After I finished my story, we chatted for a while. Big Mike and Consuelo gathered up their loot. It was about 11 o’clock. I was still shaking a little bit, but we’d made plans to go into Maxes. I asked if we were still up for it and while nobody, except maybe Baila, looked particularly enthusiastic about it, they all said yes. So we got ready to head in.

I cast light four times and shield once and maxed it out. Everybody except the little ones cast shield as well also maxing it out. Then we stepped inside.

The inside of Maxes hadn’t changed at all, still reeking of rat piss and darker and more shadowed than it should be. I’d tried an experiment when I cast the first Light spell and it worked. Instead of casting it on something, I made a circular gesture when I cast it and the little ball of lights started orbiting me right about 3 meters out. Each spell wasn’t bright, about as bright as a 40-watt bulb, but still, with four of them, it did an OK job of lighting our area. I passed on the results and saw everybody taking mental notes.

This time we were here to kill some rats, so we didn’t really want to go exploring. Janet called T-Up and we put the little girls in the center with their mom, the two big girls on the outside and Big Mike and me on the front line. I looked and everyone had their weapons out. I had my machete, the older girls had theirs out as well. Big Mike had his shield and sword and Consuelo had one of my homemade polearms and the little girls, well, they didn’t have a blade, but Big Mike had taken the hickory pole that I’d used to create my other polearm and carved it down into batons that they could use. Their mom didn’t want them to carry either one of the combat knives or my Bowie.

I also had the Bowie, Big Mike had the other 14” knife from the polearm that he’d cut down for the little girls. Janet and Tanya both had their combat knives. We were as ready as we could be. We repeated the journey that we’d made last time, Tanya avoiding the God Box area which was still sitting there in the big room, light glowing.

Consuelo asked, “What’s that? A key maker?” A logical guess due to the picture of a key on it. Tanya said, “No, it’s called the God Box. It’s a little bit dangerous, so we’re staying away from it. After we tell you about it, you can make your own decisions, but right now, we’re just staying away from it. We’re here for rats. We tell you later, OK?” and then she glanced at the kids and back to let Consuelo know it’s an adult conversation we needed to have. Consuelo nodded.

We’d heard the sounds of movement from the nest so we knew there were still rats or something living inside. We came up to the God Box just before where the instance started and then Tanya called “Drift Left Slow.”

We did and the sound of something moving grew in intensity. She called “Stop” and we stood there about 5 meters out and faced the nest. We waited and the noise grew and sounded closer. A kind of scratching sound. Finally, a rat’s head appeared at one of the higher holes. It squeaked, but with the curious base-quality to it, like a bullfrog, but a squeak. It sounded odd like someone was mimicking a rat but two octaves lower. It was echoed several times and then the rats appeared. Just like last time, they seemed to pour out of the dark holes and slap, belly down onto the floor. Their coats looked filthy and matted. Their claws covered in what looked like clay.

This time there were seven of them. None of them seemed to be females or at least nursing. As soon as they hit the ground, Tanya said, “Drift Left Quick. Tank Left.”

Big Mike was at the far right of the pack. I was on his right side so I was still out further. Tanya wanted him in the middle of the rat pack.

He slapped his sword against the shield to focus the rat's attention on him and we hustled to the left, everyone staying in formation. As we neared the center of the pack, Tanya called, “Force Bolts.” We’d decided outside to skip the crossbows and open with our spells.

We got them off before the rats decided to rush us.

Of course, when we decided to come back inside Maxes, we knew that the little girls would be paired up with an adult. Big Mike was tank so he couldn’t do it, I was off tank so that left me out, Janet was healz so was also not able to, so that left Baila with her mom and Amada with Tanya. Both little girls were as protected as we could get them, tucked inside our formation on either side of their mother. The little girls were told to hit the same target that their ‘battle buddy’ hit.

