That thing was much bigger than I thought it would be, literally rivalling a grizzly in size. It was fucking taller than me while on all fours, and its teeth could probably snap me in half. Still, its charge was quiet as fuck, just some pitter patters and low chittering. Which was strange, I didn’t know chitters could sound like that, but something I was starting to recognize was that monsters had some weird shit going on besides being biological impossibilities.

  Not relevant, a mass of muscle and fur was catapulting itself towards me, I didn't have time to think. I should’ve got specifics on how large these things were, I was expecting them to be the size of wolves at most! The fact that they’re solitary hunters should’ve tipped me off—

  Focus, it was almost here.

  I didn’t come here with a strategy to fight that thing, and anything I would’ve come up with would’ve died a brutal death at the sight of its size. All I could think of was some half remembered truths about how primitive society would hunt bears. Mainly just involved letting the beast impale themselves on your weapon. I should’ve gotten a spear. If only I did my fucking research rather than stomping down here in impotent indignation.

  Now I was going to die.

  No.

  I pushed the spell through my body, all the mana it could handle and barely a tenth of what I had available. Power infused itself through my body and I adjusted my stance, watching the monster approach with my blade pointed forward.

  Large feet slammed against the sewers stone, creating barely any noise at all. It got closer, and my composure cracked slightly, but I stayed still, I kept my blade pointed forward. Waiting for the moment of impact.

  A moment that never came.

  The giant rat skidded to a stop just ahead of me, a glint in its eye reflected off my blade. It snapped its teeth forward, and I had a split second to move my gladius out of the way lest it be shattered. I managed, swiping it away while striking the rat’s face with the torch grasped in my other palm.

  The rat reared back and let out an ear-piercing shriek, before barreling towards me with a headbutt. I sidesteps and drew a line on its side, releasing blood and accomplishing nothing but to irritate the beast. It snapped its teeth towards me, and this time I lost a chunk of my forearm like it were butter, bones and tendons exposed as a scream ripped through my throat.

  I dropped my torch and backed away from the beast with tears in my eyes.

  It hurt so bad, exposed viscera free to the mercy of air, screaming for succour that I couldn’t give. It was like a piece of me was just sheered off, the teeth barely struggling at all to tear through muscle and fat—

  The rat charged me again, and this time I was too focused on the pain to stop it from shattering my blade with its maw. The sound of breaking steel broke me out of my stupor though, and I stared bewildered at how easy the thing made it seem.

  Then it crashed into me.

  A Head half the size of my body slammed the air out of my lungs and I was sent crashing into the sewer wall, losing what remained of my blade to clatter on the floor. I barely had enough time to roll out of the way where a foreleg slammed where my head was.

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  I got up and steadied myself, shaking and hacking out a few coughs.

  The rat didn’t give me a chance to recover, snapping its giant teeth towards me. I had to back away. Creating distance between myself, the monster, and the shattered remains of my blade.

  The snap of teeth overtook my hearing, and I…did something stupid. I stepped forward, and with all the power my spell provided, I clawed at one of the rats' eyes. The rat let out a screech as blood flew from its ocular, likely more from surprise than actual pain, and a boiling rage grew in its remaining eye as it swiped at me to create enough distance to utilize its teeth.

  I didn’t oblige, putting as much power as I could into my legs to jump over the swipe and end up behind the rat. I rolled and scrambled to grab the pommel of what remained of my blade.

  The rat let out a deep chitter as we both turned to face one another, a calculating gaze as it examined my weapon. The thing looked me in the eye and…scoffed. Then it charged, seeking to bowl me over, and I wasn’t so blind as to believe my broken blade could protect me the same as when it was whole.

  I did the only thing I could think of at the moment, I jumped to the side, straight into the cluster of sewage, leaving the giant rat to tackle nothing. My head was submerged for just a second before I resurfaced from the shit stained waters. My eyes covered in shit and nose filled with the smell and wound of my arm screaming—

  I couldn’t see, but I could hear, and the whispers that entered my ears screamed at me to move.

  I plodded through shit to the side, dodging a mass of so many pounds as it created a tsunami of shit and piss and good gods I was going to need a thorough wash if I survived this. I let out a warcry, stabbing my broken blade forward in a blind rage. I heard a screech as the shattered tip broke through hide and muscle—

  A paw the size of my head slammed into my side, sending me flying out of the sewage with so much more strength than should’ve been possible. I lost my blade to the gunk and slammed into a wall. Falling to the floor with sputtering coughs as the mass of black catapulted from the water and bared down on me.

  I bellowed in response to the screeching, getting up on a knee and facing the charging overgrown rodent. It slammed a paw into my head, cracking my skull and sending it bouncing off the stone of the sewer, I blacked out for an instant, but clarity came with the searing pain of a gigantic mouth chomping through my guts. It threw me to the side as I screamed and cried and—

  STRENGTHEN.

  Mana came unbidden at a call from my soul, pouring into every part of my body. Every drop of my mana infused into the muscles of my body. My entire stream absorbed into muscle and tissue and bone and ligaments. I opened burning eyes and felt overwhelmed by the sheer power coursing through my veins as I stared down the rat.

  It charges at me and—

  I predicted the paw that came down for my head and blocked. Smacking against the exposed flesh of my forearm as my soul burned and the demon screamed and I screamed and the rat screamed—

  I punched its jaw and its head snapped upwards. I managed to form a fist so easily with the arm that was missing so much muscle and went on a flurry of so much rage, digging my fists into its flesh and hurting the bear sized rodent monstrosity. For a while it was just me, the rat, and the punching. Nothing else mattered.

  Every punch was filled with so much power, crashing into the body of my opponent like warhammers of rage.

  But the rat was still alive, still breathing and moving and struggling. Its long prehensile tail whipped and struck me in my ribs, pain signalling what'd soon become a large bruise across my torso. It bowled me over in my disorientation and brought it's teeth to bear at my skull.

  I dodged, if barely, and hugged the rat by its neck.

  I bellowed and focuses all the strength coursing through me into my arms and—

  Its neck snapped, and the full weight of a bear sized rat fell on to me as I passed out.