Part 1 - Unease

A yawn to start the day, Urist woke up feeling worse than usual, shown by his bloodshot eyes. Haunted throughout the night by the sounds of ripping flesh and crunching bones. The cursed noise had echoed loud enough to reach the depths of the cave.

The light sleepers of the group, like Urist, couldn’t sleep until well into the night when the rats decided to stop their frenzy. However, he didn’t let a little lack of sleep stop him from getting ready for the day. 

Grabbing his oxygen light crystal he gave it a few breaths, did some stretching before setting his mind to get to work. Giving the wake-up call one by one the male dwarfs awoke. Some were grumpy like him, but it wasn't the time to slack off. There was work to be done.

Walking over to the females’ quarters, Urist also gave them a wake-up call, before heading over to meet the new arrivals. He wasn’t feeling up to the task of getting a headstart on exploration. That and Uria had taken the fourth shift of the night so he wanted to lessen her load a little thanks to the rats.

As before, four new dwarfs stood there confused. Urist, with the help of Arben, got them up to speed. Ubig the carpenter, Gale the wind mage, Littou the veteran warrior and the commoner Ran.

The only one that stood out from the group was the buff and scarred warrior Littou who had black graying hair, yellow eyes that shone like amber and a majestic double braided beard that stopped at his chest midway. His gear consisted of iron chainmail and an iron Warhammer that had a  warm auburn handle.

His first words left a deep impression on Urist.

“Are there enemies that need slaying? If so please point me in the direction.”

“No, not right now, but I feel that soon we shall.”

“Excellent with this body I can go to war once again! I now serve you, my lord!”

The old dwarf got on one knee and bowed.

Urist felt flustered and raised Littou from his knee, “I am not a lord so there is no need to bow. I’m merely a leader, is all.”

Littou got up from his kneeling position with the sparkling eyes of a puppy which contrasted his rough exterior.

“I’m sorry if I’ve offended you!”

The old man got onto one knee once again causing Urist’s head to ache at the sight.

“You haven’t offended me so please rise. Just call me boss like everyone else does.”

Getting Littou back onto his feet, Urist turned to Arben, “I’ll leave it to you to get everyone sorted out, alright?”

Hitting his chest with a  fist Arben replied, “Understood, boss.”

Urist watched Arben lead the four dwarfs out of the cave and felt uneasy. There were so many dwarfs now living here that it would be hard to keep track of them all. He felt daunted by knowing he held so many lives in his hands.

And now dwarfs were calling him a lord?

Man, I need to find someone to help me get things done sooner or later.

Urist mused as he slapped his cheeks to clear his mind, “We have to survive this before I can think of the future. I’ve held it off long enough time to see what the team is doing.” 

Opening the bamboo cave door Urist’s eyes adjusted to the light allowing him to see that the construction team was still going strong. Since they had finished up the walls they were working on getting the other defenses ready. Such as the rock holdings, getting the maces ready to attach to the pulley defenses, and sharpening wooden sticks to place along the wall.

Out of the corner of his eye, Urist could see the alchemist Empty, poison mage Gift, and the metal fanatics Baikm and Hot-working hard together. They also had a team of helpers, borrowed from the construction team.

There was a reason why such a group was formed. Grenade manufacturing. They were currently working on the production of metal grenades. For one reason that after seeing the effectiveness of the first test grenades, Urist wanted a dozen or so copper grenades to use in emergencies. 

He felt it acceptable to make them since the expedition a few days ago had acquired enough spare material. There was enough leftover to make a couple of dozen after finishing the other on spearheads and maces.

Urist thought about making grenades out of clay but discarded the thought for the moment. They didn’t have enough materials due to it being used to make bricks. Although he thought of buying clay on the market, Empty rejected the idea by stating that clay grenades were the hardest to make for him. 

The problem with clay grenades was if the mold messed up the clay or cracked it would become a useless product. Add to the fact that inlaying a ruby on the top of the grenade was a chore Empty really didn’t want to worry about.

So they had decided that when the earth mages finished up making the rock holdings and filling them up. Their next task would be making rock cores that the alchemist and his team could chisel away. The reason the earth mages couldn’t make the shape in one go was that they didn’t have enough control to perform such complex carvings. Without time on their side, Urist and the Alchemist decided on such a plan.

He and Empty got into a heated discussion about hollowing grenades out and filling them with poison. So the poison mage, while filling barrels of poison, also filled the still hollow grenades.

With them using so much metal, its production had kicked into high gear. Whilst building the wall the dwarfs also managed to increase the number of kilns to keep up with demand. To work the third kiln the pottery maker Zaster was shoehorned into the position.

Although the man was a little saddened that he wouldn’t get to create jars and other useful clay items he understood that it wasn’t the time.