Janet’s Light bolt hit first, like always. She hit the second rat from the left, the one that was going to be probably targeted by Consuelo and Amada. She did 11 points of damage to the rat. It let out a hissing noise. Big Mike let loose on the rat just in front of him. It badge showed Giant Rat, Level 8, Hits Points 82. His spell hit doing 14 points of damage. The rat paused and hissed at him, its mouth opened wide. I cast my Force Bolt spell at the rat on the end. I didn’t want to hit the same rat that Big Mike had targeted. The bolts hit like an act of god. It was the first time I’d got to use the spell since I’d leveled it up. Each bolt would strike and send the rat farther back from the line they’d been forming. Finally, the rat was knocked off its feet and hurled back into the wall of the nest. It didn’t rise again. Its badge had briefly shown Giant Rat, Level 8, 66 HP before it faded and disappeared with the monster’s death. Even the bonus damage that I was now capable of doing did enough damage to kill these monsters.

I heard Tanya’s spell fire off and saw another rat, the one on the end fly out of line and slap against the wall of the nest. Baila’s bolts hit it as well and the monster shook its head and slowly rose to its feet. It was out of the fight for at least this round. It was seeing stars. Consuelo and Amada hit the next rat in the line and did their damage. Consuelo did 16 points of damage and Amada did 5. It squealed but kept charging for us.

The rightmost two decided that I was the most dangerous one of the party, so they attacked me. Big Mike started pounding on his shield with his sword and it must have worked because all three of the remaining un-stunned rats decided to go for him. Two went low, one leaped for his face. I didn’t have a shield to mess with anymore, so I tried to treat my rats as humans and just parry and dodge their attacks. Hopefully, my martial arts skills would help some. I also hoped that what I couldn’t dodge or parry, the Shield spell would take care of for me.

The first rat, the one closest to Big Mike seemed weak. I didn’t even really worry about it. For some reason, I knew that it wasn’t my match and, sure enough, its three attacks didn’t even come close to connecting. The second rat, I knew was a far more dangerous opponent. It came in hot and tried to eat my face, opting to go high. I put the machete in its face and steered its left paw outside and away from me, but that left the other paw which hit my spell shield. The damage was absorbed by the shield, leaving me untouched.

Big Mike had problems though. He was lower level, didn’t have any armor except the shield and his stats weren’t as high as mine, his agility, in particular, was lower. So they swarmed him. The first rat attacked him and hit him with his left paw, it missed with its bite (blocked by the shield) and its paw. Fortunately, his shield spell blocked it but it absorbed the 6 points of damage. The second rat missed his leg with its bite but hit with both of its claws doing 17 points of damage to his shield. The spell was looking a little ragged at this point. It was capable of defending against 43 points of damage, so it was about half spent. The final rat was weaker and just couldn’t get it done. It tried, but all three of its attacks missed.

Janet’s second light bolt came screaming in then and dealt the same rat she’d attacked before another nine points of damage.

Both sides hunkered back a little before starting at it again. We’d actually drawn more blood, but monsters generally don’t retreat. The monsters came out of it sooner and attacked. Before they could attack, Janet’s first Light Bolt struck the same rat again, doing seven points of damage. Not enough to kill it, but it was definitely feeling the pain according to it’s badge. Giant Rat, Level 8, 22 HP.

The far left rat no longer stunned attacked Big Mike and hit with all three attacks, doing 15 points of damage to Big Mike with its bite and six and five with each of its paws, its claws digging into him pretty good. Big Mike’s shield spell vanished in an explosion of blue dots and, for the first time, he felt the pain. He took six points of damage. The rat was attacking from the side and Big Mike must not have been prepared for it. The second rat from the left decided to go for Big Mike again. Despite being mostly dead, it also hit and hit hard, all three of its attacks came in on target. It latched onto his left arm doing 11 points of damage which dragged his shield out of position allowing it paws to hit his T-Shirt covered stomach for 19 points of damage. Big Mike felt that and roared out, “God Damn It!” The blood of the wounds turned his t-shirt red.

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The third rat decided to get sneaky and dodged past Big Mike and went for Tanya, I guess thinking she was an easier target. It turned out to be wrong. Tanya dodged its bite and its left paw attack, but the rat’s right paw hit her shield, doing nine points of damage to it.

