The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 27 - One problem after another (Patreon)

                                                                                           Alexander North

Okay, so first it’s large spiders, and now it’s large rats?

The creatures literally just look like oversized rats, with their bodies spanning over a meter in length. Their fur is pure white, with strange little icicles on the tips of each strand, unlike the spiders whose fur was made of ice entirely. Meanwhile the rats eyes are pitch black, without the blue rings in them, and their teeth are literal icicles. Sharp ones.

And they’re just staring at me for some reason. Not trying to do anything at all but tilt their heads in what appears to be confusion. They then turn to look at the rubble in front of me – directly at the red silhouettes I can see on the other side – before hissing, proceeding to ignore me in the process as they jump down and begin scratching at the rubble.

Uh… okay?

Wait a second. Pitch black eyes with no blue ring… maybe they only have infra-red vision? Since I have pitch black eyes with a blue ring in them and have both infra-red vision and normal vision.

Interesting.

So there are monsters that don’t have normal sight. As I hadn’t seen one yet, I’d kind of just assumed that they all had both infra-red vision and regular vision.

And speaking of infra-red vision, these rats also give off heat. Which is an odd combination, but I guess they’d need to see each other to be able to work together as they are doing?

Not sure how they differentiate between enemy and friend though.

My thoughts trail off as more rats begin to jump down from the various open pipes and ventilations in between this room and the room above it.

And more rats.

And more rats.

After a few seconds, I find myself staring at the area of rubble now covered in dozens of oversized rats. So many that they’re literally covering the rubble in their futile attempts to break through it.

Despite what should be a frightening sight though, I can’t help but wonder if the base really had this big of a rat problem.

Because that’s just not normal.

I purse my lips in thought for a moment before glancing back in the direction of where the spiders are.

The monsters aren’t likely to be able to get out of there any time soon, unless there’s another ceiling caving in in the room itself. Or unless there’s another exit out of that storage room that I don’t know of. So it should be fine to leave them there while I go out and get stronger from the other monsters.

After all, I doubt I’d be able to fight that spider queen even if I was given the chance. It just looks too strong.

Then again, I could be wrong.

I turn to look back at the rats again before frowning.

Now that I think about it, I thought I did have some body heat still. So why can’t they see me at all?

Also, they have body heat and can only see those with body heat, so how are they going to deal with the wendigos and wraiths, who have no body heat but hunt those with body heat? It just seems wrong. Like a messed-up ecosystem or something.

Then again, nothing about this is natural. It’s literally warping the laws of physics, so…

Also, if I tried to attack those rats, then I get the feeling whether they can see me or not, I’ll end up being eaten alive. Just from the massive number of them.

As if in response to my thoughts, several of the rats begin making squeaking sounds, following which all of the others stop trying to scratch at the rubble – which had been rubbing their claws raw in the process – to look up. And just a couple of seconds later, I hear a loud roar echo from the hole. One that sounds a lot like a brute.

How are they sensing it?

I slowly back up to the entrance of the command room, only for a large brute to jump down the hole a few seconds later and land on some of the rats – squashing them into pastes of pale blue blood and flesh in the process.

I can’t help but grimace at the sight before rushing out of the room while the rats and brute are preoccupied with each other. But not without tossing a glance back in and finding the red silhouettes from earlier behind the rubble having left.

Good. So the brute shouldn’t try smashing through that to get through.

Although the others should be able to deal with a brute just fine if it was able to break through.

And with that, I sprint straight down the hall towards the stairs. Just to find several wendigos lingering around the entrance to the stairwell, each wearing the outfits of cooks surprisingly from the mess hall. Or at least torn up ones.

Well, that’s just great.

The wendigos quickly notice me and begin charging towards me with reckless abandon, making me quickly look around for a room to jump into. And fortunately for me, there is one. So I slam the door open before spinning around and pulling my fist back, just to send it flying forward once I hear the wendigo’s getting close enough.

My fist slams straight into the chest of one of the wendigos, sending it flying a few meters back with a cracking noise – likely signaling some broken bones – before I duck back a little to create more distance between us. The other wendigos quickly block out my sight of the first one, but I do manage to see it trying to get back to its feet again despite the damage I caused.

Damn berserkers.

Also, my punch was stronger than I expected it to be. Maybe I should start trying to get used to my strength whenever I absorb energy from now on?

The wendigos attempt to pile into the room, but they end up slamming into each other due to them all trying at the same time – which is why I wanted to get into a room in the first place. So I rush forwards while they’re clawing at each other and the wall to punch the furthest one inside in the head, making its pitch black eyeballs roll back in its head slightly. I then send a kick straight at the chest of another one, sending it back into the first one I had punched, who had apparently managed to get back to its feet. Only to fall to the ground again with the new one landing on top of it.

I’m.

I punch another one of the wendigos that tries to fill in the gap.

Not.

The second one I punched regains its consciousness – if it can be said to have any – and goes back to clawing at the door with the others before barely making it through, followed by a couple others.

Used to dealing with so many at once!