Shafted

Running to the half-collapsed warehouse had revealed three things to John. The first was that he could consistently avoid the rat ogre’s charges and swipes, as long as he was buffed and it was debuffed. He could only just barely pull it off though, and if either buff or debuff ended, he would be screwed.

The second thing was that reading Observe sheets while running and dodging slowed him down just enough to get grazed by the beast trying to lash out as it passed. If not for his Gamer’s Body removing the injury and pain almost immediately, he would be a patchwork of bruises by now, and probably have been slowed down enough from the pain that he would be dead.

Lastly, and most worryingly, he wasn’t going to be able to keep this up much longer. His legs and lungs were already burning with exhaustion after what probably wasn’t even a full minute. He had to find a way out of the situation fast, or he was done for. Sadly, the vials he had picked up from Qhila’s ruined clothes weren’t much help.

One was a potent herbicide, which might have been enough to kill or incapacitate the rat ogre if it’d been a plant. Unfortunately, it was not a plant and the herbicide was neither highly flammable nor anything else useful like that, making the contents of the vial useless right now.

The second vial was a healing potion, one that was a lot stronger than the one John had gotten from an Achievement. The problem with that was that the debuff to HP Regeneration that it came with was also correspondingly stronger and would put John’s regen into the negatives. If the debuff only meant that he very slowly lost HP over the course of some days, he might’ve used it anyway since a problem for tomorrow was an acceptable cost for having a tomorrow at all. Unfortunately, going into negative Regen came with additional penalties, which Observe had helpfully informed him of without elaborating on those penalties. If they ended up affecting his ability to avoid the rat ogre’s attacks in any way, drinking the potion would be suicide.

The third one was a fast acting ‘mining solution’ that weakened stone and mineral formations when they were soaked with it. If it worked on concrete, that might be useful depending on how things were inside the warehouse, but that remained to be seen. And John had really hoped for something that either weakened or slowed the rat ogre further, did a lot of damage or gave him a powerful buff. Then again, he had pretty much hit the jackpot with the gas vial he got using Theft, so he couldn’t really call his luck rotten overall.

Laments aside, John had reached the building. However, instead of heading inside immediately, he waited next to the door, watching the rat ogre carefully. When John turned, the creature immediately tried to lean to the side, as if dodging something thrown at its face. Clearly, it had not forgotten the goblin gas and alchemist’s fire combo, nor was it keen on a second dose.

In its debuffed state, the beast didn’t have the balance to take the leaning stance it tried, though, and it ended up keeling over. If John had been watching all of this from the safety of the other side of a computer screen, it would have looked hilarious. The **** behind mere grazing blows from the thing was much too fresh in his mind for mirth at the moment, though.

John’s plan in turning with his back almost to the wall had been dodging the next charge so the rat ogre would run face first into the wall and be stunned long enough for John to open the door, slip inside and close it again. A risky move, but less so than just standing still with his back towards the creature without buying a few moments’ time first. With the rat ogre falling over on its own accord, however, he already had that bit of extra time and hurried inside. Where, for the second time today, he figuratively dropped his jaw on the floor.

The door didn’t lead into an open area with rows of pallets or shelves laden with goods. Or empty space for such pallets and shelves. It led to a smaller entry room with a hallway and two doors leading further in. The shocking bit wasn’t finding a reception in a warehouse, though. Rather, the decor of the place felt like he had stepped onto the set of a fantasy movie, much like the view outside had looked like that of a post apocalyptic one.

More specifically, the tapestries on the walls, empty archaic weapon stand next to the door and the suit of plate armor combined with a color scheme of green, black and silver and imperious imagery all prominently featuring skulls to give it a very strong feel of being some noble estate in a stereotypical Evil Empire.

The scene wasn’t pristine, though. The suit of armor, complete with stand, was toppled over, and the helmet had rolled halfway across the room from the rest. The floor, and some of the tapestries, had bloodstains scattered about, and like the building exterior, the place was riddled with scorch marks and bullet holes. That last bit clashed somewhat with the fantasy aesthetic, but then again, Urban Fantasy was a thing.

