Chapter 7: Deadly Challenges

Gripping my sword tightly in my hands, I charged towards the ferocious giant rat. My zombie rat should be able to handle the other two rats while I was busy. The reason I chose the strongest enemy instead of the weakest one was quite simple. I had a feeling that my zombie rat would be torn apart if it fought in my place. And that was unacceptable. I had spent too many resources reanimating this rat just to have it die because I was afraid to fight a stronger enemy.

Swinging downwards as quickly as I could, I watched in satisfaction as my sword tore through the giant rat’s flesh. Or at least that was what I thought had happened. I watched in horror as the giant rat vanished in front of me. Shit, where was it? My question was answered with a painful slash on my back.

Gah! Cringing in pain I turned around to face my opponent. Fuck, why the hell was it so fast? Ignoring the increasing pain coming from my back, I began to formulate a strategy in my head. Right now my problem was that I was too slow. There was no way for me to increase my speed at the moment, so I had to reduce my opponent’s speed instead. The question was how. There had to be a way, I just had to think of one.

My thoughts were forced to come to a halt as I jumped out of the way of an oncoming attack. Rolling on the ground, I quickly stood up and ran towards one of the weaker rats. If I could just kill one of them, my zombie rat would be able finish the other one off easily. Then we would be able to double team this wretched rat. But right before I would’ve reached one of the weaker rats, the ferocious rat came to a skidding halt in front of me. Tch, it did not want me killing off its allies. Despair was slowly starting to fill my body until I realized something. All hope wasn’t lost, at least not yet. Since the ferocious rat wanted to keep me away from its weaker brethren, more strategies opened up for me to use. I might actually be able to use this to my advantage.

Turning off my wind magic, I faced my opponent with my normal sword. Since I wasn’t going to be hitting it anytime soon, I might as well save my mana. Looking at it carefully, I once again began to formulate a plan. The only thing that I had that would be useful in this fight was my earth magic. I needed to somehow use this to slow down or severely injure my opponent. I would have to be careful the first time I used it since that would be my only element of surprise. Now what attack should I use?

I could use an earth spike but the problem with that was that it would only injure my opponent. I needed something that would slow it down so I could kill it with my sword. The first thought that came to mind was using mud. However I needed water to do that. So that was impossible….or was it? My eyes widened a bit as I was hit with an epiphany. I couldn’t use mud, but maybe I could use something similar, something like quicksand.

The thing that quicksand and mud have in common was that they both made the ground soft. If I could manipulate the earth into a soft substance I could trip the ferocious rat up. Yes, that was a good plan. The only problem I had now was manipulating the earth while I was in the middle of combat. It would be challenging, but not impossible. I just needed to keep the ferocious rat away while I made the earth around me soft. If I manipulated the earth too soon, the rat would know something was up. If I did it too late, I would be formally introduced into a set of sharp claws. Hwaah. Letting out a large sigh I moved my plan into action.

Concentrating my mana downwards, I began to manipulate the earth that was around me. Not only was it hard because I had never done something like this before, but I was unable to plant my hand on the ground to help me. I had a suspicious feeling that the moment I left an opening in my defense, my enemy would take that moment to attack. Sweat poured down my brow as I rushed mana into the ground. I was wasting more mana than I would’ve liked but time was of the essence.

As I manipulated the earth I slowly turned my body around as I followed the rat with my eyes. For some reason it wasn’t attack me, it was just…observing. No doubt waiting for me to mess up. I wasn’t complaining though. If it wanted to give me time to lay out my trap then so be it. I would show it the error of its ways.

Twenty seconds later and the earth around me was extremely soft. I had managed to spread my mana around a decent bit but not far enough to affect the other two rats. My feet had actually dipped into the ground a little bit but it didn’t seem as though my enemy had noticed. It was more focused on my sword rather than my feet. With an angry snarl the rat charged towards me as fast as it could. Coating my sword in wind I attacked the moment it sunk into the earth. The surprised look that crawled onto its face caused a malicious grin to appear on mine. I would make sure it would never underestimate me again.

Swinging my sword like a bat I aimed at its tiny legs. I didn’t particularly care how many I cut as long as it was at least one. I would like to see it try to attack me quickly with an injured leg. Although the rat tried its hardest to escape my sword, its back feet were firmly stuck in the earth. With a sickening slick one of the rat’s legs flew through the air in a torrent of blood.

