Chapter 13: 12: The Rat Sovran

"Huh?!" Lindley nearly lost his senses. His opened mouth wider than the abyssal gates. Right before his own eyes was a giant rat, as big as a dragon.

Since it was not a sentient beast, he could see the level of the rat by uttering the generally known "reveal" word.

A level 35 rat sovran.

"Living gods" Lindley muttered under his breath. He had heard legendary tales of gigantic rats from his parents.

Rats so big that they bore the title of Rat Sovrans. Although they had no awareness like the mythical Rat Kings, they were extremely dangerous.

They were archaic predators.

Lindley realized that he was now facing one of these deadly beasts. Gathering his thoughts, he remembered the chamber on the opposite side of the deep pit. The room containing the enormous heap of straws that saved his life from the fall.

The nest must have belonged to this giant rodent before the stone bridge collapsed, cutting it off to this side of the chasm. He had thought he was running away from whatever was on that side. Not knowing he was running towards it.

Seeing the head of the giant rat, he imagined the pungent breath of the creature on his face as it cruhed his head with a single bite. In fact, there was no need for it to use its razor-sharp teeth on him, it could simply swallow him whole.

This seemed to suck Lindley's very spirit away from him. For a second, Lindley felt his knees grow weak and he began to slide towards the ground. But as quickly as it began, the impulse passed and he held firmly to the statue again.

No, he didn't want to die. He still had a lot to do.

Already locked on to Lindley with its two large red eyes, the giant rat inched ever closer. When the rat saw him climbing frantically, trying to escape, it went on the attack.

The rat hadn't gone more than few feet when it stepped on one of the hidden traps, triggering deadly lightning bolts. This shocked Lindley. He had just walked past the traps without him knowing better. He could have been killed, no, incinerated by red lightning. Nothing would have stopped him from becoming ashes.

Yet he had managed to avoid the traps. Probably, because he wasn't heavy enough to trigger the trap, or it just wasn't his day to die. The gods must be watching over him.

That gave him some confidence as he watched the lightning came to life.

Two massive red bolts of brilliant energy rent the darkness asunder. Each sizzled hotly as it struck the rat by the side of the neck.

Red bolts of lightning began raining down on the spot where the trap was triggered, cutting off the rat's escape. The rat squealed louder as its body began to give off a red glow, realizing it had entered a deadly trap.

In a matter of seconds, hundreds of smaller rats had entered the massive passage from all sides, rushing towards the giant rat. But as soon as they entered the trap range, they were incinerated by deadly bolts of red lightning. Before long, countless charred bodies of rats littered the passage-like hall.

Seeing its minions dead or dying, and finding no way out, the rat threw caution to the wind and went for Lindley who was trying to bring out his stainless longsword.

When the rat was about to reach him, another two searing red bolts of lightning hit the rat again on the neck and head, piercing it through. The momentum of the rat carried it into the giant statue, knocking off Lindley who had been clinging to the ridge of the statue's shoulder blade with one hand.

With his right hand holding the long sword, Lindley landed on the head of the rat which was still struggling with traces of life. Fortunately, the gravity of his fall and his own weight, drove the blade into the rat's head. As the giant rat trashed around, Lindley hung on to its head for his dear life.

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Slowly, the rat bled to death and stopped moving, falling on its side.

With great caution, Lindley tried to remove his sword that was partially inserted into the head of the rat. He was doing this when he noticed a radiant yellow crystal inside the charred hole created by the lightning bolts. They only missed the crystal by a few inches.

"Beast stone." Lindley uttered slowly in shock. He cautiously held, looking at its sparkling light.

He remembered overhearing the discussion of two hunters about the huge prices of these sparkling crystals of sovran beasts. Since the crystal came from inside the rat's head, that meant the crystal was a precious treasure. Even if it wasn't a magical one.

As far as he was concerned, precious beast stones meant gold coins for his survival.

A set of lightning bolts crackled around the chamber, ricocheting wildly off the stone walls. Another hot bolt passed inches away from Lindley's face, making him recoil, before hitting the carcass of the dead rat. After a few terrifying seconds, the lightning bolts burned themselves out.

Lindley blinked, but all he could see were red afterimages. The lightning had temporarily distorted his vision.

After closing his eyes for some minutes, the shapes of the area and the massive doors came back into focus. He was so close to the doors. He could make it. With renewed determination, he started climbing the statue once more.

Clinging to the statue's back, Lindley narrowly ducked one of the jagged arcs of energy as it crackled past his head.

A minute later, two red bolts struck close to him again. Lindley swallowed hard and grimaced. If it wasn't for the forsaken rat, he could have made it to the other side of the doors.

And now, things did not look good with the lightning bolts. If one hit him, he would be dead, instantly.

As he climbed closer to the edge of the statue, he began to see a problem with the latch of the door. They were bigger than he would be able to turn. Assuming he could make it to the door without being struck by the magical lightning, he would be stuck at the door when he would only have seconds to leave the area.

However, if he could not open the latch in time, he would be standing directly in the path of the deadly lightning bolts from the other side.

As if confirming his fears, once more, searing bolts of magic bounced around the chamber, hitting the doors before vanishing.

Deep in thoughts, Lindley's hand hit something on the neck of the statue which made him winced in pain. Still nursing the pain, he was nearly thrown off the statue as it moved.

"Arghh!" Lindley exclaimed in panic, clinging tighter to the statue.

The statue extended its hand and pulled the latch of the door before twisting it to the left. With a loud creak, the doors began to open outwards.

Lindley stared at the opening doors in surprise and shouted in joy. "Yes!"

He scrambled down the statue in a frenzy. As soon as he made it down, the doors began to close. Without wasting time thinking about the deadly lightning bolts, he made a run for the closing doors.

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