“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

I rubbed at my stubble and stared into the awful mix of bedding. The blind baby mewled weakly as it threw itself around looking for the teat. Which was now lying across the room, dead.

“Come on! This ain’t fair!”

A hammer blow of panic hit me and I frantically tried to recall the first nest. Had I burned one or more of the little mites in there too? My mind said no. I’d found no loot related to another type of enemy nor a tiny body, so I allowed myself to relax a little. That still didn’t help with my current predicament. Momma was gone. Its family was gone. What was I to do? Kill it? I reminded myself that this pale little hairless ball of pink had done me no harm. Ok, so it would eat my liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti if it was fully grown, but it wasn’t. It was defenceless.

“Goddamnit.”

There was only one humane thing to do.

I leaned in, wrapped it in my hand, and added it to my backpack.

My viewscreen lit up.

Companion Gained – Ratling (Baby)

Description – The offspring of a Rat Matriarch. Requires milk to survive.

“Interesting,” I mused, coming up with an idea.

I equipped the baby and the little critter appeared in the palm of my hand. Summoning the matriarch milk, it showed up as a full feeding bottle.

“Three wisdom, eh?” I mocked, celebrating my own genius.

Though the container was ten times the size of the ratling, it eagerly latched on with all four paws and set to work.

“Enjoy, little guy.”

Oh, by the way, I’d noticed a little pecker down below as it turned over, hence the gender. I still had a dungeon to conquer, so I popped him back into my inventory and it now showed up as Ratling (Baby) (Feeding). I’d played nursemaid to Honey a few times when she’d taken ill, but this ability to stow the baby away would be a great timesaver.

After clearing two more nests while making sure to check beforehand for any dependants, I was finished with the area. What’s more, I’d suffered no more injuries in the melee. I’d learned my lesson the hard way and I wasn’t about to repeat it. As with the first zone, there was only a single passage remaining. I could see no safe room nearby, but I was pumped and ready for the next trial. Making my way towards the new area, I slowed as I neared the archway. Set into the wall at either side were thick iron hinges holding the doors.

“Boss room.”

It all but screamed it. I tried to make out the enemy, but all was still within. A stepped, Aztec-style altar stood in the middle of the room, forty foot wide at the base, tapering to ten at the top which housed the cage. The prison’s metal bars were broken and twisted out of shape. Whatever had been held captive already made their escape. Four high-set sconces cast meagre light onto the ground below. I figured I would add my own illumination and threw my torch. It hit something in the archway and fell clattering to the floor.

“What the…?”

I tried with another. It hit the same spot and landed atop the first. There was some kind of invisible force preventing my attempts to throw anything inside.

“That’s not fair!”

Yeah, I’d technically been trying to cheat, but still. They could’ve given me this one. It was the tutorial! I took solace from that very same fact and hoped the ‘boss’ would prove a relatively easy encounter. Surprising no one, the doors slammed shut behind me as I entered. Expecting a torrent of ratlings, I hastily prepared my defensive wall of flame and waited. When nothing appeared after a minute, I started freely tossing the torches into every corner. The forever burning wicks fizzed quietly as the resin burned, but aside from that the room was silent. The door remained firmly locked at my back as I tried to pull it open.

“What gives?”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the most inhuman roar I’d ever heard replied. I glanced up at the roof and noticed the shifting shadow that the light couldn’t reach. It detached from the stone and fell thirty feet into the remnants of the cage. The structure collapsed completely under the tremendous weight. Welds gave with cracks like gunshots as the bars shot in all directions. One hit the door two feet from my head. Its velocity pierced the inches thick wood like it was paper.

I said the only thing that came to mind as it looked at me with two dozen feral, hate filled eyes. “Shit.”

The vile thing stood panting atop its altar and I used every second to my advantage.

Name – Rat Abomination (Boss)

Description – Holy shit! We have no idea! When you have a thousand generations of cannibalism and inbreeding, you still wouldn’t get anything half as ugly as this mofo.

Weakness – ???

Immunities – Disease

That was no help whatsoever, so I pitched a series of torches at its heads. Yeah, you read that right; heads! Plural. This thing was a shambling meat sack with four stumpy legs, a series of snakelike tails, and a dozen bobbing heads that all tried to snap in my direction. As this was a boss fight, the health bar was displayed proudly above the monster. My crotch shrivelled a little when the sum total of my damage to the creature was a minor drop in its health pool. Hell, the old feller practically turtled and climbed up inside me for safety.

“I’m sorry!” I yelled in a panic.

