Dorian had gotten in the farm house, but only just. Now, he and Morris were piling furniture before the door as the rats were smashing themselves against it.

They heard a window crack and saw that a rat had thrown itself against it.

"We can't defend every entrance," Leander said tiredly. He hurt all over, and it was only his adrenaline that had stopped his whimpering.

"We are not becoming rat food," Morris went and pulled the blinds on the window, Dorian mirroring him for the other window.

"We have to set this place on fire," Leander said with a sigh. The garden and the barn had to go. Maybe even the house.

"We will be sued for property damage," Morris shot down the idea. Besides, this place was surrounded by easily lit fields and the forest. The fire might even reach Huergaz.

"Can't you try to freeze them in place?" Dorian suggested. Leander considered it. He had no slots left, but he could down a couple of potions.

Leander rummaged into his bottomless bag and pulled out the protective case in which three blue potions lay.

"Here goes nothing," he drank two of them and placed the case back into his back. Then, he poured his mana into the freezing spell and focused it on the rats outside.

He heard yelps and squeaks and even rats trying to break free, but he could also hear the cracking of the ice.

"An archer would have been dead useful right now," murmured Dorian as he and Morris exited the house. "How long do we have?"

Leander looked at the shimmering soul shard that was growing dimmer with each second.

"I think five minutes," Morris grinned, sprinted a couple of steps, jumped off the porch, and slammed his axe in the ground between a couple of rats. Then, he began chopping heads off.

"Can't leave it all up to him," Dorian charged too. Leaving his shield behind to be faster with the saber. Leander watched them do the bloody work with a bowed head. He felt useless.

He had just stood there for most of the giant rat's fight, and was barely contributing now. What was worse, he seemed to be the most banged up among them. The healer needing a healing was a mark for a bad adventurer.

He shook his head and poured more mana into the soul shard. He will improve. Learn how to perfect the trick with the levitation spell so that he wouldn't end up wounded, and he would be of more help.

Morris was in his element. He spun around, his axe going down faster than an eye could follow. He grinned when he split two closely standing rats at the same time.

It was dead useful having a healer who could do more than healing. He needed to do something to let Leander know he was appreciated. Because, knowing the blonde, he was probably beating himself up right now.

Which was unfair, Morris thought. Healers were supposed to act after the fight was done, not during it. But Leander didn't have the luxury of being in a full party. It was just the three of them, and each had to pull the weight of the missing members.

Morris decided that they needed two new members. A rogue because missing out on treasure chests was a shame. But, they needed one more berserker, or an archer.

Dorian was a great tank, but Morris just wasn't enough to take out a boss mob in a single swing. He had heard stories about famous berserkers that would leap and behead a dragon like it was nothing. But he wasn't there yet.

Dorian stabbed a rat through the eye and moved onto the next one, knowing full well that the blade had sliced through the brain. He had always imagined that his first real fight would be against something more... sophisticated. Like wolves or goblins or even trolls.

But, this was proving to be a challenge already, and he was glad that he was in the party he was in. Then, just as he thought that, one rat broke off the ice on its feet and charged at him.

His first thought was to rise his shield, but he found that it was gone. Then, he remembered that he had left it behind and watched as the rat sailed to his throat.

Only to be hit with a spike of ice that lodged into its stomach. The rat fell and soon stopped twitching. Dorian looked at the open door of the farm house, where Leander was leaning heavily on his staff. Upright somehow and looking determined.

"Get down," Dorian heard Leander yell, and he ducked. Just in time for a rat to harmlessly sail over his head. Dorian stabbed it with his saber just as it was getting up, and he looked around himself.

The ice was gone, and the rats were crowding around him and Morris. Lunging at their heads and jumping up with far more dexterity than a rat should possess.

Dorian hacked and slashed as much as he could, but one rat latched itself on his arm and he felt its teeth sink inside his flesh. Then, another rat latched onto his leg. And then another.

"Wow, rats? Hit them, Greg," came a voice from somewhere.

"Arrow barrage!" Someone screamed in a booming voice, and arrows of light pierced all the rats. They fell, and Dorian shook them from himself.

"Did you newbies take down the boss mob?" Came the chipper voice of an elf woman, who had two daggers strapped to her hip. "We came all the way for nothing."

"Thank you, Miss..." Morris spoke weakly, and Dorian turned to look at him. His throat was bleeding. It had scratch marks on it.

"Friona, nice to meet you all. My, if we hadn't come when we did, the rats would have eaten you alive," Friona looked at the sorry state the three were in.

"Thank you. We will make sure to split the reward with you," Morris managed to croak, and then he went to Leander, who was looking at his throat with wide eyes. 

"Please tell me you haven't downed the last mana potion," Morris said, and a bit of blood dripped down his throat. Leander took the last bottle out and drank it in one go. His hands glowed a soft yellow, and he got up on shaky legs to reach Morris's throat.