Pandora Unchained B1C17 - Encountering a Rat Lord

“I hate, hate, hate rats!” Daphne said through gritted teeth as she gingerly cut out a core from a rat she’d burnt down. The core was low quality, cracked, and barely recognizable. They’d be lucky of the mission officer accepted it.

“Good work everyone,” said Stephan. “Your aim… well, let’s work on that when we get back.”

“I was scared,” said Daphne. “They’re filthy rats!”

“Then why did Gareth not miss?” asked Stephan. “He clearly hates rats just as much as you do.” He then turned to Sorin. “You, sir, are just full of surprises. What happened just now?”

Sorin shrugged. “I figured out a way to make the best of my abilities.” The truth was, he was also frightened. They’d just entered combat when three techniques suddenly popped into his mind.

“Well whatever you did, keep doing it,” said Stephan. “Swift and decisive strikes and entanglement are all legitimately useful skills. That movement skill you were showing off wasn’t half bad either.”

“Thanks,” said Sorin. “Need stitches?”

“No,” said Stephan. “These wounds will heal up in no time at all. He’d suffered a bite through a gap in his half plate, which didn’t fully cover his body in his half-shifted state. “Lawrence?”

“Just came back,” said Lawrence, popping out of the tunnel. “Group of eight coming up, but the fighting space is smaller. You might have to handle them all by yourself if you want to conserve Daphne’s mana.”

“Fine,” said Stephan. “Then let’s speed things up. Sorin, guard my back. Daphne, if you throw much as a single firebolt, I’m breaking your wand.” There was a scorch mark on his shoulder where her stray firebolt had gotten him.

They advanced at a much quicker pace than before. Now that Sorin could effortlessly dispatch smaller numbers of rats, they made quick work of the group without suffering any wounds. They only stopped for a few minutes to collect rat cores before pressing onward.

It wasn’t long before the number of rats they killed was well over a hundred. “This is a way bigger job than you said in the beginning,” said Lawrence. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there’s a big difference between a nest of a hundred rats and a nest of five hundred.”

“Don’t I know it,” muttered Stephan. “Isn’t there a saying, Gareth?”

“A hundred rats to a lord,” said Gareth. “A thousand rats to a king.”

“How likely exactly is there to be a rat king?” asked Sorin.

It was Daphne who answered the question. “Not so likely. Look here.” She passed a book over to Sorin. To his surprise, it was a portable demon reference book.

“Rat kings can control anywhere between five hundred and ten thousand rats,” read Sorin. “Controlling hordes over ten thousand requires a rat emperor. Characteristics of a rat king are: 1. high coordination between members; 2. Nest-wide special abilities; 3. Increased rat size. 4. Possible increase in intelligence. Rats under the influence of a fully grown rat king will be 50% larger than normal.” Then Sorin frowned. “These rockgnaw rats are around 2 feet tall, but some of the bigger ones are almost 3 feet tall.”

“Now you see why Lawrence is worried,” said Stephan. “While I’m confident that there isn’t a fully grown rat king here, evidence points towards a juvenile rat king.”

Sorin passed the book back to Daphne and fell back into formation. There was a group of six rats ahead, and this time, the cave was much larger. The rats weren’t foolish – they bypassed the sturdy member of the team by running along the walls and tried to take down Gareth and Daphne.

Yet as soon as they jumped into the air, an arrow and a firebolt took down two of them. Sorin struck two with his dagger before they even hit the ground and lashed the fifth with his mithril string, pulling it back before it could bite daphne.

As for the sixth, Gareth avoided it. Lawrence appeared beside it before it and struck it in the neck. They spent two minutes gathering cores and tails before setting off once again.

Lawrence stopped them again 15 minutes later. “Big group up ahead,” he said. “Thirty in total.”

“Thirty in a single group?” said Stephan, frowning. “Is there a lord with them, or a juvenile rat king at least?”

“There’s one that’s about twice as big as the biggest normal rats,” said Lawrence. “So maybe?”

“What are your thoughts?” Stephan asked Gareth.

“My thoughts are that I’ll finally get to shoot something,” said Gareth. “In fact, it’ll probably be difficult to miss. That includes Daphne, of course. I think this is the time where she shines.

“The only problem is holding them back,” said Stephan. “Lawrence, you said they were all in cave? How wide?”

“About three bears wide, give or take,” said Lawrence.

“Hm….” Stephan scratched his chin. “Then Sorin and I should hold the pass.

“Me?” said a startled Sorin. “I’m not exactly good at taking hits.”

“But you’re stronger than you look,” said Stephan. “I’m not sure if it’s the cultivation technique you practice, but haven’t you noticed that you’re about twice as strong as Lawrence is?”

“Twice as strong?” said Sorin, frowning. “Hasn’t Lawrence reached the 7th level of blood thickening?”

“That has nothing to do with it,” said Stephan. “Daphne and Gareth, for example, are much weaker physically than even Lawrence is, and they’re around the same cultivation level.”

Sorin had a late start, so out of everyone in the group, his cultivation at the fifth level of blood thickening was the weakest. Fortunately, there wasn’t a huge difference between the cultivation stages within a realm. Once’s mana density and their corresponding abilities increased roughly 10% with each stage.

“I’m not convinced,” said Sorin.

“Fine,” said Stephan. “Lawrence, pin him.”

“Awesome!” said Lawrence. “And it’s even an official order!” He blended into the shadows and tackled him from the side a half second later.

Sorin acted without thinking. The moment Lawrence grabbed him, he reached out and twisted his body like no human should have been able to. He then pushed Lawrence’s arm behind his back at an angle and pinned him to the ground. “This proves nothing,” said Sorin. “It was all technique.”

