The staircase ended in darkness, a thick sense of fear clinging to the goblins behind me. We had arrived on the second floor of the dungeon after a tense journey down from the first floor. The majority of the walk had been in darkness, with only the sound of the goblin’s teeth chattering for company. They had been anxious, feeling exposed in the dark. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched, a shared fear that weighed heavily on some of the younger goblins.

Some of them were still on edge. I wasn’t sure what I expected upon arriving on the second floor. The tension among us was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. To the goblins it appeared that the second floor wasn’t just unknown, it was the stuff of nightmares. Rumours of the previous expedition team under the last chief, how they barely made it back with their lives.

Of course I couldn’t separate fact from fiction, goblins made for poor story tellers and often exaggerated. Maybe it was due to their smaller stature, but from what I had heard so far everything was always blown out of proportion.

Unlike the first floor, there was a broken pathway made of cobblestones leading from the staircase. Further signs that more intelligent beings had one occupied this area, enough so that they had built paths. The first floor had been mostly caves and tight tunnels, with little sign of civilization.

I had only taken a couple of steps on the second floor, and I could already tell it would be different. Crumbling stonework, shattered columns, and worn down ruins lined the path. Whoever had constructed these had long been forgotten, but they had left an eerie reminder of their existence.

“Stay close,” I muttered as the goblins closed in around me, their eyes scanning the shadows.

The silence felt unnatural, as if the atmosphere of this place had been drained. It was giving me the horrible sensation that we were being watched, as if there was something waiting just beyond the reach of my senses.

We marched forward carefully, taking our time and examining our surroundings to try and gather some information of what to expect. I noticed deep claw marks gouged into the stone every couple of paces, there was little sign of resistance to whatever made these marks, it was cleanly picking off its prey.

Then, a faint sound echoed through the ruins. We all froze, every muscle tensed.

Drip… Drip… Drip.

Just water, I let out a slow breath, but then… something else. A faint rustling, almost too quiet to hear but I picked up on it thanks to my wolf-like senses.

I raised my torch, pushing the darkness back further above.

That’s when I saw them.

Massive, bat-like creatures that clung to the ceiling, half-concealed in the shadow. Their leathery wings folded around their bodies, their eyes shut. The smallest one looked to be as big as a man, but the largest… The largest was much bigger. They looked like something out of a nightmare, their bodies were scarred and ridden with decay.

A sharp inhale behind me told me the goblins had followed my stare, they saw them too.

One of them instinctively took a step back, clutching its club tightly.

“Quiet,” I whispered, barely moving my mouth to speak. “Keep moving. And don’t look up.”

Our movements devolved into a creep, each step feeling like it could be the last before hell descended on us. I could smell the goblins’ fear, their breathing had become shallow as they tried to strife the panic.

The creatures above didn’t stir.

A sense of relief washed over me as we reached the other side of the ruins. I wanted to explore them for answers, but I couldn’t afford to take the risk. The crumbled walls framed what might have once been a grand doorway, now reduced to broken fragments of stone. It was still hard to breathe, magnified by the fact that the bats above us could wake at any second.

The torchlight flickered, casting long twisted shadows across the walls - revealing the carvings that I had only just noticed. Strange, elongated creatures with hollow eyes, their hands were outstretched in silent pleas. Most of the carvings were worn and had been damaged over the years, but some looked recent, freshly etched as if something had been scratching at the stone.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of the goblins glancing nervously at the carvings, muttering something under its breath as it touched a crude charm hanging around its neck.

Then a high-pitched shriek tore through the silence, so loud it felt like it pierced right through my skull. Everyone froze, some clutching at their heads as the sound reverberated around the ruins.

“Keep moving,” I ordered, my voice cracking as I whispered. We couldn’t afford to stay still, I didn’t want to find out what made that noise.

But as I said that, I could hear something dropping from the ceiling.

It landed in front of us, its wings unfurling with a sickening sound like egg shells being broken. Its eyes were open now, emitting a pale sickly yellow light glow. Its mouth was twisted, revealing rows of serrated teeth. Its body was scarred, patches of leather skin torn or folded and healed over. Its claws dug into the stone floor, piercing it like it was made of cheese.

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The goblins staggered back in unison, terror now etched on their faces.

One of the goblins let out a whimper, clutching its club against its chest. Another took a trembling step back and fell to the ground, scuttling back further as it fixated on the creature in horror.

“Hold your ground!” I muttered, stepping forward and raising my club.

The creature fixated on me, its eyes narrowing with a hint of intelligence.

And then it lunged towards me.

I stepped to the side to evade, swinging my club at its head in retaliation, but the blow barely fazed it. The creature twisted in midair, its wings flaring as it came at me again, faster this time. I ducked under its claws, feeling the rush of air as it narrowly missed me.

I swung my club straight into its exposed ribs, finally hearing a satisfying crunch as the hit connected.

