Winning against insurmountable odds just dulled the sharpness of said odds. There were only so many times you could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat before fate grew tired of the game and drowned you in a shallow puddle of your own filth. The trick was to skirt the line. Make it interesting for the forces watching and almost throw yourself to the wolves, but give yourself an out. If you made it believable and sustainable, then congratulations. Fate may spare you a day longer, should your mind and body endure it.

A wall of fire burst up over one side of the chamber, blocking off some of the rats from entering. My sword started to glow a gray light as Angelos enchanted it. Jakob drew back an arrow of blazing green light to find the most opportune targets.

But that was the problem. There were now so many targets that such attacks were futile. From the various tunnels, rats of every size scurried forth. Ones no bigger than a typical sewer rat, some as large as cats and dogs. None of them looked like our target, but each was intent on taking a bit of what we had out on display.

The first to the fray was crushed beneath my boot. The crack and accompanying squeak did little to scare the rest off from meeting the same fate. My sword carved through the air, a gash of crimson dulling the glowing eyes of one of the bigger ones before I kicked out at another. The green arrows of Dual Shot hit that rat and another behind.

As if the smell of rat piss and dank fur wasn’t bad enough, their guts and burning bodies did little to improve the ambience of the murky chamber. The smaller rats were harder to strike than at it at first seemed. Being so low to the ground meant either leaving myself open with a strike aimed toward the floor, or I’d have to try to use my feet and put myself off-guard for the larger ones approaching.

Angelos had begun to chant from behind me. While the initial wave saw me as the large and meatier meal to attempt to assail, those slower to the fray saw better opportunity in heading straight for the rest of the party. A fireball exploded amongst them, sending a few charred corpses backward while a couple only singed rodents carried on forward.

Of course, I had plenty of experience in fighting those shorter than me thanks to the Goblin War - and while it was an uncomfortable movement; I got used to the low and wide arcs of my long weapon. Occasionally jabbing out at a stunned rat or to pierce an onrushing larger one.

For my efforts, I had received some damage. A few bites to my legs, but I had more rat blood on my boots than my own, so I couldn’t complain. Whether they were full of disease… well, it wasn’t a what-if question. Nothing my natural resistance and some potions couldn’t handle. I was starting to tire, however. Unlike me, so soon into a battle - but it was just the wound.

Getting taken out by some rats would be a rather sad way to go. Ironic, perhaps, which is why it worried me. Fate liked that sort of thing. The once great vampire, S Rank and above all others… humbled now by basic adventurer fodder.

There was something about them that wasn’t so basic. Glowing eyes and a foul aroma aside, there was a fervor that any but the most rabid of rodents would inhibit. Rats were reasonably intelligent, and would scatter if you put a dent in them or threatened them off with fire. These ones did not care.

Finding out what drew them to violence would be our priority as soon as the amount of them constantly flooding into the room decreased. The wall of fire dropped away and burned corpses were pushed out from the tunnel ends as fresh rats sought to escape to halt our intrusion.

Amber flame burst from behind me and I took the risk of glancing back. Florence had lit her sword on fire and the three of them had relented to try to melee the encroaching monsters. My presence had been enough to draw all the larger specimens, and they were being harried by those that slipped by. As much as it pleased me to see the Mage using the weapon, I was starting to consider we might require another frontliner for the party.

Even as I moved on reflex, my superior speed winning out against any of the rats, I considered the future for us all. It wasn’t guaranteed Angelos would stick around, but he seemed somewhat content with playing our game for now. A wave of his regeneration washed through me, healing up the small bites and scratches I had been amassing. Someone else to defend those three would be a godsend.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Rats intended to overwhelm their target, should they decide to attack en-mass. If you could keep your footing, then you had a good chance. If you fell, then you’d soon find anything soft and exposed, carried off in the slavering teeth of the horde. Despite my lethargy and the muddied floor becoming slick with the blood and entrails of my foes, my footing remained stable.

That was until a much larger rat barreled out from the wide tunnel exit. I turned at the last moment to absorb some of the blow, but was knocked to the floor by the almost Petal-sized rodent. Immediately, I was set upon by the roving smaller creatures.

