On a gut feeling, the chief climbs up to explore the rooftops of the buildings lined along the street. Once up there he looks around flat, grey areas and realizes the strategic benefits. Several flat structures connect to each other, only separated by an occasional street. The rats ambushed them once, they will certainly do it again. Especially since he couldn't find that red eyed rat within the assault group on the street below.
Running along the ceilings, jumping from building to building, he confirms his suspicions.
Two rats stand upon the tallest house, looking down on the battlefield.
One is a cloaked brown rat with black stripes around its red glowing eyes. It rains down a mist over the plaza below, seemingly affecting the battle with its vile magic. It cackles at the chaos that entails.
However, the other rat appears much more peculiar. Upon a large feral rat, the size of a crouched drake, sits a tall, muscular ratman. Not only is it much taller than the other rats, but it is donned in a helmet and metal breastplates as well.
As it notices the chief’s presence, it stares him dead in the eyes and leads the large feral rat to face him. It holds the reins in one hand and in the other balances an ivory lance, seemingly made from bones and fangs, mended together in someway.
It strikes the resemblance of a royal knight.
Not giving the chief a moment to spare, it kicks the stirrups, sending the rabid mount into a leap off the large house. It lands on the stone roof below with an angry squeal, taking large strides on impact to charge at chief with frightening speed, its rider readying the ivory lance to thrust. A devilish screech cuts into the chief’s ears.
He draws his sword in a split second, intending to end this before it even starts.
The ratknight closes in, aiming to run by the right side of the chief and run him through with the lance in the rat's right arm.
The chief takes a wide stance, stepping forward to duck under the lance and cut through the apparition in one horizontal sweep. However, as his blade swings, the large ratmount stops in its tracks just short of impact, and its rider leans back slightly to evade the blade. The chief tries to recover for a second swing, but the ratknight rises in its stirrup, pulling back the feral rat onto its back paws with its weight. The rat stretches to its full length and scratches its large claws onto the chief.
First his leather armor is swept of his chest by the claws and then his right arm, his sword arm, receives a deep cut before he manages jam the blade into the mounts shoulder.
While the beast falls to the ground the ratknight jumps in the air, throwing the lance like a javelin, whilst drawing a metal sword from its side.
The chief stumbles to his knees to avoid it and barely swings his sword around to intercept the ratknight's swing of the blade, aimed to take the chiefs head clean off. The knight presses him from above, its feature clear beyond the reek of its breath. Its yellowed teeth are straight within his guttural snarl, its eyes shine a maddened red within its brown hide, and a gnarly scar runs across the length of its neck.
It growls at him as the chief kicks him off, hard, and gets to his feet to see the knight grip his sword and widen his stance as a red mist appears from behind, spreading over de roof.
He sees the mist cover the ratknight and four red shining eyes glow within.
A stinging pain runs through his arm.
He curses silently.
He’s found the highrat.
---
Phath grunts as his club whirls around to collide with two hapless ratmen. The large ruby at the tip of the club sparks, erupting into flames. He smiles. His muscles burst with strength, preparing him for the second impact that the explosion brings about. He feels the force run through his arms right before he hears the loud bang.
A flash of red fills the space around him as flesh and bone rain from the sky, a mist of red evaporated blood around him.
He can see Bronq through the mist grabbing the tail of an escaping rat and strike it down with an overhead swing of his own club. A similar red flashes the street as the blunt weapon grinds straight through target into the stone ground, exploding in deep red flames that turn blood splatter to vapor. The ratman falls to the ground like ruined pudding.
Bronq laughs as they finish up the last few of the small army.
Phath lets out a yawn. The fun is short lived. He wants to join the fray up ahead. Hopefully the battle isn’t over.
He looks up at the ceilings.
A few minutes ago, the chief left them to their devices after realizing they can quite easily handle a scuffle as such. The chief is gone for so long now that Phath starts to wonder if the fun is actually on top of the buildings, and not ahead down the street. He considers climbing after him, but Bronq manages to chase down the last two rodents escaping into the ruins and is calling for him.
'We need to go get the boss.' Bronq shouts gleefully. 'He's prolly got himself into trouble again.'
Phath grins. He has to give it to him. Xass manages to find the most dangerous situations about this bloody labyrinth. So he follows him down the street until they find their troops, huddled together at the end of it. In a defensive formation, no less. They jump over them and land on some unsuspecting ratmen, shattering them. Behind them the battalion of soldiers shout and cheer. Apparently they can't easily handle the ten or so rats assaulting them.
'You need to save the prince!' A few lizards shout, panic behind their voices, pointing at what seems to be the remains of a building. He sees that Bronq starts running to inspect it and he starts to run with him.
