Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance, not only were these bigger rat men stronger, but faster and smarter. The tricks he had used on the rat men from before were meaningless against these bigger rat men. They were the elite by what it seems.

Alex continuously retreated to avoid that rat men’s weapons. Alex glanced over at Glutton, who was fighting several of the rat men. It was holding up fine. However it could display its tyrannical nature like before.

The rat-men used proper tactics to make Glutton fight in multiple directions as so to not allow it to focus on one target which would spell death.

Alex knew this was a dangerous situation, still he wouldn’t back down as it was far from hopeless. Currently, there were five rat men on Alex and a dozen a half on Glutton.

With irritation, Alex’s eyes flashed with a cold light. Casting <> one of the rat men was ensnared. His comrades didn’t falter for a second and continued chasing Alex. Alex activated <> in an attempt to lessen their numbers. The rat-men easily dodged the roots, only slowing a little in their pursuit. They let out squeaky sounding laughs and something that looked like mocking smiles appeared on their rat faces.

Alex sneered back and said in a condescending tone, “What’s with that look, is that the expression one should make when a comrade dies!?”

The rat-men slightly confused stopped then looked back and saw the rat man wrapped in brambles now looked similar to bloody swiss cheese. They realized Alex had just been toying with them and only wanted to kill their comrade. The feeling of being made fools of ignited the fires of anger in them.

“Damn human you die!” one of the rat men shouted as it pounced towards Alex. Alex’s eyes flickered with an coldly amused glare as he raised his hands. This is what he had been waiting for. This the rat men were full of rage none of them paid much attention to their surroundings.

With a calm old laugh Alex said, “though you are intelligent, animals will be animals.”

Dozens of roots thick as a man’s arm burst from the ground in all directions of the rat men forming four walls. Because they were so focused on Alex, the rat men didn’t have time to react and were trapped in the four walls which were then sealed from the top. The sound of the rat men screeches came from within along with desperate scratching sounds. Slowly Alex raised his outstretched palm towards the box of roots.

“Hmph, turn into pin cushions for me!” Alex laughed coldly, then clenched his hand into a fist. The screams within the prison for a moment rose several levels higher before dying out complete. Though no one could see the inside of the box, it was now a bloody mess. Roots had skewered the rat men multiple times, blood and entrails littered the ground and covered the roots and walls. It was something that would give children nightmares if they saw the content of the box of roots.

Looking over at Glutton and the rat men, it had made some progress as it was using a new strategy to fight. Because it couldn’t switch to a stationary state as it took too long and it would be vulnerable during the process. Glutton instead separated some of the roots from its legs and used them as whips to keep some of the rat men at bay while focused on one from at a time.

There were only four rat men left which wouldn’t take long for Glutton to take care of. Alex decided to rest while Glutton finished its part. Sitting down he heaved a long sigh, the battle against the larger rat men was very draining, he had almost used all his mana.

When Glutton had finished eating the rat men, it made its way over to Alex and using some of its new limbs offer some fruit to Alex.

“Thanks,” Alex replied somewhat tired. He ate a few fruit then propped himself against the wall of the cave and sealed himself in a cage of brambles and roots to rest.

Sleep came to Alex rather quickly but seeing how hard he had fought it was a given.

*

“What is that?”

Alex could see something in the distance. It looked like a hammer, only because the image was blurred Alex wasn’t sure. From it, a green light pulsed out and a tyrannical pressure surged from it assaulting Alex.

“Huh, want to fight, fine!” Alex roared and a wave of bloodlust burst from him and slammed into the wall of pressure. For a short time, the two were evenly matched. However, Alex soon was being pushed back. Over time, the pressure increased on Alex and eventually he was being crushed by the weight.

Alex could feel his bones making creaking sounds as the pressure pressed down on him. Still, even with the weight, Alex wouldn’t back down. With a mighty roar, he redoubled his efforts. Slowly the hammer’s force was being pushed back.

Suddenly a metallic voice echoed throughout the space, “You are still not ready to wield me, leave and return when you can control my might!”

The pressure assaulting Alex instantly increased dozens of times and instantly shattered his own blood lust as if a rhino was running through a wall of clay. Alex was blown back by an unknown force, he felt himself cough up a mouth full of blood as he was swallowed up by the darkness.

*

Alex’s eyes snapped open and he jumped up. Wilding looking around he calmed down when he saw there were no enemies around. Touching his lips, he found a trickle of blood was trailing down his face from the corner of his lips.

“Just what was that?” Alex muttered to himself as he release the dome of roots he had created earlier. What was that hammer and where had he been. Though he could make any sense of what that was since other than the hammer it had been entirely black in every direction. Alex added it to the list of mysteries and stretched.

After eating a few of Glutton’s fruits, Alex made his way down the cave. It would seem that the rat men hadn’t attacked while he was resting because they had been preparing traps. Though because of Glutton’s <> skill it was about to identify where the traps were from their abnormal appearance compared to the rest of the cave.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Finally, Alex and Glutton had made it to the end of the tunnel. What now was in front of them was a large metal door. It didn’t have any fancy design, but it was definitely sturdy. It had to be at least five inches thick.