The bat let out a shriek as it stumbled back. Before I could press my advantage however, another dropped down from the ceiling and landed on top of a goblin. Its claws penetrated the goblin, forcing it down into the ground due to the weight of the second bat. The goblin was pinned to the floor, wriggling in agony as blood began to seep out from under the bat's claws.

I had little time to react as the first bat struck again, I raised my club but barely managed to block its claws in time. An ache shot through my arms as I struggled to hold my ground.

The goblins began to panic, some tried to run, while others were completely paralyzed by fear. If they broke their ranks, we’d all be slaughtered.

“Form a line!” I commanded, my voice echoing off the stone. “Don’t let them surround us!”

The goblins hesitated, then slowly began to regroup as they formed a loose line behind me. The bats began to circle us, their eyes gleaming in the darkness as they watched and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

One lunged at the line, claws outstretched. The goblins swung at them helplessly, flailing as they drove it back. I took the opportunity to strike its body again from the side, it was a clean hit that crippled the bat. It fell over and writhed in agony on the floor.

Another screech echoed and more of the bats began to drop down and join the fight, surrounding us.

This wasn’t good.

The goblins struggled to put up much of a fight, some were lifted up into the air. Others were pinned down to the ground, or cleaved by the bats' oversized claws.

This wasn’t good, a primal force began to surge within me. The wolf’s aggression howled within me. I let it fuel my movements, stepping forward with a renewed ferocity.

I lunged at the nearest creature, charging forward swinging my club. The goblins followed, their fear giving way to desperation as they swung their weapons, battering against the gigantic bats.

Chaos erupted.

Claws, fangs and clubs clashed in a blurry haze of blood and violence. I moved through the fray like a force of nature, every movement precise and brutal. I reinforced my strength with the power of the hobgoblin, amplifying my power to maximum capacity.

I drove my club into one of the smaller bat’s skull, feeling it cave in under the weight of my strike. But I barely had time to breathe before another lunged at me, slashing its claws in the air towards me.

The remaining goblins continued to fight desperately, striking wherever they could, but the goblins' numbers continued to thin out. They could no longer maintain the line and were quickly reduced even further.

I realised that I could no longer fight conservatively. It was time to unleash my true nature. Whether I survived or not no longer hinged on my goblin army, they had been reduced to less than a scouting party against these creatures.

Pushing forward into the surrounding bats, I reached out towards one of them. My arm twisted as it morphed into a mass of black tentacles that leapt out and drove into the creature's chest at an unnatural speed. Some of the closer goblins recoiled, their fearful gasps filling the air as I revelled in the surge of strength.

I turned to face the next creature, who was sticking close to another bat. I swiped my arm forward in an arc, another tentacle darting out from my arm like a whip. The tentacles spread out in mid air, resembling a cat o’ nine tails as the whip parted into multiple tails. I shredded through two of them, then turned and redirected the whip again to take down another.

Within moments a haze of blood filled the air, the stench of copper filling the ruins. The beasts screeched out in pain, organising themselves through shrieks and shrills. However I was now on the warpath.

I used a combination of my goblin host and my own tentacles to take down the bats in droves, each kill chaining to the next as I started to leap around the area, jumping over run down walls and using broken columns to shield my blindspots.

Finally, their numbers began to thin, the remaining creatures hesitated, glaring at me. Their eyes flickered with something that almost resembled fear. They began to back away, their wings spreading as one by one they leapt up into the air and retreated into the shadows.

We were finally alone again, surrounded by the aftermath of the battle. The ruins were now littered with goblins and giant bat corpses alike.

There were three goblins remaining, each of them scanning the shadows intently. However they soon shifted their attention to me, looking at me in both fear and awe as a black haze of unnatural shadows and ink-like tentacles surrounded their goblin chief.

I could practically see the cogs in their mind turning, they were deciding whether to attack me next or flee.

I took a deep breath, this was it. We had survived, but the goblins no longer recognised me as one of their own.

Submitting to the failure of my initial plan to use these goblins as bait, I unleashed my tentacles like spears onto the remaining goblins. Impaling them and consuming the survivors, they were clearly no match for the inhabitants of this floor. Their only purpose now was to feed me.

I finally felt the tension draining from my muscles, the lone survivor of this assault. I roamed around the ruins, consuming the bodies of the fallen. Both goblins and bats were on the menu tonight, though I kept a watchful eye on the shadows above me in case any decided to try their luck again.

With the corpses taken care of, I was one again alone in the dungeon. The ominous feeling of being watched weighing down on me, but I was fairly confident now that they intended to keep me at a distance. For now at least.

I decided to press on, the faint movement overhead slowly settling as the bats withdrew completely to return to their slumber. However in the distance I could hear the distinct shriek that had initially awoken them.

I decided to take the opportunity to explore the ruins, to see if I could gain any further insight from the carvings. So I moved further into what looked like the temple, a dilapidated structure that was a shadow of its former glory.