Chapter 10: Rat King (2):
In the middle of a large, lush cave room, nearly a hundred meters across and wide, a giant rat was chewing on patches of long green grass.
The rat was about four meters tall and completely brown. A large, scaled tail lay curled up behind it, swaying now and then.
The group stood watching it, not making a single sound, mesmerized by the rat. But what caught Starlight's attention the most was a crown of spiked bones curling inwards, coming out of its head.
'The one we fought didn't have that.' Starlight thought to himself as he continued to study the creature.
Its ears perked up, and it turned its face towards the group. A series of sharp bones — like the ones on its head, leading from the rat's neck to its tail twitched.
The Rat King turned its head facing the group, the rat's mouth curled up angrily, and it glared its teeth at the five of them.
Despite his fear and worry at the current situation, Starlight couldn't help but be disgusted by its hideous teeth. The Rat King's teeth were brown and yellow, each tooth spiked into fangs, and looked like they were randomly placed around its jaw.
The creature's body fully turned around, its front facing the group. If Starlight was disgusted by it before by its teeth, then there couldn't even be a word to describe what he was feeling now.
Littered all over the creature's chest were hundreds of small bubbles painted red, with tiny fetuses inside them, squirming around.
Starlight stepped back and felt the urge to throw up, 'Are those… eggs?'
'This is nothing like the one I saw back in the Void. Could this one be evolved, or could the other one be devolved? This can't be a Wretch, it has to be stronger, like a Wraith or even a Monarch, but I don't think it has a Rune.' Starlight questioned as he stared at the rat.
The other four members stepped back unconsciously, staring at the hundreds of eggs on the rat's chest, unsightly expressions plastered on their faces.
Despite the unsightly scene, Godric, Lyra, and Bram took out their weapons, and Aster went to lay Liriel against a cave wall, then went to stand beside the others. Starlight collected himself and also took out his knife, but unlike the four, he stepped back; he was too weak to participate in this fight.
Grrrrrl! Roar!
The Rat King roared as he spread open his hands, and long, sharp claws shot out of them.
The group of four entered their battle stances and braced for a fight.
After observing the surroundings, Bram gave Godric a nod and looked back towards the Rat.
The first to move was Bram; he shot out like lightning, his whip trailing behind him like a tail. At the same time, Godric leaped forward, crossing the distance between where he was standing and the twenty meters of lush cave where the Rat King was.
Godric's mace was sprung behind his head, preparing to release it the moment he was within range of the Rat. The momentum from Bram's sprint ended, and his foot collided with the ground, but instead of stopping, he redirected and shot towards the monster again, having an even faster speed this time.
Aster stayed behind, protecting Liriel and Starlight. When Lyra saw this, she twirled her spear and sprinted toward the battle.
Bram was about to collide with the rat, but before he reached it, his arm swung forward. With a loud crack, his whip shot like a bullet, heading towards the monster's head. Godric was still in the air; he shifted his weight and body, launching the heavy mace down.
But, before both blows reached their target, swarms of rats, the size of Starlight's foot, formed a pillar, completely blocking both attacks as the Rat King scurried back.
Boom!
Both the mace and the whip smashed against hundreds of smaller rats, sending them flying across the room. The rats instantly died in the force of the collision. Godric and Bram stood beside each other, regaining their standing as they studied the monster.
They both saw it in a new light; it wasn't common to see a creature with such a talent in controlling underlings to the extent it showed, that was able almost instantly to form shapes.
Starlight was also amazed. The Rat King that his guards had fought wasn't nearly as powerful as this one. The cohort he was with now was many more times powerful than the one before.
He was certain that the five Champions of White City were all Travelers, like Geralt.
And the fact that the Rat King was able to control the rats to block their attacks easily meant that it was equally as strong, if not stronger.
'Fiends are the weakest monsters, usually like wild beasts in the overworld, but stronger. Wretches were upgraded Fiends in both intelligence and strength. Wraithes were Wretches but with a Rune. Monarchs were equal to Wraiths, but aren't as physically powerful and don't have a rune, but can control other monsters like Fiends in large quantities. Could this Rat King be a monarch?' Starlight thought to himself as he studied the battle, it was not every day that he could watch such a high-ranking battle.
