Street Rat vs Sewer Rats [Quest: It's Always Rats]

[Ash]

The streets of Minas Tirith were far more exciting than those of the villages below, people called out prices and wares, shoved trinkets, jewels, food, and a variety of other things at everyone who passed in the market place, including those who could not afford any of it in order to pressure them to buy it, noblemen who had no use for such garbage, and the lone tiefling that was about two stalls away from shoving whatever they were selling back down into the throats of the merchants. She muttered another "No thanks." and pushed her way through the crowd again. Trying for the umpteenth time to get out of the edge of the crowd. She was currently tailing a thin, almost non existing man through the market place upon request of another poor man. He needed a spy to tell him what his corrupt brother was doing with the money he was obviously stealing.

She had tried to argue that she was not that kind of person, nor was she the best person to blend into a crowd of humans. But he insisted, that she wore the same garb of the Black Hand or whatever other spying, thieving, rogues were out there doing this kind of work. She sighed, and finally begrudgingly took the job. It didn't pay for shit, but it gave her something to do while she scouted the city. Besides.. She was that kind of person, and she had the skills.

The cloak she wore was a pitch black, and cast a heavy shadow over her, keeping her cool but also trapping the heat inside. So her skin felt like it was melting off her bones while she was hugged from every front by a different person every time she took a step. She knew this was unlikely, even impossible, but she kept checking to see if her arms were still there, in a way a man pressed for time checks his watch every minute to see what progress he's made. She was hiding her appearance for their sake, but in doing so she hid her outfit. One she worked hard on.

Dark leather shirt, split down the middle of her front, with straps of leather binding it to her body, but the gap still showing off much more skin than anyone around her. The tails of the shirt came to two points, that flowed freely at her sides, and made a space for her tail. Which her tail was adorned with a silk ribbon, just for a nice touch. Her chap pants were tight, her belts were decorative, and her cuffed boots were thick and black. Any accent colors were that of her favorite, blue. 

She often wondered if her skin turned blue because of that, she only had two favorite shades, and this was the darker of the two. Her other was the neon bright, can't miss it unless you are blind, electric blue. The exact blue her electric abilities. Again, she wasn't sure but thought it had something to do with her. Oza was red, and his flames were bright orange. But with their image, its kind of hard to believe that was his two favorite colors and that the reason he was born that way because of whatever force of nature, or unnatural force, mad a man that way.

She checked her wrist again, visible because she only had fingerless gloves on. They fit perfectly, and since there was no wax like substance the same color of her skin running down them, she could only confirm she was not melting. Not yet. She looked back up to check on her targeted tail. This NPC had a generic name, thick brows, black facial hair that formed the most eastern looking mustache she's ever seen in real life, and a tuft of hair on his chin. He wore simple clothes of maroons and creams, no hat, just a thick pony tail. According to his brother, he's been stealing from them for months. So far, Ash hasn't seen him do anything but walk around. And it looked like all this random quest was doing was stealing from her. Time and patience. 

The girl let her vision go about the place again. The buildings reminded her of Assassin Creed, she could even make out the foot holes in most of them. Where she would leap and swing, and throw herself off to land in haystacks. That wouldn't work, not in real life. And not here. Curious as that was.. She felt like this was all a big virtual reality simulator, but when she got scratched by those thorns she felt it, and the blood that seeped through to mix with the troll's had been real.. But that shouldn't surprise her as much as it did, because even in her real world, she had felt like reality wasn't as it seemed.

Back home she used parkour to race around the city, sometimes with other Street Rat members, sometimes to simply escape the cops. Her job, the one they technically tax her on, was being a stripper. How much more video game like can you get? Odd job, hard life, fancy new powers, family problems, and now a way to get out of that rut in one's life. Only with a part two, a bigger plot twist. Instead of waking up in the Leviathan's bed, she had dreamed her way into this place. Not.. Like she was complaining. A change of pace is always good for the bored. And Ashe got bored quickly. 

For instance.. When someone asks for her to spy on his scoundrel of a brother, and that man does nothing suspicious what so ever. 'I mean would it kill the bastard to at least look at a girl with evil intent. At least that way I can tell his brother he's paying for whores.' She thought to herself, pulling at the hood of her cloak and trying to fan herself. Her blind appearing eyes back on him, bored and annoyed to see he was stopping yet again to look at something that's on sale. But then to her surprise, his lips began to move. And the merchant looked away but spoke as he fanned himself. Finally! Something usable.

[Ash]

The buildings that surrounded her were white, tan, sand, wood, and cream colored. They stood a couple floors high at most, and decorative flags and banners flew in the wind, announcing what faction the place supported. Or was it the nobles the supported? Ash hadn't taken the time to research which of the options the flags stood for. Potted plants swung dangerous on hooks and chains above, one link away from crashing onto someone's head.

However the tiefling's attention was not above her, but what else was on street level, her level. As easily as it would be to get high up on the buildings in just leaps and a bound, her goal was to remain unnoticed and unseen. Making a big fuss over a disturbingly colored girl jumping up buildings was not the way to do this. She made a quick observation of a narrow alley across from the blanket her target had stopped to chat at.

She worried it would be out of hearing range for her, but decided it was best to stay out of sight than hear what they had to say. Besides, she had a knack for reading lips. Abandoning her advantage point in the crowd, she pushed through the fevered bodies and into the nook made by the two buildings.

