All of a sudden, Chen knew that the thing out there was some kind of a dread-rat but couldn't wrap his head around that fact. It was like the sound of a dread-rat, yet not like a dread-rat—indeed not like anything he had ever heard. Clinging to the statue, he tried to look around. The beast had aspects of a rat in its squeal, and Chen began to picture a giant rat ready to attack.

Slowly, but forcefully, Chen began to gain control of his frayed nerves. He recalled the basic lessons he had learned from his father many years ago which proved useful to him in his scoundrel life. With urgency, he began climbing with more energy. After another squeal sounded too close to where he was, he stopped climbing and glanced at the dark tunnel behind him.

Then he saw the eyes.

Two great red orbs stared at him from the darkness. Each seemed as large as a melon. They remained upon Chen, unblinking, as he clung to the back of the statue. The eyes made him lose his awareness. As the eyes continued to bore into him, he felt the cold bile of terror rising in his throat.

Out of instict, once again, Chen began to climb in panic. He wondered what he would do after scaling the statue to the top, where the four-footed beast would be unable to pursue. The beast could just stay at the bottom and wait for him to come down. One way or the other, he would still turn out to be dread-food.

Still thinking frantically, he felt with his fingers to find a handhold above his head. At last he found a grip, and he quickly pulled himself upward.

Now came another squeal from the darkness, this time deep and heavy. It rumbled off the tunnel and echoed through the silence with a deadly resonance. The creature inched out of the darkness, closer to the brighter area of the tunnel, towards the statue. Chen nearly lost his consciousness, his opened mouth wider than the abyssal gates. A dread-rat as big as a dragon? The god of dread-rats? He imagined the pungent breath of the creature on his face. No need for it to use its razor-sharp teeth on him, it could simply swallow him whole.

This seemed to suck Chen's very spirit away from him. For a second, he felt his knees grow weak and he began to slide towards the ground, but as quickly as it began, the impulse passed and he held firm again. He didn't want to die.

Already locked on to Chen with its two large red eyes, the giant rat inched ever closer. When the dread-rat saw him climbing frantically, trying to escape, it went on the attack. The dread-rat hadn't gone more than few feet when it stepped on one of the deadly traps. Chen couldn't believe his ears when he heard the sound of the activated trap. He had just walked past the traps without him knowing any better. He could have been killed, no, incinerated by lightning. Red lightning? He would have become ashes in an instant. But he had managed to avoid the traps somehow. Maybe, heaven was smiling down on him on this day. That gave him some confidence as he watched the lightning strike.

Two massive red bolts of brilliant energy rent the darkness asunder. Each sizzled hotly as it struck the dread-rat by the side of the neck. Red bolts of lightning began raining down on the spot where the trap was triggered, cutting off the wounded dread-rat's escape. Seeing no way out, the dread-rat threw caution to the wind and went for Chen who was trying to remove his hidden dagger.

When it was about to reach the boy, another two searing red bolts of lightning hit the dread-rat again on the neck and head, piercing it through. The momentum of the dread-rat carried it into the giant statue, knocking off Chen who had been clinging to the ridge of the statue's shoulder blade. He landed on the head of the dread-rat who was still struggling with traces of life. His dagger buried in the head of the giant dread-rat. He hung on to its head for his dear life as it slowly bled to death and stopped moving.

As he was about to slide down, he noticed a radiant yellow crystal inside the head of the dread-rat, where the lightning had created a sizable hole. An essence crystal. Anything shining, he could sell. The money would go a long way in helping his family. Hanging at an awkward angle, he managed to remove the crystal before hitting the floor hard. Another set of lightning bolts crackled around the chamber, ricocheting wildly off the stone walls.

A hot bolt passed inches from Chen's face, making him recoil, before hitting the carcass of the dead rat. After a few terrifying seconds, the lightning bolts burned themselves out in hisses of sulfur. Chen blinked, but all he could see were red afterimages. The lightning had temporarily distorted his vision. At last, the shapes of the area and the massive doors came back into focus. He was so close. He could make it.

With renewed determination, he started climbing the statue once more. Clinging to the statue's back, Chen narrowly ducked one of the jagged arcs of energy as it crackled past.

A minute later, two red bolts struck again. Chen swallowed hard and grimaced. If it wasn't for the devil rat, he could have made it to the other side of the doors. And now, things did not look good with the lightning bolts. If one hit him, he would be dead, instantly.

As he climbed closer to the edge of the statue, he began to see a problem with the latch of the door. They were bigger than he would be able to turn. Assuming he could make it to the door without being struck by the magical lightning, he would be stuck at the door when he would only have seconds to leave the area. However, if he could not open the latch in time, he would be standing directly in the path of the lightning from the other side.

As if confirming his fears, once more searing bolts of magic bounced around the chamber, hitting the doors before vanishing. Deep in thought, Chen's hand hit something on the neck of the statue which made him wince in pain. Still nursing the pain, he was nearly thrown off the statue as the statue moved. It extended its hand and pulled the latch of the door before twisting it to the left. With a loud creak, the doors began to open outwards.

"I did it!"

Chen began to scramble down the statue in a frenzy. As soon as he made it down, the doors started to close. Without thinking and wasting any time, he made a run for the closing doors.