Before he could react, Gil saw a thin film cover. Austin growing from the back to the front . Once the film completely covered the child, it retracted pulling Austin and the orchid back down into the hole. After Austin disappeared, Gil stuck his head in the hole to see where he went. He saw the kids legs as they disappeared into the mouth of a large toad. " Alabaster, open this hole. Get me to that Void Toad." Gil held his palm out and another Kindred appeared. It was a palm sized spider that looked like it was completely made out of metal. "Steel Assassin, don't let that Void Toad go anywhere." Gil shouted as the Steelweave Spider disappeared down the hole.

After Austin was hit in the back by the Void Toad's tongue, he was yanked back into its mouth and swallowed whole. As the Void Toad closed its mouth, Austin expected to be squeezed by the monster's stomach and digested by stomach acid.

Beyond every one of his expectations, none of that happened to him. Nothing happened to him. He was surrounded by nothing. There was no air or ground. He couldn't feel any gravity, so he couldn't tell if he was even moving at all. There was no light, but he could see himself. It was like staring into a pitch black night. Was it dark, or was there just nothing else to see?

Austin still held onto the orchid and brought it close to him to protect it, and give himself comfort. A small creature crashed against him. Austin grabbed it and held it in his hand. It was curled in a ball, and he couldn't tell what it was. He stuffed the little creature in his shirt. The nothingness started to press down on him. It felt like the void he was in was threatening to tear him apart. He knew why the creature was curled up, as Austin scrunched himself into a fetal position he felt safer.

When Steel Assassin jumped into the hole, it saw the Void Toad tear a spacial crack to escape into. It shot a steel web into the path of the Void Toad as it jumped. The Void Toad adjusted its trajectory and only took a gash on his shoulder, black blood splashing onto the ground.

The Void Toad whipped its tongue at the spider. The Steelweave Spider responded by shooting a thicker spear like web at the tongue. Steel Assassin focused on hardening the tip of the web spear as it collided with the Toad's tongue.

A small crack in space appeared and snapped the original steel web that blocked its way. That web snapped and flung back towards Steel Assassin smashing into it and launching it into the root walls. Silver blood leaked out as two of Steel Assassin's legs broke.

On the outside, Gil and Alabaster were stuck. Gil moved out of the way as Alabaster used his skill, Rend. His paw slashed the roots, widening the entrance. He quickly used the skill two more times, destroying all the vegetation in the way.

Gil jumped in the hole to assist Steel Assassin. Alabaster moved away as the fight in the hole intensified. Gil had a short sword and a buckler materialized in his hands. They looked to be made out of the same material as steel assassin's webs.

The Void Toad struck out with his tongue. Gil raised his left arm parrying with the buckler and slashing at the other side of the tongue with the short sword. Steel Assassin skittered across the top of the cave and shot webbing behind the Void Toad. The metal spider kept repositioning himself and firing sharp webs cutting off where the Void Toad wanted to go.

The fight started off in favor of Gil and Steel Assassin but the two were no match for a class 3 monster. The Void Toad was slowly getting the upper hand.

It would use spatial cracks to break Steel Assassin's webs and the tension of those metal webbing snapping would launch inadvertent attacks at the spider and man.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It lashed out with its tongue which quickly healed from the damage done to it. Gil was doing all he could to fight off the Void Toad but he was battered and bruised as the spatial cracks slashed at him and he had to block the powerful blows from the Void Toad's tongue.

Steel assassin had lost another two legs to the snapping of his cable like webbing. The duo were only just able to keep the Void Toad from jumping into its own spacial crack and leaving.

Gil had his back to the exit, with the Void Toad standing directly in front of him. He panted heavily, trying to catch his breath. Blood dropped from the many lacerations, his left arm hung limply at his side, no longer able to carry the steel buckler that was on the ground. Steel Assassin was wedged in-between a few large roots. It didn't have the power to fight its way back out after a vicious attack from the Void Toad sent it careening there. Most of its appendages were broken or missing completely.

