Shaggy honestly expected to be killed under the pile of rats as his brain melted. But, to his surprise, he awoke a short time later with Dave’s helmeted face hovering over him. His body and mind worked to process what had happened as his friend gave a wild cheer and raised a fist.

“Whoooooo! Dude’s awake, Slink! He’s scratched all to hell, and he looks like he was hit with a truck. But he’s alive. You owe me three hundred credits!”

“I told you I wasn’t taking the bet, Dave! Now hurry and help me! This bastard is huge.”

Shaggy groaned as he sat up and checked himself over. His clothes had rips and tears all over them and his skin was clawed up. The gashes and nicks were healing, but Shaggy could already feel his stomach growling at him. He reached into his ripped pants pocket for food and found only crumbs. Growling, he carefully got to his feet as all around him were the corpses of dead rats. All the variants they had fought before were spread out around him, dead. Some had smoking holes in their bodies, while others looked like they’d been twisted and broken by Dave’s kicks.

Apparently, Slink and Dave had a mighty fight while he was submerged beneath the rat wave. Shaggy spit some fur and blood out of his mouth as he watched a happy trio of snakes slither by. Larry, Curly, and Moe were crawling through the battlefield, scenting the air with their tongues. Occasionally, one of the smaller ones would sniff and prod a body only for Moe to come check it himself. Once the large orange snake had inspected the rodent corpse, he would either hiss dangerously at it or give the two green smaller snakes a nod. Once they got the go ahead, Larry or Curly would fall upon the rat corpse. Swallowing it whole.

Shaggy watched the proceedings with a curious eye as he got to his feet. His body stung all over as he pulled himself up and he contemplated taking a bite out of one of the rats. But he quickly shunted that thought aside to the aggravation of his wolf. As he quieted his dark passenger, Shaggy followed Dave as the blue-armored mutant practically skipped over a small mound of dirt. Cresting the tiny hill, he spotted Slink, with his arms wrapped around Duke’s neck, trying to drag the dead man through the dirt. Duke’s body was still gray and lifeless as Slink’s antics barely moved the block of solid muscle that used to be a person. Shaggy snorted as he and Dave caught up to the younger man.

“Are you serious, Slink? How did you think this was going to work?”

The red-faced teen puffed up in annoyance before he waved at something behind him. Checking over the boy’s shoulder, Shaggy spotted a sled made of literal junk just beyond Duke’s body. He didn’t know where Slink and Dave had gotten the odd amalgamation of stuff that made up the makeshift stretcher. It was little more than a sheet of metal held between two flimsy-looking bits of aluminum. The flimsy bits of metal were lashed together with plastics bags. The whole thing looked like it would fall apart if you sneezed at it. But it also brought up another worrying question.

“How fucking long was I buried under the rat wave?”

Slink just shrugged as he took a break from trying to drag Duke’s body. Meanwhile, Dave dropped his armor and his eyes went glassy as he checked his menus. Once he came back, Dave grinned at Shaggy and held up three fingers.

“Thirty minutes, my dude. You yanked the Rat-dude’s arm off and then got buried. After that, I swooped in and started punching my way to you. Little Dude helped too, but it was a while before I got you out. Then when I did, you weren’t moving. I thought for sure you were cubed. But, nope. You just stayed there all quiet-like. It was weird.”

Shaggy blinked. “I yanked his arm off? So he’s dead, right? This, Rat-man?”

Slink blew a strand of hair out of his face and got to his feet. “Man-Rat.”

“Oh, come on! If he’s dead, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what he calls himself.”

“That’s what the System calls him, Shaggy.”

“What?! That’s a Named Mob?! What the hell?”

“Oh, it get’s better, dude! Check your windows.” Dave chuckled as he started for Duke’s body.

“What?” Shaggy asked, still hung up on Man-Rat being a Named NPC.

“Your Notifications, Shaggy.” Slink panted as he reached into his robe and pulled out a canteen. “Check them. You’re in for a surprise.”

Shaggy grimaced as he brought up his in-game menus and searched for the glowing notification button. It wasn’t hard to find as there was a bright red 50+ symbol right next to it. Shaggy rolled his eyes and looked up the last notification he got before he was buried.

Notification You have heavily injured a injured another Player's Nemesis. Only a Nemesis' designated Player can outright kill them. but for heavily wounding one, you may choose one of two options.

Option 1) Underground - The Nemesis will go to ground and hide. Licking their wound. The Player attached to the Nemesis will be given a reprieve from Man-Rat's attacks. But he shall return more powerful than before.

Option 2) Signal Flare - You can signal the Player assigned to Man-Rat and lead them right to their Nemesis. This will force an Encounter between the two to take place. After which, it is up to the Player to decide what happens to their Nemesis.

“Interesting.” Shaggy said, trying hard to scratch at his healing arms. “It’s got to be the Underground option, right? I mean, Signal Flare seems cool, but also a bit of a dick move. I mean, what if Man-Rat’s Player is in the middle of something?”