“Hey boss what are you doing? We're all ready to go!”

A stout male voice called out to Urist shaking him from his thoughts.

Elrish and the rest were waiting for him with their new armor and weapons, ready to proceed.

“Sorry for keeping you guys waiting. Let's head out and survey the area. I fear it’ll be more dangerous than the other day. With that in mind, I expect you guys to be on your guard.”

Rat shrugged his shoulders, “Should we be scared of some oversized rats, boss? I mean they aren’t so strong that they could threaten our lives.”

“Last night was strange so I want us to be on our toes. That being said… Hey Tomo!”

On top of the wall, Tomo stood up from crafting a stone holder and gazed down from the wall.

“What's up, boss? You need something?”

Nodding his head Urist replied, “I need you to do me a favor. Just in case. I want you to save enough mana to block the entrance with the stone wheel you guys made the other day, ok?”

“Understood, boss.”

With everything in order Urist’s eyes sharpened, “Let’s head out and see what those rats are doing.”

““““““Yes, Boss!”””””””

 

Part 2 - Silent 

 

Walking through the gate Urist’s eyes opened wide as he looked at the ground. Seeds as big as heads and patches of blood littered the forest’s ground making the air smell rotten.

“It’s more like a forest of blood…”

“You say something, boss?”

Shaking his head slightly Urist responded, “It’s nothing. Let’s go slowly, for now, I only want us to travel one thousand meters in. Unlike the other days, no rats are milling around so I think something might be up. Although I don’t want to explore the outside because of last night we need information.”

Petting one of her tigers Reaver laughed, “Heh boss, I think you should relax. Personally, I think you’re overthinking things.”

“Perhaps, but even so I’ll take the lead on this one. Let’s move.”

…

Holding his spear with one hand Urist took up the role of vanguard while being flanked by Rat and Elrish. As they headed out, the construction team and the defense force followed after them to connect the new maces to the wheels.

It wouldn’t take long for them to finish up applying the defenses since they had already gotten half of them in place during the previous days. Unicy stood on top of the wall keeping an eye out as she watched the fading backs of the exploration team.

She, like Urist, felt like something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Sure, the forest looked bloody and the bamboo seeds were giant. It wasn’t normal, but not something to be scared of for no reason.

No, something had been picking at her mind for a while. Something she had forgotten about that should be obvious to her. It took until every dwarf was well into their work along the wall that she realized why everything felt wrong.

“Where is the sound of bugs and birds?”, the sudden thought made her heart quicken.

As she called out for the dwarfs to return to the base a scream resounded from where the expedition had been heading.

“GET IN THE FUCKING BASE NOW!”

…

Walking at a slow pace Urist and the rest of the team conversed while keeping their eyes peeled. 

“Did the rats eat one another? I haven’t seen hair nor shadow from the little bastards except for the footprints,” remarked Elrish offhandedly.

Petting one of her tigers' Reaver shrugged, “Perhaps the rats killed each other off.”

To which Uora questioned with confusion, “If that’s so where did all the bodies go?”

Urist kept his guard as he answered, “I’d bet that the rats ate every bit of meat they found. Though from all the noise they made there shouldn’t be that many of them. Based on Vlad’s information I bet the rat king ordered such a bloody frenzy. Although it’s a little crazy to head out with such an unknown factor, we need information on the current size and population of the rats.”

“Still don’t you think it’s a little… rash, boss?”

Urist shook his head and pointed at his pouch, “As long as I have this little ace we should be good enough to handle such troubles.”

With such assurance, the group kept scanning the ground while moving along. As they made their way Fatty and co. picked up the seeds from the ground and on the bamboo along the way.

Heading three-hundred meters south into the forest nothing really out of the ordinary jumped out of the forest. The only exception being the lack of rats or creatures they usually see. Despite moving so far away from the base no rats came out to attack them. 

This alone put the already on guard Urist farther on edge. As warning lights went off in his mind,  he tried to figure out what was going on. On the previous day at this point, they would have run into rat galore that charged at them without regard for their lives.

Maybe he could be a coward and head back home. But the will to know drove him forth he needed to at least see one rat. Step by step the expedition reached the five hundred meter mark and that was when Urist finally noticed the silence of the forest. 

Why are there no birds or insects making noise? Despite coming to this realization Urist threw away his distraction and pressed forth. His knuckles had become white from how tightly he held his spear tighter.

Six hundred meters… Seven hundred meters… Eight hundred meters… Nine hundred meters…

By this point, the dead silence that surrounded the exploration team had stripped away their joyful air to lay bare a somber mood.

The first to voice their concern was Emu the wind mage, “Hey boss, do we need to go any further? The forest is seriously creeping me out. Besides Fatty is loaded up on enough seeds to make a trip back.”