Instantly she felt a hundred percent better. As soon as she stepped out of the crowd, she could feel the sweltering heat blown away by a breeze coming through the cracks of the city. It whipped her cloak and shirt tails about, and very nearly her hood, but her gloved hand clutched the cowl before it could be thrown off and reveal what she was. Her tail had also been swept up by the gust, but she allowed it to flutter around like an attached ribbon. No one seemed to notice, at least not openly. She slid into the alley and put her back to the wind, and her hips against the barrel randomly placed there by who ever had moved it.

She could see her target still whispering to the merchant. But their heads moved an awful lot, and the mass of people pushed past them like the roaring river they have become. But she watches as they trade some gold pieces and a parcel before the man moves on. She cursed. Not only did she not hear what they had said, or for that matter seen, but now he was moving again. And after she was starting to feel less melted. Now he also had a package. But was that even important? It could have just been a cover up. A mere piece of gold or two to keep up appearances of the merchant.

She sighed, and began to look around again. It would be far easier to follow this guy from above. But it would be difficult to hide her looming shadow with the sun so high as she jumped each hurtle that was made by each building's togetherness. Especially at high noon. She cocked her head with annoyance, her black hair falling loosely across her face. She had to think.. As little as she liked to do of that, it was probably a good idea.

It was then that she spotted a grate in the side of the street, as curious as it was to see a working sewage in this era, she ignored it. She didn't have time to think about meaningless things while her target got away, so she clutched her hood once more and stepped back into the crowd. Letting the humans press up against her because she had no other choice while being incognito. She only wished that if he was going to do something illegal that he do it fucking soon, because she didn't like wasting time on such trivial things, and side quests that distracted her from her main objective was trivial even in the best of lights.

---

The sun was setting in sky by the time Ash followed the brother into the questionable district. There were far less people, and far more shadows gliding along the city's walls. She was one of those, and on more than one occasion she silently passed another cloaked figure. Whatever kind of person was under the opposite hood in that situation was either distracted with their own mark, or had the same thought as her: 'If you stay out of my way, I'll stay out of yours.' But each time they approached her, she brought her hand to the hilt of The Quill at her thigh and waited for him or her to make their move first. Again, there seemed to be a mutual respect for other roguish figures in this part of the city, an honor among thieves if you will, and the other figure rarely made a move on her.

However, her mark was another story. Between thuggish brutes, and sticky fingers, he had been pushed around a little and even the parcel he had bought had been snatched from his waist. He either didn't notice right away, or didn't care. Ash only made a note of the thief, but didn't see any point in running him down and taking what he had until it became relevant. So for now, she let him dash out of sight down a musky alley.

Shortly after the theft, however, the man's attitude changed. Not because he found himself robbed of a valuable item, but because he was more comfortable. And his comfortable personality was an asshole. He smacked a woman out of his way because she was begging for coin, and called her a whore. He began to walk with anger in his shoulders, his arms out stiffly and balled up fists, his steps were fast and hard, and he appeared intimidating. Not for Ash.. She just rolled her eyes at it, and kept following him.

Until following him became impossible. He stopped outside an alley that was brightly lit all the way to the dead end, his intimidating shadow upon the wall as he vanished down below. Before that, however, he had talked to a bulky man that would put many of the club bouncer's she'd seen to shame. He had a shaved and tattooed head, a our look on his face, dark skin, and glaring eyes. He wore puffy pants, pointed shoes, and a straight black vest, not to mention the large scimitar at his hip. He was three heads taller than Ash herself, and a wall of bulging muscles. She had her work cut out for her..

She was trying to think of a way to spy on what was going on, or how to get past him. He didn't seem to be the type that was impressed by a pretty face. And even if he was, her's was full of metal and scars, not exactly the flirty type. Unless he liked a girl with just a little more hair than him, and a bit more horny than him. Beyond that, she wasn't much to look at. Okay.. Actually she was. Especially in Camelot. Still, Ash guessed he liked girls with a bigger bust, more ass, and a lot less sass.

[Ash]

Ash bit into the nail of her thumb from the shadows, glaring at the man who seemed all too comfortable with just standing there and minding his own business. She's been here for half an hour, hoping the brother just needed a drink at his favorite back alley pub, but it would appear he was there to stay. Which probably meant that the reason the world force fed her this quest was in there. But this realization only made her groan out in frustration and fall against the building beside her, tapping her head against the hard stone. How was she supposed to confront the bouncer? Her scrawny little but can only do so much..

At that exact moment there was a big of disturbance down the block. Loud enough to catch her attention and probably anyone else who was standing within the quarter mile radius. She was glancing in the general direction of the noise when something slapped her brain from the inside and she realized this might be an automated response to a player character stuck on the quest, that big, bald, and scary might be programmed to go look for what was causing the commotion and would leave his post. She looked at his direction, but he only looked pissed off that someone was at it again, and remained in his spot.

Come to think of it.. That mechanic never made sense to her. If the enemy knew someone was sneaking around and heard a noise in the background, why would the leave their guard posts? She knew it was because the object of the game was to give her a challenge and several ways around that challenge. But it was so.. Unrealistic. 'Funny.. My game wasn't real enough for me..' She thought as this came to mind, rolling her eyes at herself. But that didn't change the fact that tall, dark, and tattoo'd wasn't moving. She sighed, and ventured closer to the noise.

