“Gregory? Are you there? Wait, this isn’t-”

  * * * *

  With bow in hand, and an aura of bloodlust, Lock stood at the other end of the hallway. Waiting to see our next move.

  Or deciding which of us to strike next.

  “Frey, give me one of those potions.” Astrid said, and he immediately tossed one to her. In seconds she opened and downed the green-yellow liquid and lunged forward to engage Lock. If her pain was still present, Astrid made it look like it had never been there. She fought Lock as though her silk robe wasn't stained with her own blood.

  Her eyes glowed dark pink as she fully activated her skill.

  However, it seemed to have no effect.

  Lock moved so gracefully, I could barely take my eyes off of them. They didn’t attack, use a skill, or even bring out one of their monsters. Lock simply glided around the hall like a skater on ice, effortlessly dodging all of Astrid’s attacks.

  Knowing how powerful Astrid’s skill was, I was dumbfounded that someone could overcome it with pure speed and dexterity.

  Who is this person? And why are they not a guild leader?

  No matter how well Astrid kept her eyes on Lock, they managed to move away just in time to negate any benefit of the scan. I had no idea Astrid’s ability required this level of precision, which proved how amazing she was at it normally. Lock was just that much faster.

  “Enough of this!” Astrid yelled out, both frustrated by Lock’s actions and already feeling her renewed stamina dissipate. An arsenal egg appeared in her hands. Lock immediately jumped back to distance themselves from Astrid.

  Tossing the egg forward, Astrid sent out her monster. I was very surprised to see a massive pink gorilla appear before us. They had an expression on their face of pure calm, with hands together in serenity, and a ring of white light etched with runes haloing their head.

  Species - Ríki, the Gorilla Guru

  Type - Earth > Mountain > Valley

  Rank - A

  Level - ??

  Title - “Tactician”

  Tamer - Astrid

  Status - Normal

  Skills - ??

  “Ríki, use and knock that thing out!” Astrid yelled, pointing to Lock with her right arm, while the other was held close to her side because of a wound that had reopened and began bleeding again.

  However, before Astrid’s monster could make any move, Lock seemed to register the threat and fled. Like wind through tree branches, they were gone in the blink of an eye.

  “Damn!” Astrid said under her breath. She and Ríki ran towards the other end of the corridor, following Lock. Frey and I ran after them, desperate to help Astrid as best we could.

  I don’t know what to do to help against someone or something so fast.

  As we rounded the corner of another hallway in our pursuit of Lock, we ran head first into both the entrance to the boss room, and potentially the only thing that could help us: Violet and Akon, the Wisteria Wolf.

  The guild clerk was triumphantly standing before the boss room, clearly moments from entering and challenging Meebur. But Lock was quick to interrupt and ruin her feeling of imminent victory.

  “Who-what-oh my gods!” Violet’s mind was processing as fast as it could, but Lock ran into her, knocked her back, and then attacked at a breakneck speed.

  Akon’s shot a barrage of thorns at Lock, which forced them to dodge backwards and separated them from Violet. Through a mixture of instinct and training, the Wisteria Wolf defended her tamer instantly.

  “What are you doing?” Violet yelled at Lock. “If you want to fight, set up an arena first!”

  “Violet, forget the trial. That isn’t Lock. We need to defeat them. Now!” Astrid yelled out as she approached, Ríki taking up a position next to her. Violet snapped from her confusion quickly, and she and Akon blocked off the other end of the hallway. As Frey and I stood behind Astrid, there was absolutely nowhere for Lock to escape to.

  With one exception.

  In an instant, Lock bolted towards the boss room door between us all.

  “No, you don’t!” Astrid yelled out, and she and Ríki moved to intercept. With Akon firing a barrage of razor-sharp petals towards Lock, they were able to keep the deranged tamer away from the boss room.

  Astrid and Ríki stood in front of the entrance, Violet and Akon at one end of the hallway, and Frey and I took up position to cover the other side. Surrounding Lock, we prepared to keep Meebur free of a dangerous force that seemed hellbent on reaching him.

  “We can’t let whoever that is into the room. There’s no telling what they plan to do!” Astrid yelled out.