Gil looked over his opponent, the Void Toad wasn't in the best shape either. Its tongue had been severed and couldn't be used as a weapon anymore. Steel Assassin's steel web skill along with Gil's coordinated attacks had left several wounds that leaked black blood all across the toad's body. Only one or two could be considered severe. It was staring back, recovering its own energy that was severely depleted fighting two determined opponents.

Austin was still gone. By all accounts Gil was losing this fight, and he was starting to consider a retreat before he and his Kindred lost their lives.

As it was, Gil didn't think Steel Assassin would ever be able to heal back up. Its effective power had probably permanently dropped from Class 2 to Class 1. A howl of pain, desperation, and anger was heard from far off but was getting closer fast.

Outside the cave, Alabaster was running as fast as he could towards the entrance. He used his Dash skill as hard and as often as he could. The orbiting moon got faster with each use of dash, until it was so fast it looked like a halo.

The Moon Wolf was a white blur himself, every muscle in his body screamed it in pain as he pushed himself to go faster. His paws were torn up as he recklessly kept his speed up in-between uses of dash.

All of his joints cracked and popped with each increase in speed. Gil had no idea what his Kindred Moon Wolf was doing. Even with how much he was able to do to the Void Toad so far, the power difference between a Class 1 and Class 3 was too big for the Moon Wolf to make any meaningful difference.

Even if that was the case, Alabaster was too close and too fast for Gil to stop him. All he could do was dive to the side as the wolf dove down the widened entrance straight at the Void Toad.

The Void Toad jumped over the Moon Wolf, expecting a Dash enhanced Rend as some form of desperate final attack from the weaker Kindred.

As the wolf sailed under the toad, the Rend never happened. The orbiting moon that was sped up from the tightly contained centrifugal force and the extreme linear speed from the continuous Dashes, was let loose up into the unprotected underbelly of the Void Toad. Alabaster smashed through the steel webs that were containing the toad, and his body slammed into the unmovable tap root. His body fell into a crumpled heap at the base.

From his position on the ground, Gil saw the wolf mangle its body as it crashed into webs and the tap root. He saw the small gray moon launch off the orbit and penetrate the belly of the Void Toad.

The toad's body swelled up as the shockwaves of the impact ripped through it. In that instant Gil braced for an explosion of gore. He was confused as there was no exploding corpse, the moon didn't come out the other side of the Void Toad. There wasn't even a sound. The swelling Void Toad unnaturally hung in the air. Then suddenly it contracted. The body of the toad folded in on itself and all that was left was a marble sized black void space.

Austin had lost all track of time. It seemed to have no meeting here. The only thing he felt was the crushing nothingness all around him. Suddenly a gray stone slammed into him knocking him aside. As it was going past him Austin grabbed it. Once he had a firm grip the stone reversed course and pulled Austin out of the void space he was stuck in.

Gil slowly stood up without taking his eyes off of the marble sized hole in space. He made his way over to the crevice Steel Assassin was stuck in and sent it back to his Expanse so it could start to recover. Gil moved over to Alabaster. Expecting the worst. The wolf had just crashed into an unmovable object at top speed. The hovering marble size void hole seemed to not be moving. He pulled Mandrick Styptic Powder out of his pocket and spread every last bit of it over the Moon Wolf. Quickly all of his exposed blood hardened.

As he was no longer bleeding out, Gil put a Recovery Pill into the wolf's mouth. As the healing started to take effect, the weird void flattened out impossibly thin. Alabaster stirred. He stood up and started to move away from the void. It was as if he was invisibly tethered by the head to where the void flattened out.

The giant wolf pushed himself backwards inch by inch digging furrows into the root ground. The void bulged into the reality around it. With the last of its strength, Alabaster yanked backwards and a human boy came flying out of the void, one arm stretched out in front of him holding a rock, the other holding a turtle shell with an orchid in it.

As Austin hit the ground Gil sent Alabaster into his Expanse. Gil checked the boy over and picked him up and headed back to the city.