Kayd dug his hands into the rock and pushed himself off the wall, crashing down hard to the floor.

Instead of a hearty meal, the beast slammed face first into rock, momentarily stunned just long enough for Ikari to drag Kayd away.

The beast’s body created a cloud of pebbles and dust around it, almost covering its entire body.

“Took you long enough!” Ishmael yelled to Mian.

“Looks like just a larger rat, we can take care of it.” With his team, they moved towards the beast, ignoring Ishmael’s plea to stay away.

Once Mian and his subordinates were steps away from the cloud, they heard it. A low grumble from the beast, getting up from the floor. At this point, the cloud had vanished.

It bellowed, staring at them with the same focused and vicious stare it gave to Kayd, bearing its teeth with drool leaking out of its jaws.

It swung its claw forward with the same speed as before, slashing at Mian and a few others. Cathy and Linton charged forward, driving their weapons into the beast’s fur. But to their horror, rather than a clean pierce-through, their weapons bounced off with a spark, not even damaging the thing.

The two stepped back, and hastily began to run. But the beast ran in front of them, ignoring the rest of Mian’s team and focusing on the two, its unflinching gaze like a cat hunting mice.

It slashed with its claw again, hitting Linton and nearly cutting him clean in half, his leather armor cut through with ease. Cathy was knocked back by the strike, sliding across the floor in a daze.

With Linton gone, the beast immediately looked at Cathy and rushed for her. She raised her arm to protect herself, and the beast locked its jaws around it. Cathy screamed, punching the beast with her other hand as it raised her up.

With her arm still stuck in its mouth, the beast clamped down its teeth, digging deeper into Cathy’s arm. As she writhed in pain, the beast cared not for her struggle, turning its head towards the remaining team members.

Ikari fired multiple arrows at it, each one simply bouncing off its thick skin. Nothing seemed to work against the beast’s fur.

With its claws, it slashed away at Mian’s crew, knocking several away while goring a few unfortunate souls, their fear and screams cut short by the sharp claws.

“If that thing doesn’t die, not only will we lose more people, but the element of surprise,” Ishmael muttered. On the floor and away from the carnage, an idea hit Kayd.

Our weapons and arrows did nothing to it, all except…

He grabbed the explosive stick on his waist, and a new plan formed in his mind.

Despite his injuries, Kayd limped towards the beast, each step causing more pain. Once close enough, he grabbed the string.

I hope this works.

What remained of Mian’s teammates ran around the wicked creature, dashing the beast’s attacks with what energy remained from their bleeding and heavily wounded bodies, all the while Cathy remained in its jaws.

Kayd yanked the string and heard that same sizzling sound emanate from it.

He tossed the stick at the creature, dropping down quickly after, unable to handle the pain.

It crept up towards Mian, on the ground with a deep gash through his armor and buried into his chest. He raised his sword and tried moving away, but the beast felt no pity. It raised its claw to end the greenhorn’s suffering.

The stick struck its back, and in an instant, detonated. A flash of yellow followed by a deafening boom knocked everyone down.

Their ears rang and their eyes were temporarily blinded, but it worked. A clump of flesh and crimson liquid fell from the beast's newly acquired wound and it released Cathy from its jaws while screeching in pain.

“Kill it!” The creature’s weakness was found, everyone else still in the fight took out their explosives and rushed towards the crippled rat, now crawling towards them with an open mouth to eat them whole, furious and unrelenting, pushing through the pain.

Quellin and Ishmael tossed their explosives, both landing and blowing up the creature’s face and chest. It stumbled back, the rest of its body covered in burnt hair, exposed flesh, and blood.

Before it took its final breath, the beast used its remaining strength and slashed at Kayd. Delivering a last blow, the beast crashed into the rock beneath it, causing it to crack under the weight.

Kayd crashed onto the ground, apart from new slash wounds, his arm was gone. Again.

“Lia, heal the wounded,” Ishmael hastily ordered.

“Heal the critically injured, less lethal wounds should not get a heal from you, only medicine and bandages,” Quellin added, already picking up a few of the wounded.

Lia waved her glowing staff over Kayd, removing both the pain and the lacerations across his body. She was not done though, taking a few vials from her bag and making Kayd drink each one.

Ikari and Ishmael stared at the dead rat. Enamored and curious, but also weary and terrified. Is this the only one in the den? The curious but grim thought crossed their minds.

Ishmael took out her hatchet, tapping it against the fur of the beast, a clanging sound responded to each tap.