When she arrived, a solider - identified as such by his armor - was shaking his head at the inside of a storage unit. The person who had made so much noise was still making a big deal. He was making the most exaggerated hand gestures one could while talking in a different language. He looked even more average than the brothers, but was concerned about what was happening in the storage box. The solider turned back around to talk to the man, only in English. "Rats I can believe, but the size of dogs? Are you sure you aren't drinking my friend?"


"I haven't touched the bottle in 2 years!" The man followed the change of language. Or maybe it was translated for her because of how important it might be. Or because language barriers.. And a game would normally give her subtitles. "No. Nonononononono, and NO! They were the size of house cats. Look! You think a mere rat could take such a chunk out of my cheese? I'm surprised there's any left!!" He was apparently very excited about this.

She heard the guard muttering, and saw his lips bring her thoughts to words. 'A pack of rats could..'

He glanced back at the unit, then to the citizen. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do about it.. The sewers are full of rats and we have more pressing issues than to clean the place out right now. We're advertising help for it, but you can imagine how often anyone comes along who wants to do THAT job. You are more than welcome to higher someone to watch your food all night, but good luck with that." He said, then gave him a nod as if dismissing himself. "Good night."

As the solider started to leave, the man went back to disbelief and exaggerated motions of his hands and language. It all seemed rather wasteful of her time, until the grate from earlier flashed before her mind. Sewer systems.. Maybe that's how she can track her boring friend?

Ash pulled her hood firmly against her head to insure she was hidden, and moved out of the shadows. "Wait.. You say you are having rat problems?" She asked, stopping the solider in mid-step. He turned to look at the girl who just spoke. "What's the pay look like?" She asked, trying to sound desperate for money to escape his suspicion.

"Its as good as you expect to be paid to hunt sewer rats." He responded, moving to face her, closing the gap between their bodies and giving her a good hard look. "Are you interested?" She nodded. "Well.. Then come with me." He said, then began to lead the way. Away from the alley way pub and the poor soul with less food than he had this morning. She tried not to sound horribly upset that she was being taken away from her objective instead of closer. But three more blocks and they stopped at the top of a hill, a five by ten foot stone hut with a single door wrapped in chains and with a padded lock. The guard produced a key that unlocked the chains and pushed them down out of the way. The door was unlocked and had no way of being locked from the outside other than the chains. When your ready, we will pay you for each rat tail you bring back. No funny business either, each complete tail that is at least 4 inches long."

When the door was opened, she tried peering in as far as it would go. But it was just a stair case, and she could hear the water running down below. As he explained the rules of the side-quest she nodded. She knew the jest of things, she's done a million side quests for all kinds of games. They were usually tedious and not worth the reward, but wroth the drops and experience. She had no way of knowing if it was worth it, or what her experience would be like after this - mostly because she didn't know what it looked like even now, but it was a means to an end. She nodded once more for confirmation, and then began to descend.

"Good Luck." Said the solider behind her as he closed the door and left her in complete darkness.

[Ash]

The walls were thick 3" by 7", and no way knowing how thick, bricks with the rough 'bubble' edge protruding out into the space; they were covered in a film from being near water and waste for no telling how long. Her finger-less gloves allowed the tips of her digits to run across the walls as she followed a path that she thought would take her to her previous destination. However, the biggest problem of this was the fact that the sewage didn't follow the city's layout like the roads did. To her displeasure.

She could hear the dripping sound of water echo off the walls, it was ever present despite her inability to find anything with her light source. It was a torch, a handy piece of wood with a flame at the tip that flickered against the wet walls, the sound of wood cracking and the smell of the flame consuming the new wood was a great distraction from the garbage and waste on her right. The dancing torch light flickered off the moving water, where it was present; as there was a layer of fabric, food, and algae that set on the top, covering the 'beautiful' filth. The air was somehow more noxious than the dead - or even alive - troll she had to fight mere days before this.

She had been walking in relatively silence for a good 5 minutes, and only then did she hear signs of her prey. The chattering squeak was the perfect tell-tale signs of the rodents she was supposedly after. She had never had a problem with rats, much like she hasn't ever had a problem with spiders, snakes, or anything else considered 'creepy' or 'crawly'. She didn't particularly like anything of that nature either, knew several people who'd love those types of animals as pets instead of the boring option of a house cat, but she'd never been fascinated enough to want to keep one. Frankly, it was probably because she could hardly take care of herself on a day to day basis, a pet would be a responsibility not at all unlike having a child to her.

She pulled out The Quill as she moved closer to the noise of rodents. The man above had described them as large, but unless the walls were playing with the sound, she would assume bigger rats would make deeper sounds than the high pitched laughter she was hearing from an apparent swarm of rats. She just needed enough proof to show the guard for a quick reward. And perhaps someone needed a batch of Rat Tails for a potion of something.

She turned a corner, which was a more defined corner than the slight curves she had experienced this whole time, and when her light rounded the corner, the shadows came to life as the torch light touched the curved bodies of about thirteen rats. All colored in some combination of white, brown, black, or grey; some solid and some not so much. They were crawling all over each other and trying to achieve something, but to the demonic observer it was hard to tell. She watched as they piled onto one another and several broke away from the group, all to sniff and scratch at their surroundings.

At first she wondered if they were blind, as none of them too notice of her or her light; It would have appeared she thought that a bit too soon because one of them moved towards her at that moment. It pawed mostly over, just inside the circle of light her flame made, and then sat on its hind legs and sniffed in her direction. As far as she could tell, they were merely rats. Nothing particularly special about their size or anything. The one that approached her looked a little big, but not at all mistakable for a 'dog' or 'cat' sized rat.

