In the creatures’ fevered dash to reach their quarry, the man-sized rabbits seemingly flew across the ground as they closed in on the group of would-be adventurers, their mouths frothing as whatever madness that drove them on reached its peak.

The three beasts were barrelling towards him and the fools at an insane speed and but for a brief thump as their clawed feet hit the ground, they made no sound in their approach, no roar of fury or unearthly screech, just the steady rhythmic pounding as monstrous paws met the earthen floor.

Somehow their lack of noise made the whole situation feel unreal, as if he and the others were stuck in some sort of nightmare. That any minute now, they would wake up back home, in bed, with nothing more to fear than cleaning off the sweat covering their bodies and disposing of their soiled sheets.

But if anything, this was a waking nightmare, all too real, all too deadly.

Or at least that is what Goodie imagined that the others were feeling at this point.

The people around him looked like they were about to shit a brick as they faced their first confrontation with the Denizens of the lair that they had foolishly invaded.

He himself, however, was feeling rather apathetic towards the whole affair, the imminent threat of danger feeling more a relief than anything else as it provided a distraction from the rest of his problems.

Not that he could really care about anything at this point. So far, there had been little improvement in his overall levels of willpower, the only change being a small rise of 0.02 points. Which still meant that he was far below what others would consider safe.

In fact, he was so low on willpower that he had nearly pissed himself earlier for no other reason than that he just did not care if he ruined his pants or not, having changed his mind at the last minute only due to his knowledge of the Burrows rabbit’s ability to track by scent.

It was hard to say from where exactly that small rise came from, but he figured it was due to his ongoing concern that he was being altered by the inherent mutative properties of the Burrows.

People already treated him like a freak, the last thing he needed was the physical appearance to fuel their sentiments.

Again, he knew that change would only come from having spent months within this place. But that was with large, visible changes, his pesky knowledge of D.N.A., albeit limited in capacity, laying at the forefront of his concerns.

He planned on living for as long as possible and he did not need to be growing buck teeth or rabbit ears twenty years from now.

Which was why he needed to leave the place as soon as possible, why he needed to get rid of these stupid bombs on his neck.

His blasé attitude was not just due to his lack of spiritual spunk, however, as far as he was concerned, the hairless rabbits rapidly approaching him were nothing but oversized vermin, just another kind of rat as far as he could be bothered to care. He and Her majesty had killed millions of them back in the city and he was sure that the three ahead of him would pose less of a threat, especially with the lot around him to use as meat shields.

From what he read, the creatures generally travelled in groups of twos and threes, with the odd fiver, now and then, the approaching group confirming it, which meant that they would at least be manageable in numbers if not power.

The real threat from rats and their ilk mostly came from their ability to spread pestilence and their annoying habit of swarming. Two things which the freaks aiming for him now were not known for.

Still, their size would be a factor in combat…also their ability to detect Her Majesty, now that was definitely something to worry about.

But otherwise, he was confident that he and Her Majesty…well, just Her Majesty if he was being honest, could handle three of them if it came down to it; more than that and he would start to worry, but until then, he had more pressing concerns.

Such as the idiots that currently surrounded him.

His musings were interrupted as Alpha-Male screamed out “formation!”, the sudden yell forcing Goodie to add tinnitus to his ever-growing list of things to stress over.

Alpha’s scream had awoken the other idiots from whatever daze that had overcome them, the group quickly moving into formation.

Beta and Spear-Guy flanked Alpha, the trio forming a wall to block the incoming threat.

Meanwhile, Bip and Bop flanked the group as a whole…protecting the group from the walls or something, the manoeuvre would have made sense outside, but in closed quarters, it was just wasted effort.

The Invisibles took up the rear guard. Goodie assumed that they were going to offer ranged support

The Alpha-bitch had remained by his side, probably to keep him in line in case he tried something. Her two shadows, however, spread outward. He knew from their movements that they were getting ready to use spells, with each maintaining a clear line of sight to their targets ahead.