-10

Tch, I had been aiming at two but it had managed to twist its body at the last second. The moment the rat leaned on its uninjured foot in order to stay balanced I took off. Rushing towards the two weaker rats, I aimed my sword downwards and pierced one through the back.

-12

My attack had done more damage to it than the ferocious rat because it was weaker. My zombie rat had done a decent job of holding these two rats off as I fought. Although it had done quite a bit of damage to both of them, it had sustained some damage itself. With another slash of my sword I lowered down the number of enemies I had to fight to two. While my zombie rat fought the other one viciously I turned back to the ferocious rat. My attack had injured it but I knew it wouldn’t stay down for long.

With a grunt the ferocious rat leapt onto a solid patch of earth. I had no idea how but it was currently balancing on three feet. It didn’t seem bothered by the blood that was dripping from its wound. This just meant that I would have to make more. Let’s see how well it would fare with only two legs.

I was about to run towards the rat when an idea sprang up inside my head. As far as I knew the rat was a close range fighter. This meant that in order to injure me it would have to come towards me. Not the other way around. Placing my left hand on the ground, I pumped mana into the ground. I had about a third of my mana left, enough for me to cast several earth spikes. I planned on casting the earth spikes until the rat got too close to me. Since I had long range attacks, I would be damned if I didn’t use them.

Launching two earth spikes towards the injured rat I watched as one pierced it through its tail. How the hell could this rat dodge my attacks so well? I repeated this attack once more before I charged at the rat with my sword. I had managed to reduce its health to a reasonable level so I was confident I could kill it. My zombie rat was almost done with its fight so I wouldn’t have to wait long for a double team.

Ferocious Giant Rat - Lv.7

Hp: 18/45

In just two more attacks this battle would be finished. However I was still wary of attacking up close. A saying my dad used to say arose from the back of my mind as I circled the rat. I didn’t remember it exactly but it went something like there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal. This giant rat fit that bill perfectly. With all of its allies killed, it was truly backed into a corner. But that was its own fault. It made a mistake the moment it attacked me. I was sure that it wouldn’t have shown me any mercy so neither would I. I would make it regret ever trying to kill me.

Slashing my sword towards its injured stump, I watched as it jumped backwards. Straight into my awaiting zombie rat. Heh, it was predictable. The reason I knew it was going to jump backwards was quite simple. While it only had one useable leg at the front, it had two good ones in the back. Therefore it was more likely to jump backwards than anything else since it would be quicker and easier. However that line of thought proved to be its downfall.

I was able to finish it off easily while my zombie rat distracted it. Before I could look for any loot, a level up box appeared in my vision. Looking at my status I pondered on what to spend my skill points on. Intelligence, wisdom, or agility. Intelligence would make my spells stronger while wisdom would make them easier to use. More agility would’ve been useful in my previous fight so it was a hard decision. After about a minute of debating, I made my choice.

Status WindowNameColm MarythouAge: 16Race: HumanLevel: 4Gender: MaleTitlesThe Peerless Descender, Undead ProphetHealth: 90/130Mana: 30/140Stamina: 60/130~Strength: 10[1]Agility: 13Vitality: 8Dexterity: 9Intelligence:20Wisdom:15Luck:0~SkillsMana Affinity, Wind Blade, Earth Magic, Necromancy, Meditation, Enhanced VisionUnallocated Points: 0

The reason I placed all five of my points into intelligence was because I wanted to get it to twenty. I would do that with agility next and then wisdom. After that I would place it wherever I felt it was needed.

One thing that was a pleasant surprise was that my mana increased by ten the moment my intelligence reached twenty. This was good because I now knew of a way to increase my mana capacity. From what it looked like, the more intelligence I had, the more mana I would have to use. My health or stamina would probably increase if I got my vitality to twenty also.

None of my skills leveled up this time but they did gather quite a bit of experience. Another couple battles or so and I had a feeling that they would level up. Swiping away the blue box, I made my way to the corpses. The first ones I looked at were the two level four rats. In between the two bodies was a single red vial which I picked up cautiously. What was this?

Basic Health Potion

Description: A vial of red liquid used to heal wounds.

Effect: Recovers 40 hp.

