Awoo! CLANG! CLANG! As Arad and his party walked, they heard the rumbling of a fight in the distance.

CRACKLE! CLANG! CLANG! AWOOO!

“A fight? I hear iron and a wolf howling.” Jack pulled his dagger and took a stance, looking toward the end of the hallway.

“That crackle sounds like lightning magic. Let’s hurry!” Aella said, pulling her bow.

[They are getting too excited. Tell them to calm down. With them wearing iron, I don’t think we have a way to block lightning.]

“Calm down. We will check it out. But we will only engage when we understand what is going on.” Arad said, pulling his staff, taking the front, and looking back at them.

“Don’t worry.” Aella smiled, “It’s probably Alcott. “Those swings sounded familiar.”

“I would be impressed if you could pick that up,” Arad looked back into the dark and started walking. He kept his void eyes open, scrying for any magic in the area.

After a bit, they reached a massive steel door, almost five meters in height. “It’s behind this,” Arad said, touching the cold steel and listening to the fight inside.

“Shall we open it up?” Jack asked, trying to push the door open.

[It would be bad if we walked on Ginger using her Vampire powers. Arad, you should be the one looking in first.]

Arad shivered, imagining her attacking them immediately. At least until he can face her off, revealing her nature to anyone else is a dangerous act.

^I don’t want that. My blood sucked out like that.^ Arad pulled Jack away, “Get back. I can tank more hits than you. And I can react faster.” Arad told him with a smile.

Jack looked at him, pretending to be touched, “You wanted to kick me yesterday, and now, you’re risking yourself to keep me safe!”

^This idiot!^ Arad glared at him, ^I want to save Aella and me from getting eaten by a vampire!^

“Don’t even think about it,” Arad replied to Jack and looked back at Aella, “Get ready to support me with arrows or run, depending on how I react.”

Aella nodded, picking three arrows and getting ready. She still didn’t completely pull the string because that would be exhausting.

Arad touched the door, slowly peeking his head through like a tiny lizard.

CLANG! What he saw could barely be described.

The room was far more spacious than anything he expected to see underground, yet floating embers of crimson flames dyed it in red.

A giant, reddish, grafted humanoid monster stood in the middle of the room, swinging his weirdly shaped cleaver and axe using his three arms. Each one of the eyes dotted on his body gleamed red, as the massive mouth, on his neckless torso growled.

Two fur-coated, vaguely humanoid wolves leaped around the monster, howling as they tried to fend off the single man swinging at them like an ape.

“GWA!” Alcott shouted, swinging his sword at the deformed monster.

CLANG! CLANG! Despite his fat, sluggish look, the monster moved like he didn’t have joints, deflecting Alcott’s terrifying greatsword swings.

The wolves leaped at him, just for a lightning bolt to blast them away. Standing in the back, Ginger pointed her wand at the battle.

As Arad watched, he noticed a third wolf-like monster sneaking behind Ginger, about to leap at her.

[Void Walk] ZON! In the blink of an eye, Arad appeared behind her. Thwack! He blicked the monster’s claw swing with his left arm, supporting it with his right hand. The beast froze for a moment, sensing the new enemy.

Arad’s eyes flashed purple. CRACKLE! KA-BOM! Opening his mouth, a blast of fire and lighting washed over the beast.

GROWL! The attack didn’t faze the monster. Instead, it only fueled his rage. The beast swung his claw back at Arad’s neck.

Ginger turned around, pointing her staff at the monster. “There was another one of you?” Her wand flashed faint blue, and a hazy wave of power extended toward the monster lifting him before he could hit Arad. [Telekinesis]

Ginger swung her wand down, smacking the monster on the ground repeatedly.

PEW! PEW! Two arrows flew at the beast from the other side of the room, piercing his eyes. Aella ran from the door toward Ginger, twisting her torso to fire her third arrow at the beast Alcott was fighting and getting him on the nose.

Jack ran behind her, “That elvish accuracy, aren’t you cheating a bit?” He said, pulling his dagger and hiding in the darkness.

Aella didn’t reply to him. She instead pulled another three arrows and aimed again. This time, she got three eyes, making an opening.

Alcott took full advantage of that, cleaving two of the monster’s arms and disarming him.

CLOG! The arms grew immediately as the mouth on its torso opened up, spewing a splash of green goo at Alcott, who leaped back.

GROWLE! The monster regrew its arms instantly, groaning like ten men burping. The weapons magically floated back to its hands while Alcott dealt with the two wolf-like beasts.

“Aella. Aim at the werewolves!” Alcott shouted.

Aella pulled her bowstring, releasing three arrows at the werewolves, “I only have fire arrows left!” She yelled, and Alcott swung his sword, deflecting the monster’s swings. “You ugly grafted troll!”

Arad opened his mouth, shifting into his draconic form without a second thought. ROAR! The dark corner became darker, and even Ginger lost vision of the werewolf. The void breath blasted everything away and then collapsed to pull the werewolf toward Arad.

The werewolf glared at Arad, opening his jaw to bite the weird lizard.

ROAR! Arad opened his jaw, rushing in with a bite himself.

The werewolf bit Arad’s neck while he bit his arm.

Ginger lifted her staff, about to blast the beast before he could tear Arad’s head off. But to her surprise, Arad swings his neck, lifting the werewolf.

The werewolf’s fang couldn’t dig deep into Arad’s neck due to his hard scales, making some of them crack.

Arad roared like a monster, smacking the werewolf on the ground, wrestling it like a crazed beast. Slowly, his bestial draconic nature started coming out.

[Live like a human, fight like a dragon. Don’t forget your nature.]

BAM! Arad released another breath at point blank at the werewolf’s arm, tearing it apart.

The werewolf leaped back, but Arad turned around, swinging his tail. THWACK! He smacked the beast in the face.

As the werewolf rolled back, Arad flapped his wings to make the long jump, landing on top of him.

The werewolf, bleeding from his torn shoulder, tried to wrestle his way out.

Arad swung his claw at the beast’s chest, trusting his scales to fend off any attack.

Desperate for survival, the werewolf opened his jaw to bite Arad. CLACK! The first one missed, but Arad caught the second one with his claws.

The monster realized that he messed it up as Arad started attempting to tear his jaw off.

CLACK! The werewolf’s fangs sunk onto Arad’s paws. The scales there were thin compared to the rest of his body.

Realizing that he couldn’t do it, Arad opened his jaw, unleashing another breath directly into the werewolf’s throat, exploding his head.