A loud impact sound, followed by that of breaking wood and twisting metal, brought John very effectively back to the present. Clearly, the rat ogre was back on its feet and would soon be inside. At least it was apparently too stupid to figure out how to use a door. Without further ado, John moved down the hallway. It had more doors on either side, each ajar. John cast passing glances inside some of them, and found only rooms with no other exit. On the left were at least two of what looked like a fantasy noble’s bedchambers, while on the right he saw what looked like a modern office with a tapestry and a shrine-like setup in the corner added in. All of the rooms showed signs of combat, mainly in the form of more scorch marks and bullet holes.

The other doors, reaching a total of 4 on either side, weren’t open enough to get a look inside without slowing down significantly to do so. A second impact slammed against the door leading outside, followed by a tearing sound and a thud that John suspected was the door in question, or at least a sizable part of it, hitting the floor. Clearly, he didn’t have time to poke his head in each room, especially since they were probably dead ends as well.

The end of the hallway had a door that opened to the middle of another hallway. Down one end was a fire exit, not what John was looking for, while the other end opened up into the actual storage area of the warehouse. The storage area proper was two regular stories tall, with heavy duty steel shelves for pallets and crates of goods. It had been converted into something else, though, by way of using the shelf racks to hang thick sheets of clear plastic that sectioned most of the storage space into smaller ‘rooms’, most of which were furnished with what looked like an operating table, a few IV-stands, a short metal cabinet and occasionally an odd computer setup. Some of the rooms were missing a bit of the furnishings while some had two or even three of something. Additionally, the scorch marks, bullet holes and occasional blood stains that had been everywhere inside were found here as well.

John didn’t have time to wonder how a makeshift hospital fit in with the fantasy evil empire decor, though. The sound of the rat ogre barrelling straight through the door separating the hallways further underlined the need for urgency. Evidently, the interior door was less durable than the one that led to the outside. John ran down the ‘hallway’ between these makeshift rooms. He had briefly considered ducking under the plastic walls to put barriers between himself and the brute, but quickly realized that he’d probably slow himself down more than he’d slow down his pursuer.

The rat ogre was hot on his heels again. John knew that the rhythm of its gait changed a moment before it leapt at him, he’d noticed that while it chased him from the recycling center to the warehouse. A vital thing to notice, because the hallway between makeshift rooms didn’t allow him to flee at an angle where he could keep it in the corner of his eye. At least not without turning around too much to keep up any useful amount of speed. The hallway presented another problem, though; it was also too narrow to properly dodge in, unless he went into one of those rooms as he dodged. Making the wrong choice of room would likely doom him.

There! John spotted a good option in the same heartbeat as the rhythm of pursuing footfalls changed. Without hesitation, John leapt sideways, rolled and got back on his feet as fast as he could. This room was good because the back ‘wall’ had a large hole burned through it into the room on the other side. That room was open to its own hallway, running in parallel to the one John had been fleeing through before.

John ran into the new hallway and continued in the direction of the collapsed part of the warehouse. The rat ogre didn’t bother with going for the back wall with a hole, it just tore through the plastic barrier in the room that was closest at hand when it turned. In the process, it confirmed John’s assumption that the plastic wouldn’t meaningfully slow the brutish creature.

The chase continued, and moments later, the rhythm of rat ogre steps shifted again. No good rooms to dodge into this time, they all looked like dead ends, but there was a perpendicular hallway. That should work. John dodge rolled into the hallway and pressed on.

The hallway was not a good place to go. After a few rooms to either side that were all dead ends, the hallway itself proved to be one as well, leading to an open elevator shaft. John wasn’t optimistic about the chances of fall damage being the least bit forgiving, but he was still almost at the decision to take that chance when he remembered how he’d pulled a fast one on Frank years ago. It had ended up making things worse for John in the end, but the key difference here was that he was already dead if the rat ogre got its way, so pissing it off more wasn’t a problem. The bigger question was whether he could pull it off, but between the beast’s addled mind and fairly unsteady movements, he liked his odds there a lot more than the odds of his remaining HP surviving a drop down the elevator shaft.

He turned towards the rat ogre, which flinched to the side again. Less so than before, and not enough to make it topple over, nor to lose much momentum in charging at John. John waited until the last moment, then dropped down into a curled up position on the ground, a swipe of the beast’s claws passing right above his head as he did. The creature had too much momentum, and too impaired motor control, to stop its forward movement in time to avoid stumbling over John, and then continuing straight into the elevator shaft.

-12 HP.

