Arin didn't move for what felt like hour to him.
He just remained motionless, thinking.
The Rat-King's breaths were deep and wet mucus thick exhilarations rising and falling in a very steady rhythm.
The way it's body expanded with each breath made it seem even larger.
Arin looked around to find a solution. The ceiling had numerous crack running like a spider's web.
There cluster of wires poking out of walls and pipes that hadn't seen maintenance in decades.
A large rusted water pipe jutted out from the wall above the it.
Maybe drop that thing on it, but it will only agitate it and not kill it.
He pulled himself back inch by inch. After drawing some distance he dared to breathe properly.
A plan started to formulate as he checked his inventory. He had a lot of boom berry.
Berry has explosive power. But it will make a lot of sound and will attract other rat minions. Even in best case scenario where The Rat-King dies to explosion. It will be hard to deal with rest if the rat, Arin thought.
Or I could move to next floor but still there are a lot of rat minions. But If I don't kill The Rat-King in seven days, it'll leave the nest and surviving outside will be even harder.
Arin started bang his forehead against his hand in exasperation, unable find any solution.
Before he fell any deeper into desperation, he calmed himself down.
Don't panic. Let's just go with all the options available and do what's optimal, Arin concluded.
Option 1. I can wait here, but I cannot remain here for all 14 days and also if The Rat-King woke up I would be dead.
Option 2. I can sneakily pass The Rat-King to next floor, but then I have to deal with all the floors full of rat minions. If Rat King woke up while I am still in building, it can chase me to death. And there is a quest too.
And last, Option 3. I can try to slay The Rat-King and do the quest now. I still have to deal with rest of the rat minions but I can get something useful from quest reward to deal with rat minions.
Arin went through his options carefully. He had to deal with boss and it's minions. It was inevitable.
All the option are equivalent of river of lava and I have no other choice but to swim in it. Arin thought and finally made his mind.
He pulled out one item after another. There were his old cloth, a lot of boom berries, strips from chameleon hide and an owl feather.
He first started to rip and tear his old t-shirt then he put alot of his berry on the cloth and used strips to pack them tight.
He did everything as fast as possible because if The Rat-King woke up, it would spell certain death to him.
He pulled out his slingshot and put it in his pocket so it will be easily accessible when needed.
After checking one last time everything was in order. He walked slowly with his breath held.
In one hand he had a big pouch made from his old cloth filled with boom berries. And on the other hand he had owl feather just in case.
As he got more closer, he saw one of it's ear twitched again, He flinched but then he heard a chime.
[Stealth Feather Activated]
[Duration of Stealth - 00:00:30]
[00:00:29]
[00:00:28]
He just looked at the countdown for few seconds then at his hand, Shit, I accidentally crushed it. And wasted precious seconds on staring at system notification.
He threw all the cautious out of window and walk fast toward The Rat-King.
He actually wanted to run but he was afraid that berry would explode in his hand. So, he walked as fast as possible without shaking the berries too much.
He finally reached The Rat-King, but now the question was where to put the berry bomb pouch to inflict maximum damage.
Is there even need to think, let's just blow it's head.
Arin slowly closed in toward its head and checked the timer for stealth.
[00:00:17]
He still had time. He slowly put the berry bomb pouch near it's neck.
Boss, You must be suffering from neck and back pain. Here have a pillow and sleep peacefully and eternally.
Next he squeezed the berry bomb pillow so hard that he felt some of the wetness of berry juice.
Then he bolted, heart pounding. Never turning to look if anything happened or not.
But how far could a person get in 5 seconds.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
Arin heard numerous blast as he felt the a push from the back and fell forward with his face first hitting the floor.
He didn't expected the blast to be that loud or push from after shock to be that strong.
But what he did expect was the soft chime of system notification but it didn't came.
As he slowly stood up and the ringing in his ear slowly subdued. He heard something thrashing.
He turned and looked toward it.
There it was The Rat-King in all of it's glory, with it's whole head dangling as it kept punching and thrashing the walls and debris around it.
How the f#ck is it still alive. It's head literally got blown up, Arin thought as he observed it.
Arin noticed it wasn't making any noise like the rat minion he killed, nor was there any sense in it's attacks.
It was attacking blindly anything. Many creature can live for a period of time after losing head, maybe it has same ability. Maybe it will die on it's own after sometime. I should just patiently wait. He guessed
Arin just stood and kept looking at The Rat-King attacking everything near it, You are making a lot of noise for a dead thing. Just stay still and die already.
As he was waiting for it to die, he hoped that quest reward would give him something useful so he could get rid of it's minions easily, then. F#uck! If it kept making so much noise then all of it's minions will be attracted here.
He first thought of moving toward it but he stopped and decided to deal with it with his sling shot.
He shot few small pieces of debris but they didn't pierce it's skin.
If only I could have been able to use it's special effect, it would have been easier, Arin kept firing small debris then he got an idea.
He shot a boom berry. With the sound of *puch* it stuck itself on the back of The Rat-King, then.
*Boom*
As it exploded, it almost knocked The Rat-King forward.
Arin realised, Yes. That's it. I just have to knock it down so it won't keep making noise.
He fired few more berry and The Rat-King fell on his stomach. But it started to get up again.
Let's see you get up without your legs, Arin fired more berry but this time, they were aimed at legs.
Few landed on leg other just around it. After few second it's leg got heavily injured making it unable to stand.
It just tried crawling a little with it's two intact front paw but it's body was too big.
A former rodent tyrant, now reduced this pathetic state. As Arin kept watching the fear from his heart had slowly started to fade.
After few more minutes it's sorry life ended without even knowing the enemy. Arin heard chimes, more than he anticipated.
He just kept staring at the body of boss. The Rat-King, boss of this sub-biome now laid motionless.
The body of the boss was still big and looked even more terrifying. But the fear he felt when he first saw it was gone.
As he kept staring, trying to understand his emotions better. The boss's body soon got covered in white light and started to vanish.
When all of it's body vanished only one purple orb was left.
Why didn't I need to use my skill this time? Arin thought as he moved forward to pick up the orb.
[Congratulations Candidate #11249 for Defeating the Sub-Biome Boss]
A system anouncement rang 3 times, all over the trial.
[The Sub-Biome Boss : The Rat-King Varnok Slain]
[Second Scenario Triggered]