His view of events after that was blocked as the geezer took up position right in front of him.

Why, he could not say, but Goodie was not about to give up a free meat shield, so he asked Her Majesty to act as his eyes for the fight with the beast from here on out. He would be keeping his actual eyes on the morons themselves.

Geezer and the front lines would be out of sight, but that did not matter as his leash holder and her flunkies, as well as the Invisibles behind them, were where he stood the greatest chance of success in finding some form of flaw that he could exploit. He might have been inexperienced in the game of arseholes but that did not mean he was clueless.

He had already noted that the group’s actions, though obviously practiced well beforehand, were not accomplished with the precision of a well-oiled machine.

No, whatever machine that they were taking after was, without a doubt, covered in rust, smoking, and probably about to explode.

While thinking that, a voice in the back of Goodie’s mind asked if he could do any better.

He did not know how to respond to that so he just let out a short groan before returning his attention back to the rabbits.

The beasts were about Forty metres away, now. The heat of their breaths visible even at this distance, their crazed movements tossing beads of sweat into the air as the three monsters raced forward.

Twenty metres, now.

He could feel his heart rate increasing, a small part of him convinced that its beat was keeping pace with their feet as they hit the ground.

Ten metres.

Their bloodshot eyes, the irises almost pinpricks, focused on the front lines, on the Alpha-Douche standing tall and proud at the head of the group, the sole person amongst them that seemed pleased to be meeting enemy action.

Five.

Goodie held his breath.

Three.

He thought he could feel his heart skip a beat.

Her majesty sensed magic roll-off Alpha as he bent over and slapped his hand on the ground, a wave of dirt burst into the air from under the three rabbits barrelling towards them, filling their lungs and eyes with detritus as they pass through it, causing them to succumb to choking and blindness.

One of the rabbits managed to resist, the one on the right, his right, its homicidal rage spurring it to leap forward, bypassing its companions to lunge at the front-line; the geezer stepped forward and swung out his arm, using some unseen force to drive the rabbit into the side of the tunnel wall, the sound of a thick, meaty thwack echoing out as it impacted the compressed dirt.

It fell to the floor and began coughing up blood as it haemorrhaged internally, its broken bones having punctured its various internal organs.

If it did not die from blood loss, it would soon fall to septicaemia as the bacteria from its digestive tract invaded its bloodstream.

Soon after, the one on the left came lumbering forward, gasping for air as it tried to force air into its throat; it started to heave like a cat trying to dislodge a hairball and then vomited on the ground, the discharge filling the tunnel with a foul and pungent odour.

Alpha signalled with his hand and one of the shadows…what did he call her, right, Ditsy sent a shard of ice towards the creature; the projectile piercing its skull and killing it instantly.

The third and last of the beasts was still choking, its head rocking back and forth as it desperately tried to breathe.

For a moment, Goodie thought the group would descend on it for the final kill, but they held back and waited as it slowly suffocated, its body soon collapsing to the floor as its fuel of adrenaline and overtaxed muscled caused the supply of oxygen within it bloodstream to run dry.

The group continued to hold their formation long after the beast finally died, waiting and watching for any other threats.

It appeared that their fight was over…for now at least.

The battle had been short, not drawn-out as each side sought to whittle away each other’s HP, no grand display as everyone fired off a barrage of skills and abilities, just kill and or be killed.

It was real combat, short, simple, and then it was over.

Shit, Goodie thought.

From how the morons had dealt with things, they possessed at least some skill and now that they had combat experience to learn from, their confidence would be high.

That skill and confidence would both encourage and allow them to venture much deeper into the Burrows, dragging him along in the process.

Shit, he thought again. His leg was shaking, his foot tapping on the ground as his heart still beat to the pace of the thumping.

“Right, I think that’s it!” Alpha yelled. “Anyone hurt? Everyone alright? Right? Alright.” He said as the he checked in with each of his merry band of dolts.

Alpha-Boy then turned to him and asked, “right, where were we?”