Epoch of Desolation

Rain was back in the darkness of the corridors, the current situation leading him into it a great deal different from his past one. After all, the first had been to escape death, while now he was proceeding to court death.

What a laughable turn of events. Rain paused his steps as soon as he turned to his left and a dim yellow radiance appeared before his view. I must be completely out of my mind.

Though he didn’t turn back.

He knew his actions were those of a person with a loose screw, but…

This is for the best… hopefully.

With the fire extinguisher he had once hoped to use to strike the Jaguar dead, Rain exhaled and went forward—inched forward—a step at a time. And a few seconds later he was beside the door of the dining lounge where his current nemesis resided, but not as calm as he would have loved to be.

The palpitations his heart was experiencing was caused by a single thought: Had the rat already been notified of his animosity?

It was a thought which had stemmed from his deduction on how the Plexus’s survival messages worked, and, as well, his interaction with the Jaguar.

Previously, the wharf rat had not noticed his presence because he hadn’t felt a single shred of animosity towards it, all he’d wanted then was to remain unnoticed. But since the case was currently a lot different, and seeing as the rat knowing of his plans beforehand would make hunting it prove extremely difficult, Rain decided to come up with two different sets of tactics here and now.

One was in case he was reading into the way the Plexus’s survival message worked wrongly. Maybe the Jaguar hadn’t actually been contemplating, but the survival message was only triggered when a predator and its prey directly locked eyes with one another. While the second was for if it was the other way around.

If it was the former he could try sneaking up on the rat, but if it was the latter then he would have no choice but to be direct.

Rain blended into the darkness beside the double door of the dining lounge and calmed his breathing as much as he could, various scenes of how to successfully tackle the wharf rat unscathed playing in his head.

A while later, he settled upon the two best sequences for success he could come up with. After which he crept upon the dining lounge’s door and, as he had done some moments back, peeked through one half of its tempered vision panels.

The scene was just as he had remembered it, derelict with a visible air of desolation. But something was missing, or rather his prey was missing.

Rain’s chest tightened as his eyes began to frantically seek out the wharf rat he had come here to hunt.

It was as high as four feet, the height of a dwarf, so it was not something he could miss, that was why the only explanation he had was either the rat had moved on to a new location, or…

Don’t tell me…

…The rat had received a survival message?

Needless to say, he had prepared his mind for the worst, but since his strongest notion was that the animosity message only appeared when the one bearing it had a visual on who they bore it towards—just like the way hatred between humans worked, the situation saying otherwise unnerved him.

Rain bit down on his bottom lip.

He was already on the verge of accepting that he would not be able to keep to his own end of the bargain with the Jaguar—which meant he would have no choice but to kill it—when all of a sudden a little round table toppled over and the wharf rat he had thought missing appeared with a slice of rotten meat clutched in its front paws.

It’s here!

All the tension which had taken hold of Rain’s muscles released their grips at once, and a wave of giddiness overcame him. But that feeling did not remain for long as he tensed up soon again.

The rat had suddenly turned its beady eyes towards the door where he was, the meat in its paws falling to the floor.

[Side Plot]

A Mutated Rodent has appeared, and it holds animosity towards you. Survive.

Rain understood. The rat had only noticed him because it had just now been notified of his animosity towards it.

Apparently, he was right, the message only appeared when the one hunting set its sight on its target; in other words, the delay of the Plexus’s message during his encounter with the Jaguar was because…

It was actually contemplating! Rain shook his head, refocusing his attention on the matter at hand as he selected which of his battle plans he was going with. The second tactic it is.

With his choice made, Rain shot into the dining lounge, and, before he could even register the hisses the wharf rat spat at him, used a table as a wedge to block the door so his prey would not escape.

Although, it seemed like the rat did not care one bit about doing that, since as soon as Rain turned around, the dwarf-sized rodent was already streaking through the air at him, its paws on the ready to slash at his face.

Instinct, reflex, Rain was not sure which, all he knew was that he was grateful for the in-built reaction mechanism in humans which had helped him evade the attack of the Mutant he had come here to hunt.

Of course he had not had a single thought that this would be easy, no dehydrated person in their right senses would. But if someone or something had told him that it would be this hard he would have not believed.

The rat was significantly smaller and should have obviously been weaker than a Jaguar—dehydrated or not, but the dread Rain was bathed in because of this thing left him bamboozled. He could not fathom the sort of speed and agility the rat had.

One second it was slashing at him, and the other it was already back to pouncing at him.

Again and again it repeated the same attack pattern in such a violent manner that Rain had a train of thought that this particular rat had been mistreated by humans once. He was just the one it was taking out its anger on.

There was a screech followed by a swipe of claws, the angle of its attack the same as its previous ones, and Rain grew tired of being on the defensive.

He reined in his fright, and as he rose to his feet from the latest of his dodging roll, swung the fire extinguisher in his hand with all his might into the large body of the rat lunging once again at him. It crashed into a table with a squeal and with that Rain was off—to the buffet area.

While he had still been on the other side of the dining lounge his search had not been for the wharf rat alone. For both plans he had come up with to succeed he needed a crucial element. And that crucial element was what he’d picked up as soon as he had arrived behind the buffet area. The Plexus was not one to delay too, it blessed him with a new message instantly…

[Active Skill, Blade Saint (Low Level), activated]...

The kitchen knife Rain held felt as though it was a part of him, like it was just another limb of his. And that sensation amused him, prompting his cheeks to shift for a second into a smile.

It’s rusted, but that doesn’t mean it can’t do what I need it to. I’ll just need to use a little more force than usual.

That brief moment was all he’d had to relish in his feeling of excitement, though, as a familiar screech came upon his ears in the next second; the wharf rat he had come to hunt was up and ready to continue…

But so was he.

The direct tactic he had formulated was underway now. And since the wharf rat had traded wits for brawn, it couldn’t see that.

The one-trick pony lunged at him, but Rain didn’t move an inch. Instead, he wasted no time directing at it the discharge hose of the fire extinguisher he had placed on the buffet area’s counter while pressing down hard on its discharge lever.

A white cloud of fine, powdery dust burst out of the extinguisher’s nozzle without a moment to spare, spreading through the air and coating the wharf rat, who had fallen prey to its onslaught, with a gritty, chalky layer.

Despite the fog of the extinguisher obviously blinding the rat and filling its lungs with whatever irritating substances it possessed, Rain knew its ongoing attack wouldn’t be put to stop midway.

It was flying through the air after all.

Therefore, he sidestepped away, leaving the fire extinguisher where it was, and sending the rat crashing into the shelf behind him as a tune of ceramic plates shattering rumbled through the dining lounge. At this point, the hisses of the dwarf-sized rat were now squeaks of something Rain felt were agony.

He immediately scooted closer to the rat while feeling emotionally drained, and it was then that he was able to take his time studying the specks of red lights which had appeared in some spots of its body.

Rain was enlightened on what they were in an instant; it was almost like he had always possessed the knowledge of them. Though he knew that such wasn’t the case. It was the effect of his Skill, Blade Saint, being active.

As for the red spots, they were fatal points on the rat’s body that would deal it the most significant damage, leading to its death.

“Forgive me,” Rain said to the rat with a glum sigh as he dug his knife into its upper chest, the point with the greatest color intensity of the red specks. “To me this is the lesser of two evils.”