It was plain boring. We walked, uneventfully, while Bart tried to memorize the map by heart. He didn’t seem to be succeeding.
We found another giant cobweb, which made the new addition to our team go pale, but was really delicious. Apparently, he hadn’t seen the cobweb and was even having difficulty seeing it after being aware of it. He even seemed awkward when he found out Brynn and I had no problem spotting the things. He didn’t complain about the taste.
What made the travel nice either way, was Brynn’s uncharacteristic silence. Until the end of an especially long pathway that concluded in a dead end, which was when the dam broke and she shouted and cursed in frustration for minutes. Bart did not recover from the string of insults until we made it all the way back. So, we walked with agitated Brynn, scratched out the sign near this path and made a mental note of the bad hallway.
It seemed to be more of a learning experience for Bart. He got some skills he could use if he got sent with us again, kind of like a traineeship. In turn, I learned something about light stones. According to the rat guard there were times that they would flicker. Six times during the day at a fixed interval. Kind of like a clock, and the tribe had taken to calling the event a tick. After the sixth tick, it would gradually get darker and we were at tick number three right now. Apparently, the big guy was fascinated by the phenomenon and had Clementine running around to fetch him drinks with a leather bag that Tex made, so he could stay within the other room, examining the blue stones. This seemed to have stuck with the ratgirl as she still ran errands for him.
A hand sign from Brynn caught our eye and I whispered to Bart she meant for us to be quiet. She also signed that she found prey and for us to follow. I couldn’t see what she was looking at since we were in a straight path and Brynn could see farther than I could, I’d admit that about her, begrudgingly. Quietly, we followed, creeping along the walls so we were harder to spot. It wasn’t even necessary to have Bart further behind to compensate for his lack of skills as even he was a natural stalker. Perhaps, it was in our nature.
She kept a steady pace, only speeding up now and then, suggesting her prey disappeared from our passageway. She didn’t seem to think about catching up to the poor thing, which hinted we might not be hunting just one creature. That she didn’t inform us what we were following was frustrating, but she herself might not know. However, that she was taking this chance told me she had a hunch. And the thing about this reincarnation situation: our hunches were always right.
During the chase, Bart and I took care of the stuff around the hunt. If there was another spider nest, I would kill the spider. If we entered another passageway, I would jot down the symbol. Brynn made quite a distance between us. She gestured for us to move to the wall across from her. The impatient grin on her face told me she saw the destination, and halfway across the hallway she climbed up the vines that ran across all the walls of the passage to crawl along the ceiling. She gestured us to do the same so we climbed up with some effort. This way progressed a lot slower. We had to carry our weapons. Although we could balance with our tail, it was a challenge in its own right to not drop the tools, especially since every now and then we’d stumble upon a bat fluttering away in panic.
When we finally reached the end of the passage and peered over its edge. Visions flashed across my face as the light of big lightstones shone into my eyes. I front of my eyes flashed a different life, a brighter world, a human world. That world used to be mine, sharing its secrets. Suddenly I'm another person, then I'm a rat again. However, a bit more whole.
I looked at Brynn with big eyes. She looked at me too, a gleeful smile on her face which I couldn’t help but copy. I looked back at the room. I had to suppress a chuckle while my tail moved my spear horizontally over my head, and I grabbed it. The room was the biggest we’d seen after leaving the tribe. On the ceiling hung three big, blue stones that illuminated all and In the centre laid a huge pool of mud. And around the mud pool crawled over a dozen grey little monsters. orcs.
Most of them were as tall as Brynn and Bart, though seemingly skinnier. They were bald, naked and coloured the same way as the bleak stone throughout the labyrinth. Their eyes shone with bright red as they looked around with something you could call awareness. They had a skinny build, sharp teeth and pointy ears, though they lacked a nose. Instead they had two holes where their nose would have been. Their origins were a mystery. Orcs were the favoured children of the god of caves, Cordifolius. Some believed he created the race by himself, since they’re born asexually by spontaneously crawling out of mud pits.
And they were fun to fight.
The Lightstone ticked and I flinched back a bit. Did not expect that.
In total, there were fourteen of which seventeen young ones, a young adult and one adult. The latter was three times as tall as me and wore some rags. They were all more or less evenly spread around the pool, though the older one had more space to itself. Brynn gave us a sign to attack after she passed her spear to her free hand and jumped impressively far through the air and landed her spear in the unexpecting adolescent Orc’s skull. It didn’t even see the face full of murder that took him.
I too jumped onto one of the younger orcs near Brynn, shoving my spear deep into its claylike neck, killing it on impact.
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All red eyes were now on us. Our victims hadn’t the time to make a sound, but they heard the thud when their elder collapsed. They were all silent, taken. In the distance, I could see Bart crawling down the wall. We really jumped far. For the orcs, it must have seemed like we fell from the ceiling. This excited me deeply. From one silent moment to the other, all of the muddy creatures screamed in rage to come at us. Glee and murder edged my face into a wicked smile.
Both Brynn and I backed against the wall leaving enough space between us and the wall to be able to swing our weapons. To my left I could see a gray figure jumping at my partner, which her spear swiftly jabbed out of the air.
