“It’s obviously a trap” Ted commented as the party took up formation on top of the stairs, their eyes firmly on the ratman that was to be their next challenge. Lucas couldn’t help but agree with the statement, as Kra’zix tried really hard to look oblivious to their presence.

“You see the same thing, Mags?” Lucas asked, trying to confirm his suspicions.

“You mean how he watched us since we got here, but trying to be discreet about it?” Maggie responded. Lucas nodded, his suspicions confirmed. For just a moment, a sense of pride swell within him, his advances in Perception clearly showing, but he shut it out rather quickly. He learned his lesson about being cocky before battle.

“I’m going in, to trigger the trap” Lucas said.

“Why should you be the one to do it?” Chen asked him.

“Well, he does wear something resembling a shining armor” Margaret responded, prompting silent chuckles from the rest of the party.

“Seriously, mobility is my shtick. I could go in and out before whatever our rat friend down there had planned comes to pass” Lucas said, slightly ashamed.

“And I could just simply shoot him from here” Maggie said.

“He would be a fool to fall for something as simple as that” Lucas said.

“And does it matter? He wouldn’t be able to spring whatever he had planned” Maggie retorted.

“And what if there is something dangerous in retaliation? Something that could seriously hurt you?” Lucas asked almost automatically.

“I ask you the same” Maggie said.

“What am I here, a stool?” Margaret interjected “if someone gets hurt, I will do my job. Besides, we have a ton of potions, courtesy of running a settlement” she finished, this time shaming both Lucas and Maggie.

“Let’s get this over with” Lucas said and Maggie got into the position, aiming carefully at the ratman before firing two arrows in quick succession. Chen was prepared, conjuring illusions of additional arrows. For his apparent obliviousness, Kra’zix quickly reacted, making a series of movement with a rod in his hand. Suddenly, a swarm of rats exploded from beneath his feet, jumping mindlessly at the arrows. Although Maggie’s arrows managed to pierce individual rats, the sheer volume of little beasts managed to stop the arrows in their tracks. The swarm however, hadn’t been stopped, the gray cloud continuing their movement towards them. Lucas could now see the sheer damage Kra’zix trap would do to him, being trapped in close quarters.

Ted was already preparing potions they used so liberally on their way to here, throwing them onto the oncoming swarm. Rat screeching suddenly filled the air, but instead of dissipating as they did before, little beasts continued over their flaming comrades, a lot of them also catching fire as they pushed through, managing to smother the fire the same way they stopped the arrows Maggie fired, by throwing enough bodies into it. Although decimated, swarm continued moving towards the party, threatening to overwhelm the party.

Lucas positioned himself on top of the stairs, Ted standing next to him, the two of them creating a choke point, hoping their armor will prove enough to stem the tide a little bit. Lucas also looked for a way to get to Kra’zix, hoping to land a quick and decisive strike. Wild swings from both gladius and the club killed rats left and right, but the swarm seemed never ending.

“Go back, my club is fully charged” Ted yell after some time.

“No, they will overwhelm you” Lucas shouted, his gladius swinging. He felt clanking of his armor as dozen of beasts tried to sink their teeth into him, but the sturdy steel coral held, for now.

“Fuck it, Lucas, just retreat. I got this” Ted shouted back.

Lucas looked at the man and retreated, shouting to the rest of the party to retreat alongside him.

“Margaret, prepare yourself” Lucas said as he watched Ted enveloped in more and more rats as he took steps down the stairs. Just as he was completely covered in rats, a blinding white light flashed from Ted’s position. There was a chorus of the rat screeching for just a second, before everything died down.

“I’m going for the boss. Margaret, check Ted” Lucas shouted as he started running. Ted’s explosion cleared a lot of the swarm, charred remains from countless rats blitzing through his field of vision as he focused on Kra’zix, who was visibly shaken by the sudden death of much of his fighting force.

“Not so tough now?” Lucas asked him, getting his answers in guttural sounds and hissing. The rod in ratman hands was already on the move, series of movement from it already summoning another host of rats.

