The screeches of the RatMan could only be drowned by the screaming of the two hysterical women behind him, between the blackout and the screeching monster seems like Big Boss... Lisa had come out to check what was all the fuss about only to get horrified by the sight of a stomped down corpse laying in the middle of her filming set.
"Mark get them and hide somewhere safe!" Said Peter as he waited for the charging enraged RatMan to come, only a few seconds away.
the IT man did not move, still in shock
"DO IT NOW!" Peter's strong voice and his commanding tone seemed to snap the man back to reality as he rushed the to females and shoved them down towards the big office. Peter thanked god that he did not have to be weary of their safety anymore.
The leading RatMan jumped with a dagger high above his head trying to stab the taller opponent in the neck or head, he was meet with a left punch to the chest that stopped his momentum due to the light weight of the monster, but left Peter's left hand pained, seems like his wrist was at a non proper angle and now he had to be careful to not get a permanent injury but that was something to be weary of later.
Without wasting time he lowered his hammer and the hit landed on the knee of the leading RatMan who was trying to get up from the floor. a nasty crack could be heard as their thinner and more fragile bones broke. to be honest Peter doubted even a Human would come unscratched from a hammer hit like that to the knee.
As the Leader of the RatMan screeched in pain and rolled around hanging to his useless leg the other two Creatures became more hesitant to attack, slowing down and trying to surround him, Peter thanked that he chosen the hallway to fight since it worked kinda like a bottleneck even if they tried to catch him in a pincer maneuver they did not have the space to fully get on his blind side.
peter backed off as showing caution and fear, as the RatMan advanced he made a move towards the RatMan on his left, who jumped back instantly. what they did not knew was that it was a faint since the beginning. as the RatMan on the right lounged at him Peter's swing was already mid way, without the possibility to dodge the RatMan tried to Duck, the hammer impacted on the creatures ear instead of the chin as he intended, but the impact of a solid piece of metal to the head of that Thing still did its work making it lose balance and fall down.
before Peter could finish or incapacitate permanently the second RatMan he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. the RatMan on his left had jumped down while he was not looking and had sunk his teeth deep down, reaching the bone.
Peter screamed in pain and ran against the wall of the hallway. using all his weight to slam the over evolved pest on his shoulder, but even after that it would not let go, clawing and biting more fiercely, so Peter took a different approach, he lowered his hammer and while pinning the RatMan to the wall he hit him in his loincloth as hard as he could, expecting the creature to have some sort of sensitive organs down there.
The beast let go immediately, fell down on the ground and started to cough while it's body shrunken down instinctively due to the sharp pain he was experiencing. Peter inverted his hammer, and with the nail removing part he struck down at the base of the neck of the bent over creature, it sunk in fairly deep and after a quick twist he could feel how he was separating It's spine.
The stunned RatMan jumped on Peters back, now recovered from the hit he suffered before, clawing at him Peter let go of the hammer that was lodged in the back of the Fresh kill and tried to get a hold of him but the beast was quick and agile, each second he felt how his back was starting to get decorated with more and more cuts from the monster's claws until a hard hit was heard and the beast landed on the ground.
Peter looked to his left and saw Mark armed with a Broom stick that was shattered, the broom part laying on the floor next to them, seems he broke it from the impact.
"thanks" Peter said as he walked over and finished the little RatMonkey that was on his back with a series of kicks to the back of the head.
the Leading RatMan had crawled almost half way through the hallway, leaving a small trail of blood from the shattered knee, which seems had some bones sticking out.
"wanna finish that one off?" asked Peter but Mark shook his head.
"i understand" Said peter as he put his hand on the left man's shoulder "not everyone is prepared to kill"
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Peter walked over to the Leader, took out his Leatherguy multi tool knife and slit the beasts throat. while he walked back he could hear the monster choking on his own blood.
"lets head back"
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*HOLY FUCKING SHIT* Mark though in his head, as he pushed her two coworkers towards the office of Lisa hi's boss, after entering and lowering all the shades, he pushed the table and lay it on its side offering them some kid of barrier or protection
"I will be right back, i need to help him" He tried to sound as determined as he could, but the words that came out of his mouth sounded more like the ones of a scared child, he even stutter a bit.
"NO DON'T GO! DON'T LEAVE US ALONE" Screamed Anastasia as she held to the bottom of his shirt.