Protect the eyes. I scrunched them closed tightly. As almost as soon as I’d hit the floor, there were already small nails scrabbling at them. I grabbed one rat with my left hand and crushed it, rolling over to that side. Although I collected almost a dozen gnawing rodents in the process, I was able to shield my face and stumble to my feet.

A blaze of fire stopped the giant rat from taking advantage of my disorientated state. [Enrage] bolstered me, the adrenaline stripping away and languishing the misery my muscles held onto. I spun with a flash of my blade to waylay the swarming horde as I threw and knocked the rats clasping to my body across the room.

The giant rat took offense to the flame attack and turned towards the Party, crouching back, ready to leap. Hopping forward, I stomp down on its tail before it had the chance to attack the group. Yellow eyes turned to glare at me as the large maw hissed in frustration. My pommel punched forth into the face, striking it in the cheekbone.

As it recoiled, I turned my sword around and plunged it into the tail, severing more than half of it. Arrows whizzed past me as Jakob struck some of the bigger rats while I was focused on the giant one. The rodent turned fully towards me and immediately jumped forward. I blocked one large paw, but the claws of the second dug into my chest, drawing blood and covering the wound in mud and filth.

It was times like these I wished I had some more active skills, rather than just doing more damage and absorbing more pain. As much as I liked to crow about my sword skills being top-notch, there was nothing better than having a power that could get you out of situations such as what I found myself in now.

I kicked out at the leg of the monster and stepped backward, putting it off-balance. As it dropped to the floor, I spun my blade around, my second wind beating past the encroaching lethargy to lop off one of its front paws. It stumbled, and I clocked it with a punch from the pummel on this side of the face too. As it was stunned, I put the tip of the blade amongst its furry neck and pushed through, slashing downward to tear a large gash from its throat.

As it fell to the ground, gurgling and bleeding across the mud, it gave the rest of the swarm pause. It was like a threshold had been met, and now they wavered. That didn’t stop the Party from relenting, however, and several rats became skewered by arrows or burst into flame as they made their decision to run. A fire wall sprung up across the back wall again, incinerating almost a dozen rodents trying to escape.

“They’ll be back,” I groaned. My whole body itched and felt uncomfortable. Even with my improved resistance to diseases and maladies, this amount of dirtied scratches and bites was playing havoc with my recovery. I became awash with rejuvination once more, which settled some of the soreness.

I turned to them. “Everyone doing okay?”

“Yeah,” Angelos rolled his eyes. “Most of us aren’t walking around half naked.”

Jakob and Florence nodded their agreements. All three of them had sensible slacks tucked into their boots. Even the Mage had some amount of protection beneath her robes.

With a sigh, I deflated. Enrage had run out and now exhaustion had come home to roost. At least until I needed to activate it once more. “Let’s move on then.” I nodded towards the large tunnel exit.

“Oh.” Jakob furrowed his brow. “That wasn’t the giant rat?”

“That was a giant rat.” I stopped to give him a humorless smile. “Do you think that seemed like a F Rank Villain?”

“It certainly smelled as bad,” Florence grimaced at the corpse, but I could tell she was covering for the uncharacteristically naïve question from the Ranger.

Perhaps it was just wishful thinking. I had certainly had enough of squishing rats beneath my feet and soaking the place with their filth. If given a wish, I might want to go back to the Guild and have chosen one of the other contracts.

We walked through the wide tunnel, and somehow the smell got even worse. Puddles that grew larger as we traversed the passageway, full of rat piss. I was at the point where either my senses would give up and go numb or my head would explode. Either would be preferable to the constant - oh, it was the former.

Dull to the world, I stumbled through into another chamber - this one slightly larger than the first but equally peppered by smaller tunnels. As the rest of the Party filtered in behind me, I turned to face to other end.

A tunnel wider than even the wall space itself, as if something had been eating away at the rock and earth itself had made an enormous nest there. Slowly, I started to approach.

With a hiss that vibrated the whole chamber, a wave of warm, dank air washed over us. Two eyes, easily five feet in diameter each, opened up in the recessed darkness.