War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  Mairin had guessed what he was trying to do and quickly led the giant rat back to him.

  “See if this works,” he shouted as he emptied the bucket of water onto the passing rat.

  The woefully small amount of water met the searing flames in a loud hiss, sending out a billow of smoke. But Seiki felt a glimmer of hope as he saw a tiny patch of fire fizzle out, revealing an opening of black fur. Without having to be told, Ippei took the chance to run in and hit it with his two-strike Swerve Cut, before letting out a delighted exclamation when the move dealt over 700 damage—just as it should.

  Yamura also managed to get a charged arrow in, before the flames spread over the opening and closed it.

  “Uh oh, I’m also out of energy,” said Mairin, who was now back in human form. Her cheeks were flushed and she was panting, which meant she could no longer Dash, and Seiki quickly stepped in once more to reclaim the rat’s attention.

  Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 14857/18990.

  The strategy was working somewhat, but it was still much too slow. Seiki could not imagine doing the same thing ten times in a row to bring it down to the required 5%, if that was still the condition after all.

  “Your armguard is certainly expensive,” said Ippei to Yamura.

  The Hinezumi, now fully covered in flames again, rushed at Seiki, forcing him to turn and sprint around the well. Tanking was more difficult now, since Parrying did not protect him from the flames, and any contact meant Kentaro had to waste more precious energy to top him up.

  “I doubt we’ll get there,” said Mairin. She snuck a second bucket of water on the rat. Ippei was not in an ideal position to get a strike in, but Yamura—who was standing out of melee range—managed to hit the opening with another two arrows.

  That, however, caused the rat to change direction and go after the ryoushi.

  “Hey!” Seiki ran after it, deciding to stop worrying about energy and keep attacking, and trusting that Kentaro’s dwindling energy would be enough to keep them up through all the fire damage.

  The Hinezumi pauses!

  Seiki grunted and stopped before he got too close, since he knew he could not afford to take a tail whip without full health. Yamura had been trying to flee, but the rat was already in range.

  The hair-raising Squeak rang out, freezing the ryoushi in place as he was taking a dive out of the way. The rat wasted no time in activating its spin, sending its burning tail whipping around. It clipped one corner of the living quarters, before smashing through the adjacent barrels and wall right where Yamura was.

  Ippei cursed. One pillar, holding up the living quarters, instantly went up in flames. For a moment, no one could see whether the ryoushi had been caught in the attack.

  Swirling bouts of sparkly white Heal shot out toward the debris. “Don’t die on me now,” cried Kentaro in alarm.

  There was a bout of heavy coughing, before Yamura shouted, “Still here!” He had fortunately landed behind a pile of sacks, which had blocked a decent amount of damage from the rat’s tail. Still, ryoushi wore much lighter armor than melee classes, and Yamura’s health had dropped to below a fifth.

  This was turning into a complete mess. Seiki, with his energy somewhat recharged, caught up with the rat and swung out his Hikari once more in an attempt to lure it back to the yard at the back of the temple.

  The Hinezumi spun around faster than Seiki had expected. He grimaced and stabbed his sword down in a Vertical Spike to stun the boss, just in time to save himself. The rat’s sharp claw froze in mid-air just inches away, but the fire still seared his armor.

  Behind them, Ippei had managed to splash a third bucket of water on the rat. But as soon as the stun effect expired, it paused in preparation for a Squeak and forced them out of range once more.

  “I don’t think this is how they designed the fight,” said Ippei.

  Seiki was starting to agree. It was too difficult, and too chaotic, and with their whole rhythm being off, he doubted they were going to last much longer.

  The fire-rat gave him no time to think and decided to dash in for a bite. Seiki made a face as he Parried its teeth away with his Hikari, wincing as the burning sensation he could not tell was hot or cold washed across his arms.

  Somewhere behind the rat, one wall of the living quarters collapsed noisily as the fire destroyed the supporting pillar. Seiki took two steps to his right as he tried to reposition everything. “Hey, over here!”

