They walked in silence, moving away from the city wall where most players clustered. He wanted more distance from other witnesses . Emma was a few steps behind him – presumably ready to bail at the first sign of trouble. Sean scanned his surroundings carefully, looking for any stray rat that might charge at him. Players seemed busy fighting one or two of the beasts at a time, though there were also groups of five or more players that attracted swarms of up to a dozen rats at once. The grass was so short, almost like a lawn… until Sean realized that it must've been grazed frequently. He wondered for a moment whether rats eat grass or not. No idea.
The whole 'kill X rats' quest had sounded silly, but it was no joke when Sean watched the scene unfold in front of him. It wasn't a battle in the traditional sense: no combat lines or formations. Individual players or small groups were attracting oversized rodents. There were maybe thirty or forty players, facing roughly twice as many monsters. Once they got closer, Sean was able to see that they were just rats – only much bigger: easily four-foot-long bodies plus tails, or up to a person's knees when on all fours. And they were scratching and biting around waist level when standing upright.
Not the usual video-game rats, though their appearance was similar.
He glanced back at Emma's leg. The skin was fine, probably healed, but the fabric was a mess. He gripped the weapons more tightly. The tomahawk-type one-handed battle axes felt heavy in his hands. Suddenly he heard the nearby grass rustle. Not a roar or hiss, not even any sound that an animal would make with its mouth – just hasty footsteps.
Sean turned toward the source and there was no time to think: a bulky, slightly wet rat was charging at him. He took a step back, swung down with his right arm… missed. How could he miss? Or maybe the rat moved – either way, the axe head ended up buried in the grass, and the beast dove in for a bite. Sean kicked it in the head. This bought him a second to pull the weapon out of the grass. The rat was still stunned, so he swung at it again. A grazing hit, maybe, a trickle of blood on the fur. The rat squealed and took a swipe at his leg, but the shin protector held – barely a scratch on it, so he kicked the beast again. This time the rat caught his leather boot and pinned it to the ground, about to chew on his leg.
In a flash of inspiration, Sean remembered the melee skills and focused on Warrior's 'Twin Strike' while bringing down both axes on the torso. It worked and the skill connected. He felt a surge of strength as the skill turned mana into extra force for this one attack, and both weapons sank deep into the rat's back. Something crackled, or maybe snapped. One axe got stuck in the spine or ribs. He had no time to think about it. The other cut across the beast's side. The rat shrieked in pain as a chunk of skin and fur peeled off. It twitched, but its hind legs didn't work – still, the abrupt movement snatched the stuck axe from Sean's hand.
He gripped the other with both hands and struck down repeatedly. No skill use now – just regular muscle work. The overgrown rat tried to turn away at first, but promptly stopped moving and merely twitched to the rhythm of Sean's blows.
"…aaah!" Sean finally realized that he had been shouting, and stopped.
He concluded that the beast was thoroughly dead, so he stood upright and glanced around. He wiped some sweat from his face, what little he could reach under the leather cap, then took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. Adrenaline was still buzzing through him, but there were no more threats in their immediate vicinity. He remembered Emma and looked back, and she was… on her phone, of course, standing at a safe distance.
Sean sighed and walked to her while saying, "Do you have to– Couldn't you have like… helped? Or even just kept a lookout for–"
"You had it covered," she broke in. He thought, great – but at least she put the phone down and watched him – it felt like 'for once' . Emma added, "And you had it easy with those axes."
"You call 'that' easy? I mean…" he trailed off and stared at the dead rat. The corpse was a complete mess. Maybe sixty to eighty pounds of flesh and fur, claws and teeth, ripped open as if somebody had used it for woodchopping practice. Speaking of which, his other weapon was still stuck inside. He commented, "Okay, I might've overdone it a little."
"Uh-huh," she seemed to agree with him.
"What? How did you…" Sean asked while walking to recover his other weapon. "What's it like when casters fight?"
"Not like that," she said simply.
He could see that much even at a distance, so he just shook his head and forced the axe from the mauled carcass. He scanned their surroundings: some people, presumably most of them Mystics, were indeed using various ranged spells – but it seemed to involve either running around a lot or having a melee player as a backstop. It gave him an idea. He walked back to Emma and pointed at another rat some sixty feet away – it seemed to be alone. Sean suggested, "Okay, can you cast the basic attack spell on that rat? Maybe you'll lure it–"
"I'd actually rather not…" Emma cut in.
He lowered his head and asked, "Why– Come on, what happened to the party and teamwork?"
She gave him an angry look, then glanced at the distant rat and said, "Fine… whatever." She took a deep breath and concentrated, then aimed the wand-staff in the general direction of the rat. A glowing projectile flew out of it, heading straight at the beast – which screamed and charged at them. Just as Sean had hoped. He braced himself for combat, but there was another rat that followed the first one and quickly overtook it. The wounded rat seemed to be limping.
Sean was a little worried about facing two rats at once, so he instructed, "Hit it again, slow it down or–" He glanced back and Emma was already walking backward. He called out, "Come on, quick!"
The first beast was already at him, but Sean was better prepared and aimed a sideways cleave first. It connected. The rat squeaked and staggered – he kicked it back. Another projectile flew past him – at the second rat. Good. He charged and used Twin Strike again, but this time aiming at different angles closer to the head. One missed and got buried in the ground, but the other axe hit and there was a crunchy sound. The beast started shivering chaotically.
He held the bloodied weapon with both hands and checked on the other rat – still some distance away. Sean killed off the first beast with a couple of normal strikes and only then focused on the other one. It was clearly weakened, blood trickling from its head and side – the two magic attacks had connected and hurt it badly. Sean landed a well-aimed blow, this time using Knight's basic 'Armored Chop' – his armor class probably didn't add much to the skill's effect, but it was more than enough to finish the beast off.
