The battle both inside the castle and outside had reached a temporary standstill. Warriors on all sides were catching their breath, recovering what strength they could before the next violent exchange.
Outside the walls, the Grombulgorks continued to make moves, though they were small and calculated. Probing attacks. Feints toward weak points. Testing the rat men's responses. It was enough to keep the defenders on their toes, giving them constant anxiety, training their nerves to expect attacks that never came. Psychological warfare at its finest.
The rat men soldiers were exhausted, jumping at every shadow, flinching at every distant sound. Their commanders shouted orders to stay alert, to watch the walls, to be ready. But how long could you maintain that level of vigilance before your body simply gave out?
---
Meanwhile, back in the royal chambers, Captain Vrek had submitted his report to Queen Vermina Skittera herself.
The Queen sat on her throne, a massive seat carved from dark stone and inlaid with corroded metals that represented the glory of plague and decay. She was larger than most rat men, her body thick with muscle beneath her ceremonial robes. Rings bound her tail in the traditional manner of royalty, each one representing a conquered territory or defeated rival.
She read Vrek's report carefully, her intelligent eyes scanning the parchment. When she finished, she looked up at him.
"You believe the humans are working with the Grombulgorks?" she asked, her voice carrying the weight of absolute authority.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Vrek replied. "The timing is too precise to be coincidence. They appear in our territory, and immediately we face our greatest external threat in centuries. I believe they are allies of convenience, working together to destroy our kingdom."
Queen Vermina considered this. She didn't accept it as fact yet, but she took it seriously. She hadn't survived decades of court intrigue and war by dismissing intelligence reports, even speculative ones.
"Then we will prepare for enemies both within and without," she declared. "I am issuing a decree. Every royal guardsman is to be on high alert. Double the forces around my chambers. Triple the patrols in the inner castle. I want no gaps in our security."
She paused, her tail lashing behind her throne. "And Captain Vrek, continue your investigation. Find these humans. Bring them to me alive if possible. Dead if necessary. But find them."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Vrek said, bowing deeply.
The Queen wasn't weak, despite what some might assume from her age and royal position. In this world, strength was still respected above all else. Although her strengths lay in different areas than pure combat, she was still potently dangerous. Even the Chapter Master of the Rusttails would think twice before challenging her directly.
She'd earned her crown through cunning, through plague-craft, through surviving assassination attempts and coup attempts that would have killed lesser rulers. She would not fall easily.
Captain Vrek excused himself to leave for the dungeons, intending to interrogate the human prisoner he'd captured earlier. But before he could get far, one of his soldiers ran toward him at a full sprint. The rat man's face was grim, dire, the expression of someone bringing catastrophic news.
Vrek knew that look. A failure somewhere. Something had gone terribly wrong.
He stopped the soldier with a raised hand. "Speak your mind, soldier. I want the details."
The soldier didn't hesitate. He had his orders. "Sir, the prisoner has escaped her cell. It's as if she vanished without a trace. The guardsmen who were guarding the dungeon entrance didn't notice anything. It was only when the next shift arrived that they discovered her missing."
Vrek remained calm on the surface, a careful facade. But inside, his heart and mind raced with paranoid thoughts. An uncalm leader would spread panic to those beneath him, so he kept his expression neutral, professional.
"What has been done to find the enemy?" he asked.
"Sir, we've dispatched search teams throughout the lower levels. We found traces of a battle in an alleyway near the dungeons. Blood. Bodies. But no sign of the human prisoner, dead or alive."
Fuck, Vrek thought, his worst suspicions confirmed. This was their plan all along. Get captured deliberately. Use the arrest as a way to enter the palace without fighting through the soldiers at the gates. It was clever. It was bold. It was exactly the kind of insane tactic desperate humans would use.
He might have fucked up badly by taking that prisoner. He'd given the enemy exactly what they wanted.
"Send word to the Queen immediately," Vrek ordered. "Alert her that we have a hostile infiltrator inside the palace. Increase security around her chambers. Lock down all access points to the royal wing. Move. Now."
The soldier saluted and ran to carry out the orders.
Vrek cursed under his breath. He would have to report this failure personally. The Queen needed to know what they were truly facing.
---
Back at the place where Nida and Benny were fighting for their lives, the battle had already resumed with renewed ferocity.
