Tom strode down the tunnel with his shield raised, followed by Verdan, then Ruan and the two Fwyn.

Ruan would no doubt have preferred to go second, but Tom needed the light from Verdan’s staff, and he wanted to be close in case Tom needed help.

They were going into this blind, and that meant that he needed to be ready to act at a moment’s notice.

The tunnel’s surface was compacted earth, but small showers of loose dirt still fell as they followed it down into the ground. Each one made Verdan somewhat nervous, but he had faith in the work of Aeva and Lan’Wai.

“Got something,” Tom murmured, slowing down as the tunnel curved one last time before merging into the upper reaches of the Druinn.

The light from Verdan’s staff wasn’t quite enough, so he cast the spell again, this time keeping it at a globe that he threw out into the open.

“Damn,” Tom said, staring off to the left, where a large metal structure sat, covered in places by layers of dirt.

The rest of what they could see was a large chamber, one with several tunnels that led deeper into the Druinn. The floor itself was level, though, and the walls showed signs of having been excavated to Verdan’s eyes.

This was a manufactured entrance to the Druinn if he’d ever seen one, or perhaps an existing one that had been widened.

“Disir,” Verdan conjured another globe of light and attached it to the entrance of the tunnel as Tom stepped out into the chamber, looking around warily as he did.

“Alright, let’s go left,” Verdan said, nodding to the metal structure, which he could see now was a huge doorway that had been anchored to either side.

Whatever protections had sat on the door, it seemed that none had been good enough to stop the door itself from being rent apart.

Large slivers of metal and debris littered the entrance, but it was still passable, so Verdan motioned Tom on.

Picking their way through the shattered remnants of the doorway, Verdan realised that the metal fortification to either side was several feet thick.

Whoever had made this had gone to great lengths to ensure it was protected, much like the ruin he’d seen back in the north.

The destruction of this entrance was different, though, it felt more violent in nature, and his gut told him that whatever it was might not have gone far.

Moving out from the entrance, they found themselves in a large hall of sorts, filled with broken machinery and shattered stonework. Once, this place looked to have been the home to a number of the docking areas for the Automatons.

Now, there was nothing left but rubble.

No. That wasn’t quite right.

Verdan’s eyes flicked to the right as he saw a slight shift in the rubble and he spoke up in a soft tone. “Ware, something is over there, to the right.”

At the sound of his voice, a large creature burst out of hiding, a shower of masonry and debris momentarily obscuring it.

The stone debris around them shifted as parts of it were drawn up, flowing along Tom to reinforce both his shield and mace and anchor him to the ground.

A nightmarish six-legged creature slammed into Tom, the impact filling the air as it scrabbled against his shield and bit at his face.

Tom rocked back slightly from the weight of the creature, but swiftly struck it with his mace, knocking it clear from his shield.

The beast fell to the ground and immediately sprang back up, lunging forward to snap at Tom’s legs before dodging his mace and scraping its claws across his shield.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Look out!” Ruan cried out, barging into Verdan as a second creature came lunging out of the darkness, its jaws open wide.

The light from Verdan’s spell played over the monster and he got a good look at it for the first time.

The creature had a short but wide snout that was filled with large teeth and a pair of inwardly curved fangs. Behind the gaping jaws sat three eyes, two were normal with reddish pupils while the third was a milky white and sat where the snout merged with the head.

A mix of dark grey and black scales covered the beast, and he noticed with concern that each of its six feet were tipped with long curved claws that were black with an almost dark green tinge to them.

Verdan saw it all in a brief instant, and then the creature slammed into Ruan, it’s jaws clamping down on his shield and crunching right through the wood.

Ruan dropped the shield and swung his axe with both hands, cutting deep into its side and spraying blood across the floor as it howled in pain.

One clawed foot cut across Ruan’s axe as it thrashed, scraping against the metal and somehow breaking the Aether construct Verdan had bound to it.

Thankfully as it wasn’t a channelled spell, the Aetherburn from the feedback wasn’t too bad, but he winced at the pain.