Urist stopped and turned his head slightly, “Alright, but let’s go a little further first. I want to at least see one rat before heading back. Collecting the seeds is a secondary objective, the main one is seeing how big the rats have grown. That’s our job as the exploration team, understood?”

Fidgeting with his spear Emu nodded his head. Being a wind mage he had heightened hearing that outclassed an average dwarfs hearing by a few times. At the moment he dreaded his previous statement when he said not to worry. 

It weirded out the dwarf that only shallow whispers of wind and droppings of seeds entered his ears. And so they pressed forth through the silence reaching the one thousand meter mark. At that moment the dreaded silence which had been weighing down on them broke. Emu picked up the sound of movement first; the sound of feet and claws moving towards their position made his skin crawl.

Emu stopped the group, “Wait. I hear I movement headed in our direction. It sounds like something bigger than a normal rat. No, it’s more than a rat! Thirty? Fifty? Seventy? One hundred? That seems about right yes. An estimation of one hundred rats. Boss what should we do? I don’t think it’s wise to fight them so far from home.”

Thinking a bit Urist gave a nod, “Agreed, we shall fight a retreating battle. Emu cast speed on Fatty so he can keep up with us. Reaver, have your contracted animals do hit and run tactics to slow the swarm’s advancement. Rat, Urish, you will cover the backs of Fatty and Uora. I’ll cover the back with Reaver’s animals by using my flames defensively. Everyone understands the plan?”  

““““““Yes!”””””””

Under Urist’s quick thinking the expedition team moved out following his plan. They got to the eight hundred meter mark, back to the base when the rat wave caught up to them. It took a moment for Urist to see rats that had grown to a quarter the size of a dwarf.

He figured he’d call them quarter class rats to make it easier to call them out. But he would tell the others later, for now, he needed to run interference. Gathering flames along with his spear he lightly used his strength to cause the waves to spread in a wide cone. 

Not yet done he tethered a line of flame to the cone and his spear that he dragged on the ground. He did this after for the reason that after doing some tests, he found that as long as he remained connected to the source he could easily retrieve the flames. 

“That should slow them down a bit, luckily I can tell the flames what to burn and not burn otherwise the whole forest wou-- What!? Are they insane!?”

Animals in their nature try to avoid fire at all costs. Such knowledge picked up as his time as a boy scout. He had expected the rats to stop at the fire and work their way around. At that time Reaver’s animals would hit them at the sides taking out as many as they could before retreating thanks to being faster.

But these rats defied logic and ran through the hellish blaze in a spearheaded formation. Thirty or so rats died but thanks to them the remaining rats were able to run through unharmed. Urist knew at this point that the rat king had taken over all the rats in the area. At this moment he regretted being rash as to not listen to his and other dwarfs suspicions.

As he kept running, he swore to himself that if they made it out of this he would reflect on his mistakes. Reavers animals turned on her command and washed into the smaller swarm opening their jaws grabbing one rat each before running out. 

Although they had cut down a dozen rats the swarm kept on moving hellbent on the exploration team. At this point when Urist was about to gather his flames and set up another flame wall a wall of screeching from the right and left of the exploration team.

‘Too many. Simply too many to fight. This noise isn’t simply tens or hundreds of rats, but it's in the thousands. That bastard of a king has taken total control of the rats in the forest and set a trap.’

“Boss, they are coming! I hear thousands heading for our position! If we stay here we will be overrun!”, Emu cried in fear.

Urist closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before sending a fireball at the remaining rats behind him. He then issued his new commands, “Cast Haste on the group, Fatty drop the seeds and everyone get ready to run like hell. I shall hold them off to gain you time to escape, after some time I shall follow after you guys. ”

“But Boss, that’s insane! If anything we should hold them off while you escape!”

Urist laughed while running, “Haha! No need to worry about me, I’m confident in escaping thanks to my ace. So escape and survive! This is an order of your selfish leader! Do as you’re told and get your asses moving!”

Reaver noticing Urist’s confidence, pulled Emu and Uroa away who were trying to stay with Urist. Biting his lip Emu cast Haste on Fatty and the group of six dwarfs ran and left Urist alone to deal with the horde. To try and help his fellow dwarfs Urist took a deep breath and screamed, “You think you are a king?! Come vermin as I send you to meet your maker!”

His roar resounded throughout the forest and although he didn’t think it would work the rat tides turned directly in his direction. By how they acted he figured that the exploration team would be able to slip out relatively unharassed.

‘What a welcome boon! Come, Come! Rat king, I shall kill you!’ Roared Urist as he prepared himself for the confrontation.

They were fast for rats, he estimated that within twenty seconds he would make contact.

