The King of Rats Rises

“Do you feel that? It’s all we need!”

“True, his soul might satisfy the lich king, but our objective is the city.”

“Our objective is souls. We’ve failed to take the city. I say we take him and leave.”

It was near impossible to tell who was talking but we don’t have time to worry about that. “Wal, it’s me they’re after. Take your men and run the other way.”

He doesn’t argue. He merely taps my chest with his shield and says “Stay alive. Fall back!”
With that, they ran back. I bolted in the other direction as their argument finished.

“Finally! Now get him before he runs off!”

At that, a hail of magic bolts launches at me! I fall to the ground and use my hands to throw myself forward enough to nearly avoid the explosions only to throw myself again to dodge a rain of swords! Finally, I pull myself to my feet and dash away. They toss spells of pure magic and flying swords at me and then wraiths ascend from the ground! Ghastly robes producing a pale blue mist with scythes gripped in rotten hands. I dodge their attacks only to get blasted by a orb a pure magic and launched forward! I landed in the ashes with puff.

If I keep running, I’m dead. Fueled by the rage flowing through me, I turn to face my assailants. It becomes easier to dodge their surprisingly slow spells. They stop their assault. The armoured mage approaches me. His armour of blades surprisingly makes almost no sound as he approaches. His helmet has only one flat surface on his face. He grabs it and lifts his visor to reveal a face of nothing but scars.

“There’s not much that surprises me anymore. But a mage, who can unleash a spell that flattens an entire city, and then proceeds to overpower an ogre is unheard of. You don’t carry the aesthetic of a lich. What’s your secret?”

The wraiths hang behind him. The headless hoods holding back their desire to kill. His allies stand a bit further back preparing spells. The wizard with the oversized hat speaks up. His voice sounds like an old woman. A witch? “He’s giving you a chance to join us. We can either take your soul, or you can keep it to serve the lich king. Either way, make haste! We won’t stay young forever.”

“If I take your offer. Will Solaris be sparred?”

The knight’s scars twitched into a smile. “Of course. All we need is you.”
I looked to the ground in contemplation. His guard was dropped. Like a damn puppet. I blast forward and punch his exposed face! Unfortunately, his reaction time let him avoid most of the impact. He still went flying back, but his head was still attached. The wraiths each take a single punch to dispel. After they die, they immediately fade from the world.

A wave of pure magic flows down the entire street, but I easily jump over it. Then I start laughing. The obnoxious presence in my core sent pulses of unbridled fury throughout my veins. “You’re even stupider than you look. Join you!? You throw away lives as if they mean NOTHING! You killed men who put their faith in me! You tried to kill everyone I know! Take my soul!? You won’t even get my life.”
I whip my dagger out of its sheath and brandish it before assuming an aggressive position. I take one long breath. As I speak, a black mist escapes my mouth. “But most of all. You tried to take my family’s life.”

With that, I dash ahead. While I spoke, they were all channeling spells, but it won’t help them. When I charged forward, the Witch released a flurry of magic bolts, the Stone mask summoned a living statue made of stone, and the Knight held a collection of flying claymores ready to strike!

A large lunge to the left sends the magic bolts crashing into the ground behind me! The statue approaches me with thunderous footsteps and a slow punch. The Knight appears on my left and swipes the air, hurling a swirling ring of greatswords directly at me! I jump back and let the swords clatter on the statue’s arm. The claymores begin to tremble and rise, but not before I pounced towards Blades and slashed at the tiny gaps in his armour! He summons a shield of pure magic and deflects my puny weapon while his claymores returned.

I kicked him back and jumped towards the Witch who threw a spiraling hailstorm of razor-sharp ice shards in my direction! It's too wide to avoid. I run straight through it with my shield raised! The shards rip through my clothes and even my chainmail underneath, but meager cuts hardly matter! I emerge on the other side to find a demonic monster obstructing my path!

It sweeps its demonic mace at me! I stop for a second to let the weapon pass. The wind from the weapon throws what’s left of my surcoat into a flurry. Before he swings back around, I dart forward and smash my shield into his mishappen leg causing it to snap and send him tumbling! Still, he persists! He whips his tail at me, only to have it lopped off by my tiny blade! Its essence begins to dissipate and fade.

Thunderous footsteps chase after me and Blades reappears. He holds back a large magic blade ready to swipe at my head! He swings his oversized blade as if it were a knife and I barely manage to deflect the sword’s hail of attacks! I manage to catch his sword and throw his footing off! The brief moment he's not attacking, I plunge my dagger into his sword arm’s shoulder! He jumps back as his circle of claymores flies at me! Instead of dodging them, I turn and bolt the other way back towards Witch.

