Finally a way to use his talents.

John almost laughed. The arrival of the rat queen and the revelation that this encounter was not what it seemed had been a huge surprise, but thanks to the Gamer's spirit he had already come to his senses.

The Kriegskraft skill had given him basic understanding of combat and tactics, but he had thousands of hours of experience of his own on planning fights like these. Those who said he was wasting his time and that it would never be of any use to him were wrong, it was going to save his life today.

He ran like hell to get behind a trashed car and out of sight of the sniper rat queen, he managed to Dodge another piece of metal shot at him.

His mind entered an analytic mode:
6 to 15 enemies, low ranks, threat assessment minimal individually, horde behavior. Leader: summoner, ranged attack, high lvl, lots of life. Check.
Fully armored, medium armor class. High speed and maneuvering. Melee weapon effective against critters. Attack spell, social skills, crafting skills. Check.
Half depleted mana bar, 7 attack spells left without regen. Mana regen beverage 11 cans, reduced efficiency in combat, risk interruption. One recharge via item. Check.
Lvl up close, full mana and health regen. Check.

He had everything he needed to fight. Still it would be a close call and he would rather have started the event knowing what it was about. He was pretty sure that the coordinated attacks were due to the Pack-Mother, a normal pack of rats would ignore him or swarm him but these tactics were not the simple instincts of savage beasts.

His best strategy would probably be to get as many rats to low hp and hurt the boss before getting his lvl up. That way he would be able to take dmg and get healed just by killing two weakened critters.

As soon as he was in cover he opened a can of Blue Boar and chugged down as much as he could from it before any enemy followed him. It got him an instant bump of 10 mp but his regen was still blocked at 6mp/min. 83mp, he would have to do with that.

The boss hadn't swarmed him yet, so there was probably a limit to the number of rats she could have at once, or a cool down before she could call another one.

John took a peek around the destroyed car and noticed that the rats were spaced so he couldn't charge two of them at once and that they were moving slowly to circle him. He had to pull his head back quickly, just in time for a spark plug to bounce on the ground behind him, its trajectory going through the space his head had occupied a second ago.

He got up on the other side of the car, using an attack spell on the boss and the rat that was at 66/90 hp.

12 dmg.
12 dmg

24 dmg crit!
12 dmg.

He had started to keep tract of the rats by they order of appearance.

This one was number 4, now at 42/90 hp
Number 1 was dead.
Number 2 at 49/90hp
Number 3 at 54/90 hp
Number 5 at 53/90 hp
Number 6 at 47/90 hp
The Boss at 264/300 hp

He had put down his saber at his feet while squatting down. As soon as he saw the fuzzy face of a rat looking around the car to spot him he threw a unit of heavy metal he had retrieved from his inventory as hard as he could.

18dmg crit!

So throwing one of those would do about 9 dmg, but he had to aim and they could be dodged. He had the time to see the hp bar of the rat before it retreated. It was number 3, they had sent the rat with the most hp to scout him. It was now the lowest with 36/90 hp.

John checked his stealth indicator and it was only at 4. He looked very closely around him. He had spotted 2 regular sized rats looking at him.

He couldn't take risks with what was happening, they probably weren't worth enough xp to get him to lvl up so he used a spell on each.

Both died before the second projectile hit them and he got 4xp for each kill. He would have to be careful, if the next rats was even worth 1 more xp than the first he would level up with it rather than on the second kill. It had startled the other two he had not seen, his indicator was now at zero.

He had only 25mp left, unless he wanted to use his refill now he would have to risk getting his lvl earlier in the fight than he had planned to.

He picked up his saber and charged out of cover, striking right away at a rat that was waiting just around the corner.

15 dmg

Number 5 took a nice hit, putting it at 47/90 hp.

Probably trying to keep them all alive, the boss was always sending the rat with the highest health to engage him and they always fled once hit.

John looked for a target, but before he could cast a spell he was hit right in the forehead with yet another piece of metal.

-28 hp crit!

It hurt like hell and it made him loose track of the rats he wanted to attack. There was only one target in sight and unwilling to lose his window of opportunity John sent two Magic Projectiles on the boss before running behind another pile of garbage to avoid retaliation.

12 dmg, 12 dmg, 24 dmg crit!, 12dmg

He was nearly out of mana, the only thing he could use with 6 mp was Move but he had no idea how to use it to fight here.

Still he was happy, 70dmg in one go was a good thing. He was only able to do that because of his Gamer skills, he was pretty sure other mages couldn't just spam spells like that, or they would already be ruling the world.

And he was also sure they had to study and improve themselves to get more powerful spells, not just using them and clicking on a pop-up just like the one that opened in front of him.

Magic Projectile lvl 2, 8mp: fire skill lvl+1 projectiles, inflicting 8+ (skill lvl x 2) dmg.

It was cheaper and he got one more projectile each use. The reduction in base dmg was compensated with the variable part, keeping each at 12dmg.

This was a game changer. Now he just needed one kill, getting a rank up in his spell having provided him 10 xp.

He took his chance and once again ran out of cover. He charged the first rat he saw and struck it with his saber. He had waited to get 2 mp back before getting out and after inflicting 17 dmg with his saber he shot his improved attack spell at it. The extra 36 dmg achieved rat number 6.

25xp
Ding

He just got to lvl5, the extra 10 max hp and max mp were nice, as were the 5 points to attribute, but what he really needed was the full heal and mana refill that accompanied this event.

With 160 mp and his refill still available the tables would turn. It was time to hunt those rats rather than to flee and hide.

But of course no rat was there to be seen, even if he knew that 3 of them were watching him. Remaining on guard, he looked at the spot where the rat died and picked the loot up, without even looking at it, before doing the same with the first one and the two small ones.

He saw something moving, the rats were very stealthy but not enough to fool his Observe skill.

Poor rat number 3 had exactly the 36 hp that his spell inflicted as dmg and was fried on the spot.

15 xp

"Fuck, they give less xp now that I am two levels above them," he cursed.

John was pretty sure a lot of the number on his stealth indicator were small rats, or the boss would have sent fresh ones to attack him.

John wondered how much control she had over all of them. He picked a candy bar from his inventory and threw it in the open after removing its wrapper.

Two junk rats jumped out of garbage piles to get it, fighting for it once they reached it. It took them long enough to divide it between them for John to cast a spell on each of them and hit them with his saber. Rat number 2 and 4 were no more, there were only number 5 and the Pack-Mother left.

Speaking of the devil, he just received another piece of metal to the head.

-21hp

She was not quick enough to get back into cover and he managed to send two charges of Magic Projectiles at her.

No crits this time but still he got her down 72hp, bringing her to 122/300 hp.

He could hear her wail and cry from the pain. He wanted to push his advantage and pursue her but something was preventing him from doing that.

He was no longer standing, charging towards her, but sitting on the ground.

The huge bestial roar that made the whole junkyard tremble had distracted him from the searing pain cause by the spear planted in his abdomen that had just sent him to the ground.

He could see the hulking shape of a creature bigger than he was picking up the Pack-Mother.

Alpha Dire Junk Rat, lvl 7 creature: transformed by the chemicals of the hazardous waste left in the Junkyard this large junk rat is the father of the pack and companion of the Pack-Mother.
Hulking: very large and muscular, relies on brute strength.
Faithful companion: will protect his mate at all cost.
450/450hp