Deeper into the tunnel, they came across a fork in the road, or a trident in the road rather. The tunnel split into three different paths, leading to different directions.

“If I remember, this is where the maze truly starts. Our old team simply kept walking and luckily reached the next platform.” She waved her torch to illuminate the entrances of the three tunnels.

“Thought you knew these dens well, can’t remember the route you took?” Mian questioned with arms crossed, unamused.

His demeanor is gone, that much change from one death?

“It has been a while since I last went here. And those rats could have just added more tunnels to confuse us.” Ishmael explained. They pondered on which path to take, annoyed by having to wait and spend longer in the darkness.

In their thinking, a loud splash of water from one of the tunnels echoed loudly, as if something large slammed down on the shin-deep water.

“What was that?” Lia quivered, holding onto the armor of Quellin.

“The healer must remain behind the vanguard units. Kayd with me.” Heeding his order, Kayd rushed to Quellin’s side, unaware of what they were even facing. Or if there even is a creature nearby.

“Strange, is there a rat king here as well?” Ishmael inquired in a lower tone.

“Whatever it is, we’ll kill it,” Mian replied, to Ishmael’s annoyance. Whatever the creature was, it sounded big, possibly bigger than the rest. The only defense the team had now was the stained blood on their bodies, the same cannot be said though for Mian’s team.

“Let’s go around it for now.” Ishmael decided, turning her head to the tunnel to the right and hastily walking through.

As they cautiously passed through, a loud distorted shriek, vaguely sounding like a rat at this point deafened their ears. The echo reverberated against the walls, making it far louder than any roar they heard before.

“That is definitely not a normal rat or a rat king,” Ikari stepped back. They started running through the water blindly, trying to get as far as possible from whatever caused that roar.

“Captain, do you know what that could be?” Ikari questioned in a raised voice, running alongside Ishmael with a hint of worry on her calm face.

“Don’t know, the only rats that lived here were the smaller kind, none would make that kind of sound.” She replied, shaking her head, doubting what she just heard. Nothing should make that loud of a sound, something that big shouldn’t be able to live here.

“You have any idea about it Kayd?” Ikari turned to Kayd.

“As if I know! Aren’t you supposed to be the animal hunter here?”

“Hey I hunt many things, but rarely if ever inside a cave like this.” Ishmael raised her hand, ordering everyone to stop and shut up. It took a few seconds for the water to settle and calm again.

“Rat,” After Ishmael spoke, Ikari raised her bow, seemingly knowing where it was. Kayd finally heard the rat, a faint squeak in the distance.

Ishmael placed her arm above Ikari’s bow, making her pause. The water ahead of them swayed left and right, followed by the sound of footsteps getting ever so closer.

“Hit it,” On her order, the arrow was let loose, and through the dark a quick shriek emerged from it. The corpse of a smaller rat fell in front of them, its head being the only thing visible from the torch’s light.

Before another word, a deafening shriek disoriented everyone for a moment.

Damn, it heard the kill!?

Just after, the ground vibrated and the water started to violently ripple. The echo of massive footsteps could be heard from where they came from, slowly heading towards them.

Silent, Ikari rushed towards the dead rat and slashed it open, letting blood flow down from it.

“Whatever that thing is, it may smell you all and take us all out, get some blood from here.” Mian’s teammates all looked confused and even disgusted.

“How sure are you it would work?” Mian questioned.

“How do you think Kayd managed to kill the queen, and us not getting torn apart earlier? Take the damn blood.” he glanced back at the source of the noise in a moment of hesitation. But with no other choice, he ordered his team to gather around the dead rat.

Ikari helped slather more of the putrid liquid onto Kayd and the others while Mian and his team hastily slapped it onto each other's armor, visibly nauseated by the act, wanting to puke just by the smell alone.

“In here!” Ishmael stood next to a smaller hole bored into the wall. With everyone covered in rat guts, they ran towards the hole, climbing inside it as the footsteps became louder.

In their haste, the jar of moss Lia had taken fell off, splashing down on the water with its lid open, spilling its contents.

“No!” Lia turned to pick it up but was whisked away by Kayd.

“We can get it back later, come on.” They huddled together inside the hole, waiting for whatever the creature was, to come.

The moss gave off a good amount of light, illuminating the dead rat and the surrounding water. Lia tried getting out of Kayd’s grasp, but he held her tightly.

Their struggle ended abruptly as the ground shook violently beneath them, and the water outside the hole sloshed around with great force.

Just next to the jar, a long furry leg stood straight up, the nails on it were arm’s length, apart from its leg the rest of the body was obscured in darkness. There was no doubt though for Kayd, whatever it was, it was massive.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

As they looked on, their hearts dropped. The head of the creature neared the dead rat. The creature was a rat as well, but far larger than even Pip or the Rat King, its fur and skin were thicker but not metallic like the Rat King.

The worst detail of the thing Kayd could see was the lack of eyes. It didn’t lose them, the creature simply didn’t have eye sockets. Only a blank part of the body where the eyes should be.

Even after dozens of experiences and near-death situations, even facing enemies in the dark, none of them could compare to what he was witnessing in front of him.

What kind of vermin is that…I think I'm gonna be sick....