‘Man I wish I had a good cigarette right now. At least it would stop the trembling in my legs.’

Stabbing his spear into the ground Urist slapped his cheeks with his hands before grabbing the berserk potion from his pouch. The black liquid swirled inside as he prepared to pop the stopper and drink its contents.

Ten seconds left.

Grabbing the spear’s handle Urist took control of his breathing as Unicy showed him to help quell the fear building in his heart.

Seven seconds...

Breathe in, breathe out.

Three seconds.

He got into stance and popped the bottle, downing the contents in one go. The liquid tasted of bananas, which almost threw Urist for a loop if not for the rats closing in on him. In an instant the potion took effect as he felt his heart start racing, his thin muscles bulged and his veins popped up against his skin along his body.

He was ready and not a moment later. As thousands of quarter-sized rats lead by rats hundreds of half his size exited the brush and charged at him.

“SCREE!”, The rat army roared.

“KILL!”, The lone dwarf screamed back.

 

Part 3 - A Voice 

 

Activating his strengthening skill Urist dropped the empty bottle and kicked into the ground causing seeds and dirt to fly up. Jumping into the air Urist descended into the tide smashing his foot into a large rat causing its body to explode into gore.

The rats didn’t run away from him, without fear they jumped at Urist, full of hunger, their eyes showing their wish to rip into him. The dwarf and rats proceeded to dig into each other with Urist using his spear as a club and the rats that got past biting and scratching at his leather boots and gambeson leggings.

He didn’t worry about the small ones as their teeth were not long enough to pierce the material. The ones that could actually injure him were the quarter and half rats. Of those over half a dozen had injured him with their teeth along his stomach and legs.

The battle had been going on for about a minute and it was then that Urist started noticing the true effects of the berserk potion. By now his heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. That and his mind was slowly slipping away from him pulling him into a frenzy calling for blood. 

If someone saw Urist right now they would be shocked by how his once amber eyes had turned blood red.

The berserk potion truly lives up to its name. Fuck, my vision is growing black. Even so…

One of the reasons why he hadn’t given the rest of the team a berserk potion was its side effect of causing temporary mental corruption. That is what the Alchemist Empty had told him when he mentioned it to the group. He figured that as long as he held a hint of sanity he would be able to leave the battlefield. Unfortunately, even though he had some control over his mind his body was consumed in rage killing as it pleased.

I really should have tested it before taking it into combat. Fuck... Am I actually in danger?

He realized at that moment that his selfish ideas of not wanting anyone die had caused his logical mind to be suppressed. 

I wanted to shoulder all the risk and now I’m paying the price. Smiling bitterly he regretted his rash decision as he felt the potion digging into his mind making his conciseness slip bit by bit away from him.

His berserk body yelled full of fury using his spear like a club swinging it into the tide crushing the bodies of the rats. With each new wound golden flame started to flicker around the berserk dwarf. His berserker body had activated the origin flames and gathered a raging inferno on his back.

Although that didn’t deter the rats from throwing their lives onto his back for one more bite scratch. In the back of the wave, the bloodthirsty rat king watched his rat army kill Urist by one thousand cuts. If Urist wasn’t in such a fury he would notice that the rat king had grown to reach ¾ the size of a dwarf. 

Yet it wasn’t enough to slate the kings' bloodlust. He wanted the one that wounded him to die! Die! DIE!

...

“GET IN THE FUCKING BASE NOW!”, Rat the fisherman screamed at the top of his lungs with the rest of the exploration team coming up from behind him. Everyone on the construction team was confused as to why Rat seemed so hysterical.

The one to be quick-witted was Unicy who was already giving out orders.

“Everyone in the construction team gets inside. Guard team on me. We will cover the construction teams retreat before entering. Move, move, move!”

Thanks to the strict training of Unicy the guard team got into formation in front of the gate without a hitch as the construction team hurried through. When about half of the construction team had entered the base the exploration team had reached the guard team. That was when they noticed that Urist wasn’t with them.

Her gaze became cold as she turned to the fear-stricken Rat, “Where is our boss? Did you leave him to die?!”

Anguish filled the hearts of the exploration team at her accusatory words leaving Rat at the verge of tears. It was Reaver who answered Unicy’s question with remorse, “The boss told us to leave while he held off the tide to buy us time to escape.”

Unicy gashed her teeth in anger. “That fool. We must rescue him! Fellow guardsmen to me. We shall open a path of slaughter for the Boss to retreat! KILL!”

The guardsman roared full of resolve, “KILL!”   

Reaver held back Unicy from charging forth, “You can’t! there are too many of them. You would be wasting your lives! Believe in the boss that he will come back alive!” 

