Another volley of acid launches at me, this time from multiple rats.
I start to zig and zag across the walkway, relying on my instincts to dodge the shots of acid. But even with my dodging, drops of acid get onto my beautiful fur, burning through it and sizzling into my skin. Those bastards! It stings like crazy, but I do my best to shrug it off. If I stop now, I'll be drowning in the stuff!
The sewer splits ahead of me into three directions: forward, left, and right. There isn't a bridge or anything connecting my side of the walkway to the one across from me, there's just a five foot gap where the water is flowing and then the walkway on the other side.
I stop dodging to gain as much speed as possible. More acid splashes onto my fur, but I ignore it and leap with all my strength, sailing into the air. If I weren't under the threat of death, I would probably be yelling with excitement. I could never jump this high as a human.
Halfway into my jump, I sense something in the water underneath me. As I pass over the water, a massive shadow jumps out into the air and snaps its long, wide jaws after me.
I instinctively launch off of the shadow with my paws, jumping quickly to the other walkway. My heart leaps out of my throat as I look behind me to see it almost crunching into my tail! But the shadow misses and I land safely with all my appendages still attached.
The sounds of conflict erupt behind me, but I run down the walkway for a bit before turning around to see what's happening.
The rats reached the walkway I jumped from. As the first dozen attempt to jump the gap, several of those large shadows jump out of the water, and this time they don't miss; they catch the rats in the air, their massive jaws easily crushing the rats' bodies to bits.
I think those shadows are… alligators?! Except their skin is a dark shade of green close to big, and they're much bigger than the normal ones that I'm familiar with. Unfortunately for the rat horde, their humongous mouths are perfect for catching multiple rats at once.
Only two rats make the jump onto my walkway, a larger one and a smaller one.
The rat horde comes to a stop on the other side and starts hissing madly at the alligator monsters who lurk in the water. The rats start launching acid at the alligators, but I don't pay attention to how that goes because I'm still in danger.
The two rats sprint at me on all fours, baring their menacing teeth at me. I waste a second debating internally if I should run away blindly into the unknown, or if I should take the chance to kill the two rats here and now so I can advance slowly… I'll just do both!
I turn away from the two rats and continue running through the sewer, every step pulling at my acid burns, which I continue to ignore. The two rats give chase behind me, but only the larger one is launching acid at me. I guess the smaller one isn't fully grown yet, and so it doesn't have enough mana to use magic.
Oh! That's new! There's a path to my right that leads… into a small open room. It looks as if the sewer continued on in this direction at one point, but the space is closed off now by a brick wall. The space is mostly empty, save for a few wooden crates stacked on the side and a pile of debris near the back.
I enter and prepare more of that black flame I conjured earlier. This time, I imagine the flame being hot, incredibly hot, enough to easily burn through fur, flesh, and bone.
This time around, conjuring the black flame is a little easier since I kind of know what I'm doing, but my mana is almost entirely exhausted. My stomach gurgles as my mana leaves me. If I had to guess, I think I have about a sixth of it left. But now an intense black flame is radiating heat and floating in the entry way out of the rats' sight.
A few seconds later, the large rat dives into the room. Unfortunately for the rat, it dove straight into my black flames, which now cover its face and body!
The rat screeches and struggles futilely while blindly releasing random bursts of acid from its tail, splashing the floors, walls, and even the ceiling. At the same time, the smaller rat enters into the space and heads straight for me, its small beady eyes glowing with menace.
I do my best to dodge the larger rat's acid as I use the remaining wisps of black flame to attack the smaller rat's face! Though the flame doesn't kill the smaller rat, it definitely blinds it, causing it to squeal and thrash madly.
I take the opportunity to pounce on it and hold it down with my paws. My jaws snap tightly onto its neck in a fluid motion, breaking its neck. I wince a little because the sudden motions really tug at my wounds, but I force myself to keep moving.
I carefully back out of the space as the large rat continues to roll on the ground, screeching in pain. I look back to see if there are any more rats coming, but I don't see any. I can hear the faint sounds of water splashing and sizzling from their direction, so I assume they're still fighting the alligator monsters.
I start preparing the smaller rat for eating while I wait for the large rat to die. Pretty soon, it stops moving. I don't sever my connection to my flames, but I do move them off the large rat and gather them above it.
The large rat's fur has been burned off, and the meat underneath has been burnt. Food's food though, so I'll eat it anyway, and I'll cook the other one as I do. As the smaller rat cooks, letting out a surprisingly delicious smell, I start chowing down on the large rat. It tastes about as disgusting as I expected; charred meat, with a hint of sewer.
As I eat it, I notice that the mana from its body is filling my mana core much quicker than eating a smaller rat. In fact, I can feel my core expanding slightly. That must mean that my mana capacity is improving. Huh... so I can also improve through eating other creatures with mana... that's something to keep in mind for sure.
Once the other rat is done, I quickly devour it. By the time I'm finished, my mana core is back to around two thirds full. I'd say that it's bigger by about a sixth of its size, which is a good increase. I have to eat more of the large rats in the future, if possible.
As I think that though, I can't help but feel as if I've lost something important to me… I'm eating large acid-spewing sewer rats while in the body of a cat… I think I'll just ignore it. This is my reality now, after all.
I exit the small room with a full stomach. If the space weren't so open and near to that rat horde from earlier, I wouldn't mind laying in a corner and sleeping. But I definitely need to find a safer place before I can nap. I wonder where I should go… I guess I'll just have to keep exploring.
I continue heading towards the right, against the flow of the water. I originally wanted to see if I could follow the water out, but since there's a rat horde between me and the exit, I guess I'll just put that off for right now.
Maybe in the future I'll be able to create an enormous wave of fire and burn them all to ash, like an anime character. How awesome would that be? It might be kind of cruel, but those bastards shot acid at me.
Speaking of, I don't notice any more pain from the acid burns… I wonder why?
I pause mid-step to twist my head around and check out what's going on with my wounds. I can't really see too well from this position though, so I lay on my side to get a better look.
There are places where the acid singed off my fur, but those places are already closed up and healing over. There are a few ugly blisters on my body though. I feel a little sick looking at them… but as long as they don't hurt, I guess.
Maybe they healed so quickly because I ate the rats and replenished my mana?
If the mana from my core spreads throughout my entire body, then I guess it makes sense if it heals me. But the healing feels like it's a little too strong for just a small kitten, unless if it has something to do with taking in the mana from that large rat.
Yet another mystery. In fact, I should add that to my list of things to do: figure out how mana works, or find out from someone who already knows.
Also, why are the flames that I create black rather than the red-yellow that I imagine in my mind? And I'm sure that there's tons more things that I can do with my mana. If it's based on what I imagine in my mind, then it's probably possible for me to create an unlimited amount of combinations.
But creating fire is good enough for now. I definitely have a lot of practicing to do once I find a safe place.
The sound of water falling from a drop interrupts my train of thought. Up ahead, the sewer walkway ends, becoming a solid brick wall. There's a circular concrete tunnel from which water is flowing out of, dropping into the current I've been moving alongside. The tunnel is illuminated by patches of glowing mushrooms and fungus growing on its walls.
I really don't want to go in there, but… I kind of have to, considering that the rat horde is still behind me.
I hope they've forgotten about me, but I really can't take any chances. There are also those alligator monsters too. If they come up onto the walkway, I can definitely outrun them but… what if they cut me off at a crucial moment?
At least the water coming from the tunnel is shallow. If something's coming at me, I'll be able to see it for certain. I pause beside the tunnel and take a deep breath. Alright… here we go!