Rue settled his sword on the back of his seat. He pressed the radio nestled just beside the steering wheel, but to no avail; all he got was scratchy sounds. Well, he needed the quiet anyway.

  Finally, with some time to himself, he inspected his item.

  [Casting Bracelet][Common][Well—Piece]—Magic is fickle like birds. It was a fact known to all Mages, which is why it's all the more important to cage it when a Mage can. Casting Bracelet allows mana to be trapped inside the body part on which the Bracelet is encased.

  [Ashwood Wand][Common][Novice—Piece]—A mage ought to have no shame in having a helping hand. Made from the Ashtree, the Ashwood Wand will help a Mage’s mind to enforce magic into spell constructs. Works especially well with ash magic.

  Why was one a Well Piece whilst the other was a Novice Piece? Which one was better? He hardly remembered the details about the quest. Roh made it clear that the piece quality depended on the quest result, and Rue certainly had passed with flying colors. It was something he should pay more attention to in the future.

  Roh recommended these two, and Rue could understand why. They synergize well with each other. The Casting Bracelet would trap his mana when he was about to cast Frost Shrapnel, and with it, the Ashwood Wand would siphon that mana and help Rue form his spell.

  The result had been satisfying, with him now able to summon even up to eight Frost Shrapnels. Eight. And there were more items, much more powerful, which was why he was hungry for this quest.

  Rue almost lost his patience when, finally, the door opened, revealing Ein. Behind him, two others followed suit. Edna and Ben.

  “You want the best, here we are,” Ben winked.

  “All ex-military,” Edna confirmed, nodding and crossing her arms in front of her chest haughtily. “The best you could get.”

  “I’m driving,” Ein said, taking a seat beside Rue. The other two filed in behind them. Ben opened the door toward the ambulance’s box for more leg space.

  Without further ado, Ein started the ambulance, and they were on their way. Driving through the night-covered city, Rue couldn’t help but enjoy the false peaceful night. The Lost Arrow had always been a beautiful city with its signature brick high-rise apartments that soaked the moonlight into a marble-yellowish gleam. Usually, for such beauty to happen, the streetlights needed to be on, but now they were off. A shame, he would love to see that.

  “So to clarify the plan,” Ben started, leaning against a patient's bed behind. “We got you there, then what?”

  “Just hide inside this box,” Rue said. “I will draw their attention, destroy the canister, then charge inside. Then all of you follow.”

  “Would it go that smoothly though?” Edna asked, raising her eyebrows. “What if some of those man-rats are there outside? Chances are more than one of them is already inside, too.”

  “I can handle them. Well, if they come one by one.”

  “If? But—”

  “It’s the best plan we have, Edna,” Ein cut in.

  “I get it, still… I’m not used to this kind of plan,” Edna said.

  “Hiding inside a warship requires a plan?” Ben cackled.

  “Say what, you old fart?”

  “Stop it, both of you,” Ein groaned.

  “We often improvise during operations,” Rue lied, earning a dumbfounded look from Ein, who quickly focused on the road again as he made a turn.

  “Oh, I want to hear the life of an operator,” Ben said.

  “Well, for one, we were taught to fight with anything,” Rue said, reaching for both of his swords and handing them to Edna and Ben.

  “Did they teach you to fight with a sword?” Edna asked, softly chuckling.

  “Yes, they do,” Rue said with all the seriousness he could muster. “Just let the steel do the work. Your job is to guide it, not force it with raw strength.”

  Edna nodded, taking Rue’s word deep inside her as she inspected the arming sword.

  Probably shouldn’t have done that, but he could not help himself.

  “Try not to get into combat if necessary. If any of you get into one, just defend and dodge. By the way, when are we stopping?”

  “Stopping? What are you talking about? We're charging straight in,” Ben said.

  Charging straight in?

