The girl's movement had caught the Stakor's attention, and her captor jabbed her in the side with the knob of the spear shaft. The girl moaned painfully.

Rolf furrowed his brow as his mind raced.

"What should I do?"

The urge of charging out of his cover to confront these rat men was throbbing in his brain. However, he realized that he was severely out numbered. Even if he could kill one or two Stakors and get close enough to the girl, then what ? They would be surrounded by stinky rats armed to the teeth. The notion of going out from his hiding was so crazy and absurd that Rolf was scared by his urge to do so. However, The girl's pained face and her agonizing moan gripped Rolf's heart.

"Why? Why would I care about her? " Rolf asked himself. He tried to look away from the girl, but failed. The girl's body slumped on the ground in her impending death; half of her hair had been pulled out from a pony tail and now hang loosely over her face. She looked indignant and helpless, just like when Rolf was attacked by Hoder and other bullies.

Rolf knew how she felt. He felt the same hopelessness, loneliness and fear when he thought his life was hanging on a thread—except for her life was truly in danger, which made her pain all that more vivid to Rolf. Then he realized that he was not looking at a girl who he had never met, he was looking at a mirror, and the girl was a reflection of himself.

If he doesn't do anything, he was no better than the indifferent and calloused onlookers that stood by and laughed at him while he was beaten up by Hoder. Their indifference often hurt Rolf much more than a few punches and kicks of a bully and the pain they inflicted lasted much longer.

Had he not become one of those onlookers that he loathed so much?

A heavy thud broke Rolf's train of thought; it came from behind the smoke. Then there were terrible sounds of something sharp tearing through skin, the snapping of bones and sinews, and blood gurgling in a mouth.

"Rats are hungry..." The words of the ratmen harked back to Rolf.

The ratmen were going to feast on their spoils, and the leader of the Stakors were going to pick his share of the meal first.

The girl moved again, trying to crawl away. Her captor jabbed heavily at the back of her head. She let out a cry that silenced the munching noise behind the smoke; she had caught the pack leader's attention.

Even the girl's captor seemed frustrated by the development as he stepped into the leader's line of sight, trying to conceal his precious meal behind his frame.

Rolf's heart was caught in his throat as the heavy foot step approached the girl. He clenched the handle of his stone hammer and was ready to lash out.

A massive frame walked out of the smoke, and Rolf finally saw the leader of the Stakors whose name he remembered was Axtlutl. Axtlutl zeroed in onto the girl's captor, pushed him out of the away with ease and looked down at the whimpering girl. Fear was written all of over her face when she saw the grotesque creature loomed above her.

Like the other Stakors, Axtlutl was covered with wounds, but most of them were banged with rags. A large scare ran across his face from one corner of the lips to the opposite eye. Whatever had left the scare on Axtlutl's face had also gauged one of his eyes and had permanently fractured his nose: It was an ugly sight to behold.

Axtlutl was clad in much better armor than his soldiers. He wore a iron cap with serrated edges and a row of spike ridge that ran from the front to back of the helmet. A curved iron plat covered his hunched back and it was connected by iron chains to a circular metal plate that protected his chest. Leather strips fastened a knee guard onto his left knee and both elbows were protected by boiled leather pieces.

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Even as Rolf slowly stood up onto his knees and was ready to hop off the roof to save the girl, something else happened.

Hackles raised and fangs bared, the girl's former captor started hissing at Axtlutl with rancor.

"Upi found it firs-ss-t." The rat man managed to let out a few words.

Axtlutl snorted and didn't spare Upi a glance at first. His eyes was fixated on the body of the human girl with carnivorous intent. Two threads of gooy yellow saliva hand at the corner of his lips where the fang protruded out; he was drooling already

Upi might have moved foreword an inch, Rolf couldn't tell from a distance, but Axtlutl suddenly jerked his head to a side and snarled at Upi, stopping Upi cold in his track. However, Upi didn't back down, his eyes shifted cautiously between his prize and his commander as he dug in for a second round.

By then, Axtlutl had also turned around to face his challenger. They were surrounded by a circle of agitated rat man. The promise of a fight made them hiss and cheer loudly. Rolf could not tell whom they were cheering for, maybe they didn't care and they were only excited to see a brawl.

Upi arched his back and locked his eyes onto his opponent. Either of them moved for a few seconds as they observed each other intensely. Suddenly, Upi lashed out and threw himself at Axtlutl; he didn't even use his spear, his clawed hands went straight for Axtlutl's throat.

Axtlutl's dark eyes glinted but he didn't move until Upi's claw was only a few inches away from him. He yanked an arm up and caught Upi's throat and lifted him up into the air with ease.

Upi kicked his feet in the air helplessly and reached out his arm as far as he could; Axtlutl's throat was right next to his claw tip, but it seemed as if it was miles away.

Axtlutl squeezed his challenger's neck until the latter started to wheeze. Upi gave up his pursuit on Axtlutl's windpipe as the choking hold suffocated him. He tired to pry lose the large fingers wrapped around his neck, but the hold was iron, and it was tightening by the second.

Axtlutl's black claws slowly dug through Upi's leathery neck, into the flesh and sinews until it found and sever the artery. Blood squirted out from where the claw was buried, splattering onto the ground and some droplets found the skin of near by Stakors.

The sight of blood send the rest of the Stakors into a state of frenzied euphoria. Some licked Upi's blood off of their skin with maddening enthusiasm.

"No... I definitely don't have loving Rat parents." Rolf thought to himself.

Blood ran down from Upi's neck until it reached his feet. Upi had stopped kicking a few moments ago and by then a pool of black blood had already formed under his feet.

Axtlutl snorted and dropped Upi's lifeless body to the ground. One of the agitated Stakor quickly grabbed Upi's leg, pulled it toward him and started to disembowel Upi. He hurried and went straight for the best part: the tender liver and the pulsing heart, before his brethren followed suit.

"Rats are hungry..." The lisping voice rang in Rolf's ears again.