Unicy tried to push Reaver out of the way but the tamer hold on fast not letting go, “Unhand me! I must save my lord from death. He is a beacon of light for our race, he cannot die here. Fellow guards remove this woman.“

As the other dwarfs tried to remove Reaver her marked beasts surrounded her and growled at the guardsman menacingly, causing the air to become tense.

For the dwarven community, this would mark the first conflict between fellow dwarfs. The two parties stood opposite each other, not sure what to do in this scenario.

“We need to save him, get off me.”

“We need to stay safe and believe in him.”

“He just started learning to fight, he won’t be able to come back alive alone.”

“He has the berserk potion, origin flames, and the strength skill. Much more would be needed to kill the boss. We should enter our base and wait for him.”

The two argued long enough to see a pillar of flames rise in the distance, sending hundreds of charred rats into the air. 

...

Time seemed to slow for Urist’s whose mind faded into its berserker rage. In this time fragmented memories entered his mind unsurprisingly showing all his failures one by one. He could only learn, not create, lead, save, or give anything back to society. 

My hands were only created to fail. Then for what reason was I born?

Helplessly Urist strand of will watched on as his body threw itself into the grinder. There were simply far too many for him to kill alone. He needed to escape back home.

But every time he wished to run away the endless urge of bloodlust held him in place. As torrents of black and red filled his vision, he realized in his half-crazed state that he was going to die in this place.

He had been too overconfident on handling the effects of the berserk potion. He thought that since he had so much strength he could escape with ease.

How big a fool he was. It didn’t take him long to come to terms with his death. Sure he had helped the dwarfs survive, but he wasn’t a leader that could lead his people to prosperity. He wasn’t the man for the job. 

Perhaps it's better this way?

As he was about to close his eyes and let go. A thought rang through his mind shattering through the compounding thoughts of darkness.

Promise me you will come back.

In a stunning moment of clarity Urist smiled before erupting with utter rage.

“You bastard rat king invading my mind. Making me feel like shit. Go to hell for I cannot die here!”

As Urist yelled, flames exploded outwards from his body sending a wave of hellfire to the surrounding rats. Next, on instinct, his body moved in a strange way gathering all the flames around him to then be condensed around his body. The condensed fire then moved towards his arms around his weapon before gathering at its tip.

Urist’s opened his mouth and his voice mixed with a strange voice that sounded thick like static.

“Flaming Pillar of Origin!”  

Urist’s stabbed the spear into the ground causing all the built-up fire to explode out of the ground causing a flaming pillar to appear out of the ground.  

After unleashing this majestic attack Urist’s consciousness turned black.

 

Part 4 - Heated Tensions

 

The expedition and guard teams stood shocked by the golden flaming pillar that ascended into the sky. At the crescendo, a black figure burst out which gathered the pillar of flames transforming it into wings.

With a single beat of the flaming wings, the figure shot directly towards the base’s entrance. Before the figure hit the ground the flames wrapped around it and cushioning the impact and making it bounce off the ground.

When it stopped the flames retreated into the figure’s body who lay bruised and bloody on the ground. Instantly the two groups recognized the figure as Urist. The first to move was Reaver who pushed Unicy away and cradled Urist.

“Boss, you ok? Answer me, are you ok?!”

Someone retorted, “Does he look ok? He looks like shit.”

Shaking the unconscious Urist, Reaver got stopped by Unicy who pulled her off and put her hand in front of Urist’s face. 

“Wha- what are you doing?!”

Unicy didn’t answer her as she focused on feeling for his breath. She sighed relief when she noticed that although his breath was shallow he was still alive.

She turned her head to Fatty, “Fatty, carry the boss to the cave. Elrish, I want you to gather the healers and that light mage. The rest of you are under my command, we’ll be defending the wall.”

“Understood!” cried the guardsmen to which they turned and entered the base without complaint. While giving out the orders Unicy heard the sound of thousands of feet and screeching head in their direction. Of the exploration team, only Fatty moved under the heroic aura of Unicy, picking up Urist and heading inside.

Seeing the exploration team not moving Unicy gnash her teeth. She stood up and walked towards Reaver and smacked her across the face.

“What the fuck did I tell you! Get up on the wall you fools if you don’t want to die!”

Reaver awoke from her shellshock holding her face as Unicy dragged her through the gates with the exploration team in tow. 

Once everyone was past the gate Unicy yelled at the top of the wall, “Tomo! Cover the gate with the stone wheel!”

She then turned towards the camp, “Everyone at your positions. Construction team to the pulleys and ready your spears. Uria, be ready to light the shallow trench. Magic users along the walls and be ready to cast large scale magic at a moments notice. Those that run out of magic head towards the statue and regain your mana. Move! Move! Move!”

