The place he was led to wasn’t something he had expected. It could best be described as a dome with two points of entry. One that they just came through and one on the opposite end. He wasn’t sure what a dome had to do with the metro system but perhaps the system took a few liberties in things. It was a defective piece of junk after all.
Iirilac gestured for him to head over to a side of the wall that was far away from either entry points and as Quill walked over Iirilac revealed a trap door that held just enough space for him to fit in.
“Wait here and be ready to ambush them. I will be hiding in the tunnels reading my own ambush in case things go south. And try to die. It will make this whole operation harder with your death.” He spoke in a way that was hard to figure out if the Rat Kin was teasing him or not.
“How thoughtful.” Quill muttered and squeezed into the space. The Rat Kin then shut the door on him, leaving just enough space for him to peek out. It was a good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic. But then again, if he was he probably would have freaked out long ago with how small some of these tunnels were.
He wasn’t so naive as to think Iirilac was only just planning on an ambush in the tunnels as well. He felt like this whole thing was likely to see what Quill was capable of too. He would need to make sure he kept some of his bag of tricks to himself just in case. Assuming the situation allowed for him to do so.
So he just sort of sat there. Nothing much to do and he realized it was kind of crazy he was just going along with the plans of the Rat Kin who stated that they were allies of convenience and wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if it meant saving their own kind.
“Good thing you actually are crazy. So you are at least keeping up with appearances”
“Not crazy” He grumbled
They sat there for a little while longer but finally, thanks to his enhanced hearing, he heard commotion and slowly shifted from his spot. However what came out of the tunnels wasn't Rat Kin like he had expected. But rather large bipedal roaches that stood about 4 feet tall. Cockroaches to be exact. Likely American too if he were to hazard a guess.
“The hell? Why would you know so much about roaches?”
‘I spent some time collecting bugs as a kid’ He mentally responded to her so as to not attract the roaches' attention. They were now spreading out through the dome, chittering amongst themselves, likely saying something that he just didn’t understand.
“You collected bugs? Why?”
‘Cause when I tried to collect foxes, squirrels, raccoons and coyotes, I got beaten’ He mentally responded, trying to not lose focus on what the roaches were doing as unpleasant memories threatened to resurface.
“Huh… Well, it looks like my kill list got a little bit longer.”
‘Please tell me that isn’t an actual list’ he shot back in his head
“Okay… I won’t tell you”
He almost let out a groan but had to file that conversation in the “to be continued later” category. He didn’t and couldn’t get distracted now that he saw the roaches setting up what looked like their own ambush as well.
They didn’t seem to have any armor but seeing as they had exoskeletons he wasn’t sure how much that was needed. Though their human-like hands were clasping a bunch of makeshift daggers, clubs and swords. They quickly started spreading out with several hiding into darker areas of the dome, many went and started climbing the walls and ceiling. Leaving only a few to stand in the center out in the open likely to be live bait.
Something that especially caught his attention was 20 of the roaches that were carrying several netted bags of large rocks and were positioned just above the entrance that he came through. Several of the largest roaches also took up a position by the other door across the dome where Iirilac went, likely to prevent any escape to be made.
It was only after they seemed to all go into position that they stilled and the silence of the area suddenly became deafening. It was disconcerting how none of them moved, not even a twitching antenna.
The silence probably would have frayed his nerves if he didn’t have her voice singing various songs in his head. He didn’t even know how she was doing instrument noises and she refused to tell him when he asked but it actually helped pass the time and not make him start freaking out over just waiting. The distraction was greatly appreciated in this instance.
It took a little bit but soon there were the faint sounds of marching which was eventually followed by squeaking and growls. The roaches that were all hiding didn’t so much as twitch at the sounds and Quill wasn’t sure if it was because they hadn’t heard them yet or if they were really that still. As the sound grew louder though he had to conclude that they were really that capable of staying still.
Only the roaches in the center had any movement. Pretending like they were panicking as they drew their blades to the ready like they were about to make some defiant last stand.
Soon the Rat Kin started screeching and they all came pouring out of the tunnel with several adult sized dire rats in toe. There wasn’t any cohesion to their ranks and their forces weren’t as large as the roaches but they were much better weapons than them and were much bigger.
The moment the last one came charging out of the tunnel the roaches hiding above the entrance dropped the stones and boulders blocking the entrance and that's when every other roach started falling from the ceiling with the ones hiding in the far off shadows of the wall charging in.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Despite being caught by surprise, the Rat kins quickly rallied and the whole thing broke out into a brawl. For every Rat Kin that fell, several roaches fell also. Quill was half tempted to stay seated in his little hiding hole and let the whole thing play out and then try to finish off the rest. At least that is what a rational person would do.
“Good thing you aren’t rational then” She teased.
“Wouldn’t really call that a good thing” Quill responded as he readied up his daggers. He was only going to use his energy manifestation in subtle ways to prevent Iirilac from getting too much info on him.
When a roach landed on the ground near him from where he hid, he leapt out of his hiding hole and on top of the roach, slammed his daggers into the roaches' carapace. It was difficult to penetrate the outer shell but his bonus strength from all the stat points put into body allowed him to break through which elicited surprised shrieks from the cockroach as Quill stabbed it a couple more times, giving him a kill notification.
