Enjoy!

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The paths through the cave emptied them into the cave where Steel had fought his first battle as part of the overall expedition force. He had used Whisper to peek into the tunnel, and she had come back with important news. There were 20 rats in the cave, a rather large amount that would easier overwhelm then if they recklessly rushed in. This led to the current position; planning out the fight beforehand with each other.

"Okay, I know the original plan was to let Echo and Shadefur get some experience through fighting, but that's way too many to engage like we did last time." Steel lay out.

Mary gave a sound of acknowledgement, "I agree completely. Besides you Steel, the last fight just had each of us battle our own group instead of working as a team. Shadefur even got hurt pretty badly."

Shadefur perked up at the sound of her name, but lay her head back down after realizing she wasn't being called.

"While I agree, it’s not like we have the most balanced party in the first place." Steel reasoned, "If we were a normal party, the tank would take the monster aggression while the dps guys would attack from the back and the warrior would assist."

"Dps?"

"Traveler talk, sorry. I mean mages and archers who attack from a distance and have low defense." He amended, "The issue here though is that I can't attract all of them. Echo is still too weak as a front line attacker, and Shadefur is the same way. You can cast strong spells, but because of your condition you have to keep your attacks as weak as possible to conserve mana. So that plan won’t work at all."

The two crossed their arms and hummed to themselves, thinking hard. Echo copied them, but had no idea what they were up to. Whisper floated down between them. "Why face them all at once? Wouldn't be easier to just fight a few at a time?"

Steel opened his eyes and looked at the floating orb, "That is true, but if got their attention it would be all of them. I wouldn't be able to do anything else."

"Then you don't do it. Let the wolf do it."

Steel shook his head, "No way, I'm not letting her out of my sight or putting her in such a dangerous position. What if she tripped, than they'd kill her immediately and we would not be able to do anything to stop it. "

Whisper bounced on his head, "You know, you say you want to give her and Echo experience, put they won't get any if you keep coddling them. Really now, what's got you in such a twist?"

Steel tried to grab the orb of light, but she easily evaded his capturing attempts by flying away. Growling in annoyance, Steel punched the wall beside him. "I'm not coddling them; I'm just avoiding unnecessary risk. Is that wrong?"

Mary frowned at Steel, "No, not if your reasoning was sound. Your mind is still filled with the memories of your past troubles, and being in this place is obviously not helping you. Calm down and think about this rationally."

He glared at her, "I'm perfectly fine princess, now be quiet unless you've got a plan."

She gaped at him, not believing his rudeness to her. She opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped by Echo, who tugged on her dress and shook his head.

Echo looked over at Steel and frowned at him. He took out his sword and started marching toward the rat cave.

"Echo, where are you going?" Steel called out. Echo ignored him and kept walking forward. Steel started to get up, "Echo, come back now. It's dangerous over there." Echo ignored him again, though his legs were shaking a little as he walked away.

Steel scrambled up now, fear plain on his face, "Echo, get back here! I order you as your master!" Echo stumbled as the magic of the slave contract kicked in. He grimaced in pain, but he managed to stay up and continued to walk away.

"Hunie, don't go!"

Everyone froze at his words, even Steel himself. Echo turned around and walked back, the relief evident on his face at being able to follow his master's instructions. He walked up to Steel and hugged him tight, burying his head in Steel's thigh. Steel reflexively stroked the small slave's head, not really thinking as his mind was still in shock.

Mary sighed behind him and smiled at Echo. Shadefur cocked her in confusion, but relaxed when Mary rubbed her head.

"You see now Steel? You're still scared you'll lose your friends, and most likely you'll never be able to get rid of that feeling. It's good to be scared, that keeps you alive. Don't let it rule your life however, let it help you guide others instead. Well, that's what my father used to say to me anyway when I got scared." Mary focused a hand of flame into existence and used it to pat his back, "Even your little friend there seems to understand that."

Echo leaned up and nodded at Steel's head, then returned to his hug. Steel finally relaxed and used his hand to actually pat Echo's head with feeling. "Thank you Echo for the help. I'm sorry about your pain." Echo shook his head.

Steel pulled Echo off and stared him straight in the eyes. "Don't ignore me again though, okay? It could mean life or death next time, so no more freebies." Echo nodded.

Steel and Echo returned to the group huddle. "Okay, so we'll have Shadefur bring back smaller groups of rats, e=is everyone okay with that plan?"

