Large red eyes peer out at Bathilda from inside the hollow tunnel as she stands on an ocean of blood. Her black fur, matted with the fresh entails of his kin, looks terrifying to the creature that would normally possess that title themselves.

King Tarb, leader of the Brat's and Bart's, is unable to force himself to move. His whole body has gone still, except for his large teeth that are chattering away in a frenzied panic.

Arriving at the scene of the one-sided annihilation, he was ready to buff his underlings and exterminate whatever menace it was that thought they could pull one over on the ruler of the lower world.

Unfortunately for Tarb, King of the Rodents, as soon as he locked eyes with Bathilda his legs turned to stone and his heart began to race. His whole body turned cold as a feeling unlike any other swept over him. All he could do was watch and that's what he did.

He watched as blades of air, seemingly created from nowhere, bisected all his minions and painted the floor of their hunting grounds in their own blood. He watched as a second Bat, also throwing around blades of air as though they were nothing, added to growing count of the dead.

The Bat's, seemingly able to move at supersonic speed, clearly dominate the weaker opponents as King Tarb wonders how it's even possible.

His army has been growing stronger and stronger down here at the bottom of nowhere for quite almost a decade now. His pack has fought off many different enemies, including bats, yet no bat that he has come across has ever been as ferocious as this one. Tricky opponents that are able to fly are not their forte but they can usually manage in large groups. Today, all their attack patterns and tactics that were used, failed miserably.

King Tarb watches as Bathilda and Hiro clean up the last remaining stragglers that have lost the will to fight, move and live. With the cries of the last Bart going silent, he shudders at what's likely to come next.

Still unable to move, a ghastly smell appears below him. If his kin's executioner wasn't covered in their remains, she would have sure picked him by smell alone. Unluckily for him, the Bat in question uses a special radar location skill to determine the location of her enemies and she knew where he was the moment he arrived.

Not that he knows this and even if he did, King Tarb does not possess the abilities to escape with.

With no one left to take the attention of the demons that descended from above, the Lord of Brat's and Bart's, Ruler of the pack, suddenly finds the recipient of too many blades to dodge. Not that he could if he wanted. His legs that turned to stone are the only thing left standing after his body is reduced to mincemeat.

"Well, that... Was shit!" Bathilda declares, "How many do you think we killed? Including the big one hiding in the tunnel."

"There were easily three hundred. Easily. I lost track after a while though, they were fast but not fast enough for me," Hiro thinks about some of the near escapes he just had.

"They weren't that fast. Maybe you're just slower than me," she smiles horrifically at her unshelled companion whilst pulling up her stats.

Name: Bathilda

Race: Vampire Bat

Class: None

Title: Rodent Exterminator

Level: 18

XP needed until next Level: 2769

HP: 868/868

MP: 352/757

Skill Points Available

"What a load of shit. We killed that many of what-I-used-to-consider overpowered Brat's, that I feel as though the XP should have been higher," kicking the closest corpse in her range, Bathilda's frustration is clearly noticeable.

"Shall we see where their tunnel leads?" trying to view down the tunnel where the largest rodent was hidden, Hiro's attention is drawn back to an irate Bathilda as she takes off in a cloud of dust and heads back up the pit.

"Bathilda!" he shouts whilst taking off himself. He doesn't have to travel far though as she has gone straight back to her base and is throwing mounds of earth out though the entrance, "What are you doing now?"

"Preparing," is the only word she says as she continues to scrap away and dislodge large mounds before ejecting them.

"Preparing for what?" Still a little confused, Hiro needs more information than a one-word answer.

"Whatever the next evolution brings. Plus I need to wait a short amount of time for my mana to replenish and..." stopping mid-sentence, Bathilda realises that she didn't test out any of her new vampiric abilities, "Nevermind. If I'm not fully regenerated by the time we're finished, I'll snack on something on the way."

"I'm probably going to regret this one but, on the way to what?" Hiro looks at the original version of his cloned body, his transport out of Paradise, what he has already started to think of as a friend.

"Whatever I have to kill next of course!" Bathilda twists her neck round to look at Hiro without stopping her relentless digging.

"Why do you have to say it in such a creepy manner? You're starting to sound like you're slipping off the deep end," panicking a little, Hiro lets his actual thoughts slip off his tongue.

"Why?" finally stopping, Bathilda turns to face Hiro, "Is it because I'm embracing what I have to do to survive and grow? Is it because I'm pre planning my evolution so that we're not trapped in this cave the next time I grow larger? Or is it because I've finally accepted that killing is a more established way of life on this crazy-ass world than it was on my own? Hmm? Which one, Hiro?" raising all four of her eyebrows at the now silent leech in front her, Bathilda places her hands on her hips and waits for an answer.

Eventually losing the staring contest, Hiro concedes to what sound-like well planned thoughts. Even if she was raising voice with each sentence. "Well when your head turned around and you didn't stop digging it looked... Kind of... Scary."

"Hiro?" she calmly addresses the shaken bat across from her.

"Y-yes, Bathilda," heart pounding in his chest, Hiro's eyes widen as she etches closer to him until she is right in front of his face.

"Get digging, or so help me God I'll show you scary," scampering around her to the closest wall, Hiro begins working as instructed too and he and Bathilda proceed to widen their base of operations for the next time Bathilda evolves.