Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
Dipsnig loads another cartridge into the crossbow - this time with arrow-piercing bolts. He then takes careful aim and fires one of them at the spine of the rat-pede around its middle. He hopes that the bolt will punch through the metal graft and break the spine.
Quote Originally Posted by Lord Magtok View Post
"Filthy degenerate!" Krait shouts at the beast, as its abdomen fruitlessly attempts to chew through his voulge. The faint supernatural flames that had been dancing around the polearm suddenly explode outwards, doubling in size in an effort to torch the disgusting vermin for daring to nibble on his most prized possession.

Krait himself doesn't stop there, however. He produces a short sword, holding it defensively as he scurries on top of some cages, to have a better position from which to monitor the beast and find an opportune moment to reclaim his primary weapon.
Tunnels

Unfortunately, the thing is faster now that it's well aware of the imminent danger, and Dipsnig's shot goes wide of the spine he was aiming for, simply passing with a wet *shlurck* through the thing's guts as it whips itself up out of the way.

Krait's magical armament seems to be doing quite a bit through, as the mid-section of the beast very easily catches fire, greasy fur and fattened bellies bubbling and hissing as the individual rats don't even to bother shrieking before they begin to shrivel and die from lack of oxygen. This doesn't disable the beast, though it does let go of Krait's voulge and seem to slow down significantly from the damage that the burns bring to their vulnerable spinal nerves.

However, as Krait stands atop a tower of cages and Dipsnig perhaps takes aim again, the two might consider their situation from a new light as the remaining not-dead rat brains calculate the correct response rapidly.

And all of the still healthy bodies whip up the middle of the rat-chain into a flailing, burning loop of smouldering corpse and spin it around the room like a doubled over whip of fire, hurling molten fat, skin, and hair at everything around it in an arc, in an effort to save what it can of itself by hurling the fire as far away from itself as possible.

And thereby covering the room, and possibly its occupants, with dozens of tiny flames that may well soon begin to spread.