บท 11: 11 - WAKE UP!

The King of the Rats was already big, but now it was getting bigger. The monster's muscles began to pulse and in the blink of an eye its size had increased by at least 20%. The rat bared its strange, huge, yellowish fangs and, looking at them clearly, those large pieces of calcium were sharper than ever.

Most of the Blessed in the room were frozen with fear, not just because of the appearance of the Super Boss, but because of the aura he was giving off. It was as if the humans were looking at the personification of Death itself. The large monster at that moment embodied the end of life in their minds. Time seemed as if to freeze for the Blessed, especially for the weakest among them who felt that pressure several times stronger.

*Schreeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!* The rat screamed as it glared at the human who had burned it, before running towards him to take revenge.

Noah was no different from the other Blessed in regard to the pressure. Even though he participated in fortress invasions for four years and researched everything about the lowest fortresses, theoretical knowledge would not always solve all of one's problems. This was the first time he had felt an aura so strong and so evil, all the more because that aura was apparently being directed at him by the rage of the rat.

For a few moments, Noah was unable to move from the spot where he stood because of the terror he felt.

"We're fucked," he sighed as he tried to gather the strength to get out of the place, but the body he trained so much to be agile, at that moment, seemed to weigh more than a ton.

As if the world were in slow motion, Noah saw the rat running towards him with its red-hot eyes, and realizing that his body was not responding to what he asked for, despair started to hit him. 'I need to be stronger!' He screamed mentally as he struggled to move.

While the king of rats was preparing to jump on Noah, a big man stuck his sword in the monster's neck while screaming, "WAKE UP! IF YOU DO NOT WAKE UP, WE WILL ALL DIE!"

Hearing the scream that the scarred man gave, some of the Blessed finally broke free from the fear they were feeling and drew their own weapons as they ran to the big rat to support the scarred man. Noah was also able to recover from the state he was in because of the scream of the scar man, but unlike the others who only thought of running towards the King of Rats, Noah was first surprised that the scar man had recovered so quickly. But right after that he summoned a small and clumsy fireball and waited for the perfect opportunity to attack the Rat King, who was frantically fighting with the Blessed ones who fought hand-to-hand. However, what none of the Blessed ones noticed was the great cut that the king of rats had cut on the scarred man while he shouted for the others to wake up.

It didn't take long for the perfect opportunity that Noah was looking for to emerge, because in a few moments an ice rock flew by Noah towards the King of Rats and when the big monster went to dodge the ice, a woman with a strange shaped half-moon blade saw that during the strange movement the rat had made to deflect the ice, he had left his rib area exposed. Without thinking twice, she slammed the blade at the weakness.

However, unfortunately for the Blessed woman, the Super Boss had also apparently become faster, because when the woman stretched her arm while slamming the blade, the rat opened its huge mouth, intercepting her, and with a single bite tore off a large piece of her shoulder. The closed, dark place echoed once again with a painful cry.

However, the huge rat with its mouth ajar had not gone unnoticed by Noah. As the rat was opening its mouth again, being distracted by concentrating on which Blessed he would bite next, it did not notice the strange fireball flying towards him until it was too late.

*Schreeeeeeee!!!!* The huge rat screamed once again in pain.

However, when the Blessed began to cheer up, thinking that they had almost managed to eliminate the boss, Noah noticed a strange sound of claws scraping on the floor through the sewer tunnels that connected to this room. Before he could scream to warn the others what was going to happen, it was too late. Yet another scream alerted everyone.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarggggghhhh!!!!" The teenager who was fawning over Harry earlier screamed in pain when she felt the huge fangs of the monster that appeared out of nowhere behind her, digging into the soft flesh that was the girl's left calf.

Alerted by the scream and the bloody vision that was happening around them, the other Blessed began to pay attention to the small tunnels that were close to them, so that in case a smaller rat enters, they would not be caught off guard.

This was exactly what Noah was going to warn them about: it was the skill the King of Rats had when going into berserk mode. At some point in the monster's state of fury he would cry out, calling all the rats closest to the scene to help him. That was the reason why the team did not go straight to kill the Super Boss, but first killed several rats that were in the vicinity before they entered.

"Blessed with long range, focus on killing the smaller rats while we hold the King! Be quick, as we won't be able to hold on for long!" The scarred man shouted another command. This time everyone listened quickly, ignoring the woman who had lost part of her shoulder to the Rat King and was now lying still in a dream from which she would never wake up.

The battle at that point could not have been less chaotic. Harry was throwing rocks of ice at all the rats he could see while muttering internally, 'Hell, hell, hell! I'm a blessed Rank D, I shouldn't die in a Rank F junk fortress! Those filthy ones… when I get out of here I'm going to make these fucking Blessed Rank F pay for it.'

Wendy, who at that moment was trying to stop the bite wound of the girl who had flattered Harry, couldn't stop spying in Noah's direction. "He... That flame of his does a lot of damage to the boss; he's definitely not just a blessed Rank F... Damn Amy, if you hadn't..."

Noah, in the midst of this chaos, was using 100% of what he had practiced on footwork and mobility to be able to move almost freely among the rats while looking for a good opportunity to finally kill the King of the Rats. From the strange movements the Rat King was making, Noah knew that this was a hidden pattern that rats used to try to move without further opening their wounds.

The body of the big monster was full of cuts but even then he kept trying to bite humans. If Noah threw a fireball at one of these cuts, it would certainly hurt the Rat King, but not enough to kill him. And by the feeling of "hunger" he was having, he knew that he did not have the energy left for too many fireballs. The one he was preparing would have to be decisive.