Seeing the rat kings this way, Michael’s group understood that their turn would soon come to be. The rat kings attack with more ferocity and without regards for their lives but the mosquitoes still maintained their formation and continued their attacks. Although the rat kings had hard skins, the mosquitoes were able to penetrate after a while and soon, one of the rat kings were dealt a critical damage and instead of reducing its attack, it just increased its attack as it attack indiscriminately and with more fervor. The mosquitoes were reduced drastically but they didn’t seem to give up on their attacks on the rat kings. There were no longer any living rats apart from the rat kings, maybe that was what enraged them and didn’t allow them to withdraw as no king would be okay with outsiders coming into its territory and killing all its citizens and even left them in a state of being exactly sack and bones, since all their body fluids has been sucked out in all entirety. Although it was their last strive while putting their lives on the line, the rats were not able to endure the attacks rained on them by the mosquitoes and while the mosquitoes were about piercing through the rat king with the least vital injuries, the other one jumps in while squeaking painfully. If this was a romance movie, it did be something of like the man jumping in to save the lady from an arrow or bullet. Such a romantic scenario as a tear drop falls from the eyes of the pierced rat while it turns behind to look at the remaining rat king like it wants to say “live on”. But to its dismal, the remaining rat king was being sucked of its blood and was starting to deflate from its original hefty stature. Such a wasted sacrifice and display of affection at the end as the one you tried saving ends up dying before you. The first rat king which was pierced formerly spurts our blood and the light gradually fades away from its eyes while it angrily stares at the mosquito which was heartily sucking all the blood from the second rat king. And so the two rat kings died, although they had worn out the mosquitoes to a nice rate, it did still be sure death for the group of hunters whom were hiding behind a bush while watching the conclusion of the battle. The conclusion came as a shock to the hunters, cause they expected that the rat kings would almost destroy the horde of mosquitoes before dying so that they would come for a little sweep but seems their hope was crushed as the mosquitoes killed both rat kings before they could deal such great damage and they couldn’t come out of their hiding area before the mosquitoes leave hence had to bid their time without making any unnecessary movements which could attract the attention of the mosquitoes towards them.

The mosquitoes kept on sucking the body fluids in the rat kings until they became dried up corpse, they also ran through the battlefield not allowing any blood to go wasted even the ones spilled on the floor, they sucked everything and they didn’t seem full. They kept buzzing around the space and this made Michael’s group to be chilled thinking that the mosquitoes could come towards them at any moment. This was a really critical moment for them and they all had to be very careful with any action they perform right now.

After a short while which seems like an entire lifetime to them, the mosquitoes starts relocating. Seems like they are finding new preys to mummify as they move in great strides without a break in their formation for greener pastures or as the case of the mosquitoes would be, for more blood. They finally relocate and the king elephant herb was in view to them, the herb was still in good shape even after such terrible battle unfolded in its territory, a light wind blows at this time and it sways lightly due to the wind as if mindless of all the corpses around it. The elephant king herb didn’t seem like any treasure at all and if seen by anybody would be taken as an useless herb. On a very close view could it be seen that there was a network of veins on the herb and if your ear was placed close to the soil were it grows from, a light throb could be heard which would resonate with the heart. Like there was a heart in the soil which was beating at the same pace with that of a human’s heart. The herb was grey like the color of an elephant and on closer look, it could be observed that there was not just one but two of the herbs present, growing side by side. This new observation got both Michael and George happy and they shared it with the team. Joshua couldn’t help screaming out in happiness at this moment as this meant that they could keep one while donating the other one to the village head. Michael tries to stop him from screaming since the mosquitoes hasn’t gone too far and they detects movements more easily and quickly, but seems like it was too late as Joshua had already screamed before he even had the chance to warn him about such act. After Joshua screamed, there was silence for a while as his group members looked at him in shock and fear. They all quickly scanned they surroundings to ensure that none of the mosquitoes were in view.

They were almost able to calm their breath, but a single mosquito now came in view. But before it could do anything, all four hunters used their strongest attacks immediately to kill it and it was felled. They calmed their breath to check their surroundings once again if it was the only one and after a while, they were able to calm down and breath in relief. Seems like the swarm has gone far away hence they wouldn’t be coming back, maybe that one that came was a lone mosquito that was left behind by the swarm as not a single blood could be found in its body after it was killed.

Michael eventually lifts his head and was gobsmacked by what his saw, George was shocked by the new attitude of Michael and couldn’t help asking, “Hey, what’s u....”, he couldn’t complete his statement before he was cut short by what he saw above him. He gulped so hard on his saliva that he didn’t notice the fact that he was almost choked. Andrew notices the new behavior of them both and couldn’t help looking upwards, according to their line of sight and just smiled in depreciation while drinking from the wine placed on his shoulder. Joshua whom was leaning on his cutlass didn’t know what was happening but there were shadows on the ground which was covering the sun and thought that maybe it was the clouds and said, “Guys, it seems that they would be a great rainfall soon”. But his group members didn’t even reply him and just kept looking upwards. “Guys”, Joshua couldn’t help calling out to them once again but before he could say anything, Andrew shouted, “Runnnnnnnnnn”.

“Huh”, Joshua couldn’t understand why Andrew would scream that he should run but on seeing Michael, Andrew and George running in front, he just ran with them but his curiosity piqued and he had to turn around but the sight in his back and upwards made him almost stumble but he still increased his speed. Seems like since the mosquitoes flew in low altitude while battling the rat kings, they forgot that they could fly higher hence they forgot to check above them and hence they came to be in such a situation.

They ran at immense speed but they couldn’t out run the mosquitoes as the mosquitoes just flew above their heads while they ran through the forest and mosquitoes are usually fast. They tried their best to outrun them but seeing that such a situation wouldn’t be possible, they tried attacking the mosquitoes close to them. But after attacking those of the mosquitoes of whom seem to have sucked some blood, they came to know the terror of these beasts whom had the blood sucking characteristics of a vampire. Their cutlass could hardly make a dent on the carapace of the mosquitoes, they had a strong exoskeleton after all and after sucking blood from other beasts, that characteristic of them seemed to have grown stronger and better. Although the blood which has gathered has decreased their speed, they could exchange the blood for increased speed albeit for a short duration but they didn’t see the need to perform such an useless sacrifice on these puny humans, hence they just used their normal speed. Although the force used to hit the mosquitoes made them faint headed and fell back, that didn’t last long as they would be back on track after a few minutes. The only one of them whose attack went through was Michael and he couldn’t handle all these mosquitoes by himself and he was after all faster than them but for some unknown reasons, George seems to be capable of keeping up with him. Perhaps he was decreasing his speed cause of his team members. Joshua and Andrew whom were the slowest in the team were in the back with George and Michael in the front. This race has started putting a strain on the muscle nerves of Andrew and a large amount of sweat could be seen pouring out of his body.

But although he was strained, he still tried running with his full night and bit by bit he was getting farther away from Joshua.

Although they ran while trying to push back the mosquitoes, they were still hoping in their heart that some strong beast would help kill these mosquitoes. After all there were stronger beasts out there whom loved mosquitoes as their food. Noticing Andrew was getting a bit further from him, Joshua did something nobody would have ever thought he would do. He pulled Andrew backwards while breaking the foothold he would have landed on to at least regain his standing and surge forward. “Sorry kid, but I can’t afford to die in this place. Die in my stead, I won’t ever forget you”, Joshua said while performing such an act. He wants to sacrifice Andrew to the mosquitoes in order to distract them and make them hold on a bit while he escaped from their clutches. The hearts of men can’t be understood after all, and some can commit vile hearts just to save theirselves from danger or death.