Mongrim towered over me—blood-laced drool hung from its maw in long, sticky tendrils. His health was completely depleted. It didn’t make sense. The monster should’ve been dead according to everything I’d learned about the workings of the world. I had no one to turn to. Wolfgang, Hendrix, Nikk, and Max were all dead, and the only other ally nearby was a bitter healer who I’d purposefully had pinned beneath a heap of glowing stone.

The beast roared and turned away from me. I ran toward the immobile Manalolz to intercept the monster’s charge, but the charge wasn’t aimed at Manalolz.

“Stay back, foolish mongrel!” Brinson shouted as Mongrim thundered toward the perched Raventaur. “We had a deal!”

“No more!” The words were barely coherent coming from the frothing maw, but the beast’s intent was clear.

Brinson spread his injured wings and tried to jump away, but Mongrim caught him. The two tumbled to the ground and struggled to gain the upper hand—Mongrim bit. Brinson pecked. Both were bloodied and weak.

Tufts of fur, feathers, and spits of blood rained onto the cave floor as the two massive creatures butchered each other before my dumbfounded eyes. Mongrim shrieked like a tortured cub and was sent flying into a wall by Brinson’s mighty talons. The boss landed awkwardly on its neck, cutting the shrieks short. It lay motionless, finally dead.

Brinson, on the other hand, lay beside his boulder perch, injured, perhaps immobilized, but not dead. I shot a glance at Manalolz to see if he was ready for a final fight despite being buried but found only a glowing green egg beside the rubble. He must’ve been slowly taking damage beneath the weight of the rocks. I was alone.

“Forgive me,” Brinson said in a low voice that crawled along the walls of the room. “The Dark Lady… she gave me no choice. Only now do I see the cowardice of my actions.”

I shifted awkwardly as the boss poured his heart out to me.

“If she turned me into this much of a monster,” he continued, “I can only imagine what she’s done with the royal family. You must stop her, adventurers. Stop her before her twisted mana wall consumes the whole world!” He coughed and pulled himself up to sit against the wall. He wrapped his black wings around his battered body like a blanket. “There’s a lever on the wall beside the dead beast. Inside… you’ll find the way out. Forgive me.” He silenced as his health dropped to zero.

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Relief. With Brinson and Morgrim dead, I was finally able to relax my tensed muscles. On the bright side, I’d successfully gone through my first dungeon and somehow managed to stay above fifty percent of my health during the last fight. On the other hand, my entire party was dead. I couldn’t help but feel responsible as guild master, even if only two of the five dead were actual members of my guild.

I approached the massive gnoll’s corpse. My muscles tensed again the closer I got to its sightless, open eyes. I found the lever. It was the same color and texture as the rest of the wall and protruded only about an inch. I’d have never found it if I hadn’t been told where to look.

My hand froze midway to the lever. I questioned whether trusting the raventaur who’d betrayed his own brother, and people was a good idea. It didn’t take long to come out with ‘no’ as my answer, but there was no other way out. Both tunnels had collapsed when Mongrim had first raged into sight.

Hendrix would have done it. He’d have pulled the lever before even hearing of its purpose. It was the only option. I gathered each egg and carefully placed them in my pack — even Manalolz, who I shamefully considered leaving behind for a true death — and returned to the lever. I closed my eyes and pulled it.

The walls shook. It wasn’t as violent as the mother queen’s or Mongrim’s tremors. It was more of a calming vibration—a hum. A slit appeared in the wall before me, and a door-sized segment slid upward, revealing a tight, unlit space.

The room was as small as my closet back home. There was nothing in there save for a dusty chest. I cracked it open. A cloud of dust choked me. I waved it away with my free hang and gazed inside. Six bottles of light blue liquid and a purple vest lay at the bottom. I couldn’t tell what the potions were exactly, but focusing on them reminded me of home somehow. The vest was easier to discern. It raised the wearer’s defense and health and increased the range of the bard’s song effects. How I could tell such things by just looking at it, I didn’t know.

I crammed the vest and five of the potions in my pack and popped the cork off the other. I expected a foul smell but was greeted by something cheerful like lightly toasted bread. I shrugged, tightened my hold on my pack full of dead party-mates, and chugged the contents of the bottle. Everything turned white, and I fell into what felt like sleep.