What Aldrich’s group saw was quite shocking. Danjela’s group was holding a defensive line against 5 giant rats, or rather Rider Rats to be specific, while some were dead and lying around. Danjela’s spear was lodged into one of them, but was now forced to combat with her short sword. Bearing large teeth and a slick body, Rider Rats are giant rats breed by vermin races to be mounts. Wild Rider Rats usually hunt in packs like wolves and are a threat to people if hungry. Danjela had been bitten in her arm and leg while several others around her were also injuried with similar bites. Thankfully their armor helped defend against most of damage. Peter charges down in to the rats while Aldrich declares his order,

“Follow Peter. We’ll route these rats from behind.”

Peter uses his body weight to shield bash into one of the rats while Aldrich commands his group,

“Anyone with ranged weapons use them and keep your distance. Melee fighters stick with Peter. We’ll engage them in groups. Healers get to Danjela’s group.”

Colliding with the rat sends it flying back and on its side as Peter gets up and smashes its head with his warhammer. Its skull could be heard as Peter’s warhammer caves its head in. He announces,

“ONE DOWN”

Following his lead and using their height advantage, the melee fighters proceed to crash into the Rider Rats. Another rat goes down by this but the others get away with injuries before being pelted with arrows and magic from both Danjela’s and Aldrich’s group. 3 rats left, Aldrich spots a larger one with a collar. Clearly a leader of sorts, Aldrich orders Peter,

“Peter get the big one’s attention. I’ll circle from behind to get it. The rest of the front, you hold off the other rats while ranged hit them from afar.”

Peter smacks his shield and yells,

“HEY YOU! FAT ONE I’M TALKING TO YOU! LOOK THIS WAY YOU OVERGROWN FLEABAG!”

The clanging and shouting takes the large rat’s attention and it pounces on Peter. Peter deflects the blow with his shield but is knocked backwards by the weight of the rat. Taking advantage of the knock back it rears up and charges at the knocked down Peter before being pulled back by its tail. Aldrich had grabbed ahold of its tail. Aldrich had planned to pounce on it when it stopped, but seeing Peter get knocked back changed his plans. Instead he went to grab it instead. With the tail in his claws, mightily swung the large to the side before being tackled by the other 2 rats. The other volunteers had stopped firing for fear of friendly fire and the melee fighters were trying to peel them off of Aldrich, but Aldrich felt nothing. He certainly felt the bites on his scales, but there was no pain or piercing of his scales. Shaking off the two rats, the volunteers managed to fatally wound one of the rats while the other ran away. The remaining large rat still remained on the floor but not for long as it got up only for Aldrich to charge a headbutt into it and knocking it back to the ground before locking his jaws around its neck and ripping it from its body. Blood splattered every as the body jerked in post death.

Just as they finished the fight, Hiram’s team appears.

“What the hell happened!?”

Danjela responses while being bandaged and having “purify disease” being casted on her,

“We were attacked by Rider Rats. Aldrich’s group fought them but one got away.”

“Shit, there shouldn’t be wild Rider Rats around here. Father cleared this area just today. They wouldn’t have let us through here if there were any!”

With all 18 members present, they treat their wounds and share information. Aldrich asked Shun,

“Did the town guard receive us?”

“Yes, they’re on their way here, but the closest guard party is quite the distance from us.”

“How long did they say it’ll take for them to get here?”

“They didn’t say when but they’re coming.”

Relaxing from their tense situation, the children let out signs of relief and tension. This causes some of them to throw up, especially those in Danjela’s squad. Surprisingly, Peter also throws up to the side. Aldrich walks up to Hiram

“Alright. Well now what should we do.”

“First wipe off your mouth. It’s full of blood.”

Leah conjures a ball of water to float nearby as Aldrich washes his faces in it. The ball, though clear, soaks in the blood and turns red before Leah throws it to the side.

“Alright, now what.”

The children not doing anything gather up around Hiram and Aldrich as they make their decision.

“Umm… we should wait here for the guards to arrive. Father said that if such a case like this happens, we should wait for the guards to find us rather than to leave.”

“But Hiram, we don’t know if there’s more. What if they come back?”

A few of the volunteers mention these comments before Hiram says,

“We’ll be fine here. We can set up a perimeter and just guard our location. As long as we’re together here, we’ll be safe.”

A few question this as they knew that Hiram had initially left his group. Perhaps this would had not happened the way it did if he didn’t take both Leah and Yumi, leaving Danjela’s group to be separated and without major fighting potential.

“Alright brother, hey everyone we should trust that the guards will be here soon.”

Aldrich, while accepting of Hiram’s decision, offers another plan.

“Or we could head back to the farm. The way back should be cleared out since we came from there and we can meet the guards faster that way.”

A majority of the children like this idea and Hiram, seeing the sensible idea, agrees,

“That sounds like a better idea. Let’s he-“

He is cut off from a loud screeching sound. Like a rat but much deeper and much much louder. It is then followed up by thousands of other similar screechings. After a little while it stops. Around him, Aldrich sees the children volunteers covering their ears and cowering before recovering. Aldrich asks Hiram,

“What the in the world was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Whatever it was, it’s not good.”

The children all gather around Hiram and Aldrich as they look for instructions and answers. They first look to Hiram as he is the defacto leader of the party, but Hiram didn’t know what to do. He was lost. Seeing the children look at him, he knew he need to say something, do something,

“Um… um… we um… “

Then he goes silent. He had never encountered this. He had spent some time with his father when he went on his expeditions and he knew what to do for some cases plus he was the lord’s son so he was the chosen leader because of this. But he didn’t know what to do now. A probable horde of very likely hostile creatures close by and all he had was a volunteer group made of his friends.

