14 – Vermin

Andy froze, looking down the tunnel, trying to count the writhing rodent-like figures, and losing track after nine or so. He shifted his gaze down the shaft, toward the next landing, trying to picture the figure he’d seen earlier. Was there any way it could have been a rat? He’d sworn it had seemed humanoid, but—

Further thoughts flew from his mind as Andy saw the figure again. This time, he was only fifteen feet or so away from it, and he could clearly see it was bipedal, but something else caught his eye: a long, thick tail extending from its lower back. He almost cussed, but he clamped his mouth shut. It felt like the thing was looking right at him. Andy took a step back and up, and the tiny bright spots of the creature’s eyes shifted, following him.

Andy scowled in consternation. Could it see him? He supposed he could believe it might be able to see in the dark, but it wasn’t just darkness hiding Andy—his Unseen Stalker spell was also active. Even so, as he took another step back, the creature’s eyes tracked him. Andy, heart racing and suddenly hot and sweaty, glanced toward the pile of giant rats in the nearby tunnel. They were still mostly moving about, deep in the tunnel, but several were creeping toward the stairwell.

That was when Andy saw how their noses were stretched forward, their nostrils twitching as the bundles of whiskers there wriggled in the air. He turned and stretched his legs, bounding upward as the tunnel behind him erupted in chittering cries. As he leaped up the steps, three at a time, he rounded the corner and saw Jace and the others. “Up!” he yelled, dropping his Unseen Stalker spell. “Rats!”

Confusion rippled through Jace’s eyes, but a moment’s contemplation must have changed his initial reaction because he turned and bellowed, “Go back! Get to the top!” Right away, Andy saw that Bea, spry as she might be, was going to slow them down. She almost fell as she turned. Lucy grabbed her arm, and they started up, but Andy could hear claws skittering on the stone behind him. He whirled, spear ready, and realized he was in the perfect situation when it came to defending—he had a spear and the high ground.

He couldn’t see how much of the stairwell was revealed by the lantern light; to him, it was just a bright spot—everything was the same tone of gray—but when the pile of softly glowing bodies rounded the corner, scurrying toward him, Jace cried out, “Jesus!”

Andy was tempted to drop his spell so he could see more details of the giant rodents, but then he thought about the lantern light—how it would bounce around as people moved, and how the shadows it threw would make spotting the many, rapidly moving rats more difficult. With his Smoke Sight, there were no shadows, and the creatures were almost highlighted by the way they glowed, indicating they were warm—alive.

He didn’t have time to think about it for long. The first wave of the creatures—rats, his subconscious had already decided—reached the step below his, and he stabbed down, rapidly jabbing his spear toward necks and eyes, spines and, when there wasn’t a better option, shoulders. Skittering shrieks greeted his blows, and spatters of blood flew, glowing amber in his strange vision. As they flew through the air, the droplets of blood cooled from orange to green, and finally to blue, before fading away to gray.

He felt Jace’s presence before it registered consciously that the man had come to stand beside him, his club held ready. “I’ll smash any that get past!”

Andy grunted in agreement, jabbing his spear at every creature as it came into range. It didn’t dawn on him how fast he was moving; he’d fallen into a battle trance, striking as rapidly as he could, moving the point of his spear in and out, weaving the tip toward new targets and showering the stone steps below him with the blood of the rodents. “Damn, bro,” Jace said, chuckling, “Dunno why we were running. Things can’t get past you.”

The words were wasted on Andy—the fight had his full attention. His eyes darted over the scurrying, seemingly endless rush of writhing, undulating bodies, looking for targets as he stabbed his spear and yanked it back. He thought he saw a break in the press of bodies—an ebbing of the tide—and then he felt the telltale gathering of mana off to his left, further down the steps. He whirled, turning his gaze toward the sensation, and then something bright, flickering with sparks and tiny flames, flew up the shaft and slammed into his side.

