Benny encountered several guards as he navigated through the kingdom's tight interior corridors. The castle architecture was maze-like, designed to confuse invaders and funnel them into kill zones. But Benny had been mapping this place mentally since he arrived, noting every turn and landmark.
Then he found something interesting.
A heavily guarded door stood at the end of a wider corridor. Four elite guards flanked it, their armor more ornate than the regular soldiers. Their weapons were well-maintained, their stances disciplined. These weren't regular patrol guards. These were professionals.
There must be something very important behind that door, Benny thought. He pressed himself into a shadowed alcove and watched, studying their movements and rotation patterns.
He waited for an opportunity, but even with the chaos of battle raging outside, the security remained tight. The guards' rotation was strict and precise. Not one would leave their post until their replacement arrived. No gaps. No vulnerabilities he could exploit without direct confrontation.
The space around the guarded door was larger than most areas he'd seen. The ceiling was higher, the corridor wider. This wasn't designed for functionality. It was designed to impress. To intimidate.
This could mean one of two things. Either this was where the queen resided, or this was where they stored their most valuable knowledge.
*Ha, how the fuck do I get in there without a fight?* Benny thought, frustration building. Any combat here would alert the entire castle. Guards would swarm this position in seconds.
He needed a distraction, something big enough to pull security away. Or he could try to kill them quietly, but that was easier said than done. Fighting these elite guards wasn't like slitting the throat of a surprised patrol. Benny could tell from their bearing that they were trained, very well trained. Veterans who'd survived countless battles.
Which made this location even more suspicious. If the rat men valued anything enough to post their best guards here during a full-scale invasion, it had to be either royalty or critical knowledge.
Well, that was assuming these rat bastards actually valued knowledge in the first place. For all he knew, this could just be a treasure vault.
For now, Benny moved elsewhere, continuing his search and building a mental map of the castle's layout. He'd come back here if he couldn't find anything better. But he wanted to explore more options before committing to a fight he might not survive.
---
Meanwhile, in the dungeons far below, Nida was alone.
The cells were empty of guards. Every available soldier had been pulled to the surface to fight the Grombulgork invasion. Only the distant sounds of battle echoed through the stone corridors.
Nida looked beaten and exhausted, slumped against the wall with her head hanging. But it was all an act. She'd been planning her escape since the moment they chained her here.
She stretched her body carefully, testing her range of motion. Then she did something that would make most people sick to watch. She deliberately broke the bones in her fingers, dislocating them with precise movements that allowed her hands to slip through the iron manacles.
Her face remained calm throughout. She'd done this before. Pain was just information. You acknowledged it and moved on.
Soon enough, she was free from the chains. She rotated her wrists, popping the dislocated bones back into place with quiet clicks. Her fingers would be sore for days, but they were functional.
She cursed under her breath, directed at the rat bastards who'd roughed her up during the capture. A few bruised ribs, a split lip, rope burns on her wrists. Nothing permanent, but she'd remember their ugly faces.
Then she reached into her body, using that strange spatial skill of hers to retrieve a lockpick. The cell door's mechanism was different from human locks, more crude but sturdier. It took several minutes of careful manipulation before she heard the satisfying click of the bolt sliding free.
She paused at the threshold, reviewing her mental map of the route she'd need to take. She'd counted footsteps, memorized guard patrol patterns, noted every turn they'd taken when dragging her down here.
Then she began to move, and within seconds she'd disappeared into the shadows like she'd never been there at all.
---
Outside, the battle raged with devastating intensity.
The arrival of the Rusttails' Chapter Master had turned the tide somewhat. The legendary warrior took control of the crumbling defenses, imposing order through sheer force of will and tactical brilliance. His commands were precise and brutal. He sacrificed entire units to buy time for defensive repositioning. He personally led counter-charges that broke Grombulgork momentum at critical points.
The rat kingdom's forces rallied around him, their morale stabilizing for the first time since the invasion began.
Gustav and his team had already retreated from their sabotage positions. They'd achieved what they were tasked to do. Supply lines were disrupted. Reinforcement columns were delayed or destroyed. Fires burned in strategic locations that forced the rats to divert resources.
