Feyd walked through the scorching monster den while only slightly sweating. He wasn't sure whether it was due to his fire powers, or some other factor, but he had long noticed his resistance to heat, and fire to a certain degree, especially his own flames.
He noticed many blast craters where he placed the dynamites, cracks and rubble, and dead monsters as he went from one room to another.
He quickly came across the large cave where he had originally created a Rift and sent his fireball into. The entire place was scorched black as rubble and cracks mared the walls, ground and ceiling.
Yet just as he was about to pass by the room and to another following the path he remembered led to the outside he noticed a few large cracks and holes in a wall not to far away from him, through which he felt a slight air flow.
"Hmm?"
Feyd then crept towards it while maintaining his caution and checked it out. Through the gaps he saw a relatively intact dug-out cave and multiple rats inside, few of which were burned.
Realizing that there was atleast one room he hadn't explored yet he decided to break in. Lifting his leg he concentrated some fire into it and infused the armour there with his flames.
Immediately Feyd kicked the wall as hard as he could causing it to crackdown further and almost collapse, yet just as it was about to hold itself together and survive the attack flames bursted from Feyd's leg and exploded, destroying the wall completely and forming a hole to the room.
'Fire infusion... A neat trick from my past self'
The rat monsters inside were immediately startled as they turned towards him and screeched out, attempting to intimidate Feyd.
Looking around at the dozen or so monsters Feyd was not worried at the slightest, 'Unless there is a super powerful buff rat somewhere, which I doubt since the only ones I saw were with the mother rat'.
Feyd decided to fight a bit more freely and experiment with new attacks as he infused fire into his blade, enough to last for the whole fight he estimated.
The rat monsters lunged at him after realizing he wasn't running away as a few more also dashed towards him staying close to the ground.
Feyd swiftly put strength into his legs and created a slight burst of flames to propel him away from the attacks. As he did so he slashed down his blade and cleaved a monster that was mid air.
The blade cleanly sliced through as the remaining power was enough to imbed itself into another rat that was dashing forward, with the skillful guidance of Feyd changing its trajectory somewhat.
The monster screamed in pain as it felt a blade, though infused with fire yet not hot, slash into him. The next second a blast of flames erupted from the blade killing it completely.
A few more attacked Feyd who began to weave and dodge the attacks while also attacking when he got the opportunity. On the occasion that dodging, blocking or parrying was not an option he would blast flames at the attacker killing it and neutralizing the attack.
Yet as Feyd frivolously expended his fire energy a strange premonition sent a slight shiver up his spine. Only a few rats were left, who were weak enough to be killed without use of his powers, so why was he feeling a sense of... Danger?
Immediately Feyd jumped backwards as something blurred past him and smashed where he was just a second ago. Dust was sent flying into the air causing the thing's body to be slightly obscured.
Yet Feyd could make out a large, extremely so, creature on four legs inside the dust. It had a tail that whipped around it and quickly dispersed the dust, what seemed like fur that had a seemingly wavy design and a large head with two glowing red eyes.
Feyd jumped back once more anticipating another attack, thought none came. The dust finally settled as he finally got a good view of the thing.
Almost two meters tall, tail as thick as chains, shiny black fur, glowing red eyes and two front teeth that were stained with blood. A rat monster, a VERY strong rat monster. A yellow shard like design was on its head that seemed to glow just a bit.
It turned to its dead comrades with a expression that seemed... Remorseful? It then shifted its gaze to the surviving rats, who all immediately straightened their posture and tensed up. Finally it turned to look at Feyd with burning fury in its eyes.
"Hmmm, you're strong but you alone can't beat me!"
Feyd infused more fire into his blade in preparation of the fight as he checked his energy reserves.
'A little more than half... Should be enough'
The rat growled at Feyd before stretching its body forward and raising its head up, screeching loudly.
Feyd grimaced in pain and staggered slightly, taking a step back. Although it was distracting it wasn't strong enough disrupt his fighting.
'If that's all I had then I won't even need to use hal–'
Just as he was thinking that he noticed the remaining rats start to twitch and shake violently. Their fur began to grow and lengthen, muscles bulged as their size grew, teeth and claws became razor sharp and eyes turn a deeper red.