Two other orcs jumped me from the front. With my right arm I swung my spear from right to left, using the stone tip to slice open the throat of the first orc and the face of the latter. Both lifelessly thud to the ground and I face another foe.
The craftsmanship of my spear was quite amazing for an underground tribe. The wood was tough and the stone tip was so smoothed and sharpened that it was practically a blade on a stick. Sharp enough to easily cut through the soft orcs. My blood raced and I cut down another orc as I swung my spear back to the right and dodged a screaming orc’s claw aimed at my exposed left side, forced to step away from Brynn.
‘Good! Your stink was distracting me!’ She shouted at me after which she bursts into mad laughter. In turn I kicked the brave orc so hard I could hear something crunching beyond repair. its grey form soared through the air and floored another one that barged at Bryn.
‘Hey God’s gift to killing! I’m at four!’
As I said that, a gray shape crashed into me from above. We landed hard into the wall behind me. Disoriented, we scrambled. It was almost as if it didn't understand where it was. I managed to impale it with my spear just in time to push the slimy creature of me, and dodge away from another orc, hungry for an opportunity to cut me down while I was pinned to the ground. In the distance I saw the adult orc walking towards me. Its red eyes radiated, and its massive arms throbbed with power as it picked up an orc with one hand. It raised the orc up high, seemingly aiming it at me. It smiled savagely.
Another shape flew through the air. In surprising fashion, Brynn appeared, lodged onto the head of the adult orc, destabilizing it a a tad. It seemed momentarily confused before the rat girl jammed her spear right through its skull. It crumbled under its own weight, and brynn stepped off nonchalantly on impact.
'This one counts for five!' She laughed, and we hacked and slashed our way through the grey, screaming mass until I cut down the last two critters cornering Bart. He had several cuts on his limbs, and his stick had broken, but he was alive which was the important part. Even if he was puking while being it.
---
I hang from the vines on a wall, looking into a big, monster filled room, staring over the shoulders of my so called friend, Anite. He seems to have no problem with the situation. He even dozes off for a few seconds and then starts to look excited. Excited!
Three huge lights in the room start to flash repeatedly. My eyes hurt, which make me almost drop from the wall. When the light subsides, I see my other… colleague flying through the air. Then, Anite does the same. I gape as my eyes follow them. They land so far away… they do know I can’t do that right?
How did this happen?
How did I get here?
It was so carefree in the beginning, why did I ever think to want more than a warm bed and nice girls to talk to? Firstly, I am just a normal ratman. Now, I’m here about to fight a horde of little monsters. I really am.
Right?
I have half a mind to panic while I climb down the vines. And another half aware the creatures will kill me if I do. When I reach the floor, I see some of the monsters are already laying dead on the floor, and the rest are rushing at Anite and Brynn. Until one of them rushes past the opening where I’m standing like a dope, and dares to look left.
Its red eyes pierce me. They seem almost empty, devoid of white. The creature opens its mouth, unveiling rows of razor sharp teeth under two holes where its nose would have been. The absence of a nose only makes it more menacing. Demonic even. The thing jumps with anger, lashing out sharp claws. I grip the stick in my right claw tightly and plant it into the monster’s face, producing a sound as I’d a slab of clay. It shrieks in pain as it stumbles backwards, and a sense of glory wells up inside of me. I can do this. I am doing this.
A burning sensation in my right arm.
Anxiously, I look to my right and see another gray horror grinning, close to me, much to close to my liking. I hear its breathing. The burning sensation urges me to look at my right arm and see a wetness drenching my black fur. A burning wells up inside of it. An urge to vomit strikes me, but the creature is getting closer, and I see the gray figure that I knocked out getting back up, fury in its face as it jumps me again. I kick the one on my right away and feel a sting of pain across my chest, and see the other monster, grinning at me with blood on its claws.
Fear grips my throat tight.
How did this happen?
How did I get here?
Will I die?
I grab the stick with as much strength as I can muster and bring it down on the red eyed demon, grinning in front of me, so hard that the stick breaks as well as the face the stick was aimed at.
Again, I feel that sensation. Accomplishment? No. I feel alive. The feeling doesn’t last as another thing immediately takes the place of the one I took out and I feel another sting of hotness and pain in my exposed back and I ironically feel my heart thudding in my ears. I turn around, pushing the first monster away from me, knowing I won’t last without my weapon. I will have to claw, or punch, or kick to survive now. But I will survive, even if I have to bite out their necks, even if I have to give up an arm.
I’m shaking.
As I think that, both monsters fall down and I stare at Anite’s stupid, happy smile. And he speaks.
‘Good you made it. Though, you don’t look very knightly.’ And he turns around, walking back at Brynn.
I have no words. I don’t think I can talk. Ahead of the room is filled with corpses. They all did this. By themselves. I’m useless. I give in to an urge to vomit. Anite calls out to me, not to reassure me or anything, no…
‘Bart come help! When you throw all the orcs in the mud pool the God of caves will manifest treasures!’
I lay there, shaking as I look upon my friends, covered in colorless mud and clay while they happily proceed to collect all the corpses.
Just what is wrong with these people?