Blades sparked against each other, sending showers of orange light through the corridor. Stabs were sent toward vital points. They evaded and dodged constantly. Blocking was suicidal if you missed the timing. One wrong move and you'd take a poisoned blade through the ribs.
Nida was agile and quick, but her opponent was pure brute strength. The male elite guard she faced was slower than her, but every blow he landed would be devastating. In truth, it would be more effective if she and Benny switched opponents. These matchups were their antithesis.
Each of them was fighting an enemy that could effectively neutralize their strengths. Benny's straightforward combat style was useless against the nimble female commander. Nida's speed and precision were wasted trying to penetrate the male guard's overwhelming defense.
Their only winning factor was that the enemies couldn't see properly. The acid had damaged their vision, forcing them to rely on sound, smell, and combat instinct. It was a wonder they could fight at all, let alone this effectively.
The battle was fierce, brutal, relentless. Metallic blades flew through the air. Pieces of flooring broke apart under heavy impacts. Debris scattered across the corridor. Both sides used their environment effectively, hiding behind pillars, throwing objects at opponents, using every tactic and trick they could think of.
But after several minutes of intense combat, Benny and Nida realized they couldn't win this way. Not against opponents this skilled. They needed to change tactics, create a scenario where they could focus their attacks and eliminate one enemy at a time.
It was easier thought of than done. The rat men moved in ways they couldn't predict, compensating for their blindness with supernatural combat awareness.
The battle was about to enter its final phase.
"Nida!" Benny shouted across the corridor. "Make them bump into each other! We will kill yours first!"
Nida understood immediately. They could speak freely because the enemy wouldn't understand human language. They would coordinate, manipulate the guards' positions, and create an opening.
They moved with purpose now, no longer fighting independently but working as a team. Nida pressed her opponent hard, driving him backward toward where Benny fought. Benny did the same, forcing the female commander to retreat in the same direction.
The two elite guards, focused entirely on their individual opponents and unable to see clearly, didn't realize what was happening until their backs collided.
The impact created immediate tension. The rat men were suddenly stuck, unable to make their usual fluid movements with their backs pressed against each other. For a critical moment, their defense was compromised.
Nida and Benny didn't miss the opportunity.
They attacked together, both focusing on the slower-moving male guard. Nida's knife found the gap between his helmet and gorget, sliding deep into his throat. Benny's halberd came from the other side, punching through weakened armor and into his chest cavity.
The guard gurgled, blood pouring from his mouth and neck. He tried to swing his weapon one last time, but his strength was already fading. He collapsed to his knees, then fell face-first onto the stone floor.
Dead.
The female commander couldn't see what had happened. Her vision was reduced to vague shapes and shadows, light and dark blurs. But she could smell it. The stench of her companion's blood, thick and coppery in the air.
They'd killed the guard at her back.
She cursed in her own language, a guttural sound of rage and grief. Then something changed in her. Benny and Nida could feel it, a surge of power coursing through her body. Some kind of berserk state, a combat technique triggered by extreme emotion or near-death circumstances.
Her movements became faster. More aggressive. Less controlled but more dangerous. She stopped fighting defensively and launched into a pure offensive assault, her spear moving in patterns too fast to track.
If this were a game, she would be the mini-boss. The elite enemy that required everything you had to defeat.
And Benny and Nida were already exhausted, their stamina nearly depleted from the prolonged fight.
"Fuck," Benny muttered, barely dodging a spear thrust that would have taken his head off. "This is bad."
"Focus!" Nida snapped, rolling away from another attack. "She's blind and she's bleeding. We just need to outlast her!"
But the female commander showed no signs of slowing down. If anything, she was getting faster, more frenzied, channeling her rage into pure killing intent.
The final phase of the battle had begun. And neither side was certain who would walk away alive.
---
Elsewhere in the castle, Captain Vrek was racing toward the Queen's chambers, trying to reach her before the infiltrator did. His instincts screamed that the human's goal was assassination. Why else would they allow themselves to be captured unless they wanted access to the palace's inner sanctum?
Outside the walls, the Grombulgorks prepared for another assault, this one larger than the previous probing attacks. They could smell weakness in the rat kingdom's defense. Victory was close.
And in the labyrinth, Gustav and the rest of the team waited anxiously for any signal from their companions inside. The seven-day deadline was approaching. Soon they would have to make the hardest decision of their lives.
All the pieces were in motion. All the players were committed.
The endgame had arrived.