After what felt like hours of work I managed to drag three of the four corpses back to the Money Tree. I got hungry while carrying the fourth one and ate it. Once I had made it back to the nest I collapsed next to the pond and rolled onto my back.

I looked at my belly and saw that it was pretty torn up. Actually I can’t really see most of my stomach because it’s covered in blood. Maybe I should take a break for the rest of the day. So I just rolled until I got to the entrance of our cave then I got into my usual resting position of watching the pond.

By now my children had already exited the cave and were eating or playing outside. Except for Linus, he just grabbed a strip of meat and then came over to me. I watched him curiously as he lay down next to me.

So adorable! I curled my tail around him and went back to watching the others. Felix and Jack were wrestling around next to the pond while Arthur and Diana swam around, splashing each other and trying to play tag underwater.

This was awesome, the perfect day. I had gotten to kill rats and hang out with my kids. The rest of the day passed pretty quickly with nothing exciting happening. At night we all fell asleep in a big huddle in the middle of the cave.

The next day I woke up and stretched out, accidentally kicking Linus in the face. He didn’t seem to notice so I quickly got up and went outside. It was raining heavily outside, I wonder if the pond is gonna overflow?

I sat down at the entrance and looked outside, enjoying the sound of the rain. It almost sounded like footsteps, dozens of little feet stomping around. I shot up and listened a tad more carefully.

Ok that is not the sound rain makes. I turned towards my children to yell a warning but as I did I felt something land on my back. Pain erupted from my back as whatever it was began to tear into my side.

I swung my tail and threw whatever it was off, getting the chance to yell. “Kids! We’re under attack!” before I was swallowed by a tide of fur and claws. I was bowled over onto my stomach and could feel them scratching and biting me. I flailed around, biting whatever was near me and using my tail to slap them away. But they didn’t let up, I bit down hard on whatever was next to me and read the notification.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

Fucking rat’s! Always rats ruining my day! I began fighting even harder, biting down on whatever came near me. I ripped one's throat out and stomped on another's skull until I felt it crack.

You have killed a level 2 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

But they just kept coming, no matter what I did. I felt light headed, blood was pouring out of every single one of my body parts and I couldn’t see out of my left eye anymore. The press of bodies was becoming too much as I slowly realized this was most likely how I was going to die.

Suddenly, I heard a loud screech and the howls of my children. Tears ran down my face as I desperately tried to kill as many of the rat’s attacking me before I died. I wrapped my tail around one rat’s neck and squeezed until I heard a snap. While doing this I repeatedly bit some random rat’s head while suffocating one beneath me with my large stomach.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

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For some reason it felt like there were less rat’s than before. But it doesn’t matter, I could feel my insides slowly becoming my outsides, my front legs didn’t move anymore and I’m pretty sure half my tail got bit off. Suddenly, just as I was beginning to give up, I heard a beautiful sound.

“For the Queen! For the Queen! For Money!” For the first time since this fight had started I wasn’t completely covered in rat’s. I shakily stood up and saw my children fighting for their lives among a horde of rats. I could barely stand up but I slowly stumbled over to my nearest child.

Linus was currently fighting two rat’s, he had managed to paralyze one but the other was on top of him and about to reach his neck. I slammed into the rat tackling it to the ground. I screamed “You poverty stricken scum! Die for my benefit!” I bit down on its neck and ripped off a large chunk.

I then stomped on its face before rushing over to the next kid. Jack and Felix were fighting side by side, working together to fight six rat’s. They were losing but had managed to paralyze a few of the rats, only four were still fighting.

I jumped onto one and grabbed another with my tail. Holding them down as Jack and Felix rushed to finish the ones they were fighting off. Linus rushed over and finished the two I was holding down off.

I quickly let go of them and grabbed the rat Jack was fighting with my jaw. It yelped as I dragged it away from Jack. Linus had left to fight something else. I quickly snapped the rat’s neck with my mouth before moving onto the next fight.

As I moved to try and help more of my children I suddenly collapsed, my body refusing to work as I ordered it to. I desperately tried to stand up but nothing happened. My vision began to fade as I watched my children fight on without me.

Diana’s POV

Today wasn’t a very good day. I had been woken up by the sound of chittering outside and then when my Queen had yelled out a warning. And now me and my siblings were in brutal combat, our Queen dying beside us while we could do nothing to help her.

I was fighting a rat when I heard Linus scream in terror. I turned and saw that mother had collapsed, blood pouring out of her wounds as Jack and Felix desperately tried to get to her. There were only a few rats left now as most had fled but we still couldn’t spare any fighters. And so we fought on, with our Queen dying beside us.

Queen’s POV

I opened my eyes to look around but for some reason one of them just wouldn’t. I looked around and saw that I was sitting in what looked to be a pool of blood. I was outside the cave, and the ground around me was covered in rat corpses. Holy shit that fight was rough. I checked my notifications and was shocked by what I saw.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 3 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 2 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 2 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 6 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

You have killed a level 1 Giant Rat.

Did I really kill that many rat’s? Strange. I was about to look at the rest of my notifications when I heard something limp towards me. I turned, my teeth bared. Thankfully it was just Diana. She hobbled over to me, covered in blood.

I stared at her for a few seconds as she continued walking towards me. Her back left leg had a large piece of it ripped off and her back was covered in bite marks and scratches. She made it over to me and said. “My Queen! Victory is ours!”

I nodded and said. “Yes, that’s true. We beat the commoners back.” I had won! I beat the filth who had tried to steal our wealth. But this didn’t feel very good. I shrugged it off and hobbled towards the entrance of the tunnel. “Alright Diana, have Arthur and Linus start dragging the corpses back. Have Felix and Jack stand guard.

Diana stopped walking and said. “My Queen, I apologize for our incompetence. Arthurs dead. He was overwhelmed and torn apart by the vermin. We managed to recover his head. It’s over there.” Diana pointed towards the entrance of the tunnel. I stared at the small lump next to where Jack and Felix were putting the bodies.

Arthur’s eyes had been torn out, his jaw was dislocated and most of the flesh on the left side of his face had been ripped off. My baby had been murdered. I stumbled over to his decapitated head. It looked so small, so fragile.

Diana followed me and said. “ My Queen, you’re injured. Please come with me and rest. We would be lost without you.” I gently pushed her away and collapsed onto the blood soaked ground. I wrapped my body around Arthur’s head, wincing at my injuries as my tail slowly curled around my head. If this was winning a fight I don’t like winning.