Valkyrie's Lament

Gate #6 - Day 4 (Part IV)

Jasper and Brook were head-to-head on getting a perfect hit. They were on the last throw, when they heard Silver’s sudden shout. This startled Brook, making him miss his shot, while Jasper won.

“Damn it!” Brook swore. He angrily turned towards Silver, but suddenly the ground trembled hard.

Everyone stumbled onto the ground confused at the sudden tremor. Silver swallowed her cry within her mouth. She grabbed her hands onto the table with a fierce grip. The tremor did not just stop with one and instead six more shook right after one another.

The originally soft expression on Jasper’s face was contorted in dread at the strange impending danger. Even Silver was fearing for her life, fighting against monsters was one thing, but to fight against nature was something impossible and she hoped that it was not so.

Shouts of horror could be heard as the people ran around, trying to get out of cover for the fear of being squashed. The windows broke, the cars crashed, and even some of the buildings fell crashing down. Such a powerful tremor was unheard of in this small city of cats and they all wondered what could possibly set off an earthquake.

Jasper jumped over the counter and snatched the Orange crystal on the shelf. The owner of the stall had already taken cover for the fear of his life. He was like a thief that nimbly took his prize without a second thought even in this strange earthquake-like tremor. Sliver had to give where credit was due that Jasper was becoming more level headed as time went on. One could say that he was a natural that Silver never expected.

Silver ran out away from the collapsing buildings and stalls in the hopes to not get squashed. Everything that was happening was happening too fast, making everyone scramble forward in panic.

“Damn. Damn. Damn.” Silver swore. What the heck was going on? She glanced around wildly to figure out what was going on. It didn’t take a second to find out the cause of the chaos in the city.

Three giant rat monsters were terrorizing the area. Even battling among each other as if they were old rivals.

“Are you kidding me?!” Brook broke out with a strain voice. “This is like a damn crazy sci-fi movie!”

“No time to stare, run!” Rook pulled his brother by the back of his collar, pulling back from his stupor.

Silver ran behind them as they ran to open grounds. The rat monster squealed in anger as they clashed between each other. They raked their deadly claws upon each other’s body, trying to overthrow the other.

“How the heck are they’re three here?” Jasper yelled while running beside them.

Silver glanced around to find a safer route, going away from the three tumbling monsters that seemed to cause chaos everywhere they turned. She knew that staying here was a bad idea and taking down three at once was especially difficult for them. Fighting one on one is a different story, but fighting three was like fighting a large swarm of thousands of skeletal monsters all at once. They just did not have the power to combat three powerhouse monsters in one go.

“We need to get out of here!” Silver called out, and she found a pathway that led them away from the monsters. “Follow me!”

Running through the chaotic scene, Silver pushed forward as her ears rang with screams. People were dying left and right from either being trampled over by people, or stepped on by the monster. Even still people got more injured from running around in panic.

Silver took this chance to make sure that she would not become squashed by the oncoming forces of people that seemed to dart back and forth in a frenzy. They ran nonstop away from the danger that seemed to dog them every step of the way.

Running nonstop, they ran past the buildings and into the park. Silver breathed heavily as she rested on the poles of the swing. The others beside her were also weary from the run and burned through most of their stamina.

“We *huff* need to *puff* get out of this city.” With an exaggerated breath, Brook leaned on his brother for support. “This place is too wild I tell you.”

“You and me both.” His brother replied, confirming his doubts. “At this rate we’re going to die.”

“Everyday death has been nipping at our heels.” Jasper waved his hands, brushing aside the brother’s comment as nothing. “What’s one more?”

The brother’s stare at Jasper strangely because of his words and did not know what else to say.

A sudden loud roar erupted outwards from a distance away from where they came from. Everyone got up and turned their heads towards the sound. Two Rat monsters were devouring each other's body. Scarlet red blood erupted out from their mouth from the brutal brawl. Twisting and turning their large bodies, they continued to tear each other apart.

Even Silver couldn’t help but watch with amusement to see two monsters duking each other out. The ground trembled, buildings collapsed, and their sharp claws flared outwards tearing each other to pieces.

Skin was torn, meat was stripped, blood was sprayed, and even bones were shone through the thick skin. The battle royale continued until one of the two was devoured completely. With a victor decided, the winner completely ate the loser in rabid hunger. Its muscles bulked and became bigger, giving it a surreal look of an oversized muscle rat on steroids.

