#15 Helping hands

Kuf'ri, leader of the rat tribe, enjoyed the screams of the two prisoners in the secret chamber. He and his brother had picked them up, ambushing them when their camp had still been right at the start of the dungeon. The unknowing adventurers had no other choice but to surrender to the hungry rats!

Kuf'ri had liked torturing things for as long as he could remember. Adventurers were his favourite though. Back in the day, he had crippled one every day until the adventurers got less and less. Unfortunately, so did the food supply, because the adventurers were the main food source inside the dungeon if one didn't count the ugly berries growing on the wild plants. So he had had to put his hobby on the back burner for better times for a long time.

At first, better times did not want to come. The small number of adventurers, at some point, had totally dried up. His tribe had been through rough times, Kuf'ri reminisced. They had even considered leaving the dungeon again. A dangerous thought! After all, outside were only stronger enemies awaiting them. Kuf'ri had chosen this place as their hideout, because of the level barrier the goddess had integrated.

What a lucky find the secret room had been in these times of depression.

The room was relatively small and humbly decorated. The only thing inside it, was a shrine with a statue of an adventurer of some kind, praying on it and seemingly blessing smaller figurines at the bottom of it, lying on the ground injured.

It had been a room for the healers of the temple in old times.

Everyone that entered injured, would leave unscathed in the morning.

As inconspicuous as the room appeared, it could not hide its functions from the eyes of Kuf'ri and his brother, which had immediately seen and understood its potential. Times had changed as they had caught their next prey. A constant food supply had been created and Kuf'ri could practice his favourite activity once again.

Kuf'ri liked to talk about the story, as he and his brother would always be seen as the heroes who had saved their tribe. Sometimes, but only sometimes, he even tried to tell it to the captives, knowing that they couldn't understand their language. They had felt unstoppable!

Food and a hideout with a constant supply of fresh newbies. What could go wrong?

Until this morning… Kuf'ri had already wondered why there was so little action and reports from the guards in the tunnels. Now he had his answer. As he stepped outside of the camp, he could already smell the stench of blood and decay.

He followed the scent to the left side of the camp entrance, following the source. To his disturbing surprise, he found the guard that was supposed to guard the camp until this morning, which had been brutally slaughtered. Kuf'ri realized the throat of the victim was cut, which explained why he hadn't been able to warn them.

'If he is dead… what happened to the others?' Kuf'ri analyzed the situation. He tried to pick up the scent of the attacker as well, to check the area, but the smell of fire and death had already enveloped the whole surroundings.

„DAMN ITTT! DAMN IT ALL!" He screamed as he ran back into the camp. „WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUMS. WE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED!" He greeted his tired followers. Sleep still in their eyes, they woke up one after another, not fully grasping the situation they were in.

One after another, they realized what had happened. Immediately, like kangaroos, they popped out of their beds and sprang up. „Attacked? Are you sure?"

„YES!! Of course, I am sure you idiots! Why else would Bu'ski be dead?" And he threw the corpse he had pulled with him into the middle of the group for curious eyes to marvel. One of the viewers even tried kicking him, to see, if he really hadn't just fallen asleep during the night shift. After a few minutes of vigorous tests, convinced he really was dead, panic finally caught on to them as well.

„Oh my god! He's dead! He's dead!"

„What are we going to do?"

„Poor Bu'ski! He had still been so young" could be heard.

A mass of questions and suggestions on how to proceed stormed at Kuf'ri, who was trying to calm them down. But they were unstoppable! 'How can 5 rats be so loud and annoying that you can't hear your own voice?'

After seeing his vocal attempts fail miserably, force in order. Lined up as they were, Kuf'ri turned in a circle, reaching his hand out, slapping them all back to reality.

„We have to find the culprit and check for the other rats that were supposed to protect the camp! Now!" Kuf'ri exclaimed. Everyone was finally on board, no time was wasted. The rats turned on the spot and all went to search the tunnels for the murderer of their friend.

Daniel was woken by loud screeching next to him and the six rats he had scouted the last evening. They were surrounding something on the other side of the room… ‚On the other side of the room? Wasn't there…? Oh damn!' Daniel had almost shouted out, when he came to the realisation what the rats were surrounding, covering his mouth instantaneously.

Although he wanted to fight the rats, he hadn't intended to do so in a 6 vs 1 and especially not unprepared, lying on the ground! The big rat appeared to be commanding the others and as he finished squeaking all of them started to run in the direction where he had come from.

„Looks like they have caught on… What now? The probability of them walking around alone will be minimal from now on if it can even be called a possibility".

