28 – Boss

  Andy rubbed the raw, sore spot at the center of his stomach, amazed as usual by how well Bea’s magical healing worked. As he sat up, a little woozy, but feeling much better, it occurred to him that the System hadn’t sent him any messages—no levels gained, no quest updates, nothing. Then it registered in his still-foggy brain that there were sounds of combat not far away. “Shit! They’re still fighting?”

  “Yes, they are,” Bea said with a nod, brushing her hands off as she rose from her kneeling position. “Get in there, Andy!” In the dim lantern light filtering back from around the nearby corner, her sharp eyes inspired confidence; her strong, steady voice made Andy want to measure up. He nodded and grabbed his spear—who did he have to thank for bringing that? Omar? Then he stood and, as he gathered his bearings, checked his mana: 288/375. Apparently, nearly dying didn’t do much to stop mana regeneration.

  He glanced at Bea, worried about leaving her behind, but she stood ready, staff in hand, and nodded toward the corner. Without further hesitation, Andy hurried toward the sounds of conflict. As soon as he rounded the corner, the situation became clear; they were at the top of the steeply sloping tunnel passage. Lucy was there, bow drawn, and, even as he saw her, the string twanged and the arrow streaked forth. Hector, wielding a heavy wooden maul, and Omar with his spear were on either side of her, fending off charging rats.

  Andy broke into a run, the numbness in his extremities forgotten, the lingering dizziness dispelled by adrenaline. As he pushed past Lucy, startling a gasp out of her, he said, “Stand back!” Then he cast Brimstone Breath down the slope, into the surging, clawing pack of giant, black-furred, long-toothed, red-eyed rats. As before, he felt his chest swell, and he held his breath for an extra second, letting the pressure build before exhaling his hot, cinder-filled payload.

  He saw his spell’s effects in the lantern light for the first time—a roiling cloud of black smoke alive with dancing orange cinders. It hit the rats, and they instantly recoiled, though Andy lost sight of them as soon as the smoke engulfed them. It didn’t block out their screams and chittering cries, however. Andy charged into the cloud. Submerging himself in that hot black smoke, the strange nature of his magic cleared the darkness from his eyes, and he saw the writhing, panicking forms of the burning rats.

  By then, his blood was hot, his mind clear, and he went to work, stabbing and jerking his spear free to stab again. Over and over, he drove that steel blade into the creatures, all the while moving forward. By the time he reached the end of his cloud, his magical smoke was clearing, but Hector’s lantern light kept the darkness at bay. Omar and the others joined him, working shoulder-to-shoulder to advance, and after a while, the last of the giant twitching rodents was dead.

  They’d pushed down, close to the spot where Andy and Omar had nearly been overwhelmed, and the lantern light revealed dozens—hundreds—of singed, smoking vermin corpses. Hector’s eyes were wide as he looked at Andy. “Holy shit! You guys cooked a lot of them suckers!” That was when the System decided their immediate fight was over and slammed Andy with a wall of text:

  ***Congratulations! You stood your ground against incredible odds and were instrumental in the destruction of another vermin Horde. For your efforts, you’ve gained five levels in your Brimstone Stalker class, earning you three additional Improvement Points. As a level 15 Brimstone Stalker, you may now advance your class abilities beyond rank 3. In some cases, this will morph the ability into a more powerful version.***

  ***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve earned a new Notable Distinction – Horde Slayer: You stood against the tide, unwavering and selfless in your determination to defend your people. In the face of overwhelming odds, allies will feel bolstered by your presence, and enemies’ courage will waver.***

  ***Make haste—your quest to save your allies was extended by your efforts, but their lives teeter on the precipice!***

  There was so much to unpack in those messages that Andy could have stood there contemplating the implications for an hour. When he read the last one, though, he gripped his spear and pointed down the ramp. “I’ll scout ahead.”

  Bea, just now clambering through the piles of dead rats and rat-people, said, “Good call, Andy. I saw the message too. We need to hurry.”

  Lucy grabbed his wrist, looking up at him with blood and soot-stained cheeks. “You’re okay?”

  “Yeah, Bea fixed me up.” He smiled, trying to sound convincing, then pulled away. Charging down the corpse-strewn slope, he could hear the others coming behind, talking in low voices about their levels, so he knew he wasn’t the only one who’d made gains, but he doubted any of them had gotten five levels.

