True Monsters – Chapter 3

Alice felt exhausted, as she slowly woke up. She reflected with a little irony, it was good to wake up period. Even in a small cramped cell of a room, on a hard packed straw mattress. It was much better than the alternatives. To be waking up, left in a field. Or not to be waking up at all. A good possibility, from inside the belly of a giant rat. A very possible example. She had been taunt never to expend all her mana, in any situation. Unless it was extremely dire, even then it was a bad idea.

She felt physically OK, everything was still attached. Her body felt exhausted, she was still young and a very low level mage. Also her feet were really sore. She remembered the massive brood mother, slowly moving towards her. It dawned on her, she could have just backed off and run away. Rather than standing there, slinging her magic at the creature. She could have acted as a distraction, while the rest of the party dealt with it. On reflection, she could have perhaps tried to aim for something a bit more sensitive. So her spells had more of an effect.

There was a knock at the door. Vivian entered, she had a pair of woollen garments, in one hand. A bowl of soup, with a spoon in the other. “How are you feeling Alice”? She groaned, “Not the best, but we are alive and the rats are dead right?” Vivian looked a little hesitant. “Well you’re partially right, the first rat nest is dead. Two more to go”. Alice looked glum, “it was the smallest we killed, yesterday right?” Vivian nodded, “there are some perks to the job, now we have proven ourselves useful. The village is actually treating us a bit better, its chicken soup not vegetable today and it’s quite edible”.

Alice grinned, the food yesterday might have been better used as an improvised weapon. To beat one of the giant rats to death with. She saw the woollen trousers, Vivian still held and gasped. “Wasn't I wearing them?” Vivian nodded, “when I put you to bed I removed them. I checked your wound, it seems to be OK. I gave them to Martin to stitch up, he did a very good job”. Alice looked at them, “I suppose that's OK. Thank you for your concern. Do you need me for anything for an hour or so” Vivian shook her head “I don't think so why?”

Alice looked around her room, finding her mages staff lent against a wall. She gripped it and recharged it from her own mana pool. “I want to rest another hour, to fully charge my mana and clear my head from the mana fatigue”. Vivian shrugged, “that seems fine, but have the soup while it’s hot”. Alice nodded thanking Vivian. The door shut leaving Alice with the soup.

She scrunched her head, Vivian must have been two years older than her. But she had a warrior’s tough physic. She checked for her belt, it was hung up from a peg on the wall. Everything was OK. The rest of her possession were in the chest, she pulled on the woollen garment to keep her legs warm. She looked at the stitching, where the rat bit her. If she didn't know what to look for, she would have hardly seen it.

Alice quickly gulped down the warm chicken soup. It was a lot better than the vegetable muck, she had had the last day. She felt better with some food inside her. She was a mage, she was used to a much better standard of living. As a mage she belonged to an organization that had a royal charter. The mages were representatives of the king, well servants of the king.

As a result, they had to go and help out, in various holdings across the kingdom. They got many perks. In the form of comfortable living between such expeditions. She had never exactly had a hard life. Alice had gone to the mages tower at age eleven, when she started to show signs of having magic. Her weak constitution her ability to generate mana. They had taken her away form a loving middle class merchant family. To a comfortable but stale existence, in the mages tower.

She was not the most studious of her colleagues. Which was why she had failed many exams, ended up being 'volunteered', to represent the mages guild in this little village. Most of her similarly aged colleagues, were three or four levels higher than she was. Despite starting at about the same time. Lots of mages would train up to level ten, the maximum trainable level. Before going out into the world. A lot of them trained in specific way, to be useful to a noble house or another. An official posting, some were healers. Some trained as enchanters, quite a few were trained in dedicated combat rolls, as healers or ranged spell casters. With magic tailored to specific foes.

Mages normally had a lot of supervision. There powers could be quite dangerous. Alice was mildly insulted, they didn't seem to think that she represented any threat. At level 4 she was not really yet. They also didn't seem to think she was in any danger. However on the off chance, they had provided her with some equipment. She was sure that the mages, in the upper escutcheons of the tower. Were probably so far removed, from pest control quests and giant rats. That they didn't care, or know how bad it was on the ground. She shrugged, combat levelling. Hitting rats with fire bite, would probably be a lot quicker than trying to study in some tower anyway. At least with her track record, she dosed back to sleep.