The third rat twisted its body and ran towards the changing monster with its sharp teeth hanging open from its mouth. The smaller rat out of the two struck first when the larger rat was shifting forms. Without pulling back the smaller rat monster tore through the arms, biting off as if it was some kind of special treat and instead gobbled it up.

Brook and Rook’s face paled when they saw such a disgusting scene. Even Jasper’s face was clouded pale from the outrageous fight before them. They could even hear the slurping and munching sound of blood and bones being eaten like spaghetti.

Silver was unmoved at the grotesque scene before her and watched tentatively for she knew that the winner of this bout would become three times more powerful than before, making the creature into a formidable enemy.

The battle raged on for another twenty minutes as they fought against each other tooth and claw. Each one not backing down, but the bigger one eventually overpowered the smaller one and devoured it whole.

“They ate each other…” Brook started with shock.

“We should get out of here.” Rook replied. He was pale, wiping away his mouth.

“No.” Silver spoke, catching every single one of them off guard.

“What?” Brook called out in disbelief. “Do you want to die here? I don’t know about you, but that monster is completely insane.” He threw up his hands towards the raging rat monster.

“I know.”

“Then why?”

They stare at Silver’s calm demeanor, unable to comprehend what she was thinking. They knew she had something in mind, but they did not want to die. The ferocious monsters that stood before them were like a towering monolith of power. Even if they could put a dent into its flesh, the twins did not know if it would even fall.

“We need to kill it now.”

“Are you nuts?” Rook shouted out in disbelief. “Don’t you see how it just ate its own kind?”

“Yes. That does not matter.”

“What do you mean that does not matter?” Rook cried out in disbelief towards his words. “Its called suicide if we go killing it.”

“You do not need to come. I’ll go myself.”

“You kidding right? She’s kidding right?” He pointed his fingers towards Silver in complete shock and looked towards Jasper.

Jasper didn’t say a single word. Instead, he got the feeling that she wasn’t joking. Instead, he did not know what to say. He had seen her do many crazy things in this short amount of time he had spent with her. Even still, she amazed him every second and instead a small grin emerged.

These two didn’t understand Silver’s mentality nor ever saw her fight head-to-head with a strong opponent, but even still the monster in front of them was even stronger and bigger than a regular size Rat Monster that she had fought.

“Can you explain yourself?” Jasper asked, wondering what she got up her sleeves.

“I heard something about a special item that only appears when three Rat monster’s converge into one another. This doesn’t happen often.”

The word special item perked Jasper’s ears. “So it’s for that reason. Okay, I’m in.”

“What?! You too?” Rook was speechless at Jasper’s words. “Are you both nuts? What special item? You’ll risk your life for something that dangerous?”

“Didn’t you risk your life to gain your power?” Jasper asked. “If not, why did you even attempt to even get it? It would’ve been wiser for you to just leave it behind and not worry about it.”

Jasper’s words stung like needles to the twins and they didn’t know how to reply back. They knew that what they did was foolhardy, but the treasure before them made them curious why there were so many guards guarding one place. When they got their hands on the treasure, they were elated to find out that the power in their hands was something very unique and special. Not even the Angel’s had it in their inventory, making it rare and special.

“See, your expression tells me everything.”

The two were ashamed at Jasper's words and tried to refute. “But that’s a giant monster. What’s so special about it huh? I don’t see a single thing special about it?”

“The core.” Silver silently spoke as she watched the giant rat go on a rampage. It reminded Silver of the infamous godzilla type of destruction that the rat was going through.

“You’re going to kill 1 for the core?! That’s preposterous!”

“I have a need for it.” Silver did not say anything anymore. She instead started to head towards the giant rat that was creating havoc.

“W-wait!”

Silver kept on walking. She did not have time to entertain these two people right at that moment. The time was of essence, she could see that the Rat monster was healing itself back up and this was the best chance to strike when it was injured.

“Silver?!”

Silver started into a run with her black sword in hand. Time was ticking and the repairing of its lost arm was fully underway. She knew if she dally any longer, she would lose this chance and might have to fight it in full strength.

The value of the core in this monster was a lot more special and rarer, meaning the prize was three times more special. She was not going to lose this chance and bee lined towards the monster.

“Damn it!” The two brother’s followed behind her not knowing exactly what to do.

Jasper too ran with Silver, even though he was not one hundred percent in putting her life on the line for a relic.