Following Unicy’s orders, everyone got into gear except Uria whose eyes were covered by her scarlet hair. She walked straight up to the exploration team with each step leaving a flaming footprint.

“Why… Why did Urist end up like that… Depending on your answer…” Lifting her head, flames began to gather along her eyes that held untold anger. She didn't understand why she held such anger for someone she hadn’t even known for long. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a familiar voice tickled her ear, Kill them, they deserve it. Leaving our precious one all alone. Wouldn’t he be proud of us avenging him? Come on you know you want to. Do it like before; rip out their eyes for not seeing, cut off their fingers for not feeling, and rip out their hearts like they ripped out ours. Kill them you know you want to. Just kill. KILL THEM ALL!

Gathering origin flames in her hands Uria kept walking towards the exploration team.

Seeing how weird Uria was acting Unicy put up her guard and moved between Uria and the group.

“Uria what are you doing. Stand down, they did nothing wrong they were following orders.”

Tilting her head Uria stopped, “Are you going to get in my way of vengeance? Like how they did before? Why is everyone always standing up for evil? He’s always trying to do his best but people like you always take advantage of him.”

Flaming tears streaked down Uria’s face as she dug her nails into her hands until blood began to drip.

Uria’s voice became cold and her expression hollow, “Get out of my way before I burn you to ash. I’ll give you until the count of three.” 

“Uria we don’t have time for this, the rat’s are coming to assault us. Do you want all of us to die!? I need to take command!”

“Then go. All I care about is getting my vengeance. One.”

Pulling out her bow and arrow Unicy notched out an arrow and pointed it at Uria, “I’m telling you to stop this madness. Boss wouldn’t want you to do this, put away your flames and get into position.”

“So? Urist is too kind to punish these maggots. We should trim the useless. Now get out of my way or die. Two.”

“Uria do not force my hand. This is your last chance to stop acting stupid.”

“Ha… Haha… HAHAHAHA!”, Uria swung her head towards the sky and laughed as if thinking Unicy had said something stupid.

And just as abruptly she stopped and stared Unicy straight in the eyes, “Stupid? No. I am completely sane. You’re the one stopping me for no reason. So poking your nose where it doesn’t belong, go act out your part as a good little girl and let your big sister do what she wants because I’m sick of your shit. Three.”

Uria took a step forward causing the sweating Unicy to move back a step, “Stop this is madness Uria. Don’t make me shoot you, this is your last warning.”

Uria did not reply as she kept her cold stare, walking one step at a time.

A shout came from the wall at this time, “Captain, the rats are coming out of the treeline! What do we do?!”

“Captain?”

“Captain, what are you doing? Give us your orders!”

Shouts kept pouring down, but Uria kept moving without care as killing intent danced in her eyes.

Hands trembling Unicy yelled, “This is your last warning! Stop or I will shoot!”

As she raised her hand flames began to gather around her arm. Coldly she muttered, “Di-.”

“Uria, stop!”

A man's hoarse voice rang out making Uria’s arm falter. Turning her head, Uria saw Urist gasping for breath, leaning on Uroa for support.

“Unicy... Go command the defense... I’ll handle this…”

“But what abou-”

“Go!”

Unicy only hesitated for a moment before making her way up the stairs to the top of the wall.

This left the exploration team in an awkward position as Uria and Urist started a staring contest.

“Why did you stop me?”

“You would... Have regretted it… Leave them alone... Uria I ordered them to fall back while I held back the rats’ advance. Go get ready to light the oil… We’ll talk later.”

Extinguishing her flames Uria turned away from the exploration team and Urist. She walked away and headed to her designated position. 

“Fine, we will talk about this later. Go rest before I beat you up, dummy.” 

“Yeah… I plan… To do just that…”

Part 5 - Battle

 

Climbing the wall, Unicy took command of the battlefield and saw the impending rat swarm approaching. Taking a glance to the left and right of her she saw fear lingering in the eyes of her soldiers.

Grabbing her long spear made out of bamboo she took her position along the wall and yelled, “They shall not enter our home, men prepare yourselves to stab the vermin to death. Wheel workers on my command get ready to spin as if your life depended on it. Corpse pushers and impalers listen to your wheel workers instructions. We will hold the wall!”

“HOLD THE WALL!” All the dwarfs yelled in unison.

“SCREE!”

The rats screamed back under the command of the rat king who ordered them to charge into the trench. Listening to their leaders commands rats threw themselves into the sharp sticks impaling themselves.

Although the trench was deep, large, and filled with countless wooden spears the rats were ruthless. The rat king was not deterred, he screeched sending an order to his lower brethren. Following their death order, hundreds and hundreds of rats impaled themselves along the spikes to make a bloody bridge of corpses. 