"he can die i gotta go, don't make any noises and wait for someone to come back, I'll knock three times so you know its me" he was about to exit the door as he saw a broom and a dustbin next to some shelving, he took the broom and exited the room, he heard the door being locked behind him immediately. no sense cowering up now.
as he approached the hallway he could hear some hard fighting noises, he picked up his pace and now was running.
as he reached the scene he saw Peter deal the finishing blow to the RatMan that was bent over in pain, the only able RatMan left jumped on his back, and started to claw on Peter, they did not stopped moving, he readied the swing but did not wanted to hit peter in the head, and when the opportunity was right he struck the thing with all his strength, it reminded him of how he used to swing in baseball when playing as a kid. The hit landed fair and square on the RatMan's ribcage.
The broom stick broke from the force of the impact. Mark was perplexed, he did not imagined he could do that, like in his mind he was just some computer nerd that played Caves & Drakes in his free time. and now he was able to sent flying a MONSTER from one swing
"thanks" those words snapped him back to reality, he saw how Peter gruesomely dispatched the last two RatMan
he looked at their corpses, four of them, he could not see their faces since two of them where mush, the other one was face down and the last one down the hallway but it was way to weird. he focused on the man tried to find a logical conclusion about all of this.
Nothing came to mind. and then he seen it
"STOP!" he yelled at peter who was almost half way back towards the office room.
"they are called RatKin. This three are level 1, and that last one you killed is level 2" Peter seemed confused but he turned around and approached him
"How do you know this?" Peter asked confused
"Just look at them, and focus, focus your sight, try to think what they are" Mark tried to explain it but it was hard.
on top of the dead bodies he now could see text that read the following
< Ratkin > Level 1
*deceased*
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It took Peter almost 2 minutes to start seeing what Mark meant, and to his credit he was right, not only did he saved him lots of trouble with that last """RatKin""" he also seemed to be useful on many other ways. if this was the apocalypse he has earned himself a seat in the favorites list.
the Set was dead silent, as Peter examined the bodies slightly, he wanted to know their weakness. and as he suspected he could break their bones and articulations easily. they also seemed to have balls and it hurt them to be hit there. the skull on the other hand seemed to be very thick and resistant. and their teeth where sharp and hard.
"L...Lets get moving man" Mark said clearly a bit creeped out about the whole examining monster corpses ordeal
"lets just pile them up and go" in less than 30 seconds the 4 corpses where piled on some corner and covered with one of the drop cloths Peter used for painting, as they headed to Lisa's office peter took a second to marvel at the imprint that the First RatKin he killed left on the freshly painted wall. it was almost comical. like the stuff you would see in a comic book or a cartoon. and out of nowhere he started laughing hysterically while pointing at it, he laughed so hard he bended over.
Maybe it was the shock of the past few minutes, maybe it was The blood loss or the madness of it all but when Mark approached him and saw what he was pointing at he also started laughing.
A bit of fun to take out the edge he told to himself.
On their way back they picked up a first aid kit and Mark knocked three times on the door before he heard it being unlocked, he entered carefully and slowly to not startle up the two women. Anastasia was holding a fire extinguisher in her hands and she was pointing it at the door while Lisa was armed with a Drawer he took out of her tipped over desk.
They both relaxed when they saw it was them, but immediately got concerned when they saw the state Peter was.
After locking the door and helping move some furniture to secure it even more they tended to Peter's wounds while they spoke, and informed the two Females of what they discovered so far.
The bleeding on his back had stopped, or at least most of it, but the two deep bite wounds from his left shoulder where a much serious injury, it almost incapacitated his left arm, he could still move it, but Peter had to admit that it was painful and uncomfortable.
The most the girls... more like Anastasia could do was to clean the wound, apply some butterfly stitches to close the wound and cover it with a gauze. Lisa as always just stood there and looked doing nothing.
When they mentioned that if you focused hard enough you could see the monster's names they dismissed it as hallucinations, it was until Peter intervened that they accepted it as a fact
"if you want me to prove it to you i can bring one corpse and you can check it yourself" Said peter as he was getting up after being patched up. they both immediately agreed that they believed the story. or at least pretended to.
the next hour or so was boring, after confirming that no more RatKin where in the premises they started gathering as many resources as they could. from food and water to improvised weapons.
Peter cut two pieces of plywood and put some handles in them to work as shields. by using a 2"x4" beam, and hammering some nails to one of the ends he created a spiked club and gave it to Mark. he kept his metal hammer as main weapon, but got another one in his belt as a secondary, and also he put his pocket knife in his boot to make it accessible in case of a ground grappling fight.
it was all going well and they where preparing for the apocalypse when suddenly
You have survived the first Hour.
Access to System *Unlocked*
Second Wave starts in 5:00
Second Wave starts in 4:59
The 4 of them said "fuck!" almost at the same time. but there was no time to be wasted, the clock was ticking, and who or whatever was doing this to them will not give them a spare second extra.