Chapter 82: Chapter Eighty Two

We flooded the room with shadows and smoke, completely blinding the  rat king, before I took Callie's hand and led us in with seek hidden.  I'd only used two charges today so far, because Seek Hidden was already  active from finding the rat king in the first place. Triggering my  overlay added an extra level of security to the battle as we approached,  giving me the usual predictive lines and arrows.

The  higher my Perception the better things like the overlay and Seek Hidden  seemed to work, since this was the second time we'd done this, Callie  seemed to have gotten better at letting me lead in battle. As we walked I  lit up my weapons, Consecration of Flame and Touch of Tears stacking to  produce the sickening green flame. The issue was twofold, we didn't  know how effective poison would be on a giant rat, and the rat WAS  giant, which meant a slower spread and less reach on the poison when I  used it.

We  needed to slow the thing down, and luckily I had just the skill. Among  my four second tier monk skills, the second tier Earth skill was Sucking  Mud. I'd tried to use it when I first ranked up DS mastery to Beginner,  but I was completely unable to get more than wet ground. It had taken  quite a bit of stat boosting, but I was finally at the point where I  could use the skill as well as I could in game, at least in a very  limited ten by ten area.

When  she heard about it Callie seemed excited. A big opponent like that  would sink quickly and immobilizing it's legs would steal a ton of its  versatility in combat. I activated Sucking Mud as we'd discussed,  hearing the rat king roar in rage as it began to slowly sink into the  now semi liquid stone. As it sunk I grabbed Callie's hand and point her  finger in the dark dead center at the rat kings chest as we'd discussed.  Since she knew it's size and shape, once her hand was pointed at the  chest she was able to trigger a shadow tendril swarm to wrap around it's  waist and pull it down faster.

We'd  discussed her trying to immobilize it, but considering how fragile her  tendrils still were it seemed like a lost cause. We circled around the  monster, with me pointing and her reinforcing tendrils as we went, since  even with the legs immobilized it broke some of them. We could have  charged in, but Callie was a pro. She knew that when you had the enemy  pinned like this the best move was to take it slow. We had a plan here,  we just had to follow it. The more the thing thrashed the deeper in got,  but the skill on lasted about ten minutes.

What  we needed was to make sure it's legs were too deep by the time it ended  to tear loose. If we got it up to the waist it wouldn't have the  leverage to break it's legs free. Finally the skill faded away. Only at  mid thigh granted, but it was still deep enough to leave the thing  stuck, and we activated the second portion of the plan. Callie raised  her hands, pushing the smoke up, and I followed it into the air with  Cloud Stepping. She stayed on the ground, and I went up ten feet,  concealing the things head from view and leaving the rest exposed for  her.

With the  legs pinned and the head blind Callie was free to start working on  damage while I hit the thing around the head and shoulders where it  couldn't see anything. I had to recast my poison fire sadly, and I  cursed myself for wasting charges, but I'd wanted to be prepared. Once I  did I activated my last tier two monk skill. Leaf on the Wind. An air  skill that made me weightless by bolstering my body with air. It paired  perfectly with Cloud Stepping, and let me move around inside the cloud  of smoke.

Combined with the  darkness and Seek Hidden that meant I was effectively invisible to the  thing in the very cloud bank obscuring it's sight. I admit though, the  cloud seemed less viable against the rat king. Mostly the mist was doing  the work, Callie's shadows weren't the best suited for this kind of  enemy given the absurd night vision. Once I got up into the air I began  to circle around. I watched the overlay for predictions, waiting for an  opening. The rat king had good instincts and long arms, I didn't want to  get tagged on the way out, I doubted my costume could tank that much  damage, even if it would probably absorb some.

I  was guessing the rat king had insane amounts of Might too. I waited and  watched, Leaf on the Wind worked for five minutes, so I had to make  sure I kept track of the time. It was still kind of weak, and until my  Fantasy went up higher I was doing a lot of the work with me legs,  pushing myself off. Finally I saw a spot I could hit. I hurled myself  in, smashing down on a spot on the rat kings head with one of my tonfas.  The impact did much less than expected, but the poison near it's brain  seemed to enrage it.

It  began to swing wildly, but I was already on the way out. Since it was a  dumb beast it didn't change tactics or reconsider, making the overlay  much more effective. Intelligent opponents sometimes changes their  minds. Of course sometimes the enemy was just so fast that knowing  didn't matter, but this thing wasn't that quick, even with all the  Might. I spent the next five minutes (I re upped my Leaf on the Wind  about halfway through) drifting in to land hits on the rats head,  especially near the eyes, making it focus on me so Callie could work on  it's torso.

