I targeted one of the soundgnawers at the other end of the room and released the arrow. It struck to the left of its torso, opening a large wound in its side but not impaling it--exactly what I had been aiming for.
The small beast let out a scream of pain and was immediately swarmed by twenty of its packmates that sank their sharp, minuscule teeth into its body. The poor fucker was dead before it could react, and when the swarm slowly settled again it was clear that there was barely anything left of it. I couldn't help but think that these monsters would have been more accurately named bat-piranhas.
Seeing how most of the monsters had now shifted toward one side of the apartment, Rory turned to the kitchen and took a careful step forward. He was awfully quiet but looking ahead of him, I was sure he wouldn't be able to avoid all of the blind little monsters on the walls.
Before he was able to walk too far from Louie and me, I took another arrow out of my inventory and used it as a poking stick to make him look at me. He turned around to face me, surprised and a bit annoyed. He gestured angrily with his hands, asking why I had done that.
I held up my hand in front of him, telling him to wait. I had an idea that would not only get out of this mess, but would also help us kill all of the monsters. Rory would no doubt have little trouble doing it by himself, but we wouldn't be able to heal him or assist him at all. Unless, of course, we provided a distraction.
I took out my DEM tablet, the most durable piece of multimedia technology I owned. I turned it on and the big screen immediately illuminated our surroundings. It also illuminated Rory, who was now looking even more frustrated, moving his right hand up and down in a jerking-off motion, something I had taught him that Greek people used to indicate that someone was acting like an idiot.
Not paying him any attention, I launched one of the apps on my tablet that played music from Cosmos bands, and searched for "Ragnars Kvæði" by Týr. I turned the volume to maximum and pressed "Play".
By the time the first syllable rang out, I had already thrown the tablet to the corner of the living room. The whole swarm of the blind rodents immediately flew toward the source of the music, trying to bite into it. The tablet, thankfully, was able to withstand much worse damage than any of these nasty little creatures could dish out.
Having watched my plan come into effect, a small smirk formed on Rory's lips and he winked at me before bringing his weapon up in front of him. Louie was already whispering his first spell, low enough that his voice wouldn't be heard by the swarm.
I took a step forward and slashed my swords across the swarm, cutting onto three of the flying beasts before Louie's compressed blast of air hit them. His attack packed enough power to blow a dozen of them to smithereens.
Now that Louie, Leo, and I were on the same level, I had finally been able to compare our stats. Of course, mine were very different because I wasn't a spellcaster, but I could see differences even between Louie and Leo.
Leo's damage and healing spells were slightly less powerful since his Magic Attack was lower than Louie's. But his Casting Speed was higher, something that indicated how their builds would branch and differ once they upgraded their classes.
A splatter of cold blood on my face brought me out of my thoughts as Rory's violent swings painted a gruesome piece of art around us. My attacks had been equally deadly to the small beasts, since each of them needed just one hit to be killed, but my kill count was significantly lower because of his higher Attack Speed.
Not that it mattered of course. We were in the same party, but the difference in level meant that only kills landed by Louie or myself provided us with XP since Rory was so much higher level than us.
A few minutes later, we had obliterated every last one of the winged soundgnawers, the wooden parquet flooring now slippery with blood and gore. I used the tip of my sword to move aside a few of the dead bodies that were covering my DEM tablet and produced a bottle of water before picking it up.
The song was nearing its end as I shook the device to knock off the excess blood and pieces of flesh. Then I carefully poured some water over it and paused the media player before I put it back into my extra-dimensional inventory bag.
"Good thinking there, lad," Rory said. "I was gonna skip this room. Too much of a hassle, these sneaky little fuckers."
"Do you have more flashlights?" Louie asked Rory as he stood on his hind legs, scratching the dwarf's knees with his front paws. "We each need one. We can't rely on your light only."
"Sure," he said and attached a small flashlight to the thin leather strap that was wrapped around the magician's hat Louie was wearing. "You need one too, half-Celt?"
I nodded, making a mental note to prepare a dungeon kit along with my emergency attack kit.
He tossed another flashlight to me and only then did I notice that these were nothing like the battery-powered ones I had bought online.
Item: Minor Torch of Everlight
Type: Magic Device
Durability: 53/60
Grade: E Grade
Weight: 8st.
Description: A metal cylinder imbued with a single source of light at one of its ends. The gem that provides illumination was harvested from a star, having been