“It really is metal”

Rather than being engrossed in the armor and anatomy of the beast, Ikari was more focused on the head, specifically if she could get it off to add to her collection.

“There is no name for this thing yet, but I suppose we could just call it Rat King,” Ishmael explained, looking to Ikari for her thoughts.

“Rat king sounds like a pretty cool name,” The two continued looking at the beast, but after a minute, the needle-like fur began disintegrating into dust and shortly after the rest of its corpse, to their sorrow hoping to study it further.

“A shame…aside from that, your clever trick worked,” Ishmael smirked, showing the crimson-smeared blood on her clothes.

“Just a common tactic we used before in hunting,” Ikari replied with a smile.

“How about teaching me more of those tricks? We would surely need it soon.”

“Of course!” Ishmael patted her on the back before walking to Mian, switching her demeanor to one of irritation.

“Should have stayed quiet and cautious, we were lucky that the queen died before you arrived.” Mian knelt next to Linton’s corpse. Someone died under Mian's leadership for the first time in the journey.

Kayd got up from the ground, patched up, and ready to fight again with Lia flashing a quick smile behind him for a job well done.

“Thanks,” He thanked Lia as Ikari walked towards him.

“No problem, and you lost your arm again.” She laughed, lightly jabbing his healed arm.

The area felt devoid of life, not even the feeling of being watched lingered here.

Where do we go now?

Looking around, there didn’t seem to be any sign of another major entrance, just more insignificant and countless small tunnels.

Ishmael berated Mian for a minute more before stopping and looking around. Mian covered his face for a moment, wiping it before ordering one of his unwounded subordinates to carry the mangled corpse of Linton back to the surface through the tunnel they used.

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“If my memory serves well, the path deeper into this den should be around here, but it looks like it’s gone.” Ishmael traced the wall with her hands, trying to find that possible entrance. Quickly moving on from just berating Mian with genuine frustration.

While walking along the walls, she noticed something behind a pile of bones and swords. A faint blue glow.

Ishmael kicked the pile with great force, sending bone fragments and rusted weapons clattering to the floor.

A hole larger than the rest revealed itself, just behind the mountain. Glowing moss lit up the way ahead.

“Let’s go, this time sticking together,” Ishmael spoke the last few words with eyes glaring at Mian. Lia was the last to go in, picking up what the rat queen dropped before running back to the team.

Their journey resumed, they had used half their explosives to kill the beast, hoping it could still be enough for the den itself

So explosions are its weakness, shame we have a few left now.

The muffled sound of flowing water above was the only noise they could hear while traversing down, giving an unnerving feeling throughout their way on the dark path.

The tunnel quickly descended downwards at an angle, and from above water began trickling down on their heads.

Mian and the others walked slower, their faces filled with dejection and hatred.

Looks like the first time this has happened

Kayd felt some pity for them, even if he found the team annoying, none should feel the grief of losing a comrade. A similar feeling was present with Ikari but weaker.

—---

It took only a short time before they reached the second platform. It looked similar to the first platform, this time with a hole in the middle. Water flowed down like waterfalls onto the floor from small breaches in the ceiling, all going down the hole.

Dried trails of blood from the sparse few tunnels that were bored into the walls led down to it as well.

For rats, they make decent homes, just not so clean ones.

A heavy stone sat near the ledge, cracked but sturdy.

Ishmael tried pushing it, but it didn’t budge

Looking down the hole, a black void peered back at them. Cold winds, moving water, and even the faint noise of rats emerged from it, followed by the smell of blood and a feeling of dread.

While Ishmael tied the rope around the rock, Lia started studying the moss, even grabbing some and putting it in an empty jar from her bag.

The others did not share the same curiosity and enthusiasm, simply standing around the rock.

Mian stood with his remaining teammates. His face remained emotionless while his teammates whispered to one another, on the verge of tears or still enraged after losing a teammate.

Kayd looked at Lia again, feeling a bit of curiosity, similar to how he felt when reading the books of the temple. He walked towards her.

“How many things do you have in that bag?” Lia was startled upon hearing Kayd crouch next to her. An opened notebook rested next to her, its pages filled in black writings and illustration.

“Oh- Umm, a lot.” She forced a nervous laugh before returning to scooping up the moss.

“Does it look like anything you saw before? Like those mushrooms?” She stared at a handful of moss for a bit after Kayd asked.

“Not really, I only saw green ones. But not blue glowing moss.” She turned the pages of her notebook, landing on a page with a rough illustration of a clump of moss. Above and below it was just text explaining what it was.

Kayd felt interested in the journal, reminding him of the books from Master Carwel’s temple.