“Gwth!” Verdan growled out the spell, making a sharp motion with one hand as he sent a pulse of Aether into the beast, knocking it back into a pile of rubble.

A moment later, an orb of dark brown Aether struck the beast’s wound, causing the flesh around it to swiftly necrotisise and rot away.

Ruan was on the stunned beast in a flash, hacking into its thick neck with his axe to finish it.

Looking back to Tom, Verdan saw that the Sorcerer was bleeding freely from a number of wounds and had cast his shield aside.

Eyes wide with shock, Verdan waited until the beast next showed itself before pointing a finger at it. “Thanr laif!”

A tight spiral of flames leapt out from Verdan’s hand, starkly illuminating the area but flashing past the twisting beast to strike a broken piece of metal.

The beast had dodged almost before the spell was cast.

Verdan had no time to dwell on that, however, as it had changed targets when he cast the spell and was charging right at him, ignoring Tom completely.

“Ast!” Verdan conjured a shield in front of him as he prepared a spell to restrict its movement.

The beast leapt as the pale blue shield appeared, both of its fore legs clawing at the shield and ripping through the Aether with ease.

Aetherburn savaged Verdan’s mind as his shield was forcefully destroyed, and he could only stagger back, grunting in pain as the huge jaws came for him.

A great cracking sound came from just in front of Verdan as the stone flooring broke and shifted into a hand that grabbed one of the creature’s legs, bringing it to an abrupt halt.

The monster slammed face-first into the floor and Tom caught up with it a moment later, pulverising its skull with a heavy hit of his mace.

“Everyone okay?” Verdan asked through gritted teeth as he fought off the headache from the Aetherburn. It had been a long time since something had shattered his shield so easily, or so quickly.

“I’ll live,” Tom said with a grunt as he pressed a hand against a nasty gash in his side. “What was that thing?”

Verdan shook his head, wincing at the ill advised motion. “I have no idea, I’ve never seen anything like it before. How did it manage to injure you?”

“Its jaws were strong, but its claws were the problem. They cut through my Essence like a knife through butter, and the stone I’d called up fell away in big chunks. Without armour, it was just too fast for me to fight.”

Verdan replayed in his mind how the creature had carved through his shield without any effort. That hadn’t been the strongest shield he could make, but it hadn’t been weak by any stretch.

Reaching out with his Aether senses, Verdan studied the flow of the Aether in the room, noting that there was something subtly odd about it.

It was a small thing, one that he wouldn’t have noticed without looking for it, but the flow of the Aether was off.

Following the currents as best he could, Verdan found the sources of the disturbances. The claws of the beasts were made of what looked like solidified Malfease.

Exactly how this had happened, Verdan had no idea. He’d never seen anything like this before.

Actually, that wasn’t true, these claws reminded him of the Bonecallers and their bone charms. They were far more powerful, though, and they interacted only slightly with the ambient Aether.

Slowly, the Malfease within the claws was beginning to leak out now that the beasts were dead.

“Bring the bodies together,” Verdan said, gesturing to the corner of the room. “We need to purify them and burn away the Malfease.”

“Malfease?” Ruan echoed, wide eyed and concerned. “These were abyssal creatures?”

Verdan nodded, rubbing his temple with his free hand. “Yes, that’s how they cut through my shield and Tom’s Essence so easily.”

“Understood. We’ll have to be careful down here,” Ruan said as he grabbed the first corpse and began to drag it into the corner.

Verdan nodded but said nothing. He’d never seen anything like these beasts before, and their claws were a terrifying marvel of Malfease usage.

By concentrating all that corruption into the point of their claws, they could cut right through Aether like it wasn’t even there.

Resisting such an attack would require having an equal Aether concentration throughout the whole spell, and actually stopping it altogether would be nigh on impossible.

Yet, for the average combatant, they were simply fast moving beasts with sharp claws and powerful jaws.

Verdan shivered as he called on his magic to burn the bodies and cleanse the corruption.

Whatever these things were, they were perfect for killing Wizards.