Apocalypse: The Ice King Returned

Chapter 11: Rats

Luther looked down into the sewer grate. Two small blue lights could be seen in the darkness. A ray of light beamed down into the opening in the ground and landed on a rat the size of a housecat. Its shiny, black hair was wet from the sewage. The hair was thick but did not completely cover its reddish, wrinkly body. There were a few long whiskers on its nose, and beneath it were two rows of sharp teeth. As his eyes adjusted, Luther could see that the two blue lights were its eyes.

Suddenly there were four, then six, then twelve lights, and the number kept growing. Luther shined a flashlight down into the darkness. He was surprised to see dozens of these mutant rats. He saw so many of them the size of cats before he noticed one that looked larger than a dog.

From his past, he knew that these rats became mutants from the blood moon. Most of the mice could only be a Bronze rank one or two mutant, but their Rat Queen was at least a rank three. 

Constance also peered down into the sewer. She had always been afraid of even the smallest mice, but now these rats were enormous. She felt faint and it took everything in her not to scream. "Now what, Luther?"

Luther, however, was not sure where else they could go. Behind them was the iron gate holding back dozens of zombies, and in front of them was a swarm of mutant rats. The rats were too fast for them to outrun, and he didn’t want the Queen to infect him or his sister.

A red light caught his eye and he noticed a small fire. It was from the cigarette butt he threw into the garbage a moment ago. 

Luther noticed the way the rats reacted to the light, and it seemed they were afraid of the heat.

"Fire." Luther muttered to himself and looked around. There was a lot of garbage behind him that had floated through the gateway when they ran through it. A lot of it looked flammable to him.

Luther hurriedly tried to collect all the garbage he could find.

Constance did not understand, "Fire? Luther, what are you doing? The rats are going to come for us." 

"Take off your clothes." Luther directed her as he took off his coat and his shirt and lay them over the line of trash he had created.

"Um…what are you going to do?" Constance felt a little uncomfortable now, but she knew her brother wasn’t a pervert that would have any s****l fantasies with her.

It was a strange doubt that crept into her mind for a moment, however.

Luther was exasperated and simply grabbed the collar of her jacket and pulled it off of her. The buttons ripped off and hit the ground.

"Hey!" Constance was shocked at this. She closed her eyes and expected him to grab more from her. 

But she felt nothing more. Constance slowly opened eyes and saw Luther lay her coat over the long pile of garbage and light it on fire. The draft started to fill the sewers beneath them. 

Constance was confused, "Don't you..."

Luther interrupted her, "Mutant animals are not like zombies. Only their bodies have been mutated. They’re still bloodthirsty, but their instincts are still intact. These rats are timid and afraid of fire, so even if they’re stronger now than before, we can separate them with the fire so we can take them out more easily.” 

Luther looked at his sister’s face and noticed something was different. "What’s wrong with you? Why is your face so red now? Is there another wound we didn’t treat?” Luther frowned. Infection was not a small matter now.

Constance could see the concern in his eyes, and she was moved by his concern. She felt angry at herself for having such a cruel thought of her brother and shook her head, “It’s probably just from the fire.”

Luther nodded. "Here they come." 

He watched as the rats tried to move out of the way of the fire. He felt disgusted by their appearance. This was just a theory of his, but he wasn’t completely sure if his idea would work.

Luther watched as they all stood up and watched him from the other side of the fire. He noticed that none of them came close to the fire. His idea worked. He looked back at the iron gate and had a realization.

Luther created another arrow out of water. As it was in the air, he froze it into solid ice. He smiled to himself, knowing that he could do all of this much faster and easier than before.

While he had been fixing the latch to open the iron gate of the sewer, he had strengthened his power so much more. He was now at level four.

Now that the degree of his power had increased, not only was his ice much stronger but he could control it much faster, too. Now his arrows would be able to kill these mutant rats instantly.

Some of the rats screeched in bloodthirst and hunger. One of them was instantly shot in the head, its yellow blood spattering the rats next to it, causing them to jump back in fear. But the Rat Queen took a step forward and cried loudly, showing his power.

Luther turned his eyes to the Queen. He knew the fire was not going to do much harm to any of the rats. Their fear was instinctive, but it was much like a human being afraid of spiders when it is very unlikely spiders would try to harm them.

Compared to the Rat Queen, Luther's power wasn’t enough to overcome its strength, not to mention the weaker rats joining the fight. He feared for his sister who was not going to be strong enough to take the weak ones on.

Luther looked down at the Rat Queen and realized it was the only mutant that was brave enough to cross through the fire. The others were too afraid to follow.

Luther knew now what he had to do.

Without another moment of hesitation, Luther shot a row of five ice arrows. He knew that at his level, he would be able to shoot ten arrows now if he had to.

He didn’t miss a single shot, and five of the larger rats died. Luther stopped to catch his breath. This was his first time to try such a thing, and it left him a little tired.

On the other side of the fire, the Rat Queen watched the others being killed. Its hair stood on end and it bared its teeth. It screeched loudly in rage and rushed into the ring of fire without hesitation. 

Luther was waiting for it to run through, and he swung his ax at the Rat Queen. The ax blade and its claw crashed together and made a strong ringing sound. It was as if Luther tried to swipe his ax at a military tank.

Constance gasped in shock. She was afraid of her brother. But she looked away and focused on her job of fighting off any of the rats that tried to follow their Queen.

Constance approached the fire and used her strength to double the size of the flame. The mutated rats that were starting to approach the fire suddenly fell back and screeched at her in anger.