  Considering he’d leveled from just ten or so rat kills in the past, and he’d just slain or helped to slay hundreds, he thought it was safe to say that the amount of experience required between levels wasn’t linear. He wondered if experience gain wasn’t linear either. Did he earn less for barbecuing fifty rats than he did for brawling it out with ten? All he really knew was that there were plenty of mysteries about how the System worked.

  When he outpaced the lantern light, Andy started to cast Smoke Sight, but paused. Quickly, he pulled up his status sheet and put another point into the ability, raising it to four. Immediately, the System sent him a message:

  ***Smoke Sight has morphed into Ember Vision. Darkness yields to clarity, and living forms glow softly against the shadowed veil.***

  “Cool,” Andy whispered, silently casting the new spell. An almost comforting warmth spread through his skull, originating from behind his eyes, and suddenly the darkness was gone. He could see everything—no more wavy gray outlines and vague shapes. The world was tinted with a sheen of yellow-gold, but he could still discern different shades and colors—to a degree.

  Grinning, he stalked toward the wide tunnel mouth, the urgency of his friends’ dire predicament speeding his steps. When he came to the cavern entrance, he was relieved to see that, regardless of the enormous rat’s ability to spawn babies, there wasn’t a fresh horde waiting for him and his companions.

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  Before stepping into the cavern, he cast Unseen Stalker. He briefly considered trying to improve the skill, but it felt like every second counted, so he shoved the impulse aside and glided toward the big boulder from which he could see the lower depths of the cavern. There were a handful of rats down there—the “regular” giant ones. He also saw two rat people lingering between Bella, Frank, and the monstrous mother rodent.

  Without a second look, Andy turned and ran back to the tunnel. Thankfully, the others had hurried, and he didn’t have to go looking for them. As he drew near, he hissed, “Hurry! There are only a few down there, and they might try to feed the mother!”

  “Feed?” Hector asked, but Bea cut off any sort of response.

  “Go, Andy! We’re right behind you. Come on! Lucy, get that bow ready!”

  Andy didn’t have to be told twice; he had the same thought in mind. He turned and ran, trusting his Unseen Stalker to mask him enough to get close to the mother. He didn’t know how much his spear would hurt a hippo-sized rat, but he intended to find out. As he slid down the slope, some of the other rats turned his way, their nose whiskers twitching. It didn’t matter, though; one of the others kicked a loose stone, and it skittered down the ramp, drawing the rat’s attention. With squeaks and chitters, they charged, eyes glowing in the firelight.

  Andy veered to the right, angling toward the mother, trusting the others to kill the smaller creatures. He knew Lucy must be able to see the enormous rat, but he hoped she was holding her arrow, giving him a chance to land a sneak attack. A rat screamed behind him, and the two bipedal rat-people looked toward the noise. To Andy’s surprise, they turned and disappeared through the tunnel—the one where he’d seen the baby rats taken.

  Andy was a dozen paces from the mother, and he wasn’t moving slowly. He scanned her great bulk; she was lying on her side, her heavy breaths huffing like bellows. He could see the shape of her spine; he could see the soft flesh north of her tail, off to the sides of that bony protuberance. He didn’t hesitate, aiming his spear for the soft area, some instinct telling him he’d strike a vital organ if he went deep enough.

  He ran full-tilt, driving the spear like he was trying to push it through a tree trunk. He put every muscle into it; his arms, his shoulders, his back, and most of all, his legs. He was airborne when the spear hit, and he screamed with the effort, driving the hardwood shaft halfway into the rat’s abdomen. He never had a chance to pull it back and strike again; the rat exploded into motion, leaping with adrenaline-fueled pain and panic. Andy tried to hold on to his spear, but he was thrown free, flying through the air to smash the stone wall off to the side.

  He was strong and nimble and, with a bit of luck, managed to tuck his chin and take most of the impact on his shoulders. His air whooshed out, and he slid down the wall, but his eyes were still focused on the rat. It was ripping apart its nest, frenzied, screaming, pouring gouts of blood—not only from the wound Andy’s spear had made, but from its left eye where an arrow protruded.

  Andy leaned forward, hands on knees, to get his wind back. He watched as silver glowing missiles whistled through the air to pound into the rat mother, buried to the fletching in her neck and shoulders. Lucy was firing the arrows so quickly that before one struck, another was in the air. Andy could see the rat mother wasn’t long for this world. His spear was spreading its caustic poison into her guts, and Lucy’s arrows were merciless. He hurried over to Bella and Frank.

