Both she and him went over possibilities of how he could get out and close the distance on the crossbow rat without him using his energy manifestation. Sure he could have handled the Rat Kin without the energy manifestation but he was probably going to need the skill to fight the king and he was still in bad shape. Perhaps it wasn’t horrible shape, sure, but running the risk of putting him in horrible shape increased greatly should he need to use the skill.
Sadly they didn’t have a whole lot of options as Quill readied up an armored rat corpse to use as a shield, with the longsword and club sheathed on his already worn belt. He just needed it to stop whatever bolt would be launched at him from the first shot.
Once he was ready and with a word of encouragement from her, he took a deep breath and leapt up from the tunnels and past the trap door, keeping his body tucked safely behind the Rat Kins corpse. A solid thunk could be felt as a crossbow bolt hit the body, but it had served its purpose and he quickly ditched the carcass and started to charge the Rat Kin who was standing half way up on the stairs already taking aim with his next bolt.
He knew he was capable of dodging the bolts which is why he didn’t keep the corpse shield as it would only be a hindrance. Sure enough the next bolt was fired and he easily managed to dodge it thanks to his survival instincts, enhanced reflexes and dodge skill working in tandem. He wasn’t really expecting the massive explosion erupting behind him and throwing him off his feet though as he hit the ground with a yelp.
“Fucking piece of!!! That was a regular bol-Shit!” He barely managed to roll out of the way from the third bolt that thankfully didn’t explode.
“He has skills, I guess that explosion was one of them. You’ve gotten the drop on most of the rats with skills before they had any chance to really use them.” She responded with helpful commentary and he cursed a little more as he started to begin his charge again.
He hadn’t used the explosion bolt on the third shot or the fourth that just whizzed by his head, so he obviously wasn’t able to do it again or at least yet. He needed to get close and preferably kill him before the Rat Kin could fire another explosion bolt.
By the time he reached pay gate the Rat Kin fired their 5th bolt only this bolt started to multiply super quickly and Quill realized that by the time the bolts would reach him, there would be nowhere he would be able to dodge.
Cursing he summoned up a small shield he could duck his body behind just as all the bolts were about to hit with multiple thuds hitting the manifestation. He felt light headed and almost fell to the floor from the extreme dizziness but thankfully his skin didn’t immediately split open which he counted as a small blessing.
Once he blocked all the bolts he quickly dissipated the shield and stumbled forward as he tried to get his feet moving underneath him. He let out a stubborn snarl, barely managing to keep his balance while pushing his feet forward. A crossbow bolt slammed into his thigh and he almost fell again before starting to climb the stairs, using his hands to help with the balance as he charged up.
The Rat Kin aimed their crossbow again and Quill threw his club, hitting the crossbow and knocking it away as it fired. This allowed him to close the distance and jam the sword into the rats stomach with a desperate tackle and they both started to roll back down the stairs, with him spewing curses the whole way down.
Finally they hit the ground floor and he forced himself up from where he landed. Quickly gripping the sword still impaled in the rats gut who landed just a few feet from him, he yanked it out and brought it down several more times until he got the kill notification. Finally collapsing to the ground, breathing heavily.
“That was messy and sadly wasn’t as slow as I would have liked but thank you for killing him for me. You sure know how to treat a gal.”
Quill swallowed, really wishing he had at least some water on him as he slowly stood up and began walking up the stairs “I didn’t do it for you. I did it because I needed to.” He found himself reflexively saying and almost winced expecting some kind of backlash but instead she simply responded.
“You can lie to yourself but not to me. I know some part of you did it cause you wanted to please me. And that is what I love about you. Always so eager to make me happy~”
He kept his mouth shut as he stepped forward. It was just the king now. He didn’t really know if he had the energy to kill him but he needed to try. It wasn’t like he was in a position to not.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Part way up the stairs he grabbed the dropped crossbow and noted it was definitely better then the one had been using. Loading it up he made his way to the top of the stairs when the king still sat on his throne but without any more subjects to defend him.
