19 Guerrilla tactics

What caught his eye was a report half buried under some papers in the folder. It was a few words in the header that caught his attention.

'Potion enhanced livestock experiments show positive results'

Curiosity getting the better of him, Finn put down his crossbow and carefully lifted the papers off so he could read more.

There was a lot of magic and alchemy jargon he didn't understand, but the report seemed to be talking about a solution to the rising price of meat.

Even Finn, with his minimal exposure to the outside knew about this problem and the city's solutions to it.

The city population had long grown past what the surrounding farmland could support. A previous solution had been setting up a permanent magical transport system between the city and distant towns dedicated to food and other resource production.

Food and raw materials were transported through fixed portals to meet the needs of the ever growing city. As the city grew it merged with the surrounding towns becoming a thriving metropolis. Due its size, and the variety of names associated with it, the city council eventually changed its name to Megalopolis.

The new solution to the food issue was to feed potions to normal livestock such as cows and pigs. This would cause them to grow extremely quickly and surpass their limits. The test subjects became similar to magical beasts, developing magic cores, useful in crafting, as well as having nutrient rich meat.

Reading all that Finn thought this was great! It would cause the price of meat to drop, because the portals where an expensive method of transport.

Wondering who was behind the research, he found the name of the company quickly, 'Future Beef inc.'

Smiling to himself as he imagined eating steaks every day he almost forgot to read the last bit of the report.

'Potion formula needs further tweaking as test subjects showed signs of abnormal aggression and a reddening of the pupils.'

Finn paused, some of his excitement lost when realizing it might be months or years until he could enjoy himself. He carefully placed the the report back under the paper so it wouldn't be obvious someone had moved it. After all, nobody liked people reading their secrets.

Still thinking about what he read, Finn couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. Deciding to finish his job before thinking more about it, he picked up his crossbow and went to the door.

Not hearing anything, Finn opened it carefully. Looking out, the situation reminded him off his escape. Adrenaline pumping, Finn smiled. It seemed he was starting to enjoy dangerous situations.

Finn slipped quietly out of the office. He found himself standing on the landing at the top of the stairs leading down to the main storage room.

His eyes quickly adjusting, Finn started to notice rats moving about down below. Although the stacked boxes blocked off sone of his view, he saw three rats feasting on what he assumed was expensive salami.

To take on all three at once would normally be dangerous, but Finn had an idea of how to do it. Making use of his vantage point, he crouched down and aimed at the one furthest away.

'pssshhht' the crossbow didn't make too much noise when it fired. The bolt flew true and hit the rat right it the back. Finn didn't remained hidden to see what would happen.

The rat squealed in pain and rage. It started sniffing and looking for its attacker, but not finding anything else it could only vent its anger on the nearby crates and salami.

Finn was slightly surprised by the behavior. While the rat did go berserk, it seemed to still recognize other rats. Finn was a bit sad that it didn't attack another rat.

'Oh well,' he thought. 'At least the rat eventually died of blood loss. Seems like broadheads work well on them.'

Finn quietly backed off and retreated back into the safety of the office to reload. When he came out again, another broadhead ready to be fired, he noticed there were now five rats below. The dying rat's squealing had attracted the others.

Not flustered at all, Finn proceeded to repeat what he had done previously. He sniped the rat furthest away before backing into the office again.

This is why he had chosen to enter through the second floor. If the rats eventually found him, he could leap back over to the shed.

After repeating the process a few more times, all six rats were down, killed with a single bolt. Well, not counting the one shot that missed.

Counting his bolts, Finn had five bodkin tipped and a single broadhead left. He had saved that one in case he needed it later. The bodkin arrows had been slower at killing the rats. Although they seemed to have pierced right through the rats, but caused a much smaller entry wound.

Readying another bodkin tipped bolt, Finn felt it was time to go down the stairs and finish up anything that was left.

Carefully descending, to avoid the wooden stairs creaking, Finn made it down to the storage space. He didn't hear or see any movement, so he approached the closest rat body.

Transferring his crossbow to his left hand, he took out his hood dagger. He used a quick stab to make sure the rat was really dead, before relaxing. Putting away the dagger again, he retrieved the crossbow bolt from the carcass.

Finn did the same to the rest of the dead rats. He managed to get back all his bolts except two of the bodkin tipped ones. The bolt that missed its mark had buried itself into a wood crate and was stuck. The other bolt had pierced through a rat and into the floorboards and was also to hard to remove.

As Finn wiped the last bolt clean and put it away, he heard a strange sound. It was low growling combined with the sound of something being dragged across the floor.

Fearing the worst, Finn backed away from where the sound was coming from, and moved towards the stairs. If he could get back to his vantage spot he felt confident in dealing with anything.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Finn froze. A pair of large red eyes had appeared near one of the rat bodies. They were looking right at him.