The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

"Dang it Bug, where did you go!" Susan yells as she runs through the burning city, cutting down any rats that try to stop her, a spider of bones keeping pace as it follows closely behind.

The fires have only spread further as time has passed, with more and more of the shoddy wooden buildings going up in flames as people run about and scream. Off to the side, down one street, Susan can see as a team of rats in yellow jackets desperately try to put out some of the flames with buckets of water, a nearby lady rat desperately trying to run back into the building as she is held back, screaming as she holds her hands up to the second floor window like she is trying to reach someone still inside.

It is weird, seeing monsters act so human. She is still reeling at the strangeness of it all, and the sheer chaos of how everything had so quickly escalated to this state is not helping one bit.

This is crazy. I've never even seen these rat things before. Where did they even come from? Did the Dungeon make them, why? To stop Bug? And what the heck is going on with her? Suddenly losing it and running off like that… I don't think that that is something she would have done normally.

Despite hating Bug, Susan does have to begrudgingly admit that Bug has a good head on her shoulders. Despite how she may act sometimes, Susan knows that Bug is a smart girl and wouldn't lose herself to bloodlust like that unless she wanted to deliberately, for fun.

She didn't look like she was in control of herself…

Susan looks back at the bone spider, a shiny treasure chest safely held inside a barricade of bone plate and ready daggers.

Would she actually run off like that and leave Elaine behind? I don't want to admit it, but I think she actually does, genuinely care for her. She wouldn't just leave her behind to go on a rampage, and I doubt that she trusts me enough to protect her. And why did Elaine start losing it too? There was freaking blood pouring from her eyes! Something weird is going on here and I need to get us out, quickly.

"BUG! Answer me you dumb female dog's butthole! Ah, why can't you just let me curse!? Get back here already!"

A nearby house collapses, further filling the air with more smoke as flaming timber tumbles into the streets and off into the nasty sewer water that the rats had only been making worse for however long they have been living here.

Thank the Goddess I don't have to breathe if I don't want to. This place already smelled horrible before this…

Jumping up onto the roof of nearby, not yet currently on fire, building, a general store by the look of it, Susan looks around the burning city trying to find any sign of Bug. But the city is a truly massive place, easily rivaling that of Silest itself despite being stuck deep underground. Just how big is the Dungeon anyways?

Off in the distance, where the flames had yet to spread, she spots several towers of wood that stretch all the way up to the ceiling of this room. All the buildings over there are taller than the houses and little businesses found over here, and generally just look nicer too. A higher-class area, maybe?

She can see plenty of rat fleeing in that direction, running from the flames in search of safety. But elsewhere she can see as mobs of angry rats wielding torches and other makeshift weapons are stomping their way towards the towers as well, looking like they want to break something. Watching where some of the rioters are heading, it looks like they are targeting a pair of twin towers that stand side-by-side and look almost identical.

Susan doesn't know why, but something in her bones is telling her she doesn't want to be involved in that mess, at all. She decides to look elsewhere and shifts her gaze off to the other side of the high-end looking zone, which isn't saying much when everything is made of scrap wood and debris.

Looking like a massive hill built of piled up lumber and scaffoldings unsafely stacked to dangerous heights; Susan finds what can only be assumed to be a mansion built on its peak. Soldier and guard rats are desperately holding their ground as mobs of hundreds, if not thousands, of rats are storming their way up the hill like waves against a cliff face.

Clapping sounds from those strange, ranged weapons of theirs fill the air and even reach Susan from so far away, promising that the place is probably a catastrophe of noise over there like a warzone. Rioters and angry civilians are rushing forward and climbing over barricades, getting cut down by the dozens as they are shot and slashed by the defenders. But they don't stop moving forward, driven into a frenzy as the people call out some mantra over and over again in their weird language that Susan can't even hope to begin to understand.

Still, this is something that Susan has seen once before during her adventures. While in the territory of a particularly unpopular Duke, who had been treating his people like trash for many years, she had had the special privilege of getting to witness an uprising. A revolution! An aggreges increase in taxes had pushed the people to the breaking point, and the next thing Susan had known, the territory had turned into a full-blown civil war. She didn't get involved.

Susan had just been passing through and wanted nothing but to drink her beer after a long day of traveling. That had turned into a long day, and she hadn't even participated. Just a bystander watching as everything went up in flames.

