The battle was over. We stood there, gasping for air, utterly spent and coated in the sticky remains of vicious slimes. The acrid smell of the sewers seemed even more pungent now, mingling with the odd, chemical odor left behind by the defeated slimes.

"Well," Estella was the first to break the silence, attempting to wring the slime out of her once-vibrant hair that was now a tangled mess of slime and sewer water. "That was certainly... messy."

Tirion chuckled. He held up his sword, watching as strings of slime dripped from the blade. He sighed and started carefully cleaning it with a piece of cloth.

"Indeed," Tirion agreed. ”But we fought well together. Most groups I've seen would've fallen apart in there.”

I smiled in acknowledgment, feeling a strange sense of pride at the compliment. My gaze then turned to Lysa, who was leaning on the wall, looking sick and tired. "Are you alright?" I asked, concerned. I stepped towards her; my hand half-raised as if to offer support.

"I’ll be fine… just need a moment." Lysa muttered, leaning heavily against the wall. Her usually sharp eyes were unfocused. "The Shadow Lord's gifts always come with a price."

Tirion was at her side in an instant, his earlier jovial demeanor replaced by concern. He placed a supportive hand on her shoulder, and I noticed how she leaned into his touch ever so slightly. There was clearly a deep bond between these two.

"Speaking of which," I said, unable to hold back my curiosity "what brings you two to the sewers? I'm guessing this isn't just a casual stroll through the sewers."

“On the contrary, I couldn’t think of a more romantic date location. The ambiance, the aroma, the charming local wildlife...” Tirion gestured at the surroundings.

“Oww” Tirion clutched his head in pain as Lysa gave him a playful smack.

She rolled her eyes, but I caught the hint of a smile on her lips. “We’re adventurers. We came here to explore the sewers but it seems we bit off more than we could chew. Thanks for coming to our rescue” She glanced at me while nodding her head.

"You’re welcome." I returned her nod.

“It’s strange though,” she raised her hand to her chin, brow furrowing in thought. “We weren’t expecting the monsters to be here in such number.” Her eyes swept over the remnants of the slimes.

“And let’s not forget their increased hostility,” she added, her tone more assertive this time. “There is something down here that is affecting the creatures, and it’s not good.”

Estella glanced my way. "We've seen some unusual stuff too," she muttered, her usual cheerfulness dampened.

I shuddered at the memories of the mutated sewer dog we'd encountered earlier. “Is that not normal? You did mention there would be monsters here.”

“Yes, but not like this.” Estella turned to me, frowning. "I've lived in the Undercity my whole life, Noctus. I've seen the creatures that call these sewers home. But this... it’s just wrong. They're getting bigger, more aggressive, more...” She struggled for words. "...wrong, somehow."

Estella’s words sounded like an ominous foreboding. A silence fell upon the group as we were left to ponder the implications. Something was changing in the Undercity that was affecting its inhabitants.

It was Tirion who first cast away the silence. "We should report these changes to the Guild," he said while looking at Lysa who gave a nod in return. "But while we’re here, what brought you two down here? He asked, glancing between Estella and me.

I paused, suddenly self-conscious. How could I explain our quest without sounding ridiculous? Admitting we were here for rats didn't seem very heroic. "We are—"

“We’re looking for rats” Estella proudly proclaimed as she interrupted me mid-sentence.

I fought the urge to facepalm. Of course she'd just blurt it out like that. I glanced at Tirion and Lysa, searching their faces for any sign of judgment or amusement, but their expressions remained neutral. Maybe I was overthinking things.

"Oh, if you're looking for rats, I think I saw a nest over there," Tirion said, gesturing down one of the darker tunnels. "Here, come, I'll show you."

He led us down another tunnel which opened into what must have been an ancient part of the sewers. Pumping machinery, more rust than metal now, lined the walls like skeletal ribcages. The air had that specific kind of thickness that came from centuries of accumulated filth and decay, different from the sharper stink of the regular sewers.

Lysa pressed closer to Tirion,"There's... something strange about this place," she murmured.

Before she could add another word, a high-pitched squeaks echoed off the rusted metal. There - a flash of movement between the pipes. A fat grey rat scurried along one of the lower ducts, probably heading back to its nest. The rat paused, whiskers twitching as if pondering its route.

Rat Level: 1 HP: 1/1 Threat Level: None It’s a rat

Perfect. Finally, a chance at our target. I'd played enough stealth games to know the basics - stay low, move slow, watch your target's pattern.

I held up my hand, signaling the others to quiet down and crept forward, trying to move as quietly as my boots would allow. In my peripheral vision, I spotted Estella's silent movement as she positioned herself by a nearby pipe, ready to cut off the rat's escape route.

Just a few more steps...

The rat was still there, pawing at something between the pipes, entirely focused on its scavenging. My boots felt impossibly loud against the stone floor, each step threatening to give me away.

Stealth Check Failed

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The notification flashed just as my foot caught a loose stone. The rat's head snapped up, eyes fixing right on me. No more subtle approach then. I lunged forward, abandoning stealth for speed. My boot came down hard, and the crack of bone produced a sickening sound effect.

I knelt beside the carcass, trying not to think too hard about what I was doing as I removed the tail.

Quest Update: A Witch's Bargain Progress: 1/1 rat's tail obtained Return to Agatha

"Not exactly the epic boss battle I was expecting," I muttered. At least it was over.

But as I straightened up, rat tail in hand, the torches flickered and died. A chill crept through the chamber, raising goosebumps on my arms. The temperature plummeted, and my breath began to fog in front of my face.

Warning! Anomalous Energy Detected Caution! Unknown Magical Signature

"Something's wrong," Lysa whispered, her voice tense. "This magic... it's not like anything I've felt before."

