The Kaine party cut through the Black Batch with momentum now on their side. Steel clanged. Shadows flashed. The Sealbearer's Shadow Conjuration darted across the battle like spears again and again, erasing enemies for fleeting moments and giving the Kaines the upper hand.
Then —
A distant roar rolled through the tunnels. Deep. Distorted. Wrong.
The ground trembled. The real Black batch fighters — those without paint over their faces — exchanged terrified glances.
Eldric yelled over the din, "What in all hells is that?"
The roar crescendoed. A wall split open — through it lumbered an abomination:
An elephant-bear fusion, massive as a siege tower. Hind legs thick and grizzly. Forelimbs clawed and furred. A twisted trunk. A bleeding patchwork of hide. Glowing rune seal burned on its shoulder and eyes leaked tears of blood.
It roared again. Torin paralysed right before it trampled him beneath its bulk.
Drunn, back-to-back with the Sealbearer, asked through gritted teeth, "What… is that thing?"
The creature rushed Eldric next.
The Sealbearer's hand surged with shadow, ready to strike.
Eldric glanced at him — veered toward a wall. Just before impact, a spear of shadow engulfed Eldric, vanishing him while the beast rammed stone hard enough to crack its own skull.
Still it roared again, unyielding.
The Sealbearer replied Drunn with a snarl, "Another forbidden Rune. Is there no bottom to how low they can stoop?"
"Where is Vey?" Asked Drunn, anxious.
The Sealbearer's tone was firm. "Forget her. Focus on the mission! Treat her as an enemy if need be."
The creature veered toward them.
The Sealbearer drew deep breath — then unleashed a wall of shadows that swallowed the whole monster mid-charge.
Its roar faded to silence as it vanished.
For a heartbeat, calm reigned.
Then an arrow whistled, hitting the Sealbearer in the side. He staggered, clutching the wound.
Across the chamber, Eldric now dueled two foes. The Sealbearer's gaze flicked toward him —
But Vey lunged from nowhere, eyes empty, spear cutting air.
He evaded, snapped a finger — freezing an arrow mid-flight from the same crossbowman who had shot him.
He parried Vey's next strike. "Snap out of it — damn you!" he blurted in a mix of pain and desperation.
That instant, his eyes caught sight of Eldric again. Now falling, impaled.
The Sealbearer recalled his own words to Drunn about treating Vey as an enemy.
He froze her mid-motion with Light Conjuration — grief and pain contorting his face as he raised his blade.
Drunn threw himself between them, shoving Vey aside.
Then Drunn himself jerked then and there, his eyes glazing over. The enchantment took hold of his mind. He swung at the Sealbearer.
Clashing steel sparked.
Vey recovered and lunged. Her spear pierced through Drunn's back to stab the Sealbearer as well.
All three remained locked together — the Sealbearer bleeding, Vey snarling, Drunn impaled in-between.
The Sealbearer looked up —
To one side: a Black Batch fighter charging with a blade.
His hand twitched. Shadows pulsed at his fingertips.
Then —
To another side: the Runeborn beast reappeared from shadow, its deafening roar returning.
To another still: Soren fell — the last man of their party.
The Sealbearer exhaled, ears ringing. He lowered his hand. The shadows at his fingertips dispelled.
Then—
An axe hurled across the cavern, felling the charging Black Batch fighter before he could strike.
The Sealbearer lifted his eyes —
Brimmah stood across the cavern. Roaring Barehanded. Eyes wild and chest heaving with rage.
The Runeborn beast bellowed.
Brimmah bellowed back, charging head-on like an equal beast.
He tore through a Black Batch fighter — the man collapsed in broken pieces, head and body apart.
Two more in his path fell in flashes of motion.
Brimmah collided with the beast, slid beneath it, and tore its underbelly open from throat to gut with only his arm.
It collapsed in a gush of blood and entrails.
Silence fell.