Sir Timothy led the charge out from the Tavern, his small group killing rat-kin as they went. When they started to get swarmed, Lori Lightingale let loose with one of her big spells, blinding the nearby rats and greatly confusing the rest. The rat-kin could operate in daylight, but they didn't like it.

It was only a couple of hundred feet to the barracks. That was a long way to go when you had to watch all around for rat-kin trying to stab you in the kidneys or dive from roof tops. The rangers and rogues already on the roofs did what they could, but were quickly figuring out that if they got left behind, they were dead. The 3rd time Lori let loose, they all scrambled down and joined up with the pack.

Ben and Jorges were looking down at the moving battle. Jorges scratched his chin an said "They aren't going to make it. Too much resistance and they're burning mana too fast.

"Do we want them inside? That would certainly end the war. But then....". Ben really wanted to watch the Momco. group get swarmed, but a tail and whiskers might really interfere with his love life.

Jorges thought the same. "We need the people to beat the rats. Get them inside. We need to beat this horde of rats first, and deal with Timmy and Brandon later."

Ben sketched a salute and jumped down off the wall to where a group was waiting. "Time to go save Brandon and company's ass. Let's go."

Ozzy hefted the heavy bar, while Cham and Jon pushed them open. The loggers charged into the fray, each pulling two small axes from their belts. The axes still counted as default weapons for them, with a base of 10 damage and 1% to hit. But both of the loggers had increased their STR and DEX to 10. Further, they had taken a specialized skill for lumberjacks: When you have an axe, anything looks like a tree.

This allowed them to do use their axes to split rocks, damage buildings, and chop through iron bars. It was a great skill to have in dungeons. Against creatures, the skill gave them an additional +10% to hit and +10 damage. As a level 5 contract worker, they gained +50% to hit and +25 to damage.

The lowly contract workers who had lost to squirrels and fat rabbits were getting a little better. The lumberjacks’ axes now had a chance to hit of 111% - the targets evasions. And they did an average of 95 points of damage when they hit. They still weren't hitting as hard as players with all their special abilities, but they were a match for several of the level 1 and 2 rat-kin.

They were followed by a quartet of workers: Elly and Liam were carpenters, Jess and Kamea were farmers. All four were using an adze in each hand. When Ben had gotten his magical adze from the treasure chest, he'd been surprised that he could use it as a weapon. The adze was a tool as old as humanity. It's been used by woodworkers and farmers for thousands of years. And in this world, it was a weapon in the hands of anyone that had the farming or woodworking skills. It started at only a 20% chance to hit and 20 damage, but when added to the bonuses they all were earning from stats and levels, it gave the four of them a chance. Especially when they double teamed the rat-kin

Ben and Ozzy came next. The butcher was using his bill hook to slice through the mobs. Several rat-kin turned and ran rather than try to attack the glowering butcher. Just looking at him was intimidating. Stabbing at him with small knives, teeth, or claws did nothing, his tough skin shedding the wounds or ignoring them.

Ben was snapping at them with his whip and Burning Brand, and when they grouped against him, he sprayed them with Fan of Flames. No one liked having their fur set on fire.

And Ben wasn't the only one throwing out fire. Behind him came the two battle alchemists. Both Aliester and Zephyr were tossing explosions to the sides of the battle, keeping the rat-kin from flanking them. Adrianna was a whirling dervish of sharp ribbons and strangling lace, watching the backs of her bomb-happy family.

At some point the sudden onslaught proved too much for the rat-kin surrounding them. They fell back to lick their wounds, giving Sir Timothy's group a bit of respite and some running room. Workers and players ran for the gate and entered into the barracks. The thick doors were slammed, and Ozzy replaced the foot thick bar of wood into its slot.

From outside came the cheers of the victorious rat-kin. They loved seeing their foes run. The mad overlord moved his command post much closer to the battle and when he realized that his foes were all cooped up in one building, he declared victory and sent his troops to loot the town.

