Chapter 30: Battle Against the Rats
The giant launched himself at the first ratling.
His feet landed on its head, pushing it into the ground and bursting it with a squealch.
Unsatisfied, he swung his axe down, cleaving the next ratling in half.
Blood jetted in the sky, covering Liam and the hillside.
Charon watched the brute turn to backhand a ratling that ran past him. His tongue was running across his lips, savoring the taste of the crimson fluid.
Not wanting to be left out of the fight, Emerius dashed in, his two blades striking out at the nearest beasts. One lost its arm and another its leg, the whirling dervish finally being unleashed on creatures weak enough to be easily cut.
Spotting another foe, he pushed off the hillside, spinning in the air as he came down behind it. He jerked his swords behind himself, skewing the ratling in two places.
Darius, the final member, was slower to attack. By the time the others had killed two, he had only begun to engage one.
He calmly let it approach, watching it lash out with a serrated dagger. With practiced motions, he deflected the strike and moved in, his sword piercing through the humanoid’s gut and coming out the other side.
Darius deftly kicked the corpse away just in time to parry a spearhead streaking towards his leg, following it with a riposte that relieved the ratling of its head.
Charon watched, dumbfounded, as the three made quick work of the initial clash.
’It’s like they are masters of death, cutting through the horde like butter!’