Hmm, I don’t think there were many books on flowers in that temple, none of these look familiar to me at all.

He flipped through the pages, while Lia remained oblivious to what was going on.

Page by page, he was surprised by the details of the flora in the book, he only recognized a few, but the rest seemed to be from farther lands.

“You like flowers too?” She asked in a meek voice.

“Maybe, I just like knowledge. These drawings also look nice.” She hid her cheeks with her cloak, startled by the compliment.

“They’re just stupid illustrations, nothing special. I’m no artist anyway, hehe.” She returned to the same self-defeating attitude, even after a few words being spoken.

“How long were you doing this for?” Kayd browsed through more pages, seeing dozens of drawings and descriptions of flora, from flowers to vines and even trees.

“Ever since I became a healer. You look interested in the journal. Didn’t know swordsmen would like dumb herbs and roses.” Kayd laughed at her response.

“I read many books before, not a lot on flowers though, so I want to read more on it.”

“Really? Well, not many scholars or writers make stuff purely on flowers.” Lia began to ramble for a short time, her stuttering and fears disappeared and she explained random flowers and trivia.

It came to a halt as Quellin walked over to them.

“Resume your gathering later, we must start moving again.” Lia nodded her head and scooped up a final piece of moss from the wall, placing it inside the jar. It resembled a makeshift lamp that could light up a good amount of the area around them.

Lia paused for a moment, looking at the journal in her hand and Kayd as if wanting to do or say something. But she shook her head and placed it inside her bag, walking towards the rock.

Kayd felt puzzled, but the objective was of more concern at the moment.

Ishmael tugged on the rope, now tied around the rock.

“That should hold for a while, now for that rat queen.” She pushed the rest of the rope down, waiting a few seconds and grabbing onto it.

“Once we get down, the queen will be up ahead. Just prepare your sticks.” After her reminder, Ishmael slid down the rope, quickly going below the void.

Before, they only threw bombs down the hole, now they have to enter it. But even with his reservations, Kayd had no choice but to obey and see the mission to the end.

As long as I get that title, as long as i get it...

Next to him, Mian was muttering to himself, like a whimpering child.

“She’s alive…She was just knocked out…She has to be…” The words broke him for a moment, pitying the prideful youngster, even if he deserved such an outcome due to their recklessness.

The rest followed after Ishmael, with Kayd being one of the last. As he descended, the dark consumed his vision, the light from above becoming fainter as he went down the rope.

—--

A cold chill brushed against his coat and body, no longer seeing the light above.

He had gotten a bit used to these kinds of missions, but couldn’t get over the odor and the pain, and worry of seeing bigger rats.

Never have I thought of having to kill giant rats, I was expecting to just kill a dragon or a giant wolf. Not this…

His boots were immediately soaked in water upon reaching the ground. The only light accompanying them being the torch of Ishmael.

The water reached up Kayd’s shins, and the area around them was pitch black, the noise and smell were far stronger once they were at the bottom.

“Where do we go now, Captain Ishmael?” Kayd asked, Ishmael waved her torch around for a moment before turning to everyone.

“This area is the trickiest section of the den, it’s a maze. And a big one at that. Meant for rapid movement of rats in and out of this den to the top.” She took a few steps ahead, and above her a dirt arch was illuminated, introducing the tunnel they will take.

Cold winds kept brushing against them. Surrounded by nothing but black, and with no light to see the walls of this place, Kayd felt extremely small while standing around.

How big is this den!? And it also has a maze!?

The situation kept getting more and more confusing. Ishmael and Mian both stood together, his team behind him. Lia hugged her bag and leaned against Quellin, who kept a stoic posture and expression with both hands gripping his sword.

Ikari observed the area, taking in the smell and sounds with a mix of disgust and interest.

“A maze? Shouldn’t be so hard to navigate, like an uncharted piece of forest.” She remarked.

A select few memories came to Kayd, trying to recall any knowledge he may have had on their predicament.

Maze…A few fortresses had mazes, either for training or defense. The question now though is how did I get through them easily?

“We are losing time, start moving.” Ishmael gestured for everyone to follow. She looked on with a face of eagerness, while Mian and his team were indifferent or still pissed, clutching their weapons tightly with dried blood staining most of their clothes, along with a few patched wounds from the previous battle.

Passing above the dirt arch, the team had begun their next objective, passing through this maze.

Kayd looked at his team, a mix of fear and weariness stayed in his mind. He held his blade, swallowing the fear and walking on to face the next threat that may come from this so-called maze.