N8, The Human Warriors

“Shriik.”

“Shrik!”

“Shriik?”

‘So noisy.’

I was in the empty room, our lair. The place had become quite lively, after some consideration I had decided to add two more goons to my band and now there were eleven of us, I was sure my three numbered subordinates could handle them.

Number one diligently commanded the three underlings he had taken under his wing, he even taught them some tricks from time to time, some of which hadn’t even been devised by me. That fellow was smart, if not for his loyalty I would have been very wary of him.

Number two bossed around a couple of henchmen, he basically made them do all the tasks he didn’t like, which amounted to everything that wasn’t fighting or feeding. I had to be cautious with him, it may come the day he would decide to usurp my position, but for now, he seemed to respect me.

Number three was the mildest and easygoing. He treated the two rats with him with quite some care, like younger friends of little siblings. I didn’t think I would have to worry about him. In my opinion, he was utterly uninterested in getting a better position, and would rather laze around all day.

All of them kept following my orders, each in his own way.

‘Not that I give my minions many tasks.’

Most of the activities I did with the gang had the purpose of teaching, training, and testing their limits. They needed to be ready for my future plans.

Talking about my future plans, it seemed it wouldn’t be long before I could set them in motion. I had been growing quite a bit in the past few days, my appetite has increased and it felt like all the food I was eating was being used to expand my body. I was now noticeably larger than the others and even had to move some rubble from the entrance to be able to pass without difficulties.

“Shrii, shriik.”

I made the gang pay attention to me. I had heard a noise outside. I got on my hind legs and patted the floor with my front paws twice, which made everyone stand quietly in place.

I left the lair to scout outside. Sure enough, there were humans close, I rushed back inside and laid low against the floor to signal the others they needed to keep quiet.

The humans were approaching, this wasn’t the first time they had passed in front of this room, but they had never stopped here.

Soon some light entered our hideout, I heard the sound of steps and the screeches of metal. I could tell they weren’t as heavily armed as other warriors. These groups were the ones making the most rat massacres in the corridors, those that were better equipped normally ignored the animals in the corridors on their way to the deeper parts.

The brightness increased and then decreased and the group walked past our den. I breathed a sigh of relief but stayed on the floor for a bit more time. We had been lucky that no one had decided to hunt rats in this hallway, probably because my pack was the only one remaining here and we always hid quietly in our lair, making the humans think the corridor was deserted.

I got off the ground and the room become noisy almost immediately, three of the goons started playing with each other under the watchful eye of Number One and Number Two started wrestling one of the underlings under his care.

Unfortunately, my relief didn’t last long, I was hearing the humans coming back. This time their voices resounded in the underground corridors and I quickly signaled everyone to be quiet.

“I think we should hunt some fierce rats.”

“Remember what happened last time, Rupert’s arm was wounded.”

“He was just careless.”

“Whatever, I’m the boss and we are going to hunt here, I don’t want more incidents.”

“But there are almost no monstrosities here, we are going to waste the bait.”

I had been listening to the humans quite a bit and could already understand most of their conversations.

‘Though I may be making up some of it.’

Anyway, that wasn’t important now, we were in trouble! The warriors were planning to use their lures nearby.

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I blocked the entrance with my body, I couldn’t let that damned smell enter our lair.

The humans stopped walking close to the hideout, this was the worst situation possible. If I wasn’t able to handle my gang I could lose everything I had achieved in this life.

While I was panicking for the first time in a long while I heard something hit the floor, soon enough an alluring smell began to fill the room. The members of my band perceived it and started getting restless, we were all well-fed, but the scent had something that incited us to approach its source.

“Shriik.”

The composure of my followers broke fast, they started making noises and stepping towards the exit. It was obvious they wanted to go out, I needed to keep them under control.

“See, there are rats in this hole, we won’t waste anything.”

“Srhiik!”

I snarled at the approaching members of the gang and got on my hind legs to intimidate them. I couldn’t let the situation grow out of control, if they were to get too restless and charged at me all at once it would be over.