Twisting the vial around in my hand, I watched the red liquid slosh around inside. I could hardly believe it. This was just like the potions that heal you in rpgs. To me this potion was a godsend because if I got injured, I could heal quickly with this. One gulp and my health would raise by forty points. I had no healing skills so it always took me a while to restore my health. But if I managed to gather more of these, then that wouldn’t be a problem.

Placing the potion in my jacket pocket, I moved on to the final corpse. Pushing it off to the side, I grabbed an object that resembled a necklace. How it didn’t get crushed by the weight of the rat was a mysterious to me. Bringing it closer to my face, I inspected it for details.

Fanged Necklace of Ferocity

Description: A necklace carved from the fangs of a ferocious giant rat.

Effect: +5 Strength

+3 Agility

Durability: 20/20

The necklace that was in my hand seemed to be covered in fangs. From the name I could assume that it was a special drop that only came from a ferocious giant rat. The moment I read the effects I knew the ferocious rat was worth the trouble. This necklace raised my strength and agility to sixteen making me even more powerful. When I put it on, I could literally feel the muscles in my body tightening and growing stronger. Yes, with more equipment like this I wouldn’t have to worry about the giant rats anymore.

Adjusting the necklace on my neck, I walked over to my corpses. With these I would have four giant rat corpses in total. Grabbing the ferocious rat and one of the level four rats I made my way to the base. My zombie rat followed behind me slowly with the remaining corpse. As I was walking back I noticed that my rat had sustained quite a few wounds. Hmm, I would need to fix that. My rat needed to be at its strongest or else it would die when it was fighting with me. That was a hassle that I didn’t want to deal with.

Opening an entryway into my house tiredly I tossed the corpses to the side. Man, the battle I had fought took a lot out of me. With a loud sigh I leaned against a nearby wall to take a quick break. Closing my eyes I shifted my body until I was in a comfortable position. Before I knew it I was fast asleep.

Waking up with a start I looked around. What happened? Looking into the curious eyes of my zombie rat, realization struck me. I had fallen asleep. It made sense because I had been extremely exhausted from the previous fight. How long had I been asleep? How long had I even been down here? For my sleep I reckoned that I got a couple hours. I was still a little bit drowsy but I was feeling way better than I had before. As for the time I had been down here…I would say around a day. That was what my mental clock told me and I had no idea if it was correct. But what could I do, until I found my phone I wouldn’t know the time.

Taking a few minutes to stretch all of the kinks out of my body I looked at my status. My eyes widened in shock as I looked at my health, mana, and stamina bar. It seemed that by going to sleep everything would refill. I was extremely glad for that since it would have taken a long time for me to get my mana and stamina back. Scratching my rat behind its ears I examined it closely.

Although it seemed fine I could still see some serious wounds on its body. The wounds looked like it was bothering my zombie rat but not by much. I still didn’t like it so I opened my journal for a solution. I flipped page after page looking for an answer. The more I flipped, the more the pit in my stomach grew. I was nearing the end of the book looking for an answer. It was probably childish of me but I thought that this necromancy journal would last me for years. However it seemed like I would finish reading it in a day or so. Books aren’t endless, I knew that. However thinking it didn’t stop feeling I was getting in my stomach.

After I finished reading through all of the rituals, I moved on to the spells sections. There were only two of them there and neither of them helped my situation. I decided to look at them later and moved on to the final section. The necromancer’s notes. Since there were several pages of notes, I skipped around looking for specific words. My finger stopped on a section that talked about wounds on your undead. Sure enough after reading the section I now knew what to do.

Basically there were only two good ways to heal an undead. The easiest way was to use a spell. A spell which I didn’t have. Sadly the spell wasn’t in this journal so I would have to use the other method. The next method was to have your undead eat the flesh of a creature. For some reason the flesh of its victims would help in its regeneration. It didn’t matter what kind as long as it was alive and breathing at one point. This meant that my zombie rat wouldn’t heal if I gave it vegetables or something.

As I read on I realized that not having the undead healing spell wasn’t all that bad. Having my zombie rat eat a corpse would not only heal it, but it would strengthen it also. My rat would have a small chance of absorbing some of the corpse’s abilities depending on how much of the corpse it ate. Sadly this was only possible if I used a certain ritual. I turned toward the ritual section of my book to see if I had it. I did. Good, I would try to use it for the next creature I reanimated. I continued reading quietly as my zombie rat watched me quietly.