He felt the tension in the room rise as he spoke, as it was clear Marem had more questions about the situation. Leo worried there wouldn’t be time to explain anything, as he moved to the wall that faced the street. With just a slight push, the wall broke apart and crumbled against the ground below.

“I can explain things more when we’re there, but we have to go now,” he explained.

“Okay,” Marem said, still in shock at the destroyed wall.

She had assumed they would have walked there, like a normal person would. Yet as she looked at the dim light of the moon, it was clear Leo had something different in mind. He grabbed Marem and flung her over his shoulder as gently as he could, as he held Mark with his free arm.,

Before either of them could protest, he had already jumped from the newly installed balcony. With a literal groundbreaking thud upon his landing, he started his run back to the Mayor’s office. He couldn’t go at his full speed, as he tried his best to keep his cool while he held onto the others.

While he’d been able to maintain his strength more easily throughout the past couple of days, the sight of what happened to Philips rattled him. This certainly was not helped by the wreckage of the kid’s apartment. Death terrified Leo, it made him lose control.

Despite his attempts to move at a slower pace, he couldn’t help but run to the Mayor’s office. They held tightly onto Leo while he ran, thankful that the run was only a few minutes. Leo had stopped just inside the entrance of the Mayor’s office, as he placed them down.

“You could at least ask to pick me up next time, my Gods,” she exclaimed.

“I know, I just couldn’t risk us being late,” he explained.

Marem looked around, “Where is he?”

“Deeper inside, I just didn’t want the kid to see him like that. The scene looked bad when it happened, it could only have gotten worse,” he said, as he glanced at Mark.

“Hey, Mark, just sit down here, we’ll be right back I promise,” she assured him.

He nodded, his eyes watery, as he took a seat. He could barely see in the dark, as he heard the two of them run down the hallway. He hoped they would return soon, as he didn’t like the dark.

While they ran, Leo explained the injury in detail to Marem. He saw her face wince as he explained that there was an arm, though admittedly thin, run through his chest. She explained that while it was fortunate that the arm wasn’t removed, an arm through the stomach is still generally deadly.

When they arrived at the room where the fight had taken place, Marem lit a torch so she could see. Before them stood a large block of ice, stained a deep red by the pool of blood that surrounded Philips. What they didn’t see was the creature that had fought Philips, the only trace was a cracked burrow through the ice.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Leo looked all over, desperate to see where the monster was. Marem didn’t spend time thinking about it, as she crawled in towards Philips. While it was freezing to a maddening extent, she could see that he still was alive. The ice had slowed his bleeding down, just enough for her to get here in time.

When she got within range of him, she checked over his main wound. There wasn’t much left of his insides, while the initial piercing wasn’t horrible, the spikes being pulled out caused severe damage. She had trained for years in mending an adventurer’s wounds, but despite that, this could be near impossible.

She ignored her doubtful thoughts and the frigid ice, as her eyes glowed pink while she started the process of repairing his injuries. She connected split blood vessels and torn flesh, her attention focused solely on saving him.

Leo saw Marem get to work on saving Philips’ life, as he continued to try and keep an eye on the situation. His darkvision didn’t get a single glimpse of the beast within the ice, and he didn’t see it lurking within any visible hallways. He wanted to believe the beast just fled, but he doubted this night would end so easily. Leo decided to go check on Mark.

While he in no way believed that Marem would be able to handle the monster, he simply hoped that it wouldn’t return to verify Philips’ death. He doubted a different monster would have wandered in so deep so quickly, but all bets were off with this beast stalking the nights once more.

While he headed back, he noticed the small splatter of fresh blood on top of the dried stains. He moved with haste, as he headed off to the main entrance. When he finally turned the last corner, his worst fears came true.

There was the beast, as it loomed over Mark. The kid could barely see the monster in the dim moonlight, but he shook with fear nonetheless. It had lost a considerable amount of mass, as it seemed to have shrunk down its body and lost an arm. While it was certainly weakened, he didn’t trust that it would be an easy fight.

He ran as the beast extended its arm towards Mark, Leo unable to tell if it made contact with the boy. It suddenly lunged towards Leo, having used Mark as a distraction. It was too close for Leo to dodge, though he doubted he could ever dodge it, as it still moved far faster than he could see, despite its injuries.

He moved just enough out of the way for its arm to only strike his shoulder, the collision being rapid and forceful. The monster let out a shriek, as part of its remaining arm shattered against Leo. Broken spikes crashed against the floor, as it quickly tried to regain itself.

Leo felt relief that at least the monster would be weak enough now to not pierce his flesh. Despite its failure to harm him, the shrieking beast rushed forward once more. He couldn’t believe that it would still fight despite being in such a condition.

He moved his upper body to try and dodge out of the range of its arm, but as it leaped upwards, it became clear that a punch was not the monster's aim. Both of its legs crashed square into Leo’s abdomen, the beast attempting to drop kick through Leo.

What this accomplished was damaging the only functional parts of its body. The beast tried its best to stand up after it fell back to the floor, unable to use its arm to lift itself up. Any attempt to use its legs caused it to fall back down, it seemed as if they were broken.

Leo recovered from the shock of being drop kicked, as he leapt onto the writhing monster before it could recover. It flailed against him, unable to use its legs or arms to attack him. Before Leo could deliver the fatal blow, the monster did it itself.