Ash's reaction honestly shocked me. Yes, I was expecting him to step up and stop the fight, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine he was going to just kill off his eldest son. By the looks of things, I wasn't the only one surprised. A few of the other Rodenti were staring at their chieftain with incredulous eyes, and even Rex couldn't help but glance back at the body of his brother. Then again, Raxzar actively tried to kill Ash. That wasn't really the kind of thing that one could come back from. I knew that if somebody tried to kill me, especially in a betrayal like this, I would never forgive them.
People were still gathering their bearings and trying to figure out what would happen next, and Ash noticed that. He got up from his seat and started speaking.
"My son made mistakes. Don't follow. Eater nest biggest threat to us. The plan stands. We still attack. We still—"
Before he could continue, the Rodenti chieftain had a violent coughing fit that caused him to spat out a large amount of blood on his hand. So much so that he wasn't able to cover all of it, and some dripped down to the ground.
"Shit!" I cursed and rushed towards him. "Do you need Energy? Is {Body Regeneration} not working?"
He shook his head. "No. Have Energy. Skill only thing making me live. Poison too strong."
I nodded and turned back to the Rodenti. "We need to get healer Trix. Now!" I shouted.
While some were still shell-shocked, there were a couple of other people who seemed to understand my command and started to move. Specifically, Rixnala started running almost immediately in search of the healer.
"This is a very strong poison," I told Ash, who gave me a smile before coughing again.
He spat out more blood, but this time not as much as he had done previously. "Made to kill Tier 3. Maybe even more."
Considering the difference in power that someone at Tier 3 and someone at Tier 2 would have, I had serious doubts that a poison like this would be enough to kill someone at Tier 4. But I decided not to say anything right now. What was the point of arguing with someone who had a foot in the grave?
"Father, why? Why did this?" Rex stepped forward and gestured to Raxzar.
"To me, Rex, I—" But before the chieftain could continue speaking, I put my hand between the two.
"Stop. No talking. If you need to have a conversation, have it through the System. Don't speak out loud and don't make any sudden movements." I warned Ash, who just gave a nod in response. He then made the gesture for Rex to approach, and they held hands while looking into each other's eyes.
Turning back, I saw Astrid still holding onto the large Rodenti that she was fighting. The Rodenti was still struggling to move, clearly angry and trying to reach Ash. However, Astrid wasn't going to allow that to happen. She held the Rodenti by the neck and slammed him on the floor. That was the only fight that was still happening.
"You lost," she said with a stern voice.
But the Rodenti tried to get up again. In response, Astrid grabbed him by the head and slammed the Rodenti against the ground. The floor cracked under the weight of the blow. The Rodenti was still trying to struggle, and Astrid did the same move once more. Blood now appeared in the crack.
It was pretty obvious that the Rodenti was taking a beating. Either he had a skill to stay awake, or through sheer determination, he was still conscious and trying to attack Ash for some reason. I stepped closer to see if I could help with anything, but before I could reach her, Astrid asked, "Killing bad idea?"
"Probably. I don't think anyone died during the fight, and if you were the only one who killed someone, well, aside from Ash, we might have some problems. But if he continues to try to attack the chieftain, I think everybody would understand."
Astrid looked back at the Rodenti and said, "You heard? Have permission to kill. If want to live. Stop moving and lie down." She pulled her arm back while still holding the Rodenti's head and slammed down on the ground again, each word followed by another slam. The second to last slam was enough to finally knock the Rodenti out. Astrid got up, sweat dripping from her forehead.
"Out of curiosity, if you were fighting something else, could you still keep going?" I asked.
Astrid gave a nod. "Yes. Tired but not much."
Michael and Riley started walking in our direction, but we made no moves to speed up that process. Ash was still not safe, and we had no intention of leaving his surroundings. If that wasn't enough of a problem, my own skill was working overtime. I got hit on my arm the whole time, worsening the wound. Despite not really being struck by any attack that was too powerful, the physical exertion and my lack of care when attacking my enemies caused the bite wound on my arm to grow even more.
"Riley, do you have some soap or something? It's going to be a pain in the ass, but I think I should clean this up." I glanced at the open wound.
"I Should have some back at Rex's place. Don't know if the Rodenti here have any near the bathrooms," the witch replied.
Just as we finished speaking, Rixnala appeared again, running with healer Trix following right along. The elderly Rodenti let out a gasp the moment she saw Ash and rushed to his side.
"What? How? Who?"