The shadows in the corners of the chamber began to move, converging overhead to form a sphere of pure darkness. The pressure in the chamber increased, making my ears pop and forcing us all to take shallow breaths.

Warning! Powerful Entity Approaching Threat Level: Extreme Combat Not Recommended

"Everyone, back to back," Tirion commanded, his shield raised. His ears twitched nervously, sensing danger from all directions.

The sphere of darkness pulsed once, twice, then began to unravel like a blooming flower of night. As it peeled open, a figure wearing black robes and a mask emerged from its core. He descended to the ground with unnatural grace and touched down without a sound.

"It appears we have visitors." The voice was cultured, almost pleasant, but carried an undercurrent of something ancient and malevolent. Each word seemed to echo slightly out of sync with itself as if multiple voices were speaking almost, but not quite, in unison.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

The figure tilted his head slightly. "I should be asking you that," he replied in amusement. "You come into my lab, destroy my toys, and now you dare to question me?"

With a gesture that seemed almost lazy, he raised his hand. Black flames erupted from his palm, flames that seemed to burn reality itself. With a casual flick, the flames expanded into a roaring wall that cut off our escape route. The heat from them felt wrong—not warm, but somehow empty, like they were burning away the very concept of temperature.

Warning! Exit Blocked Unable to escape combat

“Do you know how much effort I put into those specimens? Just a bit more refining and I could create monstrosities even greater than those of the God of Light’s himself,” he added.

Sensing the danger this man posed, Tirion didn't hesitate. He charged at the figure and swung his sword in a horizontal arc. But his blade passed harmlessly through the figure as if it was an illusion. The masked man phased right through the blade and with one hand to his back, toppled Tirion’s to the ground using his momentum against him.

“Manners,” he hissed.

"Tirion!" Lysa cried out, her hands already going through the motions to cast a spell. She began chanting the incantation but the masked man was prepared for her. With a flick of his fingers, an invisible wave of force slammed into her, hurling her against the chamber wall with a sickening thud.

The masked man then turned towards me, or more specifically, to the rat tail I still clutched in my hand. "Seems you like rats," he said, his voice full of malice. "I'll leave you with this gift."

He raised his arm with theatrical slowness, then slashed it downward like an executioner's blade. As his hand descended, he simply... vanished, leaving no trace of his presence save for the wall of black flame still blocking our exit.

For a moment, there was silence. Then, a new sound went off - a rustling, scratching noise that surrounded us. My heart sank. The same skittering that had been music to my ears moments ago now filled me with dread.

It was the revenge of the rats. A hundred, no, thousands of red eyes glowed eerily in the darkness, their high-pitched squeaks filling the air. From every crack and crevice in the walls, a flood of rats began to pour forth. They moved not as individuals, but as a single, writhing mass that surged towards us with terrifying speed.

"By the Shadow Lord," Lysa whispered, pressing closer to Tirion.

I watched in shock as the swarm drew closer. With each moment, more rats poured out from the darkness, their numbers multiplying rapidly. A relentless flood of vermin surged toward us, and as they approached, they began piling on top of each other. It was a relentless flood that threaten to engulf us.

Then, in the heart of the swarm, something changed. The mass of rats began to move with an unnatural synchronization, as if guided by an invisible puppeteer. At first, it seemed random, rats climbing over each other in a frenzy, but then a pattern emerged. The swarm was no longer just spreading; it was building.

The base formed first: a churning foundation of rats several meters wide, their bodies so tightly packed they appeared as a single undulating mass of fur and flesh. From this foundation, more rats climbed upward, cascading over each other like a waterfall in reverse. Bones crackled and popped as rats compressed together, forming dense muscle-like structures beneath the rippling fur.

The tower of rats grew higher, taking shape with terrifying intelligence. Limbs emerged—not the tiny legs of individual rats, but massive appendages formed from hundreds of bodies working in unison. Each movement sent ripples through the collective mass, revealing glimpses of the thousands of tails now woven together into sinuous tendons.

A head began to take shape at the top of the mass. Not a single rat's head scaled up, but something far worse: a crown-like structure of interlinked bodies, with dozens of rats facing outward, their red eyes glowing in perfect synchronization. More rats filled in the gaps, creating a face that was neither one rat nor many, but a nightmarish amalgamation of both.

The transformation reached its apex as a tail thick as a tree trunk whipped out from behind the creature, composed of thousands of smaller tails braided together into a single, powerful appendage. The final form stood nearly three stories tall, its body constantly shifting and reforming as individual rats moved within the greater whole, like muscles under skin.

When it moved, it moved with impossible grace for its size. Each step was a coordinated effort of thousands of bodies, creating a fluid motion that seemed to defy the very nature of its cobbled existence. The rat king's many eyes—hundreds of them scattered across its form—all focused on our group with a single, unified intelligence.

A notification flashed before my eyes:

New Quest: Slay 1,000,000 Rats Boss Battle Initiated: The Rat King Level:10 Threat Level:High Recommended Action: Retreat Warning! Retreat Path Blocked

"Surely you must be joking," I mumbled under my breathe. Four fighters against a million rats.

Estella's chakrams were already spinning, creating a protective circle around her. "Well," she said, a hint of her usual humor in her voice despite the dire situation, "I guess now we know where all the rats in the Undercity have been hiding."

Tirion had regained his feet, shield raised as he positioned himself in front of Lysa. Her whispered incantations grew stronger as purple energy gathered around her hands.

"Any ideas?" he called out, his experienced eyes scanning for weaknesses in the approaching swarm.

“We fight,” I said.

The flood of rats came crashing down on us.