With a crashing roar, the monster swung his tails, bringing down the buildings in crumble. On all four, it rioted non-stop. Building cut in half from the flailing of the rat’s tail. Underneath the falling rumbles, the police cat shot their guns at the giant rat.

“Keep shooting!”

“Fall back, watch out for its tail!”

“What?”

“Gah!”

Crash!

Thud!

With a high piercing screech, the tail of the rat threw the cars around like they were toys. Even the cat police were flung around like dolls. Screams of the dying could be heard as the police cat tried to run away.

Silver finally arrived at the base of the tail of the rat not too far away. She duck down from the oncoming tail whip that shot over her head. With a sickening thud, the tail smashed into a couple of police cats that ram into the ambulance. Blood splattered decorated the ground like paint.

“Silver, this is crazy!” Brook shouted behind her. He was crawling on the ground with Rook.

“Then stay back!” Silver got up and ran forward. A powerful ice magic encased the whole sword, giving it a powerful aura.

The rat did not see her, coming from behind. She took this chance to jump up onto the back of his tail and ran up its back. Silver pulled out a large amount of energy from her body and poured it into her sword.

Crisp blue line of magical ice energy packed around the blade. A dangerous glint of ice and metal shines brightly with a sparkle, giving it an evil glint that could make anyone who looks at it feel cold with shiver.

Silver did not stop there, she pulled out dark energy from her reservoir and tightly wrapped it around the tip of her blade, making it glowing ghastly with dark energy. It was like black fire that was black at night. Tendrils of black flames trailed behind her like waves of whips. Her hands gripped tightly against the blade as she stabbed down into the monster's back.

With a splash of red blood, her sword cut deeper and deeper into the monster's back. She pulled along the back of the monster without a single remorse. With a painful cry, the monster let out a wretched cry. Its tail flailed around and hit back, trying to wrap around Silver herself.

Each flick of its tail smacked against its back, making Silver move in a zigzag manner. Everywhere her blade moved with her, more and more blood splatter outwards.

“Holy crap!” Rook stares with gaping jaws. “She’s really doing it!” With an excited tone of voice, he raised his hands to fire magical energy towards the giant rat. It was different from a normal fire attack. Blazing like a small sun, Brook fired his attack at the bottom of the monster’s feet.

Boom!

An earth shattering sound was heard upon impact. An epic flare of blast of light appeared and flickered away. A large chunk of the monster’s leg was missing its front leg, making it difficult to stand.

“I *huff* did amazing!” Rook pumped, but was completely out of breath. He used the majority of his power in that one attack.

The monster twirled its ugly head towards Brook who was out of breath. With snapping jaws it swiveled and striked.

“Rook!” Brook ran forward and held up his hands in front of himself to block the incoming attack. A sudden flare of luminescent blue appeared in front of him. A Lunar flower-like shield appeared around him and Brook, covering both of them in one go.

Its teeth gashed towards Brook with an intent to gobble him up, but was suddenly stopped by Rook’s magical shield.

“Damn iiittttttt!” Brook cursed so loudly that he bit his tongue. The magical shield did not break, but he was slowly being pushed back from the immense power from the monster. He knew that he could not last forever holding against the power of the monster head on. The power that he had was not ever lasting and any minute now the power of his ability would disappear.

“Duck!” Jasper's voice shouted, he ran up from behind them and jumped highly above them. His fist was glowing white with pure light. With a sickening thud, his fist smacked into the rat face pounding it continuously into the ground.

Each smash of his fist was powerful enough that it left large dents in the side of its face, making it black and blue. The monster could not retaliate and instead was pummeled into the ground. Silver was running around, creating havoc on its back.

With a raise of her sword, she jumped upwards. With every magical strength she could muster, she came flying downwards and cut off the rat’s head in one swing.

The twins stare at the two of them as monsters themselves to fight something so strong without breaking a sweat.

The rat did not have a single chance to fight back, but died simply with a short screeching scream. With a thud, the body fell onto the ground. It didn’t take a second later, before the body of the monster was dispersing into thin air.

“Holy cow. You guys killed it.” Rook was awed. “This is unheard of. You guys are like heroes!”

Jasper rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

“Brother, you're praising them too much. We can be as good or even better than them.”

“I know. I know. We’ll get there.”

With only a giant bone remaining, Silver walked over towards the middle of the rat’s chest. She picked up a marble size orb that glittered gray. With a satisfied grin, she took it with her and stored it away.

