Marina led the way, as silently as possible, with Ravi and Henrique walking right behind her. [M]
The squeaks of the rats had practically stopped, so Marina knew that they were alerted. Rats are prey, so it's natural for them to flee or hide instead of attacking a big intruder.
Yet, she kept trying to be stealthy. Noticing that there is an enemy is not necessarily the same as pinpointing its location.
She started to circle to the left, aiming to approach from a different angle than the direction of the entrance. Henrique saw it and understood the intention, then gestured for Ravi to do the same thing to the right.
Henrique would go forward so the three of them could do a pincer attack.
The three of them were anxious and excited. This was better than a boss raid in an MMO.
Marina could see that there weren't any other entrances, which meant that the rats didn't have any place to flee to. As she walked a bit more, she was able to see a pile of straw and junk partially hidden by the stalagmites.
In the center of it, a huge rat stood motionless. It was almost twice the size of the one they killed in the other cave. Besides it, there were six other rats that were smaller but still the size of domestic cats.
Marina decided to strike first at one of the smaller ones. She chose one and shot, hitting its body.
The rat screamed, and then suddenly all the rats except for the biggest one moved, squeaking loudly in an attempt to intimidate her.
Seeing that they didn't attack, she took a second pebble and shot again, hitting the same rat, but now on the head.
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
The squeaks were the clue, and both Henrique and Ravi moved. Henrique's machete cut deep into the head of one, while Ravi's knife cut only air, as the rats quickly moved out of his small range.
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
"Come back here, you little peepsqueaks!"
Ravi's angry shouts were vehemently protested by the rats, who kept squeaking and scurrying about.
The big rat in the center was squeaking the loudest. It looked like it was barking orders and cursing.
((That guy didn't move from his spot. The other ones are running too fast, then I'll attack that big one.))
Marina took another pebble and shot at the big rat, hitting him in the head. That made it finally lose its composure, and it came running towards her.
"Oh, fuck!"
It was slower than the smaller rats, but still too fast for her to shoot again or to switch weapons, so she just jumped to the side to dodge the attack.
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
In the meantime, Ravi had finally managed to hit one rat. Henrique also killed another one, then saw the big guy's attack on Marina and ran in that direction.
There were only two very frightened 'small' rats for Ravi to handle. But both of them avoided him and started running towards the entrance of the cave.
Marina had managed to jump to the side, but by doing so, she hit her back against a stalagmite. The pain took her breath, and she fell to the ground.
But, just as the rat was going to jump on her face with bare teeth, Henrique swung his machete, slashing it on the side and interrupting its attack.
Henrique followed his swing with another slash, aimed at the head that the rat had just moved to look at him.
[Rat Queen killed. 2 points.]
"Thank you. Ugh."
Marina was trying to get up, but her ribs were still hurting, so Henrique rushed to her side to help her up. But she shook her head.
"No, I'm okay. Go help Ravi."
Ravi was running after the rats who were scurrying around, because when they saw Carlos blocking the way out, they decided to change route.
"These guys are too troublesome… Ravi!"
Henrique ran towards the nearest rat, hoping that Ravi would notice his intentions and help box them. It was at this moment that Heloisa also got into the room, shouting and making a lot of noise to frighten the rat.
After some running around, they managed to corner one of the three remaining rats on a wall, and Henrique cut him.
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
In the meanwhile, Marina stood again and saw the last rat hiding from the other three behind a stalagmite. She smiled and approached as silently as possible.
Thankfully the other three were making so much noise that they had the full attention of the rat. When it noticed the danger approaching from behind, it was too late.
[Rat killed. 1 point.]
Her blade was bloodied, like the ones held by Henrique and Ravi. There was blood on the ground, but no corpses. All dead rats disappeared, leaving only pouches behind.
[Cleared rat nest. 10 points.]
When she heard the prompt, she fell, sitting on the ground again.
"Finally, it's over."
The others ran towards her, with visible worry on their expressions.
"Ma! Are you okay?"
"Of course she's not okay, Ravi! What kind of stupid question is that?"
The banter of Ravi and Henrique cheered her up.
"I'm okay. I just need to rest a bit. It's good to see you all are unharmed. We did it, guys!"
Seeing that smile and hearing those words, the relief was immediate. Ravi and Henrique also sat on her side, leaning their backs on a stalagmite.
"Damn, that was tiring. Fighting with knives is so cool in videogames, but in real life I feel stupid. It's so hard to hit anything with it."
"Marina, let me see your injury."
"When we find a sword, the machete will be yours, Ravi."
"If we find a spear, I want the spear. Or a naginata. Naginatas are cool."
"It's here, Helo."
"You dummy. How would you fight with a naginata in this place? You would get stuck in those rocks all the time. There's no way to wield a spear here."
Seeing the cacophony of the several voices, Carlos decided to walk around collecting the loot. He wasn't very useful in the battle, except for being big enough to scare the rats away from the exit. It was a tactical help, but he felt useless.
He went around collecting the pouches, then walked to the nest in the center and saw something very unexpected.
"Hey guys… there's a chest here. A treasure chest."
The other four immediately stopped their chat and looked towards him.
"Treasure chest?"
"I'm going!"
"I want to see too, ouch."
"No, you won't. Not before I finish applying this gel on your injury."
Heloisa was applying analgesic gel on the place where Marina hit the stalagmite earlier, so only Henrique and Ravi hurried to Carlos' call. But Carlos reassured her.
"Don't worry, Marina. I won't let these two open the chest without you. This is our first treasure chest ever, so we open it together."
"Is this the reward for clearing the nest? I heard a prompt about it. Ten points, that was huge."
Henrique was grinning from ear to ear. To be fair, everyone was.