I crouched behind the bush as I quickly tried to contemplate what I could do. No matter what I had already decided I was going to help the little girl because I knew I would never be able to leave her if I wanted to maintain my clear conscience.

  So, a few seconds after I identified the Ratlings I came up with what I would call a solid plan. Basically, my plan was to peek my head out and try to get the other girl's attention so she wouldn't freak out when she saw me sneaking up on the weaker Ratling. Hopefully I'll be able to take the level 3 one out fairly fast with my stick and then move on to the level six one.

  Honestly, I was a little nervous about the level 6 Ratling but hopefully the younger girl would help, and we’d be able to take it together, though if not I'm about 50% sure I can take it alone.

  Finally, I peeked my head over the bush I was crouched behind trying to catch the terrified girl's eyes. I don't know how she survived this long against the Ratlings with her only way of defending against them being kicking them away. Although it does give me the assumption that they are plain stupid.

  After a couple of tense seconds with me and the girl staring at each other I signal for her to be quiet and point towards the ratlings and lift my stick. The girl seems to have got the idea of what I was about to do and she nods as if giving me her permission to do it.

  I take a deep breath and then start moving towards the creatures, I feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins once again as I creep closer and closer. Somehow, I am able to avoid the Ratlings' senses, though it probably helped that the girl was still fighting them… and that their idiots.

  Anyway, I'm able to get right behind the weaker ratling before it finally notices me but by the time it noticed me my stick was already on its way down towards its head. The Ratling lasted about a second after my initial hit before I got a familiar ding sound signifying its death.

  “That was easier than I expected” I said to myself before turning to look at the stronger Ratling who was snarling at me now its attention diverted from its earlier prey. “Now for the hard part” I sighed before picking my stick up and pointing it towards the Stronger Ratling.

  This one I guess was already angry at me so instead of having a stare off with me like the first one I encountered it actually attacked me right off the bat! I frowned a little before I took off meeting it in the middle as I swung my stick at it.

  This one was relatively stronger than the previous two which was to be expected but it also meant that it was a lot harder to defeat with only a couple of hits. So, as we collided and my stick hit it on the back it didn't just collapse like I would assume the other two would have done.

  Instead, it fought back, I was able to mostly dodge the blow because I was significantly taller than the smaller thing, but my shoes weren't so lucky. I gasped as I felt pain tear across my foot and I looked down at the Ratling. My temper flared and I could feel myself getting less and less rational by the second as the terrifying realization came over me.

  This beast, this horrible creature trying to kill me wrecked MY SHOES. There would be no mercy, no sympathy towards this demon. It must DIE.

  With renewed strength I swung and slashed with my branch hitting it repeatedly in the chest,legs, back, anything solid. I don't know how long I was there mercilessly hitting the horrible Ratling, at one point I think it even tried to flee but was unable to.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Eventually I felt a pair of hands pull me back from smashing the poor ratlings body, I dropped my weapon and fell to the ground as tears rolled down my face. I looked up at the person that had broken my trance and saw that it was the little girl from earlier.

  I smiled sadly up at her as I said “I'm sorry you had to see that… I just… these are… were some special shoes to me but now they're ruined and…” New tears started forming in my eyes as I told myself to take a deep breath to try to calm myself down.

  “It's ok I get it” the girl said as she sat down beside me before continuing, “Thanks for saving me out there though I… I don't think I would've made it without you. Because truthfully, I was terrified.”

  “Ya these things are really scary at first but you get used to them after a few minutes. Oh, by the way my name's Kylira but please just call me Ky” I said with a shrug a lot calmer now as I introduced myself

  “My name's Raven, nice to meet you Ky” the girl responded. We sat there in silence for a little while until finally Raven broke it by asking a question that I may have been a little too socially awkward to ask.

  “Hey” she said, “Do you think we can maybe you know team up?” I looked at her with a smile of relief since I wasn't the one having to ask “Sure!” I responded relieved that I would have a friend in the coming days.

  “Great! I think the first thing we should do is find some place safe to stay for the next 60 days” Raven suggested with a smile

  “I agree, I don't think a clearing would be a good idea and with that being said we should probably move out of this clearing soon but maybe finding a cave or something would work?”

  I said contemplating our choices out loud “Because if we were able to find a cave with lots of different pathways it would be a natural safeguard against our home from enemies.”

  “True” Ravan said as she nodded and stood up. “I think that's a good plan though we probably won't find anywhere like that for a day or two at least so we should probably head out.” I nodded in agreement at that before grabbing my trusty stick and standing up as well.

  “Let's do this” I said as I looked at the smaller girl “And with any hope we’ll encounter another monster so you can Level up.. Actually, on that note what level are you? I might've forgotten to identify you when we first met”

  “I'm level 1 still but my status is saying I only need 6 more exp to level up so that's a bonus.”

  “Ya” I replied “Though on that note I need to check my status too while we’re walking can you keep watch” without waiting for a replay I opened my Status screen.

  I grinned as I saw my status screen. Even with my mixed feelings about this world it did at least give me that familiar adrenaline rush when I leveled up like when I played mmorpgs back on Earth.

  So, as we walked I planned out something I haven't done in a very long time, I planned my character except this time it would be me, and I wanted to be a mage.