The Card - 24

The Rat King was blasted to ash.

At least, that's how it was supposed to go.

The gigantic charred creature once again loomed over Thea, the light in its bloodshot eyes flickering. It didn't have much time left.

One arm hung limp by its side, while the other slowly sank into the sewage, and the creature's blackened skin and fur cracked and split as he shifted forwards. It took a heavy step. Its balance was clearly disturbed, but it was able to remain standing somehow.

Thea took a step backwards in terror. It had gone through all that and it was still standing? The trio had done well against it, but was it simply impossible to defeat? What would it take to make this creature stay down if it didn't even fall from that explosion?

The dying creature leaned its face down towards Thea's, and now that the creature was so close, she could finally see its face.

It was gruesome.

The explosion had burned most of the meat off of the creature's face, so its remaining eye looked much larger, bulging so much that it looked as if it would fall out of its skull at any moment. Its lips, if one could call them that anymore, were almost non-existent, fusing with its dirty gums. What remained of its mouth were rotten black teeth, cracked and broken, appearing as if its mouth were filled with dark icicles.

It stretched its remaining arm towards Thea in a final, futile attempt to hurt her.

Thea felt the beast's hot breath inches from her face, before the light in the creature's eyes faded and it collapsed at her feet, mangled and broken.

The tremor that ensued from the creature's massive frame slamming into the ground stunned her out of her stupor.

She remembered: Eli was injured, and Arne was missing.

The explosion definitely woke the town, after making sure Arne was okay, she would immediately run for help. The path back was fairly simple, so she should be able to run to the guard station and the clinic where Granny was likely still working in order to gather a group to come into the sewers.

Arne was likely injured so it would be safer for him to take care of Eli, and to stay in one place so that they would be able to arrive in time.

Thea quickly sprinted back down the tunnel to locate Arne, not sparing a single glance to the defeated Rat King at her feet.

She arrives at the "T" intersection where Arne had originally flung the Rat King moments ago. Arne was on his knees, his eyes were closed as his head looked up towards the ceiling. He had been flung into the spiderweb of cracks in the wall, and had likely broken several ribs. Right now, he was focusing on breathing evenly and in shallow breaths so that the pain in his chest was minimized.

Thea quickly ran up to him.

"Arne! Are you alright? Can you stand?" she exclaimed rapidly, reaching to support him.

"I'm-" Arne winced, it hurt to speak. He opted to just give Thea a thumbs-up, as he grit his teeth used her hand to help himself up, before leaning against the wall for support.

Now that Arne was standing and able to support himself, Thea quickly began to explain her plan to him.

"I'm going to run for help, you stay with Eli and I'll be back soon. Alright! Bye!" Thea said, and then immediately ran towards the entrance of the sewer.

'She hasn't even helped me across the gap yet…' thought Arne, staring towards the enclave where a pale and bloodied Eli lay still. Arne quickly looked around and saw the stick Thea used to hit the Rat King ahead of him, along with the corpse of the creature sprawled out on the cold stone.

Arne began to slowly lumber down the hallway towards the stick, in the distance the light from more magic stones glowed softly. He grabbed the stick, and used it to hold himself steady, and quickly located his knife that he had dropped when he was thrown by the Rat King.

The giant eyeball still was impaled on its razor-sharp blade. His mother would certainly scold him if he lost one of her prized kitchen knives…

He shuddered thinking about the reprimand of a lifetime coming his way.

HISSSS

Slowly the sound of steam overtook Arne's daydream/nightmare, and he turned to face the source of the noise. Despite the darkness, black steam could be seen visibly escaping the Rat King's mangled body.

Arne became very nervous, he was in no shape to fight! If this thing stood up… he and Eli would be done for!

The black steam began to billow out of the creature's body, in such volumes that it became more like a cloud of smoke. Suddenly, the sound of steaming halted, and the shroud around the Rat King's body began to swirl into a single point.

Gradually the speed of the smoke began to speed up, swirling like a whirlpool into a single point. Then, as suddenly as the steam appeared, it faded, and in its place was a silver glint.

The glint stretched and shifted, much to Arne's awe, and became a silvery rectangle, as thin as a piece of paper.

It rotated slowly at first, but it began to spin quicker and quicker, before exploding in silver embers, leaving behind a card with silver embroidery. On the front of the card was the visage of a Rat King, one even more disgusting and foul, even more beastly than the one that lay at Arne's feet.

As if in a trance, Arne reached out to pluck the card from the air, the pain in his chest numbed by his immense curiosity. He grabbed the card, closing his eyes, expecting something amazing to happen.

He felt the card in his hands.

...

He slowly opened his eyes.

Nothing.

'I guess I was expecting too much,' thought Arne, as he tucked the card into his pants.

Arne glanced at the Rat King. He was glad that the creature at his feet still possessed a semblance of clothing, in the form of tattered pants. Seeing the bare figure of the Rat King on the card… Arne shuddered at the thought of fighting that one instead.

'RIGHT! ELI!' thought Arne.

He quickly shuffled over to Eli, as quickly as he could with his injury, and sat down next to him. Arne quickly lowered his head to listen for Eli's heartbeat, wincing in pain as he agitated his chest. He could hear the soft thump of Eli's heartbeat. Arne sighed in relief.

Luckily for Eli, the bleeding had stopped fairly quickly, and it appeared, at least to Arne, that the wound on his back was not quite as deep as they had imagined.

Perhaps in their urgency and stress they had over-exaggerated the wound in their minds…

'Sigh… This is all my fault. Those rats earlier were only a taste of what was to come. I shouldn't have pushed them so hard to come with me… Luckily it seems like we benefited at least a little. With the Rat King dead, people shouldn't be sick anymore, plus Thea and I managed to use magic! Eli didn't benefit at all though…' thought Arne, glancing towards the card in his pants.

He pulled out the Rat King card, and stuffed it into Eli's pocket.

'There… Now we three at least got something.' he thought.

He looked outwards down the sewer tunnel. Thea was still gone. She probably wouldn't return for the next half hour…

Arne's eyes began to glow blue as he made the sewer water rise and fall. He began to think while messing with his magic.

'I thought giving him the card would make me feel a bit better, but it only made me feel worse… It feels like a bribe.' he sighed.

He began to make the water move in more complex ways, raising it in one place, and lowering it in another, making finger-shaped towers point straight up into the air. His arms waved like a conductor performing with an orchestra. Finally he attempted to make an orb hover out of the water, and after several tries, he finally succeeded.

The small achievement felt hollow.

'I need to get stronger…' thought Arne.

'If I were able to do this two hours ago, then Eli wouldn't have gotten hurt.' he thought while juggling the ball of water in the air.

'I waste too much time. I'll train alone starting from now. This way, I can work on my own weapon and water magic without worrying about what Thea and Eli are doing. I'll be able to get much stronger without endangering anyone else this time…'

The pain in his chest hurt immensely, but the weight of the guilt for being the one who led Eli to this state hurt much much more…

Arne began to think about his future training plan as time passed. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of several rapid footsteps.

Arne looked down the tunnel, and saw Thea turn the corner, followed Granny, and more.

"AARNE!! I BROUGHT PEOPLE!!" yelled Thea, as she joyfully sprinted towards him.

This would be a happy reunion if not for the look on Granny's face, and the people who followed her. Arne's feelings could be encompassed into two words:

Impending doom.