Chapter Twelve: Trial Two: Musophobia

“urgh, my head” Gingerly sitting up, Alex cradled his head in his arms as he slowly rocked backwards and forwards. It took a couple of minutes for Alex to recover enough for him to be pretty much back to normal. An hour passed, and the group started to get agitated, waiting for the next trial to commence. Rory, whose Mana had fully recovered, still sat meditating, trying to fill his barrier ring as much as possible. With a bang, a manhole sized object popped off one of the many sections of the arena wall, leaving a dark empty hole in its place. Before long, a faint sound started to be heard, what sounded like rain rapidly hitting a surface. however, the sound was gradually getting louder and closer. Disturbed, Rory cautiously approached the hole so that he could peer into it and see what was coming. Rory was halfway to the hole when a grey mass suddenly flooded out, bursting forth and swarmed towards the group! Rats! Thousands upon thousands of rats! And they were all heading towards them. The rats were so tightly packed together they formed a massive mass of bodies. Rory back peddled in surprise. He was taken off guard by the sudden appearance of the rats. What freaked him out more was the fact that they were so silent. Apart from the constant pitter-patter of thousands of tiny feet, the rats didn’t make any noise, no squeaking, no fighting between themselves. They all wore vacant looks and were in various states of decay. Rory quickly ran back to the others, aiming a quick analysis as he did. Undead Horde Rat – Level N/A (mundane) Description: Not much different from your garden variety rat. Even in undeath, these creatures retain the ability to eat and reproduce. Driven by the two desires left to it, these creatures create huge hordes and scour clean anything in their path, leaving no remains to pass the undeath virus onto. For this reason, undead rats are killed on sight by both the living and undead. Mundane creatures provide no experience when slain, have no resistance to spells or effects, nor are they boosted in any way by the system. Before Rory could make it to the others, the tide of rats crashed into him. With scrabbling limbs, they climbed his body, scratching his clothes and trying to bite anything exposed. Flames exploded out of Rory and with swift motions, he cleansed himself of the undead pests, giving himself breathing room and an opportunity to glance at the others. Perched upon one of the boulders that littered the arena, the others stabbed and swung at the rats that swarmed around them. While Rory was able to easily keep the rats at bay with his fire, the others fought with every movement. Sweat beaded their foreheads as they tried to keep the rats from them all while balancing on the rock. Eventually Rory waded his way through the body of rats to the nearest boulder, where he too, climbed on top. With the extra height advantage the boulder afforded him, he could easily scorch the ground surrounding him, the sheer heat more than the rats' feeble bodies could stand. The situation took a turn for the better. Rory could easily and efficiently keep up the heat using his Magic, and the others got into a good rhythm of keeping the rats at bay with their weapons. “AAAARRRHHGGGHHH” a piercing scream echoed out around the arena, startling Rory and almost causing him to fall off his boulder in surprise. Whirling in the direction the noise had come from Rory was horrified at what he saw. The Asian woman Rory hadn’t thought to ask the name of had slipped off her boulder. To Rory it happened as if in slow motion, her arms wind milling in the air as she fell into the sea of rats. Both Emily and Matthew saw this happening and shouted out in horror. She fought franticly grabbing rats by the handful and easily crushing them. They swarmed on top of her, their weight smothering her, for every rat that she squeezed to death, another dozen took its place. Soon her arms were all that could be seen above the horde of rats, weakly trying to kill more of the rats. During the time this had been happening Rory had not been idle, with a grunt he leapt into the swarm of rats, landing heavily his feet crushed the backs of several rats, with a continued flare of magic any rats that got in his way were burnt to ash, his immunity to his own magic leaving him unharmed. Rory was progressing far too slowly through the mass of rats, as while the rats died near instantly to his flames, the sheer mass of rats was almost overwhelming. New bodies were being shoved into his proximity almost as quickly as he turned them to ash. Sacrificing some of his protection to increase the speed of his progress towards the women, Rory pushed more magic into