*Plop…*

*Plop…*

A glowing hand shoves me away roughly. Perideen raises his sword high to meet the threat. It was previously hidden in the shadows, but the blood dripping on my face gave it away. In the light of my Burn, the yellow, sagging face of a corpse greets us. There’s barely anything left. The skin, or what remains of it, is sallow, sucked dry of blood. However, that’s not the worst part. Eurgh…she’s…she’s been eaten!

“By the Raingod…!” Even the assassin cannot contain himself as he sees the body. All along the corpse, bits have been chewed off. Even the bones have tooth marks on them from where they’ve been nibbled by hundreds of hungry teeth. The corpse is suspended from the ceiling of the Mausoleum by this disgusting red webbing, like the skin between a frog’s foot. It’s gelatinous, and looks sticky. After pushing me even further away, Perideen jumps up and his sword flashes in the light as he cuts the body down.

*Plop…rattle rattle*

The noise of the corpse landing is absolutely revolting. First the splatter as that red, blood-like webbing falls to the ground. Then the clanking of naked bones, their flesh eaten away, hitting the hard stone floor. I leap backwards, even though I’m not in the landing zone, and then check behind me nervously. The corridor remains empty, but it feels infinitely more threatening now. Putting my back against a wall, I finally take a moment to examine the corpse. Immediately, I wish I hadn’t. Ugh, this is disgusting! What the hell happened to…her?

Underneath the nasty red goo which was holding her to the ceiling, it’s just barely possible to tell that this corpse might have belonged to a female once. There are scraps of red fur remaining near the legs, as well as an extra set of bones from the pelvis which look like a tail. Perideen pokes at the body with his sword. The assassin may be surprised, but the corpse doesn’t scare him. However, even he doesn’t seem to want to touch it with his hands for a closer inspection.

“Is that…the missing Demi-Raccoon girl?” I connect the dots, and he nods. “There was one more slave they were trying to recapture, right?”

“Yep, on the Guild Job Board.” Perideen comments. His voice is very soft. As if he doesn’t want anything else down here to hear us. “This red webbing…it’s…strange. And the way the body was devoured down to the bone. Look at the teeth marks. Whatever did this wasn’t very big. It looks almost like she was eaten by…”

“RATS!” My scream is met by confusion.

“Yes…like rats…but she was on the ceiling…huh?” Perideen realizes that I have turned up my Burn to illuminate the corridor. His sword comes out, but the slight distraction from the corpse has already allowed the enemy to approach. Two giant rats, every mother’s worst nightmare, rise up from the darkness. And I don’t just mean rats…I mean RATS. This breed is monstrous, one of them is almost as big as I am, the other a bit smaller. In the wan light of my flame, their mangy fur is revealed, splotched with matted black patches of muddy goop. The smaller one is quick. It leaps forward with surprising speed.

[Frozen Wind of My Soul-

My chant isn’t fast enough! A huge shadow, with fangs longer than my fingers, shoots towards my face! I catch sight of a pair of gleaming reflected red eyes as the rat opens its hungry mouth and prepares to take a bite-

“STOP!” I vaguely register Perideen screaming but I have no idea why. The pair of crimson rat eyes are rapidly growing larger and those fangs…those awfully large fangs-

*Puchi*

Romy’s training saves me. I react with lightning speed, carving a crescent through the air with Mephis’s dagger and spear the monstrous rat right in the eye.

*EEEEEEEEEEEE*

An awful wail comes from the oversized rodent as blood squirts out everywhere. I stumble backwards. The heavy, sodden, corpse crashes into my body. It twitches, dying on my chest.

Careless, should have stepped out of the way.

I fall backwards to see Perideen rush over in front of me as the second, bigger rat approaches. My Burn is extinguished as my free hand goes back to catch my fall on the cold stone floor. The light of the assassin’s blue gemstone gives everything an eerie tint and mixes with the rat’s red eyes to create a disturbing, glowing pair of purple dots. It hungrily stares at us, before lunging-

Perideen blocks the way, protecting me while I’m down, but he doesn’t strike.