This situation here is looking rather similar, right now. Susan doesn't know who it that lives atop that hill, but they are definitely screwed…

Now then, where the heck is…

"Hm?"

Susan's eyes land on someone waving a green flag in the distance, waving it back and forth as they direct rats to charge up the hill, shouting out encouragements and threats to make them move faster.

"Is that… Oh, what the heck? Bug! What are doing!?"

Susan quickly jumps off the building and rushes forward through the nearly cleared out streets, most of the residents having long fled or died by now. The bone spider stays right behind her as they sprint at top speed. Along the way, Susan can't stop herself from grabbing a corpse off the ground that got cooked by the flames, and sinks her teeth into as she runs, tearing off chunks of rat and swallowing it all down.

It… tastes surprisingly good. Similar to rabbit but also close to being like chicken in a way. Since she still has some ground to cover, Susan makes sure to fill her stomach before arriving.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The climb up the hill is a scene of carnage. There are corpses everywhere, with the vast majority of them being civilians that had been shot, blown up, or got caught in traps and barbed wire. On her way up the twisting hill of wood, she sees a rat crying over the corpse of his friend, desperately shoving his spilt guts back into his body as if that will somehow bring him back to life. Elsewhere, another man is walking around in a daze, his shoulder a bloody mess as he scans over the battlefield. He eventually finds what he is looking for and reaches down to pick up a severed arm, trying to press it back to his shoulder. A few seconds later, he collapses and dies from blood loss on the spot, his arm still held in his other hand.

Further up the hill she finds rats impaled on spikes and left standing where they died. Others can be found in the bottom of holes, having fallen to their deaths. As Susan and the bone spider run past, someone trapped under some twisted barbed wire calls out for aid, the metal so thoroughly wrapped and caught in their body that getting them back out would take hours of delicate work to save them. Susan keeps moving, leaving the dead and dying behind.

This place is worse than a warzone. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this place?

As she continues to ascend, the sound of fighting only grows louder, the cracks and blasts rippling through the air until it becomes hard to even hear herself think. Bullets are flying in every direction with soldiers and guards holding fortified potions above, piled into bunkers and firing out from the windows. Down the hill, the revolutionaries are stuck into the trenches, having torn the wooden hill apart to dig out their own cover as bullets goes tearing over their heads. They return fire with stolen weapons of their own, most likely pilfered off the bodies of their slain enemies.

Susan doesn't stop moving as she enters the battlefield, a bullet tearing through her stomach as she runs and several more pinging off of the bone spider's shields. They both dive into the nearest trench as quickly as possible, the hole in her gut healing fast enough to be seen.

She is ready for a fight to break out as soon as she lands in the trench, already surrounded on all sides by dozens of rats, her sword already drawn and ready. But surprisingly, they don't attack her.

Most just glance her way before returning to firing up the hill. Others say something that she can't understand, but they seem to be glad she is here. Do they think she is reinforcements?

Surprising Susan, a grizzled old rat comes up to her and pushes a weapon into her hands, barking out orders as he points up the hill.

"Prends cette arme et bats-toi, soldat! L'ennemi est par là!"

"Oh, uh, uhmm… Ok?"

"Qu'est-ce que c'était, espèce de tache de merde!?"

"Uh, uh… Yes Sir!" Susan quickly barks out as she tries to give a salute. That ends up being a bit difficult what with her hands both being full, but it seems to make the old rat happy as her nods and moves on to go and yell at someone else.

Did I just get drafted?

Susan looks down at the thing in her hands and then at her sword. Deciding between the two of them, she shrugs and then places the thing inside of the bone spiders armor, next to the treasure chest. She considered just getting rid of it, but then someone would probably yell at her again.

"Now, where the heck is Bug at?"

Stuck in a trench with bullets flying over her head, she can't really look around for her without potentially getting her head blown off, so Susan stops a rat as she is running by with a basket full of medical supplies and tries asking for directions.

"Excuse me, have you seen Bug?"

"Oui?" The girl rat asks back with clear confusion on her dirt smudged face.

"Uhm, about this tall. Wings on her back… four arms, big tail. She has horns on her head, like this. She was waving around a big green flag earlier?" Susan says as she tries to mime everything out for the girl who looks like she is in a hurry.