  Frank was sitting, the rope on his neck clearly too tight for comfort. Bella, though, was on her feet, watching Andy with wide eyes, her expression both grateful and impatient. “Andy!” she hissed, whispering despite the thunderous squeals of the monstrous mother rat.

  “Hey,” he said, sliding to a halt beside Frank. He grabbed the rope, cursing the fact that Lydia had his knife.

  “Here! My pocket knife.” Bella said, thrusting her hip toward him. Andy nodded when he saw the bulge in her jeans’ pocket. As he dug his fingers into the tight fabric, she said, “How about that mother for a rodent of unusual size?”

  “Uh…” Andy said, dragging the little Swiss army knife out of her pocket and thumbing open the blade.

  Frank snorted and, despite his purple-red face and bloodshot eyes, wheezed, “ROUSes.”

  “At least he gets it,” Bella whispered, nudging Andy with her sneaker as he carefully sawed at the rope around Frank’s neck.

  “What?” Andy asked, judging his mind frazzled enough by the combat, let alone Bella’s teasing.

  “Princess Bride, Andy? The movie? It’s not funny if I have to explain…”

  “Oh!” Vague memories of a masked guy and a princess dealing with giant rats swam through his mind. He’d seen the movie when he was a kid—one of his mom’s favorites. “Yeah, I get it.” The knife finally cut the last strand, and Frank gasped several deep breaths as Andy stood to help Bella, starting with her bound wrists. “We were worried about you guys.”

  “With good reason!” she replied, nodding her head toward the gigantic rat mother, finally in its death throes, twitching and squirming with its belly and huge, swollen pink nipples exposed to the air. “I think we were next up on the menu. I saw them feed it a bunch of meat, though—no idea what kind, but it smelled awful.”

  “Fish,” Frank croaked.

  Just then, the System decided they’d successfully completed at least one of their quests:

  ***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve completed the quest to save your companions from the vermin Horde. As a reward, you can expect a random System-generated treasure when you return to a safe resting place.

  Well done! You’ve slain your first Boss-class enemy. A Boss is even stronger than an Elite. Fortunately, you and your companions were more than a match for the challenge. For your efforts, you’ve gained another level in your Brimstone Stalker class, and the System will award you with a random treasure when you reach a place to rest.***

  It wasn’t lost on Andy that he hadn’t gained an Improvement Point for level sixteen—it seemed his class was only awarding them on odd levels after level ten. He freed Bella’s hands, and while she rubbed her wrists, he sawed away at the rope on her neck. “Those little bastards know how to tie knots.”

  “Yep. They spoke to each other too—nothing we could understand, but they were definitely communicating.”

  “Damn, kid,” Frank said. “You don’t know how relieved we were when those rats swarmed the tunnel.”

  “Relieved?” Bella shook her head. “I was terrified! I thought they were going to attack the settlement! Where’d they all go?”

  Andy grinned as the knife slipped through the rope. “Dead.”

  Just then, footsteps slapping on stone heralded the arrival of the others, and Bea called out, “Bella!”

  “Bea!” She stumbled away from Andy, and he watched the two women embrace before squatting to cut the ropes around Frank’s wrists.

  “That old woman pretty much adopted that girl. Bella talked about her a lot while we were tied up here,” Frank muttered.

  “I’m glad they found each other,” Andy replied, grunting as he pulled the dull blade through the last rope. When he stood, Lucy was there, and he smiled, holding up an arm so she could press against his side. “Nice shooting.”

  “You like that? Talk about lucky timing—I couldn’t see you, but I had a feeling and just fired! My arrow hit its eye right when you stabbed it. Couldn’t have been more perfect.”

  “Yeah, almost feel sorry for it.”

  Frank, groaning as he stood, knees popping and clicking, cursed and said, “You’re joking, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess. It’s clear we’re not compatible species. Speaking of—” He raised his voice, addressing his next words toward the rest of the group. “We still have the quest—to find the source.”

  Bella separated from Bea and pointed to the tunnel in the wall behind the rat’s nest. “A bunch of the ratmen went that way.”

  Andy looked from Frank—still leaning on his knees, catching his breath—to Omar, spear ready, eyes hard. He shifted his gaze to Bea, Bella, and Hector, all staring at the tunnel. “Well,” he said, “I’m going to finish this. No way I can rest, wondering if there’s another mother rat or something.”

  Bea looked his way, and he saw something like approval in her eyes. She nodded. “Lead the way, Andy.”