The next two rats both attacked me. I was able to dodge the first one’s bite and its right paw slash, but the paw on the left hit my shield. It cut my face, just below my eye, somehow penetrating through the shield to do it. I wasn’t sure if it just got lucky or if it had some special ability. I think it just got lucky. I didn’t see it coming. And, of course, it kept bleeding. I don’t know if the world just doesn’t like my face or what? The second rat came over the back of the first one at me. It got tangled up with its packmate and lost the opportunity to bite me; however, one of its claws hit my shield, but the damage was absorbed. Both rats wound up doing 19 points of damage to my shield. I’m really starting to like this spell, not to mention, I can cast without worrying about spell blowback.

The last rat snuck past me and jumped on Janet. I’m not sure why, but somehow it must have been attracted to her. Maybe monsters can sense spells and since Janet didn’t have a shield spell, maybe the rat thought she’d be an easier target. It leaped on her and bit and clawed her good, doing nineteen points of damage. She is a tough cookie, the rats had basically no chance of killing her, but pain hurts. I could see from her face how much that hurt. I turned a little and cast my spell on it. Six bolts descended like a giant hammer and smashed the rat into the ground. It didn’t, couldn’t get up. It was one of the stronger looking rats, I was thinking about targeting it anyway. I wondered about whether or not I should have attacked it. I should have been attacking the left side of the melee, but I think I need to take care of the back line first? Don’t I?

Big Mike had lost his spell shield so he opted to use his sword. ‘A wise choice’, I thought, ‘blowback or spell burn is no fun. We may need to work on our shields tonight,’ I thought in that crazy way your mind throws things out when you’re trying to survive. He backed up a step and a half and slashed down on the neck of the rat that was attacking Tanya. It was watching him and when he swung, it let go of Tanya and ducked behind her leg where he couldn’t hit it without risking hitting her. Tanya was still in the game though, her shield had not been burned through yet, so she dropped her Force Bolt spell on the rat that she’d struck the first time. It wasn’t healthy anyway, so the damage was enough to easily kill it.

Baila, in a great move, didn’t go for the same rat that Tanya had just killed, instead opting for the one that had been targeted by her mom and Amada. She hit it doing six points of damage, her mom hit it doing 19 points of damage and her sister followed up doing another six points of damage. I’m not sure which one of them killed it, but it collapsed and didn’t move anymore.

We were down to three rats, two of them on me, the other on Tanya. One of my rats dropped off and went for Big Mike. It saw that he was distracted with the rat on Tanya and charged in toward his side. The other stayed low this time now that it had a clear line of attack and came in hard. I tried to dodge, but it came in like a linebacker nailing the quarterback, no give, no dodging, just teeth and claws. It stank, lord how it stank, and then it hit, all three times, 16 points on the bite, six on the left claw, nine on the right. My shield shattered into sparks and disappeared. I thought about casting again, about the position I was in last time with the lizard, down stunned, bleeding, and then compared it quickly to what I was experiencing this time. Only sixteen points of damage, one minor bleed. I decided that I’d go for it. If I was shocked out this time there were more people to help kill the rats. I cast my spell and it went off perfectly, nailing the rat to the floor. It didn’t get up again.

Janet went for the rat on Mike. She hit both times, doing 21 points of damage to it. The rat was literally glowing, one of the aftereffects of the spell. The rat on Big Mike took its shot and hit, but Big Mike was evidently watching for it. He punched it in the head with the pommel of his sword, swinging its body out of position, but its left paw snaked in and got him on the forearm, doing 10 points of damage. While he was there he stabbed at it but missed.

Baila, Amada and Consuelo were ready to go, but I heard some scuffling instead of seeing a couple of spells going off. Well, one spell went off, Amada hit the rat on her dad for seven points. Consuelo and Baila were not prepared for this round. Something happened there. I heard some raised voices.

Tanya and the rat were faced off, but then the rat came in low. It started toward her, but Tanya’s spell hit it just then. The blue force bolts swept out and struck it in its head causing the rat to be forced back onto its haunches. The blood from the blow sprayed out in a fan-shaped pattern behind it. She did 57 points of damage to it, great, but not quite enough to kill it.