Now they could only wait for news from Benny and Nida. Well, not just wait. They didn't make themselves idle. There was a contingency plan for a rescue operation if things went absolutely to shit inside the castle.
They hoped it wouldn't come to that. A rescue meant exposing their position and fighting their way through an alert enemy. But they'd do it if necessary. No one gets left behind. That was the rule they made, but reality and situations could change just as fast.
---
Meanwhile, Benny had reached a bottleneck in his infiltration.
He'd been spotted. One of the rat folk had seen him slipping through a corridor, and now he was being chased through the winding passages of the castle. A dozen rat men pursued him, their weapons drawn and their voices raised in alarm.
His situation had turned to shit, to very shit very quickly.
He knew he couldn't keep running without eventually getting caught. The rat men knew this castle better than he did. They'd corner him eventually, trap him in a dead end or collapse zone.
So he made a tactical decision. He would reduce the numbers of his pursuers, turn this chase into a running battle where his combat skills could make a difference.
He turned a corner sharply, then spun and launched himself back toward the momentum of the pursuing rats. His sword stabbed forward, catching the lead rat man in the throat. He pulled the blade free quickly, slashing at the next enemy before they could react.
The rats stumbled and fell to his blade. Their momentum worked against them. They couldn't stop in time, couldn't adjust to the sudden reversal. Three went down in the first exchange.
The rest recovered quickly. When they did, a barrage of attacks came toward Benny from multiple angles. He jumped back, narrowly avoiding a spear thrust aimed at his chest. His hand went to his belt and grabbed a vial he'd prepared earlier.
Scorpion venom. Concentrated and acidic.
He threw the vial toward the rats charging at him. Glass shattered against armor and stone. The liquid sprayed across their faces and eyes. Screams filled the corridor as the venom burned exposed skin and blinded those who got it in their eyes.
But Benny had been a bit careless in his throw. A blade came from his blind spot, catching him across the ribs. Thankfully, it didn't penetrate his armor. The scorpion carapace plating that Torin had crafted caught the edge and turned it aside.
Then another blade came for his head. Too fast. Too close. He couldn't dodge in time.
"Fuck!" he shouted, certain he was about to die.
But the killing blow never landed.
Instead, the rat man's head separated from its shoulders and rolled across the ground. Blood sprayed from the stump of its neck in a grotesque fountain.
Benny looked around frantically and caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows. A familiar figure, barely visible even when you knew where to look.
"Nida," he breathed, recognizing her silhouette.
He called out a quick thanks, but when he looked again, there was no one there. Only shadows and the bodies of dead rats.
The remaining rat men were confused now, looking around wildly for the hidden enemy who'd just decapitated their comrade. Their formation broke. Their discipline crumbled into paranoia.
Benny took that opportunity to press the attack. He moved among them like death itself, his blade finding throats and hearts and other vital targets. The rats blinded by the scorpion venom were easy prey, stumbling and swinging wildly at sounds and shadows.
He killed most of them in the chaotic melee that followed. Those who tried to flee died with blades in their backs.
The fight ended as quickly as it had started.
Bodies lay scattered across the corridor. Blood splattered the walls and ceiling in abstract patterns. Guts, severed heads, and other body parts sprawled across the ground in a grotesque display.
Benny stood among the carnage, breathing hard. His armor was covered in blood, most of it not his own. His sword dripped red. His hands shook slightly from the adrenaline comedown.
He needed rest, but not here. Not surrounded by corpses in an enemy castle. He needed to move, find somewhere safe to recover.
A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. He tensed, then relaxed when he recognized Nida's touch. She didn't speak, just gestured for him to follow.
They moved through the shadows together, two humans deep in enemy territory, covered in the blood of their enemies and racing against time to complete their impossible mission.
Behind them, the bodies cooled and the blood dried. Evidence of the invasion that the rat kingdom couldn't ignore.
The humans were here. And they were killing with impunity.
The war had entered a new phase. And the rat kingdom was starting to realize just how fucked they really were.