was just lucky he could fly, otherwise I'd have trounced him."

"Do you think you'd sprout wings if you bathed in the blood of a winged alien?"

"The chances are slim."

Levy cast a glance at him from the side of her eye. "You just don't want to bathe in blood, do you?"

"It is really sticky, Levy. Also, I can smell it for days."

His wife chuckled at him as they made their way around the various tunnels under the city. Nothing was marked, but Shaggy and Levy guessed they were somewhere near their territory. They made another large circle through the tunnels before Shaggy started looking for a ladder to the surface.

"There's one ahead, dear. I'm sure of it."

"Levy, you said that five minutes ago. Let's just turn around and go up that last one."

"You know, as soon as we turn around, the ladder will appear just out of sight ahead of us, right?"

"Dear, I don't think the game works like that. Besides, we both have pretty good dark vision. We can both see that there's nothing up ahead. Let's just…"

Splash

Shaggy froze, and Levy summoned her staff again. They went back-to-back on the narrow cement walkway that bracketed the flowing sewage water. Trying to find the source of the loud noise. The rats and various tiny creatures down here were too small to make such a big noise. Shaggy did his best to ignore the smell of sewage water and tried to find the culprit. But all he could smell was the sewer.

"Anything?" Levy asked.

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"Nothing. The stench down here is too strong. Spells?"

"One second."

Levy started muttering something under her breath as the light from her staff lit up the surrounding tunnel. Shaggy thought he saw the water near their feet move and readied his claws. But nothing happened for several seconds. Until Levy finally got her spell cast, then all hell broke loose.

A purple orb shot out of Levy's staff and into the ceiling, sending purple sparkles in all directions of the tunnel. As they fell into the sewage water, several humanoid forms leapt out of the water as if electrocuted. Shaggy barely had enough time to get his claws up before he was attacked by three of them. He saw Levy's staff go off as she was also attacked, but had to focus as the water humanoids punched at him.

Shaggy raised his claws and slashed into the weirdly solid fist that came his way. There was a brief moment of resistance until the creature's watery fist splashed over Shaggy's clawed hands. He kicked out as he used his other hand to bat another of the creatures aside. But their watery nature made them malleable to everything he tried. He'd claw at them and they'd simply flow around the attack, he'd kick them and his foot would sink into their bodies. Fortunately, that also made them surprisingly weak.

Their fist splashed against his natural armor like waves breaking against a concrete barrier. Their slippery fingers slid off him like slimy tendrils. The only downside was the smell. It was pervasive and crawled up Shaggy's nose like a physical attack. The stench of sewage filled the tunnel and Shaggy was getting light-headed.

Levy must have been having the same, probably because a sudden concussive blast shook the tunnel. All the watery humanoids were blasted apart, and Shaggy felt his eardrums burst and then heal themselves again. Once the creatures were gone, the smell dissipated slightly. He ran over to Levy and checked her over. But his wife seemed fine. She was behind a slim purple shield and grasping her staff with one hand. Her other was covering her nose and mouth as her eyes scanned the surroundings.

"I think you got them, love." Shaggy said.

But Levy shook her head, taking her hand away from her mouth. "Those were magical constructs! There's a mage down here with us."

The sounds of more splashing came from the tunnel ahead of them and Shaggy grimaced. Levy grabbed his forearm and started pulling them back the way they came. He followed as he did his best to keep an eye out for more constructs. He was woefully unequipped to deal with them, so they needed to get out fast. Either that or find the bastard.

They had run a short distance before Shaggy realized Levy was whispering another spell as they ran. The crystal at the top of her staff lit up and a purple ray of light shot forth into the tunnel. After traveling a short distance into the tunnel, the purple ray turned around and pointed back the way they came.

"Damn it! I figured that, you stupid spell. What about the long way?" Levy grumbled, wagging her staff around harshly.

The purple ray changed directions again and pointed ahead of them a short way before dipping around a nearby corner.

"A way out?" Shaggy asked.

"Nope." Levy grinned, putting on more speed.

