[Part 2/5]

Instead of jumping, the fucker spewed acid all over my torso. As I recoiled, the bile sizzled on my armor and an acrid stench filled the air. I tried and failed to suppress a violent coughing fit, pulling back blindly until the fumes dissipated and readout coalesced in the remaining smoke.

{CPU Load: ▲ 85%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 75° C}

Another coughing fit wrecked me. I took one more step backward and stumbled over something I couldn’t see, inadvertently offering a window of opportunity to the other two rats. Their predatory instinct glinted in their greedy eyes, and they pounced. I followed my momentum instead of trying to find my balance, letting myself drop with the intent to transition into a backward roll. But while one of the rodents’ leaps sent it sailing over my head and crashed it against something very hard and unforgiving, the other beast corrected its trajectory, slashed its claws against my thigh, and robbed me of what little remained of my balance.

As the attack spun me around, in a desperate attempt to mark my enemy, I brought up Pharus, saw the torch blaze, felt the weapon impact something soft and fleshy, heard a wet crunch, and hit the stone hard enough to drive the air out of my lungs.

[>>PROCESSES BY USER CfMchn_14 are now highlighted]

I rolled and instinctively thrust the Torch in front of me. In the heat of the moment, it took me a second to realize the rat that had jumped over me had attempted a follow-through, proving the reflex right. Facing the teal flames, the beast hissed a discordant note and skittered backward.

It bought me mere seconds to think. Behind the Feral who had wounded me, I found the first rat staring in Zephyro’s direction, already dry heaving its next attack.

A quick glance showed that the Vizier was struggling with a fourth rat that I hadn’t even seen before. His sword slashed through the air as he tried to score a hit on his enemy, even though it was invisible to him. The rat had no issues avoiding his strikes, but even the beast seemed to be impressed by Zephyro’s fervor. When his latest swing finished without a result, he took a step back, scanning the battlefield. It didn’t take long for his eyes to focus on the rat I had marked for him. At the same moment, the Feral that had soaked me in acid before retched once again.

I tried to warn him but before I could get a word out, the acid spitter hurled a viscous green goo in Zephyro’s direction. It spattered against his form, covering his chest and face. At first, he didn’t even seem to notice, he just barreled forward, gathering speed, and lunged toward the beast I had marked for him. He pulled back his sword and with a loud cry, he sunk his blade deep into its side. Only then did he stop to wipe at his smoking combat vest. Behind him, the rat exploded into motes of Logic.

The crackling smoke where the rat had hit my armor had faded in the meantime, but not without leaving severe acid burns, warping the fabric like molten plastic.

{CPU Load: ▼ 86%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 78° C}

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I cursed. Alright, that acid spitter had to go, and quickly. I took in the scene to know what I had to work with. I was sure I’d hit the second rat—the one that had tripped me— pretty hard. But while it had pulled back behind its uninjured companions, it didn’t look nearly as hurt as I had believed. My brow creased in confusion until I caught it glancing at the cloud of cyan sparks erupting from its dead companion. Fuck, it’s healing itself with Logic!

I dashed forward, towards the blue sparks, jumped over another beast that tried to trip me up, and reached the cloud just as the hurt rat started to pull it into itself. I kept running and put all my strength into an underhanded swing. The Torch’s head scraped loudly against the stones, leaving a scorched gash in its wake. My feet hit the floor in a staccato. Then, on the upswing, my weapon bit into flesh.

{CPU Load: ▲ 92%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 79° C}

I could have sworn that for a split second, the rat looked surprised, as if my weapons’ spiked cage digging into its stomach had interrupted it during a transcendental experience, but then something inside its belly cracked under the force of the attack. Life fled its eyes, no longer surprised just silently resentful. Cyan waves streamed from its mouth. I breathed in sharply, willing the Logic into me.

{INCOMING LOGIC - 50 LB}

{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 72 LB}

That couldn’t be right. Two enemies, and only 50 LB? I didn’t wait for the cyan mass to seep into me and turned. Instead of the Logic cloud the rat had been feeding on, however, I found the acid spitter absorbing the last dregs of cyan through its sickly muzzle.

Shit!

In the time it took me to think that word, the beast mutated in front of my eyes. Its fur turned a sickly black with glowing green patches of bare skin. Within a second, it grew until its bulging form reached up to my waist. I took an involuntary step back.

Its eyes glowed. They darted around until they found me. Then the beast started heaving.

All my instincts screamed that I did not want to know what would happen if it gathered enough acid. With a scream of frustration and anger, I broke into a dash, grabbing the torch with both hands.

A shudder ran through the rat, back to front.

Once.

Twice.

The torch blazed as I willed it to mark on the next strike.

The rat opened its mouth and I sidestepped and saw its wicked little grin too late and couldn’t stop bringing the torch down on its flank and then it was too late.

[>>PROCESSES BY USER PrurCkr_33 are now highlighted]

Pharus’ head dug into the greasy skin and sent a wave rippling through the fat. Like bubbles on oily water, several glowing pustules shook, bubbled, then ruptured. They spewed forth a sludgy, viscous liquid that showered everything in a misshapen cone around the beast’s injured side. Acid spattered against my armor, clinging to it like fetid pus. The dark cloth smoked like a burgeoning grease fire wherever the slime touched it, and my CPU load skyrocketed.

{CPU Load: ▲ 100%}

{Core Temp: ▲ 80° C}

{[Arx, Saint’s Embrace] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}

I screamed as the acid burned through my clothes and bit into my skin.

[DPM integrity]

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ 90% ▼▼

I barely managed to keep on my feet, bringing some distance between me and the rat. It squealed with anger and shuddered, preparing to regurgitate even more bile. My eyes flitted around the battlefield, trying to keep tabs on the remaining three monsters. Something in my peripheral vision flashed silver, and three became two. Zephyro had moved so fast, my brain only caught on to his location when he pulled his saber out of the twitching corpse of the acid rat.

The vizier glanced down as the rat twitched again, and I yelled a warning the same second he jumped back as the corpse exploded. A giant pustule filled with green sludge grew as if in slow motion. It bubbled like rancid milk, globules forming and rupturing on its surface with sickening laziness. I scrambled back, trying to get away before—