Alex snorted though it was thick this wall was no obstacle for him and Glutton. With an irritated snarl, Alex said, “Open it up!”

Glutton let out a roaring hiss and charged the door. It body slammed the heavy metal down creating an enormous dent in it. However, it didn’t fall. Alex clicked his tongue and said, “again!”

Glutton slammed into the door two more times before it finally gave way. On the other side was a group of the large rat men as well as a dozen smaller ones wrapped in mysterious dark purple robes.

Alex walked through the wreckage of the shattered metal down and calm with arrogance, “Knock knock!”

The rat-men eyed him and Glutton with caution and fear, Alex returned their looks with a mocking smile. Though Alex looked arrogant and over confident, on the inside he wasn’t underestimating these rat-men in the slightest especially the ones in robes. He suspected they were mages meaning they could attack from a distance, which could be troublesome. Not only that but the larger rat men were in full suits of grayish blue armor and were equipped with shields and heavy swords.

Just as Alex was about to charge forward, a squeaky voice made the room shake.

“Welcome human!”

Looking passed the group of rat men, a figure sat on a throne of stone. The figure was a giant rat man that stood at eight feet tall and was wrapped in a rather luxurious robe. On its head was a silver crown and in its right hand was a massive ax with a beautiful crescent blade that was made out of a simmering red crystal.

“I am Grugal, the King of Kobolds! Now do you have any last words before I kill you for your crimes?”

Grugal voice was filled with power and authority of a true king. Typically if a someone hear his domineer words they would be trembling, however, Alex remained perfectly calm.

‘strong, this guy is definitely strong!’ Alex thought to himself as he carefully analyzed Grugal. Even if the enemy was strong, Alex didn’t think he would lose.

From the looks of its, Grugal wasn’t going to move and instead let the group of rat men fight. Alex snorted and said, “all I have to say to a flea bitten rodent like you is would you rather be buried with your beloved trash collection or tossed in the sewer, oh sorry, I mean your homeland.”

Though Grugal didn’t fully understand what Alex was saying he knew it was a form of insult. With a furious squeak he said, “you lowly trash, prepared to die for insulting me, men kill him your king commands you!”

The larger rat men charged at Alex their movements might be slower than the others, but they were like cars with how much they weight plus their armor. Still since they were slower, Alex was about to dodge their swords.

“nice try, but with all that armor you guys are even less of a threat than the ones from before!” Alex mocked. Spinning his body, Alex brandished his war hammer and smashed it into one of the rat men’s abdomen from the side. Alex thought it would do some damage and maybe even take the rat man out of the fight, however, something unexpected happened.

Where he had hit the rat man, a purple magic array appeared and repelled Alex’s hammer. Though Alex was surprised, he didn’t have the luxury to stop and stare. Three rat men attack him simultaneously and Alex responded with creating a half circle wall of vines. Escaping from the range of the other rat men, Alex saw that some of the robed rat men were chanting, in the next moment balls of fire rained down on him.

Alex raised his hand and a wall of trees burst from the ground and took the barrage of fire. Alex wore a grave expression, now he was serious. Giving Glutton a set of orders Alex rushed out from behind the wall. In front of him was the group of armored rat men waiting to greet him.

“Out of my way!” Alex roared and a wall of roots surged from the ground like a wave. The armored rat men raised their shields and magic arrays appeared on each one. The roots slammed into the wall of shields forcing the rat men to take a few steps back, but they didn’t fall, though that didn’t matter to Alex as he already accomplished his goal in that exchange.

Not slowing at all Alex ran up the wave of roots and jumped over the armored rat men to reach his real target, the mages! By killing them, the armored rat men would lose that protection spell.

The mages seeing Alex’s mad dash towards them, through them into a panic. They rat men mages quickly began to chant, sadly it was too late. Alex reached the first of the mages and cruel brought down his hammer, turning the rat man’s head into meat paste. The other rat men released their fireballs. Alex laughed as he dodged the fireballs and smashed his hammer into the chest of another rat man causing it to have a huge indent the size of a fist in it.

Alex continued to laugh as he slaughtered the mages one at a time. Alex glanced back, the armored rat men had been stunned for a moment from the confusion of what had happened, but almost instantly they had followed after Alex. When they began chasing after him what they didn’t realize that they were the ones being chased. Without warning, Glutton had already seized one of them before they even knew it was there. Alex’s exaggerated moves were only meant to grab the attention of the armored rat men so Glutton could launch a surprise attack.

With both parties in disarray, it was easy for Alex and Glutton to decimate them. In only around ten minutes all the rat men were either dead or dying.

Alex slightly winded turned to Grugal with a mocking smile, “Hehe, what did you say, oh yeah ‘you damn lowly trash, prepared to die for insulting me, “I like that phrase I hope you don’t mind me stealing it, you trash~.”