It bellowed, spraying yellow froth from a dozen slavering maws. Fighting through the metal debris, it started to descend the stone steps. I almost laughed with relief when it proved as cumbersome as it looked. I hurled another three torches and they were no more successful than the first. When it reached the bottom, I did what all heroes did; I ran away. Hopping over my scattered fires, it shrieked and slowly lumbered after me. I managed to put the altar between us to buy myself some time to think, but it shuffled into view. Again I ran to the other side, and again it followed.

I opted to follow the advice of my dagger and play the coward. Each time I put a suitable amount of distance between us, I pitched a couple of torches at the abomination. The sizeable health pool was dropping little by little. It would take time to kill the thing, but it was safe.

Until it wasn’t. The tails had taken on a life of their own, snatched up my blazing brands and tossed them back at me.

“Whoa!” I yelped, dodging the first few. Then one smashed into my shoulder, showering me with sparks.

My health dropped.

The combination of my strikes had taken maybe ten percent from the creature’s health. One single blow had knocked mine down by a quarter.

I did the math.

“Double shit.”

Kiting it was no longer on the table. Running was back at the top and I turned tail and fled, thanking whatever human sacrificing, cannibal civilization had built the altar. Torches began to rain down from above as the creature changed tactics to become an artillery piece. Their lazy arcs gave me plenty of time to dodge, but this wasn’t something I could maintain until my death at the ripe old age of eighty. Sleeping and eating around the bombardment would be a major issue.

“Think!” I yelled at myself in frustration as fire exploded all around me.

I almost tripped over a steel bar that was resting at an angle against the wall. Without thinking, I claimed it and my torch vanished. I now had two passable melee weapons in my hands. I continued the chase, but even with my strong cardio, the layers of stress and constant feints were rapidly sapping it out of me.

“Entertain…” I huffed, recalling the alien’s demand.

I needed to fight it properly.

I needed to prove our worth.

I stopped running.

Torches still flew, so I swatted them aside with my bar and quaffed a health potion to bring myself back up to full. Our eyes met. It shrieked. I shrieked. Only one of us sounded terrified. I charged in, jabbing with the steel bar to keep its teeth at bay. One of the tails lashed out and wrapped itself around the weapon. I slashed upwards with the dagger, severing it in a spray of stinking brown blood. The stump flopped and the monster roared in pain as a chunk of its bar disappeared. Backstepping quickly, I shook the dead tail loose and darted back in. Another snake whipped at my head. The momentum of the miss as I ducked knocked it off balance and I chanced a flurry of quick stabs with my dagger. I managed to kill two of the snapping heads before it regained its footing. They sagged against the pustule riddled body, drooling.

I was doing it!

I was really doing it!

My backpedalling feet caught on my torch wall and I landed heavily on my arse.

It was on me in a flash.

Blows hammered me from the remaining tails. I dropped the dagger and tried to keep the mouths away with my bar. Teeth snapped at my curled fingers, snipping them off at the knuckles. My health bar dropped faster than my potions could cope with. My head rang with the vicious blows that landed from the tails. My nose was broken. My scalp was bleeding in a dozen places. I could only see from one eye. The bar was slick with blood as my remaining fingers lost their purchase, letting it fall to the ground. A new debuff appeared in the corner of my view on top of the bleeding.

Affliction – Diseased

Description – The tainted bite of the rat has infected you with a mutant variant of streptobacillus moniliformis. Healing is reduced by half. All stats reduced by half.

Duration – One hour. Removeable by a suitable spell or potion.

I’d failed.

My health bar was flashing in warning as it dropped to less than five percent. Black motes started to swirl at the edges of my vision as I neared death.

I don’t know what possessed me, but I dropped the weapon and withdrew the ratling baby from my pack. It wasn’t to use it as a distracting morsel. In fact, I don’t know what I hoped to achieve with the little mite.

The attacks stopped as the red eyes turned to the suckling baby. The little mouth ran with spilled milk while claws tinkled against the glass bottle it scrabbled to hold. Backing up, the abomination sank down on its haunches and watched. The air of palpable menace fell away as the heads all started to chitter to each other.

I was literally in pieces, but I summoned the last reserves of strength and climbed to my knees amidst my fingers and blood. I offered the baby on the palm of my hand and the boss leaned in and sniffed at it. Lacking paws to groom its kin, one of the mouths licked a tail and used it on the ratling. I was no Dr Dolittle, but I swear some of the heads began smiling as they chattered in their rodent tongue.

The monster’s remaining health bar changed to blue and the heavy, oaken doors swung open.

“Friends?” I asked groggily.

The pain was overwhelming. I was down to a single health point. Knowing I was about to die, I laid down and cupped the baby as best I could.

I fell into unconsciousness at the feet of the grotesque horror.