  The rat took a step toward him.

  “You know…” said Kentaro. The houshi had just gulped down an energy potion, and hesitated as Seiki met his eyes. “It might be a silly idea. But there are better ways to put out a fire. I mean, when your frying pan catches fire, you don’t pour water on it. You…” Kentaro trailed off and looked behind him.

  Seiki followed his glance toward the high-roofed prayer hall. As soon as his eyes fell on the building at the center of the instance, Seiki instantly understood what the houshi was suggesting. “We’ll try it,” he shouted to his friend. “Yamura, get out of the way. We’re going indoors.”

  With the burning giant rodent on his heels, Seiki sprinted as fast as he could toward the prayer hall, his mind racing to evaluate how he was going to pull this off. In past instances, he knew the rat could tear its way through doors and walls and follow them into buildings, but he had never seen it completely destroy a structure.

  Throwing the shoji door to one side, Seiki leapt onto the polished wooden planks of the prayer hall. Eight pillars in two straight rows held up the roof, and from his rough estimate they were perfectly spaced eight feet apart. With a quick glance at the setup of the building hall, it suddenly became very clear to him what he needed to do.

  Seiki squeezed his fists. He knew now why the fire-rat had the spin ability and the tail lash. It was in times like these that he really wished he had the samurai Brace. His friends were rushing after him, a few of them coming round the other side, but there was no more time for preparations. The demonic rodent had already crashed through the wall, burning all the shoji paper around it as it entered, looking like something out of a fiery hell. Seiki gauged the distance between the pillars once more, before quickly downing a healing potion.

  The refreshingly cool liquid filled his health, and he would need all he could get at the moment. Smashing the potion bottle against the yet unspoiled temple wood floor, he positioned himself right in the middle of the first four pillars and turned to face the rat.

  He took a deep breath. “Do your worst,” he said. The Hinezumi was staring at him with its crimson glowing eyes. As expected, the rat paused, and Seiki winced as it let out its high-pitched Squeak.

  The frequency sent grating shivers through his nervous system, rendering his whole body numb as if in sleep paralysis. Knowing that was far from the worst part of it, Seiki gritted his teeth as he prepared for what was about to come next.

  There was nothing he could do. A major part of tanking was to get hurt, and Seiki was slightly relieved to feel Kentaro’s warm Ward tightening the air around his body right before the spinning tail caught him with the full force of a runaway train.

  The impact knocked the wind out of his lungs and swept him halfway across the prayer hall. Unable to opt for a better landing position, he crashed heavily on his side as debris rained down around him in tiny freezing cuts.

  Seiki drew a deep breath and waited for the paralysis to expire, hoping that the rat would need time to recover from the spin before it resumed looking for a target. Even with the Ward reducing some of the damage, his health had dipped below a quarter and he could not feel anything below his shoulders. He could still glance, though, and was slightly satisfied to find four of the pillars in the southern half of the prayer hall on fire.

  This confirmed his suspicion of how the encounter was designed. Now he just had to do it once more on the northern end and that would hopefully bring down the whole building.

  From somewhere he could not
see, Mairin’s Spirit Mend gave him three smaller bouts of health. As the numbness slowly subsided, Seiki tried to push himself off the ground. The rat was already turning to face him. He sighed again. As much as he liked tanking, he was totally not looking forward to taking another of those tail hits.

  A hand helped him up from the floor. Ippei had slipped in during the chaos and was now standing beside him, his Jade Steel firmly gripped in his right hand.

  “Stand aside,” said the samurai grimly, his sight fixed on the rat, making eye contact with it and claiming its attention. “I’ll take this one.”

  Seiki tried hard not to feel relieved. Technically, with Kentaro’s and Mairin’s heals coming in, he would most likely be able to survive another blow. But Ippei’s health was full, and there was no time to argue.

  Without further prompt, Seiki leapt out of the way just as the Hinezumi made a dash toward them, and Ippei let out a Battle Shout and Braced himself to halve the incoming damage. The Squeak pierced the air. Then the tail whipped around once more, and Seiki felt the excitement rush of the Battle Shout speeding up his Slide as he skidded out of damage range and almost crashed through the shoji wall on the other side.