He also notices something else.
There is a ratman, sword in hand and covered in shadows, walking towards the same location. It staggers in place as it sees Bronq pass him to reach the collapsed walls and start digging. Phath can't believe Bronq is letting this chance slip by.
Finally he can test his mettle against a real warrior.
The rat cloaked in shadows turns around just in time to notice Phath. It manages to jump back and dodge a wild inwards swing, but Phath is relentless. Smiling toothily he crosses the distance in an instant, gripping the weapon tight in his right hand and flexing his giant back. His club swings wide to the right, aiming to obliterate the rat on impact, but the rat pushes forward and ducks under the swing.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
phath feels a sharp pain and a wet sensation on his stomach. In a fraction of a second he notices the horizontal cut across his belly and the dark black eyes, gazing through the cluster of shadows below him.
This is exhilarating.
'You're in my range!' Says Phath as he brings the club high in a split second and grabs it with both hands to bring it down to destroy the ground below, as fast as he can. He will blow the rat to smithereens, and if it dodges, the blast from club will scorch it, giving Phath all the opening he needs to strike it down.
The best case scenario happens.
The rat raises his sword horizontally above himself to block the club, not knowing the violent explosion that will follow.
The blade rises to catch the club, ringing loudly, sending a shock through Phath's arms on impact. This rat is strong. Sadly it will die now, under Phath's raw strength.
But there is no explosion.
Instead the swordguard pushes the club, sliding it downwards along the blade, redirected to Phath's left, the weapons screech like stone on stone, before the blade flashes upwards.
Phath has no time to look surprised.
He will look forever victorious.
A vertical slit splits his smiling face along the length of his head. Blood sprays as his giant body falls to the ground.
In the distance, Bronq sees his brother collapse and roars with rage. He starts to run to the rat cloaked in shadows, but stops in his tracks. In his arms he has Xass, a crying mess of broken bones. He swallows his regret in a howl of grief, turning away to the battalion guarding their escape.
'Lizardmen!' A loud voice bellows over the battlefield, and countless eyes look up to the rooftops to see the chief, covered in blood. 'We are retreating! This battle is lost!' He jumps down, landing with a loud crash to get up again and run for another passage out of these horrid ruins.
The entire battlefield dissipates.
Ratmen are left confused as their adversaries abruptly turn around to flee. Some try to catch up to the bronze, scaled invaders, but the Lizardmen are carried away by their strong, slender limbs. A communal scream of Ratman rage fills the plaza as the Lizardmen quietly make their retreat. Before long the the whole square belongs to the rats again, and screams of rage make way for joyous laughter.
In the distance Bronq cries as he runs with his wounded friend in his arms.
He vows to return.
---
Bart is dumbstruck.
Lizardmen dash around him out of the plaza, slipping and tripping on bile and bodies.
The crazed screams of the rats are deafening, still as they make place for jubilant cheers and laughter. A larger rat stands on top of the tallest building around the city center, and howls loudly, sending the rats into a frenzy.
Within the chaos he looks at the massive body in front of him, reeling at how close he was to death, just moments ago. He sheathes the blade, hands still numb from catching the lizard's huge club with the sword. If that had hit him, he is sure his head would be elsewhere. Multiple places in fact.
He looks at the lizard's club, a giant piece of stone with a massive ruby laid into the tip. He kneels down by it and braces to lift the heavy weapon. The moment he grabs the tip, the blunt weapon seems to shrink at the hilt, slipping from the hands of the Lizardman.
Bart stands up and holds it in his own. What was a club first, now looks more like a staff, an elongated stone stick with a large ruby at the end of it. He moves it around in his hand, finding it to be the perfect size for him, and taps it on the ground a bit. He reels back as red sparks fly off the ruby. Bart's eyes widen and his mind explodes with implications.
Did the lizard try to blow him up? But if so, why didn't he?
Some of the rats start to crowd and tug him, shaking him back and forth to pick him up and start throwing him up and down in the air.
'Let me dooowwwn.' Whines the little rat, but he is very certain the rats have no idea what he is saying and only seem to be spurred on by his excited wailing.
Beyond the loud sounds and the violent shaking, it becomes almost difficult to smell the secretions and bodily fluid spread across the stone floor.
His vision blurs and shakes as he is whirled through the air.
An acidic feeling builds up in his stomach.
What in the world is happening?
---
Brynn runs behind Amethyst.
When Amethyst woke up and saw Bart getting tossed and tumbled in the distance, she went into a frenzy. The girl now runs frantically to save him from the assault. Learning from losing Bart on the way, Brynn makes sure to run just a few paces behind her so she can pick her up if she trips. She looks like she will.
