Benny and Nida found refuge in an abandoned section of the castle, a storage area that had been stripped bare and forgotten in the chaos of war. No rat men in sight. No sounds of patrol footsteps. Just silence and darkness.
They barricaded the door with whatever furniture remained and tended to their wounds. Nothing serious for either of them, just cuts and bruises that needed cleaning and bandaging. They drank water from their canteens and ate dried rations, recuperating their stamina as best they could in this temporary sanctuary.
Then they exchanged information, comparing notes on what they'd discovered during their separate explorations.
Benny shared what he'd found first. "There's a huge entrance with elite guards. Four of them, maybe more inside. Their armor is different from the regular soldiers. Better quality. They stood like
statues, but I could tell, they were alert. Professionals."
He paused, organizing his thoughts. "My suspicion is that this place holds significant value for the rat men. Either it's where their leader stays, or it's where they keep something they consider crucial. We don't know the exact command structure here, but based on everything we've seen, it's probably a monarchy. Queens, princes, that kind of shit."
Nida listened carefully, then shared her own experience. "I wasn't tortured. The rat man who captured me, the captain or whatever he was, never came down to the dungeon. Something kept him busy topside. Probably the battle."
They didn't dwell on that stroke of luck. Instead, they focused on their next move.
"We should check out that guarded place," Benny said. "If we can't take out the guards quietly, I'll act as bait. Draw them away while you slip inside."
"What's your plan for dealing with elite guards?" Nida asked. She'd seen plenty of overconfident infiltrators get killed by underestimating professional soldiers.
Benny pulled out two vials from his belt. The liquid inside was thick and cloudy. "Scorpion venom. Acidic as hell. We throw these at their eyes, blind them temporarily. Then we use that advantage to incapacitate or kill them before they can raise an alarm."
Nida considered the plan. It was crude, but it could work. And she hadn't found any sign of the kingdom's leader during her own reconnaissance. If this guarded location was as important as Benny suspected, it was worth the risk.
"Alright," she agreed. "But we do it my way. I go in first, silent. If I can take them down without noise, we avoid alerting the entire castle. If it goes loud, then you throw your venom and we fight our way through."
Benny nodded. That made more sense anyway. Nida was the professional killer. He was just a former city guard who'd gotten good at not dying.
They rested for another hour, letting their bodies recover as much as possible. Then they moved out, heading back toward the guarded corridor.
---
Outside the castle, the battle continued to rage, though the intensity had shifted.
The Rusttails' Chapter Master had taken complete control of the defensive walls. His commands were sharp and effective, organizing the chaos into coordinated resistance. He ordered engineers and combat troops to quickly patch the holes in the fortifications, plugging entry points that the Grombulgorks had breached earlier in the day.
The Grombulgorks who'd made it inside the walls had been killed or driven back. Bodies littered the courtyards, both rats and Grombulgork, a testament to the brutal fighting.
The day's end was fast approaching. The perpetual sun of the Sub-Space had dimmed slightly, not quite sunset but something that resembled twilight. Both sides were exhausted. Both had achieved some of their goals, neither had secured complete victory.
A stalemate, for now. But everyone knew tomorrow would bring fresh violence.
Captain Vrek was finishing his duties, compiling reports on the battle's progress to present to the queen. It was this responsibility that had kept him from the dungeons, preventing him from interrogating that human prisoner he'd captured. He'd been too busy organizing information from the chaos outside, coordinating intelligence between different units, trying to make sense of the conflicting reports flooding in.
He'd also reached a conclusion about the humans' involvement. They had friends. They must have colluded with the Grombulgorks. It was the only explanation that made sense. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. The humans appear, and suddenly the kingdom faces its greatest external threat in centuries?
No. They were working together. It was an alliance of convenience, perhaps, but an alliance nonetheless.
He would present this assessment to the queen at the earliest opportunity. The kingdom needed to know what they were truly facing.
---
Meanwhile, in the Grombulgork encampment beyond the walls, the general leading this campaign was quite satisfied with how the battle had progressed.
They had more soldiers to spare. Many more. The rat men's successful defense today didn't matter in the long term. Numbers would tell. The Grombulgorks could sustain losses that would break the rat kingdom's military capacity.