  Even with three tamers and their monsters facing off against Lock, something powerful fueled them. They stood strong, unshaken by our presence. Though Violet and Astrid had faced strong foes before, Frey’s face was drained of color. This was like facing the boss golem magnified by ten. And like that golem, when Lock finally struck, they struck with the speed of lightning. It was impossible to keep up. Astrid was still injured, and the rest of us were exhausted from the journey through the tower. Yet, Lock seemed as rested and energized as the minute the trial began.

  Ríki was the only one of us fresh, and if not for that, we could have been overwhelmed instantly. The Gorilla Guru had an aura of pure strength, but moved with the same precision as his tamer. Whenever Lock dodged one of our attacks and moved to strike back, Ríki always seemed in the perfect position to intercept. He was always one move ahead, and with Akon and I backing him up with powerful skills, it seemed possible for us to win.

  And Lock noticed this.

  They stopped wasting their time fighting us monsters, and aimed straight for the tamers.

  The attacks from the Wisteria Wolf, and even a concentrated from me were suddenly avoided with ease, and Lock’s movements became erratic enough that even Ríki began to have trouble predicting them. Lock’s aura became drenched in pure hatred, and they got around every attempt to defend our tamers.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Violet dodged Lock’s initial attack, but then the cloaked tamer turned back to strike Astrid. In her attempt to dodge, Astrid flinched from the pain in her shoulder. The first arrow strike against her hadn’t healed at all. Lock, whose fingers looked more like claws, slashed at Astrid. Her monster, Ríki, moved with unexpected swiftness and grabbed Lock’s hand, tossing them aside like a ragdoll. But Lock tumbled through the air without concern, landing deftly against the wall. They bent their legs and used the momentum to shoot forward and lariat both Ríki and Astrid at the same time.

  Both monster and tamer crashed against the opposite wall as Lock continued to push against them with inhuman strength.

  What kind of tamer is this? They fight like a predator. A killer.

  Violet and Akon burst forward to separate Lock from Astrid and Ríki, both barely getting a hit in as they did so. Violet’s fist connected with Lock’s side, knocking them off balance enough for Akon to sink her teeth into Lock’s shoulder. However, Lock slipped free of the fangs, and turned to face both wolf and tamer.

  Lock retaliated against them but in a way none of us expected. They attacked Violet directly but not to damage her. Instead, Lock deftly swiped the escape button from Violet’s pocket. They then slammed it on her chest, and the very next second Violet and her Wisteria Wolf disappeared in a burst of light.

  “No, you can’t-” was all Violet could say before being forcibly teleported out of the dungeon.

  I had no idea escape buttons could be used against you like that, I thought, but there was no time to consider it further. Ríki bounced back and took up position in front of his tamer, who was not looking good. Astrid leaned against the broken wall and if not for my strong sense of hearing, I wouldn’t have been able to tell she was breathing.

  “Astrid!” Frey yelled and ran forward to try and help. But there was nothing he could do. Except become the target of Lock’s next monstrous assault.

  Lock turned to strike Frey, springing off of one foot towards my temporary tamer. But after all of my experience fighting with the bulk brace, I found I could now react almost as quickly as I could without it. I coiled myself up and sprung my small body out, my fangs connecting with Lock’s fist before it could come in contact with Frey. If Lock’s attack had hit, both Frey and his defenseless egg would have been destroyed.

  This was a battle of life and death. And if I didn’t fight with all I had, none of us would get out of here alive.

  

  Holding my fangs within Lock’s right arm, a cloud of noxious green smoke bellowed from my mouth. It made direct contact with Lock’s arm, immediately burning through their bandaged armband and boiling the skin beneath.

  The pain forced a guttural shriek from Lock, one that sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. Not in this life, and not in the last. It was like the scream of a person, but one drowning in a sea of shattered glass.

  Lock struck the top of my head over and over again with their free hand. I held tight as long as I could, but as my HP dropped from each strike, eventually my jaw’s grip loosened. I fell to the floor in time to see Lock step back and hold their nearly melted off wrist.

  If I hadn’t leveled up , those strikes to the head would have put me in real danger, I thought while watching my HP drop to the lowest I had ever seen it. And this isn't an arena fight. That HP isn't coming back anytime soon.

  Frey was frozen in place, terrified by both Lock’s near fatal attack on him, and seeing the damage I had caused. If not for the fear on his face wrenching my mind back, I felt certain that the taste of blood could have brought out the predatory hunger in me I had back when I first leveled up. When I had felt most like a monster.