John groaned and held his left forearm close to his body for a moment as the pain subsided in less than a second. That had hurt like Hell, so much so that John wouldn’t have been surprised if his arm had been broken for a moment there, and it was just a direct hit from being stumbled over, not from an actual attack. But the trick had worked.

John got back on his feet, a bit shakily as his legs protested fiercely against any movement at all right now. But he had to take a look down the shaft. There had been no EXP notification or anything of that sort that could confirm the beast’s demise, so John had to look, had to make sure, before he could afford to take a few minutes to rest his legs and then get back to the **** girl outside.

The rat ogre started hissing angrily the moment John poked his head over the edge. He couldn’t see it clearly, just that it was moving down there, but not very fast. Likely, it was trying to get back on its feet. While it was still pretty much a stationary target, John willed both of his remaining vials of Alchemist’s Fire into his hand and threw them at it.

8 fire damage (ongoing).

Okay, apparently the fur that the first vial and the ignited gas had burned away left it less resistant to the followup. Good to know.

8 fire damage (ongoing).

John staggered two steps to the side and leaned heavily against the wall. He felt more exhausted than he could have even imagined possible this morning, and all in what was definitely less than 10 minutes of activity. ‘I really need to put some points in Endurance when I can.’

8 fire damage (ongoing).

One of the rat ogre’s hands emerged from the depths of the elevator shaft, grabbing onto the edge. Its claws scraped against the concrete floor for a moment, slipping closer to a fall, before they found some miniscule purchase and stopped its slide. ‘Fuck’

8 fire damage (ongoing).

John staggered over to the claw, looking down the shaft as he went. The rat ogre was hanging on with one claw because the other arm hung limp by its side. Instead, it was trying to push upwards by clawing its foot against the wall next to the door leading from the shaft to the basement itself. It was still on fire, but despite the pain it had to be in, the beady eyes displayed only hate as it looked at him with a snarl. John glared back, then started stomping on the creature’s hand and cursing.

1 blunt damage.

“Just-”

2 blunt damage.

“-fucking-”

1 blunt damage.

“-die-”

8 fire damage (ongoing).

1 blunt damage.

“-already-”

2 blunt damage.

“-you-”

2 blunt damage.

“-shitty-”

8 fire damage (ongoing).

1 blunt damage.

“-overgrown-”

2 blunt damage.

“-fucking-”

1 blunt damage.

“-rodent.”

8 fire damage (ongoing).

0 blunt damage.

The foot of the leg that had been left dangling came up, prehensile toes curling around the edge. It just needed the other foot up there now and John would be done for. He didn’t have the energy to run again. Not for more than a few dozen steps, at least. Far too little. He needed to do something else, and quickly. Desperately, he looked around himself for something, anything, that could save him.

The cabinet in one of the nearby makeshift hospital rooms lay on the side, contents strewn across the floor where it had presumably been spilled during whatever fighting had happened in here. Among those contents was a bone saw. If only John had noticed sooner, had thought to look sooner, he might have sawed at the rat ogre’s wrist and robbed the hand of the strength to hold on. But it was too late now. By the time he got over there and back with the saw, the beast would be out of the shaft.

8 fire damage (ongoing).

That’s when it hit him. The Mining Solution. Hopefully, it would work on concrete and do so fast enough. In any case, it was his last chance. John willed the vial into his hand, unstoppered it and poured the lot on and around the rat ogre’s hand. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the beast’s claws sunk fully into the concrete. With its grip now better, it got its second foot up and curled around the edge of the floor.

John had just resigned himself to the inevitable when, at the very last moment, the concrete crumbled beneath the creature’s fingers. In what was probably an attempt to get up on the ground floor despite the vanishing handhold, it ended up kicking off from the edge instead, flying out and down again.

8 fire damage (ongoing).

The flickering of the alchemist’s fire still burning on the creature’s chest and upper arms wasn’t providing good lighting by any stretch. It was still enough for John to see the pile of concrete rubble and exposed rebar at the back of the elevator shaft that the rat ogre had landed on. Landed on and impaled itself through the chest on a length of rebar that was pointing almost straight up. Yet still, it drew labored, wheezing breaths. ‘Jesus, how resilient is that fucking thing?!?’

8 fire damage (ongoing).

As the Alchemist’s Fire delivered its last damage tick, the flames quickly subsided and went out. Then the rat ogre took another breath, just as labored but more gurgling than wheezing this time, and then it finally died.

+1000 EXP

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