"Thanks for the help, man..." Karl said, breathing heavily as he leaned on his sword. With Cassian's arrival, they'd finally managed to clear out the massive swarm of rats—but it still took them over ten minutes. There were that many. Even Cassian looked a bit worn out—not from the fighting, but from pouring way too much energy into looking cool while doing it.
Each swing of his sword had taken out ten or more rats at a time—sometimes even dozens. Flashy attacks, dramatic poses, wind-powered slashes... it was more of a performance than a battle. By the time they were done, the area looked like it had been hit by a small-scale natural disaster. The earth was torn up, a large crater now sat where the battlefield used to be, and even the ground at the edge had caved in, revealing some kind of tunnel below.
Cassian flicked the rat blood off his blade with one clean motion before sheathing it. "No worries," he said casually. "I'm Cassian, leader of Unit 22."
"The one assigned next area…" the mage muttered, walking over with a noticeable limp and sweat dripping down his face. He had a cut on his arm—embarrassing, considering mages weren't supposed to get wounded unless things had gone really sideways.
And clearly, they had… right up until Cassian showed up like some dramatic gust of wind with a sword.
"Yeah, we've been dealing with our own rat infestation too. Figured you guys might be neck-deep in the same mess," Cassian said, glancing around at the carpet of dead rats littering the ground.
Simon approached, clutching his bleeding shoulder, and called out, "Mason, toss me a healing potion?"
Mason, the mage, gave him a look like he'd just stepped in something foul. "We used them all up, thanks to you, genius."
The tension between them flared instantly—eyes locked, jaws tight, like they were about to start Round Two right there.
Cassian stepped in before it got spicy. "Don't worry. My unit's got a healer. She'll patch you up enough to stop you from bleeding on everything."
That defused things a bit, and Simon gave a grudging nod. Of course, Cassian could have just healed them himself with his domain's newly awakened ability… but he and Lumine had agreed to keep that little trick under wraps—at least until it was actually needed. No sense showing all your cards when a bandage would do.
"What the hell happened here?" someone blurted out.
The group turned to see the rest of Cassian's team arriving—and promptly freezing in shock at the battlefield before them. The ground was torn up, flattened like a warzone, and littered with the shredded remains of oversized rats.
Cassian casually shrugged with a smirk. "Nothing much. Just got a little excited."
Then, glancing at the still-tense and injured squad he'd helped, he added, "Relax, they're from my unit. Friendly faces."
As soon as Cassian asked, Lumine moved in to heal the wounded without complaint—though she did shoot him a quick 'you better explain later' look.
With the worst of the injuries taken care of, both units finally introduced themselves properly. Turned out they'd also been assigned to this sector today, and had been fighting off rat waves nonstop just like Cassian's group.
Coincidentally—or maybe not—they'd followed the same line of thinking, trying to track down where the vermin were coming from. And they'd found it: the large exposed opening in the earth just a few meters away, now quiet. No rats pouring out anymore, but the sheer number of corpses piled around it confirmed they'd found the right nest.
"Guess we found the front door," Cassian muttered, eyeing the hole like it owed him money.
"Yeah, door to a cave," Mason muttered, wiping sweat off his brow and glaring at the rat pile like it personally offended him. "A really smelly, rat-infested, no-good, piss-stinking cave."
"You been inside?" Cassian asked.
Mason nodded, shooting a glare at Simon. "Yeah. Someone's ass couldn't stop itching to play hero—dragged the rest of us right into a cactus up the crack."
Simon, still sore and frustrated even as Lumine patched him up, finally snapped back at Mason's jab. "Oh, shut the hell up, you whiny bastard. We're here to fight—so we fought. If you can't handle it, maybe you should've stayed behind in that cozy little room with your dainty-ass toilet, you pampered prick."
"We weren't here to just swing swords and look cool, Simon—we were here to win, not die like morons!" Mason snapped, nearly yelling now. His face was flushed red, and a single, furious vein on his forehead looked like it was trying to punch Simon on its own. "You egotistical, narcissistic dumbass!"
"What would it have cost you to just—oh, I don't know—ask for help like a normal human being instead of charging in like a hero in a bad story?! And don't even get me started on how you still haven't admitted you messed up, you thick-skulled disaster of a dickhole!"
There was a moment of stunned silence. Even the rats might've paused if they weren't already dead.
Simon flinched slightly but held his ground, blood still dripping from his shoulder. "I handled it," he muttered, not quite meeting Mason's eyes.
Mason and Simon exchanged a glare, but both ended up nodding begrudgingly.
"Oh, yeah?" Mason threw his arms up. "Handled it so well we ran out of arrows, potions, sanity—Karl got chewed on like a midday snack, and I got stabbed in the arm. Which, in case you forgot, shouldn't happen to the mage!"
Karl, still sitting off to the side with his leg wrapped, raised a hand weakly. "I was the snack, thanks for the reminder…"
Cassian cleared his throat before the argument turned into a full-on brawl. "Alright, alright, let's chill. Look, we've found the rats' little front door," he said, pointing toward the exposed cavity in the ground. "So how about we all take a breath, rest for a bit, and then together in..."
"Fine," Mason muttered, rubbing his arm. "I suppose dying gloriously isn't on today's schedule."
Simon just sighed, still holding his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah… whatever. Just don't let me bleed out while we're sitting around playing tea party."
Before Cassian could say anything, Wanni stepped in with her usual matter-of-fact tone, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear and pointing a glowing finger toward Karl and Simon "No. They still need more healing," she said flatly. "Especially these two, They're not going anywhere ."
She crossed her arms and looked at Cassian. "I need a few hours. My mana's not infinite, and I can't keep healing them non-stop unless you want me passed out next to Karl."