“Ah!” Andy cried, stumbling back as his left hand fell toward the injury. He felt a stiff, arrow-like shaft sticking proudly from his flesh. When his hand brushed it, shifting the end embedded in his guts, he screamed again and nearly blacked out from the lancing pain.

Meanwhile, Jace shouldered past him, taking a step down and whipping his massive club left and right, keeping the still-swarming giant rats from clambering onto Andy. “Across the way!” he screamed. “Something shot Andy!”

“On it!” Lucy yelled.

“Watch—” Andy started to yell, but then he felt hands grip his collar. Bella grunted and heaved, yanking him up two steps. Again, Andy yelled, trying to finish his thought, “Watch for the arrow, Lucy!” He knew the creature that had shot him was down there, in the dark, and he knew the others couldn’t see it.

Maybe his words made sense to her, or maybe Lucy just happened to be looking when another sparkling missile flew out of the darkness, slamming into the stone wall, because she fired her bow almost instantly. “I think I got him!” she yelled, but Andy couldn’t confirm—Bella had yanked him again, and he was closer to the wall, too far from the shaft to look down into the darkness.

“Hold still!” Bella said, leaping past him, spear in hand. He had a moment to wonder what she’d done with the sword they’d recovered from the harpy before Bea was leaning over him, looking him in the eyes.

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“I need to pull it out before I can heal you!”

Andy nodded. He felt confused—more than he thought he ought to be. He wanted to be fighting, but he recognized his thoughts were coming slower—that he was losing focus, thinking about random things. It almost felt as if he were drunk. His tongue was sluggish in his mouth as he said, “Do it.”

“Hmm?” Bea asked, and Andy looked down to see her blood-drenched hand pressing against his side. She’d already done it. That was when he realized his Smoke Sight spell had faded away. Had he cancelled it? He lost track of the question as his eyes focused on the arrow lying on the stone step beside him. It looked like a length of bloody bone with a jagged, multi-barbed tip.

“What the—” he started to ask, but then Bea was tilting one of her little bottles toward his lips.

“Drink it,” she urged, and Andy closed his lips over the bottle’s mouth as she tilted it higher. The liquid was acidic-tasting—almost like vinegar or alcohol—and when he swallowed, vapors rose into his sinuses, making his eyes water as he coughed. “It’s my strong stuff!” Bea said, smiling.

“Damn…” Andy said, shaking his head as the elixir did its work. Suddenly, he wasn’t so numb, and the sharp pain in his side reminded him that he’d just been shot in the guts with an arrow. As the fog fled his brain, he heard the sounds of combat—Bella and Jace yelling and grunting, animals screaming and chittering, and Lucy’s bow twanging. He smelled blood and shit and the musty odor of damp fur. He saw the lantern’s light throw wild shadows on the walls of the stairwell.

“I think I stopped the bleeding. I think your insides will heal from that elixir. It was my last strong one, though.” Bea was probing his side, and Andy looked down to see that his shirt was a bloody mess and his skin, just below his ribs, still sported a raw-looking, puckered wound.

“Can I move?”

“You better! They need your help!”

That was all Andy needed to hear. He clambered to his feet, wincing at the stabbing pain in his side, grabbed up his spear, and looked down to see Bella and Jace holding their ground a few steps down. He could see the giant rats clambering over the corpses of their fallen kin—dog-sized rodents with eyes that shone red in the lantern light. Their teeth were like little knives as their mouths yawned open, snapping and lunging toward the two fighters. Even as he watched, Jace’s club smashed the side of a rat’s head, sending it tumbling back, only for two more to scrabble over its body.

Andy stepped toward the edge, peering into the darkness, crouching nervously. He didn’t want to eat another arrow. He heard Lucy’s bow twang again and saw a rat sprout an arrow from its eye before falling down the shaft. Briefly concentrating, he cast Smoke Sight again. As the darkness faded to gray, he peered across the shaft, hoping to spot the archer who’d shot him. The stairs were crowded with hot rats, but beneath them were the cooling corpses of dozens more. Looking down a level, Andy saw a greenish-blue body, more humanoid than the many rats—the rat archer, he hoped.

