Part 1 - In the Cover of Night

 

Sitting around in a circle the dwarfs were digging into a pile of rat corpses. Picking out the ones that were salvageable and throwing away the ones not worth keeping. Those not kept were fed to Reaver’s animals to increase their growth and given to the chickens as feed.

Simply speaking they just had too many rats to get through to skin them all. They worked on the bigger rats first and decided to cook them in the pit fire. There were dozens of them causing each dwarf to work on one alone. They finished cleaning and beheading the rats so that the water mages could dry them out. The dwarfs would have felt good if there wasn’t a mountain of bodies still waiting for them to skin and harvest. 

Uria looked around to see how stressed the dwarfs looked and decided on an order. “Except for enough rats for dinner, carry all the good bodies to the crystal for storage. We can skin the rest to eat later.”

“O-ok.”

“If you think so…”

Hearing it was Uria’s suggestion the dwarfs were not in the mood to sound excited after her sudden shift in tone leading to half-hearted responses. They kept one-fourth of the pile left behind and the dwarfs used buckets to carry the corpses into the area of the crystal. Urist was notified beforehand and mentally sent the bodies inside to be preserved. 

With much less work to do, the dwarfs made quick work of the meat and started to prepare dinner. With so much meat, Urist bought 9 large bags of potatoes to go along with the stew that they were making. He did the math and figured a bag of potatoes could feed ten dwarfs averagely unless people invoked skills they needed double the food usually. He spent only 90 points to buy them all so for today they had saved money on food.

He felt good about saving points and even better when he noticed the usual point gained had doubled for reasons he wasn’t sure of.

‘Is this a bonus for killing all those rats?’ He thought offhandedly as he searched the marketplace while reading the chat to see how the rest of the world was faring. As he was exchanging information with another civilization leader Uroa walked into his room with a bowl of hot soup.

“Here is your soup boss. Umm, what happened to your cheek?”

“Ah thank you very much Uora and don’t worry about it, it’s something I deserved.” As he tried to reach out to grab the soup he noticed how slow and sluggish his movements were. He could feel the weakness in his bones as he tried to reach for the bowl only to feel light-headed and dropped his hands to the ground.

Helplessly, he looked up at the confused Uroa. ‘This is a little embarrassing, but can you feed me the soup? I can’t hold my hands up.”

Seeing the helplessness in her boss expression made her smile. Sitting down next him Uroa took a spoonful of soup and held it in front of him. Not embarrassed in the least Urist opened his mouth around the spoon and a sudden feeling welled up within him.

In a haze, he didn’t even chew and instead directly swallowed the spoonful of stew whole. That one bite had triggered the hunger he didn’t know he had suppressed mentally. Every fiber of his body suddenly screamed for more food to which he replied with a growl, “More food.” 

Thrown off by her bosses sudden change Uroa didn’t stop shoveling food into his mouth until it was empty.

To which Urist roared, “More food!”

This led to Uroa running back and forth to feed Urist until he finished ten bowls of soup. After the tenth bowl, he was finally full and stopped Uroa from going to get another bowl. As he was about to say thank you, a wave of tiredness hit forcing him to close his eyes. Within seconds he was out cold, much to the surprise Uroa who decided to not wake him up.

...

And so time passed, the rock holdings were completed, two hundred bombs were made, everyone fed and the chores are done for the day the dwarfs turned in for the night. On guard duty stood three dwarfs instead of the usual two, to patrol the walls which were lit up by oxygen light crystals. 

Together with the torches the guards could easily see in the night and would be ready to sound the horn in case the rats charged them. The night was eerily quiet like the morning before it, the sounds of birds and bugs are still gone from nature.

Fortunately, the three had grown used to the silence thanks to the three of them being on duty together. Unfortunately, these three and everyone else currently sleeping had no idea what the rats were truly capable in the night. 

Just out of the light and earshot of the guardsmen, the rats were currently digging into the side of the mountain. Under the orders of the king, they made the tunnel efficiently to fit regular rats inside. 

A few reasons why the rat king didn’t order for it to be bigger was because he wanted to use the rats stealthily to kill all the dwarfs before they awoke. Second, they were on limited time and couldn’t make the holes big enough for quarter rats to enter. And third, something was tugging on its mind to steal something inside the hated two-leggers possessed.

The Rat King didn’t know exactly what the item in question was, but something inside him pushed him. That if he acquired it, he would become the true king of this world given enough time. 

With such forces compelling him and the thought of sweet vengeance, the Rat King rubbed his paws together. The thoughts had given him the best plan to kill two problems with one stone. Not only that, with each passing hour foreign knowledge entered his mind as it grew in size. Even as he oversaw the construction of the holes it didn’t stop him from eating his brethren’s brains and guts to grow even stronger.

It had to end it with him feasting on the brains of who had wounded him. Just the thought of revenge caused the King to drool causing it to once again dig into the pile of flesh.