Shaggy groaned as he realized his wife was looking for the mage in the sewer. "Love, I'm useless against these things. If they flood us, we're both screwed. We need to get out."

"Fuck that. This fucker waited till the last minute, then hit us with sewer water. I'll handle the constructs. You hit the damn mage. Hard!"

Shaggy rolled his eyes but dutifully followed along as they ran after the purple shaft of light. Behind and slightly ahead of them, more splashes could be heard. More of the humanoid sewage constructs popped into existence along their path and Shaggy wondered how powerful of a mage they were dealing with.

It turned out he didn't need to wonder long. After the purple shaft led them back around the way they came, they found a small alcove leading off from the main tunnel. The purple beam curved inside and Levy was the first one in, even as Shaggy shouted for her to be careful. He could hear the sounds of the constructs running through the sewer toward them.

Inside the alcove was a small, raised cement landing leading to a ladder going up. The sewer cover above the ladder was off and a ray of light was shining down into the sewer. It cast its glow down upon a short man in a robe, hunched over and concentrating. The mage was surrounded by drones as they hovered around the entrance of the sewer, not making a sound. More constructs popped up out of the water in front of the landing.

Levy turned her purple eyes back to Shaggy and grinned madly. "Go!"

Shaggy shook his head at his bloodlust-fueled wife and activated his Pounce ability. Putting as much strength into his legs as he could, Shaggy sailed over the heads of the constructs and charged their master. Several drones buzzed and beeped warnings and the mage seemed to come to himself just before Shaggy reached him. A red shield of magic sprung to life and Shaggy's claws bounced off at an odd angle.

Yellowish-brown sparks flew in all directions from the blow, but Shaggy quickly recovered and attacked again. His claws scraped the outside of the mage's shield as the Mage dug into his pockets for something. The mage finally pulled a wand from his pocket and aimed it at Shaggy through the shield. A gout of fire blew out of the end of the wand and Shaggy hissed as his body was engulfed in flames.

Shaggy let his healing go to work as he continued slashing at the mage's shield. The small bubble was already flickering, and the mage looked increasingly worried. Sweat spilled from his brow and he stank of fear. The stench made Shaggy's wolf push even harder, which seemed to make Shaggy even stronger.

Behind him, Shaggy could hear the sounds of Levy's spells going off over and over. His wife, his mate, was fighting for her life behind them. They needed to get the scrawny wizard quickly before she was overrun. That thought fueled Shaggy's next strike that cut through the mage's red shield like paper and shattered the spell entirely.

"Wai-ARGH!"

The mage tried to say something before Shaggy's claws slammed into the top of his head. He kicked the dead man off his fingers and turned to the buzzing, beeping drones above that were watching everything. The sewer hatch above was still open, and Shaggy could hear a flurry of motion going on above them. He flicked off the drones again as Levy gave a shout behind him.

"HE-AH!"

Shaggy was halfway turned around when a wave of force slammed him into the ladder in front of him. Above him, he heard the sounds of shattering metal and glass. The small alcove was filled with the sounds of explosions as all the drones were slammed into the back wall, along with Shaggy. Most were broken on impact, but Levy's follow-up spells finished the rest as Shaggy shook the impact from his head.

"What the hell, Levy?!" Shaggy shouted as he finally turned around.

His wife shrugged. "What? It was just a little push. I knew you'd survive."

Shaggy waved a hand at the broken drones surrounding the platform he was on. "A little push?"

"Bah! You're fine and, look, we have an exit now." Levy said, pointing at the sewer hatch.

Shaggy shook his head. "Nope. Cops are up there calling in reinforcements. We need to go."

Levy sighed dramatically. "Great. More fucking pooh-gas."

Shaggy leapt from the small landing and landed in sewage water. Grimacing, he waved his wife toward the exit. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go!"

"The fantastic life of a villain, huh?"

"It can't all be glamour and paperwork. Besides, you wanted an exciting morning."

"As always, you've over-delivered, love."

The two bantered back and forth as the sounds of cops descending into the sewers grew behind them. Shaggy could smell them now, over the standard scent of the sewers. They were in for a few more hours of evading the police.