New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Further down the tunnels, Alex and David were fighting for their lives, as even a single wrong move could cost them.

The rat queen, whose size was now too large to slip away down the tunnel behind it, went on the full offensive and wanted them dead.

Already, the concrete floors and walls showed plenty of paw prints and scratch marks, sizzling and fuming in green, as the queen chased Alex around the room, the latter being too quick for her to catch.

But aside from Genie, he was the one dealing out the most damage to it, and she wanted him gone. She also already understood that Genie had only spawned because of him, and her rat brain worked out that without him there, the wolf might disappear as well.

Of course, she was wrong. Since Genie was a living being, she wouldn't just disappear from Alexander's death.

But she would still take an immense piece off the chessboard if she caught him.

While she chased him around, like the buzzing and annoying fly that he was, Genie raked her claws on the rat's side and bit at her flanks at every given chance, making sure she inflicted the most pain on it as possible.

But the rat queen's skin had toughened up considerably after she transformed, almost becoming leather-like in texture, and Genie wasn't as effective as before. But that didn't stop her from contributing.

The very few times the queen closed in on Alex's position, a quick tackle to her flank made her miss her attacks, and Alex was back to buzzing around, keeping her distracted.

David was, of course, doing his best as well, aiming for weaker spots on the rat, like its tail or its paws, even going for places where open wounds were already present, but it wasn't easy.

Exhaustion was creeping up on him, his last skeletons already crushed by the rat queen in her first charge, and he was barely keeping himself standing. That meant that his body had much difficulty keeping up with the massive monster, and could only strike at her when she passed near him.

The fight lasted a few minutes, with no apparent progress being made, aside from a flew bleeding cuts to its side. Alex knew he could cut into the rat's hide if he could attack her, but making offensive moves on her, currently, was a risky endeavour.

'If only she could go after Genie for a bit, or some other distraction. Only then could I make any significant attacks,' he thought.

He kept zooming around the room until he noticed two beams of light flash on him and the rat queen from the tunnel he and his friends had come from. Barely turning his head in that direction, his blood froze.

At the mouth of this tunnel, two police officers were standing, flashlights lit, pointed at him and the ginormous rat in the room, with guns at the ready.

'Shit!'

"What the fuck is that?!" he heard one officer, the younger one, ask.

The older one was already mouth agape, fear readable on his face, as his gun and flashlight were shaking ever so slightly.

Alex bounced off the wall over the tunnel entrance so they could hear him over the pounding of the rat's paws on the concrete floor.

"You need to get the fuck away before she goes after you!"

But the older officer looked at him, his gun raising in his direction, almost blinding him.

Alex and David had been fighting in absolute darkness for a while, and their eyes had gotten used to it. So, being flashed by a beam of bright light in the eyes was excruciatingly painful, making Alex cry out in anger.

"Get that shit out of my eyes! You're blinding me!"

But before he could do anything more, he heard the younger cop cry out in fear as he noticed the gigantic rat stampeding in their direction.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

The man fired three shots in rapid succession; the bullets going cleanly into the rat queen's body; her hide too thin to block supersonic projectiles. However, this had an unfortunate effect for the man.

The rat queen's eyes suddenly lowered from Alex, still bouncing off the ceiling, to the cop on the ground, who had just wounded it. In a strident screech, not too dissimilar then the one they had heard from above ground, in the open service trap, the rat queen pounced forward at the two cops, mouth wide open.

The one that had fired was instantly bit into two pieces, his face forever frozen in a rictus of fear and pain, as life faded away from his eyes.

His older partner, seeing this happen a mere two feet away from him, suddenly yelled out in rage. But before the rat queen could eat him, Genie's maw clamped down on the rat's tail, pulling her away from the human, attempting to save his life.

"Keep pulling, Genie! You! Officer! Either run now, or keep shooting it in the face, but start doing something! If you freeze now, you're dead!"

Alex had landed a few feet away to the side. He wanted to attack the rat queen, but he knew the moment he struck her, she would turn toward him.

He needed to make the attack count for something.

Alex lowered his posture, making resemble a sprinter on a starting line, as wind started whistling in the surrounding cave. In the very low light of the dead cop's flashlight, David saw the swirl of wind accumulating behind Alex's foot and knew what he was trying to do.

The cop started firing his gun at the gigantic rat in front of him, who was still clawing at the ground to reach him, emptying his charger into the beast's face, making her infinitely more angry.

The rat queen screeched louder and louder, green blood streaking down its ugly, fur-less face, while Genie pulled with all her might to keep her from reaching the human. But the rat queen dug in with her claws, suddenly gaining grip, the ground under melting even faster.

Genie's paws started sliding on the concrete, which was slick with blood from the previous opponents, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold her foe in place much longer.

'I'm slipping, Master,' she called out in Alex's mind.

'Hold her as much as you can. I'll take her down in one hit, but I need to charge as much wind as I can.'

Genie acknowledged the command, but she could only do so much.

The cop, who had already emptied his charger, looked on in horror, his legs refusing to budge from under him, as the rat queen stepped closer.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Her horrific form was already looming right in front of him, the caustic saliva almost dripping on him, as she eyed him with hunger and hatred.

David collapsed as his mana ran out. He had aided Alex's wind spell as much as he could, but his tank was empty.

'You're our last hope,' he thought, his consciousness slipping.

Alex, feeling he had reached his maximum capacity, his eyes already threatening to close, opted to gamble on this one attack.

"Fucking die, will you?!" he shouted, as his body blurred out of existence, his speed reaching an inhuman velocity, as it instantly crashed into the rat's side.

*Boom!*

*Schlurk*

*Bang*

*Thump*

The service tunnel suddenly fell into a deathly silence.