  Rue turned from both of them toward the road ahead. Ein had brought them through a small intersection, and they burst forward into a clearing—a circular round that surrounded the Arbeau. These people are batshit insane—

  Before Rue could protest, Ein rammed the pedal, slamming his head back, and they accelerated straight at the elephant rat.

  [Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  [Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  [Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  Elrat? That's what they were called? They stood three stories tall next to the fifteen-story apartment with a body worthy of a mammoth. Rue did not even have time to think about what to do with the naming sense. The ambulance thundered forward straight into the Drip rats’ formation. All twelve of them now faced them, and they showcased their belly, standing on two legs. Their cheeks puffed, Acid was building inside those mouths.

  “We’re ramming them?” Rue shouted.

  Ben laughed out loud, and Edna briskly entered the box with the old man.

  “Just remember! I won’t be able to talk soon.” Rue shouted, holding his seat for dear life.

  “What are you talking about—”

  The rats shot their acid. But Ein, who Rue now thought of as a madman, crashed their ambulance first into the line of Drip rats. The ambulance shook. Ein veered the wheel and pulled on the brake, causing the ambulance to veer around with its back exposed to the elephants, who by now must have noticed them.

  “James—” Ein spoke, locking eyes with him. “Good luck—”

  Shadow covered their surroundings, and from the window, he saw the elephant’s feet about to descend upon them, as if the world itself was covered in darkness.

  Rue did not waste any time.

  [Stasis of Obsidian Ice]

  Obsidian skin encased his body. Extreme cold rushed through his veins. His inside froze into nothingness, a state similar to nil. But Rue could move; he clenched his fist and, with his left hand, he pointed the wand straight up.

  Cold vapor burst through his obsidian skin, drafting through the ambulance, freezing over the windows into crisp ice.

  “Shit—” Someone cried out.

  Frost Shrapnels manifested as dark, frigid crystals between the cramped ambulance’s front row, and Rue launched them up, bursting the ambulance’s top. His spell tore through the rat-elephant’s thick sole.

  A guttural wail echoed through the night, amplified by the Elrat’s five trunks. Alien roar shrieked through the night, heightening the already tense atmosphere.

  Rue grasped Ein’s shirt and threw him straight into the ambulance’s box. Ben cried out as the youth’s body slammed him. Edna quickly closed the door.

  But they were far from safe.

  The door opened again.

  “Shit! Kid, your sword—”

  A dark razor-edge sword came into being in Rue’s grip. Vapor of cold formed into a nasty steel that caught the moon’s gleam.

  Rue jumped above the surviving ambulance’s box to face an elephant’s trunk coming down at them. The canister above the Elrat swooshed, pouring some of its content onto the fur-filled Elrat’s back. The Elrat’s body might be huge, but those trunks were not.

  Rue remembered what those trunks were for.

  To extract the excrements of the rats… so maybe it did make sense. So it was important to know, huh…

  Rue brought his sword up, meeting the trunk head-on. His sword sliced through the trunk, and a trail of vapor followed through his strike. Blood splurged. The trunks split into two—its separated part slammed down just beyond the ambulance, and a waterfall of red launched down. The Elrat cried out like a dying trumpet. With one foot full of holes, it still stomped down. Its last three legs were incapable of supporting its giant body. The great creature collapsed sideways, breaking the canisters upon impact.

  One down.

  Dust swirled like a weak tornado draft.

  Rue was about to fire off his Frost Shrapnel again, but then an incessant chittering prattle rose behind him. Rue spun around to find one rat lunging at him. He quickly thrust his sword, splaying the creature apart, and with both hands whirled the sword, cutting apart two other rats.

  Just when he was about to use his wand again, he had to tuck it back into his doctor’s coat pocket. Five rats jumped upward. Five.

  Rue knelt on one knee and spun his sword above him—his sword raked through three rats at once. But the other two managed to tackle him. The first almost made him fall, and the second did so. His body crashed down into two unfortunate rats that were smashed upon impact.