Unicy chuckled and turn to the water mages Qrtia and Rytar, “Wash them into the nearby spears! Make them pay more blood to get to the walls.”

“Right away commander! Apprentice aid me!”

“Yes!”

““<<=Large Waterball=>>””

A large water ball appeared behind the rats, it’s approximate diameter reaching eight meters. Seeing the large ball of water appear out of thin air the rat king hurried an order for his warriors to retreat. Only it was too late.

““FALL!””

The water mage duo shouted in unison sending their hands downwards causing the ball of water to descend at an accelerated rate. Unable to dodge, the rats were pushed into the trench where the wooden spears awaited.

Some of the rats tried to hold onto the bridge and saved themselves. The others weren’t lucky enough being impaled like those before them. 

Watching on, the water mages duo held each other up weakly with their pounding headaches. They had put all of their mana and were currently feeling the after-effects of using such a large scale spell.

Unicy dismissed them and allowed them to rest. They had taken out a hundred or so rats which was pretty good. She had wanted to use the other mages to cripple more of rat forces but changed her mind when talking to Urist and Blood mage Vlad. They agreed to not show all their cards to the rat king for fear of him coming up with a counter.

Once the spell was over, it was time to get to stabbing and smashing.

“Wheel workers begin to spin! Men prepare to start stabbing on my command.”

Grunts from below, the pulleys began to spin to life pulling on the ropes causing the maces to spin with deadly force. When the maces were spinning at their peak the first rats started to cross the bridge. Those that attempted to climb the wall had their skulls and bodies crushed into a paste which caused the rat king great fury.

He screeched once again and ordered his minions to rush towards one part of the wall and use their bodies to stop the pulley. After a few of the quarter rats and one-half rat sacrificed themselves they managed to stop it. 

The rat king ordered his brethren to climb to take the wall and begin killing the dwarfs. Those that climbed were met with spears from the sides of the wall and from the top. 

And then an order came from the wheel worker who had his pulley stopped, “Push them into hell!”

“TO HELL!” Two dwarfs who had the strength skill replied before pushing with all their might on their pusher. A pusher was about a foot tall and three feet wide that ran underneath the mace pulley which had a three-inch clearance. 

With such strength it was child's play for the dwarfs to push the small hill of corpses away, sending them flying into other rats that were still alive into their impending doom.

A shout came from above, “Clear to spin!”

With the spears pulled away, the wheel worker got to spinning his pulley bringing it back up wing speed. Furious the rat king sent his rats two more times in hopes to find some weakness to the wall’s defenses. He found himself repelled each time, forcing him to call for a retreat to save his army before it fell too low. Along with the call, the rats were told to bring whatever dead they could carry so they could be used for food.

Unicy did not open the gates and chase after the rats under Urist prearranged orders to not actively hunt the rat king unless they had a clear target. He didn’t want to easily give away information that they knew there was a rat king, hoping they could use that to their advantage.

Until then, the mission was to hold the wall and watch in hopes of spotting the bastard in control. With the enemy now on the retreat she took a breath of relief before raising her hand in the sky.

“The battle is won, everyone stand down! Good job men!”

Those along and behind the walls shouted full of happiness of beating back the wave.

“Alright everyone back to work! We need a team to clear out the trench and bring back the bodies before they rot. Open the doorway, but save mana in case we need to close it again. Make sure the rats are dead when you pick them up they might be playing dead so be careful. 

The rest of you get ready to dissect the haul. Unicy I want you to keep a team on the wall as observers in case our rat friend decides to stop by.”

Everyone stared at who was talking to see Uria standing there relaxed. They weren't sure what to do since they all saw how she acted against the exploration team. 

Uria looked at everyone with confusion, “What are you guys doing? We can’t waste any time in getting the defenses back up to speed. Come on let’s get mov--”

Jumping down from the wall Unicy looked at Uria with disgust, “The problem is with you. Don’t you remember what you tried to do with the exploration team? What gives you any right to lead!”

Uria confusion built up not understanding what Unicy was saying.

“What did I do with the exploration team? I followed your orders and readied myself to light the oil. Right, what did happen to the exploration team? Did they make it inside? Where is Urist? Is he alright?!”

Thrown for a loop Unicy couldn’t make sense of why Uria acted like she didn’t know anything. Her expression seemed genuine that it made her question her memories. She shook such thoughts away immediately. She wasn’t going mad, she knew what she saw so why was Uria acting like it didn’t happen? 

Just as she was about to try and figure things out a voice rang from the cave.

“Uria, Unicy, and Vlad! The boss wants to see you!”

 

Part 6 - I came Back Alive

 

Giving Uria the stink eye, Unicy snorted coldly before entering the cave.