A small army of skeletons rise from the ground as the thunderous footsteps of the statue chase after me. The bones do little to slow me, as I simply smash through them while rushing at her! She throws an insane number of magic bolts. I roll out of the way and most of them land behind me! One manages to take a chunk out of my side. Despite the chunk being rather large, I barely felt it. Even still, I roar and growl at the bitch who scraped me! My assault continued!

She runs backwards while casting all manner of spells! Blades attempts to interfere again! I’m getting sick of him! Instinctively, I shout “Flea!”
When he arrives with six oversized arms, I smack him back with my shield, sending him rolling across the ashes! He’s out of the way, but my shield finally shattered under the impact. No matter. It won’t change their fate. As I get closer to Witch, I abandon avoid her spells. They’re no longer powerful enough to harm me! They pelt me like bees, but nothing more!

I pounce! She condenses into a blue orb and floats past me. Coward! In the air, I turn around, yell through my teeth in effort and swing my hand at where she’ll appear. The power within me extends from my fingers into three giant pale crescent blades! The blades leave three large gashes bleeding down my outer forearm! She reappears and summons a wall of stone in a pathetic attempt to save herself. The blades crash through the bitch's wall and deep into her flesh! Her hat flies off to reveal an ancient face contorted in pain and shock. She stumbles in place before falling to her knees. The force from the impact tears the single strand of skin holding her legs together. Her body fell off her legs and split at the waist and chest. Her blood poured out into the ash. All the while, her eyes stayed glued to me and the dark mist swirling around me.

The other two stopped in their tracks for a second, likely out of surprise before attacking again. Stone mask began an incantation and Blades shouted as he stomped the ground! “Rupture!”
I jumped into the air, as a forest of curved blades erupted out of the ground! I landed on some small spikes that pieced through my boots. They only pricked the bottoms of my feet, but that still sent me into a frenzy.

Another living statue rises from the ground as soon as the first one finally catches up. They both stand next to Blades, ready to crush me if I get close. I jump to the nearby rubble and grab two hefty stones. The statues put their arms up in front of their heads. I duck under the circle of flying claymores and roar through my teeth! With all my effort the two stones blast through the groins of both statues! They don’t flinch but the thin pillars representing their waists begin to crack and crumble.

I begin to advance, but I’m hunted down by a swarm of knives! I retreat to the blade forest and zip through the metal trees! The knives clatter behind me. Instead of giving into my anger and hunting the wizards down, I mule over their plans for a mere second before taking action. Blades is collecting another swarm of blades of all varieties and Stone is summoning small demon creatures. Imps maybe. They’re similar to goblins with tails, but fatter and with red or grey skin.

I kick the giant blade behind me and it snaps at the base and do the same to a similar one close by. These will be my shields. Normally, these would be worthless. They are thin and have no handles, so my fingers are exposed. But they’ll do. My roars echo as I rush down Blades!

He flings the claymore ring at me once more along with a few other flying swords all while imps throw themselves at my feet! As they do, I smack them away and smash through the claymores! They shatter when I slap them with my shield but leave a deep crack in my defense! I won’t need it for long. I continue to rage through the hail of swords and imps, whacking anything that dare interrupt my conquest. The statues try to throw a punch at me but fall apart at the waist, causing them to miss! Fools. The first giant fist crashes in front of me, crushing several flying swords. The other lands behind me, blasting the imps to oblivion!

Blades hasn’t moved. His stockpile of floating weapons now has hundreds of swords poised and ready to strike. I drop my shields and pounce! He shouts, “Eviscerate!”
Motioning as if he threw them, hundreds of weapons lunge at me all at once! I roar and unleash my power though my voice! The sudden blast from my shout knocks every last blade off course! They clang and clatter as they tumble to the ground! My hand breaks through the glittering rain of swords and reaches for his head!

I find his visor through the wall of weapons and I’m sucked into a spell. We collapse into a ball and we travel through the air, unable to move. All we can do is stare at each other in a vortex of magical energy until we reappear a few feet away. As we do, I slam his head into the ground and stray swords jangle against my back!

His gauntlets shoot up and grip my arm as he starts to shout a spell! “Inconte-” The sound of skull and helmet crushing rings like a ghoulish bell and echoes in the ruins of the city. His helmet was crushed under my grip! Blood splatted out and onto my hands before steadily flowing out of his helmet. My fingers drag his lifeless head into the air as I stand before finally releasing him and letting his corpse clank on the ground. I turn to the final wizard.

