Reluctant Necromancer

The shine from eyes lit up the dark as my own adjusted. They were scattered throughout the warehouse and immediately began to head our way. Mara did something and the area lit up like we were under the noonday sun. I looked up to see a bright light floating in the middle of the room just under the ceiling. I had to immediately look away lest I blind myself.

I looked to where I’d seen eyes before and was stunned when I saw rats running at us from multiple directions. Except these were the size of a Doberman. Chittering, growling, and loud squeaking echoed throughout the room as they seemed to coordinate. Some slowed down while others sped up. It looked like they’d all hit us at once.

Ashley began pumping lead through everything on her half of our little formation. The echo from the gunshots in the mostly enclosed area already making me deaf. But I saw rats stumble and fall.

Mara turned to the other direction and began peppering them with smaller beams of plasma. Smoking bodies tumbled across the floor as her kills started to add up as well.

To the front John leapt forward, arms shaped like scythes to reap a bloody harvest. I grabbed the bodies that made it closest to us and began to raise them and turn them against the horde.

The rats weren’t confused in the least by my tactic and were quick to tear apart my minions. Usually not before my undead rats were able to kill several of them. Leaving us the ultimate winners in the exchange, but forcing me to continuously raise new undead.

And then with a loud almost roaring squeak from the back of the warehouse the rats retreated. Oliver was able to grab John with a whip of water before he could mindlessly follow the retreating rats.

Bodies littered the warehouse all around us. Dozens of rats had died in that exchange and none of them had made it within ten feet of anyone but John.

I looked around though and I could tell that whatever hadn’t already been raided beforehand had ended up in the rats’ bellies. There was scattered, torn trash all over the floor. Pallets were strewn around with chewed up slats splintered and hanging off. I had small hope that maybe stuff in the industrial sized freezers I could see in the back might have something worth the trip.

I refreshed my stash of minions and we slowly made our way deeper into the warehouse. I kept the rats moving in an outer defensive perimeter around us.

The warehouse was eerily silent after all the commotion from before. And it had all of us on edge. Most of us covered it well. The only tell a slight trembling of the hands. Though when I glanced at Ashley hers were rock steady as she swept her gaze and her rifle around empty aisles of pallets.

“Hey, could you understand them?” I asked.

“Nah. I can’t understand monsters, even animal ones,” Ashley said sadly. “It would have been nice to not have to kill everything for once.”

I just nodded. I understood where she was coming from. It was mentally wearing on all of us to have to constantly take lives, even monstrous ones. But at the same time, I wouldn’t have trusted these things not to attack someone else after they left, or hell to attack us as soon as our guard was down.

We made it to the back of the warehouse and I could finally make out the refrigeration units. They appeared at first glance to be intact. The doors were still in place and nothing seemed to have breached them, though there were teeth marks on several corners. That also didn’t mean that there was anything still in the freezers, but the possibility at least existed.

Still nothing appeared. The rats were nowhere to be seen. That’s when we heard the screaming start outside. No one hesitated. We all turned as one and sprinted back to the front of the warehouse. Apparently we’d been outmaneuvered by some fucking rodents of unusual size.

We quickly burst out of the warehouse and back into the daylight. There were a dozen rats trying to dig and chew their way into Glen’s truck. Thankfully all of our people were crammed into it. Another dozen were trying to rip the doors off of the trailer and get to the little bit of stock back there.

Ashley opened fire on the ones near the trailer. Probably not wanting to accidentally shoot someone in the truck. She’d explained to me once that car bodies and doors don’t actually stop bullets that well. Fortunately it got all of the rats’ attention. Unfortunately it got all of the rats’ attention.

John leapt forward once more. And Mara began moving out to the side with Ashley to get a better angle as she flung beams of plasma at the small horde charging back at us.

Then I felt one of my rats I’d had guarding our back die. Re-die? Whatever. I lost a rat in time for me to turn and see the large rat person jumping at the group like a fucking ninja from anime.

Like literally it was jumping from over ten feet away and the top of its arc reached above my head. It was going to land smack dab in the middle of our formation, closest to me and Oliver.

It landed and I thrust out with my spear at its face. It easily ducked out of the way. But now I had its full attention.

The two of us fell into a deadly dance as I let my skill take over and leaned into the system’s imprinted knowledge. I thrust, twirled, and slashed with my spear. My footwork lead me further away from the others to gain space.

The rat ninja bobbed and weaved around my strikes. It lashed out with its tail which whistled and snapped like a whip in the air. Thankfully I was just out of reach. It took another step forward and then promptly crumpled to the ground as Ashley, without looking, pulled out her pistol and domed the thing in the side of the head.

She returned the pistol to her holster and kept firing her rifle. She winked at me and fired off a few more rounds as the final rats died.

Holy shit I might need to marry that woman. Like today. Now. My ovaries practically exploded inside my body from the want radiating off of me.

[Your party has killed: Tunnel Rats x 32, Rat King x 1]

[Monster kill total: 65/100]

The ding from the system let us know we were officially out of danger.

“Alright. Oliver, go reassure the civvies. John, you’re with me checking the freezers and the rest of the warehouse. I’m not optimistic, but we need to check. Ashley, Grace, take care of the bodies,” Mara called out.

We all got to work. Ashley and I worked together to drag the rats off to the side of the parking lot away from the warehouse and the vehicles. It took a while with there being so many of them, but they were surprisingly light. Or maybe the essences had made us stronger. I’d have to ask Ashley the next time she went to the gym. Oliver helped us out once he’d gotten everyone calmed down in Glen’s truck. He’d decided that leaving them in it was fine for now.

After gathering all of them together, it wasn’t long before we’d harvested thirty-three monster cores. No essence. Though the monster core from the rat king seemed to be a better quality from the others. We really needed to find a use for these things or stop collecting them.

Once that grizzly job was finished we piled the bodies together and had Mara burn the bodies down to ash. She’d found a little food still in the freezers, though one of them had the power line chewed through and had spoiled. We helped John bring the frozen food out and piled it outside Sheryl’s ice cream truck.

Our trip out here wasn’t a complete bust. But we’d be returning a lot more emptyhanded than we’d anticipated. I hoped someone smarter than us was working on a solution when we got back.