Tunnel Rat Chapter 118 Raw, just written, not edited (Patreon)

It took a few minutes for an excited Larry to calm down. Milo finally asked him about his house, and Larry sat him down on a pillow and gave his head one last pat. Larry sat on his bed, happy to show off his house.

"This is Larry's special house. No one else lives alone except for Larry. That makes this house special! Larry has three pillows, his comfy bed, and his picture of Justin. Larry has some pet bugs and his lucky rock here too! It's a long crawl to get out of Larry's house, but Larry likes it that way. Milo agreed with him.

"This is like my house where I grew up. No one else goes there, just me. And you have to get to it down a long tunnel. It's safe and cozy that way."

Larry looked at him oddly, slowly thinking. "Did people make you live alone like they did Larry? Larry used to have more friends, but now it's only Larry. Sometimes Justin. Sometimes Tall Squeak."

Larry got very excited and jumped up and down until he fell over. "Larry has two friends! Larry has two friends."

Seeing Larry fall over reminded Milo of the slippers he had found. As soon as he pulled out the pink weasel slippers, Larry got excited. "For Larry? Present for Larry?" He could barely sit still as Milo tried to stretch them over his feet. Somehow they fit with room to spare and Larry jumped and began dancing around the little cave. "Special Hamster Hop slippers!" Larry managed to do the Happy Hamster Hop without falling over until the very end.

That gave Milo another idea. He really didn't want to have to spend an hour a day dancing around. But Larry might. "I have another special thing, Larry. But to make the magic work, you have to Hamster Hop each day for a full bell."

"Larry can do that. Larry did the Happy Hamster Hop yesterday for three bells!"

Milo took out the Fae Ring of Dancing and put it on Larry's finger, watching it expand to fit. "Blue Box? Larry got a Blue Box!"

You have accepted the Fae Ring of Dancing
You have gained the skill: Dancing

Well, what are you waiting for, twinkletoes? Show everyone what you can do!

Larry jumped up and began Hamster Hopping. "Larry can Dance!" Milo could see a small difference in Larry already. He hoped that the bonus agility would help his friend even more.

Two bells rang out, one after another. Milo stood up quickly. It was almost time for fighting class! "Larry, you need to dance until three bells, can you do that!"

Larry hopped twice, and took a step to the left. He nodded. "Larry will do that, then Larry will go eat and find Tall-Squeak. Tall-Squeak needs to scurry fast. Go to end of Larry's tunnel and go to your right side and follow wall until you see the Barracks." Milo hurried off as Larry continued his dancing. It took several minutes to get to the end of the twisting tunnel Larry lived in, but eventually he was back in the Hollow and found his way to the Barracks and the Fighting arena.

Players and NPC's were already gathering. Some of the players were excited, but several of them, including Black Whisker, seemed sullen and angry. Milo set down his pack and began to do the stretching that the Tailmaster had shown them. Blackwhisker and his group walked over

"So, teacher's pet. We were thinking we don't want to do all these warm up exercises."

Milo shrugged. "Then don't do them. I don't care if you stay clumsy and die when you try to fight monsters."

That wasn't the expected respons. "You don't care? What sort of teacher are you if you don't care?"

Milo stood up. Why were these people wasting time? "No, I don't care. Why should I care about you, if you don't care about you? Either get better or don't. Now please leave the arena so I can begin warm ups."

Blackwhisker grinned. "And if we don't move? What then?"

Milo walked around him and clapped several times the way the Tailmaster did. "Then you stand there looking silly." The rest of the class began to do the excercises with Milo. Eventually after standing around for a minute, Blackwhisker and the others moved to the back and began to do them as well, but putting in minimal effort. Milo didn't feel as tired as he had yesterday. As the third bell rang he simply felt refreshed, even though all the others were covered in sweat.

Gilad came into the ring, walking slowly. He looked at Milo. "You saunter into my arena with stylish new pantalooms and fur that you groomed for hours? Did you think that would impress me?"

Milo was sure he was missing something, but he answered the question. "My other pants were stinky, and these aren't. And I was stinky so I took a bath." From the crowd of whelps came from snickers and chuckles. A voice from the back yelled, "Teacher's pet has stinky pants, I wonder how that happened."

Gilad felt he was missing some important piece of information. Still, it was obvious that Tall-Squeak had not been working as hard as he worked the others. He would rectify that. "Today we will start with light sparring. Pick a partner and surround the ring, practicing your tail patterns and dodges. No claws. Tallsqueak, I have a special assignment for you. I want you to spar and not strick with claws. Fight how you like, but do not strike with your claws."

Milo moved to the center of the room, wondering who he was going to fight. Gilad pointed to where Blackwhisker and MickyD were sparring next to ThiefofCheese and MightyMarmot. "You four, come here. You will fight Tall-Squeak. You may use claws and tails to attack. I have healing potions for after the fight, so don't worry about hurting your opponent. Leave the ring if you are hurt, or yell out for the bout to end. Begin."

ThiefofCheese was on Milo's far left. As soon as Milo heard 'Begin' he sprinted at him, leaped and spun, his tail slashing hard againts the surprised opponents face. Blood was drawn, and as his opponent moved backwards a step, Milo followed up with a brutal kick to ThiefofCheese's stomach. The stunned player just rolled for the edge of the ring and curled into a ball. Milo quickly backpedalled, putting distance between himself and the remaining three opponents. They were cautious now, and working together, he wouldn't get another easy victory like that one.