45 minutes later Alice woke up again, she felt a lot better. She would be ready to do it all again, go out and almost get eaten alive by giant rats. She gripped the covers tightly. Her feet still ached, she was used to walking round a library with carpets. Realistically they had not really gone very far from the village. She could still feel several blisters. She put on her shoes, her belt the large cloak scarf and the mittens. She opened the door Martin was sitting at the main table, the map on the wall had been changed, a little cross where they removed the giant rat nest.

Martin had a pile of bits of metal on the table, a few deft twists and clicks and the pile of metal became a large snap trap. Three others were on the table piled up. Martin checked the mechanism then noticed Alice, “how are you feeling?” She shrugged, “not too bad, that fight was intense. At least to me, do you and David need me to heal your injuries?” Martin shook his head, “no not today. The priest healed us up last night, he can use his salve blessing about 40 times a day. He can patch most simple injuries with repeated use.”

Alice looked relived, “that saves more mana to kill rat right?” Martin nodded, “something like that. You might want to be more conservative, in your manna use in the future. Healing should be prioritised, Vivian and I have good ranged weapons. David dose good damage with his sword. You’re the only one who can do any significant healing. I have an alchemist’s flask as a last resort. It has some nasty side effects, and only heals around ten points of health”. She nodded “I understand, I suppose you, carried me back?” “Oh yes you were lighter, Vivian had to help David back. He almost lost it under the weight of his armour. He used all his abilities and was hit by exhaustion as well”.

Alice questioned Martin, “you’re fighting technique is quite slow. Those pistols take longer to re-lode than a bow or a spell. You still need me as a ranged attacker”. Martin grinned and pulled back his coat, in addition to his two pistols there were six throwing knives. They were arranged in two sheaths, each containing three blades. “I gained a level fighting that brood mother. I picked the general skill throwing proficiency. Due to my class I get a focus throw as well. I have a bag full of surplus hunter weapons and equipment. I don't know how to use, but as time goes on I will expand my knowledge and effective arsenal”.

David popped into the room, “Martin how did fixing up the trappers equipment go?” Martin shrugged, “the traps can be used again. But the snares are a lost cause”. David paused, “better than nothing, it’s something we can use again”. He looked at Alice, “you feeling alright, you collapsed in the fight yesterday, over exerted yourself”? Alice shot him a glance back, “I heard that you did the same thing yourself, Vivian had to half carry you back.”

David sighed, “Give me a few more levels, it won’t be anywhere as bad on me what about you?” Alice grinned, “Once I hit level ten then my casting becomes much more efficient, and I can sling quite a few more spells. Honestly most mages don't leave the tower until they hit level ten. So I am a bit weak”. David grinned stirring, “So how come your out hear at level four, un-supervised”? She looked pained, “certain academic failings meant they decided that. A certain amount of practical learning would sharpen my focus.” He nodded, remembering what it was like to get a boot in the backside to motivate him to practice harder.

“Me and Vivian were just handed this assignment at random”. That wasn't necessarily true, Vivian had to break the arm, of the man who was originally given the assignment with David. Before taking his place, but she was-not going to tell David that.

Alice reached down and scratched her foot, muttering under her breath. Martin looked at her “a problem?” “My feet ache”, David looked at her, “fine footwear for walking about the tower. But not practical with the mountains and rocky tertian around hear”. She nodded Martin had a solution, “Give me ten minutes, your share of the reward could get some more suitable footwear.” Martin left and Alice idly went over her books. Vivian returned, she looked at David, “you wouldn't believe the cost of even a simple broad head iron arrow”. She held up a bundle of five, “this cost me most of my share or the reward money”.

