The Mad Rat's Lab

Clara and Ricard end their competition in a draw. That's because Laura intervenes, dealing the killing blow on both monsters simultaneously.

"Haah, haah… Never again!" I shout, indignant. "I'll never do that again!"

"But you said the same thing the first five times, too, brother. Hehehe! You're always screaming and complaining, but you're ready to do anything for the team, and I love you for that."

…I refuse to comment on that.

"I said I'm not doing it anymore, so I'm not! My EP is almost drained after so much running, so I can't do it anyway. Lily, it's your turn now."

Laura, knowing I'm telling the truth, quickly agrees. "Sure. You've done a great job." She pats my back. "Your crazy idea of bringing The Surprise into the enemy dungeon and using it for mobile traps has been great so far."

Of course it worked. It was my idea, after all.

After a bit more banter and Ricard saying something about his MP being drained during each encounter, we retrace my steps, back to the place I found that group of monsters. I, for once, take the lead and show them the path. We come inside a room with several of those life-like columns distributed in a circle. At the other end of the room, a closed ancient door awaits us.

"Ooh! This must be the way forward. We finally found the door to the next zone! Now we just need to find how to open it…" Ricard states the obvious, prompting everyone to send awkward glances in his direction. "I'm sure there's a clue in the center. We just need to–"

Before Ricard can finish, Clara rushes forward, happily ignoring the terrifying eyes glaring at her from below, the sides, and the ceiling. She halts for a moment when a tentacle grabs her ankle, but she just chuckles, gently pats it, and the tentacle lets go of her harmlessly.

"This dungeon is so much fun!" She chuckles. "The monsters and decorations are so cute that I want to hug them, hehehe!"

I chase after Clara, knowing she's going to try something stupid. Well, it isn't guaranteed, but the chances are high. "Lemon, wait. Whatever you're planning on doing, don't do it–"

But I'm too late. When we approach the center of the room, surrounded by the dreary, life-like columns, I realize that what I thought was a statue on top of a pedestal is, in fact, an actual Abyss monster. That group of monsters attacked me as soon as I approached the column circle, so I didn't have the chance to get this close until now.

And thank god I didn't. I refuse to look straight at the monster. Revulsion filling my mind, I switch my eyes towards the text written at the bottom. 'I'm hungry', it says.

In horror, I watch as Clara nods, "Sure. I'll feed you," and puts her whole arm inside that thing's mouth.

"N-noo–!" A guttural cry starts coming out of my mouth, but is interrupted by a sudden shift in our surroundings.

"It's a Dreamshift! Stick close to each other, don't split up! If we're lucky, we'll all appear in the same place–"

Ricard's voice disappears at the same time my surroundings start blurring. The colors and shapes blend, as if they were paint dragged by water, spinning around Clara and me. Two seconds later, the effect plays in reverse, slowly revealing our new surroundings.

I quickly look at the minimap. We're right inside the last room, the one with the 'lakes'. Except that, as I expected, they aren't lakes. It's more of that damn dark fog, but this time it has a different feel to it. This time, it's completely opaque, has a purple tint, and instead of shadowy tendrils, it has a more bubbly, unstable feeling to it.

Instead of fog, it's liquid. A liquid that slowly flows from bottom to top, defying gravity. Well, at least there are no more eyes, tentacles, or mouths, so that's something…

Clara scratches her 'head' with her multiple tentacles. "Hehe. Sorry…?"

Don't 'hehe' me! If we die, it's your fault, Clara! If we mess this up and can't qualify for the real tournament, it'll be your fault!

"Lemon! You made a real mess this time!"

I'm used to Clara acting impulsively during dungeon invasions. But I expected Marta would have 'tamed' her after so much training. She must have pretended to be tame, so Marta didn't criticize her anymore.

"But, it was the best option," she complains. "Look! It's the last room. The last room! We must have skipped a large part of this dungeon!"

She's right in that we must've skipped some parts to quickly reach the end. That's good because it saves us time. It also saves me trauma, but…

"...We'll talk about this later. For now, let's find the others– Ouch!"

I quickly turn around after something hits my back, just in time to watch a fire arrow flying my way. I evade the second projectile and trace its trajectory back to the attacker.

'Nihihihi!' After a laugh, a small red creature dives back into the purple liquid, disappearing from my view.

"Imps…!" Imps, hiding inside the purple liquid.

This is bad... Really bad. We can't go inside, because who knows what effects the liquid might have – just look at its color and texture! It surely is dangerous –, but we can't kill the Imps from range if we can't see them…

Furthermore, Imps are good at dealing damage to units with higher stats. If they hit you when you can't see them, they ignore your defense. And there's no way we can know where their next attack will come from.

"Let's run." I feel like I've run more today than I've run in all the rest of the time playing DMA.

"Yes! I'll follow you, anywhere you go."

Luckily, it seems like Clara has recovered her senses and won't fool around in this situation. Though I must say that a creepy tentacle humanoid saying those words to me doesn't exactly calm my anxiety. If anything, it makes it worse.

