Before I get said treasure, though, I need to deal with its guardians. 

The two rats skritch around as I lay quietly, poised to strike at a moment’s notice. I‘m careful to watch the ends of their whiskers and tails, and move ever so slightly if I feel like I might be in reach. My movement gives them pause, but they don’t seem overly disturbed by my observance of their behavior.

Based on my previous battle, it takes at least three minutes for my poison to kill a single rat. Biting each of them first is high on my list of priorities, but before my excited emotional-brain can take action, logic-brain must point out that my plans rarely go the way I think they will.

So what’s plan B?

Bite one, clearly. I roll my eyes at myself. And then you can handle the other while it dies in pain and utter agony, or just [Tail Swipe] them to death. The DoT will take its toll on one while I deal with the other and simplify the job.

And how will you survive until then? Logic-brain simply must ask. You aren’t even sure how you take damage from them. 

I, in all my wisdom and evidently growing insanity, give myself a good, hard, mental look. It’s a risk I’m willing to take for treasure. 

Logic-brain has nothing to say to this, so it joins hands with emotional-brain, and together we slither forward to meet our quarry.

I sneak up as close as can to my prey. 

Creeping… creeping… freeze!

Creeping… creeping…

I wind up my tail…

[Tail Swipe] sends one of the rats crashing into the wall with a great SMASH!

“Scree! Skreik!” goes the other confusion, but my jaw is already open.

SNAP!

“Squaaaar!”

The rats cry out in unison, but I’m already pumping my first victim full of poison. I release it and slither back sideways to avoid retaliation. The rat's bite swipes the air, but the other actually manages to catch my tail with its claws.

The wound stings, but take it as a good thing that the HUD isn’t flashing to warn of my impending death. Being a new enemy, I seem to have overestimated the strength and power of the last rat—or simply underestimated myself.

My growing confidence feeds recklessness, and I jolt forward to try to land another [Tail Swipe]. I should have stayed on the edge. The AI—if there is an AI—is smarter than I gave it credit for. The rats evade, and start to circle me like vultures. 

Mentally, I prepare myself for them to flank me as I search for a way to regain ground. The tunnel entry is behind me. I could try to lead them through to the chamber—but would they follow me that far?

More to the point, I might be fast, but if they grabbed me in the tunnel I’d be done for. No; I’ve lost my chance for other tactics. I have to face them head on.

[Tail Swipe] is my best chance at life, but it’s a cone attack; I won’t be able to attack them at the same time. Whatever I do at this point, there’s no way to avoid taking damage from one of them.

Well, this is a predicament, isn’t it? I think as I try to keep an eye on their every move and wrack my brain for ideas. I should see if paralysis is ever an option I can add to my poison…

No use dwelling on abilities I don’t have now, though. I need to focus on what I do have. 

And what do I have? A tail and teeth! That’s it!

I growl as one of the rats makes a feeble pass at me. I snap at it, and the other takes the opening to try something while my back is turned. I lash out at that one, then the first again to make sure it stays in line, and we resume our circular dance.

At least it’s easy to tell the two apart, and my original plan isn’t a total loss.

The atmosphere is dense with tension as I sway in the middle of their circle. My mind stills as time passes, and I clarity sharpens my thoughts.

The one that hit the wall was considerably more injured. While both were limping, the one was covered with blood on one side. The one I hit with both my tail and poison attacks very likely had the same three minute timer as the first rat I killed, so my time is better spent on the rat that only suffered poison. 

I play out the scene in my head. I’ll wrap my body around it to immobilize and crush it, then go for the throat. Always the throat; it's the weakest part and keeps my face as long as I can keep the forepaws in place.

Unfortunately, there is no scenario here where I don’t take damage and I rue the fact that I made the decision to take on two at once with more practice. My arrogance could be my undoing, but now I have to give it my all and make the situation work.

Mind set, I open my jaws and strike—!

“Skret, skret—SCREE!”

The rats aren’t prepared for my speed, and I manage to get a grasp on the rat I want. My teeth don’t sink as deep as I’d like—I hit bone in an uncomfortable spot, but it was good enough. Wrapping myself around its torso, I squeeze as tight as I can. It's a touch rotund, and a coil and a half is as good as it gets. 

It’s fine. I’ll just focus on crushing its ribcage…

But that’s also more difficult than I gave it credit for. Not only is the rat structured far sturdier than the mice, its legs were free enough that they could slice at me from below. Add that to the way it was bucking and ramming us against the wall of the cave and I was in trouble.

Great plan, Noa, I think to myself between bashes. My head jerks around wildly as I cling on for dear life and pray to whatever gods exist in this world that my health and defense can take it. 

The only advantage I had at this point was that the creature’s erratic behavior was keeping the other from attacking.

I held on. I held tight. 

Then I felt a rib crack from the pressure of my embrace, and revealed in the fluttering panic of its heart. Its doom is coming, and a chance for my own livelihood gives me a second wind. I crush the thing for everything I’m worth.

As lifeforce leaves one, however, the other is given opportunity. Before I can react, the other’s mouth is around my narrow waist, chomping down on my tender flesh.

It hurts. Burns.

Worse is that my HUD finally starts up  with its flashing red indicator as if to rub salt in my wounds.

Shut up! I scream internally as I do everything I can to release myself from its grip.

I am forced to release the dying rat as I hiss in pain and try to bite the other. I’m not so much aiming to hit it as much as I am to chase it away—but it would be all the better if the thing just keeled over and died what damage I did do. 

 I’m grateful for my flexibility, but the distance I’ve tied myself to leaves me dangling between the two in a way that wrenches my neck and tears my teeth from its flesh when it does hit.

I can’t keep a hold. My fangs slip out from open gashes and I go in for another bite. Another. Another…

I’m bleeding out. My health bar falls below twenty-five percent and blood rushes through my head as the realization I might just die to these jerks sends a rush of adrenaline through me even as my stamina bar also begins to blink.

Surely this can’t be it. Surely I have something left in me. I want to cry, but more than that, I want to live. I get another good bite in as I give up on crushing and unwind myself for extra length.

Twenty percent.

Fifteen—

And then poof!

My breathing shudders as the two rats almost simultaneously poof out of existence, leaving me on bloody heaps of treasure. I stare in shock as I look around for any other threats.

And my health bar is still falling.

Bleed! I realize and glance at the ripped open bite marks the rats had left.

What do I do? What do I do? I have to stop the bleeding—but I don’t have hands!

My thoughts go a million miles an hour as I go between watching the number drop and doing anything I can to stop the bleeding. 

Fourteen. Thirteen.

I flip through my inventory and the system’s shop, desperately searching for a healing potion or a health spell or something—

—then take a deep breath of relief as twelve goes back up to thirteen. Thirteen to fourteen. I look at my tail, and the bleeding has clotted. 

“Gods be good,” I moan and collapse to the ground. “This sucks!”

But at least I’m alive. For now, at least. 

I want to sleep right then and there to give my heavily injured body a chance to recover, but I’m not sure these things will respawn. I don’t want to take that risk, so I wait till my HUD disappears into its dormant state before I start taking a look at what I just sacrificed my peace of mind for.

Still worth it, I think, staring at my prize.

Treasure is always worth it.