Slink’s eyes widen and he tore the canteen away from his lips to ask. “What?”

“The notification? It says I have to pick what happens to that giant rat bastard.”

“Whoa! That’s not what we were talking about. All I got was a notice saying we had been marked by another Player’s Nemesis.”

“Right,” Dave continued. “And the dude’s hordes/minions were going to be attacking us until… One in-game week is up.”

Shaggy brought up the next notification and nodded as it pretty much said the same thing. Apparently, Man-Rat had marked them for death by his legion of Rat guards. Shaggy was the priority target, but Dave and Slink got listed as well. Which meant all three of them would be getting randomly attacked by bipedal rats. Shaggy groaned as he reached up to choose Signal Flare, but Slink launched himself at Shaggy’s arm and hung on for dear life.

“What are you doing?!” Shaggy said in annoyance.

“No! What are you doing?!”

“I’m going to signal this rat-fuck’s Nemesis and have them kill each other. We don’t need random rat attacks at all hours of the day, do we?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Of course we do! Remember? The Legion’s troops need cannon-fodder to train on. What’s better than a week-long assault from a bunch of weak-ass rats with wooden spears?”

Shaggy thought it over as he shook Slink off his bare arm. The boy wasn’t wrong and if the rats got topside than his people could get some more training in as well. Fighting gangs was probably better, but the weak rats would be good for building morale and leveling up the weaker Lackeys. Shaggy checked his notification again as he waited for his input. He read through Underground again and posed a question to Slink.

“What if I choose Underground and it makes the rats evolve with their boss? It says here that the thing is going to show up later, tougher than before.”

“Again, how is that a problem?” Slink asked. “For one, these things could use an upgrade and the Lackeys need the training. Second, the damn thing just evolved! You saw its intelligence spike after ‘eating’ Duke, right? And finally, when the Man-Rat resurfaces, it’s not going to be our problem. I mean this thing already has a Nemesis. So he’ll just go back to hassling them.”

Dave grunted as he dragged Duke’s body through the dirt. Even for the mutant, it was a challenge. But the smile never left the laid-back man’s face.

“So, we get some mobs to train on and we don’t have to deal with the Uber-Rat again? That sounds like a win-win, dudes.”

“A little dick-ish though, isn’t it? I mean, we are making some other player’s life harder for our benefit. Shouldn’t we at least warn them?”

Slink shrugged. “Hey, Gamers like a challenge, right? I don’t think anyone is going to complain too much when their dedicated bad guy in-game gets an overhaul, right? But I’ll write up a warning and put it on the forum.”

“That’ll make people go nuts! Haha!” Dave cackled.

Shaggy moved to help Dave with Duke as he gave his friend a questioning look. Dave took one arm as Shaggy took the other and they dragged the giant toward Slink’s stretcher. Between breaths, Dave explained his pervious sentence.

“The forums are full of theories about Nemeses. A few people have claimed to activate the system, but the Devs are staying quiet about it. So it has this urban legend vibe in the community and no one is really taking it seriously. But if we post that we fought someone else’s Nemesis, then that’s going to kick things up real nice.”

“People haven’t been streaming Nemesis fights?” Shaggy asked as they finally got the big bastard on the gurney.

“Oh sure. I did too. But there are too many naysayers on the forums. It’s like they don’t want to believe that this Superhero game has such a thing.”

“I can see their arguments.” Slink said as he walked up next to them. Shaggy spotted the boys’ snakes entering his robes. “I mean, if Nemeses were a thing, why don’t we see more of them? Can Villain Players mark Heroes as their Nemesis? Why hasn’t anyone done it yet?”

Shaggy sighed as he flung Duke’s massive arm over his body. “I don’t know about other Villains, Slink. But we don’t tend to leave anyone alive afterward to be a Nemesis.”

“Maybe, like, the conditions are super hard to get right. Like, the planets have to align just right and you have to be battling that special someone. And only then can you make someone a Nemesis.”

Both Shaggy and Slink shared a shrug as they finally got as much of Duke’s bulk onto the stretcher as they were going to. Praying that the flimsy-looking thing held, Shaggy and Dave moved to either side and got ready to lift. But Slink raised a hand first.

“Shaggy, send Man-Rat underground. I just posted the message to the forums. So whoever is Man-Rat’s Nemesis will see it… That is, if they check the forums regularly.”

“Who doesn’t?” Dave asked casually as he and Shaggy lifted Duke’s body.

The gurney creaked ominously but held as Shaggy tried to match Dave’s arm height. Duke’s body was slightly canted from the height difference, but some quick adjustments fixed that. Once they everything felt good, the three of them hurried out of the exit they had come through. Slink in the front, then Dave holding the front of the gurney, and then Shaggy bringing up the rear. He could still hear the two talking as Shaggy’s view was obstructed by Duke’s legs.

“Probably the same jackass that sets all his notifications to silent.” Slink said loudly in Shaggy direction.