The woman stood there, motionless, not because she wasn't trying to scare her prey, but because she wasn't sure what to do. Here one was 2 feet from her, and it seemed a bit too easy. Or was this just the introduction scene, to set her see the creature and add the first page to her bestiary before having to kill it? From the lack of interest that suddenly came over the rat in front of her, to the point of it turning its fat back to her and scurrying back to the swarm she could only assume so.

Ash sighed heavily, through her nose, and began to moved up. She felt a bit of guilt as she positioned herself very near the swarm, squatting down and bringing the light closer to them all. They seemed unfazed by its blaze, except the two or three that stopped to perch up on their back legs and sniff at her. This didn't feel fun at all, not even the swarm turning on her after she attacks it would make this better.. But a job was a job, and indeed this would be a job.

With blinding speed, her arm swiped at the closes rat, the feather shaped blade slid right through it without any resistance at all. The rat was suddenly in two, the top half - which had been sniffing at her - fell on its side to the left and the bottom fell to the right as it was heavier on that side. She watched with some pity as its guts, now free of its small furry case, spilled out from either half. Her nose wrinkled with displeasure. Until this point, she never considered herself the type to need a little sport from her prey but this wasn't fair at all. Even with one dead, the rats didn't seemed to understand their danger. Or at least not for a good half minute before a rat moved from the inside out and found it. It suddenly squeaked in a way that alerted the rest, just before she stabbed it through the back bone.

The rest of them scattered after that, but she regretted stabbing the little thing as it struggled under the knife. Even if she took pity on it and let it go, it would die from being impaled straight through like it was. Still, it made a horrible noise as it freaked out. Its little heart surely would burst before it bled out. Eventually it went still and silent, and she pulled her hand away but not the blade. How was it that she could fearlessly and remorselessly sever arm after regenerated arm in a mountain sized creature, but this seemed heartless to her?

After setting there for a bit, letting time escape her, Ash finally pulled the knife free - the fresh blood of her kills is magically pulled within the blade until it was clean again - she then cut the tails before kicking the remains of the creatures into the sewage. She stood up, lifted her tail off the ground, and began walking the thin line between the slimy walls and the clogged waters.

[Ash]

The cracking light flickered across her ebony hawk and was dulled by the darkness of her horns as she walked, still trying to find her way back to the whole reason she was going through all this. Instead of attacking the rats on her way, she simply pushed them aside with her boots. It was upsetting how docile they were, not at all like the rats in games she's played before. In previous games, this same quest would have consisted of the swarms clogging up the walk way while she struggled with direction, and would attack her the moment she was in their sensor box. Only for her to slash at the air above them three times before the swarm of rodent's would turn into smoke or sludge as a sign that she defeated it. But this put so much realism to it that she didn't feel like slaughtering them mercilessly.

At some point she surfaced from her internal thoughts to find that she was lost. Sure, she's only been going in one direction and its all been following the same path, she could just turn around and go back to escape the way she came; but she had no idea how far into the city she was or what was above her. She wished she had borrowed a map from the guard. "No point in stopping now.." She groaned to herself and continued, this time taking a sharp turn in the direction she hoped would get her to her goal.

She could count the seconds by the dripping that was always present, the minutes, the hours.. She suddenly stopped and gripped her torch to tightly her knuckles turned white. She actually hated that sound, the constant dripping. It was a reminder that time was ticking away, it was irritating. But more so because it felt like every moment she wasted here, was a moment she lost in finding out what was going on with the original quest. She kept expecting a popup in her hub to tell her she missed her chance and to make her way back when the quest reset, that she'd have to star all over again in that freaking market place full of people that choked the air out of your lungs by just being near them.

Then suddenly she heard something crash against the stonework. It didn't sound as clear as glass - of which the stripped had enough experience with during bar fights; ones she was either bystander for or a part of. It sounded like a ceramic pot, or clay. Something dense hitting stone and cracking rather than shattering. She remembered the merchant, wondering if maybe his stock just slipped through the cracks of his storage unit and it wasn't rats at all but misfortune.

It was better to go check, she figured, and did so.

As she closed the distance she could hear some scratching, and heavy breathing; She could hear the clay pot pieces being pushed across the stone as something sought out what the pieces hid. She came across a new tunnel, and ducked under the hanging lip that separated the spaces, took a few steps and then stopped when her light found what she was looking for.

Indeed, somewhere between the size of a common house cat and a medium size dog, stood a creature of close relation to the common rat. The first one was right in the way of her path, the light banishing shadow to reveal the curved back that was turned to her. A quick glance and she guessed it reached her knees. She could see the edge of a second one, one that could have seen her if it picked up its giant head from whatever it was doing. She bit her lip in order to keep from gasping in surprise, her lip ring swiveling to be missed as she did. Not only did this mean she found the rats that had harmed the merchant's resources, but it could only mean she was close to her goal, yes? Yet, what was she going to do about this?

While the smaller rats have been plenty by docile, she hardly believed a creature as big as this would submit to a gentle nudge by her boot. At the very least, she didn't believe it would react pleasantly to it.

She had to think fast, even if they don't see her as a threat, it would be very bad to be caught off guard. And the one was one look away from seeing her.

