As Slimo continued his adventure towards the end of the horde, he noticed that the rat army seemed to be much denser towards the back of the formation.

’This must be where the leader is hiding. It looks like the rats are trying to protect something the further back I go.’

After scaling another stoney cliff, Slimo came across a sight that took his breath away. All the rats seemed to be swarming around a massive amalgamation of flesh and bones. The more rats that attached to it, the bigger the monster became. It was as if touching the beast forced anyone to become a part of its large fleshy pile. Slimo gagged at the horrid sight.

’What the hell is that thing? Can that thing even be called a rat anymore?’

Slimo prepared to send a massive shockwave at the amalgamation using a giant rock. He snuck up perfectly behind it and blitzed toward its spine with a devastating attack, hitting it with the massive boulder he had just picked up. The fallout from the attack left every rat around the beast to be completely annihilated. However, all Slimo managed to do was break into its flesh slightly, causing it to bleed. The creature turned around and opened a strange mouth by separating its skin. An ear-tearing roar echoed through the sky as Slimo dropped his rock and created an insane amount of distance. Suddenly, the creature began to speak with a gurgling voice.

"Mortal. Become one. Great power. Touch flesh."

Slimo paled and darted back towards his friends, completely fear stricken. There was only one thing that he knew could be intelligent and powerful enough to speak their language. He began to mumble to himself.

"We can’t win. We can’t win. A damn deity?! This must be a sick joke. I have to warn the others."

Lidia was cutting through hundreds of rats with ease. The fallout was becoming so devastating that some rats even tried to avoid her onslaught. The more their blood painted the ground, the harder everyone fought. However, they were all reaching their limit in how much more they could handle. They had destroyed thousands of rats, but it seemed like thousands more were still charging over the stone mounds.

"Lidia, we should retreat and use Slimo’s traps. They could buy us some time to cool ourselves down."

Lidia’s entire body was drenched in sweat as she continued massacring her opponents.

"Fine. Let’s start leading them towards the stone traps."

With little effort, they all darted back beyond a few large stone structures. The rats surged forward with anger, trying to catch up to their prey. The moment three of them pass the structures, a wire was tripped, causing the towers to fall over and squash dozens of them, killing them instantly. A few more traps went off that sent large boulders rolling through the crowds, killing many and injuring many more.

"How do you both feel? I’m a little thirsty, but beyond that I feel fine to continue."

Lidia was still panting heavily while Maria was resting her legs on the ground.

"I think I can continue."

"Me too, but we can’t hold them off for much longer. Where did Slimo go?"

Right as she asked this, they saw a small dust cloud in the distance breaking through the center formation of the rats. As it approached, everyone noticed that it was Slimo. He was buying time for everyone to catch their breath a bit longer by distracting the horde. The moment he cleared through the front of them, he ran over towards the rope holding up Squabee and broke it with ease. Squabee screamed as she fell through the air unexpectedly. However, Slimo was more than prepared to catch her.

As she fell into his arms, blood and guts that covered Slimo’s body got all over her clothes.

"What the hell was that for?! And you owe me some new clothes-"

"Shut up and hold on!"

Slimo ran over to Jacob and yelled in his face.

"We have to get the hell out of here! You or Maria need to carry Doc! There’s a deity approaching! We don’t have much time!"

"Shit."

Without wasting any time, Jacob dashed up to his grandfather. Doc was already descending his high ground upon hearing the terrifying news and climbed on to Jacob’s back. Everyone grouped up and started sprinting away from the valley as fast as they could.

"Geez, Jacob. How are you so fast with me on your back? Did you train for this or something?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. So, hold on tight!"

The rats seemed to be in hot pursuit of themand slowly gaining distance. Slimo saw this and ran towards the top of the valley and kicked the stone with all his might. Mounds of rocks started falling down over the crow, breaking their momentum. Some were still able to continue forward with incredible speed. Lidia saw this and elbowed a massive stone pillar. The stone fell across the vally and crushed the remaining rats with ease. Even with all these delays, everyone could still hear the rats screeching.

Squabee was bouncing in Slimo’s arms from the rough terrain they had to traverse. Lidia yelled towards Slimo, hoping he would hear her.

"Where do we go? What do we do?"

Slimo panted for a little bit before finally responding.

"I have an idea, but I need Squabee’s help."

"My help? What the hell can I do against a horde of abominations?!"

"Who says you have to fight anything?! I need you to lead us all to that prison camp as fast as you can!"

Jacob realized what Slimo’s plan was, causing him to smirk slightly.

"You’re insane. You’re putting our friends lives at risk."

"We don’t have another choice. The rats will be closing in on us in no time. Besides, maybe they have an appetite for crazy cult followers that we don’t know about! Maybe that’s why they were so attracted to Sqaubee’s scent!"

Squabee started hitting him lightly.

"I’m never being your bait again!! Find someone else to follow your crazy plans!"

"Stop punching me and lead me in the right direction you moron!"

Squabee scouted looked ahead through the terrain.

"It can’t be more than an hour away at this pace! Can you all make it?!"

"Like I said, we don’t have a choice. Lidia, do you need me to give you a boost?"

Lidia smiled as she ran up next to Slimo.

"No thanks, my daughter will give me a good slap in the back when I need it."

Jacob felt something churn in his stomach as they ran. The hunger was slowly returning, infesting his mind.

’Damn it. I should have eaten something back there. Just running Jacob, you’re almost there.’

After an hour finally passed, they could no longer hear the screams of the rats behind them. However, that didn’t mean they were in the clear. When they all finally came to a stop, most of them, including Jacob, collapsed to their knees in exhaustion. The only ones still standing were Lidia, Doc, and Squabee. As Squabee slowly studied toward the marvelous structure in front of her, she looked back at the group to address them.

"We’re here."