“Shrii, shriik!” I ordered everyone to pay attention and patted the ground decisively, they had to stay down.

Unfortunately, a couple of goons didn’t obey me. I behaved aggressively, and I bit the approaching rats without mercy.

“Shriiek!”

After my painful reminder, they fell in line with the rest. I kept blocking the entrance while looking as menacing as possible. Thankfully I was currently bigger than the others, I could see Number Two eyeing me from his position, maybe pondering his chances against me.

Time passed slowly while I guarded the entrance, the members made shrieks of protest from time to time, but no one dared to defy me.

“What the hell? Why aren’t the monstrosities coming out? Should I poke at the hole?”

“Don’t do it, didn’t you hear the monitor? There may be a spawner inside.”

“He said they can swallow you whole if you get near them.”

“What if we set it on fire? We have oil.”

“No! You two, stop! That’s dangerous, we have to get into position.”

The humans argued among themselves. Thank the gods the smell had finally made its way to other packs of rats, I only needed to endure for a bit and we would likely survive.

“Be careful, there are fierce rats mixed in.”

I could also hear the beasts, the warriors seemed slightly distressed. I guessed they couldn’t be so strong if they got anxious at the sight of a few rodents.

‘And they also sound really young.’

Either way, I had no intention of joining the fray, there was nothing to gain and much that could be lost.

“Shriik!”

“SHRIIK!”

The pained screech of rats resounded in the room accompanied by the noises of a fight. The members of my band got completely quiet all of a sudden, they had finally understood what would happen if they were to venture outside.

The battle was taking an eternity. “Argh! Fucking shits,” one of the humans screamed in pain. Things were probably chaotic in the hallway, I could hear rat shrieking, bodies crashing, and flesh being cut. There were also a few loud instances of metal hitting stone. The light entering our room also flashed as the humans’ and rats’ shadows got in the way. They were cast on my followers who were completely paralyzed, I could almost see the terror on their faces.

After a while, the turmoil quieted down, and only a few pained squeals remained in the hallways.

“Damn, one of them bit my back.”

“Bert, take care of Rupert, the rest, help me cut their ears, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“What about the fuckers in the tunnel?”

“Don’t stir them up, we need to go before other monstrosities come.”

Finally, the humans ended their business and their steps disappeared down the corridor. I wondered why they wanted rat ears, surely they wouldn’t make collars with them. Maybe they were proof that they had done their job, I had already noticed the carcasses left behind by the warriors had been missing ears lately.

‘It must be population control.’

The rats in the hallways weren’t a real danger for the humans, but I had noticed some packs harassing them when they passed by carrying the corpses of other creatures.

‘From their point of view, it must be akin to taking care of pests.’

The hallway had been deserted for a while and I left the lair along with my gang. The scene of the massacre wasn’t much different than the others I had seen before, the most distinct details were the corpses of three big rats.

‘I guess these are what they call fierce rats.’

Noting the name in my mind I munched one of the remaining bits of the smelly bait, I had eaten some of the crumbs left behind in other places and they didn’t seem to be poisonous. Of course, I had let one of the goons taste it first.

The few lure pieces were eaten by me and my three subordinates, they were sweet and delicious, far more delicious than anything else in these underground hallways. The goons had to make do with the bodies of the dead.

I decided to eat one of the big rats, or fierce rats, as those humans called them. Its flesh was hard and difficult to chew, but this was a rare opportunity and it might help me to grow faster.

There was way too much food here, after eating my fill I ordered everyone to pull a few carcasses into our den, they would feed us for a few days as long as we kept the crabs at bay. I was a bit concerned the corpses could attract other animals, but not many of them remained nearby.

At last, the danger had passed and my band was intact, we had even profited from it.

‘But I can’t relax.’

This had reminded me of the danger warriors posed. I had to hasten my plans! I would begin to work on my scheme to take down a lizard. If we were capable of killing them we would not only obtain a source of meat, but we would also be able to explore the deeper parts of this place.