 

Part 2 - Night Raid

 

Digging bit by bit, the rats moved like a well-oiled machine. One tunnel became two tunnels, two become four and four become eight. The rats were worked to death until they couldn’t dig any longer, those that died were dragged out and given to the rat king to feast.

Using this method, hundreds of tunnels had been created before the first rat broke into the female dwarf bedrooms. But they didn’t attack right away and instead began to connect all the holes into the dwarven base. Another hour passed before the rats also broke through the males' dormitories.

In position, the Rats moved under the Rat kings commands and broke into teams. Team one job was to get ready to rip out the dwarfs' throats. Team two would spread around the room and target the sleeping dwarfs' necks to kill them. Team three would enter deeper into the base and search for the thing tugging at its mind. While the rest of the army would wait outside and wait for his signal before sieging the base.

If everything went to plan, the rats would be able to overrun the dwarfs before they knew what hit them. The rats silently climbed down the wall without waking a single dwarf up. With their night vision, they were able to see all the dwarfs soundly sleeping.

Taking a few whiffs the rats moved towards their targets. The main one is to locate the Urist and the secondaries being the mages. It didn’t take them long to find them and get into position. The one who found Urist connected his mind to the Rat King and allowed him to borrow his body. The rat king did a quick look to see that the rival had a leaf covering most of his body, especially around the neck area. The Rat King retreated his mind and began sending mental commands to his rat assassins. The team scurried around finding their targets and waiting for the order to attack.

Before giving the order the Rat king moved his mind over to a member of team three. After all, it pretty much had the dwarfs lives in his hands. What did it need to fear? It had to see what was calling to him.

Heading out into the hallway the rats delved deeper down the path towards where the civilization stone was held. It didn’t take long for them to enter the room and gaze at the blood-red shard and a glowing blue orb made out of stone. 

When the rat king laid eyes on these two items it knew instinctively that these were the items that called to his mind. 

With these, it would become a true king and not one in name. 

With these, it would enter the world of rulers.

With these, the rat kingdom would rise as it’s founder.

Licking his lips the Rat King had almost forgotten about its arch-nemesis. Almost. Taking control of the rat hanging over Urist, the Rat King order team three to steal the stones before it and it’s assassins went in for the kill.

Listening to their leader’s orders the two dozen rats climbed the pedestal and had decided that the two of the biggest rats would carry it on their backs and had a smaller one rat hold it in place. 

Everything was going according to the Rat kings plan until the Rats touched the crystal. Urist eyes suddenly shot open startling the Rat King he didn’t get to stare long before Urist erupted into a blazing screaming inferno.

“YOU RAT VERMIN! DIE!”

Urist yell awoke the soundly sleeping dwarfs up to see hundreds of regular-sized rats surrounding them. In the confusion, the Rat King order for the rats to attack the dwarfs who were arming themselves with their clubs. He also messaged for the rat army waiting outside the wall to attack now and swarm.

Some of the dwarfs were slow on their feet and watched as rats ruthlessly bit into their necks repeatedly with their long teeth. Those more resolute pulled the rats off their necks causing a chuck of their flesh to go with them.

Grabbing the Rat in front of him, Urist burned the Rat King’s puppet to ash causing the Rat King to experience horrifying pain before disconnecting. Bleeding from his remaining eye, the Rat King entered a hateful rage sending a command for his kin to attack in a frenzy.

Cutting the flames off of one of his hands, Urist dug into the ground and pulled out the oxygen light crystal and began to blow as hard as he could. Within moments the room and the girl’s rooms lit up with clear light allowing the dwarfs to see.

They were shocked to see holes in the walls with rats coming out of them. Then just as soon as they could see, the guardsman outside blew the horn causing more shock to the dwarfs. 

Gathering all this information Urist gave a sudden command, “Rats are trying to steal our civilization stone! Fatty, I need you to carry me and a few people to stop them! The rest of you split up into two teams, one to protect the wounded and mages as they plug up the holes and heal. Second team reinforces the wall! Go! Go! Go!”

Like Urist, Unicy had made the same commands except the civilization stone team. Although bleeding, confused, and scared the dwarfs listened to their leaders and moved out with their weapons.

Five dwarfs, together with Urist and Fatty entered the hallway to see the rats just about pass them. Urist scorned the rats, sending a massive fireball into the group of fleeing rats burning them to ash.

“You five carry these back and protect the other crystal. No matter what you hear do not leave these unguarded until you are relieved of duty. Understood?”

“We will carry out your orders boss!”

Sucking the flames back into his body, Urist gave a Fatty a slap on the back. “Good. Fatty let’s go to the wall and give them hell.”

 

Part 3 - Casualties of War

 

As the five protected the civilization stones the others were moving out. The healers and medics under Adster’s leadership worked on healing the injured. They were currently in the bedrooms closest to the hallway which didn’t have holes. 

The defenders had made it a clear zone of rats, allowing the healers to treat the most injured dwarfs that had their throats ripped up. Adster was sweating heavily trying to heal the damage as the two medical dwarfs tried to keep the injured dwarfs from choking on their own blood. 