  Stay focused…don’t let that side of you out…

  My human mind felt confident I had struck a decisive blow on Lock. That they would see the danger of continuing to fight against me, who could have other terrible and frightening skills.

  But that was foolish of me. I was thinking with a human’s mind.

  Whatever Lock was, they were thinking of only one thing: defeating us.

  Lock let go of their damaged wrist and, ignoring what must have been an unimaginable amount of pain, tossed an arrow from their quiver directly at Frey. It moved with as much speed as if it had been fired from a bow. Without , I would have never reached the arrow in time to block the hit on Frey.

  But that attack was only to distract me.

  While I saved Frey, Lock pushed past Ríki and reached their hand into Astrid’s robe. They forced Astrid’s escape button into her hand, and made her press it. I saw the bleeding, injured guild leader fade away in a burst of light with her monster. Though this meant she would be sent to the entrance where Gregory could heal her, for some reason it didn’t put my mind at ease.

  Why did you do that? Now they can warn Gregory and get help.

  But whatever the reason, it left Lock alone with Frey and I.

  And I felt my monstrous self begin to take hold once again.

  * * * *

  “Astrid, are you ok?”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m worried about Nid and Frey. Damn, how could we leave them alone with that thing! Where’s Gregory? We need to get back into the dungeon and save them.”

  “Nevermind that…where are we?”

  * * * *

  There was no keeping up with Lock. They struck with a speed and intensity I had never seen before. Even the Harrowhawk would have looked slow next to Lock. But like that bird monster, Lock’s fingers were claws, their cloak dripping in a dark aura, and their eyes were deep white with a predator’s hunger.

  As they attacked me with a manic intensity, I found myself becoming as angry as Lock seemed. Just like when I felt powerless earlier in the dungeon, frustration at my weakness consumed my mind. Despite the bulk brace holding me back as it tightened around my neck, it felt like nothing compared to what power sprouted from within my spirit. It was just like when I leveled up and became the Withering Wyrm. When the monstrous Great Beast I was took control of my mind.

  With fangs dripping poison, my eyes dilated as they stared directly at Lock. At my prey.

  You are nothing.

  You are not a Great Beast.

  This is my territory.

  You are not welcome here!

  The beast within overtook my human mind and I unleashed a new combo skill. One that had been suggested by the text box a long time ago, but that I had thought should never be used. But with a mind slowly becoming more monster than man, I suddenly couldn’t remember why I would ever use anything else.

  You have successfully created the combo skill

  Remaining empty skill slots: 46

  Combining the heat and acidity of both and , my maw opened wide. Deathly energy pooled within, swirling between forked tongue and razor fangs. When it reached a climax of power that I couldn’t hold back for another second, I unleashed a deep crimson beam of light.

  

  The attack had a massive amount of speed and power, so much so that I could barely control it. With my lack of mastery over the new skill, and Lock’s seemingly endless ability to dodge, the breath only barely grazed them as they tilted away from the attack. It struck their face, slashing clear across their cheek and right ear as it careened beyond, leaving a hole in several walls of the dungeon.

  But Lock was still standing.

  I could feel my EP plummet as the attack dissipated, and I was suddenly out of breath. The bulk brace was tighter than it had ever been before. In my immediate exhaustion, the strength and confidence of a Great Beast began to fade. I was quickly reminded of what I was: an injured, weakened, tiny monster in front of an enemy who I couldn’t beat.

  I didn’t think I could handle using that attack again. But what other choice did I have? Using it once hadn’t been enough. Feeling the brace grow even tighter around me, I struggled to inhale, but fought to muster enough energy to use my new skill once more.

  But then I noticed something.

  The attack hadn’t damaged Lock very much, but it had done considerable damage to something I had not seen. Something invisible and magical that had been covering Lock’s face. Whatever it was, it peeled off of Lock and fell to the ground. As it hit the floor with a loud thud, it slowly faded into full view and I saw that it looked like…a mask. A mask resembling the face of Lock, but that quickly morphed to become a pale fabric covered in the same markings as the bulk brace.

  Turning to Lock, I met the face of someone I could never have imagined being here.

  And neither did Frey.

  “Wait…Leif?” Frey said to the elf tamer who staggered before us, bleeding from the slash across her face.