  Now that he was no longer the one taking a direct hit, he had time to notice that the tail lash had taken chunks of wood off the pillars as well, which meant the building was going to collapse faster than he had anticipated. Without thinking, Seiki picked himself up as soon as he could and spun around, mapping out a Slide back past the giant rat.

  Ippei had been slammed against the other wall, his health only slightly above ten percent. Seiki swerved to grab his friend and pulled him further away from the burning pillars.

  “We got it?” Ippei gasped as soon as he could talk.

  Seiki glanced back once again to check. All eight pillars were on fire. “Yeah, we got it.”

  The roof is about to collapse!

  The air was starting to get too hot and thick to breathe in. The Hinezumi recovered from its spin and looked around for the nearest target. It was still the ronin and the samurai. Seiki could spot the red glow of its eyes behind the gray haze that was quickly filling the place. Ippei was still unable to get up, and Seiki ran out to face the rat before it could make a leap at both of them.

  It was all about positioning.

  “Hey,” he said. The rat immediately rushed in for an attack, and Seiki pulled up his Hikari with both hands and Parried away its claw.

  Twisting the sword downward in midair, Seiki stabbed the blade toward the floor in a Vertical Spike as soon as the rat landed back on the ground, feeling the bout of energy rushing through his body and arms. The familiar shockwave burst out all around the tip of his sword, freezing the rodent in place right in the middle of the temple.

  The roof is about to collapse!

  “Stay right there,” Seiki said. The rat snarled at him as it struggled to move.

  Watch out! The roof is collapsing!

  Hastily mapping out a long Slide, Seiki burst forward and pulled Ippei from the floor as he used his bare-handed Focused Strike to break through the nearest shoji wall. Flying bits of cracked wood and torn paper whisked past them as they shot out from underneath the crumbling structure. The cooler air outside splashed on them like a refreshing dive in a pool, but Seiki had no time to appreciate it as they skidded over the charred dirt ground.

  Without the pillars, the weight of the tiled roof started to crush everything under it on its way down, and in a long and thundering roar the prayer hall collapsed on itself—the force of the destruction shaking the whole temple like an earthquake.

  There was a moment of absolute silence. Blinking to readjust his sight to the dimness outside, Seiki propped himself from the ground with his elbows and took a deep breath to clear his head. Despite everything feeling like soot, the fresh cold air was welcoming. Beside him, Ippei was coughing as he slowly struggled to his feet.

  After so much commotion, the sudden lack of sounds and movement seemed eerily out of place. Seiki glanced behind him as he picked himself up. The prayer hall had been reduced to a dark monstrous pile of broken wood and tiles, like the carcass of a prehistoric animal in the middle of the temple.

  “Okay, that was pretty spectacular,” Mairin said, her voice strangely loud and clear in the silence.

  Yamura and Kentaro were standing to one side, staring at the scene of destruction in front of them.

  “Did we kill it?” asked Yamura.

  Before he finished his question, what was left of the prayer hall suddenly exploded upward. The giant rat burst out from the midst of debris, soot-black, its eyes shining like rubies in the dark.

  Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 11913/18990.

  Yamura hissed and reached for an arrow. “It’s got more than half its health left!”

  Seiki’s heart, however, leapt in relief. The rat was no longer on fire.

  The Hinezumi tried to free itself, its thin yet muscular limbs clawing their way through the wreck, kicking pieces of wood in every direction. Kentaro warily retreated further out of range.

  The rat then paused in the middle of its attempt, simply to let out a small flaming breath, which burned like a cigarette being lit in the middle of a winter night. Immediately, the tip of its whiskers started glowing ember-red.

  “Unload now!” Ippei shouted, drawing his sword and running in before the flame could spread. “Shout in ten seconds.”