Lucas activated “Guiding strike” his automatically moving to the rod, hoping to do the same maneuver he did a long time ago against Dryad King, aiming to break the rod controlling the swarm. Unfortunately, Kra’zix noticed the attack coming and managed to move rod out of the way, Lucas managing to cut one of his fingers, severing it almost completely. More angry hisses come out from the ratman, but rats were starting to come out from the walls and the ground, rendering any chance for Lucas to press his advantage against Kra’zix impossible.

Lucas started avoiding and killing rats in equal measures, trying to position himself next to Kra’zix, ready to activate his instant kill skill, avoiding all pretenses of winning the fight any other way. Without much time for the rats to group up in the swarm, courtesy of Lucas killing them almost immediately as they showed up, they weren’t an enormous threat as they were a fifteen minutes ago, but if Lucas slipped for just a second, he would be in precarious position. So he hacked and hacked, even going so far as to activate “Doom strikes”, improving his attack speed. The rats were seemingly never ending, but with every swing Lucas was moving closer and closer to ratman controlling them and along with that he moved closer to landing a killing blow.

Suddenly, two more Lucas entered the fray, swinging their illusory sword and confusing the swarm controller for just a second. Lucas pounced on the chance Chen distraction opened up, finding himself facing the ratman. With a quick muttered “Vengeful doom strike” Lucas activated his ultimate move. Sudden fatigue took over him, his movement becoming sluggish. Luckily, Lucas had activated a skill a few times during his training so he was expecting that sudden burst of fatigue and adjust accordingly, taking a deep breath and focusing on his swing. The swing was moving slowly and the ratman had all the time in the world to move away, but Lucas didn’t need to do massive damage, he just needed a small cut. He changed his direction mid – swing, managing to catch the ratman in the thigh, making a superficial wound.

The snarl on the ratman face quickly changed to something resembling a smile as he moved his rod and swung it at Lucas, the swarm responding and quickly charging at him. However, before the rats managed to reach Lucas, Kra’zix howled in pain and started maniacally scratching all over his body. The howls were becoming louder and Lucas could swear the ratman’s body was slowly starting to glow, before suddenly stopping as Kra’zix hit the floor face first. The System soon confirmed to Lucas it was finished.

“You have slayed Kra’zix, Swarm Controller, Puppet master level 59”

“Congratulations! You are now Sword of doom level 56”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+5 Agility, +4 Strength, +2 Perception. Two free point”

“Due to title Prodigy, you are awarded another free point”

“Stat allocation completed”

“Huh, old habits die hard” Lucas thought to himself, to fatigued to get angry at himself for forgetting to allocate his free point and even worse, for not taking the time to get a new skill. He quickly opened his stats and threw all four of his free skill point into Constitution, rounding it up and feeling a little more vital.

“The skill will wait after I recover” Lucas thought to himself, shouting from top of the stairs bringing him back to earth. Remembering how he got down the stairs, he rushed as fast as his fatigue allowed him, hoping that Ted got out unharmed. When he got to the top of the stairs, he spotted the man meekly sitting while Maggie was going on the tirade.

“… so reckless. What would have happened if you lost touch with the club, or if they smothered you before you managed to activate your skill” Maggie shouted.

“Hey, it turned alright, didn’t it?” Ted carefully spoke, trying his best to calm the situation down “Margaret is good at her job”

“I will ask you tomorrow” Maggie responded sarcastically, allowing Lucas to piece together what happened.

“How bad?” he asked.

“Half of his face was almost bitten off. I’m still not sure how we managed to save the eye” Margaret said “luckily, he managed to get out with only one “Stabilize”, the rest was filled up with transferring health from us. Big guy managed to drain all of us from half of our health” she finished.

“Good job, Lucas” Ted said while getting up from the ground.

“When the time come, will we be able to use just health potions and your transferring skill to help him” Lucas asked Margaret, while giving Ted thumbs – up in response to his praise.

“It will get hairy, but I will do it” Margaret responded and with that they settled, a long wait ahead of them.