I’m drenched in blood. Both my own and from others. My clothes and armour have all been torn asunder so my wounds are clearly visible. I have no weapons, but my blood soaked and injured hands. Still, Stone cowers when my gaze falls upon him. The black mist swirling around me intensified through the whole fight, but now it’s beginning to slow down and let up. My blood loss was starting to consume me. But my prey is standing before me, too afraid to move. I can’t see his face, but he stumbles when I take my first step towards him.

He frantically summons all different types of monsters. Some of ice and fire. Some of magic and stone. It does not matter. I run after him and smash through his pathetic army of thralls! In a panic he flings balls of fire at me, but it’s easy to avoid them! To stop my advance, he raises a wall of fire in front of him! If he thinks this will stop me, he’s sorely mistaken. I launch myself through the flame only to find him missing. Immediately I turn around and get blasted with a strong gust of magic to the face! An involuntary growl escapes my mouth.

He's running as fast as he can towards the gate and summons two shadow creatures. The first is a small bird that flies into the air and screams “Retreat! Retreat!”

The screams are likely loud enough to be heard across the city. He’s pulling a full retreat. That may be the first smart thing he’s done today. A shame it will be the last decision he makes in his life. The second creature is a horse. My prey is trying to escape! I fall to the ground and fling myself forward after him before sprinting as fast as I can!

I’m barely fast enough to keep a steady distance behind the galloping horse! It’s not long before we’re back into the thick ashes and fog. Each step leaves an explosion of ashes in its wake. Suddenly I find Maheed running beside me. He’s sprinting on all fours and barely overtakes me. The wind is whipping his fur into a black stream as he rushes forward.

Stone notices and begins summoning Imps and other small elemental monsters! Maheed zips back and forth, avoiding the creatures while still maintaining a lead over me. I just smash them aside. Maheed, takes one of his swords out of its sheath in between strides and grips it with his mouth. As he passes the summons, the blade in his mouth cuts through them causing them to fade from the world.

We’ve only barely caught up with him and he’s almost at the gate. I won’t let him escape! A silhouette of a horse-mounted archer appears in the corner of my vision. Just as Stone reaches the old defenses, an arrow flies through his horse’s skull. It jerks to the side and falls, sending Stone tumbling through the ashes! He doesn’t waste time to summon another mount. This time it’s a bat also made from shadows. We didn’t waste the opportunity either.

As Stone clambered onto his new mount Maheed jumped, blades in both hands and hacked at the creature’s wing. At the same time, I’ve caught my prey! I landed on the bat and dug my hand into its shadowy skin. Stone extended his arms and hit me with blasts of magic! With a growl, my hand shoots out and grabs his! He screams as I crush his hand!

The creature already couldn’t fly with three people on it, but when its wing was torn off by Maheed, we all went spiraling towards the Earth under what used to be the western archway. We crashed and skid through the mud. Stone, tried to get up and run away only to have my boot crush his leg. His screams echoed throughout the tunnel. I can't help but laugh.

He desperately tried to crawl away, crying “No! No! Please! Have mercy!”
I flipped him over with my foot and planted my boot on his shoulder. I kneel, making sure to keep all my weight on my foot.

“Would you have given me mercy, if I asked in the same manner?”

He nodded his head fervently. “Yes! Yes, I would!”

Lies. I peeled the mask off his head to stare into his eyes. The terrified blue eyes darted back and forth in his head, all without looking away from my gaze and pouring tears. My sadistic grin made its appearance, and his eyes began to lose all hope. “It’s a shame then. I’m not called the king of mercy.”
My palms slammed against either side of his head as his bloodcurdling screams blessed my ears! “I!”
I jerked his head to one side! “Am!”
I jerked to the other side, all the while his crushed hand smacked my arms and his broken leg kicked at the ground! “The King!”
The sound of flesh tearing replaced his screams as his head was ripped off! “Of RATS!”

I stand from the bleeding corpse with a lifeless head in hand. When I turn around, I see Maheed and Toross staring at me in horror. Many other onlookers had come to witness the spectacle. I starting to feel dizzy. Then I looked down. I can't recognize my own body. Holes and gashes replace most of my skin. Even my legs are little more than crimson ribbons. How am I alive? Then I noticed that I had fallen to my knees. When? My vision goes dark.