…
Lyra caught up to Godric and Bram; the three stood side by side, staring at the rat. The monster stood across from them, only thirty meters away, staring them down. With a quiet squeak, he commanded hundreds of rats to move.
The rats scurried across the long grass, like a wave of brown shadows in a lush green forest. They rushed towards the three champions, but the three Travelers showed no signs of weakness. Whenever one got close, they stepped on it, crushing it to death.
But the same could not be said for Liriel, Aster, and Starlight. Rats poured out of small holes along the cave's wall. Liriel was forced to stand up, leaning weakly against her metallic sword. Aster confidently stomped on rats, killing multiple with a single step. The same could not be said about Starlight; whenever he stomped down, the rats would easily avoid him, and whenever he did manage to hit one, it barely hurt them; they just kept running.
They scurried out of the walls and into the fields of grass, surrounding the three warriors. Eventually, no more rats came out of the walls, and Starlight could finally rest. Although no more came, Liriel didn't sit back down, preferring to stand, just in case. Aster didn't settle down either; he kept standing, paying attention to their surroundings more carefully.
Lyra, Godric, and Bram didn't pay any attention to the rats; they let them surround the three.
"Seriously, this is the best you can do? I expected more." Godric called out as a bright light formed over his mace. Bram and Lyra had a shocked look on their face and quickly jumped away. Seeing this action, the Rat King commanded his army of rats to charge at the man.
But this was a huge mistake on the monster's end.
As Starlight watched curiously, Aster and Liriel both closed their eyes and covered their ears. Liriel looked at Starlight pitifully but glanced down quickly.
Boom!
A bright light covered the entire cave. Starlight's ears rang loudly as he was completely blinded and deafened for a few moments. When the light eventually faded, a large crater was left on the ground, and only Godric remained in the center, standing with his mace on his shoulder and a giant, confident grin on his face.
As Starlight regained his senses, he stared at Godric. A deep, shocked expression was on his face as he thought inwardly. 'Was that his Relics ability?'
He then glanced over at the battlefield, Lyra and Bram had an annoyed look on their face. The Rat King, however, was completely unfazed. The eggs on the creature's body burst open, and small rats burst out. Immediately, the newborn baby rats rushed towards the glowing berries, consuming them without a second thought. As they ate, they grew larger, until the baby rats were no longer babies and were instead the same size as all the others.
More eggs grew, and the Rat King's chest, luckily, they weren't as large as the ones that were just born. Observing this, Starlight assumed that it wouldn't be able to produce more for a while.
Godric, Lyra, and Bram must have come to the same conclusion as they rushed towards the rat. The monsters quickly issued out commands in quiet squeaks. A moment later, large tentacles of rats blocked Lyra and Bram.
Lyra thrust her spear into the tentacle. When she pulled it back, a few rat corpses were on her blade. Grunting annoyedly, she stepped back and continued to maneuver her spear around her illustrious figure. However, every attack looked like it did not affect the construct of rats; instead, it grew more.
Bram didn't have much better luck; every time he swung his whip, a few dead rats fell out of the creation, but they were quickly consumed by the others.
Godric, on the other hand, had reached the Rat King. He was in a leap similar to the one he had done when he had the initiative, but this time, his mace was at his side, preparing for a slam upwards.
The Rat King was also preparing for that; the creature had brought both of its arms to block its head. But surprisingly, Godric didn't slam up; instead, he twisted his body and sent the mace straight into the monster's unprotected side.
Grrrr!
The rat was sent flying a few meters as Godric landed gracefully on the ground, his hair still flowing from the force of his blow.
Starlight stared with wide eyes. He was accustomed to the government's grounded style of fighting, the one almost all of his guards had used. Seeing such a flashy move had left him flabbergasted.
'I guess Travelers are Travelers for a reason, how could someone mundane like me understand his moves?'