Andy stepped down behind Bella and put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me pass you. Take a break.”

“You good, man?” Jace asked, heaving for breath.

“Good.” Andy slipped between the two fighters, and then he got to work again, stabbing and stabbing and stabbing. As soon as rats came into range, climbing over the corpses of their fallen kin, he killed them. His smoke-shrouded spear blade found their eyes, their necks, their mouths, and any who didn’t die instantly succumbed to the burning, caustic smoke within seconds. He lost track of the number of rats that fell over the side, disappearing into the darkness.

When he took a step forward, nudging aside a rat corpse to find room for his feet, he realized the tide of rodents had thinned. Soon, he was standing knee-deep among the rodent bodies, pushing forward to slay the stragglers—too stupid or too enraged to back off, even though the vast bulk of the rat army was dead.

When no more came to challenge him out of the darkness and all the bodies within sight were visibly cooling in his magical vision, Andy paused, heaving deep breaths as he looked up at his companions. Jace and Bella stood ready, and Lucy stood behind them with a nocked arrow—her last one, judging by the empty quiver on her shoulder. Bea sat on a step near her, holding something in hands that glowed with faint blue mana. “I think that’s all,” Andy announced after scanning the shaft once more.

As if it had been waiting for him to say something, the System confirmed their victory with a series of messages:

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve worked with a team to defeat a dangerous swarm of vermin! Was that the end of them, though? Special quest opportunity: Seek the source of the vermin in the mesa’s depths. Possible treasure and a special reward from the System await your success.***

***Congratulations! You’ve gained two levels in your Brimstone Stalker class, earning two Improvement Points and a new class spell: Smoke Cloud.

Smoke Cloud – bound: Expending mana, you can manifest a cloud of hot, caustic smoke that erupts with you at the epicenter. The smoke will obscure the vision of all caught within it, save the caster’s. Furthermore, the smoke will burn the eyes and lungs of those who remain within it for more than a few seconds. Mana cost: 20.***

Before he could say anything, Bella said, “A quest!”

“Yep,” Jace confirmed.

“And a level for me,” Bea added.

Jace grunted, thumping his spiked club on the stone step, trying to knock some viscera off it. “I got two.”

“One for me,” Lucy said, tiptoeing through the blood and carnage, eyes focused on one of her arrows protruding from a nearby rat corpse.

“Do we press on?” Bella asked. “I wonder what we’ll get for the quest reward.”

“I need time to make another couple of strong potions,” Bea replied.

Andy nodded. “Maybe we should get some more people involved. We need to clear out that harpy nest and post a guard by the waterfall. We could use some people to watch our backs here and help with all of…this.” Andy wrinkled his nose, gesturing toward the piles of giant rat corpses.

“I agree. We should regroup,” Lucy said, yanking her arrow out of the corpse. “Oh, what the…” she gasped.

“What?” Andy stepped forward, lowering his spear.

“Look! Some of these giant rats have hands.”

Frowning, Andy really looked at the dead rats for the first time and realized she wasn’t wrong. Some of them had almost human-looking arms and hands, save for the fur and claws. Moreover, there were a few with scraps of clothing—leather belts, shredded jeans, and even one with a sleeveless denim vest. The clothes were filthy, stained, and damp, and surrounded by tufts of fur, so it wasn’t a surprise he hadn’t noticed them in the dim lighting, but now that he’d seen it, Andy couldn’t help thinking about how the giant rats had moved. They weren’t normal rodents.

“Were they becoming people?” Bea asked, her voice tinged with horror.

Jace grunted, spitting over the side of the stairwell. “Or were they becoming rats?”

Andy stared into the darkness, his hand drifting toward the still-tender wound in his side. “Or were they on their way to becoming like the one who shot me?”