Amethyst needs to save Bart. She doesn't know what she'll do if he dies. It tears her up just thinking about it. If only that didn't make it so difficult to run.
She staggers as a sudden shape emerges in front of her. One of the brown patchy Ratman gapes at her, just two arm widths away from her. For a Ratman, that is quite close. She swallows hard and sets her heels into the ground and she punches the frazzled Ratman in the face. The savage flies a meter back and collides with the stone floor.
'Yeek.'
'Are you alright?' Asks Brynn, an amused snicker on her breath.
'Yes? I'm fine?' The small ratgirls bites back more tears as she feel a sharp sting on her tiny fist. 'Let's go.'
They pass by the knocked out body, and run to reach the plaza.
The sight is a stark contrast to just an hour ago. Although the floor is littered with blood and corpses, the ratmen seem to be having a party. They walk through without interruption. It's like nobody cares about them.
Soon enough they find Bart. He is laughing with some of the savages, dancing and jumping shoulder to shoulder with the savage ratmen. When he turns around and locks eyes with her, she is overcome. Her heart wells up and what was a whimper turns to a full out cry. She's so happy to see him. He smiles and starts running at her. She runs back at him, arms stretched out.
'Wait, don't!' Brynn says quite loudly, trying to warn them of something, but it is too late. The two rats jump into eachothers arms, only to slam back to the ground. Their armor gets in the way of their embrace, ringing loudly at impact. The two rats roll on the ground in pain. Seemingly, Amethyst bumped her nose on Bart's helmet, as she is holding her face with two hands.
While before it was just Amethyst crying, it is now both her and Bart.
Brynn comes to stand next to them.
'So guys, I caught Anite's scent again. Shall we go look for him?'
The two rats get to their feet collect themselves and nod. They seem entirely awkward by their reunion. Brynn is thriving on it.
They walk leisurely through the pack of partying rats.
'So the Ratmen won in the end.' Says Bart.
'I wonder what happened.' Asks Amethyst, remembering she slept through most of the battle.
'I did defeat some strong warriors of the lizards, maybe I tipped the scale by interfering.' Says Bart, his chest welling up.
Brynn remembers the large lizard warriors she killed from a distance. Then she remembers the large lizards she killed while trying to get to the stairs. It was difficult to recount just how many.
'I think you're right Bart.' She says. 'Good for you.'
They reach a strangely shaped wall and stop in their tracks.
'Why are we stopping?' Asks Bart.
'This is it.' Says Brynn.
'What is what?' Asks Amethyst. Brynn sighs.
'This is it. This is the end, the fucking scent leads here.' She looks at the wall. 'This seems familiar somehow.'
'You know, I feel that way too.' Says Bart. 'Something about how the wall seems cracked.'
'Like it's not quite right.' Amethyst says.
'Motherfucker, I know why it seems familiar. The stupid knight was here.'
'What do you mean Brynn?' Asks Amethyst.
'I mean he was here. He went through the wall. Earth magic!'
'Oh nooo.' Wails Bart.
'Oh yes. He's fucked us. He killed the trail.'
'What does that mean? We can still find him right? We just have to get on the other side of this wall, then we can find his smell again and we track him from there. I'm sure we can do it. We can't lose hope now, Anite is waiting for us.'
'Amethyst, I'm really angry. We are in a fucking labyrinth. If he’s passing through walls, then this is the end of our story. We’re going home.'
'But really though.' Says Bart. 'Where the fuck is Anite?'
---
He reaches into the depths of his soul. Grasping it and mending it with precision. He pushes a dent into the floor. This was the easy part. Now he has to keep his concentration, hang on to the magical energy surging through him as he drops a sturdy turd into the fresh hole. Sweat trickles from his grey brow as he squats, static currents running through his fingertips. He grunts as he finishes the last push and turns around to face his creation. The power runs through him still and he uses it to grasp at the energy within the earth, pulling a slab of earth over the stinky hole, ceiling it almost hermetically.
He let's the power slip back into his soul and grins victoriously.
Gharava comes upon him, disbelief burning behind the purple flames within his eye sockets.
'Why waste perfect poop?'
Anite turns around to face him, eyes wide. He grabs the old rat by the shoulders.
'It's called sewerage, Gharava.' he says. Anite's face blanks, like he realizes something. He starts violently shaking the old rat and raises his voice. 'It's called sewerage, Gharava! Hygiene! You don't know about it, but you will! I'll tell you all about it!'
The shaking gives Gharava a headache.
This strange rat does the weirdest things.
Where are they even going?
Book 2
END