Several projectiles, a mix of arrows and spells, come at us from the surrounding 'lakes'. But, having trained under Marta, we easily evade them all as we run. Soon, the attacks stop. Must be because we outran them, or because the monsters are waiting for us to lower our guard.

When I turn around to peek, I see two red-skinned creatures leaving one 'lake' and stepping into another that's closer to our current position.

"Shit, they don't want to let us go…"

As we run, I keep an eye on the map. This whole zone was revealed from the start, so I know where we are and where we must go to find the dungeon core. The problem is that I have no idea where the others might be. In cases like this, the best option is to go towards our objective, in this case, the dungeon core, and hope to meet the rest of the team on our way there.

The Imps relentlessly chase after us, attacking in waves as soon as they see the chance. But thanks to Marta's training, we avoid most of the projectiles. Though I'm not sure if I should be happy about the effectiveness of my sister's training or cry because of it.

I… I should just stop thinking about it.

As I expected, our decision was the correct one. After crossing this dangerous 'open field' and approaching the final stretch towards the dungeon core, we start hearing explosions and roars other than the ones made by our chasers.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Brother! We found them! But where are they?" Clara asks, tilting her head. She must be confused because we can hear their fight, but they're nowhere in sight.

To answer her, I point at a certain 'lake' in the minimap, the one right in front of us. "They must be fighting on the other side of this… thing. We'll have to run around it if we want to–"

"Why can't we just go straight through it? The Imps do move through them, why can't we?"

I'll act as if she didn't just suggest anything. One must take care of their own mental health. After all, if I don't do it myself, who else will?

"Follow after me. We'll go through this gap between the two lakes…"

"Muu, fine."

We follow the shortest path to go around the last barrier and meet with Ricard and Laura. Or, at least, some of our support mobs. Although I don't know who or what we'll find, it's clear there must be at least some of our allies there. Otherwise, why would there be a fight? Are the enemies fighting among themselves?

Hahaha, although it'd make for a pretty good laugh, the AI isn't that stupid. Players fighting among themselves? Sure. But the AI? It's impossible.

Hey, wait a moment… Isn't this the first time the AI is actually better than the players? Oh my god! I never thought I'd ever say the AI is better than real humans in any way imaginable!

I shake my head to disperse the useless thoughts. Soon, we complete half a circle around the 'lake' and can finally see the action taking place about thirty meters in front of us.

What we see… What we see is a nightmare! A fucking NIGHTMARE! Aaaaaaaah! Help us– no, help meee!

Clara claps her tentacles, excited. "Ooh! It's a Cayliyoitsa! I never imagined we'd see one today! Hehehe!"

A Cay-what…? You know what, it doesn't matter. It isn't like I want to know.

The mother of all cosmic horrors, so large it dwarfs Ricard and Laura – at least, compared to any Abyss unit I've seen so far, which, admittedly, there aren't that many. Even when The Surprise, which is already quite large, enough to fully engulf three players at the same time, tries to cover that monster to immobilize it, The Surprise can just barely hold three of that thing's tentacles. And even then, its HP is falling so fast that Laura can't keep up with the healing.

Someone tell me this isn't one of the elder gods! Tell me it isn't one of those units with stats similar to those of dragons…!

No, stop panicking, Andreu. There's no way the enemy team would have spent so much cp in a single unit, right?

Right at this moment, the monster swings its massive tentacles, covered in tiny teeth, grabbing one of Ricard's skeletons and making me shiver. But what happens next is even more terrifying. The writhing mass drags the skeleton closer to it, towards its enormous single eye. Then, when the skeleton is about to touch it, the eye turns completely dark, as if it were a dark hole, and it shoves the skeleton inside…

…and there's no more skeleton. That's all. No cry, no HP bar, no corpse, no nothing. Just… gone.

The monster's eye then returns to normal, and it swings another tentacle, this time towards Laura. Luckily, she has Blink and can safely evade it.

"What the fuck was that!?" I shout, alarmed.

"Ooh, that's its innate skill!" Happily explains Clara, running next to me. "It's Door To Nothingness, Cayliyoitsa's innate skill…"

I-I don't want to know! It was just a rhetorical question!

I close my ears, refusing to listen to my sister's explanation. But at this moment, Ricard comes to the rescue. What an unexpected outcome.

"Mad Rat, you've found us!" He is looking this way. He probably realized we were here after my perfectly normal (panicked) shout. "Be careful, there are traps…"

Right after I hear the word 'trap', the floor below us lights up. I shove Clara away, and right then, a bluish translucent film, the same color as the light coming from the ground, grows upwards, fully encapsulating me.

"W-wh– Brother!" Clara almost falls to the ground, but stabilizes and turns around. When she does, her face twists. Well, it doesn't because she doesn't have a face, but you know what I mean. "I… I'll save you!" She starts punching the translucent film.

"Stop. I'm fine, see?" I say, pointing at the HP bar above my head. "It's just a temporal prison trap."