As silent as night, as quietly as she could be, Ash passed the torch from one hand to the other before she reached for her dagger. She's already seen what The Claw can do on a large creature, if she could impale one she could probably handle dealing with the other by herself. Her fingers found the hilt of the dagger and ever carefully wrapped her hand around the thin handle, bare and circular instead of flat. She noticed it was cold in her hand, but she took it firmly.

Slowly she raised her arm, trying to blend with the background enough that the other one didn't notice her, with her blade gripped in her fist but her wrist straight and her eyes focused as she put the rat with its back to her in her sights. She was about to release the mechanism that would launch the weapon forward when she got the idea to line them up and see if she couldn't make a shickabab. She moved so precisely she began to feel sweat trickling down her temples, chest, back, and legs; between the pieces of leather and her skin. When they lined up in a good way, she took a deep breath and held it. As she released her breath she activated the device.

There was no sound, no thunder like a gun, as it launched across the space. She felt the power of the device shake her arm as the hook was forced through the air. She heard the slick sound of a hit as the bladed grappling hook spears through the back of one, and then the tip impales the one that could have seen her between the eyes. Everything was very still and very silent before the bodies slumped to the ground. Satisfaction rooted itself into Ash as she confirmed the kill, only for her heart to stop as she heard a set of paws slapping the stone and the sound of a air passing through a wet nose..

[Ash]

It crept out of the shadows, its biddy little eyes that glistened from beyond the shadows come into full view as it stepped into the light. It's nose wiggled curiously in the air, its face following behind its bulbous nose, and finally the eyes appeared. They looked as blind as hers, a milky white film covered the dark colored eyes, making them look grey and white; they stare at her, but they didn't see here. She watched as it sniffed the air for whatever it was that was in the room with it, and found herself holding her breath. Refusing to let out that breath, however, she cursed to herself mentally. It was a matter of time before the creature in front of her would get wind of what was going on. In fact, she could see that it had her scent. It would have no way of sizing her up, though, and maybe she could use that to her advantage?

Suddenly it stopped, dead eyes staring right into her own blank windows, its nose very still, but its mouth just slightly jarred as it's massive and orange-yellow buck teeth sticking out and over its lip. It was dead still, as was she, but the demoness could tell that the creature in front of her already had her scent and was debating on what to do about the unknown foe. Its whiskers kept dabbing along the side of its face, letting her know it wasn't a complete stop of the heart. To her displeasure.

As quickly as it became a statue, it screeched out and then began to run towards her. "Shit!" She spoke, and dodged it. But in the process of doing so, she had to drop the 'rope' of her hook onto the floor. It had been a simple dodge, she just dropped it and threw herself against the wall. When she was done peeling herself off the slime covered walls, she made a dive for the black 'rope', only to get whipped by the abnormally large rat tail. It struck her face, leaving a gash in her cheek. Ash let out a soft sound of pain before turning to see the rat twisting around again, hissing out in annoyance; She wasn't very happy either.

The woman abandoned the idea of fighting with her hook, the small space and limited visibility made it difficult to use it effectively anyways. Ash turned to her opponent, yanking out The Quill again and twisting it in her fingers as she prepared to fight this beast. With a flick of her hand, Ash discarded the torch against the walls she'd just pulled her back from, creating a distraction for the blind rat; Who did look over and sniff in its way. That was her cue, as electricity began to form in her left hand, Ash's legs pushed her forward.

The rat seemed to notice the snaps that the sparks made, and understood it was in combat, because as she approached, it prepared itself. As quickly and fiercely as she did, the rat charged her as well.

But in reality, this wasn't that big of a fight, nor that dramatic. The rat raced towards her, only to squeak out in agony as she reached down and grasped it's head within her crackling hand. Blue lightening arced through the poor creatures spine right down to the tail, and a second later it became paralyzed, and ultimately at the mercy of The Storm Demon. However, Ash wasn't about making creatures suffer, at least not the ones that had little mind to them; As she discovered with the small normal rats. While the electricity still coursed through the giant rat's furry body, she stabbed it through the head. The Quill slid in with a satisfying wet sound of defeat, and staid there while the body twitched out of reaction. She watched the blood begin to pool at the surface of its cranium, but the blade inside quickly began to suck it up for it's reservoirs of ink. She really should play with the idea of writing a book in blood, if only to see how much she could write before she ran out of 'ink'.

As anti-climatic as that was, she was happy that it had been over quickly. She went straight to work hacking the tails off before adding them to her growing collection. With her torch back in hand she went to inspect what it was that her rat-ka-bab was messing with. Her fingers lift the ceramic pieces up and flip them over much easier than the rat's could have done with their noses and finding the prize on the other side. She had to assume that the majority of what was inside these things had been spilled out on the stone and lapped up by the rats, but from the morsels on the inner smooth pieces she guessed they had gotten into some kind of sauce. She didn't care to taste it, after all this was a sewage system.

With curiosity out of the way, she set her sights onto the places beyond the battle field, walking down the tunnel she discovered in hopes of something more than a dead end..

[Ash]

Ash twisted in the air to dodge yet another giant rat and sent her dagger straight into its skull while she pulled back her grappling hook by the strange rope of hair to her side again, catching the sides of another over sized rodent, and gutting its fat belly in the process. She felt better about fighting these enemies, less like slaughtering helpless creatures who didn't even know they were in danger. Upon grasping her hook, she ran forward, snatching her blade as she passed the dead creature's corpse. The demoness was already sizing up her next beast, the torch has been replaced by a ball of light that hovered behind her; As if tethered to her in some magical way. She used as little OM as she could to keep the cost vs payment still in her favor. She raced towards the creature who was still on alert to the presence of a threat, and kicked it sharply in the face. It's skull held out, but it was flung upright and she took the opportunity to gut this one as well; Immediately following it with a hard kick in the face again to get it out of her way. 