“Everyone follow what Uria just said. Elrish I’ll leave you in charge over the defenses until I come back. Don’t listen to any more of her commands until the boss deals with her.”

Taking the honor of temporary command Elrish hit his chest. “Understood general, let’s get to work.”

Relieved of command the confused Uria, angry Unicy, and bewildered Vlad they entered the cave together. They walked into the male dormitory to see the medical maker Briana and light mage Adster cleaning, stitching and healing various wounds on Urist.

Adster gave a charming smile, “Come on, give me a scream. I really wanna know what you sound like, boss.”

Pale like a sheet of white paper Urist used whatever strength he had left to grit his teeth as the two dwarfs worked on him.  

Vlad gave out a chuckle, “You look like shit boss. Even Adster is making fun of you.”

Uria tried to rush over to Urist’s side but was stopped by the tailor Xasta, “You can’t touch him, those two are doing all they can to get him stitched up.”

“I need to go to him.”

“Don’t worry Uria I’m fine. I trust these two skills to treat me. But I didn’t call you guys for no reason, I have information on the rat king.” Laying on a bloody leaf Urist replied sounding very weak.

Vlad's eyes brightened when Urist said he had information. “Oh? What have you found out near the jaws of death?”

Urist took a breath before replying, “I’ve found out that, that bastard has an ability to invade a person's mind. When inside he digs for deepest regrets and tries to amplify them to cause you to lose yourself. 

“It almost got me killed when I made a foolish mistake of drinking the untested berserker potion. To combat the side-effects, I looked through the shop for a magic item to resist mind invasion and found a ring recipe. Xasta, would you be so kind as to get the items I bought from the crystal room right now?”

“OK boss I’ll go and get them just don’t move from that spot understood?” 

Seeing Xasta’s stern expression Urist could only helplessly nod. “Yes, I won’t move anymore.”

He then turned back to three awaiting him, “Vlad since your team finished making weapons for the wall. I want you to focus on making a few extras and mainly these rings. Unicy, for you I want to heighten guard duty at night in case the rats decide to attack I wanna be ready. 

Other than that we will have no more explorations so use them as you see fit for guarding. One last reminder I want you to try to keep our cards hidden for as long as possible and only use one when needed. For Uria I want you to keep command in my steed over everyone’s well being until I am able is that o--”

“I reject Uria’s ability to lead!”

Just as Urist was about to finish talking Uincy interjected his decision.

Urist wasn’t surprised at Unicy’s response to not allow Uria to lead after her attempt to kill the exploration team. His only surprise was that Unicy still rejected Uria after he had just told them of the rat king’s abilities to invade people's minds and pull on their regret. Although he could say it he decided to see what Unicy had on her mind.

“Uria might have been under the control of her regrets, but she lied to us saying she couldn’t remember threatening the lives of the expedition. I also believe her to be too unstable to reliably lead because of such a weakness which is you, boss. If you were too unfortunately di--”

“Do you want him dead? I won’t allow it and I can’t really remember what happened.” Uria interrupted. 

“Uria. Let Unicy continue.”

“Ugh.”

“As I was saying, although I do not wish for you to die, boss, if you did and Uria led us, I believe all of us would be heading into ruin. I ask you to find someone else to lead in your stead.”

Vlad smirked, “Heh. Our master of war is planning on offering you to be boss after you get your ass kicked by some rats. Boy, how I don’t envy your position, I’d love to stick around but I see Xasta got the materials we’ll be needing. Hey, Xasta follow me with those items.”

With those words, Vlad left the flabbergasted group of dwarfs and headed back to his makeshift workshop.

Urist coughed to break the awkwardness Vlad left in his wake. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon. Though with that being said, what you say Unicy is correct. Uria as you are now I can’t trust you to carry on if I die. So until I’ve decided who will be my successor, Uria will lead temporarily under the aid of Qrtia. I assume that would be fine for now Unicy?”

“Although it isn’t perfect, I understand your decision boss. I shall bid you farewell and take control of the wall. May you make a speedy recovery boss.”

With Unicy gone all who were left in the cave were the healers, Urist and Uria who stared at each other.

Sighing Urist eyes felt heavy, he just wanted to go to sleep and let his aching body rest. But there was just one thing he had to do before then.

“Uria I’ve come back home alive.”

The currently mopping Uria eyes twitched up to see Urist foolishly smiling from ear to ear. She didn’t really care about leading the dwarfs to greatness or their lives for that matter. She didn’t care what people thought about her. For reasons, she couldn’t understand well enough. The only thing she feared was Urist hating her.

But hearing those words and that foolish smile made her almost tear up. Almost. Instead, she walked up to Urist who had been mostly patched up by now and smacked him across the face.

“You’re an idiot!”