22.4ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

They edged away from the hole, perhaps a little too thankful to no longer be near it, and began to make their way back.

It wasn't long before the Halfling found hoof prints and indeed they diverged from their path and went down a dark side tunnel.

"I'm going to strip a line of hide out of that Minotaur when I find him," growled Baera.

"I just want to find him again… I don't like these gloomy caves," shivered Jilli.

The trio entered the narrower near pitch dark passage. They had no lantern as the Minotaur had taken it with him. It wasn't long before they started to hear something. Crying.

The Halfling and Inquisitor exchanged a puzzled glance then crept around the corner.

A Goblin sat against the wall, hugging its legs and openly weeping.

"Look, that Goblin is a slave, see the slave collar?"

"Tchh. Maybe this is what drew Drumus's attention."

"Well, why isn't he here?"

"I don't know, ask the Goblin."

Fosco gave her an annoyed look but crept toward the crying Goblin.

"Heyyy, Goblin girl, did you happen to see a Minotaur come by here?"

The Goblin looked up at the Halfling with bloodshot crazed eyes.

"He ate them, He ate everyone! He's Going To Eat Us! He's CoMinG To eAt Us ALl!" The Goblin shrieked and darted into a crack in the wall disappearing from sight.

"Oh, okay." said the Halfling in the still silence that followed.

"C-can we go?" keened Jilli.

"No, look, there are tracks over here. Fosco come look," said the Inquisitor.

"I hate to admit it but I'm starting to get just a little unsettled. Maybe the girl is right."

"Just look," sighed the Inquisitor.

The Halfling grumbled and stepped over and began tracking. He beckoned the others to follow. He paused after a few meters.

"Something happened here. It looks like there was a struggle. Wait, I see blood."

The group moved warily forward and out of the gloom a bloody track appeared, a gouge in the sand as though a large body had been dragged. Then it stopped. Baera leant down and picked up the Minotaur's mace. It along with a few pieces of the Minotaur's armour and clothing lay scattered around a patch of blood and gore. There was nothing else.

"This is bad isn't it, this is really bad," whimpered Jilli.

Baera said nothing but drew her longsword and looked around, staring into the darkness.

"We need to leave. Now," said the Halfling, his voice strained.

"Start retreating. Carefully. If you see anything, call out."

They began to shuffle backwards, weapons drawn and pointing outward. The dark was quiet and oppressive.

"I… I think something is wrong," said the Halfling pausing.

"What? Forget it, we're leaving."

The Halfling turned and looked at the other two. He gulped. "I can still smell Drumus's blood nearby."

A set of teeth appeared from the dark and closed on the back of the Halfling's head side on.

His skull immediately collapsed under the pressure, his face grossly distending as his head was crushed inward. One of his eyeballs burst from his eye socket as it caved in and landed on Jilli's cleavage. The trainee Inquisitor screamed her lungs out and fled into the darkness as fast as her legs could carry her.

A longsword that was now glowing a faint blue suddenly thrust through the air as though propelled by a bolt of lightning. It pierced through the Halfling's head and almost skewered the shadowy creature on the other side if not for it moving at the last possible moment. It disappeared back into the dark.

Baera withdrew her blade and let the tracker's corpse flop to the ground.

She eyed the shadows.

"I've heard you can speak, monster."

A deep bass growl of anger was her reply, so deep and heavy that the very air vibrated and Baera could feel it trembling the ground through her boots. The sound echoed around the tunnel giving it an unclear origin.

"Angry? You do not like the one who told me that, do you? Do not worry, I will end your life and relieve you of your grudge."

"You can try." gravelled a deep voice.

Motion in the corner of her eye made her move and she twisted her sword up just in time. The creature's teeth momentarily bit down on her blade before it let go. She twisted her weapon and slashed, scoring a minor hit. A spray of blood and a shallower cut than expected. Tough body, resistant to blades. The creature vanished back into the shadows.

She held her sword up in one hand tracking where she thought it fled. Her eyes momentarily crossed her blade and she was surprised to see teeth marks on the steel somehow despite the spells she had cast on it to strengthen and sharpen the metal. Its teeth are extremely hard, shocking jaw strength.

A scuffing sound from behind and she spun. A knife flew out of the gloom aimed at her head. She parried it sending it flying through the air to clatter against the cave wall. It uses weapons? No, doesn't fit, this is a trap!

She swung her sword and twisted around as bloody teeth lunged at the back of her neck. Her sword arm came up, but too late to hit, only enough to block. The brutal trap of its maw came down on her forearm. Teeth dented metal and she looked on in shock as her prided vambraces abruptly buckled under its jaws, an unstoppable bite pressing down with such force that the squealing deforming metal dug deep into her arm. She screamed and thrashed as skin and flesh and muscle was squeezed apart under the unstoppable pressure, her sword dropped from her hand as she lost feeling, clanging as it hit the sand. She pounded at the monster's head with her free fist but nothing slowed it. Her bones began to splinter then split apart as the squeezing force of her own vambrace ground them down. The monster bass growled and savaged her arm, shaking its head and violently dragging her, Baera desperately tried to resist but the breathtaking agony was causing her to falter.

She set her teeth. It wasn't going to let her go. No choice. She slapped her hand down on the vambrace and twisted it then kicked out at the monster. Her arm felt like it was on fire, but with a wordless scream, and the grisly sickening parting of flesh, she pulled a ragged shredded stump free from her vambrace. The monster gave her a look of surprise before she pulled a device from her belt, closed her eyes, and threw it to the ground. An explosive ear-shattering sound and an eye-searing flash of light and the monster yelped. The Inquisitor opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing but she could see well enough in the dark to run and escape down the tunnel away from the thing that had maimed her.

She cradled the ruin of her arm as she fled and promised revenge, no, Extermination.