Without letting the Rat King recover, Godric moved in closer, swinging his mace with power; however, the monster was prepared. It quickly blocked with its claws, not moving an inch; instead, Godric was sent back a few steps.
Aster was about to step in when a low growl was heard at the exit of the cave.
Both Starlight, Liriel, and Aster looked over. A giant rat was growling, standing with both its hands and feet. It wasn't as big as the Rat King, but it was probably taller than Aster when standing on its hind legs.
'The Rat King's general' Starlight gasped internally.
Aster tilted his head, then walked closer to it, rolling up his sleeves.
After walking a few feet, Aster stood still, and a gale of wind surrounded him. Starlight blinked, and he was gone. A loud bang rang out where the rat general was just standing. Starlight's gaze darted over and saw Aster brawling with the giant rat.
It took a while before he was brought out of the trance of Aster fighting. A loud bang and primal shriek had just echoed through the cave, which brought his attention back to the main battlefield.
Godric had just landed a good blow on the Rat King, breaking one of its arms.
He was about to swing his mace again when a powerful aura spread through the room. Instantly, all five of the Champions turned their head and looked over to the Rat King.
Starlight felt his legs weaken as he almost stumbled to the ground. 'A rune, I thought Monarchs don't have them!'
'And this aura… A rank three rune, most Travelers don't even have one.' Starlight gasped in shock.
Runes, like Relics, have different ranks. Rank one was the runes that most Decenders had, Rank two were the rare among Wanderers, except for experts and seniors who usually had plenty. But rank three, those were rare among Travelers; usually, only the best of Travelers had them.
Under the heavy supervision of the six humans, the Rune left the Spirit Core of the monster and showed itself to the world.
It looked like a small mouse with white fur; it was curled into a ball. The Rune mouse's tail was emanating a white light.
Under Starlight's heavy gaze, his heart slowly relaxed. 'It's kind of cute.'
'Wait, it's a rank three rune, the effect is probably really strong, this is bad.' Just as quickly as he relaxed, his entire body tensed again.
Just as the white glow moved from the tail and encapsulated the small mouse's entire body, the Rat King suddenly swallowed it. The white light spread over the rat's entire body, adding an ethereal touch to the ugly rat.
Breaking out of the trance of the sudden appearance of the rune, Godric was the first to make a move. He swung his mace with heavy power; surprisingly, the rat let it connect. As the mace hit the rat's body, the ethereal white light concentrated at the impact spot, reflecting the mace off the monster's body, forcing Godric back a few steps.
Starlight watched, stunned, as Godric's attack was actually fully blocked.
Shaking off their trance, Lyra, Bram, and Aster got back to their fights.
"Over behind the rat, there is a sword. Go pick it up and help Godric when the time comes." Liriel suddenly said to Starlight.
"But.. I-" Starlight tried to respond, but Liriel cut him off.
"The beast won't pay attention to you, just go."
Starlight looked over behind the fight going on between the Rat King and Godric, leaning against a corner and lying within a pile of human bones, was a shining silver sword. Starlight shivered at the sight, but reluctantly, he left his safe spot and started to sneak over.
Starlight left the hard, stone floor, and his feet sank in the lush, damp, green grass.
He pressed his body against the cave's wall, crouching while walking closer to the pile of bones. Looking into the wall, he saw thousands of small burrows within it. He held back the urge to turn around and continued to press forward.
Starlight sneaked past the raging battle, earning a few of Godric's curious glances, but the man mostly ignored him, giving him a small nod and focusing on the fight again.
After a few minutes and close encounters with the rat army, Starlight reached the pile of bones. There was an assortment of all kinds of bones. Some monster, some human. But there was one thing in common with all the pale bones: they all had holes, as if the rats were eating them.
Starlight shivered when he saw a skull, a human skull. It looked normal, except for a glaring hole right in the center of the forehead, like a third eye socket. He shook his head as he slowly got on top of the bone pile.
