Kael crushed it against the wall with his gauntlet before its teeth could reach the blue flame. Another came from above, claws scraping along the ceiling, and dropped with its jaws open toward his wrist. Kael twisted, caught it by the neck, and drove it into the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath it.
[You have slain: Corrupted MegaRat.]
[You have slain: Corrupted MegaRat.]
[You have obtained: Lesser Vanity Essence x2.]
He dismissed the notifications and kept walking.
More came.
Not in careful ambushes. Not in the measured attacks of predators using terrain. They threw themselves at him in frantic bursts, their metallic claws skidding on stone, their steel teeth snapping for the torch even when his body was the easier target. One ignored a clean opening at his thigh and instead leapt over his arm to bite at the flame. Kael smashed it out of the air with the back of his hand and watched it hit the wall with a wet crunch.
"That's new," he muttered.
