The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 50.2 - Human versus Rat Part II (Patreon)

                                                                                          Alexander North

I push myself to my feet, ignoring the pain in the process as I draw both of my knives and train my eyes on the approaching rat, whose own beady eyes are locked on me as well. And after seeing me reach my feet, the rat actually slows down a little, blood still trailing in its wake.

“Terminal, keep my energy level shown on the corner of my vision,” I whisper before turning around and sprinting away from the rat, making it begin chasing after me. And after a few seconds, letting my injuries slowly heal themselves, I jump onto the wall, then off of it again to the other side of the tunnel where I land and immediately aim and throw a knife at the now-confused rat’s eyes.

The knife makes it part of the way into its eye, causing it to let out a pained squeal before the eyelid immediately claps down on it, shattering the knife that was already a bit brittle due to the extreme cold in the process.

I grimace at that, wishing for the first time that the knives were made of better material like our swords are before letting out a relieved sigh as the pain from my wounds finally vanish completely. And a glance at the corner of my vision tells me that it took up over half of my energy to do so. Which doesn’t bode well for the rest of the fight.

At the same time though, the rat seems to be slowing down. And despite the knife not going as far in as I’d hoped, part of it still remains embedded in the rat’s eye, blinding it in that one eye.

The rat constantly shakes its head in what I’m assuming is an attempt to shake the fragment of the knife out of its eye, making it difficult for me to aim my other knife. So instead, I rush past it while it’s distracted to make a break for my sword.

A loud squeal echoes from behind me, followed by a crashing sound as I grab my sword before turning around, just to find the rat rushing for me already.

I hurry up and sheathe my sword before aiming my knife and throwing it directly at the rat’s remaining eye. But it simply swipes its icy spike through the air in front of it to knock the knife away mid charge.

Guess it was too much to expect it to work more than once.

I unsheathe my sword again and quickly attempt to sprint out of the way of its ice spike, just for its tail to suddenly whip out around its body and smack into my side, sending me flying into the wall on the other side of the tunnel.

“Fuck!” I grunt out before coughing out blood and pushing myself back to my feet as quickly as possible, ignoring my wounds in the process which are already starting to heal up a bit again. But I’m not sure if I’ll have enough energy to heal everything this time. So I rush around the rat while its still trying to stop its momentum to turn – hooray for its large body – and head directly for the spider queen’s corpse that is several meters away from us.

A few seconds later, the rat lets out what sounds like an angry squeal – likely having figured out what I’m trying to do – before I hear it running straight towards me. But I proceed to ignore it as I straight up leap for the spider queen’s corpse, clearing four entire meters in my jump and landing on its side where I start absorbing its energy right away.

The rat lets out another enraged squeal bordering on a roar this time before seemingly speeding up judging by the tremors vibrating through the tunnel.

I grit my teeth at the pain from my wounds until I feel that completely swallowed up by the immense satisfaction of the spider queen’s energy. And that feeling envelops me completely until I feel both myself and the spider queen’s corpse being sent flying by the rat. But most of the attack was tanked by the spider queen’s corpse, leaving me flying off of its body into a wall again with less force than the last time. And a lot more energy to heal myself.

So I quickly get up, shaking my head to dislodge the feeling of the energy coursing through my body as I focus on the rat again. Just to find it glaring at me with its one remaining eye practically blazing with a pale blue energy filled with hatred.

“Guess you didn’t like having your prey stolen from you after the hunt,” I tell it, a hint of amusement in my voice. And the creature actually seems to understand it as the hatred somehow grows stronger and it immediately charges at me, albeit a touch slower than before, likely due to its wounds with a loud scratchy roar echoing from its maw.

I can’t help but smirk as a wave of excitement fills me up at the thought of absorbing its energy as well before I rush over towards it, my sword raised in the air to strike. And this time when I sidestep its icy spike, I manage to dodge its tail as well while maneuvering around it to then slide underneath its belly where I stab my sword straight into one of the still bleeding wounds it got there from the spider queen.

The rat lets out an ear shattering screech that makes me feel liquid – likely blood – begin dripping down my ears as it suddenly drops its body weight onto my lower half, which is still underneath it by then despite my slide. And when it does, I immediately hear a crunch, followed by my own scream as the pain of both of my legs breaking immediately floods my senses and my eyes are attracted to my own bone sticking out of my armor.

I can’t help the tears flooding to my eyes at the pain, but through sheer force of will I push through, dragging myself away from the creature as the energy I had just absorbed from the spider queen quickly gets to work healing the wounds. But even with that, it only manages to force my bones back into my body and do enough healing to not make them shatter just from standing up.

I’m not the only one hurt though, as the rat hasn’t moved since collapsing on my legs.

Please be dead…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord Invite

Top Web Fiction

Table of Contents