With a roar of desperation Satou swung the rock with everything he had left, smashing it into the side of the rat's skull.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The rat's grip on his arm went slack. Its eyes rolled back. It collapsed sideways, twitching.
Satou shoved the dying creature off him and rolled to his feet, his wounded arm hanging uselessly at his side. Blood poured from the bite wound, dripping steadily onto the stone floor.
The third rat circled him now, keeping its distance. It had watched both companions fall and seemed to have decided that patience was the smarter play. It chittered nervously, red eyes tracking his every movement.
Satou's vision swam from blood loss. Regeneration was working — he could feel it — but it wasn't keeping pace. He needed to end this fast.
He had no mana left for Stone Spit. He'd confirmed that much in the fight's opening moments. What he had was the sword, the fangs, and whatever his body could still manage.
He switched to what he had.
Satou feinted forward, letting the rat read aggression. The creature's instincts fired — it committed, launching itself in a final desperate charge, jaws wide.
Satou dropped to one knee and raised the sword, point up.
The rat drove itself onto the blade, its own momentum carrying it deep. It shrieked — a horrible, high sound — and thrashed violently.
Satou held the sword steady with both hands, his bitten arm screaming at him, and pushed upward with the last of his strength.
The blade found the heart.
The rat gave one final convulsive twitch.
Then went still.
Satou let go of the sword and collapsed backward, chest heaving. Blood covered him — his own and the rats'. His right arm was a mangled mess of puncture wounds and deep claw tears. His side still ached from the human soldier's blade in the cave.
But he was alive.
The cave was clear.
For a long moment he just lay there, staring at the ceiling, listening to his own ragged breathing. Then, slowly, with more effort than it should have taken, he pushed himself to sitting.
DING!
[You have slain: Giant Cave Rat ×3][Devouring available.]
Satou looked at the three rat corpses. His stomach turned immediately.
'You have got to be kidding me.'
But he knew what he had to do. If he wanted to survive out here — if he wanted to keep Jessica, Kelvin, Goblin 1, Goblin 2, and the rest of them alive — he needed every advantage the Devouring skill could give him. Disgust was a luxury.
With shaking hands and a deep grimace he crawled to the first rat and tore off a chunk of flesh.
It tasted even worse than human.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Enhanced Bite][Effect: Increases jaw strength and bite force significantly. Stacks with existing Poison Fang.]
[Skill Acquired: Disease Resistance (Minor)][Effect: Provides resistance to common diseases and infections.]
He moved to the second rat.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Tremor Sense (Weak)][Effect: Detects vibrations through the ground. Provides awareness of nearby movement through solid surfaces. Stacks with existing Demon Wolf Enhanced Senses and Keen Scent.]
He forced himself to the third.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Burrowing][Effect: Allows the user to dig through soil and soft stone at enhanced speed.]
[Skill Acquired: Earth Manipulation (Basic)][Effect: Minor control over earth and stone. Can shape mud, compact soil, and form simple structures. Requires concentration. Works on small volumes at a time.]
Satou stared at the last notification for a moment longer than the others.
'Earth Manipulation. Actual shelter. Walls. Structures. Not just a cave we stumbled into — something we build ourselves.'
A small, bloody smile pulled at his lips.
He dragged himself upright, Regeneration finally starting to gain ground — the arm wound pulling slowly closed, the pain fading toward a dull throb. His side had stopped bleeding entirely.
He spent the next thirty minutes working.
First: the rat corpses. He dragged all three toward the back of the chamber — they'd be food later, nothing wasted. Second: a shallow trench near the entrance using Burrowing, dug quickly, serviceable for waste. Third: he tested Earth Manipulation on the back wall of the chamber, pressing his palms flat against the stone and concentrating hard. The skill was weak — he could only move small amounts at a time and it demanded focus — but a low ridge of compacted earth rose slowly from the floor, rough and uneven but real.
A wall. A small, crude, barely-functional wall.
'This will do. For now.'
Satisfied, he walked back toward the forest.
As he emerged from the tree line, covered in blood and moving with a slight drag in his step, the goblins scrambled upright in alarm.
Gob stepped forward immediately, eyes scanning the damage. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Cave's clear," Satou said. "Giant rats. Three of them. They're not rats anymore."
Before Gob could respond, four small shapes hit him at once.
Jessica reached him first, her eyes going straight to his arm. "Big brother, you're hurt!"
Kelvin grabbed his other hand — the one that wasn't soaked in blood — and held it tight without a word, his whole body vibrating with the relief of someone who'd been holding their breath for too long.
Goblin 1 planted himself directly in front of Satou with his arms crossed and stared up at him with an expression that was trying very hard to be stern. "You said nothing would happen. That is a lot of blood."
Goblin 2 said nothing. She just grabbed a fistful of his shirt, the same way she always did, and held on.
"I'm fine," Satou said. He didn't feel fine. He felt like he'd been put through something very unpleasant and Regeneration was still taking its time about fixing it. "Cave is safe. Let's get everyone inside before something else finds us out here."
"You came back," Kelvin said quietly, still holding his hand.
"I promised, didn't I?" Satou said.
"You did," Jessica said, eyes still wet. "Thank you, big brother."
Satou looked at all four of them for a moment. Then he reached out and ruffled the nearest head — Jessica's — which set off a chain reaction of the other three shuffling closer.
"Come on," he said. "Let's get everyone settled."
As the goblins filed into the cave — some supporting the wounded, others carrying makeshift weapons and what little they had managed to bring from the tunnels — Gob walked beside Satou at the rear.
"You keep surprising me, whelp," Gob said, quietly enough that only Satou could hear. "Most goblins would've run. Or died in there. You went in alone and cleared it."
Satou didn't answer immediately. He watched the last of the group disappear through the entrance.
"I didn't have another option," he said. "They're depending on me."
Gob snorted. "Yeah. They are. And that's going to get a lot heavier before it gets lighter."
Satou knew he was right.
But when he looked back at the cave entrance — Jessica and Kelvin waving him forward, Goblin 1 making an impatient gesture, Goblin 2 already waiting just inside the threshold — he found he didn't mind the weight.
Not the way he thought he would.
Inside, the goblins settled against the walls, huddling together for warmth. The seven wounded were laid along one side of the chamber, the healthier goblins taking turns sitting with them. Someone had started a small fire near the entrance using scraps of dry debris — small, controlled, but enough to push back the cold and the dark.
Satou surveyed the chamber. Twenty-five survivors. Rat meat for tonight. Earth Manipulation for tomorrow.
He let out a slow breath.
'This is just the beginning,' he thought. 'But we're still here.'