We all chowed down on every bit of food we had. Something about the constant movement through the dungeon had us all growing hungrier far faster than we normally would. I was sure we had only been down here for 3 or 4 hours, but I had eaten at least two meals worth of food by then. Alex had had three, though Ophelia was only now eating for the first time. I wondered if she had been waiting to see if we would get sick after eating the goblin's rations.

“Alright, so we go for the same strategy if we can, yeah? Its an open room this time, so I'll shout and try to draw its attention to me with the shield. You guys try to get in its blind spots and kill it. Simple enough?” I was standing back up now, stretching out in preperation for the fight I was sure would come out of that extra room. Video games had told me that an empty room at the end of a dungeon was never an empty room. I hoped I was wrong, but it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

“Why are you so worried? That room is empty, its probably just a rest room we could have stayed in. Maybe another room like the armory.” Alex seemed a bit more relaxed, excited even to get into a wider space with better lighting.

“I'm worried because this whole place has been strange. A single long ass hallway with no defining features and suddenly we find a big open room? No way in hell is that a good sign.” I certainly wasn't going to tell them that video games had told me that an empty room always had something in it. They would look at me like I was insane! Frankly, I probably was. There was no way I was killing goblins in a dungeon with a spear, right? Hahaha...

“Lets just go. Whatever it is, I want to get to the end of the trial grounds as soon as possible. We are wasting time.” Ophelia stepped forward, past the threshold of the hallway and into the room. She looked around, swords in her hand, and waited a moment. Nothing happened.

Alex and I shared a look. Him of worry, me of resignation. “You heard the lady. Lets go.” I went through second, then finally Alex. Once all of us were past the opening and into the large circular room we heard a sound. Grinding and nashing from behind us, we all turned. The aperture into the hallway was disappearing, closing from the side like a sliding door. I turned to look at Ophelia. “That. That is why I wanted to be careful. Alright everyone, eyes and ears peeled, check the ceiling and feel for vibrations coming from the ground as well.”

We shifted formation. I took the lead, always facing the center of the room. Alex and Ophelia flanked me, backs together to form a triangle. The very first thing I did was look up, staring hard at the ceiling. How many movies had I seen where I had thought 'look up!' and been proven correct? Enough to make it worth checking. Amid the lighting, shadows moved and flickered. There weren't any structures in the room, nowhere to hide. But the flickering light given off by the flames combined poorly with the glowing stone hanging from the center of the ceiling. It was bright enough to see well, but it felt like the air was shimmering slightly. Like a heat wave off of a car in the summer.

I darted my spear directly at the nearest shimmer in the air, and caught nothing. My spear hit empty air, and my balance failed me a bit. I stumbed while Ophelia and Alex both stiffened. I could hear them yell, but couldn't make out what they were saying because I was too focused on the monstrosity that had just appeared to the left of the air shimmer and grabbed the haft of my spear.

It was perhaps seven feet tall, hunched over slightly and covered in a thick grey fur that blended in well with the stone surroundings. Its arms were long, long enough that if they had been hanging from the creature's sides loosely, its knuckles would drag along the ground. One large hand, big enough to wrap fingers around my head, held tight to my spear. The other swung a wicked looking axe in a wide arc, aiming the head of it around my shield towards my side.

I yelled. Well. I screamed. But it was a very manly scream! I barely managed to twist the shield to the side, catching the brute force of the axe with its bulk. The force of the blow sent both me and my shield reeling back, where I fell into Alex. I managed to keep my feet, but the kid didn't. The surprise knocked him onto his ass, and he started to scramble away, trying to get back on his feet.

Ophelia rounded, twin swords slashing down at the creature's arm before it could pull back from its own blow. It looked like a solid hit, but I could see the blades come away clean and free of blood. “Damn, the fur acts like armor!” She darted away from the monster, barely ducking under its arm as it swung out at her. I was always amazed by her grace in a fight. Even now, when we were clearly outmatched, she was a step above Alex and I.

Time seemed to slow, a second stretching out far longer than it should have as I really looked at the creature. The thick fur ran along its arms and legs, but not its torso or stomach. Where the protection of its fur was weak, a thin leather vest gave it some protection, similar to the goblins from before. The thickly muscular neck was also bare of fur, but was too high to easily get at. Even attempting to thrust at it with Alex's long spear would be difficult because of the height difference. Getting in close to land a strong attack on its chest or stomach would be death if the blow wasn't lethal, since the creature's long arms could just close around and crush you. But it wasn't impossible.