Everyone nodded, except the wolf who barked excitedly. "All right then. Shadefur, go get some rats for us!" The furry wolf barked and ran down the corridor toward the cave. The rest of the party took battle positions; Steel in the front with Echo behind him on the left and Mary behind on the right. Soon after, he heard some angry squeaks that were drawing closer. "Get ready!" He called out, preparing his mana.

Shadefur shot out of the tunnel and leaped behind Steel, growling at the tunnel behind her. 6 rats poured out a few seconds after her, clearly angry at the intrusion into their home.

Steel focused his mana and cast 6 Earth Spikes at them. The spikes shot out of the ground like needles, catching 4 of the rats and barely slicing them as the rats ran out of the way. They bled on their sides, but were still ready to fight. The two uninjured rats took advantage of his spell lag and ran behind him at Shadefur. One was caught by Echo, who stabbed his sword into its body and knocked in away while the other was hit by a mini fireball from Mary and also knocked out of the group.

The six injured rats ran together and glared at Steel. They chittered at him and began running in a circle. "Mary, have any idea what they are up to?" Steel asked her, his eyes completely focused on the circle of rats.

Mary spoke urgently behind him, "It looks like they are preparing some special attack. As I said before, monsters aren't my thing, so I can't offer any more than that."

Her prediction was spot on, as the circle of rats began to glow red. All of a sudden, the rats turned as one and rushed Steel, their paws glowing bright red as they ran faster than before. Steel barely managed to get his shield up with Earth Armor on before they crashed against him.

However, instead of the feeling of small bodies launching, Steel was met with six large explosions that blew him back and knocked him against the wall. He coughed as he slowly fell to the floor, his health losing a large chunk and putting him close to 25%. His mates ran over and helped to the floor, surprise plainly evident.

"Cough, Mary, can you tell me what just happened?"

Mary turned her head for a moment, "It seems that rats had a special ability to suicide themselves when enough damage was inflicted on them. They turned their bodies into fireballs that inflicted heavy damage on you, especially since you were wearing your Earth Armor."

Steel rolled his head over to face her, "What do you mean? Wasn't my Earth Armor supposed to lessen damage?"

"That would be true normally my student, but elemental spells have special interactions depending on what's cast against what. In your case, your Earth Armor is essentially focusing your mana into ethereal armor based on trees. Tell me, what happens when trees meet fire?"

"Oh, it burns right?"

Mary nodded, "Correct. Now if your Armor had been stone based or earth based than the fireball effect would have been lessened. Elements aren't simple enough for only one type of interaction between them, so that's something else for you to learn."

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

Steel coughed in depression; more work was not the most appealing thought right now. "Okay, so for future battles, we need to kill the rats before they turn into kamikaze bombers. Wait. . ."

He sat up for a moment, took a look at his former location, then fell back with a groan, "Yeah, don't let them explode. It completely ruins their bodies for loot."

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They repeated the process two more times, drawing another group of six and a group of eight afterwards. Steel planned out the process smarter this time. He used his Earth Wall and Earth Spike spells together to make a hidden pit fall trap in the floor in front of them. When Shadefur returned with the waves, she leaped over the earth as the rats followed her, and they all fell in.

There was no honor in this killing. Then again, Steel didn't really care. It worked, no one got hurt, and his precious loot wasn't burned to kingdom come. Mary had originally suggested a single large fireball trap, but she was quickly shot down.

She was currently sulking as Steel skinned the last of the rats. "This isn't very interesting Steel. It feels more like a massacre than a real raid." She complained to him.

He shrugged, storing the last of the rat skins. "It got the job done didn't it? Besides, I didn't like our chances with them exploding in our faces." The process had worked, and the entire group had received the exp for the three fights. Unfortunately, the system informed him that they had taken an exp penalty for not actually fighting, so instead of 50 exp per rat, they got 25 per rat. Still, 50 from the first 6 and 25 for 14 made for a nice chunk of 650 exp. In fact, Echo and Shadefur had both leveled up to 2 from the exp. Steel was actually a little jealous, because his first level up had been so difficult.

Echo was currently looking at his own screen and deciding what to do with his points. Steel had yet to inspect the boy's status, but had informed him he would only control where the stat points would go. He would leave the skill upgrades to the boy, not out of kindness but necessity as only Echo could make himself stronger.

Shadefur's level up was a little different, due to the monster status. She got a little bigger overall, and her attributes increased some as well. Other than that she was just looking at something only she could see. Steel had no idea what she was looking at, but had decided to leave it be. After staring for a long time, the wolf had pressed her nose forward and woofed like a dog. A notice popped up in front of Steel, letting him know Shadefur had chosen to improve speed rather than attack or defense.