The goal of this campaign was complete annihilation of the rat men. Their king had ordered it. To do everything necessary to achieve their lifelong goal. Pay back the betrayal from centuries ago. Become the new masters of this Sub-Space. Control the dimensional crack that led to the labyrinth and the human world beyond.
A smile stretched across the general's grotesque face, if you could even call it a face. Multiple eyes blinked independently. Mandibles clicked together in satisfaction.
Tomorrow, they will press harder. Break through the walls. Slaughter the defenders. Take the castle.
Victory was inevitable. It was just a matter of time and blood.
---
Back in their FOB, the rest of Benny's team had already positioned themselves at the predetermined extraction point near the dimensional crack.
They killed monsters that wandered too close to their position, both to maintain security and to gather food. They didn't know how long they'd be waiting here. The mission could take days. They needed to sustain themselves.
The success of their entire operation now rested on Benny and Nida, two people alone inside an enemy palace in the middle of a war zone. The rest of the team could only wait and hope.
But they'd agreed on contingencies. This plan was ridiculous and dangerous, and they all knew it might fail. If it did, they couldn't afford to lose the entire team trying to fix it.
The agreement was simple. Seven days. If there was no signal from Benny or Nida within seven days, the team would retreat to the labyrinth and treat the mission as a failure. Benny and Nida would be presumed dead or captured beyond rescue.
But if a signal came, any signal using the codes they'd established, the team would do everything necessary to extract their people. They'd fight through the entire rat kingdom if that's what it took.
No one liked the plan. No one wanted to abandon their friends. But they all understood the necessity. Losing twelve people was worse than losing two.
Meredith voiced what they were all feeling. "This is nerve-wracking as fuck. Just waiting like this. We might as well keep killing these monsters so we're not sitting here thinking dark thoughts."
Gustav agreed. "Good idea. Kael, Ripler, you two take the first watch. Hunt anything that gets close. Greaves, you're on second shift. Everyone else, rest while you can. This could be a long wait."
The group dispersed to their tasks, grateful for something to do besides imagine all the ways Benny and Nida could be dying right now.
Zy checked his traps for the hundredth time. Senna scouted the perimeter. Roman practiced his forms, keeping his body sharp. Hiro sharpened his twin blades until they could split hairs.
Everyone dealt with the waiting in their own way.
---
Meanwhile, Benny and Nida approached the guarded corridor once more.
The security remained exactly as Benny had described. Four elite guardsmen stood like statues flanking the massive door. Their armor was ornate but functional, covering them from head to toe in overlapping plates. Their weapons, massive halberds with plague-stained blades, rested against their shoulders at perfect attention.
The guards remained alert despite their statue-like stillness. Benny and Nida could see it in the subtle shifts of their posture, the micro-movements that indicated they were scanning their surroundings constantly.
The armor was designed to create exactly this effect. From a distance, you couldn't tell where the guards were looking. Their helmets had narrow eye slits that revealed nothing. You couldn't read their body language. Couldn't predict their reactions.
It was psychological warfare as much as physical defense. Any intruder would be uncertain, hesitant, off-balance before the fight even started.
Nida studied them from their hiding spot, calculating angles and vulnerabilities. "Two on each side," she whispered. "I can take the left pair if you handle the right. Acidic Venom first, then blades."
"What if there are more inside?" Benny whispered back.
"Then we fight faster," Nida replied with dark humor.
Benny checked his weapons one last time. Sword loose in its sheath. Venom vials ready. Knife secured but accessible. His heart pounded, adrenaline already starting to flow.
This would be their hardest fight since entering the rat kingdom. Elite guards, unknown enemies potentially behind the door, and if they made too much noise, the entire castle would come down on them.
But this was the mission. This was why they'd come here.
"Ready?" Nida asked.
Benny took a breath, steadied his nerves, and nodded.
"Then let's go kill some rats."
They moved into position, preparing for the battle that would determine whether their insane invasion had any chance of success.
The guards stood motionless, unaware that death was creeping toward them through the shadows.
Soon, very soon, the castle would run red with blood once more.