Near the peak of the pile, a shining silver sword was lying against the chewed-up armor of a human soldier clad in silver armor. Surprisingly, when he started to climb the pile, it didn't completely fall; only a few smaller bones did.
At first, when they fell, Starlight felt his blood go cold. He slowly glanced around the room, praying inwardly that the Rat King, or any rat, would not come to kill him. Luckily, nothing ended up coming, so Starlight continued climbing the pile.
When he reached the top, Starlight quickly snatched the blade. After inspecting it, there was no hold scattered across it. He sighed in relief.
'It's an Artifact!' Starlight said in astonishment inwardly, then realized that if it wasn't, the rats would have already broken a mundane sword.
The sword was slightly smaller than his torso, while the handle had to be held with both his hands, and it didn't even cover all of it. The hilt was split into two; both ends of the cross guard curved like the horns of a moose. There was a spiral pattern, like vines, swirling around the horns. In the middle of the rain guard was a jade green stone. But, no matter how beautiful, it would be useless since he could barely hold it. When Starlight first picked it up, he almost lost his balance and fell down the pile of bones.
Holding it in front of his face, the blade reflected the golden light of countless berries. When he looked in the blade, a person looked back at him, long golden hair flowed down his head, and his deep obsidian eyes reflected Starlight. It was his reflection.
Previously, he could only see himself in the river water at the previous camp, and that was distorted. It had been a few days since he last saw himself, and already he looked different; his skin was more pale than before, and his cheeks were beginning to hollow out. His eye bags grew darker than ever before, and his eyes were weak with lifelessness.
'Snap out of it, Starlight,' He shouted to himself as he stopped staring at his reflection and instead at the battlefield.
As he studied the fight, his eyes lit up with understanding as he thought back to why Liriel had asked him to help.
The white light of the rank three rune was still as bright as before, but it didn't cover the Rat King's entire body. When one spot of the light grew more concentrated, another spot grew dimmer, sometimes it left it completely.
'If Godric can deliver a powerful enough attack to cause all the white light to concentrate on one spot, I can sneak up on the rat and stab it from behind.' Starlight thought as he came to a realization.
Starlight brought the sword back down from his chest and into one hand as he dragged it down the pile of bones. When he reached the ground, he gripped the sword tighter and looked over to Godric.
As if Godric could see the entire battlefield, the moment Starlight looked at him, they made eye contact. Godric smiled lightly and nodded at the boy.
Godric's legs glowed with light as a small explosion pushed him back from the Rat King, gaining considerable distance.
The rat growled in annoyance as it showed the man its teeth. Paying no attention to the gesture, Godic's legs glowed again, and he explosively shot off the ground. In less than a second, he was already in front of the monster.
He raised his mace above his head and shot it down with more force than Starlight had ever seen before. But it did not connect with the rat; instead, the ethereal light was brighter than ever before, and it completely blocked the attack.
"Got you bastard!" Godric screamed out.
The moment he said that, a silver blade pierced into the back of the monster, impaling it right in its heart.
The rat stumbled as it turned its head to look behind. Starlight was right behind the monster, gripping the silver sword that was impaled in its back with both hands. The creature snarled and growled, raising its claws.
But, before it could make the attack, a heavy mace smashed against the monster's head, smashing the skull in instantly. The Rat King was dead.
Starlight relaxed as he pulled the sword out with struggle.
The moment the Monarch died, the two constructs of rats fell apart, as rats scurried around in the cave wildly.
Starlight sat down, with the bloodied sword in his lap, and he breathed in deeply. 'I actually helped in killing a Monarch, most Travelers would struggle in this, well, I didn't do much work, so I can't really count it.'
Starlight looked up at Godric, who was digging in the monster's body. He pulled out two things: the soul core and the rank three Rune!
Noticing his gaze, Godric looked over and smiled, "Good work, Starlight." Godric stared at him for a second, then back down at his hands.
"Here, this is for you." Godric reached his hand out and showed it to Starlight. In his hand was a small white mouse with a faint ethereal glow.
Starlight's eyes widened as he spoke in shock, "You giving me this?"