Act: 2 Rats in The Basement III

Khizar stalked towards the grate's edge peering down into the darkness to see the contained beast, but he was met with no luck. Khizar stood on its edge for a few minutes trying to pierce the darkness and finally he saw something, a large section of the darkness shifted the outline indistinct but still allowing for a simi-accurate guess at its size, large white globes appeared, the size of a small soccer ball. The two black pupils locked onto Khizar and stared at him; Khizar stared right back his gaze unwavering his grin steady, eventually the creature looked away closing its eyes once again leaving only the shifting darkness as an indication of its movement. Khizar began to walk the perimeter of the grate looking for its lock he circled it a few times before he noticed a strange moss grouping on the stone in front of him. Khizar crouched down and began to sweep away the growth revealing a crude keyhole set into the stone, exited once more Khizar took key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock.

You have accepted the (Boss Quest): Kill the Rodent Queen 0/1

Smiling Khizar slowly turned the key until he heard a soft click. Quickly jumping back Khizar retreated a few meters readying his sword and shield, not a bare moment later the grate flew open swinging on its hinge to slam into the ground on the other side of the lock. Fallowing just behind the opening grate was the boss, it landed with a loud thump and growl right on top of the lock, its large eyes locked on Khizar with laser focus. The boss rat stood near two meters tall at the shoulder it body looking more akin to a bull than a rat, it had the same black, mangy fur as the smaller ones but instead of bone being visible in the missing patches all that was shown under this creature's skin was hard, rippling muscle. In the face of such a monster any reasonable lower leveled player might have been cowed but not Khizar, he was ecstatic. Khizar grinned looking at the massive rat, his and the animal's gazes were locked seemingly in a contest of will before the Queen broke it and charged forward Khizar responding to its charge with one of his own. The two sprinted strait at each other neither showing signs of stopping, when just over a meter separated them, the Queen lurched forward its body leaving the ground in an attempt to completely squash Khizar. Sadly, for the Queen Khizar had dropped into a slide and used what was quickly becoming his favorite skill [Shield bash]. The Queen was flying over Khizar as he shoved his shield upwards impacting with the Queen's rear underbelly and sending the massive beast ass over teakettle, its face and body crashing into the ground a few times as it spun. Standing, Khizar looked towards his dazed opponent half a dozen yards away and sprinted forwards, not allowing it time to recover Khizar swung his sword coating it in [Slash] and cutting deeply into the Queen's right back leg. The Queen screeched and whirled faster than Khizar was expecting, the Queen's tail was sweeping towards him, and Khizar barely had enough time to raise his shield before he was blasted off his feet, the impact of the tail on his shield sending him flying a few meters before he managed to roll to his feet, a few scratches crossing his arms a little blood leaking through them.

You have blocked 30 dmg - You have lost 11 hp

Looking at the numbers Khizar did a quick mental calculation and found that the strike actually delt a total of 50 dmg not a small number, but as long as he got his shield up, he could tank them and that's all that mattered to Khizar. The grin that had momentarily left his face as he was thinking over the rat's strike returned with a vengeance and Khizar began stalking around the recovered Queen.

Khizar and the queen circled each other each cautious of the movement of the other as they continued their dance the distance between the two closing rapidly. The Queen acted first again and swiped a heavy paw at Khizar, Khizar seeing the attack comeing took a swift step back successfully dogging the strike before he rushed in forward to the Queens face and stabbed forward with a [Slash] coated sword. Seeing him comeing the Queen dogged to the side, keeping the sword from penetrating her snout but unable to keep it from piercing her neck, an arguably worse outcome for the Queen. Khizar stepped back quickly in order to avoid retaliation, he was not fast enough however as the Queen turned her head and bit down at Khizar's head. Shifting his head to the side Khizar avoided instant death but still took damage when the Queens fangs pierced his shoulder before ripping out a small misty chunk of it.

You have lost 20 hp

Khizar growled at the pain and in retaliation slammed his skill empowered shield right into the Queen's snout shattering the organs delicate bones and causing some larger one to be pushed back into the Queens head damaging her further.

The Queen stumbled back from the blow falling to its side and reviling its underbelly to Khizar, a mistake that would prove fatal. Khizar rushed forward and began to savagely butcher the Queen, opening with a [Slash] empowered vertical cut that split the Queens hide open revealing the soft flesh beneath. Khizar got three more normal attacks off before retreating backwards as the now heavily injured Queen rolled to its feet unsteadily its brain still shacking from Khizar's shield slam. Blood poured from the Queen's underbelly in a steady stream flowing from the newly inflicted wounds, Khizar stared down the queen shield raised and ready, blood dripped from his longsword as he held it ready for the next attack. Glancing at his "Tolerance" Khizar saw that he had four skill uses remaining, five in another thirty seconds. The Queen began moving forward picking up speed as it ran, Khizar was walking side was making the Queen constantly need to recorrect her angle causing her to slow down significantly, the accumulated wounds and the damage to her back leg hindering her efforts.

By the time she had reorientated on him Khizar was a distance away with his back agents one of the rooms eight walls his shield out in front of him his sword strangely missing from his right hand, not that the Queen noticed. The Queen charged forward once more her unmoving target; she was just about to ram into Khizar killing them both when Khizar jumped grabbing onto his sword from where it was impaled into the stone wall above his head, and flipping himself up above the charging beast who found itself unable to stop at all and ran headfirst into the stone wall beneath Khizar a large boom echoed and Khizar fell onto the Queens back his sword back in hand after freeing it from the stone above. Looking down Khizar was surprised to see that the beast was alive if only barely, he quickly remedied the issue though bringing a final [Slash] powered stab down on the creature's spine finally killing it.

You have killed: lvl:5 Rat Queen - You have gained 60 exp

Congratulations you have leveled up: lvl:2

Quest completed: Kill the Rodent Queen 1/1

A worm glow enveloped Khizar and he felt all the damage he had suffered heal; Khizar sighed in satisfaction before he stumbled as the body, he was standing on began too quickly turn to mist. Khizar made it to the floor before the body's solidity completely disappeared leaving him with a small pile of loot, sifting through the pile Khizar was happy there were two silver coins worth a hundred copper each, a boss only drop (crafting material), and a piece of armor.

Item: Fang of The Rodent Queen (Uncommon) (Crafting material)

Item: Rat Queens sturdy bracers lvl:3 (Common)+7 DEF - Effects: +7 to Con, +5 to Str, +3 to Agi

Usable by: Warriors, Healers, and Thiefs

The Queens fang was simply a large white hang about the size of a knife, the bracers however were nice, they were simple in design by made of nice supple, but solid black leather Khizar immediately equipped them, and since he leveled up he decided to look at his status sheet.

Name: Khizar Level:2 40/200exp

Titles: None Race: Human

Grimoire: (None), (Locked)

Class: Warrior

Stats: ATK: 39 DEF: 17

Str (27 b12) Con (27 b12) Health (270/270)

Agi (16 b11) Wis (10 b10) Int (10 b10) Tolerance (13/13)

Skills: Shield bash, Slash

Equipped items: Basic Iron Longsword lvl:1 (Common), Basic Iron Belted-Wooden Tower Shield lvl:1 (Common), Ring of The Imprisoned Blacksmith lvl:2 (Common), Rat Queens sturdy bracers lvl:3 (Common)

Putting two of his five available points into Strength and Constitution each, he put the last free point into Agility. Closing his status sheet Khizar basked in the light of victory, happy with his achievement.