“Nice wrestling technique for a physician,” said Stephan. “He lowered into a crouch and ran towards Sorin. He did so too quickly to evade. Sorin could only bring him his hands and grab Stephan’s to push him back.

For a moment, they were deadlocked. But before long, Stephan began pushing him back steadily. Yet it wasn’t as one-sided as Sorin had expected. When Stephan let go, he nodded at Sorin. “Not bad. If you’re up for it, you can defend the pass with me. I’ll block a larger area, and your mission will be simple: kill anything that gets near us while the others blast them from behind. Lawrence will be our last line of defence. Anything that gets past you, he’ll kill.”

With so much evidence staring him in the face, Sorin could only agree to Stephan’s proposal. They approached the cavern as closely as they could without attracting attention, then stopped for Lawrence to place caltrops.

Once Lawrence was done, Sorin sent out his mithril thread and charged it with white mana. This was concentrated paralysis poison, which he’d separated from his combination poison. Anyone or anything who touched the thread would find the limb that touched it stiffening for several seconds.

The string was about thirty feet long, so Sorin stretched it across three quarters of the opening before doubling back. If the rats somehow avoided the caltrops, they’d be very likely to trip on one of the wires, thereby slowing down the entire group.

“Are we ready?” asked Stephan. “Daphne, are you done overcharging your spell?”

“Almost,” said Daphne through gritted teeth. “Believe it or not, this is a lot harder than it looks. She wasn’t just holding a fireball in her hands like she normally did but was currently building a spell array to support and launch it. “Ten more seconds. Nine.”

“Gareth, nock your arrows and get ready to fire as quickly as you can,” commanded Stephan. “Four. Three. Two. One!”

“Fireball!” shouted Daphne. The flaming projectile shot towards a cluster of eight rats and blasted them to oblivion.

The cavern shook, and a stalactite fell down onto another group of three unfortunate rats. The others quickly awakened, and upon noticing their group at the entrance, charged at them with blind rage.

Gareth loosed three arrows shortly after Daphne launched her fireball, He felled two rats and wounded the third. He then pulled back for another shot, but it was then that the first of the rats reached the trip wire.

“Kill anything that moves,” said Stephan, growing and claws and batting mauling a rat as it leap for his neck.

Sorin’s instincts took over once again; he stepped forward like a spring and stabbed with his dagger, catching a rat in the neck. He stabbed at another that tripped over the cockatrice poison wire and stabbed it in the back.

Another fireball launched out from behind them, and so three more arrows. Seven more rats fell under from the combined attack. Only a large rat survived the explosion. It was a head taller than Sorin and stood on two legs.

“You take core of the rest of them,” said Stephan, charging out at the rat lord. This time, he fully adopted his bear form and pulled the rat into a tight bear hug.

Blood spurted onto the ground as the rat’s sharp teeth sheared through his half plate and bit into his neck. A thunk sounded as an arrow struck the rat’s thick hide. It barely drew blood before falling to the ground, useless.

Sorin wanted to charge out, but knew that if he did, the others would be attacked by the remaining rats. So he stood his ground and cut down whatever rats came his way.

This freed up Daphne to tackle the rat lord with Stephan. Fireballs were no longer effective against such an opponent, so she began throwing magic missiles at its exposed back, drawing tiny streams of blood wherever she struck.

As for Gareth, he also changed his approach. He no longer nocked three arrows at a time and accumulated mana for three whole seconds before letting loose. The wind howled as the arrow stabbed into the rat lord’s side.

The rat growled in annoyance and tried to free itself from Stephan’s grasp. Yet as soon as it managed to extricate itself, a Lunisolar Paw came down on it, shaming it to the ground.

“Lawrence, block those rats coming in,” said Sorin. “We need to kill this thing quick.” It was no longer thirty rats they were fighting, but the entire horde that was pouring in. Thanks to the panicked screeching of their leader, rats were arriving through several entrances and charging towards their group.

Lawrence and Daphne were forced to focus their attention on the incoming rats. Smaller fireballs blasted four at a time, and Daphne, now running low on mana, was forced to take a sip from a mana potion.

When Sorin arrived at the rat lord, it had already picked itself up. His mithril thread struck out like a viper, but it was unable to pierce the rat lord’s leathery hide. He therefore tucked away the mithril thread and committed all his attention to his dagger. He lunged at the rat and stabbed into one of its open wounds.

The rat squealed as Sorin injected a heavy dose of poison between its rib bones, then retreated before the rat could bit him. Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid a claw to the chest. His leather armor was split open, and blood splashed onto the cavern’s stone floor.

“I’m fine,” said Sorin when Stephan pulled back to defend him. “Hold him in place so I can land a few more hits.

Viper strike was taxing. Against smaller rats, he only used a smaller dose of poison, if any at all, but against a rat lord, he didn’t dare hold back.

Now! thought Sorin. The rat dodged Stephan’s Lunisolar Paw and darted towards Sorin’s original position. But Sorin had already stepped forward with Adder Rush; he struck the rat straight in the neck when it overextended itself.

The mithril dagger struck bone. A paralytic was injected into the wound, and the rat staggered. Sorin used the opportunity to send out the mithril string to tangle up the rat’s front paws, then pulled as the rat tried to free himself, barely keeping it in place as a Lunisolar Strike came crashing down on its skull.

Once. Twice. Thrice. It was a tough rat that refused to give in. Yet its bones could only take Stephan’s heavy blows for so long before it collapsed into a bloody mess.

The remaining rats in the cave, having seen their leader perish, fled back into the tunnels. “Don’t chase,” said Stephan. “Let’s regroup and take care of our wounds.” He abandoned his bear transformation and splashed half a healing potion on his bloodied neck, then tossed remaining half potion to Sorin.