She never had an urge to own a gun and the skills to fire one as much as she did now. How easy would this fight be if she could just shoot them down. But that was the challenge here, wasn't it? She couldn't help but think about how Jaixe would most likely laugh at her for struggling with mere rats. Which brought a grin to her face rather a scowl. It wasn't so much as her struggling, as there were an awful lot; But she was in a sewer full of them after all. She lowered herself behind the bleeding and struggling monster while she loaded her hook again.

Ash was never the claustrophobic kind, but she really did hate these closed off spaces. She was a creature of acrobatics in the air and trick shots off the metal beams that tower over Coruscant.. Why in the devil's name was she down in the medieval sewage system of Camelot? Fighting monstrous rats, no less, and for what? For a cut scene that would hopefully explain this man's reasons for stealing money from his brother so that she could cash in on THAT quest. The endless chain of quests.. You had to keep yourself in check with those, or one day when you log in and you check your list, there will be hundreds of incomplete missions that you've long since forgotten because one event leads to another. Luckily for her, Ash's life was in games and in the dataverse of her old life. She might not be a pro-player, paid to play games all day and improve skills or whatever the game at the time required from her attention, but her life was spent either dancing on a pole or being a bad-ass in the Matrix. 

Certainly not playing with a bunch of rats..

She stabbed an oncoming rat, and while the body continued its momentum forward she dodged out of the way by twisting her body over it's hump-back, freeing her blade out of it's bloody sheath and landing on her feet, ready to fight the next one. Poised with the unsharpened edge of the blade against her thumb and lightening crackling in the other. However, as she stood there breathing a little heavily, she found no more battle. Whatever pack these things were coming from must be running low, if not completely out of, rats. Waiting a little longer, she stared into the darkness. Her eyes have had plenty of time to adjust to the shadows beyond the radius of her dim light, but she struggled to see anything coming her way.

Hesitantly she lowered her guard and stood upright again. With a glance down at her kills, the numbers getting ever higher, she decided to leave them behind for now, as she has done for several batches of rats; She could come back for the tails on her way out. In fact, it was a clever way to keep track of where she's been in these twisting and turning tunnels. Beyond the main line, the sewers were a maze. She wished again, that she had requested some sort of map.

[Ash]

To her dismay, Ash thrust her foot into the sewage slop, the the thick heel touching a step half a foot into the murky waste filled water. She couldn't tell if it was a solid step from the creation of this place, or if it was mound of trash and muck that has solidified over the course of time. Her nose wrinkled at the truly retching smell that permanently seeped into every corner of this room. She felt the bitter cold of the water press against her boot's, a leather barrier that kept her feet  and legs up to her knees dry. For now. The light still hovered behind her, like a simply party balloon you guy at the dollar store, it bobbed and weaved behind her like a blinking wil'-o-wisp; but shed no light for her to use to see the dimensions of this place.

It was large, she knew that much. The source of dripping water seemed to be here, as its echo bounced from one wall to the other, while ripples in the water insisted it was above the pool she was stepping in. Lifting her devil's tail to be above the water, Ash took another step into the pool. The sides she'd been using to travel down here came to an abrupt stop here, but the curved walls domed high over head and she assumed continued back for a fraction of the distance. She decided she was just going to clear this section of the problematic rats and then head back to find the end of her first quest. Unfortunately for her boots, that meant wading through the massive puddle of poop - among other things - and check out the last corner of this corridor. 

It immediately went to knees, and upon the first few steps she puased to seeth while the frozen shit water seeped past the lip of her boots and soak through her thin socks. At that moment, her priorities changed to talking to the first brother right after this to waiting after a shower and a good nights rest. Her eyes glared into the darkness, her blind appearing eyes turning to slits with her annoyance. Grunting as she pulled her boot free of something under the water, she continued her adventure into the deeper parts of the sewer water.

If only that were the end of this silly quest. If only!! But to further upset the woman trapped under the city, it was not. At the back she found thick metal bars that would keep the filth back and let the water freely roam to where ever it was it flowed to after this, but found that something has cut through the metal bars. She sucked her teeth as she tried to convince herself to ignore it and turn back, but the grating was pushed through and told her whatever it was had come from this chamber and not the other way around. She tried once more to plead with her better judgment and convince herself to just ignore it and leave, after all this wasn't her problem. But then she remembered Jaixe and his requests once again.

With a loud groan, she slipped through the bars - having to dip her bottom half into the rancid liquid below to do so. She demanded of the omniverse that this better be worth it!

[Ash]

Ash had hoped the water coming through this channel specifically would be cleaner and she could at least enjoy a pretend sense of clean through out her now crap covered lower half. If the feeling of someone's wastes wasn't enough to convince her this was the worse first quest she'd ever experience in her long life of gaming, being unable to wash it off was. She's had a lot of shit jobs, but none so shitty as being covered in shit! She wasn't so grossed out by it that she demanded a shower this instant, nor did she run and hide from it, she was decidedly more mature than the stereotypical stripper; what little that could amount to in a tunnel of thigh high shit water. Knowing how contaminated this water system was she changed her mind once more. If she didn't just out right leave via the next man-hole she saw and walk right up to that bouncer from earlier and force her way past the muscle bound bully NPC, she was going to quietly check up on whatever it was they were doing, go to the brother, and report while still covered in a film of feces and put this suffering onto someone who deserves it! She would then summon some form of flying mount and make her way to any verse with working water!