As they worked to save lives, the defender dwarfs split up protection for the mages, now protecting the earth mages to seal off the holes. The other half headed to the wall to repel the army of rats. 

Unicy rushed forth with a club in hand and defenders following behind her. They were unfortunately too late to stop the rats from climbing up on the wall. But the three guardsmen were back to back smashing their clubs and feet on the invading rats.

Walking and smashing rats along the way Unicy let out a battle cry as she reached the top, “KILL!”

The guardsman infected by her vigor joined her roar slaughtering their way towards the tired guards. While they worked to take back the wall, Uria led a team of dwarfs to a few barrels containing oil and told them to pour them into the holes.

The two girls had talked before and agreed on a plan to set the shallow trench aflame. With the flames, they would be able to stop the rats from coming allowing them the breathing room to clear the wall. 

Working fast, Uria got the three barrels dumping into holes and that led to the smaller trench. The smell of oil and blood filled the air as she gathered a ball of flame within her hand.

“Damn vermin, burn in hell.”

Unleashing her fireball into the oil she willed her flames to speed across the oil. In a flash, the rats that were trying to come in were baked in flame screeching full of pain running in all directions spreading the flames to other rats. 

The Rat King quickly noticed this and gashed its teeth at the sight. Seeing its plans go up in smoke it quickly recalled the remaining forces to retreat. Those left on the wall fought tooth and nail to injure the dwarfs the best they could.

By then Urist and Fatty showed up to see the lit flames and the dwarfs slaughtering atop the walls. Punching and kicking and smashing the dwarfs fought against the dwindling tides of rats who scratched and bit into the dwarfs. Urist had helped out in the battle by covering a large length of the wall on fire. He was glad that he could control what fire the could and couldn’t burn.

Twenty minutes passed before the last rat was crushed in Unicy’s food. The guards were covered in blood and rat guts, with two dwarfs heavily injured from the fighting. Unicy moved fast and told the less injured to help the wounded back inside. Ten who were uninjured were told to stand guard in case of another wave while the rest went inside.

Unicy, Uria, Vlad, and Urist carried by Fatty walked together and talked.

Unicy gashed her teeth, “What cunning adversaries to attack use in our beds. We were too careless.”

Vlad scratched his chin and responded, “I told you didn't I? Kings are not to be looked down upon. We were lucky to escape with only that much damage. And it’s all thanks to their leader becoming a human torch and screaming his head off. Haha!”

Although Vlad tried to lighten the mood Urist and the rest weren't feeling it.

In a grave tone, Urist commanded, “Fatty take me to see the wounded. Let's hope no one perished over my mistake.”

Fatty said nothing and carried Urist forth into the cave. Uria watched on to see how small Urist’s back had gotten. She wanted to say something but didn't know what. So she stood there reaching out with her hands as he disappeared inside.

As per instructions Fatty walked towards the sound of dwarfs gagging on blood and wishing for the pain to go away. Within the heartbreaking sounds, four dwarfs were issuing commands to each other.

“Clean the fucking neck wound. The man is about to choke to death. I can't close the wound like this with the little magic I have left!”

“Don't you think I know this? If we don't save him he'll be the third one to die! Water mage I need more water here.”

“Stop Fatty don't go in.”

“Boss?”

“Take me to the crystal room and set me down. I need to think.”

Noticing Fatty leaving with Urist, Vlad was just about to call them when Unicy grabbed his hand. Looking back Vlad saw her shake her head and understood. He could take a hint. Sometimes a person needed to be alone.

Entering the room Urist relieved the dwarfs of guarding and told Fatty to set him down near the pillar and leave him. 

“I just need some time. Come back in an hour.”

Giving a nod Fatty left Urist all alone to sit in silence.

People finally died under my command. After I tried so hard to keep everyone alive I made a mistake like I always do.

Tears began to flow silently down his cheeks as the nature he locked away deep inside himself came out bit by bit. The failure of whom he once was had finally reared its ugly head at him whispering all his faults and shortcomings.

Their deaths are on my hands. I should’ve been smarter, I could’ve asked more questions, If I knew more I would’ve been able to save them.

His mind talked back at him in a sarcastic voice, Heh, you? The useless one who couldn’t save anyone thought he could do it this time around? Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve in the end they’re dead and you killed them.

Urist kept berating himself over the deaths well into the hour. Falling deeper and deeper into a depression he almost didn’t catch the flash of light that entered his vision. Shielding his eyes, the light only lasted for an instant. After his eyes adjusted from being blinded he saw four dwarfs stand before him with their backs towards him.

Three of the dwarfs as acted dazed, but the fourth started looking around the room with great curiosity. 

Making an offhand comment as he pushed up his glasses, “So this is hell. I thought it would have more fire.”

Rat Tide timer activated 3 Days 8 Hours 21 Mins

Beast Swarm timer activated 11 Days 8 Hours 21 Mins

Point Amount:  7221