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“First we calm down.”

Danjela responds in the place of Hiram,

“And next we think about what we have and what to do from there.”

Hiram takes a breath but he still didn’t know what to do or say. Then he looks at the children, who look back at him. Fear had captured the heart of his party and even himself. He then turns to Aldrich. The dragon showed no fear however and as the children followed his gaze to Aldrich and Aldrich looked at them before looking at Hiram. Hiram looked at him for help, for guidance, for answers and so he responded,

“We take to the hill.”

Pointing up at the hill that he and his party were once on, he explains,

“Judging by the screeching, it’s probably Rider Rats and they’re going to come here. One of the rats got away and probably told them of what happened. We dig in at the top of hill and hold them there until the town guards come. We won’t be able to out run the rats and we can’t fight them all. Shun communicate our situation to the town guards and any dragons. With luck, they’ll come and save up. Hiram, take the faster ones up first and set up barricades and spikes. Kaori use illusion magic to draw their attention away from us. Leah and Yumi, take our ranged people and start firing at the ones on the sides when they come up the hill. We can’t afford to get surrounded. Take off your packs, bags, and armor, we’ll run faster that way. Take only weapons you can carry in your hands. Everyone go now!”

With that, the volunteers get moving with regained hope. Due to their friendships and fears, they had forgotten that one of the strongest beings in the world was with them.

As they head up, it is clear that some of the party were slower than the others. Peter and Danjela traveled slower than the others while Yumi and Leah were practically at the top already. Kaori was planting illusions up the path up while Hiram organized the party from the front. Looking downwards, Aldrich sees Rider Rats emerging from the forest. Realizing that the party wasn’t going to make it up the hill, he heads downwards past his friends. Screeching and chattering can be heard coming closer and closer as the rats close the distance until one of them jumps onto Peter, the last one at the back. Pinning him down, Peter screams as he is pulled downwards and turns to fight the rat only to see fire. Large and bright red flames scatter the rats before him. Being pulled up, Aldrich tells him,

“GO, HURRY”

“But-“

“NOW!”

Peter is pushed and stumbles into a run as he continues up the hill. Aldrich breaths more fire at the incoming rats and sends them reeling back only to see more and more appear. Like a great black and brown flood, the forest floor practically disappears underneath the bodies of rats that rush toward them. Looking up, Aldrich sees the back end of his party reaching the hilltop.

“Great”

He talks to himself before continuing upwards. Around him, Leah, Yumi, and the other volunteers fire magic and arrows at the rats before he is grabbed by the vanguard of rats. They grip onto his tail, legs, body, and neck and drag him down and ball over him like ants to a cookie. Hiram sees this and commands the volunteers to fire at the rats around Aldrich only to see the ball burst into flames. The rats scream all around Aldrich as he tears their burning bodies off of him. Pulling up on top of the mass of bodies, the stench of burning fur and flesh fills the air around him. Pushing pass the ball, he breaths fire onto the forest around him before continuing forward. Looking up, he can see the volunteers now firing fire arrows at the rats, igniting outbreaks of flames. Seeing the idea, Aldrich turns to breath more fire in a ring around the hilltop. With this, the rats hesitate to come in, seeing their comrades burn to death from the flames.

Reaching the hilltop and relative safety, Aldrich and the others calm down a little as they continue bombarding the rats.

“What now?”

Leah asks Aldrich this as he enters the fortifications. All around the hilltop are harden earth spikes positioned in all areas but one, the path that Aldrich took coming back.

“Now we survive, everyone listen up. First we need those fires to keep going. I’ll continue making more and covering places that burn out, but you all need to keep those fires going if I can’t get there in time. Next Shun, where are those guards?”

“Still not here they said, but they can hear the rats and see the flames.”

“Alright then we hold here. Everyone listen up again.”

While not everyone turns, it is quite obvious that they are listening.

“Believe in the guards, they will be here. Believe in the dragons, the guardians won’t let us die, and most importantly believe in yourself and each other. They will not get to us. None of us will die. We’ll make it back home and hear Noriko’s next story. Believe my friends!”

Hearing Aldrich say this gives them hope, desperate hope. All around them was a scene of hell. A forest of flames burning all around them with evil eyes that stare from beyond them. Still they did not break, not yet.

“This is not normal Rider Rat behavior.”

Hiram makes an obvious point.

“They wouldn’t attack in massive hordes like this.”

Danjela answers,

“Perhaps they’re being led.”

“Led?”

“Aldrich killed a large rat before you appeared cousin. It had a collar on it.”

Suddenly a loud crash can be heard. In one fell swoop, a side of the ring of fire was extinguished. A tree had fallen on top of it and the blast cleared the flames. Aldrich quickly engaged the rats coming in and blasted them back with flames. More crashes can be heard as the ring of fire, their biggest protection, completely rendered useless in a mere moment. The rats had gnawed down large trees next to the flames and let it fall onto the flames.

“What the hell!?”

Hiram exclaims before Aldrich yells,

“Everyone put more flames up. Melee fighters brace yourselves.”

Swarms of rats close in on all sides and collide into the initial spikes as smoke fill the air from Aldrich’s fires. Chaos ensures as a large black, collared rat appears. Towering above all others it looked as if it was commanding the other rats, no rather it was commanding the other rats. Aldrich retreats to the inner hill where everyone else is. Losing all hope, the volunteers begin cowering and crying. A few remain on their feet but the look on their faces are grim. The rats pour over their own bodies, using their allies’ dead bodies on the spikes as stepping stones. They close right on top of the children, face to face to the fighters until they are blown away.