She flicked a particularly large piece of something away from her in the water, and continued down the stream. With such a big hole in the filtering system there were many questions running through the salty female. Who - more likely what - made it? Why did it have to be that big? Did anyone else know about this? And the least important question: Was this contaminating the well water? Of course she didn't care so much about the last one, because she was ready to kiss this place good bye. As the light source still bobbed up and down, it cast her horned shadow across the water, and in the midst of the discarded fabric, food, and other things, she saw something stranger than a demon wandering a primitive sewage system. It was a freshly torn chunk of some meat, and she only knew this because the side up was still red with blood; however, it looked like it was ripped or chewed off. If this walk was not enough for her to turn back yet, a little gore didn't scare her. She continued forward.

The Storm Demon followed the current, either natural or made by magic, in hopes that whatever created the hole would be hidden back here still. If not, she was going to find a way out of here, pronto. Ash liked to believe she was a patient person, even if she knew she wasn't in all aspects in life, but this whole madness was grating on the nerves, it was almost a basket of quests wrapped up in one. Seek out information on this man; When problem occurs find a way around it; Solution is a quest, open it; During quest find that the rats are not mere rats and look for answers; Answers turn to more questions, answer them; Find a hole in the wall, go through and look for reason. What would be next! What more was this quest going to ask of her? What minor detail did it want her to discover to end this joke of a quest? Would she find more rats? Rat men? Wererats!? Would she be poisoned with a disease that is conveniently going through out the town and need to find a cure to save herself as well as the town!!

Ash was on the verge of screaming all these complaints out loud, but the sound of squeaking stopped her, and the crunching of something echoed around the curve. She stopped and became completely silence. The noises continued, like nothing had happened. She looked up, finding that there was 20 feet worth of air above her, but yest again she couldn't use her grapple due to the lack of something; this time it was no catch points for the hooks. So she abandoned the idea of using it and pulled out her blade again. She realized at that moment that she was catching up on her uses of The Quill when she had thought it was so useless before. She waded as silently as possible to the wall and flattened her back to it. Slowly she crept around the curved corner until she thought she could spy on whatever it was.

There in the middle of the break section, a lone figure stood on something that seemed to float in the water. Be it a single heap of trash that formed throughout the time it's had to make a nest, or a floating device that found its way here - somehow. It was bent over, she could barely even see it to be honest. But she could hear it, the slick sound of a tongue hungrily lapping at meat, and the sound of something hard being chipped away in the other area. She was considering the light, would it be worth it to give away her position, but she was already almost doing that. She decided she should get a good look at what she was fighting before it was too late.

Grasping the ball of light in her bare right hand, the demoness throws the orb of light around the corner and at the wall as close to behind the shadow as she could. It flung no problem and even attached itself to the wall before weakening from being so far away from her. As it flickered as it could go out at any point in time, she got a decent picture of the creature. Like it was being bombarded by paparazzi, the enormous rat dropped what it was eating and began to flip out, squeaking and chittering while looking around for the threat. It was nearly the size of a human but acted as though it were crippled from the hips down, attempting to pull away but unable to muster up the strength.

It did not seem to understand the ball was stationary, but it was also confused and pre-occupied by the fact that something was in the tunnels with it. Ash decided to take this chance and began by pushing herself off the wall and rushing in. While the creature that she could see appeared to be unaware of her, she was surprised by a creature she did not expect. As Ash moved to step onto the surface the creature was on, and effectively rush it, something lifted out of the water with an ear peircing screech before grabbing her.

The light weight demonoid was halted so hard that she fell onto her face onto a soft spongy surface which did nothing to prevent the water from breaking over it so she was also splashed in the face with the disguisting sewage. Then she felt something stab into her leg with a fierce bite! Panic snapped inside of her, and she shoved her body up off what she was on to of, just as another surprise pushed through and the nose of another rodent like creature pushed past whatever was keeping them afloat and gnashed its ugly yellow moldy teeth at her.

While it was extremely hard to surprise Ash with insults or vulgar conversation, she was throughly cuaght off guard by what had been an easy fight. She tried to pull away from both assualts, only to find that she was trapped. Instict took over and she stabed at the biting nose; then again and again until it stopped moving.

By this time her intended target turned her way and screeched at her. But she was just out of range. She decided they needed their space and turned to the thing holding onto her leg. Her blade slid into its head so fast and so easy that the hollow 'thunk' that she heard among the sloshing movement behind her was almost too perfect. With her so close in proximity, the light flashed back to its full bright power, and she saw the dead rat's face as its mouth was wrapped around her leg; perfectly so that she could not escape but it did minimum damage to her. The face that normally looked close enough to cute because it was covered in fur was twisted in a horrible kind of way. Between the water, the obvious bloating, and the decay of time and rancid water, the face rat looked like something from a horror game. With a swift kick it freed her. She got to her hands and knees - still grasping the dagger tightly - and got a good look of what she was on. There had to be 30 bodies at least. All of them some variation of brown, grey, black, and white, the size of humans. All motionless. 