He recovered the stuck axe and looked around for any other threats. Nothing dangerous nearby, so he glanced at Emma. She was even farther away now, a good forty feet, and observing carefully. He shook his head and decided not to shout at her across the field – instead he focused on the corpses. There was no loot – they clearly had no pockets or gear. He remembered the 'bring back ten rat tails' instruction from the esteemed leader. He chopped the four-foot-long tails clean off with an axe and collected all three, folding them in half for carrying.
By the time Sean walked back to Emma with the trophies, she was already on her phone – but nervously glancing around now and then. He offered her the three tails and asked, "Can you hold onto these? I think they're part of the quest rewa–"
"Nuh-uh!" she interjected and shook her head in disgust.
"Come on, they're not going to bite you," he argued. "It's just three tails that you could–"
"I'm not getting cosplay-blood all over my clothes," she insisted impatiently.
"Kind of too late for that now…" Sean murmured, annoyed. She glared at him. He tried to soften it: "I didn't mean– Look, can't you just…" He trailed off. The rat tails were too large to put in a pocket, and they hadn't brought any bags.
"Just drop them on the ground – you can pick them up on the way back," Emma suggested. He frowned, so she shrugged and added, "What? It's your quest."
"Don't you have one?" he countered.
"Why?" she blurted.
"Because…" Sean started and only then considered why he had taken a quest. Was it because Bruce-Duh-Grate had told them to always bring one, wherever they went? It made sense to exterminate some rats while getting paid. So he explained, "To earn some in-game currency, maybe, so you can afford better gear or–"
"So dumb," Emma cut him off, then remarked while scrolling on her phone, "Whatever, it's all stupid anyway."
"Why are you even here, in this game?" he asked, quite puzzled.
She looked him straight in the eye and replied coldly, "I'm asking myself the same question."
Sean exhaled loudly and decided not to drill into the topic. Whatever she was doing in here… trying to push for answers might complicate things, and their unspoken arrangement seemed to be working fine. He scanned the area, and there were new rats moving in – seemingly at them, but slowly. Three… no, four now. Was the game escalating the threat level, perhaps? He suggested hurriedly, "We should fall back before we get overrun."
Emma glanced at the incoming rats and turned around without a word, leading the way back to the gate.
He started walking with her but kept carefully looking back every few steps. It quickly became obvious that the rats weren't chasing the two players – they gathered at the corpses and started cannibalizing them. And now more beasts were heading that way, presumably for the same reason. Sean groaned, disgusted by this, but he figured it was probably part of the game… Then again, it didn't have to be 'that' realistic.
Once they were almost halfway back to the gate, he said, "Let's wait here, looks clear." She stopped walking without saying anything, then started nervously scanning the area. Sean stashed the three tails on the belt behind his back and commented, "See? It's not that difficult with teamwork!"
"Sure, but only with your overpowered class…" she stated dryly, eyes already on the phone.
"What? No, it's…" he started defensively, but decided not to describe any details of his 'class' or build. Instead, he deflected: "Why didn't you change into something melee, then? Back in the lecture, or I guess after." She just rolled her eyes at this, so he added, "Like there was this– Back at the quest place? Right, that Realm Defenders place is for quests – so that's probably why people wait for a party up front. Pretty obvious, come to think of it, actually."
"Uh-huh," typical Emma.
He couldn't tell if she had been paying attention, but continued nonetheless, "Anyway, so there was this player… I think she must've been a Paladin? She had these oversized…" Sean paused for dramatic effect – she promptly glared at him with suspicion, so he added with a smirk: "Shoulder pads, for lack of a better word – I think that's what they would be called? Armor plates on her shoulders, but it all looked very professional, very–"
"Your point?" she broke in.
"My point," he said, "is that you could've swapped to Paladin to– I think they still have some healing, right? But no idea how starter gear works with these class changes or…" He trailed off, wondering why he had even bothered.
"It's all stupid," Emma commented.
He finally tried, "You keep saying that, why–"
"Because it is!" she cut him off and sighed. "Can we go back to the stupid rats?"
Sean considered it quickly and… it was better for the Healer to remain detached from whatever was going on. He commented, "Okay then. But do try to keep a lookout for any–"
"Fine, fine!" she interrupted.
He nodded and suggested, "And… you still have that attack skill, so you can use it to help in a pinch, okay?"
She exhaled wearily, then stared at him for a couple of seconds and asked, "Do you have any idea how tedious it is to–"
"And do you have any idea how 'tedious' it is to face these things in close combat?"
Emma gritted her teeth for a moment, then remarked, "That's not what I meant." She paused, and he waited.
Well, he used the time to look around for new targets – it seemed like the cadavers had already been consumed and the rats had dispersed or gone back to wherever they came from. There was still a group of them where they had fought, half a dozen or so, two of them self-grooming – best to avoid that general area.
Emma finally resumed, "Whenever I use these dumb magic spells too much, it's like there's this mental fog afterwards. I can barely think properly!"
"Huh, that's interesting…" he started, then speculated, "You think it's because of low mana or–"
"Wait, you don't get that?" she cut in.
"No, I…" he hesitated. Had he felt that way? "I mean, I didn't feel anything like that, but– Maybe it's because melee skills are cheaper? Because of lower cooldowns or– Either that, or the adrenaline took over and–"
"Totally overpowered," back to her phone.
Sean sighed, but… in the moment it felt accurate, actually. And it felt like anybody paying any actual attention to the game would've figured out that he had been using odd combinations of skills – he would need to investigate that further, but right now a dedicated Healer was a good enough excuse for 'combat efficiency' .
"Okay," he finally concluded, "but do help out if I shout for it. I'd rather not get overwhelmed and–"
"Uh-huh," she broke in, and this time it was Sean who rolled his eyes!