Ubermaus had collapsed the entire tavern as it finally emerged. It rooted in the area that had been the kitchen, finding bags of flour and barrels of apples to munch on. If it didn't have food handy to gnaw on, it bit into the wooden beams or snatched a slow-moving rat-kin. It's over-achieving metabolism demanding more and more food as it grew.

The rat-kin prodded and enticed the huge rat from one house to the next in order to break through the Hermetic Seals that Aliester had placed on them. The gigantic rat easily overcoming the wards. As soon as they went down it was a race to see who got the goodies inside. Often this resulted in a would-be looter becoming a rat-flavored-snack. By the time the sun was fully in the sky, there were few buildings left standing. One of those was Aliester’s and Adrianna’s house.

While the rat-kin had been able to break into the other houses, this one proved tougher. Ubermaus slammed against the magical wards time and again. After an hour they finally cracked and the giant rat and a hundred rat-kin surged inside. The rat-kin looting the front were delighted with the colorful gowns and rolls of ribbons they found. Ubermaus was less thrilled with the foul-smelling concoctions, vials of acids, and racks of potions. It crashed further and further into the laboratory looking for a tasty treat.

At some point, two things that should never touch mixed together. A large jar containing oil and potassium was crushed beneath the rat’s feet. As the oil left, the volatile element was splashed with a potion. The water in the potion interacted disastrously and the first explosion belched flame into the rest of the lab, causing many others.

Several rat-kin scouts on the top of the house found themselves thrown to the ground or into nearby rubble. All of the rat-kin looters died immediately, and a hundred rat-kin died as the toxic fumes from the chemicals was dispersed to the nearby crowd. Ubermaus survived, running screaming from the demolished house, his fur on fire. He trampled a dozen rat-kin in his run to the nearby stream. When he emerged, his fur was entirely gone and ugly blisters covered his pink skin. He was starving as usual. His beady eyes looked at the barracks, the only building left standing, and the little creatures on its walls. He started heading that way.

Zephyr and her family could only watch as their home was destroyed and the monster started moving towards the barracks. The leader of the rat-kin was getting them organized, surrounding the barracks and getting ready to assault it from all sides.

=*=

The Verminator marched on, looking for its next prey. The mechanical synthesis of rat and machine existed only to kill. Even cheese was secondary to its bloodlust. Prey had been scarce though. In the last mile of marching, it had only found a squirrel. That changed as it came in sight of the horde of undead bunnies.

Seeing something he could kill; it started its chain-klaw spinning and charged. The bunnies charged back. Even though there were hundreds of them, it didn’t matter. They couldn’t piece the Verminator’s armor and it destroyed one or more of them with every attack. It was just getting warmed up when Bennie confronted it

“STOP!”

The Verminator stopped, and became very confused. No one told it to stop. NO ONE!

“The rats sent you here, didn’t they? They fear my growing power and suspect me! But rats are stupid. They sent a dead-thing of metal and corpse parts to attack Bennie the mighty Necrobunny! I command dead things!

“Stupid, Stupid, Rat creatures.”

The Verminator was relieved. It was always so difficult to think of anything but killing. And now it didn’t have to. Bennie would do all it’s thinking for it from now on. It turned around and started marching back down the road it had just come up. Following it was a horde of skeletal and zombie bunnies, all under the control of Benny T. Bunny.

=*=

Commander Towers and his paladins were making good time towards the village. The constant clip-clop of the Inquisitors coconuts had a quickening effect upon the junior brothers as they moved along beside their mounted superiors.

Something went ‘Splat!’ on the road in front of them. It was a burnt and flattened body of a rat-kin, wearing a red dress with blue lace on the collar.

Senior Brother Eustace noted the phenomenon in his memoirs. Strange portents indeed!

Commander Towers yelled out. “Be on your toes lads. Something tells me the enemy is near!”