The king started to tap his claw on his scepter as he glared at Quill before speaking “Congratulations human. I have decided to accept you into my kingdom. You shall be my new royal guard!”
The words he spoke… Didn’t make sense. Again he felt some kind of compulsion to listen but why would he bother. So he started walking closer to the rat king as he knew he was going to need to get closer if he actually wanted to have a chance of hitting him.
The rat king snarled and stood up from his throne “You will serve under me!”
Again, a small compulsion but nothing he felt the need to follow so he got closer.
“You will obey my command! I will create a kingdom that will allow me to rule the whole multiverse and you will SERVE!”
He heard her snarl in his head before his arms snapped upward without any input from him and pulled the trigger of the crossbow. Firing it straight into the rat's crotch which elicited a shriek of pain that Quill couldn’t help but flinch at witnessing.
“Hurry up and kill this fucking piece of shit who would DARE to even suggest that you would serve under someone other then me! Kill him now!!” Her voice echoed through his head causing his vision to seemingly crack as reality itself became distorted.
He had to bite his lip just to keep himself grounded as he started to rush towards the rat with the sword he held and brought it down on the still screaming king. He had trouble getting past its robes so he brought the second blow down on the king's neck. It took several hacks but he finally decapitated the king and got the kill notification in the process.
Killed Rat Kin level 25. Experience gained
Congratulations! You have earned the achievement “Apex”
To kill something a grade above you without any outside help from friends, family, allies or enemies is a feat very few have accomplished. Try not to let it go to your head.
1 stat point awarded to all three attributes.
Error! Could not distribute stat to soul, redistributing evenly towards body and mind.
That was when a grey smoked hand shot out from his body and towards the king's body, grabbing at something invisible just a few inches above.
Then he barely saw it. A small golden pebble, no bigger than a pea. It was there until a grey hand crushed it. Utterly dissipating everything that it was and ever will be. He felt every part of him shudder at something he did not understand but knew what he just witnessed was something horrifying. The grey hand dissipated soon after.
Before he could even ask what had happened her voice spoke through his head “Questions later. You need to go destroy those spawners, you are in bad shape and could really use that healing potion along with the stamina and mana ones too.”
Yeah. He couldn’t really argue there. This quest needed to be finished as soon as possible. It was probably the biggest blessing that the rat king didn’t put up much of a fight at all. Where were the spawners though?
“Straight ahead, they are at the end of the tunnel.”
He nodded at that and walked past the throne and towards the back of the tunnel. His mind felt heavy and his own movement felt like it wasn’t entirely his own, which they might not be now that he thought about it.
“Worry about non-issues later. Focus up.” Yeah, focus. He stumbled forward. Walking past another set of tunnels on both his left and right, then past the final set of tunnels, all of which he assumed would lead to another station.
At the end of the tunnel he saw something that kind of looked like a metal lotus that was maybe 5 feet in diameter. There were 2, side by side with each other. He walked towards one and as he got close to it a sudden system prompt popped up in front of his face.
Rat Kin Spawner-low quality
Unranked
Unclaimed
Can spawn 20 unranked level 1 rat kins once or 1 G ranked level 5 Rat Kin once with a cooldown of 24 hours.
Would you like to claim this spawner?
Quill promptly hit no on the spawner and got a second notification.
Would you like to destroy this spawner?
Well that was far easier than he expected. He was half worried he was going to have to feed the thing to a cursed sin or something to destroy it. He promptly hit yes and watched as the spawner simply crumbled into dust. Not as flashy as he was expecting but hey it was destroyed.
He turned his attention to the second spawner and tapped it.
Dire rat spawner-low quality
Unranked
Unclaimed
Can spawn 20 unranked level 1 dire rats once or 1 G ranked level 5 dire rat once with a cooldown of 24 hours. Has a very slim possibility to spawn a diseased dire rat.
Would you like to claim this spawner?
Quill quickly hit no and when he got the notification to destroy hit yes and watched as that spawner also crumbled into dust. Just like that, it was done. He finished his first quest…..yay.