"Raxzar," Rixnala replied.
Trix glanced back at Ash and only then noticed the body on the back wall, a few meters [ft] beyond where the fight happened. She shook her head. "Stupid kid. That's why I told you to tell everyone."
Ash didn't say anything. Instead, he just nodded in response.
"Tell what?" Rex asked.
Trix glanced back at Ash, who gestured for her to continue as he wasn't in a situation where he could talk. She continued to pull out various herbs and some vials from a pouch that she was carrying.
"Chieftain knows more about nest than wanted to share. Felt was a bad idea to tell everyone this." She stopped to glare at Ash for a moment before continuing to prepare the concoction.
"Okay, why are you being cryptic? What did you know about the nest that you didn't want to say to anyone else?" Michael asked, not really caring if it was proper for us to be involved in this.
Trix turned to my rodenti companion, "Rex, your mother died. Sorry to tell you. She died a long time ago."
Rex just gave a nod. "Expected that. That's not all. She killed by Eater. Eater that is in the nest."
Hearing that, I frowned. "How can you tell? It's not like the Eaters are going to be scarred or anything. They have ways of recovering their bodies. How can you be sure the same Eater that killed her is in the nest?"
Instead of Trix, Ash was the one who gave me an answer.
"Had tracking skill For years. Always knew direction. Now know inside nest,"
"Are you sure the Eater is in the nest and not the nest? Like the actual nest. I've been thinking about that for a while, but it's the only thing that makes sense. We were looking for a Hatchling. And it makes sense that a Hatchling becomes a Hatchery or something like that."
"Oh, fuck, you're right!" Michael gasped. "I don't know why I never thought about that."
"Probably because the ramifications of thinking like that are very bad. But either way. Are you sure this Eater is inside the nest and this is not just the nest itself?"
Ash nodded. "Yes. Felt movement. Felt is leaving Nest, then return."
"Well, fuck." I let out a sigh.
"Hang on, are you saying you were preparing the attack on the nest just because you want revenge? The whole thing about not wanting to leave this place behind was a lie?" Riley asked.
But Ash shook his head, "No. Still think best option. If leave—" Ash started coughing blood again and stopped talking. Quickly, Rex touched his hand to speak for his father as they were communicating through the System.
"Father says that leave Village too much loss. Too much left behind. Have good life here. If leave, when will Eaters stop? They everywhere. Leave now then next nest appears? If can protect village. If can get rid of nest. Can stay here and not worry leaving again."
Hearing that, I gave a nod. At the very least, this wasn't just a case of risking people for the sake of revenge, and I had to agree with his idea. In a world where you had the power to fight off the Eaters, standing your ground and clearing an area of those creatures would be the most beneficial course of action in the long run.
Trix finally was able to finish making the antidote, or at least whatever potion she was making right now. Ash took the medicine, but it still wasn't enough to heal him completely. According to Trix, it would still take some time before the chieftain was back on his feet properly. While that was good news, it was also bad for a different reason. Without Ash, the plan to attack the nest shifted quite considerably. Everybody knew that the chieftain was going to spearhead the attack, while everybody else just followed along. Without the chieftain to take that role, it would be very difficult for the rest of us to handle things by ourselves. After all, the chieftain was much, much more powerful than anyone else.
Another big problem that not having Ash on the attack group would cause was that we wouldn't have any way of dealing with a stronger Eaters, especially if the fear of a Tier 3 Eater being around ended up being a reality. After a brief conversation with Trix, the Healer confirmed that Ash was going to be out of the game for a while. She expected it to take at the very least a week for him to be able to move around properly, and maybe a month until the poison was no longer affecting him. Sure, she wasn't taking into account what {Body Regeneration} was going to do, but she was considering Ash as someone who was a Tier 3, which meant that the poison that she knew how to make was this powerful.
I did question why we didn't just use that poison and flood the nest with it, but apparently it had to be ingested or put directly into someone's bloodstream for it to work. It wasn't the type of poison that functioned while airborne. While I still had a hunch that the nest itself was a monster, without a way to prove that, or a way to know exactly where the body of that Eater would be, it was a waste to use the poison like that.
One way or another, Raxzar's coup was successful in delaying the attack. With Ash out of the game, the chieftain decided that the best thing to do was to wait for his brother to return. Only then would we go on the offensive, and hopefully, the amount of warriors Carl was able to bring would be enough to at least patch up the hole caused by the absence of the chieftain. Or at least, that's what everybody was hoping would happen.