Elemental Cats

After a few days, the evacuation process had officially started, but only a small part of the inhabitants of First Ignition had been successfully moved away. The request for aid from high level explorers or forces still hadn't been approved, and by how things looked, there would be another few days until it was, most likely by the time Yellow Sparks would be gone from the next edition of maps.

The Rat King had also reached the border of the wasteland, not leaving a single piece of evidence behind of its murder of several convoys and groups of merchants.

With a flowing river and most of the rats gone from the wasteland, the grassy plains had started pushing back and returning some vitality to the previously barren ground. But as the Rat King approached, the grass started burning, turning into white smoke that was absorbed by the King. The river started evaporating, some of the steam being sucked into the King's mouth and the rest disappearing into the wasteland, where it would linger for some time before condensing and falling down into the dry ground and getting absorbed by lower level rats.

When the Rat King finally passed through the river, the water level didn't even reach above its feet. Behind the river were the remains of the main camp of the exterminators.

Since most people were in the wasteland when the earthquake struck, there weren't a lot of people in the camp to begin with, and after the messenger sent by the guild, carrying information about the Scorched Earth Rats, came upon the sight of the collapsed tents, she spared no time in warning those who were still there, trying to clean it up, leaving the camp empty. But the messenger's job wasn't over after that. She was told to relay the message directly to Hugh, the leader of the Forest Janitors.

She had hoped to find him in the camp, but even after searching through it, there were no signs of him. It wasn't until one of the twins caved and told the messenger that Hugh might be in the forest that some progress on her mission could be made. Although she wouldn't be able to scour through the entire forest within the time limit of her mission, she hoped that Hugh wasn't hiding and would return since an earthquake had struck and all. Still, she rushed in a zig-zag pattern through the parts of the forest closest to the wasteland and the camp.

With the messenger shouting his name while crazily running around the forest, it didn't take long for Hugh to find her.

The messenger was panting hard, and before she could calm down, she rushed to try and tell Hugh about the Scorched Earth Rats, and more specifically about the Rat King, but with her labored breathing, it was impossible for Hugh to make out what she was talking about, especially since she was talking about something he didn't know anything about.

Eventually, he managed to calm her down and convince her to catch her breath before she continued relaying the message. She had it written down as well, but the piece of paper didn't hold as many details as she did, so Hugh read that while she rested. The paper let him know about the general situation and how the entire plane was in big trouble.

After further questioning the messenger, Hugh almost panicked. While he had been busy chasing some odd treasure with almost no hopes of finding it, his Janitors had been placed in an incredibly dangerous situation and would possibly all die.

The earthquake from a few days ago had obviously been no ordinary quake and most likely meant that the Rat King had shown itself. Despite having felt the tremor himself, Hugh didn't worry about his subordinates and instead obstinately chased after a lead to the mysterious orange orb.

While he held trust in the companions he had worked together with for several years, from what the messenger told him, the Scorched Earth Rat King wasn't something a squad of their level could handle even with Hugh there. And if he was away and not even actively rushing to help his squad, there would be even less of a chance of all the members of his squad safely making it out of the wasteland.

After the messenger recovered enough, she headed back to Yellow Sparks. She was done with her assignment and could join every non-essential personnel in evacuating to another plane.

Hugh also wanted to leave the plane. Dealing with a Scorched Earth Rat King was way more than he was getting paid for. But leaving without his squad was not something that even crossed his mind as he started running toward the wasteland where his subordinates were possibly in fatal danger.

Although he felt some lingering regret since he had been tracking a beast who could have a clue regarding who took the orb in the end, it couldn't be compared to the importance of his squad members' lives. The main reason he wanted the orb, to begin with, was to get some extra funds for the Forest Janitors.

Although Hugh had been away from the camp a lot, he still knew what was going on and the details of the plan, so he knew where most of the Janitors would be. Instead of heading directly from the camp where the twins would have been, he left the forest and followed the treeline all the way to the wasteland.

The twins had used the messenger to tell Hugh they would be heading to the wasteland and start gathering everyone so they could quickly retreat. From what they had relayed, the Rat King was likely heading straight toward the nearby town, and the path between Yellow Sparks and the wasteland should be avoided with a great margin.

The twins weren't his trusted subordinates for nothing, and he wisely followed their advice, safely avoiding the Scorched Earth Rat King, whose aura had only grown more vicious after the continued annihilation of its surroundings.

Unfortunately, while the twins had been correct in their assumption based on the quaking ground, things were bound to change when the Rat sensed Hugh's presence and the amount of mana contained in his body.