91 Chapter 19 - King of Rats (2/2)
”Blasted girl!” roared Dwargon, his first words in a week that wasn't 'mead', and fought with a renewed fury. So awful was the splattering of blood, the ratmen began to panic, then flee.
Fial got some more shots in as they slinked away into the dark, Ellie already nursing her wounds with ointment while Rams brought the shivering girl back in her arms. The woman was wide eyed as she looked up at Rams, yet calmed upon seeing Ellie.
”Human?” The woman whispered, ”a-are you adventurers?”
”Of the Hero Guild ma'am. If you don't mind, could Rams here hold you until we get out? The rest of us need our hands free in case the rats try something you see,” Ellie said smiling, despite the sting of her wounds, it was her duty to reassure the rescued.
Smiling herself beneath layers of muck, the woman began to sniffle as fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
”Hey, it's ok. We're here now,” Ellie whispered and indicated to Dwargon to do his thing. As Ellie reassured the freed captive, Dwargon stepped beside the stone slab she had been chained too and used [smash] to blast it wide open.
Within they found a withered ratman corpse like the rest. Dwargon pulled out a shining blade just Ellie's size and scrawled with the picture of rats with crowns. Light in her hands, well balanced, and with a keen edge Ellie promptly replaced on of her old iron daggers with those old Rat Empire steel. A small sceptre was found too, cracked down the middle but still with a wisp of magic sweet as rain on it. Ellie gave it to Armen, pulled out the plush cloth to sell and indicated to Rams to do her work.
The Satyr Warlock used her hellfire axe to set the body aflame, and ensuring this rite was not to be tried again. The second this week, Ellie wondered how many corpses in this land of the Rat Empire remained.
Even now she could make out the faded markings of footpaths on the floor, their edges inscribed with imagery of dancing whiskers. Long forgotten roads caked in dust drove in every direction and into grand tunnels turned musty cave.
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”Let's go before the Royal Rats arrived,” Ellie muttered, the party hastily ascending to the surface.
”Royal rats?” the captive woman said pensively.
”That dead rat thing, other adventurers have gotten to the ceremony too late. Each one equips a bunch of ratmen in gear hidden throughout this network, makes them hella strong. We call 'em Royals.”
What Ellie left out was that the creation of a Rat Noble was more like the raising of a Lich, and the Royals were closer to the definition master Kenji gave for a 'Death Knight'.
Speaking of Master Kenji, wasn't he running a class on leadership today?
Ellie hurried her step, having just realised. While it was her duty to go on these quests with so many of the senior adventurers being sent to start chapter houses in faraway places, Ellie would very much be lying if she didn't admit she loved those lessons. There was something about growing in a safe environment, far away from the grime of reality, that made her wistful for a life where she could seek such an education as a scholar.
Laughing, she waved away her companions confused looks. An education for an orphan girl? Ellie really was losing the plot, surely she should stop wasting time on dreams so absurd as that.