6 Close Call

This corridor was seemingly exactly the same as the one I had just come from, the main difference being the two giant rats standing near the middle of it. I crouched down, drawing my sword hilt.

If my previous fight taught me anything, it's that these rats (or Nariks, as Satou calls them), had pretty bad eyesight. It hadn't even noticed me the second time until I drop kicked it. I inched along the right side of the wall, getting closer to them. I was confident after defeating the first one that I could probably take down these two without even using my left arm.

I finally made it behind one of them. Luckily it was a rather large corridor otherwise I might've been noticed by now.

S: Someone's been playing D*shonored.

"Shut up, Satou."

Uh oh.

Both rats turned towards me, baring their extremely sharp teeth. I cursed as I tried to roll to the side, intent on running. However, one of them ran and blocked me off, while the other stayed behind me. I had nowhere to run.

I raised my hilt and faced down the one in front of me. I began to edge closer to it, when all of a sudden it charged at me. I tried to employ the same tactic I had used before, by blocking it's teeth with my hilt, but all of a sudden the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

I had to move, right now.

At the last second I jumped to the side, nearly hitting my head on the wall. Behind me both of the rats crashed headfirst into each other. They had charged me at the same time, and if I hadn't felt the second one's killing intent it would've had my head bitten off.

As I staggered to my feet, I noticed that my center of gravity was off. I took a moment to inspect myself, and came to the horrifying realization that I hadn't gotten away unscathed as I thought.

S: You did say you could take them both on without using your left arm. Time to prove it.

The rats were beginning to re-orient themselves, and I didn't have much time. I ran at one of them hilt in hand, aiming to stab it in the eye. However, I forgot about the second one. As I thrust the hilt into its eye I felt a burning pain in my side from where the other one had bitten me. I winced and stumbled backwards, letting go of my hilt as it started clawing at it's eyes, trying to get it out. The second one advanced on me, baring its teeth and preparing to strike.

I had to think fast. My hilt was in the other one's eye, and I didn't have much time until the second one finished me off. I scooted back against the wall, hearing a small grating sound. I looked up, only to realize the sound came from my horn scratching against the wall. Maybe I could use this to my advantage.

The second rat lunged towards me, going for the killing blow. Trying my best to time it correctly, I slid under it just as its teeth reached me, biting into the wall. I lifted my head and drove my horn into where I guessed would be the rat's chest/stomach. It started screeching and clawing at me, dropping to the ground and rolling in order to get me off of it. It was then that the other rat jumped back into the fray, knocking me off of the other one's stomach and tripping over it, falling to the ground. I took advantage of their momentary distraction to yank my hilt out of it's eye, before vaulting over the two and running towards the end of the corridor.

However, as I got closer, I realized that it was a dead end. The ceiling had caved in front of me and blocked off the rest of the corridor, and there wasn't any way of climbing over it. I had to come up with a solution, and fast. I had some time before the rats came after me, what with their already poor eyesight and injuries, but I would still have to face them, and they were definitely pissed off now.

I didn't really know any way to get out of this. In my past life I had always relied on my natural strength and magic to overpower my enemies. I rarely ever used tactics, since my father never really taught me about that. At that moment I began to hear a sinister squeaking coming from behind me.

If I die and have to meet Satou again, I swear on my life I'm going to strangle him.

Actually, that gave me an idea.

I had heard once that hair was a fairly strong material, and I had plenty of it. I used my hilt to awkwardly cut some strands from my hair, as long as I could get them, and stuck it back in my rope belt. I then wrapped one end of the strands of hair to my remaining hand, awkwardly using my teeth. I went over and crouched down the left side wall, waiting for them to arrive. If I could get behind one of them and strangle it, I could hopefully make a break for it.

The first one to show up was the one with one eye, followed by the one with the stab wound. I edged around, trying to get behind them. The second one raised it's head and looked around, as if it had noticed me somehow. Not wasting my chance, I struck.

I jumped towards it from behind, reaching up and looping the strands around the rats throat, biting the other end with my teeth to make up for the other arm. I drew back as hard as I could, choking the rat and forcing it to fall to the ground backwards, trapping me under it. The other one turned and ran over, but since I was under the other one and it was missing an eye, it couldn't do much of anything. I kept my hold on the rat for a good minute, my hand almost burning from the effort. Slowly it stopped struggling, foaming at the mouth as it stopped moving.

I let go of the hair, pulled myself out from under it, and starting running. The rat followed close on my heels, stumbling and crashing into the walls as it ran. I wasn't in much better shape, occasionally tripping and nearly falling over. I wouldn't be able to get away at this rate.

I suddenly stopped and turned towards it, planning to use the one moment I had to my advantage. As it closed in and sunk it's teeth into my shoulder, I plunged my hilt into the side of it's throat, forcing in as deep as it would go.

I pulled it out and repeated, making sure to stab it until I was sure it was dead.

Once I finished, I nearly collapsed right then and there. I had been running on pure adrenaline this whole time. I was covered in blood, my left arm was gone, as well as a chunk of my side, and my shoulder. I stood up, looking over the corpse of the rat, before I saw something faintly glowing in it's stomach. I must have missed it in the heat of combat.

I walked over and used the hilt to slit it's stomach open, tossed it aside, then reached in and grabbed the source of the light. It was a small and smooth stone, the color of amber. Now that I had gotten it out of it's stomach, the glowing seemed to intensify, illuminating the corridor.

S: Congrats, you found a Hearthstone!

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