“Die, damn it, die!”
Lights had been the first thing to abandon them, with the fires of their torches soon being extinguished by the overwhelming presence of the terrible vermin.
There was nothing adventurous about killing rats, especially ones as ravenous as aggressive as the ones under Rennos. The beasts jumped, clawed and bit at the two girls as they desperately cleaved through as many of them as they could, two inexhaustible human blenders pushing, cutting and skewering.
But again, there was no number to them. No matter how many creatures they cut, pierced or even exploded through, there were always more rats to take their place. And differently to the girls, these creatures were full of energy! They wouldn’t stop attacking any time soon.
“I HATE RATS”, Gabrielle eloquently said while cutting through another neck, feeling the blood splattering all over her. “Maybe this is why so many people have died!?”
“Gabi, now—” Luci only had so much patience to spare in a situation like this, stomping and skewering through monstrosities while trying not to think of her life being on the edge. “It is not the time!”
The redhead was paying close attention to her companion: healed or not, she had been the first to fall last time they fought these creatures, and she was getting dangerously close to how winded she was that night. Letting out a deep breath, Gabi pushed away the rat currently trying to eat her face and tried to focus. To “Find her center”, as the elves had told her so many times.
She needed to focus on her deepest core, feel the spark of magic that lived within her heart… and then, remember The Rune. She had to trace it, draw it in her mind, feel it carved on her very flesh.
Lucrece had a double duty then: hitting the creatures trying to overwhelm her and swinging around to keep a distance between the rats and Gabrielle. It was stressful, to say the least, and against her better judgement the lancer was very tempted to outright yell at the girl to keep up… but then she saw the sparks.
Blue sparks, flying from Gabrielle’s left arm and soon illuminating her entire body.
The lancer’s eyes widened, the rats instinctively stopped their offensive and began to recoil towards their gigantic queen, trying to shield her with their bodies. They were smart creatures, and some of the survivors from last night’s offensive had seen what that girl was capable of when shining that way.
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“Just… a bit… more…”
Pain coursed through her body like rivers shaking her entire being, Gabi needed to steel herself to stop those sensations from punching and pushing her body in uncomfortable, uncontrollable ways. She just needed to let it all build up like that one night…
But her body, suddenly, refused. Even for Gabrielle, who constantly neglected and ignored the signs, there was a limit to how much pain she could take. So before she could even realize what was happening, the light left her body in a sudden burst of crackling electricity, pushing several rats and even Lucrece herself away from the girl. All before she unceremoniously fell to the ground.
“Oh fuck…”
Now free to swear and all alone in a cave full of rats, Lucrece needed to think quickly. The beasts were already abandoning their defensive positions and running towards the unconscious redhead, leaving that bloated, screaming rat all by itself… the magical purple light coming from its belly, it had to be the key.
It was either that or just continuing to uselessly kill the rats one by one.
“Saints better be fucking watching…!”
The lancer swore once more before pulling the unconscious Gabi onto her back, taking deep breaths through her mask and rushing through the horde of biting, pulling rats to approach the one gigantic vermin that seemed to command them all. She screamed, for a moment her whole body felt weightless as she swung her lance, the adrenaline making every second pass like a whole minute, not even perceiving Gabrielle’s weight on her shoulders.
The whole world was disappearing, and all that remained was the gurgling creature and herself.
With a roaring warcry and the last of her strength, Lucrece stabbed deep in the belly of the creature. Everything in the room came to a sudden stop, the rats shaking in a sudden burst of pain crossing their entire being, while the bloated one let out a screech of agony. The girl took a step back, pulling her halberd out and noticing a shiny addition to its tip: a silvery ring harvested straight from the creature’s stomach.
“What in the blazes…?” Luci was absolutely confused, looking between the ring on her blade and the creature writing in pain in front of her. There was a clear connection here, but not one she could make without context. The only obvious solution came to her mind. “Stupid thing!”
Riding the high of that discovery, Lucrece violently slammed her weapon on the floor, repeatedly stabbing until the ring finally broke on its blade. Purple lights shone in the cave, blinding the blonde for moments that felt eternal… and when sight returned to the girl’s eyes, she was standing in the middle of a pit of corpses. Every single abomination laid on its side, twitching and suffering in place until finally stopping all motion.
The lancer fell flat on her bum, panting and gasping for air, her whole body feeling so weak and feeble from the effort. She fishes her torch from the floor, picking up flint and iron from the many pouches on her belt to ignite it, and then simply looks at the desolation around her. The stench of all these corpses will be unholy, and she knew that… she was already dreading it.
But her thoughts soon abandon those meager issues, focusing on the broken ring on the floor. The apparent cause for the entire disaster… she wouldn’t dare to even touch it again with her halberd, afraid of what that thing could do. What was more terrifying was the fact that Gabrielle was also carrying some supposedly magical rings with her, were they the same? Where did she grab them from again?
And what was stopping them from exploding or doing something nasty to them now?
Too many questions, none of them she could answer without waking up the unconscious redhead. With a frustrated sigh, and gathering as much energy as she could muster, Lucrece picked up Gabrielle and once again started limping through the pit. It had been way too much adventure for a day and maybe more.
“Alright big girl… let’s get out of here.”