The rats were nervous, but not backing down. Short of a baby giant squirrel trying to flee, I had yet to see a monster leave a fight. Well, the vulture, but I don’t even think it was really fighting us, I think it just stopped in for some take out.

While they were getting set, we were ready. I cast my Force Bolt spell on Big Mike’s rat and it was dead. It was already hurting, I just finished putting it down. 115 points of overkill. Tanya did the same to the rat facing her. Her 46 points of damage knocked it rolling across the floor. Janet’s second spell hit and so did Consuelo’s but by the time they had cast, the rats were already gone.

Immediately after the fight ended, Consuelo said, “Mike, talk to your daughter.”

I recognized that voice, mom voice.

“Amada,” he began.

“No, not that daughter. She is a good girl. Talk to your other daughter.”

“Baila,” Mike said. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I shot the rat with my bolts and then I ran out of energy, so I stopped.”

“No,” said Consuelo. “That’s not what you did. Tell the rest of the story. What you did after you fired the bolts!”

“Nothing,” she said.

“Nothing? Are you lying to me? Lying right here to my face?” said Consuelo. “Do I need to spank you, you naughty child.”

“Honey,” said Big Mike. “This is probably not the place. We should loot and get out of here before we talk about this some more. Outside.”

“OK,” said Consuelo and started to march off toward the front doors.

“Honey,” said Big Mike. “Hang on. Hang on. No one goes anywhere without at least one person with them. Let us gather up the loot and then we’ll get out of here and then we’ll talk, ok?”

She came back and stood there. I could almost see the steam rising from the top of her head. I was glad that I wasn’t Baila. Looking at Amada, I could see that she was glad too.

“OK,” I said. “Let’s try an experiment. First, we get the cores, then we try to loot?”

I looked around and everyone except Baila and Consuelo seemed ok with my idea. I grabbed the rat that was in front of Janet and using the bowie knife cracked open its chest and grabbed the core out of its spot next to the heart. It was green with two bands surrounding its base. Irregularly shaped and smooth, it glowed a little in the darkness of the store.

I looked up and everybody was watching me, so I looked at Baila and winked and then put my hand on its chest as said, “Loot”. A pause and then the rat vanished and left a clean fur, well, clean in the sense of not having any meat attached to it, not in the sense of actually being clean. It still reeked of rat and rat piss. It also left two lumps of rat meat about a half kilo each and two teeth (it looked like the incisors).

“So,” I said, “you can loot without the core, but you don’t get the cash. I wonder if the cash is what a core is worth?” I looked up, but nobody had an answer for me.

“So,” I continued, “do we want the cores or the silver?”

“I think we should get the cores,” said Janet.

“I agree,” said Tanya. “Those are little bunches of experience points, right there. 800 points each. That’s enough to take a person up to level three. That’s enough to add some health, make a person’s odds of surviving go up. We could pass them out and strengthen our party. We need strength more than we need silver.”

“Yep, what she said,” said Janet.

“Big Mike? Consuelo?” I asked.

“I agree, take the cores, loot and then let’s get out of here. We can do the recap outside,” said Big Mike.

Consuelo nodded her head in agreement.

“The meat and hide too?” I asked, meaning do we want to take the rat meat and other stuff too.

“Yes,” said Big Mike. “Take it all. You never can say what might come in handy later.”

So we did. Each of the adults with a knife grabbed a rat and proceeded to crack the chests and pull the core. It was easier the second time around. A stomp or two on the rib cage to break the sternum, then a quick slice up the center and reach in and grab the core. Easy peasy as my mom used to say. Big Mike and I did two. Tanya looked a little green around the gills by the time they finished, but they got it done. Afterward, we said the magic word, “Loot” and then grabbed all of the stuff and stored it in our inventories.

Consuelo and the two little girls remained on watch while we were coring and looting. Fortunately nothing else came out of the nest; however, we could hear things moving inside, so we still had work to do.

When Big Mike and I finished our second rat, well, my third, we stood up and Tanya called us to order with a TUp and then we turned and doubled our way outside. Once again, it was a beautiful day as we stood on the entrance way to Maxes.

“OK,” Big Mike said. “Let’s move back to the teepee and we can do a recap. Sound good?” he asked.