Tunnel Rat Chapter 125 Rough Draft (Patreon)

EDIT: This didn't paste correctly, paragraphs missing. Off to find them and do the final rewrite.



A little short, but those boys were pretty fragile when I worked out their stats compared to Milo. But actions have consequences. Those poor stripped bolts demanded vengeance.

Not everyone agreed with him though. "This is why you're always going to be picked last for team duels, Gehlter. Your damned fart cloud screws up the rest of us." Squiggel and Bunt both cursed at him as they stopped casting Blazing Arc and changed to Ball Lightning.  The former spell needed a target to cast at, and all they had was a large area of green clouds. Two man-high balls of sparkling blue Storm mana rolled across the ground and into the cloud of gas. A bare skull rolled out of the cloud and stopped at their feet.

Bunt felt his tail roll curl up. Killing someone in a duel was bad, bad, bad. He felt sick. "Oh hell, what have we done?" It was almost a relief when the skull exploded, knocking them all off of their feet and putting splinters of bone into tender places. The green mists were dispelled as Gehlter lost his concentration on the spell, and the imposing figure of Tallsqueak stepped forward.

Squiggel noted with approval that Tallsqueak was doing things properly. Small threat backed up by power? Check. Proper entrance to the fight? Check. Eyes glowing with barely contained anger? Check. Object of power held high in preparation to smite your enemies? Got that too! All in all, he'd have gotten an A+ in "Classical Ways to Cow your Enemies". Squiggel wondered when he'd taken the class.

Tallsqueak stood and glared at them, a large wrench held high in the air, his lustrous fur standing up with static electricity, an angry look on his face. The runes on his old robe were glowing and he had conjured armor over half of his body. He looked in their direction and spoke low and menacing. "Let's see what you have, sparkle boys. Take your best shots."

Gehlter started to cast a spell, but Bunt kicked him hard in the shin. "Our turn, Fartcaster. " He nodded at Squiggle and both of them began casting Blazing Arc, taking their time to pump up the mana to Overload. Huge arcs of electrical power jumped from their hands to Tallsqueak, running through him and down into the ground. The smell of ozone was strong in the air. When their eyes could see again from the sudden glare, they expected to see their opponent unconscious or stunned and burnt.

Instead, Tallsqueak was still standing there, holding up his large wrench, as if nothing had happened. He lowered it slightly. "Not bad, want to try again? Or should I start beating on you?" Neither apprentice mage hesitated to cast their best spell again, this time using every bit of mana they could shove into it. Again, the spells arced out, and again they seemed to hit Tallsqueak, without him taking any damage. The two storm mages felt ill from mana depletion, and it was occurring to their small minds that maybe this skulker wasn't really a skulker. Neither noticed a long copper wife connecting the large machine and Milo's spanner that he held in his bone covered hand.

Tallsqueak starting walking towards them. Gehlter turned to run. No rule said you had to stay in a duel and get your head beat in, and he'd already used his best spell. Tallsqueak made spoke softly. "Oh no, if you start a fight, you finish a fight. That's a rule I learned from Capt. Pike." He flicked his wrist and a small bone spear appeared in his hand. As he threw it at Gehlter, the other two wizards saw runes glow along its length just before it flashed across the distance, going all the way through the fleeing Death Mage's leg and shattered against a large rock, breaking the stone.

Milo tossed another exploding skull, knocking down the two Storm Mages, then detached the copper wire from his spanner and advanced on them. As they struggled to get up, each took a minor blow to the side of the head from a heavy Engineer's Spanner. Gehlter was crawling away when the wrench of vengeance knocked him out and ensured he'd be seeing a healer for the next few days.

As the dust cleared and the fight ended, Milo heard shouts and the sound of many feet. Several young ratkin wearing white tunics with a red cheese wheel on the front and back. "Out of the way! Emergency First Aid crew is here and ready to save the day! Where does it hurt?" Milo pointed at the three apprentices and the half dozen junior healers gleefully descended upon them.

High above, in the Tower of Strife, two figures observed from a balcony. One was dressed in a lovely black silk robe with glowing green trim, low cut in the front. The other preferred a classic blue robe with high collar and silver-white trim.

"My, wasn't that exciting? A mysterious stranger challenges three of our students to a duel and beats them handily with strange magics. I'm tingling all over." He sniffed. "Ah, and nothing like the smell of fresh ozone."

"We simply must invite him up to dinner, dear. I'm in love with that exploding skull spell he used. I think it must be some variation on the classic Poisoned Skull that old Professor Pestilence used to teach."