'Guess the monster level up is a simplistic form of our level up." Steel reasoned, "I can see how that would lessen the strain on the system as a whole."

He got up and cracked his knuckles. "Okay Mary, there should be at least one more fight on this floor. Are you up for fighting that one seriously?"

Mary brightened and hopped up, "Okay then, lead on serva. . .I mean Steel." She blushes as her natural arrogance resurfaced. Steel shrugged it off and walked over to Echo.

"You done yet?" He asked the little slave.

Echo nodded, throwing his sword around in the air with a wide smile. He took a stance and swung his sword forward, releasing a slice that traveled a few feet before disappearing. Steel's jaw dropped in surprise, because that skill looked very similar to the one Sergeant Hamilton had used before, albeit a weaker version. "I'm impressed Echo, did you purchase that skill with your points?" Echo nodded, "How many points did you use for it?" Echo held up 5 fingers.

Steel bonked him on the head, "You fool. Remember, it’s a combination of skills and stats that allow you to win. Don't spend so much next time." Echo rubbed his head and nodded, pouting.

The rest time had allowed Steel to recover his mana, and Mary a small bit as well, so they walked around the sealed pit and through the cave where the rats had been. They reentered the tunnel and walked down some before hearing something in front of them. Steel looked around.

"Hey, where is Whisper? I haven't seen her since she suggested the plan to lure them."

Mary blinked and squinted her eyes forward. "She's somewhere in front of us, where that noise is coming from. Also, she seems. . . frightened by something?"

'What could scare an elemental?" Steel wondered as they slowly crept forward. He peeked his head around a corner to see into the room where both paths rejoined into the last room.

The room was as big as he remembered, with a large moss covered platform to the far left and boulders rising up intermediately through the floor. Also, there were a lot, a lot, of rats. From the looks of it, there at least 3 groups of twenty rats wandering the area; and more wandering around the rocks. Steel looked around for Whisper's light, before finally settling on a tiny blinking light in the corner of the elevated area. The light was flashing in an SOS manner, and he could see why. The biggest rat Steel had ever laid eyes on was scratching at the wall, trying to reach the light.

Steel turned back to the group. "Mary, are there typically bosses on every floor of a dungeon? He asked lightly.

Mary nodded, "Yes, but the majority of them are hidden and are considered special raid bosses. Bigger dungeons can have active bosses every 5 levels or so, and this dungeon should not have any till the last floor. Why do you ask?"

"I ask because Whisper is currently hiding from the largest rat I have ever seen, and it looks like we'll have to fight it to rescue her." Steel said tersely.

Eyes wide, Mary got up and poked her own head around the corner to stare. With a quiet yelp, she shot back and shuddered in fear. "Little rats I can deal with, but that one is really scary."

"Yup, I completely agree." He nodded, "So unless you can unsummon Whisper?" Mary shook her head, "Then it looks like we have to fight it. Problem is all the other rats in our way. It'll take too long to lure back smaller groups and fight them, and there are enough to overwhelm us if we rush in. Any ideas?"

Mary nodded, "Yes, but I'm positive you will hate it."

As usual, she was right. He hated the idea, but had no choice but to endorse it.

"Okay you win, go ahead and start." Steel hadn't been this depressed since his wallet was stolen and he had lost his money. He never did find out what Hunie had done with it. Oh well, not important at the moment.

Mary issued a series of mental commands to Whisper via their familiar-master link. After calming the protests, Whisper obeyed.

She shot out of her hiding spot and flew across the room. As expected, the rat (lord?) ran after her, its eyes locked directly on her. Whisper led him back and forth across the room multiple times, slowly growing tired as she flew for her life. Eventually, she had to use the last of her energy to return to her hole, and the rat followed her.

The results, however, were completely successful. The giant rat had run over almost every rat in the cave and taken 15% damage from slamming through the rocks in its way. Steel would have been ecstatic, if his precious loot hadn't been smashed into piles of pancakes. He did not look forward to trying to skin them.

Still, he did receive some unexpected rewards.

[td4]For coming up with a successful plan and reducing your enemy's forces to essentially nothing, you have received the following:

+5 intelligence

+5 wisdom

+5 leadership

For having a rat lord kill an army of rats you have received the title: Rat Corrupter

Status Update[/td2]

"Okay, the rat legion has been decimated. Ready for your first boss fight?" He asked the group.

Mary grinned, a bloodthirsty look in her eye as her hands glowed red. Echo held his sword up in excitement, and Shadefur panted with a sideways tongue.

"Okay, let’s get him!"