“You got what you need?” Jasper called out.

“Yea. Let’s go. We’re attracting too much attention.”

“Okay.”

Silver and her group quickly left the area. They knew that if they stayed any longer the enemies would probably come swarming towards them. They made it back to the Cat Hotel, where they found Brianna and Sam sitting down in the lobby.

“Hey~” Brianna jumped up and waved her hands. “How did it go?”

“Abysmal,” said Jasper.

“It wasn’t that bad was it?”

“It was. Silver went to hunt down the monster.”

“Really?” Brianna's eyes turned wide. “Well, we were going to hunt it down, but something stopped us. We saw Ronfonso for a split moment and chased him down, but lost him.” She sighed.

“You found Ronfonso? How did you lose him?”

“Blame the collapsing building. He was just too fast.”

“I see.”

“By the way, who are the two behind you?”

Brook and Rook came over and surrounded Brianna.

“I’m Brook.”

“I’m Rook.”

“We are the newest guild member of Valhalla.”

“Pretty lady, would you like to go out with us?”

“We’ll treat you well.”

They picked up her hands and started to sweet talk to her. Brianna blushed and bashfully looked down.

“Pretty? Her?” Sam gave the two a funny look.

Brianna shot him a deathly glare.

“What?!”

“I hate you!” She yelled and came over to punch him in his shoulder.

Sam easily deflected it and brought her down to his level. “I told you. You’re mine. I do not like traitors.”

Brianna froze when their eyes locked.

“Now get off me.” Sam pushed her off his legs.

Jasper sighed at Sam who was oblivious to Brianna’s feelings. He remembered something that he needed to do. He came over and invited the two into the guild by shaking hands. At that moment the baby angel popped out of thin air and danced in front of them.

“Wow. Wow. Wow. Today was truly a slow day.” The baby angel frowned. “Only five people died. This is the lowest that had ever happened. I must tell Kushiel that we need to up the death rate of this game. It’s getting too boring handing out so many precious crystals to low life you guys.”

The group felt uneasy at the baby’s words and felt that the baby’s angel words were too venomous. They did not look towards the baby angel in favor and instead wished to throttle him for his rude words.

Sam shot out a wind bullet towards the baby angel out of spite. The compressed air shot towards the baby angel and in seconds a special white barrier appeared out of thin air, protecting the baby angel from harm.

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” The baby angel waved his chubby finger side-to-side. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

A blast of powerful wind was shot back at Sam as he was suddenly flung backwards with a thud. Sam coughed up blood as he made an impact. His skin was torn from the wind blade and his ribs were broken.

“Sam!” Brianna cried out and rushed over towards him in fright. She feared that he got hurt to the point where he might die.

“Let this be a lesson little twerp. Don’t mess with an angel.” The baby angel laughed bubbly. Silver and the others felt their hair rise up when the baby angel laughed. It was not the cute kind of laugh, but more of a sinister laugh that brought unease in one’s heart.

Silver disliked the angel race immensely for their indifferent attitude on humans. So far she had not found one likable angel that she deem worthy of her respect. Even she too wanted to kill the wretched angel, but knew better than that. Such retaliation would get her killed and she did not want to die any time soon. They were too much at stake and she needed to get many things done in the short amount of time that she was given.

“Now, you have all survived another soul shocking day. They were a couple of things that happened to push the death rate up, but it seems not many of you guys died.” With a frown the baby angel spoke. “With that being said only six of you humans died. Such a let down. I was hoping that we would get some more to ferry away your souls and throw them in the pits of the dragon’s mouth to be eaten.”

The words to be eaten made everyone flinch. Now they knew what was going to happen to them if they died, such thoughts terrified them and made them want to stay alive as long as possible. Even Silver made a strong resolution not to die and win the game.

“I noticed that you want to know where you lived.” Six pictures of different people were brought up on screen. Each one was someone that she did not know. Once again the feeling of worry was brushed aside as she let out a sigh of relief.

“So here are your rewards.” With a snap of the finger four scarlet crystals were given.

Everyone hungrily at their rewards as if they tasted the most delicious thing in the world. Even Silver couldn’t help but quickly eat them for the fear of losing in this game.

“With that being done and over. Bye Bye~” With a poof the baby angel disappeared. A new day was starting and they knew that today their sleeping hours were going to become shorter and shorter.