We'd  been right before. The thing was definitely resistant to poison. I was  hitting it in the head with the poisonfire and while it was super pissed  off and in pain, it wasn't even close to dead. Big opponents weren't  much fun. Callie was doing most of the heavy lifting, using huge spears  of shadow sharpened to a razors edge to hack into it as much as possible  before they broke while I distracted it, but it was so mad for the pain  in its head and face it barely even noticed.

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I  started layering in some Mercy Kill strikes when I hit. No Afterburner  yet, that one was a fight ender, and using it drained me good. But the  Mercy Kill attack was a solid addition to damage and upped the scale of  what I could do. I hadn't noticed before, but that fifty percent damage  modifier increased the spread and intensity of the poison fire too,  which helped get and keep the thing's attention in way I hadn't been  expecting. I'd never really had a chance to study the way those skills  interacted in the heat of battle before now.

The  fight wore on. Slow, steady, tiring. I kept an eye on my charges. I  couldn't use Mercy Kill all the time, since it burned a charge every  shot. I saved it for last second when I was about to land a really  brutal blow. Eyes mostly. The rat king wasn't low on Vitality either,  because its healing was intense, but most of it seemed to be trying to  combat the poison fire, leaving it more vulnerable to Callie's blows.  Touch of Tears was a great counter to regeneration, and I was glad I had  it or we wouldn't have managed this damn fight.

Callie  was getting better at dealing damage though. Figuring out what shapes  and constructs would do the most damage before breaking. Drills, edges,  hooks, barbs, she tried them all, clearly unfamiliar with this style of  combat against a larger enemy. Which made sense, despite her long years  of experience she had only recently gotten enough Might to manage this  kind of tactic against something this size. Still, she was making sure  to get it exactly right, trying everything under the sun to do enough  damage. Even with it's Vitality, blood loss was catching up, and the  thing was starting to sway.

Once  it got unsteady I settled in for the blitz. Between repeated Cloud  Stepping and Mercy Kill's I was down to almost no charges, if not for  Leaf in the Wind's absurd hang time I'd already be out. Up took serious  effort, but down was a slow process, and that gave me some options,  especially combined with being able to push off the rat king itself.  There were even a few ledges I was using to take some of the pressure  off my Cloud Stepping skill, which was how I had enough charges left for  one last assault.

I  slipped through an opening I saw on the overlay, and as I came in I let  it all out. Mercy Kill, Flurry of Blows, Afterburner, and every bit of  saved up impact from my suit, which sadly was pretty much empty aside  from the force of landing given I'd used it earlier today, but hey every  bit helped. My poison fire and the force enchantment mixed with  afterburner in a way I hadn't expected either, especially stacked with  Mercy Kill, and the poison flame consumed every spot I hit. A hail of  damage dealing blows lashed out, crashing down on it's skull with  punishing force.

Cracks  began to form, glowing green breaks in the bone and skin, and within  seconds the entire head went up in a blazing explosion of green fire. I  winced as the body toppled to the ground. I was guessing the eyes were  probably toast, which might affect the price, though hopefully not much.  We would still get the points. I let the mist fade as Callie banished  the clouds of shadows, and I drifted to the ground softly on Leaf in the  Wind, staggering as I hit the stone until Callie appeared to catch me.

The  others flooded out into the cavern, excited by the battle. Even Celine,  who was normally fairly stoic and reserved seemed energized by the  battle. Martin was the loudest. "That was amazing! I could barely see  you at all Solomon, but Nightstrike was tearing it up, and given what  happened to the head you must have been going all out. Shame about the  eyes, but it's not too bad. What about the rest of the body? Is it going  to be salvageable with all that...green fire...damage?" He seemed  unsure what to even call it, which was fair, it was an odd skill.

I  chuckled. "The actual burns aren't that extreme, except in the head  from that last blow. The rest of it works like acid, and the rat kings  Vitality was mostly countering it. I was mostly focused on the head  anyway. The rest of it should be fine, and the poison fire will fade  from even the remains in a minute or two now that I released it. Give it  a bit and you can start harvesting, then we can get out of here." That  had been a crazy fight, but I couldn't stop grinning behind my mask.  Giant rats. Exciting.

Celine  exhaled loudly in relief, curtsying formally, which looked weird in  normal pants, but I assumed it was a nobility thing. "We thank you for  all your help, all of you. We are happy to share the payment, it should  give us quite a few ranks in preparation for the scavenger hunt." She  smiled at me. "Now, we're going to be a while harvesting. Perhaps you  might like to look around for traces of your enemies? I'd ask you try  not to engage, but checking for signs while down here seems only  rational." I'd honestly almost forgotten the Heartrippers in the chaos,  but I nodded solemnly. That was a good idea. Time to go hunting.

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