“Hey! I log-in to game, not read. If it’s anything important, I’ll figure it out.”

“Uh-huh and how long would that Nemesis notification have gone unnoticed before you found it?”

Shaggy didn’t have a suitable answer to that, so he merely grunted and adjusted his grip on the stretcher. He heard Dave and Slink chuckling at his non-answer as they continued through the dark tunnels. The scent of blood was still everywhere, but Shaggy was fairly confident that they wouldn’t be attacked just yet. The game wasn’t that cruel. They’d just finished a dungeon essentially, so what kind of evil System would put enemies in their way now. Of course, Shaggy kept such thoughts quiet, just in case. But he was fairly certain they were scot-free. Now all they needed to do was march the corpse back across the Brute’s Territory and then back to The Pit.

“Hey, Shags, why don’t you just wolf-out and carry this big bastard the rest of the way?” Dave asked after trudging uphill for a few minutes.

Shaggy snorted as he grit his teeth and pushed. “Because, Dave, your head is already hitting the ceiling and this fuck’s shoulders are scraping the sides. What do you think will happen if we add a massive werewolf to the mix?”

“What about that middle form? The beast-man thing? You can still do that, right?”

“Probably. My energy reserves are low after being buried beneath a bunch of rats. But it won’t be a long shift and, again, there’s the size issue, Dave. Why don’t you switch off with the boy-wonder up there?”

“Screw you, Shaggy. I’m already pulling!”

“Are you?! Shit, Dave, we got to get the kid some training.”

“The little dudes been showing up to morning workouts, Shag. Been doing pretty good, too. It’s just this fucker is heavy as hell.”

“Hey, Shaggy!” Slink called as they continued to struggle. “How are you going to signal to Obadiah that we have this bastard?”

Shaggy shrugged and shoved his end of the stretcher forward. “I don’t know. I just figured if we got him to The Pit, the old man would find out. He’s a spy after all, and he’s found me a few times now. If it becomes an issue, I’ll track him down. I know one of his old haunts.”

“So what? The Legion is just going to have a corpse lying around?” Dave asked.

“Give’em to those new doctors we hired. Obadiah wants the body for research, anyway. Who’s to say we can’t get some of our own in too?”

“Lia and Cula will love that. The two of them spend more time dissecting their ‘volunteers’ than they do healing people.” Slink grunted.

“Hey, I thought they were volunteers.” Dave said. “We’re not passing civilians off to the blood twins, are we?”

Shaggy could almost hear Slink’s eye roll. “No, Dave. We aren’t passing people under our protection to Dr. Tyhmes and Nurse Cula. But have you ever wondered what happens to the gang members that get caught on our turf?”

“Blood Twins?”

“Yes, Dave. The Blood Twins. Although, as I have said before, they aren’t related and only Nurse Cula is a hemomancer.”

“They are both creepy, though.” Dave mumbled.

Slink didn’t disagree and the three of them fell into silence as a light shone from up ahead. Shaggy gave a sigh of relief and reaffirmed his grip. Just a few steps more and they were out onto the Under-Town streets. They’d probably draw some looks carrying a body around, but it wasn’t the weirdest thing going on in the underground city. In their excitement, the three of them sped up to a light jog. Duke’s weighty body seemingly growing lighter at the sight of their goal. Which is why Shaggy dropped his end when Dave and Slink came to an abrupt halt just inside the post office. The suddenness of it made him crash his hip into the metal gurney, crumpling a bit of it.

“What the hell!?” Shaggy grumbled as he looked over Duke’s prone body.

Slink and Dave were facing away from him, into the post office. The lights were just a little too bright for him to see into the building, which confused him a bit. The light hadn’t been on when they followed Duke down into the Rat Lair. A deep voice rumbled in their direction as Shaggy saw Dave and Slink get into fighting positions.

“I see we’ve got some Legion scum on our turf, after all. I owe the UGB some credits for this one.”

The voice was smooth and authoritative. Shaggy even thought he could hear a growl at the end of the man’s words. Abandoning Duke’s body, Shaggy squeezed his way up next to Dave and Slink and looked around. About thirty Phreak gang members were arranged in front of them. They’d plugged in several large flood lights and pointed them at the tunnel entrance, nearly blinding Shaggy and the others.

“Oh look, there’s more of them! How fortuitous. Now my boys can have another playmate.”

Shaggy spotted the speaker standing behind a few of his thugs. It was a panther-headed Phreak with the arms of a Perinadon. His body was human, making the scene that much more weird. Shaggy shifted his hands into claws and growled.

“Y’all are going to want to rethink this.”

The panther-headed leader chuckled. A low, almost purring sound escaping his throat. “No. I think you Legion shits are going to have to rethink stepping onto Phreak turf.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes and prepared himself. His healing was down to the dregs, and his wolf was probably not going to come out and play for long. Beside him, Slink drew his pistol and Dave nearly vibrated out of his skin.

“Dudes! This is so great!” Dave chuckled. “I thought this dungeon was a little too easy!”