David shook his head, “the full reward money is a couple of silver each. The bronze is just a part payment. To keep us going, for costs like supplies boots arrows etc.” Vivian shrugged, “I suppose your right. Where dose martin get his ammo and powder”? David pointed over to Martins room. “He has a mould to cast bullets from scrap lead, he grinds up his own powder from raw materials. He gets that from the apothecary, he is efficient”. “How come he can do that and I can’t make my own arrows”? David grinned, “Do you want to spend a year at a trade school, learning how to make arrows from scratch?” Vivian shook her head, “fair point”.

Martin retuned, he turned to Alice and handed her a pair of large sturdy boots. “I got these from a trader, you have to stuff them with straw. They should be much better on your feet.” Alice looked at her stylish yet impractical shoes. She kicked them off, pulled some straw from her bedding and stuffed the boots like some peasant. She was about to complain, then held her tong. The peasants had warm comfortable boots. Out in this place practicality was what mattered. She stood a much better chance of running away from some monster, in these sturdy boots.

They travelled out in the next ten minutes, past the gates. Past the farmers working the land closer to the village. Then on past one or two other braver farmers. They moved towards the old town ruins, where the next largest nest was meant to be. They would do a bit of reconnaissance, try to trim down the numbers of giant rats. Then they would decide what to do.

They selected a spot with signs of rat travel, set up the remaining Jaw traps and formed the same basic formation. David in the centre Vivian and Alice at the back, with Martin ready to bring the rats to them. Vivian looked over to him, “do you want someone else to act as bait?” He shook his head, “I have endurance, and with your strength you can carry that armour. But you can’t move very fast, I can”, Vivian shrugged, Martin pulled out a pistol. “I don't really need to go far to lure these critters in.”

Martin fired a single shot into some shrubs, there was the squeal and convulsion of a giant rat dyeing. A dozen rats broke from the leafy cover and headed towards them. David had a twisted grin, “That’s an alpha leading them right?” Martin nodded, “oh yes time to fight”. Alice let off two fire bite spells, killing two of the smaller rats. She remembered Martins words and got ready, expecting to need to heal the front line of the group very soon. The alpha rat tore through the traps mangling them. Two rats behind them were not so lucky, they were held up in the last two traps iron jaws. David blocked the attacking alpha with his shield. He delivered one adrenalin power attack, then another. Making sure that he didn't get his sword stuck in the hunk of rat this time. Vivian let lose three arrows into the attacking rats. Thinning their numbers to more manageable proportions, before she focused on the alpha.

Martin became a blur, he used focus attacks with the far shorter range of his throwing knives. He knocked his coat back, seized a handful of three knives in both his left and right hand. The first blade from his right hand was already spinning thorough the air, the next blade shot from his left hand. The precisely aimed throws pierced the skulls of the giant rats. One after another, in moments six of them lay twitching and dyeing at his feet.

With little time to waste he drew his pistol, turned to face the alpha. It was pushing David back. Martin unloaded his pistol into the creature’s centre of mass. He couldn't get a head shot from that angle. Vivian let lose two power shots into the creatures body, it still kept coming. Finally David stabbed it with a final strike to the neck, it went down. Alice was behind him she laid a hand on his shoulder. It allowed her to do the extra bit of healing, that her touch heal spell could do verses the ranged equivalent.

Martin looked around, “any more of them”? It was a resounding “no”. David looked at him, “that critter took four power attacks, and an almost point blank pistol shot. I didn't go down, are all creatures made by blood alchemy this tough”? Martin cleaned off the throwing knifes, on the rat carcases and reloaded his pistols. “Only the big ones as far as I can tell, how is everybody? I can use nine more focus shots.” David stretched his back, and cleaned off his sword. “I'm at almost full health and I have four power attacks left”. Vivian looked up from recovering her arrows, “I have a full quiver and can do three more power attacks”. Alice looked at them, “I have enough magic for 17 more spells. I will try to be conservative with them.”

The group dealt with the rat’s remains, rolling or dragging them into one pile around the dead alpha. Martin splashed some lamp oil over the pile, then set it on fire with the tinder box. David commented as he gathered up the mangled traps. “Can the rat nests have more than one alpha?” Martin shrugged, “as far as I am aware, yes if the brood mother is big enough”. Vivian scanned around, looking for more of the unusually sized rodents. “That's not very reassuring”, Alice scanned behind them. “Its better that were cautious”. David held up one of the traps, “is it worth bothering with these?”