This wasn't a fight to first blood. Gilad urged them on and kept them fighting. There was no rest. The three players were only in the first tier and had stats only half of what Milo had. He was faster and better trained than they were. But they had numbers, and could use their claws. Milo swiped with his tail, getting in the occaisonal hit, but he had to keep moving. His oppenents had forgotten about their tails and simply tried to claw at him or tackle him. Milo saw no reason he couldn't use his arms to block their attacks, he simply couldn't strike back with his hands. Again and again the three of them came close, leaving scratches on Milo's hands and arms. He took several swipes to his body, but they only had weak claws, and the cuts were shallow.

Eventually, he knew he would wear out, from loss of blood and stamina. He was putting out a lot more energy that his opponents. But a curious thing was happening-he wasn't getting tired. His heart rate was a little faster and he was breathing hard, but he was barely sweating. His opponents were far worse. Their steps dragged on the ground and more and more Gilad's voice pushed them to charge Milo. Once he knew he had an advantage, Milo waited for the opportunity to take one of them out.

Blackwhisker volunteered to be his next victim. Gilad's voice cut through the noise of the fight. "Why do you fear him, Blackwhisker? I've heard your boasts and now is your chance." The larger ratkin charged Milo, the other two were slow to do so, panting hard. As Blackwhisker came at him, Milo feinted with his claws, sidestepped, and wrapped his tail around Blackwhiskers ankles. As he hit the ground face-first, Milo leaped and landed with both feet on Blackwhiskers head, driving it into the ground. Milo tumbled foward, coming to his feet as the other two advanced.

MickyD and MightyMarmot were exhausted. The bout had only been going on for a dozen minutes, but it was like an all-out sprint. Each of them had bruises where Milo's tail had slapped at each of them repeatedly. They looked at their opponent, knowing that Blackwhisker was out of the fight. Tall-Squeak was barely breathing hard, and to their surprise, the small gashes on his arms were healing. He was favoring one leg as he moved, but otherwise looked ready to continue.

Marmot stumbled to the edge of the arena and collapsed. "I yield".
MickyD just slumped to his knees. "Yeah, me too. Yield. Damned if I fight you again. You're psycho dude, how do you fight like that?"

Gilad walked to the center of the ring. "He can fight like that because he's trained more and has a higher level. You three are a mix of level 3 and level 4. Tallsqueak is level 7 and probably has twice the health and stamina of the rest of you. I don't know all of his skills, but its obvious to anyone that he has trained his Sense Danger skill and raised his Regeneration. These are things all ratkin can do. If that is you work hard, and take on dangerous quests, or kill dangerous creatures."

He held up one of Milo's arms. "Look at him, barely wounded after blocking dozens of slashes and taking many small wounds." He squinted at Milo, noticing his suspiciously clean pants and still shiny fur. "And I'm sure he has a few secrets, but don't we all? Let's get some healing potions into you four. You should see some good improvement in your claw attacks after this. The rest of you, switch partners, and do your claw exercises. Tall-Squeak, we must talk."

His four oppenents were each given two small healing potions and a stamina potion, and sent to rest. Gilad led Milo away to where they could talk. "You seem to be favoring one leg. Are you wounded?"

Milo touched his leg, finding the sore spot, and realizing he had been limping slightly. "That was from mushroom gathering, I got stung by a spider."

Gilad wrapped him on the head twice, but lightly. "No, you did not get 'Stung by a spider'. You were bitten. Spiders inject poison with their fangs. You must have found a named spiderling in the caverns for it to effect you that way. The only spiders who have stings are from the Royal line, and they certainly do not hunt the area we train beginners in gathering. And there is no reason you would go to the far tunnels." He looked at Milo, waiting for him to confirm it was a spider bite.

Milo thought back to the fight. "No, I'm certain it was a stinger that got me. The Deathmonger dropped on me and stung me in the leg, it was really painful, and the poison almost got me. But I'm better now."

Gilad stared at him. "Who sent you to the far caverns?"

"Well, I needed to get some mushrooms for the Bleusnout, he had a list, and sent me a little ways past the big gathering fields. He also said to run if I saw a spider. And Old Healer needed some mushrooms too, and mentioned a cave it would be bad to go into. And...well...I think I went to far and didn't run when I should have. It was my fault I got in trouble."

The tail-master considered the youngster in front of him. How could he tell all the others to push themselves and work to get better, and then chastize this one for doing exactly that? Surviving the poison had obviously given him the abilities of better regeneration and cleansed his body.

"You survived and didn't die. That is important. Did you learn a lesson about fighting spiders of the Royal bloodlines?"

Milo considered. What had he learned. "Drop on them so they can't drop on you, kill the Deathmongers first, and always have an escape route."

Gilad patted him on the shoulder. "Yes, all good things to do. You've had an exciting day. Go get some food in you, you look thinner."Milo nodded, he was famished after the fight and it was breakfast time.

He was a dozen steps away when Gilad said something else. "We shall have to deal with them though. I will gather Justin and some of the guards, and you can lead us to them. We cannot leave a pair of Royals alive, so close to the Hollow."

Milo turned back to talk. "Oh, I got them all. It was hard, but all three of the big ones are dead. It really upset the rest of the spiders though."

Gilad looked at Tall-Squeak. "Three? You killed three Royal spiders?"

Milo nodded. "The ones with the stingers, yes. One was an Assassin, and two others were Black Widows."

Gilad sighed heavily. "Of course you did. Go get breakfast, Tall-Squeak. Try not to do anything dangerous at breakfast."

Milo ran off to eat. Maybe it was little fishies day?