"B-but…"

"This is nothing, I'll be fine," I assure her. "Just go help Baldy and Lily. You're our single-entity-killer ace, aren't you? I'm sure they need you. Go and do your thing!"

Clara hesitates before saying, "Fine, I'll go. But you come right after, okay?"

"...Sure. I'll be right after you," I try to sound as convincing as possible, watching her leave. Then, I pump my fist in a victory signal.

Hahaha, a prison trap? What is this, a joke? What I'm scared of is that abyss monster, not this pathetic trap. Just look at that mess! Tentacles entangled with even more tentacles, my sister's, a maniacally grinning succubus swinging a whip around, a tenacious slime trying to swallow way more than it can, and a demented undead laughing as if it all were a joke…

Yeah, no thanks. I'm sooooo glad I'm trapped here right now. So glad, that I'm tempted to stay here even after the trap stops working.

Just then, I tilt my head, and a fire arrow passes right through the place I was occupying an instant ago.

I rub my hands as a smile grows on my face. "Haha, this is perfect… You're right on time… my dear customers."

A prison trap doesn't stop attacks from going through, just units and players. Now that I can't move and my evasion is limited, it's the perfect time for the Imps to strike. But it's fine by me, because they're giving me the perfect excuse to stay here and avoid that Cyl-whatever monster. It's even better because my teammates won't be able to complain if I don't join them: having those Imps join their fight will make things even harder for them.

So, in short, I'm not hiding or finding excuses. I'm just helping the team in the best way I can! Hahaha!

It's the perfect excuse! An excuse that's not only useful, but it's also the truth!

"Come at me," I make the typical taunt gesture, curling my open palm, "if you dare, of course."

I focus on my surroundings, convincing myself I'm fighting against Marta. 'She can come from anywhere, at any moment. I won't see her coming until the attack is about to hit…' Like this, I prepare to face the hidden Imps.

'Hihihi!' 'Nishihihi'

I can hear their laughing voices from all around, as if trying to instill fear in me. But that won't work. I mean, who would be scared of a pathetically weak ghost haunting their house when their neighbour is an apocalyptic world-ending monster that can annihilate them with a single glare? Nobody, right? If anything, you'd feel pity for the ghost that's trying his best to scare you.

Suddenly, one Imp pops its head out of the purple liquid. At the same time, a fire projectile leaves its hand, flying towards me. But before the fire arrow can touch my skin, two ice bursts explode right next to the Imp's head, instantly killing it. I then safely evade the arrow by twisting my body.

"As expected, Cold Blast is the best when dealing with weaklings." It's the most efficient as well as the fastest spell. "Who's next?"

The purple liquid is so dense that I can't see the Imps. But they can't shoot unless they see me, either. That's why they must pop out of it to attack. I just need to strike right then.

Until now, Clara and I were too busy running around, trying not to waste time and find Ricard and Laura. But now, since I'm trapped and can't move, I might as well kill them…

…And I swear, it doesn't have anything to do with me wanting to avoid that monster!

Our fight continues like this, as if playing hide and seek. I keep an eye on my surroundings, trying to spot the Imps right when they appear and swiftly killing them, while making sure to ignore all shouts and battle sounds coming from a certain direction behind me.

At some point, the prison trap deactivates, but I keep fighting. As the best team leader in existence, I obviously can't allow those Imps to interfere in my teammate's fight.

"Nooooo, Baldy!"

…Don't look back, Andreu. Don't look back or you'll regret it…

After what seems like an eternity, all Imps are dead. That, or the remaining ones have all hidden or run away. It doesn't matter either way. The result is the same.

"Haa… Haaa…" I never thought I'd have such a serious fight against such basic mobs. Guess that's where player skill comes into play. Good players will always know how to best exploit the cp limit. "...This was harder than I thought… Haah."

Reluctantly, I turn around towards the still ongoing fight, just in time to see Clara dealing the finishing blow.

"Yeeees! I did it!" She starts jumping around, even before the monster collapses under its weight. "Did you see this, brother? It's our victory! VICTORY! Hehehe!"

But this isn't a clean victory. It's a disaster. Except for Clara, who dealt the last blow, and Laura, panting next to her, everyone else is dead or has disappeared. I don't even know where Ricard's corpse is…

Well, a victory is a victory, especially against a monster as terrifying as that one.

"Good job, Lemon," I say, dragging my body towards them. The fight against those Imps was way harder than I thought. "Good job to you, too, Lily."

Laura makes a sour face. "But I couldn't save Baldy…"

"Nothing can go perfectly. He did his job properly, protecting you until the end." I say, patting Laura's back. At least, I do hope Ricard didn't die because he did something stupid. Because otherwise… "Let's go and finish this, shall we? We must earn as many points as possible."

Laura nods. "...Right. Let's go."

"It's our victory! The Queen of Horrors wins once more, hehehe!" When I look towards her, I find Clara making a weird dance on top of the giant monster's corpse.

"You come with us, too, Lemon."

"Yes…" Then, she adds something in a lower voice so I can't hear it. "Victory, hehehe!"