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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 159
🕑 Added 2024-11-05 15:21:43 +0000 UTCThe next day after having tea with Elise, I was once again in the Pit, this time taking part in the Monster Hunts event, and looking at the portcullis on the other side of The Pit.
As for who, or more correctly, what, I was about to face, it was apparently up to chance. I turned my attention from the gate to the royal’s booth, where next to the king, there was a spinning wheel with monster names written on the wheel and a sign on top of the wheel that said “Round 1”
And as expected of anything as weak sounding as “Round 1”, the monsters on that wheel were the ‘pest’ level monsters that any grown man and woman could beat with a stick 1v1, but are a danger in large numbers, like goblins and kobolds.
As the wheel slowed down, I saw it pass over the monsters I saw before when going out on suppression missions with Dad, and end up on one that I had only read about but never seen before. Verminar.
While they are related to the cute and cuddly Kin, the Verminar are the cursed, blighted, and violent rat cousins of the Kin. They are one of the creatures that are killed on sight and suppressed, for if their population is not kept in check by frequent purges of a city's sewer system or abandoned buildings, they will eventually rise up to cause havoc in an attempt to take over the city. Every large enough city has a Verminar problem, and no one has ever successfully purged all Verminar from their city, no matter how hard every ruler has tried, that's just a fact of life living in a city.
“Stright from the local sewers in the capital, we have caught some Verminar, and what better way to use such a blight upon our world, than entertainment! But be warned, contestant, while individually weak, where there is one Verminar, there are always more, and they are crafty as they are vicious.” said the announcer as the portcullis opened and tournament staff herded a group of five Verminar out into the Pit with staffs that had a mana crystal at the tip which released shocks.
When the portcullis closed behind the five Verminar, the first thing they did was look around at walls of the Pit and the thousands of audience looking down at them, and lastly, me. Seeing no way out of the pit, they first tried to gnaw on the portcullis in an attempt to get back into that dark tunnel where thousands of eyes were not on them.
But when that and trying to climb the walls failed, like the cornered rats that they were, their fear turned into feral aggression in a bid to survive, and the only place they could turn their aggression to, was me.
Their squeaks of fear changed into violent screeches as if they were hyping each other up, and then one of them started running toward me from across the Pit, their first few steps were on two legs, and as they picked up speed, they transitioned to all fours.
As they got closer, I got to have a proper look at them for the first time in my life. They were just over half as tall as a grown man, fully furred bipedal rats with a mouth full of fanged teeth with prominent bucked teeth in front, these Verminar charging at me with foam frothing from their mouths all looked malnourished even through their matted fur, and said fur did not cover up the many scars and open wounds they had on their bodies, some of them were still open and infected. Truly disgusting creatures.
When the first Verminar came close, it pounced at me claws first and fanged mouth open wide. Now that I have seen this creature for myself, I am starting to agree with the announcer, these creatures were truly a blight upon the world, and I would not suffer it to live.
Quick and efficient, my spear struck at the lead Verminar and I separated its head from its body as I stepped aside to let its body tumble past me. Not wanting to give the other Verminar a chance to scatter at the sight of their kin being so easily dispatched, I rushed forward just as they were about to pounce and struck twice, with aura coating my spear, I bisected one from shoulder to hip, and led that strike into a stab that hit the center mass of another, skewering it straight thru.
My momentum carried me forward and behind the last two Verminar. As they were turning around to face me, I whipped my spear with a squirming Verminar still impaled upon it and sent it flying off my spear and crashing into one of the Verminar.
Now, there was only one Verminar left standing and looking around at its dead or downed kin and not looking as brave as it was a few seconds ago. I did not bother making my way to kill it and just mentally chanted a Wind Blade before casting it and cutting it in half at the waist.
Now all that was left was the concussed Verminar who was trying to get its dead kin off of itself, but before it could extract itself from under its dead kin, I walked over and stabbed my spear down, nailing both the dead and living Verminar to the ground, ending the last of the rat-faced beast.
I then looked up to the royal’s balcony as they were taking out another wheel that had “Round 2” on top. From what I heard of from previous years, the second round of the Monster Hunt event uses monsters at the level that need a hunter or trained soldier to take them down.
The wheel spun again, and when it stopped, the announcer started speaking, “It looks like we have our first undead for the year! Ghouls! While they are categorized in the zombie family, do not have them confused with their shambling brethren, Ghouls are a mutation of the average zombie, they are swift and vicious while sharing the same properties as zombies, namely the ability to ignore damage to their body and can only be put down by decapitation or destroying the head. Good luck contestant!”
After a minute or so of waiting, the portcullis the Verminar came from opened, and the tournament staff wheeled out three metal boxes that were thrashing around violently. Once the metal boxes were in the Pit, the staff led some chains from the boxes back into the tunnel before the portcullis closed behind them.
Then as one, the tournament staff yanked the chains through the portcullis grates, which triggered a mechanism on the three boxes, making their doors pop open.
The moment the boxes opened, the violent thrashing stopped, and all was quiet in the boxes. That was until a clawed and pasty greyed hand reached out into the sunlight and clawed the ground.