Recognition fills her rat face, and she nods her head frantically and points down one of the trenches, smiling.

"Oui, le chef du peuple libre! Elle est par là, au centre de commandement."

"Uh, that way? Yes? Ok, thank you very much. Good luck, with, all of this…"

The girl nods and runs off, leaving Susan behind in her confusion. An explosion goes off not too far away, sending a shower of splinters and dust falling into the trenches as people brace and hold their heads.

"This place is crazy. Come on, follow me." Susan says to the bone spider despite not needing to.

As she moves through the trenches, she has to ask for directions again several times, the path spitting off again and again from where new lines had been carved in the wood as the revolutionaries had slowly gained ground. For some reason, each time the rats figure out that it is Bug, Susan is asking for, they always seem to be filled with excitement, calling her the Chef du Peuple Libre like it is some kind of title.

Eventually, Susan's search brings her down some tunnels lit by lanterns, the walls shaking as explosions shake everything and bring dust falling from above.

"Seriously Bug, what the hell are you doing here?"

And then she finds her, the short girl standing on a stool and leaning over a table with a large hand drawn map spread over its surface, helmet covering her head and pushed between her horns, wings draped over her shoulders like a trench coat. Behind her on the wall is a big green flag with the image of a rat with dragon wings on it.

Others are gathered around the table, all speaking as they use sticks to move blocks around the map, always sending glances Bug's way as if asking for her approval.

She nods her head, and they continue to debate and make plans in their weird language.

"Bug, there you are. We need to hurry up and-" Susan tries saying but is interrupted as two guards step in her path, blocking her from entering the room.

"Wha- Move aside! Bug, we need to get going! Let me in!"

Bug looks up from the map and towards Susan. With a wave her hand she says, "Let her in, she's one of us."

""Oui, chef.""

The guards part and let her in, Bug returning her attention to the map as Susan and the bone spider move inside, another explosion shaking the ceiling.

"Bug, what the heck are you doing? Come on, we need to get going."

"Not yet soldier. The plan of attack is almost complete, then will be on the offensive again. But I like your drive! Save it for the enemy, though. General Ratfi'er, I like this plan but take more of our boys to the east and push up their flank. We need to draw more of their heavy weapons off of our main force before we can make the push up through their center. General Piere, how goes the instillation of our artillery emplacements?"

"En voie d'achèvement, chef de file. Nous serons bientôt prêts à bombarder la position ennemie."

"Excellent. And again, I would like to thank all of you for choosing to side with us in this conflict. I know it can't be easy to fight against those you all used to call friends, but you are fighting on the side of the people. On the side of freedom and justice! Each one of you shall be remembered as heroes after this battle is over."

All of the gathered rats nod their head and return what Susan assumes is thanks. One of the old rats even has a tear in his eye as he fights down the urge to cry.

Bug nods her head slowly, letting the atmosphere of the room fill her as another explosion rocks the ceiling and shakes the table.

"Good. Now go and prepare the troops. Tonight, we shall be free. And should any of them feel fear, or that they should turn back and run away. Remind them to look towards the front. Because I will be there! When they feel that all is lost, let them see my back and know that I am with them! That any threat they may face, we will face together!"

""Oui, chef!"" The gathered rats call out as they all snap a salute. The old rat that had been trying to hold it in can't anymore and the tears start to fall, wetting his greyed fur and leaving him as a sniffling mess as he salutes with pride filling his old heart.

The moment passes and everyone quickly streams out of the room, ready to go and put things into motion. On her way out, walking with her back ramrod straight and her head held high, Bug calls out over her shoulder, "Susan, you're with me. Stick close to me and we will cut through the enemy's middle, right to their front door! Let's go soldier, move out!"

"Uhm… ok?"

"What was that?!"

"Oh, uh, yes ma'am?"

"Louder soldier, that's an order! Let the enemy hear you yell!"

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am!!!"

"Good! Let's go, we have some tyrants to overthrow."

"Yes Ma'am!"

Susan follows Bug out of the war room, feeling rightfully confused. Along the way, another rat hands her a rifle, but she just places it with the first one that she got next to Elaine, for safekeeping.

Why do they keep giving me rifles? Wait… how do I know what it's called now? Seriously, what the heck is going on here? This was just supposed to be a normal Boss Room; how the heck did I end up getting drafted into a war!?