Martin took a good look at it. “These are designed for small game, rabbits or small beaver. If we had something designed for wolfs or bears it would be ok. But these are two light in construction”. David shrugged, “it was worth a try. I suppose if they had traps that heavy to begin with. The giant rats, would probably never have gotten this big a problem, right”. Vivian nodded, “yes big traps like that are probably expensive. Also these things are smart enough, to stay away from the walls of the village. But they are still a very real danger, they must have eaten so many crops. Look at the size of these things, no wonder the people round hear are so thin”.

They kept walking slowly around the edge of the fields, until they came to a pile of rubble that was probably once a mill. A cracked stone wheel could still be seen, half embedded in the soil. A rat stood on its hind legs watching them, it squeaked a warning then bolted off in the opposite direction. There was a rustling, about twenty of the giant rats emerged from between the wreckage of the mill. Martin took careful aim with his pistols, “this lot is probably from the main nest, and we have been two bold. We went too far no half measures with this lot. There might be more along soon.”

Alice sent two fire bite spells into the mass of rodents, two kills but it was a retentively small contribution. Vivian loosed two arrows into the mass, again killing two more rats. Martin emptied both pistols into the churning mass of rodents, two more kills but it was not slowing them down. David swung his shield down into the first attacking rodent, then cleaved thought the next with his sword. The creatures surrounded him biting at his legs. Dealing some damage to the gaps between his armour.

Martin retreated sideways, he threw four of his knives into the mass of rodents. Two more rats dropped dead. A rodent latched onto David's sword arm, not doing much damage thorough the chain-mail and padding. But impeding his movements significantly. Martin used a focus throw to kill that rodent. He had his last knife he started to move round the rest of the hoard, kicking and slashing for all he was worth. Not doing a whole lot of damage.

Alice knew she had to conserve her mana, both David and Martin were taking damage. She still let lose one more fire bite to distract the rats. Vivian sent out three more arrows, killing the rats around David. She was worried about hitting him, she didn't try hitting the rats that were climbing on him. David used a power attack, to cut through one rat and shake the rest lose from his armour. Martin heard a noise and turned around. There were 12 more rats moving towards them, it was possibly time to retreat. He used a focus throw with the knife in his hand, killing a rat. He set about reloading his pistol, ignoring the odd attack that made it through his armour.

Vivian looked at the mass of approaching rodents. She paused for a second gauging distance. She sent two power shots into the middle of the swarm. It killed two or three creatures and injured several more. Alice added one of her own fire bites into the mix hitting a rat. David was again being swarmed, he let lose another power attack to dislodge them. The second wave of rats hit the front line fighters. Martin had giant rats all around him. He injured several with the butt of his pistol, using it like a hammer, knocking them away from him.

He finally reloaded his pistol, he jammed it in to one rodent firing it. Killing the creature and the critter next to it, as the lead ball pieced them both in one shot. A couple of rats ignored the front line and headed straight for Alice. She didn't panic so much this time, hitting one with a fire bite and the second with her staff, it was sent backwards Vivian finished it off with an arrow. Martin pulled a throwing knife, out of a dead rat. He stabbed it into another that was trying to climb up him. He threw it into another rat. He shook the few remaining rats from his coat. David stabbed left and right using yet another power attack to clear the rats from around himself. He looked down as arrows finished off the last two rodents.

Martin looked around and started to re-lode his pistols. His jacket had several scratches and cuts on it. He was still standing, without too much damage. David had been closer and there main target. David was worse for wear, Vivian ran over and hugged him. His voice was suddenly very serious, “that almost killed me. I am down to a third of my hit points.” Vivian looked at Alice, “quick we could do with some healing”. Alice used her magic three times on David and once on Martin. Indicated he didn't wanted any more healing for his wounds.

