Leaving them to his group, he turned his focus back on the alpha.  It had reached the edge of the nest and was about to leap clear.  Allistor cast Restraint on it.  The boss froze, the muscles of its back legs bunched to jump.  He raised his shotgun and took careful aim, putting a slug right into its charred face.  The stun wore off as the slug impacted, throwing the alpha off balance.  It rolled back into the nest, screaming.

Behind him, he heard Nancy call out.  “All the little ones are down!  Shoot the big one!”

Smiling, he pumped another slug into the chamber and fired again.  Thick, black smoke was billowing up from the nest, making it hard to see the boss.  He saw movement within the smoke and fired.

A second later, the alpha exploded out of the smoke, its fur on fire.  Both its eyes had been rendered useless by the flames, fluid leaking out of the burnt orbs.  It roared in defiance, then oriented on the sounds of weapons fire.

Vermin Alpha

Level 10

Health: 1,190/6,900

Allistor shouted, “Look out!” as the alpha launched itself forward at surprising speed.  Jaws open wide, its incisors pointed forward as it charged their position.  Most had the presence of mind to dodge left or right.  Meg, unfortunately, did two things wrong.  First, she screamed.  And as the alpha oriented on the sound, she simply backed up, instead of moving out of its way.

The blind alpha’s aim wasn’t perfect.  It clipped Meg’s left side as it blasted past her into the wall.  But the razor-sharp incisors, each the size of a machete, cut a nasty wound across her left shoulder.  The leather and skin opened all the way to the bone.   She screamed again and dropped her shotgun as she was knocked off her feet.    The alpha didn’t notice as it had run full force into the wall and stunned itself.

Regrouping, the party all fired into the prone giant rat, except for Nancy and Amanda, who cast heals on Meg.  Nancy dashed forward and grabbed Meg’s right arm, dragging her back away from the thrashing alpha.

A whip of the rat’s tail caught Nancy in the back of the legs.  She fell forward as the rest of the group heard a snapping sound.  To her credit, she managed not to scream as she went down.  She and Meg lay together in a heap, only about ten feet from the boss.

Allistor couldn’t risk one of them being killed.   He put away his shotgun and equipped his spear.  Shouting at the boss, he ran forward, spear in front of him like a lance.  The vermin alpha turned to focus on his voice, its face coming to bear directly at him as it began to keen again.