Despite wanting to check out the notification his survival instinct skill went haywire and he quickly rolled away as another roach landed right where he used to be. He jumped on to that one as well before it had time to turn to him. His fighting style of jumping onto and stabbing the thing until it died hadn’t failed him yet and it didn’t fail him now. Several stabs later ensured the roach wouldn’t be moving again.
Most of the fighting was thankfully congregated towards the center of the dome so nothing else took notice of the third actor at play, and taking advantage of his new found stealth, Quill rushed to a straggler roach and dispatched it with relative ease.
The roaches didn’t seem to be as strong at the Rat Kin but they made up for it in numbers. But if the numbers weren’t there, then that advantage was gone. Quill managed to kill several more roaches before finally a group that had just finished off their Rat Kin took notice and with irritable shrieks and charged him.
Quill quickly backpedaled. Dodging their blows with relative ease while slashing with his daggers. Letting some of his energy manifestation extend from his daggers so as to subtly hurt and kill the roaches that were attacking him. He hoped Iirilac wouldn’t notice at least.
He soon managed to dispatch the roaches, and then started to move through the groups, killing what roaches and rats he could. He wouldn’t call it easy per say but it was a lot easier then he had been expecting.
The roaches and rats were far more interested in trying to kill each other than kill him. Even when he started to kill the ones in their groups, it was mostly just one or two who switched their attention to the third party. It also helped greatly that many were already sporting wounds when they engaged too.
Quill soon dispatched the last of the forces which was a heavily armored but wounded Rat Kin. It was a good thing too. Despite the ease of all the fights he went through, he was still breathing rather hard. He had a lick of multiple cuts, scratches and minor wounds littering his body with the leather armor probably preventing some of the more serious damages. He also was starting to feel the beginning signs of over taxation with his energy manifestation skill with the slight headache. His muscles were also sore though that could have also just been through how much he just physically exerted himself.
Quill plopped down on the ground with a small groan and took out one of the potion vials he filled with water and drank it with enthusiasm as he checked his system notifications.
You have leveled up to level 13
You have leveled up to level 14
You have leveled up to level 15
Congratulations! You have earned a free class skill! Select class skill?
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Stealth (Common)
Sneaky sneaky sneaky. You have gotten better at going by unseen. Surely you would only use such a power for good, not for anything nefarious, right? Right????
Dodge has leveled up to level 5
Survival instincts has leveled up to level 2
Well those were some good gains for something he felt was a little too easy. Before he could open up his status screen and look at everything, Iirilac came limping towards him with a grin plastered on his face.
“Well that went far better than I expected. Sorry I couldn’t come to your aid. I was busy dealing with the roaches that had blocked off the tunnel. They were fairly strong but obviously not strong enough.” he spoke with pride in his voice.
He looked around the carnage that was displayed around the whole dome “And I see you have accomplished your part. Though I will say you fight like a child throwing a tantrum”
“Why thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment human.”
“Given my little experience in combat I will certainly take it as one.” Quill retorted
Iirilac shook his head in amusement and began to check the dead for any potential and useful loot. Quill just sat on the ground trying to recover.
“Hey. You should ask him for that map now. If you two ever do get separated it would be good to have a randevu point.”
He saw her point and called out to Iirilac “Hey. About that map. We can use this dome as a point to meet if we ever get separated but I’ll need to get a better idea of the layout if we are to do that.”
Iirilac tilted his head briefly before nodding and reached into his cloak before pulling out a rolled up piece of leather and showed it to Quill.
“This is where we are here” He tapped one of his claws on the leather map that was filled with twisted tunnels. It was close to the edge. “This is where we are going.” He then gestured towards the far right where the words “Grand Station” was written “That is where the rat king has his base located. As you can see, on the other side is where the roach king lives in the other grand station” He then pointed to the far left side.
Quill took the map and looked it over briefly. He noted that Ssevinac was hiding in the station that was the farthest to the north. There were also several other domes littered throughout the tunnel complex.
He looked up at Iirilac about to thank him when his Rat Tail suddenly formed out of nowhere and without his doing before shooting forward with the tip right into Iirilacs chest.
Both Quill and Iirilac looked at the Rat Tail with shock and confusion before the tail whipped around and stabbed Iirilac five more times. Three in the chest, once in the neck and once in the face, threading through the Rat Kins body like it was nothing. Finally the rope part shot spikes outward. Making the dead body jerk and convulse from his innards being made into soup before the manifestation finally dissipated.
Quill watched in horror as the rogue dropped dead and lifeless to the floor.
Killed Rat Kin level 18. Experience gained
You have leveled up to lvl 16
Congratulations. You have earned the achievement “Professional lawyer”
It takes balls to sign a system imposed contract and find a loophole to take advantage of. Congrats!
.5 stat awarded to mind
Pseudo energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 3
“I told you didn’t I” Her voice echoed through his head sending a chill that caused his body to shudder “He was dead the moment he placed that blade to your neck and threatened your life”