They started to recover from the fight, Vivian began to recover her arrows and clean the blood and gore from them. Martin reloaded his pistol and David cleaned his sword. Martin stopped his eyes seemed to glow, a flash of white. His body became stiff, he paused midway through his work. He was able to holster his weapon, then tremble as his muscles spasmed and twitched uncontrollably. A small grunt escaped his lips. He grinned “level five”.

Suddenly David's eyes glowed in a similar way, but he shook his head as if confused he cried out in surprise. His body locked up and he collapsed to his knees. He started to scream in pain as his body shook, then he fell to the floor twitching he gasped. “Hell level 7 that hurt worse than the rats”. Vivian had the presence of mind to sit down, her eyes glowed. “Fuck that hurrrrrrrr, aghhhhhhhhhh”, she was able to say before she spasmed and dropped to the ground.

David crawled over to her on his hands and knees. He gripped her hand as she stopped twitching she grimaced, “level 6, I am catching up to you”. Alice could tell what would happen. Martin had a lot more endurance and levels than both of the mercenaries. Which was why he could endure the pain of his body changing. It levelled up and became stronger with little difficulty. A mage as a side effect of their magic, had a pitifully low level of endurance. Less than half of the mercenaries at an easy guess. This was going to hurt worse than anything else. Worse than when the lightning wand had backfired on her in the artefacts class.

She felt a flash of light in front of her eyes, it seemed that time slowed to nothing. All the knowledge of the world was there before her. She reached out not physically but mentally, what she needed was a better healing spell. Inside her mind the knowledge of the improved touch heal spell solidified. She felt her body change as it became slightly tougher, as her arcane knowledge grew. Her mind was expanded forcefully, to accommodate it and that really hurt.

She could hear a noise, it was her own voice screaming and she was twitching and thrashing on the ground. The pain faded as darkness enveloped her. Something was held up to her nose. She gasped as the strong fumes invaded her sinuses, forcing her back to consciousness, “Martin, get that horrible tip away from me, OK.”

Martin laughed, “Anyone want a drop?” The two mercenaries quickly shook their heads. Vivian grinned as she looked at David. “My bow proficiency is up to level five”. He shrugged, “you can focus on one thing being in the back row. I have to focus on both offence and defence, both my sword and shield skill are balanced at level 3 apiece”. Vivian helped Alice to her feet. “What did you get?”

“Because the boys keep getting hurt, I got a better healing spell”. She turned to Martin, “what about you”? He grinned, “It was a class level, every 5th level a vampire hunter gains is a class level. So every vampire hunter will have those abilities. In terms of class features I can now access a vampire hunter’s speciality”.

David interrupted him, “I thought that focus shots were a vampire hunter’s speciality?” A certain mania crept across Martins face, “No I can use diving blessings. The very wrath of the creator god,” Vivian was quite impressed, as someone that had seen very little magic or divine power until a few days ago, “that sounds amazing”.

The mania left Martins eyes as he remembered the conditions of that power. “Well it is manifest in its most infinitesimal fraction of the divine’s armoury. It is usable if I have focus left to concentrate. If I have a consecrated holy symbol with me, to channel it. I also have to be touching the symbol. Also I have to be in good standing with the church. Then I can then do something. I was not actually expecting to level. So I don't actually have my holy symbol with me, not that I think I could use it without a rest first as well.”

Martin looked round at them, “Perhaps we should tackle the rest of the rats tomorrow”. They all nodded. Vivian looked at them, “wouldn't levelling have given me more adrenalin”. Martin shrugged, “if it works the same way as focus, then you have to rest to fill that extra adrenalin reserve.” She shrugged, “I am pretty empty and so is David. If we use our abilities again we would collapse”. Martin nodded I can use focus abilities a few more times. It’s better not to push ourselves. Monsters stomachs are full of adventures, who pushed themselves too far too fast.” They recovered all there arrows and throwing knives, they piled the giant rat carcasses up and set them on fire.

As they headed back, they finally spied the second giant rats nest. It was buried under ground, with no convenient human sized entrances. They had passed it not paying attention. They didn't stick around to wait for more giant rats. On the upside, they must have culled a large proportion of both the remaining nests. They could win a war of attrition against the giant rats, as long as they could rest up and recharge their ability's.