It opened its mouth, and a maw of countless razor-sharp teeth bit down onto the dead rat. Its breath was even more pungent than the normal odor of the rats. Even covering his nose with a hand and cloth didn’t help much.

It inhaled heavily and loudly, distorting the water below its snout, sniffing the puddle of blood left by the rat.

Please don’t smell us….

Horror and terror were etched onto all of their faces, all except Ishmael and Quellin.

The creature moved its head around, still sniffing the environment, soon reaching the hole where Kayd and the others were holed up.

It paused to take a few whiffs of the team, Kayd could feel the hot air blow past them. They held their breath, hoping the creature wouldn’t find them.

After what felt like an eternity in near darkness, the beast raised its head up and started walking again, but as it did, one of its legs stomped onto the floating pile of moss.

With it, the creature walked away, its leg now covered and visible from the glowing moss as it stomped off.

“What in the bear’s arse was that!?” Ikari demanded an answer from Ishmael, a mix of extreme curiosity and fear present in her eyes.

“I…I don’t know either,” She stepped out of the hole, to their relief the behemoth was gone.

Kayd released Lia and she immediately ran towards the jar, scooping up what remained and tossing it back inside.

“Not all of it was lost, thank goodness,” She breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing it before putting it back in her bag.

“Looks like those rats have a new creature to protect their den. We never saw anything like that in past extermination campaigns.” Ishmael pondered for a moment, heavily confused.

“Think about it later, you want to kill the rat queen right? Let’s find a way through this maze. That freak can wait, we can kill it once this is all over.” Mian spoke in a spiteful and bitter voice, already facing the direction the rat came from, eager to just get all of this over with and take out his anger on the rats.

“It will take a while, our best bet is just to go back to where we came and head straight.”

Back at the start of the maze, they took the tunnel going forward this time, hopefully now empty and not containing the beast they just saw.

The water slowly rose to reach up to their knees, and the further they went, the murkier the water looked.

Lia took out her jar of moss, hoping it could help add light to the area, with little success.

As time passed, they caught faint glimpses of the ceiling and walls of the tunnel from the torchlight, along with holes leading to who knows where.

Left….Right….Straight….And right again…..

Kayd counted the number of turns they took along the way, but their destination didn’t feel any closer, simply going further down the maze, but not closer to that damned platform and queen.

Along the way, they stopped in front of an object drifting along the water towards them. A human bone. And then another, then a skull, and after a few more steps and waving the torch around, piles of floating weapons, helmets, and torn clothes.

“How many people died from these rats?” Kayd asked.

“Enough to make them deserving of death.” Mian bitterly replied. Ishmael sighed and cleared her throat.

“Hundreds, maybe even a thousand or two. They were a problem ever since I started my mercenary company, constantly attacking outside camps for years until we cleared them out. Even the castle wasn’t safe.” Ishmael explained.

Just as they saw it, a shriek from ahead alerted them, this time weaker.

Oh finally, at least it isn’t that thing anymore.

Ishmael turned to Ikari, expecting her to take out her bow, but she stood still, staring dead ahead, lost in thought.

“What’s the holdup? We need to kill the rat, it might alert the others,” Ishmael spoke up, but Ikari stayed silent.

“There was an old saying in the forest, to not fire at the first doe, but wait until the rest of the herd come to it,” Ikari spoke, confusing Ishmael.

“What do you mean by that?” None of them understood what Ikari meant.

“If we want to find that platform through this maze, we-”

“You want it to lead us towards the queen instead.” She smiled at Kayd, the only one to figure it out.

“Shooting at wolves will make them want to kill us, toss meat at them however, and they will simply return to their den.” She holstered her bow, instead looking at Lia with a smirk.

“Feather girl, mind if we borrow some of that mushroom and moss?” She asked, Lia looked sad upon hearing the request, glancing at her bag. But immediately looked back up with a smile.

“As long as I help the team.” Scouring into her bag, she managed to grab a handful of mushrooms she had stashed from their past attack. She paused for a moment to look at them, like a child having to hand their toy up.

Ikari wrapped the mushrooms together into a clump and held the jar with her other hand. With a throw, she chucked the mushrooms into the unlit void ahead.

Water sloshed around in front of them along with the squeaks of a curious rat.

“This better work,” With a handful of moss in her hand, Ikari threw it through the dark, even without any light she struck the rat with pinpoint accuracy.

The moss splattered on the small vermin’s fur. Upon being hit, the rat started to run back with the mushroom in its jaw.

“It should lead to the queen now,” She announced with confidence, handing the jar back to Ikari with a smile.

“For a greenhorn, you really know much more about these things than me,” Ishmael remarked, patting her on the back.

“I can teach you about these things if you want.” The short spurt of compliments ceased as, from behind, the grim and loud shriek of that…Echoed through the tunnel, water vibrated and a loud stomping in the distance followed.

Oh no….

“Well, let’s hope your trick did work, let’s go!” The team ran through the knee-deep water, moving past floating masses of bone and fabric as the stomps progressively got closer to them. It didn't take long before Kayd could spot a faint light of glowing moss approaching them.

Did it smell the mushroom!? From that far!?