  This was part of their old strategy, and the group needed no further instructions. Collapsing the prayer hall had given time for their abilities and energy to recharge, and they positioned themselves where they needed to be around the rat as Ippei let out his Battle Shout.

  “Now!” Ippei cried, and extra energy and strength from the ability pumped through Seiki’s veins, coupled with the usual exhilaration like the feeling of going very fast on an open road.

  Seiki shot forward with his combination of Sliding Focused Strike, spending more energy than usual for maximum impact speed, and ending with the side-slashing Sweeping Blade. The Hikari shone with light as it tore through the rat’s thick fur, leaving a long gash that spilled thick purplish blood onto the ground. Seiki drew back out of instinct to avoid the potentially poisonous blood, and had time to note with satisfaction that with boosted stats from Ippei’s shout, his triple combination broke a thousand points in damage.

  The rat let out a shrill squeal as it thrashed about. The protective flame, already reignited, now covered its head and was creeping down its body. Ippei was landing successive sword slashes and arrows continued to lodge themselves in the rat’s side. Seiki used the last of the Battle Shout effect to stab it once more with his triple combination.

  Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 1244/18990.

  The Hinezumi pauses!

  Kentaro hit it with his Hinder, slowing it down enough to delay its Squeak, giving the rest of the group time to get a few more strikes in. Out of energy, Seiki stabbed it with his sword, and the rat suddenly let out a long screech.

  Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 950/18990.

  The Hinezumi becomes enraged!

  This was to be expected when the rat reached 5%. Seiki breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized the familiar cue. Now it was time to get away and try to stay alive while waiting for Joji’s magical drawn cat to kill it and end the encounter.

  “Run,” shouted Ippei, and the group dashed out of range before the rat could resume attacking.

  Perhaps the amount of time they had spent trying to get the rat’s health down to the required threshold meant that Joji had long finished his drawing, because the cat was already there as soon as the condition was met.

  “Over here, kitty,” Mairin called out in delight as she spotted it.

  The drawn cat, large enough to fill one whole side of the building, peered out from behind the kitchen with its painted yellow eyes. Joji had made it an orange tabby this time. Being created from paint and paper, it
was entirely 2D, but was equipped with the full range of movements of a normal cat, making it quite a surreal thing to behold.

  Watching the cat and rat face off was apparently Mairin’s favorite part of the instance. “Go, kitty. You can do it!”

  The painted cat leapt forward with a growl, its claws outstretched. Normally, it would be able to kill the demonic rat in a few vicious swipes, and players could now sit back and enjoy the scene.

  In the middle of the blackened pile of wood, the rat let out a piercing screech. The fire had now reached the middle of its body. The cat ran in and pounced, and the demon rodent returned an attack with its flaming claw.

  This was not going to work, Seiki realized, almost a little too late.

  There was a soft crackling sound as the paper cat caught on fire upon contact with the rat.

  “What?” cried Mairin.

  The shoji wall that made up the cat’s whole body was fine and thin, and within seconds it silently burned to a pile of black dust.

  Mairin stared in horror. “You have got to be kidding me!”

  At her voice, the Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite], HP 950/18990, its health frozen at exactly 5%, turned toward her.

  “Kill the thing!” cried Mairin in anger.

  Yamura let loose an arrow and the kitsune girl dashed in at the rat’s unprotected back legs.

  With smoky dust, bite and flying arrows, their moves definitely connected, but the rat was apparently no longer taking damage.

  Hinezumi [Level Unknown Rare Elite]. HP 950/18990.

  The Hinezumi becomes highly enraged!

  “This still isn’t the end of it?” said Ippei in disbelief. He had his hands on his sword, but seemed at a loss as what to do.

  The rat spun around to face the samurai. What it always did in the last stage of the final phase was to start charging randomly at players, obliterating everything in its way. Neither tanking nor kiting was very reliable from this point onward, since the giant rat would unpredictably switch targets.

  All you could do was run, which was what Ippei did. The fire-rat, now completely covered in flames again, clambered after him from the middle of the wooden ruins.