Daniel started crawling out from under his hiding environment and drinking and eating first. There was no rush. The rats would be gone for quite some time if they wanted to search for him in the dungeon.

‚Still, I should already start thinking about my next steps. After all, I will be going up against six rats, one even as strong as my first enemy!' When he was finished, he immediately started to look around outside, searching for things he could use as tools to help in his fight, but nothing struck him as useful.

He went into the encampment. There was the fire, the fur… that could be worth something. The rat kins, with their pelts, would surely be flammable. Other than that, Daniel found a club in one of the corners and a few berries stored away in a piece of cloth. He put both of the things in the inventory. 'Who knows in what kind of situation they might turn out to be useful?' He turned to the fire.

‚So how am I going to do this? I could just create a barrier and try to run as fast as I can to the exit. Risky, because I don't know where exactly it is, but who knows…' He noticed the rest of the food that was still sticking to the turning stick above the fireplace.

‚Right, the human arms… I wonder if they are still alive?' Daniel peaked outside of the camp first, before he started searching for the door. He knew the general location but still had to check the whole area where the giant rat had left the hidden room yesterday. It appeared invisible at first glance.

Finally, after a few minutes had passed, feeling the wall, Daniel noticed a doorknob made out of pure stone. „Someone must've really put thought into the safety arrangements of this place…" Daniel mumbled while turning the knob.

The door opened slowly with a loud creek, leaving Daniel hoping that the rats hadn't picked up the noise, before swinging wide open. In the backroom, in front of an altar of his mother, he saw two people locked up in a cage made out of the same thorny tendrils the rats had used at the entrance of their camp, only that it was twice as thick. To Daniel's surprise they were unharmed! Saving the topic for later, Daniel examined the improvised jail. He could see how none of them could escape without a weapon.

Most likely, even the rats would've problems if they planned to release them at some point.

The roots were thicker than his arms with thorns able to pierce his skull in an instant. You could approach them from the outside and maybe stick an arm through the thicket, but escape was not an option.

Inside the evil prison, a human and a skeleton sat in the cage, eyes directed to the ground. „No wonder that I thought there was only one prisoner… only one is edible".

Daniel approached them slowly. „Hey!" He whispered. No reaction.

„Hey! You two! Wake up!"

A soft grunt came from the human. Still nothing from the undead.

„Come on! We don't have time! Wake up!" Daniel continued, this time a little louder, starting to hack them free using his dagger.

The human opened his eyes, first surprised then unbelieving at the sight of Daniel. „Hey! What! You?" He stumbled. „Psscht!" Daniel hissed, signaling for him to shut his mouth. „I'm going to free you! Wake up your fellow prisoner for me. I will be done here soon" Daniel continued.

Funnily, the second prisoner made the exact same expression as the first one upon seeing Daniel. „What are you doing here? Save yourself! The rats will kill you if they find you!" He exclaimed.

„They know that I'm here already anyways. I have the highest chance at survival fighting with you" Daniel explained his train of thought.

Finally, he had cut through the tight vines, creating a small hole for the prisoners to crawl through. „Alright, let's go! Do you have some kind of weapons or any equipment you can use?" Daniel asked. The human nicked, pulling out the beginner sword that Daniel had gotten at the start of his journey as well. The undead, however, shook his head. „I lost mine in the fight against a giant armoured rat at the beginning of the dungeon" it explained.

‚So they know a bit about our surroundings as well. Maybe they have some useful information I can use' Daniel combined. „What kind of weapon was it?"

„It was a club" answered the skeleton. ‚Of course it was'. Unwillingly, Daniel handed over the loot he had just picked up. Picking up the pace again, he asked „Alright, do you have everything? We need to get ready to face them". He feared the scenario where the rats would approach and they were unprepared. He wanted to leave this room of a death trap this instant!

„Don't you first want to explain what is going on and how you could even free us?" Popped the human obvious question.

„We don't have time! I'm serious! They will be back soon. I spent way too much time even finding this damned room! Please, let's get out of here!" Daniel tried to push the question to a later point in time, nervously glancing to the door. He could already hear their screeches!

„Do we even have a chance against them?" Asked the skeleton before he could even finish his sentence. „What are we supposed to do against almost 20 rats? They will just torture us even more when they find out that we tried to escape, not to mention, kill one of its comrades".

„Are you serious right now? Don't you want to live? This is probably the only chance you will have to escape! And no! We won't be facing 20 rats, but six! If we prepare, we have a good chance at winning!" Done with his explanation he rushed to leave the room. Should they stay here if they didn't want to help him! He would fight for his freedom!

„Six?!" The two prisoners shouted in surprise.