his spell, aiming the jets further away from himself leaving himself vulnerable to the rats which wasted no opportunity and quickly started to bite his ankles and feet. Wincing with pain, Rory continued his progress towards the others, when he was nearly upon them he took a gamble, summoning forth the power of his lightning orb he called upon his spell Static bomb, staggering as he did so, as instead of the power flowing through him it felt sluggish and resisted his will. A beach ball sized orb of crackling and popping energy slowly developed at chest height. The bomb slowly expanded and contracted of its own accord, willing the bomb forward didn’t achieve anything, so Rory desperately ceased the jet of flames from one hand and quickly grabbed hold of the bomb, hurtling it towards where everyone was standing. The bomb floated agonisingly slowly through the air, seeming to take an age to reach its target where it landed and popped like a balloon bathing the area in a sizzling blanket of energy, freezing friend and foe alike. Rory’s teammates' bodies froze and toppled off the boulder, their bodies crushing scores of rats as they landed. Seizing the sudden stillness, Rory ploughed his way through the remaining rats, reaching the others where he quickly raised his protective barrier, sealing them and hundreds of rats in. Five seconds after all this happened, the others started to stir, released from their paralysis. Thankfully, the rats remained frozen due to their lack of resistance to his spells. With new found vigour, everyone resumed killing the helpless vermin. Rory, who was closest to where the women landed, practically dived into the mass of rats, his hands frantically searching for anything not rat like. Eventually, Rory grabbed onto what he thought was an arm. With his system granted strength, he pulled the women to an up right position. Bile flooded Rory’s mouth, he quickly swallowed it down to avoid puking everywhere. Half of the women’s face was missing, having been eaten by the rats, the soft tissue having been eaten first exposing dull lifeless eyes and blue gums. The sea of rats around him started to twitch the rats having finally recovered from their paralysis. Just as Rory went to let go of his now dead companion, steel like clammy hands gripped onto his own and those very same lifeless eyes swivelled to stare into his. Reeling back in shock, Rory fell onto his bottom, bringing the zombie with him. The zombie landed on top of him, forcing his back to the ground. Drool flew everywhere as the zombie tried to chomp and scratch at Rory, who had his hands up desperately trying to fend off her bites. All around him the rats were getting to their feet and upon seeing him laying prone dived straight for him. Screwing up his eyes waiting for the inevitable rat bite to the face, Rory was surprised when it never came. The weight on top of him was also suddenly flung off of him. Cautiously opening his eyes, Matthew towered above him, spear still dripping human blood from the zombie he had just killed. Matthew just grinned down at him before he offered his hand. Tentatively gripping it, Rory found himself suddenly jerked to his feet. “Rory, we can’t afford to let this carry on for much longer. Shannon is already dead. You need to do something.” Finding himself agreeing with Matthew, Rory racked his brain for a solution. He idly ran his hand along the golden barrier, his memory going back to their earlier fight. The rats had been exterminated enough within the barrier to no longer be a threat, and everyone was catching a breath while they killed the last few remaining. Checking his Mana, Rory had two thirds of his supply left. Coming to a decision, Rory grabbed hold of as much Mana as he was able to, he compressed it with an iron will, blood started to dribble from his eyes, nose and ears the Mana burning his body, threatening to pull him apart. At the last possible moment, Rory willed his barrier to shrink, exposing himself to the army of rats but still keeping his friends inside. Like a bomb detonating, the Mana exploded out of Rory. In his haste, he had forgotten to use one of his orbs of power. Unattuned, Mana washed over the arena. While lacking the destructive force the orbs of power provided it was still more than enough for the mundane rats who buckled under the pressure, their bodies breaking and liquefying under the force. So bright was the exploding Mana wave that Rory had to shield his eyes. Once the image faded from behind his eyes lids, he opened his eyes. Around him nothing remained, but the crumpled and battered corpses of the rats and a golden barrier that still held strong. Rory sank to his knees in exhaustion, glad that the second trial was over.