“Get back!” I think he’s shouting at the rat. Which doesn’t make any sense. His sword seems slow, I don’t understand why he’s distracted. I need to help him!

There’s no time to think.

I yank Mephis’s dagger out of the dead rat on my chest and toss the corpse aside while raising my free hand to help Perideen-

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

This time, my chant completes. An ice crystal forms and shoots out. I don’t draw upon the power of the Bloodstone in my glove. I just cast a strong Chill, aiming around Perideen’s side, to knock the incoming rat out of the air. There’s…something wrong with the creature. As it enters the blue light from Perideen’s hand, I can see how grossly oversized it is. It looks…fat…chunky…disgusting, like someone took a rat and barfed random globs of flesh and bits onto its body. What in the hell…?

“NO-!” Perideen yells before whipping around, turning his back on the rat. Instead of facing it, he flickers towards me, and it’s like a stop-motion film. I see my ice shard travel through the air. It’s fast, my magic is good. Then I see the assassin sprinting towards me, his every step causing the thick muscles in his thighs to bulge.

*Tap*

He’s so fast I lose track of him in-between steps.

*Tap*

Like a ghost, he just appears as his foot hits the ground.

*Tap*

Then he’s in front of me-

Perideen reaches down-

He throws himself on top of my body-

*SPLISH*

I can see it over Perideen’s shoulder. It happens so fast. I never would have expected such a thing. As my ice shard crashes into the mishappen rat’s mouth, blood splurts out. And then the whole damn thing swells up, rippling as something inside…expands…guts go everywhere, bits of fur and teeth, fangs, all turn into shrapnel. It’s like the rat has become a living bomb.

W-What?!!

*BOOM*

And then we’re blown backwards-

Perideen scoops me up in his arms, shields me with his back, his legs pounding against the ground as he tries to put just one more step between us and the explosion. Hot blood and hard pellets of rat bone and fang, hammer against my exposed boots and ankles, but it’s the assassin who takes the brunt of the impact. I hear him grunt as shrapnel hits his back. We both fall to the floor, breathing heavy. My mouth is open, but I hastily shut it as blood and other nasty things drip off of Perideen’s head above me. I see his mouth moving behind his bandana. The light stone has skittered away on the floor in the chaos, but it’s close enough to see his face. Even the assassin can’t hold onto the light, me, and his weapon amidst the insanity.

“I told you not to hit them.” He says darkly. I listen closely, terrified to hear a wheeze, or the gurgle of blood, but Perideen just rolls off of me. The assassin is unnaturally tough.

“I-I didn’t know…” My explanation sounds weak even to me.

“And I told you to listen to my instructions carefully!” His tone harsh, Perideen feels over his back. “You got lucky, the one that attacked you didn’t explode. If it had…you wouldn’t be here anymore.”

“I…” My teeth chatter. I remember how the corpse of the first rat landed squarely on my chest. If it exploded at that range…I’d be dead for sure. Oh God…

“This is bad…those were Infested Blood Rats. For swordsmen like me, they’re impossible to fight because you don’t know which ones will explode.” Perideen explains, “I can’t believe they’ve already appeared. There must be some variant of Blood-Fiend in the Mausoleum. And it’s growing fast. Tosa will be wiped out soon.”

“W-What? Can’t the guards stop them?” I don’t believe him. Surely Tosa has someone like Mark or Romy around. Someone strong enough to deal with this…

“You don’t understand, Kid. Reinforcements from Ravenmore City won’t make it in time. Chances are…this whole region won’t escape either. The people of Tosa failed to report this to the higher ups. Or if they did, the request was probably ignored because of the Holy War. They’re all going to die.” My protector reaches down and yanks me to my feet by the arm. “Get up. We need to go. There’s nothing more to be done here!”

This whole region won’t escape?

Wait…you mean those things are going to reach Sines?!!

And you want to leave them to finish growing?

Are you insane!

The horrible image of Natalia being lunged upon by a giant zombie-like rat fills my mind. The gross distention of the engorged belly and then an explosion, fur…everywhere…bits of orange mixed in…no…NO WAY!