Feeling the power of the three rats a thought raced through his head.
'I really, really shouldn't play with my prey'
...
Meanwhile Ray had already been looking around for Feyd for some time. The scorched, cracked, rubble-filled cave had made him worried of what could've fought Feyd to cause thus much destruction.
He also thought of Feyd's powers and capabilities.
'Is Feyd this strong already? I do know he has growth spurts after though battles, but this? This is insane!'
Yet as he walked further inside and searched the place his thoughts shifted slightly.
'Well if he is that powerful than I'll have to catch up too... It'll be boring lagging behind him hmm'
But as he reached another room he realized a slight discrepancy between his thoughts and the condition of the cave.
'I smell gunpowder and... Some gases... Also it's a bit strange to get this much more powerful in just a few days... Maybe explosives?'
As Ray decided to look around and investigate the cave he found a hole behind a large, movable boulder. This place was further away from the blast and not as damaged and thus the boulder was not damaged much. He wouldn't have found the hole if he wasn't searching for clues to the possible reason for Feyd's 'increased firepower'.
"Interesting... He might be inside here somewhere? I haven't seem him so far. Maybe..."
Ray contemplated for a few more seconds before entering the hole and into an undamaged cave.
The inside was yellow and smooth, unlike the burnt, cracked surfaces outside. A pile of animal carcasses, plants, and other random objects where piled in a corner. Some other random objects were there too but in a different pile.
'Doesn't seem like anything valuable is here. At most a hundred credits'
Turning his attention to the tunnel leading elsewhere he once again shifted his body slightly lower and lowered his presence.
The naturally dark cave was a good conduit for stealth and Ray used it perfectly, masking his presence and hiding his form in the dark.
After a minute of sneaking Ray reached the entrance to another cave where he saw two extremely muscular rats bending over some food and eating. Their eyes glowed a strange red and their fur was slightly wavy. The cave had only one other tunnel excluding the one Ray had come in from.
Ray decided it wasn't worth fighting them and hugged the walls of the cave, attempting to slip past them. The rats were too busy to notice Ray untill a screech came from the other tunnel.
The rats immediately stood up on their hind legs and screeched out in response, but as they turned around to look at the tunnel and run towards the screech they paused.
They had noticed Ray.
'Ah no, they spotted me... That sound really came at a bad time!'
The rats seemed even larger and stronger after that screech, with their eyes glowing even more red. They charged at Ray with incredible speed unbefiting their large stature.
Ray dashed out of the way while taking out his rapier. He also threw out a few orbs that glowed in the dark from his bag, illuminating the cave and creating shadows.
The burly rats immediately recoiled from the light and seemed even more enraged. Their ears twitched for a moment before they once again opened their eyes, ready to attack Ray once more.
They dashed towards him with saliva dripping from their mouths. Ray's shadow surged around his feet as he thruster his rapier at one of the rats.
The rat turned its head mid air but was still pierced in its shoulder by Ray who changed the trajectory of his blade at the last moment.
This attack caused the rat to falter slightly missing its bite, but the second rat had already reached Ray while he was dodging and clawed at Ray!
Ray kept his focus on the first rat and nicked it once more with his rapier while glancing at the rat clawing at him. And just as he was about to he slashed–
'Shadow Shift'
Ray immediately disappeared from his position and appeared behind the rat he was attacking, causing the other rat to miss and confuse them both.
He then stabbed the Rat from behind with full force while wondering what Feyd was doing when he felt a strong resistance as his rapier dug into the rat's head.
The tip went into the head and through the skull but could not go further!
Realizing that the rats were sturdier than he originally anticipated he leaped back preemptively knowing an attack was coming. He was indeed correct as his blade had alerted the rat of his position. It cried out in pain for a moment before turning around while swinging its claw passing through air.
Both rats immediately continued their attack and dashed towards Ray attempting to block off his escape paths by attacking from the left and right.
Ray's back faced the wall as he contemplated simply fleeing from battle since confirming Ray's current condition was quite important but...
