'Now that they've all gotten into spitting formation, all I have to do is dodge their projectiles, which sounds a lot easier than it really is.
***
I'm so glad I took up martial arts classes 7 years ago.' I thought to myself with a thankful expression.
I was sitting on a couch reading a book on the top floor of some other church while Josephine was seated across from me eating some desserts.
"Khak-khak-khak, ahem." Josephine was coughing violently on her food. "You want to do what?" She looked at me with an expression that said 'What have you done with Johan?'
By now, Josephine had already gotten her healing ability to Proficient grade which means that she'd gone through 2 evolutions. I heard that while inside of a trial, there are multiple methods to gain soul essence, one of them being to consistently use your ability. Her ability is quite similar to mine now that I think about it. Maybe if she evolves her ability enough, she might be able to heal her own age and stay youthful forever. 'That would be nice.' A fleeting thought I had to myself.
Josephine had also learnt about how much of a fraud I was a while back and my god, you should have seen the look on her face when she yelled me a new one. She ultimately decided to go along with the angel shtick since it gave hope to the populace.
"I said I want to enroll in combat training." I said with a nonchalant look on my face while Josephine stared at me dumbfounded.
With that same expression she asked. "Why is a lazy-ass like you trying to learn martial arts?"
"So I can learn to fight, of course." I said, 'Hold on, did she just call me a lazy-ass?'
"And what use do you have for fighting, you've never even entered a gate before. Don't tell me a suicidal maniac like you want's to enter a gate. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen."
"Who knows what the future might have in store for me. Might as well learn the basics of combat."
"Haaah" she sighed. "Alright, I'll sign you up for some martial arts classes."
"On second thought, don't." I said immediately regretting my sudden proposal.
"Nope, too late it's already done."
"WHAT, HOW?" I got up from the couch wide-eyed to find that she had already left the room.
[Back to the present]
And so I ran towards the wall. I ran as fast as I possibly could while dodging the relentless onslaught of purple projectiles being launched at me. As I got closer and closer, I ushered them not to come any closer to me with the torch in my left hand.
I could have used the flame that was currently resting on the handle of my dagger but I didn't want to risk them spitting on it and extinguishing the fire. The flame on the torch seemed to be eternal while the flame on the dagger was growing smaller and smaller by the second. Perhaps it had something to do with the torch and not the flame itself.
Anyways, as I got closer to them, they seemed to back away more and more without ceasing their oncoming siege of spit. So far I've managed to completely avoid their dribble but I can't risk getting even a single drop on me. I don't know anything about their saliva, but something tells me that even an immortal being such as I wouldn't wanna get hit by that. But what came next, was completely out of my expectations.
I was mere meters away from the mount on the wall used for resting torches when one rat decided to rush towards me. It had caught me completely off guard. But still… using the torch in my left hand, before the rat could reach me I thrust it directly into it's face causing it to catch on fire. "Kwwweeeek" the rat screamed out while tossing and turning on the floor. 'Looks like these rats are highly flammable.' As I ran past that creature while it was quickly burning to death I noticed something.
While I was dealing with that one suicidal rat, it's friends took that chance to change their formation. I now found myself completely surrounded by them from my left, right and my hind side. In front of me directly 5 meters away from where I was standing was the mount I had been aiming for. The only problem was that as soon as I went to put the torch where it belonged. The rats would all spit in that direction.
But I wasn't given any time to think as I heard many more footsteps approaching the exit of the tunnel. 'Damn it, their reinforcements are here.' I thought with a look of desperation on my face.
"FUCKING SHIIIIIIT" I screamed out while rushing towards the mount on the wall but as I had reached it, the four rats that had surrounded me during my exchange earlier with that one rat which ended in my total victory by the way, all spat towards my general direction.
I had no time to dodge due to the other rats in the tunnel so I grit my teeth and braced for impact while also placing the torch on the wall.
"Ptooey" four large cannonball sized balls of spit came launching directly at me. I managed to somehow avoid getting hit directly onto my torso or head. Two projectiles landed directly onto the back sides of my arms while the other two landed on my legs.
After preparing myself to scream in total agony, I quickly realised that nothing actually seemed to hurt, if anything it felt kinda nu—.
That's when it hit me, their saliva… it's numbing poison. 'They're trying to paralyze me.'
Quickly realising what they were trying to do, I used the flame of the torch that was hanging on the wall to reignite the diminishing flame on the handle of my blade and got into battle position.
I then looked behind me and saw as one rat tried to attack me through the tunnel's exit with it's claws but was immediately caught on fire by some unknown mystical force in place thanks to all the torches which caused it to die a quick but insufferable death while screaming.
I had to act as quickly as possible before the poison paralyzes me completely. Luckily my regenerative ability was fighting against the poison but with my healing speed being so fucking terrible, it only allowed me to barely hold on.
So before I succumbed to the poison, although unsteady, I ran towards the nearest rat in hopes of setting it on fire before moving on to the next rat but the rats had already picked up on my plan. They didn't fight back like I thought they would. No… instead they ran. They scurried away from me as quickly as possible so that I wouldn't be able to harm them before succumbing to the paralysis poison.
"DAMMMMNN YOOUUUUU" I said angrily. "I'll at least kill one of you bastards before I fall to the ground." and with that I took off the scabbard from my sword and held it by the tip of it's blade. 'I've never really tried this before but here goes nothing.' Aiming directly towards the rat in front of me that was running away, I threw the dagger that was still burning hot with fire straight towards the fiend. As the blade flew through the air making it's way to the nasty creature, the flame was quickly receding but it eventually made it's way into the back of the rat with just enough fire to set the monster on fire and killing it.
"Hehehehe" I laughed in a tired tone. "Guess this is what you call beginner's luck."
And with that, I fell to the floor.