Ratatoolate!!!

Nod got off William but as he tried to get on his feet he was knocked away by a collision with the swarm of rats. The impact threw him a couple feet down the tunnel leaving him unconscious.

William opened his eyes and saw the vicious faces of the rats, they had blood red eyes and clay coloured furs. Their furs constantly moved on their own like a gust of wind blew through them without seizing and gave the eerie feel of thier bodies covered entirely by brown ants.

William screamed as they bit down into his flesh, the force of the swarm forced many of the rats ahead and those rats went after Ingrid and Ben instead.

William realized the rats weren't tearing into his flesh, though they bite into every part of his body they could get their teeth into him, one was even biting his head but he only felt the slightest stings.

[DAMAGE COST: 2Mins ]

This message began to fill his vision, one little notice after the other. Their constant gnawing at him was costing him his time and if this kept up they will drain him of his life span, destroying his shield and then consume him

William could only hope they'll grow tired and leave him be before he ran out

*******

Ben and Ingrid had been too terrified to worry about those they left behind, they could hear the rumbling, they could smell the suffocating stench.

Their legs and their backs ached and despite their best efforts to keep up their pace, they couldn't help but slow down.

"William said those people were okay right?" Ingrid asked, they were getting really close to the other group and she wasn't one to trust just anybody.

"Yeah he did," Ben said. He seemed more worried about the guys as the question made think of William and Nod.

*******

William tried his best to fight but the rats where trying to pull him apart with ther teeth. They pulled on his limbs and head, with one trying to crush his torso in its jaws.

William could hear Nod struggling as well, worse more and more damage notice came, the filled his find and began to overlap on each other.

William couldn't focus even to express his intent so the guide can wipe away the notices that blinded him.

The stings he had felt from their bites were slow growing, the pain was increasing. William's fear was that there was an actual limit to how much the shield could take.

His reasoning was that if Horus was just a level one base ability then the shield too could be at level one.

Meaning they could be certain attacks it could withstand and others it couldn't and he was correct their attacks would soon begin to affect him and they would eventually snap his limbs and his head off.

[UsE SpEcIaL ABiLitY: NONE( GLiTcH)]

An unlikely notice popped up amidst the scattered array of damage notices, and William had no options left.

....

"Hurry!" The red haired girl William had seen before screamed at Ingrid and Ben. "It's acid!"

"What!?" Their eyes widened in shock. "All that raging water behind her is actually acid!?"

They didn't feel the aches in their legs anymore, it was certain death to be caught up in that but both groups were all to the turn.

Ben's fears were compounding as his thoughts ran wild, he was the only one seeing the futility of their running.

'Won't the stream of acid follow us into the new tunnel and wherever we go? It liquid after all, it's what it does, they go wherever they can.'

The group ran in then Ingrid followed, she made the turn with the stream of acid barely twenty feet from her and Ben was right behind her.

The stream of acid crashed against the walls like a flood of water. They heard the rats that had been behind them squeal as the acid washed them away.

The ground of the new path was a lot more slippery than anyone had expected, Ben slipped and fell forwards, crashing into Ingrid and taking her down with him.

Ingrid gasped she could hear the tunnels rumbling with the stream of acid still raging behind them…..

....

Nod and William couldn't see anything from the damage notices that filled their vision but they could hear.

They could hear the roaring stream of acid as it pushed it way down the tunnels towards them.

It sounded just like water but they both weren't a hundred percent sure so they braced them self and held their breaths so tey wouldn't drown.

The full power of yhe stream hit them like a giant wall had been slammed against them and they were thrown far down the tunnel.

They kept their eyes shut and held their breath as they were being tossed along with the few rats that were still clinging to them with their jaws.

The pressure was growing as the power of the stream pushed the rats away from each other but they were clinging to William and Nod like anchors, pulling their limbs in opposite directions and straining their bodies.

William feared his shield was nearing it's breaking point but then he felt something peculiar. They were minor stings on his face then all over his body

His eyes were closed and his vision was still filled with damage notices but soon a different kind of damage notice came up and threw him for a loop.

[ SYSTEM NOTICE]

[ ACID DAMAGE NULLIFIED]

××[COST: 2MINS, 50SECS]××

'Acid!?'

Before he knew it more of this notice filled his vision, overshadowing the ones that had come before and his minor sting were slowly turning into slight burning sensations.

'Am I floating in acid?' Then it finally hit him

'The girl! That's what she was trying to warn me about.'

Soon he began to feel the grip on his arm lessen.

The shield is protecting us from it's effects but the longer it goes on, the more it'll eat away at lives and eventually break the shield, I must find a way out of this.

William racked his mind and wondered how he'd even start about a plan as the stream pushed him done the tunnel, he was thinking so fast, i mere split seconds they were more instinctual impulse than thoughts really.

He knew he need his full vision first, or atleast a bit of it. He needed to do away with the notices.

'Guide take away all notifications!' William said in his mind but nothing happened.

He was too distracted, too worried, his mind was in a scattered state, he was stuck in survival mode and was simply reacting to everything but to gain full command of his guide he would have express his will with great intent.

'Damn it, it's not working! Delete!'

Screamed in anger and the acid rushed into his mouth but the shield forced it out and changed him extra for internal protection.

But William noticed one of the notice disappeared as he screamed delete.

'So it did work,'William said to himself.

He didn't need much intent to do away with a single notice but would require much more to remove all onthe in one go.

'Delete, delete, delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete….. '

Willam began a merciless attack at his guide, constantly repeating himself over and over, removing as many notices as he could until he broke through the wall of notification that had obscured his vision.

He caught a glimpse of the giant rats due to the light around this part of the tunnel and they were still clinging unto him but something had changed but before he was certain the acid damage caused more notice to block his vision again.