'If Feyd is fighting something, and he isn't finished till now, it would mean he is fighting something powerful. Anyways he can just Rift out and escape so I shouldn't worry too much'
Ray continued to maneuver around the monsters' attacks and only Shadow Shift when needed, since it did cost him some shadow energy to do.
At first he planned to puncture numerous holes in them and make them bleed, eventually wearing them out. But after only a few seconds of bleeding their muscles tightened and bulged around the wound seemingly halting the blood loss.
But after a few minutes of fighting Ray had gotten used to the simple yet brutish way these rats fought. Although Ray didn't expect himself to survive more than a few hits he was much more agile and perceptive then them.
But he knew this couldn't go on longer. The rat monsters weren't getting tired, atleast from what he could sense, while his shadow energy reserves and stamina were being depleted quickly.
He had attempted a few shadow spikes but the damage wasn't much better than his rapier so he continued conserving his energy, instead opting for patience.
He knew that although his energy was going down he still had a good amount left, and that sooner or later the monsters would make an error as long as he baited them at the right timing.
Ray ducked under a claw strike and grabbed onto the rat's body, pulling himself up and dodging a bit from the second rat. While on top of the rat monster he stabbed it once before leaping away as the rat monsters attempted to hit him once more.
However this stab seemed to have pierced the throat of the rat, causing profuse bleeding and a groan of pain. The other rat lunged at Ray but he quickly crouched down and went under it.
He noticed that the rat monster seemed stunned by the pain and thus ran forward to attack it. He knew that he didn't have enough power to kill it even if he aimed at one of its vitals, but Instinctively he felt that he could, if he just... Coated his blade in shadows.
His shadow soon shifted around his blade, covering it in a black lacquer. It didn't seem much more dangerous and a cursory glance would give off the impression that it was just a regular rapier with a black blade.
But right before his black blade reached the rat he saw a black blur and two bright beads turning towards him. He immediately activated Shadow Shift as danger signals blared in his mind. A sharp pain came from his chest as he appeared in the shadows of a pile of scrap food.
"Haaa...!"
Exhaling sent a wave of pain through Ray's body. Looking down he saw a nasty claw wound that seemed like it would've traced his entire chest and dug into his lungs. Luckily he managed to escape in time and the wound wasn't too deep.
He didn't have enough time to bandage the wound so he applied some shadows around it and solidified the shadows, making a membraneous, shadow bandage of sorts.
The rat monster he had attacked was now screeching loudly as it charged with much greater speed. The other rat lagged behind the berserk rat.
Ray used Shadow Shift once more to appear behind it and attack but it immediately turned around and blocked the attack with its claws. He would've preferred dodging the attack buy with his back facing the wall and the monster's increased physical power, he didn't think he could dodge.
Ray heard an impact, then a roar from the berserk rat. And sensed the other rat attack him from behind with his shadow senses, and thus rolled away dodging the bite.
The berserk rat was about to swing its claws once more, but seeing that another rat was in the way it barely stopped itself and instead rushed towards Ray.
This sequence of the rats attacking and Ray dodging continued, but though the rats seemed tireless Ray knew he had to end it fast otherwise he would run out of shadow energy.
Being grazed by another as he tried to dodge, Ray knew he had to do something. And just as he was thinking he noticed something from the corner of his eye.
The wall behind the pile of scrap food where he was attacked by the berserk rat had cracks and an indent.
An idea sparked within his mind as Ray leaped, rolled and dashed towards the nearest wall while dodging the rats' attacks untill he finally reached one of the cave walls.
He then hugged the wall with his back while preparing a Shadow Shift.
The berserk rat lunged at him with pure bloodless in its eyes and brought its claws down, an attack that this specific rat seemed to prefer.
A few inches before its claws struck Ray Shadow Shift was activated, and Ray teleported a good distance away behind a large piece of rock.
A loud crashing sound came and a screech from the berserk rat followed, rushing Ray inch more in its relentless pursuit. But Ray's eyes looked past the large body of the rat and at the wall he was just at.
The wall was decorated in spider web like cracks and a small crater like dent.