Ash turned her head to see the one in the center trying to reach her and coming close to gnawing on her ebony horn, water flowing off her face now and obscuring her full view but she got the jest of the beast. While this one seemed to be the only one alive, it was not free of deformities. It looked like the tails of the other have grown into its body, large unnatural buldges twisted its image, looking like a bad tentacle porno advertisement. She pulled away in disgust, and swung her blade to cut its nose. It pulled back in pain, but as she was moving for better footing another head poked through the body raft to grab her by the hand this time, this time taking a bite into her fleshy arm.

She cried out in pain, and was dragged down into the ass water; barely closing her mouth to keep it from entering her orphas, as well as barely catching her breath before she was pulled though up to her shouders. Instinctivly her arm grabbed for purchase, and bear hugged the dead white rat for her life.

The woman was already risking infections of all kinds swimming in this crap, but she kept her eyes closed to prevent anything she could help. In darkness the water rushed past her, the rat holding her arm shook it violently in attempts to either break it or drown her. All around her water rushed and splashed, and she bit back the pain while it fought her mercilessly.

And endless amount of time passed in seconds as she struggled with this stupid roden. Finally the slime of the waste was working for her instead of against her, and the glove she had created slipped away along with the mouth. She ripped herself out of the water gasping for even the gross air of the sewage, and pushed herself away from the edge of the raft. Thoughtlessly to what she was backing into.

The Rat King was more than happy to accept the fresh meat, and with its grubby and greedy hands, it grabbed the half drowned demoness and pulled her close. Without hesitation, the thick bucked teeth come down on her shoulder: CRACK!! She felt something in her collar snap like a tooth pick! She felt the teeth sink into the leather but it held true, and yet this did nothing to stopo the world shattering pain from erupting through her! She screamed at a pitch loud enough to be heard from the surface above, if only because of the gratting very near them.

Before she had time to react she another mouth came through the raft and bit into her thigh, creating another point of pain; and a third showed up to clamp around her right hand, solidifying her grip on The Quill but preventing her form using it. Next, with perfect vision and light to see, she saw a rat's head appear between her ankle with the glove in its mouth. It dropped it unceremoniously and looked around with its bulging  blind eyes. At that moment she realized they were not only a nest full of rats, but zombie rats. And then it took a bit at her ankle and cut through the leather and into her leg. Ash tensed up again and let out a loud cry, this one of frustration as the infested water's flooded her wound!! "BASTARDS!!"

[Ash]

While the guard couldn't wait around all night, he came back to the unlocked doors of the sewers as frequently as he could; which was about once an hour, sometimes twice. It made it easy to keep checking on the doors because he was patrolling the area around it, but he was concerned all the same when the sun began to rise over the rooftops and he hadn't even heard of rumors of the girl in the leather in the area. At no point in the night did he find drippings of water either, but she could have avoided that all the same. He was due for a trade off with the other guards, but decided to go by the place once more for good measure, sure that he'd not see her again if she didn't resurface after by the time he went back to work later that night. He came close enough to kiss the door, pressing his ear against it and listening intently for any sign of life. As he did every time he came near, he also checked the area for wet marks, foot prints, or rat tails that might have slipped out of her hands while she was leaving the sewers; he found none. With a sigh, he stood up right, straightened his armor, and was about to leave when he heard something slap against the door.

Then again, and one last time before silence. It was unsettling for the guard, but he turned to look at the doors, expecting them to open from such hardy shoves. He wondered if it was her, but readied his weapon just in case as he moved to step closer to the previously chained entrance. When he was about to reach the steps, the door flung open! And out flew a creature of nightmares! The guard screamed a high pitched sound as he shoved himself back away from it, and scrambled to keep ahead of the bulbous, diseased, mold covered head of a black rat who's fur was matted up with all kinds of things. The tangles around its cheeks made it looked infected with something out of this world; its eyes were popping out of its head, and its tongue spilled out of its mouth, the two large pairs of teeth spread apart in its slack position. It crashed to the ground, a single head, but attached to it in some way or another were giant snake like things. The spilled out and about over the ground, making him recoil at the wet sound of brain matter hitting the cobblestone. After a moment when it did not move, the guard regained his composure but not his shock. His plate sized eyes turned to the doors that were still open, and in the middle of it a female.

Or at least he thought it was a female, the female he'd sent down. The clothes were the same, although badly tattered around her body. As gruesome as the rat head was, he stopped breathing when he saw her full form. The curve female not only had strange colored skin, but two ebony black horns that curved out from just above her ears and around the curve of her head to meet in the middle, looking almost bull like. She glared at him through blank canvases, metal rings piercing her brows and ears multiple times, and her lip once. She leaned on the door way with one arm hooked up and supporting most of her weight; she was hunched over just slightly and leaned into her arm, she was gasping heavily, and she looked like she had not avoided the water at all as it dripped from every strand it could. He stared in bewilderment and horror. She looked like a devil, although half drowned and exhausted; large amounts of blood and other things smeared into her image. She then picked up the limb that had been dangling from her shoulder, clutching a bunch of rat tails of two different sizes.

"How much does this ear me?" She panted, the stunned guard moved towards her, picking up his hand automatically to accept the bunch and count them out. But she lifted one finger to point to the abomination that had appeared on the ground. "And that? I want to be paid double for that." The man didn't want to look again, but did so. The image of the rat with tails for dread locks would forever be burned into his mind. Suddenly he didn't want to go to sleep.