The Lupine System

Mike & Kris vs The Rat King

Mike snarled as he looked at the creature before him.

On his way here, while quick, his pace had been pretty calm. However, a sense of unease began to take root in his heart, and he didn't hesitate to speed up.

Before long, his ears picked up the sounds of fighting, and shortly after, he spotted the massive hole left behind by Kris's actions.

Under normal circumstances, he would have stood there and gaped at such a sight. However, he didn't hesitate to jump into the hole and use his aura to propel himself downward like a comet, which is when he parted the sea of lava with his Primal Rend and landed between Kris and the Rat King.

Right now, Mike felt anger and guilt. Anger at the creature for harming his friend and guilt for being late.

But he couldn't dwell on those now.

Instead, he frowned as his senses locked onto the large creature.

'That thing... What is that?' His brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of what he was sensing.

Usually, if he properly locked on to the internals of a creature, he could get a vague grasp of what was there. This skill only improved after Mike fought the 6-armed creature, allowing what he saw to be clearer.

And right now, he was starting to doubt his own ability despite his instincts telling him that he was indeed not losing his mind.

The internals of the Rat King were... not set. It was all like some convoluted mess of semi-solid organs that moved and shifted around constantly, sometimes losing their shape only to form into something else entirely.

It made no sense, and Mike was genuinely baffled at the reasoning behind such a creature existing. The only thing he did sense that seemed solid enough was a strange sphere that seemed to supply the whole thing with energy.

'That must be the core, or something similar.' He mused.

At that moment, Kris finally reached his side, and Mike glanced at him.

His armor had melted and fused in numerous places, and his stature was slightly hunched with a few burns here and there. However, he wasn't seriously injured, which was a relief.

"It has a solid shape now, but it's been adapting constantly since we started fighting, so I don't think it's weird to assume it's still doing so. Moreover, it has complete control over all this lava and can make it far hotter than what it actually is." Kris spoke, his voice sounding hoarse from the damage to his lungs from the heat.

Mike simply nodded and stared at the Rat King, which seemed to have finished inspecting him as well.

"Get ready." Mike said as the Rat King's legs tensed.

Mike leaned forward, and Kris materialized several chains.

There was a brief pause, and then, Mike and the King charged forward.

Unlike Kris, Mike wasn't afraid of getting in close to fight the creature face-to-face.

The rat king swung a lava coated claw at Mike, who also condensed his aura around his gauntlets without actually using a Primal Rend, and the result was a powerful clash that parted the surrounding lava around them.

The Rat King prepared to follow up, but several chains with sharp tips descended from above, forcing the thing to dodge back. However, they didn't just bury themselves and instead changed direction midair to chase the creature.

It growled, and the veins of magma all over its body started to glow as it prepared to attack, but Mike appeared before it at that moment and landed a mean uppercut on its jaw, causing it to stagger, which bought time for the chains to stab into the creature from several angles before going taut, briefly holding it in place.

It screeched and writhed as it tried to free itself, but Mike had already pulled his arm back as he prepared to stabilize forward with a Primal Rend, his senses locking on to the shifting core of the rat.

But just then, his senses tingled, and he leapt away just as the surrounding Lava suddenly shot at him like snakes.

He had to change his stance as he went from a stabbing to a clawing motion, sweeping his arm to cut apart many of the tendrils to properly dodge.

Unfortunately, this gave the rat enough time to free itself from the chains, and its gaze shifted to Kris who was in the back, his chains swirling around him like tentacles.

Immediately, it judged that he was the most injured, but also the most problematic one. So without hesitation, it charged at him, streams of lava already rising around it to go after him.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?!" Out of nowhere, Mike came in and smashed into the side of the Rat with a mean shoulder check, blasting it off course as it tumbled away.

He didn't hesitate to give chase as he sent out several Primal Rends, each one digging deep into the creature's body and drawing more of the absurdly hot blood.

It quickly stabilized, though, and with a screech, a literal wave of fire erupted and surged towards Mike. However, he didn't retreat.

If anything, he only sped up.

'Maximum output!' Mike's aura surged, and with a swing of his arm, a horizontal Primal Rend sliced the wave in half.

However, when he saw the rat, he saw that its abdomen was unnaturally bloated, and its mouth was wide open as heat started to spill forth.

Mike didn't wait for it to finish.

He thrust a hand forward, and a Haven Ring appeared instantly, flying forward and clamping itself around the mouth of the rat, sealing it shut.

With nowhere to go, the lava that had been building up within it reached its critical point, and there was a sickening squelch as the side of its body burst forth and spewed out torrents of thick Lava.

The Rat King ket out an unholy screech as it wobbled unstably, and chains appeared before wrapping themselves around the creature. It wasn't a flimsy thing, though, as they kept wrapping around it like it was a cocoon, firmly binding it.

Mike shot forward like a blue comet and appeared in front of the Rat King.

For a brief moment, he contemplated landing a White Spark, but he instantly knew that it wouldn't work, as such, he settled for a particularly mean combo as his fists crashed into the rat's body like an unstoppable tide, each one cracking its armor and sending its molten blood flying everywhere.

The creature tried to retaliate, but with Kris's chains keeping it firmly bound, Mike was free to attack it as much as possible. Not that he intended to just punch it. No, he was doing sonething specific.

'Almost...' He thought as his senses tracked the creature's core. His punches weren't random. Instead, the force from each one traveled through its body and moved its malleable insides. At the same time, its core was being shifted as well, getting into a position where Mike could land a decisive blow.

But just as he was about to succeed, his senses tingled again, and he gritted his teeth but forced himself to jump away.

However, the attack that came wasn't one he expected. Instead, the ground rumbled, and all of a sudden, the heat of the surrounding lava spiked. But that wasn't all.

The ground... no, the entire cavern started to shake, and Mike's eyes widened as he turned before dashing towards Kris without hesitation.

As he ran, the platforms created by the tons of rock Kris had dropped on the Rat King started to shift as crack as the lava bubbled before rising, as thought the amount was suddenly increasing.

Which it was.

Lava lakes didn't just appear out of nowhere, after all. They were typically connected to a far larger reservoir of the stuff deeper in the planet's lower layers, and it appeared that the Rat King had noticed this.

Kris also seemed to realize what was happening, and without hesitation, chains burst forth him him before they all formed a cocoon around him and Mike.

Not even a secong later, everything exploded.

On the surface where the hole was, the ground suddenly began to crack and shift upwards as red light seeped through them.

And then.

BOOOM

An utterly apocalyptic sound erupted as the ground exploded in a cloud of dust, ash, and magma.

The shockwave traveled for miles as the ash surged forth and swallowed everything in its path.

Lava and massive chunks of rock rained down, utterly devastating everything in the surrounding area. In just a few seconds, the damage to the environment had reached absurd levels.

No normal creature would have been able to survive an onslaught like that. And yet...

'Damn, is this what he meant by it adapting?' Mike thought as the ball of chains slowly unfurled, many of which broke immediately as their durability had been sapped entirely.

He and Kris looked forward, and through the haze of dust and ash, a glowing figure slowly emerged, and their faces turned grim.

"... What exactly is this thing meant to be?" Mike asked.

"... And endlessly propagating rat that somehow got the ability to adapt and is now a flame-based creature, it seems." Kris replied with narrowed eyes.

In front of them, the Rat King had undergone another transformation.