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“Ophelia, back off and circle around! Wait for an opening and get its neck! I'll keep its attention. Alex, stay behind me and counter attack it with your spear, just aim for its arms and hands!” Ophelia didn't respond, simply darting back out of the monster's reach. Alex stood up, trembling slightly, but stayed behind me. The monster started to look back and forth between me and Ophelia. I was losing its aggro after Ophelia's attack.

“Hey! Tall dark and ugly! Is that all you've got in you? Just a single swing?” I still didn't have my spear, it was in the monster's hand. So I reached to my belt and pulled out one of the short blades I had taken from the armory. It was a gladius, with a blade nearly two feet long. The romans used these in their shield walls, as vicious stabbing weapons to get past armor and in between the shields of opposing armies. At least, I think that was the use of them. Either way, I probably wouldn't ever get close enough to really use it. Not with that monster's insane reach.

The taunts worked for the moment. The monster turned its head back to me and roared. A proper roar loud enough to make my ears ring. It flipped my spear over in its hand and reared back for a moment, before taking a half step forward and throwing it the very short distance between us. By the time its hand left the haft, the spear was almost on me. I barely managed to interpose my towershield between us, and the resulting thunk was enough to force me several more steps back. I could see the spear stuck in the shield, the sharp leaf blade inches from my face where it had stopped. “Well fuck me...” Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

But my mouth started going before my brain could stop it. “Poor boy, you tried so hard, but you couldn't get it in me?” I let out an insane laugh and reached around with the gladius, chopping off the spear head close to the shield so it wouldn't stab me later. The beast let out another roar, and reared back with his axe. The single headed thing swung down at me overhand, and I stepped to the side, arching the shield to deflect the blow away from me.

Three blows, and I was already exhausted. The shield was too heavy, the monster's attacks too viscious. I didn't have the training for a fight like this to go on for long. But with each attack blocked or evaded, the monster grew angrier, more focused on me. The fourth blow started to come, another wide horizontal swing. It looked like a scythe blade about to mow down wheat. I dragged the shield inbetween myself and the blow, and felt my arm go numb as the force transfered into my body, but I held. Alex darted in this time, jabbing out with his spear as the monster recovered from the rebound. The head of his long spear dug into the monster's forearm, eliciting a scream from the beast and a spray of red blood. “Good! Keep it up Alex!”

I didn't even see the punch come in. Each attack from the monster had brought it closer and closer. It was able to use its long arms to attack from far outside out easy counter range, but without my noticing in the fray, it was in spitting distance. The arm with the melon sized fist reached around my shield and crashed into Alex like a cannonball. He tumbled back, his head snapping back with a sickening crunch from the force of the blow. I could see him, unmoving on the floor.

Anger and revulsion spurred in me in equal parts. This was something I had never seen before in my previous life. Violence and death. This wasn't some dead goblins that looked like something out of a video game. This was a boy, someone who I had fought beside, who I was supposed to protect. A kid. And it had just taken a moment. A tiny, fleeting moment where I hadn't been aware enough. Fast enough. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. I wanted revenge. I hadn't known Alex long. Hadn't even learned his last name. But I had liked the kid. He shouldn't have been here in the first place. None of us should have really, but especially not a kid like him.

I charged. The haft of the spear, still sticking out from my shield, rammed into the monster, right into its gut. I could hear it cough. “Ophelia!” I shouted, dropping my shield to dive past. I rammed my short sword forward, shoving it into the gut of the monster and up, towards where I hoped its heart would be. Thick arms, corded with muscle wrapped around me, squeezing me painfully into its chest.

I could hear my bones creaking, bending. My ribcage compressed enough that I couldn't get in a breath. I couldn't keep a hold on the sword either, and it fell from my grip as I tried to move it around inside the creature. The angle was just wrong. Then I saw it. A flash of crimson hair around me. I craned my head to look up at the monster, and saw it looking down at me, fetid breath leaving the madman's grin on its lips. Behind it, Ophelia was in the air with her twin swords above her head. She brought both of them down on one side of its neck as she landed on its back. The swords sank in deep, and the creature fell forward on top of me, crushing me as crimson blood gushed from its neck.

And then the world turned black around me.