  Letting out a growl, Rue cast Frost Blast on his left hand and quickly flung his magic upward toward the two rats that dared to jump at him again. The rats froze mid-air. Their acidic fur would probably save them, but Rue was below and already swinging his sword. Their ice broke, and their bodies sheared apart along with it.

  Blood coated his sword, and it was ready for more.

  However, this time the rats chose strategy over pure numbers.

  Rue spotted the Elrat’s rear as it slowly retreated from him. He had a fear they would use those trunks to shoot off some kind of crazy acid… Well, in that regard, he was lucky. But the Drip Rats were about to do so.

  Five of them in a crescent formation surrounded him, and their cheeks were already puffing.

  If that's what you want to play…

  Rue held his sword in a throwing motion and whirled it out of his grip. The sword spun and tore into one of the rats in pure luck. That move took the rats aback, and Rue capitalized on that. He bent and picked up a rat's body, well, half-body, and he used it as a shield, charging straight into the nearest one.

  The rats shot out a glob of acid, and Rue thrust forward their brethren’s bodies. A hiss of acidic vapor rose. The rat's body, or more accurately fur, spread the acid apart. Only a small trickle of it smudged Rue’s obsidian skin, to which he felt nothing.

  These rats had the gall to try charging their acid again. Rue threw both bodies at them, hitting two squarely. He rushed forward, resummoning his Obsidian Frost Sword and swinging sideways on a rat. His strike carried through into another, and before their bodies even fell, Rue was already running into the last three. He gouged through a rat’s mouth that was about to spit on him. Its acid exploded through its cheek as the frost sword killed it first.

  Rue finally removed his wand and summoned his Frost Shrapnels. Two of them. He aimed at the last two Drip Rats. Both of them just barely shook off their dead brethren’s bodies, only to have ice shrapnel lodge into their heads, exploding them apart in a burst of blood.

  [You have Slain Acid Rats…]

  Ignoring the prompt, he just noticed that the Elrat he had taken down had not died yet.

  What a bother.

  Rue repositioned his six obsidian shrapnels. They tightened into a sharp crystal that would obey his command. The air was frigid, and Rue narrowed down on his three targets. The two escaping Elrats, who both had no way to dodge or counter, now that they had no bodyguard, and the fallen—

  Someone was there, standing just above the pool of acid caused by the broken canister above the dying Elrat.

  [Blight Rat, Tall Rat—Level 40]

  That rat’s chest was bound with muscle; it looked so tough, yet all of its limbs…

  Lanky, it was so lanky, with its bent-limbed arm slinking, holding two bright green broad-bladed oversized daggers whose edges grew brighter and brighter and brighter… Why?

  The rat fur shone. Its feet glowed brightly, and the pool of acid beneath it slowly receded, traveling through its fur and into its own canister. Then, from that canister, cords connected to both weapons, which gave a vicious glow.

  Rue was confident he could best one of them. With Stasis of Obsidian Ice, he probably could do it. But he did not account for how far these rats would be boosted by the acid.

  According to Ein’s group, the Drip Rats couldn’t function properly once their supply of acid was cut off. That was good news… at least until he thought in reverse. Would this mean the rats were even stronger than they should be if they had plenty of access to acid?

  Well, let's test that.

  Rue raised his wand, and all six Frost Shrapnels zipped forward. Not toward the Tall Rat. But toward the Elrats.

  The Tall Rat clasped both of its hands together, briefly letting go of its daggers. In an instant, a jet of green stream splayed apart Rue’s obsidian shrapnel like a sword. Three of them cut apart in a sizzling hiss, but the other three managed to escape and dug into the two escaping Elrats.

  A cry echoed through the night. Rue’s attention, however, was no longer on the oversized rats.

  He tucked his wand into his pocket and lifted his sword in two hands.

  The Tall Rat, in return, raised both of its daggers.

  Strange, even with his emotions suppressed. A tingling flame burned inside him.

  Green light gathered around the Tall Rat’s feet, and at enhanced speed, it zoomed across toward Rue with its daggers streaking through the night.

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