Jeffrey and the furious abomination continued with their clash. Noah, who was observing the fight from the back, could barely comprehend what was even happening.

The abomination seemingly had the power to appear anywhere within the darkness of the ancient subway tunnel, at will. She aimed to always reappear at Jeffrey's blind spots. However, the werehuman's battle instincts were far beyond those of a simple brute.

Jeffrey was able to reposition himself in time to block the abomination's strikes and occasionally even retaliate, which seemed to further infuriate the already unhinged dark entity.

"Die... you... despicable... fiend...!"

Noah felt dizzy from the overwhelming sense of power and hatred that was emanating out of the twisted woman.

'Is there nothing I can do to help?'

Noah looked around. Two out of the three skeletal apes that had descended underground with the group, had been destroyed and the surviving third was in a bad state, missing an arm and a chunk of its torso.

Claws crawled along the railway towards the abomination, its two legs utterly shattered.

'Cut it out already, you lunatic!'

The skeletal reptile stopped and glared at Noah. Its empty eye sockets glowed in a sickly green light, along with the cracks on its skull.

'You were a split second away from having your head pulverized and what are you even going to do without legs...?'

Noah did not have time for Claws' antics. Instead, he fixed his gaze at Steve.

The loyal guardian was in a better state compared to Noah's other minions but battered all the same. Steve's plate armor had been significantly dented, protruding into the fallen warrior's torso, with radiant green light shining from the tears in the ancient steel.

And then there was Noah himself. His ribs were broken from the powerful lash that he had suffered from the abomination. In addition, Noah had already exerted a great deal of his essence, during the battle with the monster hordes, aboveground.

None of it mattered, though. There was nothing that Noah himself could do in order to harm the abomination, and among his minions, only Steve possessed the ability to hurt the twisted woman. Now that she was aware of the undead warrior's Touched ability, she would not simply stand there and allow him to engulf her with flames again.

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The thunderous noise of something crashing had snapped Noah out of his contemplations.

Despite being in his massive hybrid form, Jeffrey had been catapulted into the tunnel wall by the significantly smaller abomination. The impact shattered the concrete, causing Jeffrey's back to thrust into the resulting crack that was formed in the wall.

The dark entity paced towards Jeffrey, before vanishing and reappearing right next to him.

"You... will... pay... monster..."

She ran her thin arm across the werehuman's muscular leg, before sinking her long fingers into his flesh, causing Jeffrey to groan in pain.

"Jeffrey!"

The abomination fixed her gaze towards Noah.

"Wait... your... turn... little... monster..."

'This is... we're going to die down here.'

While the dark entity was still eyeing Noah, Jeffrey slammed his elongated head downwards, headbutting the abomination and staggering her.

Attempting to capitalize on his momentum, Jeffrey clutched the abomination's arms and began to ram her toward the opposite tunnel wall. However, his injured leg gave out, and the hulking werehuman stumbled and kneeled.

The twisted woman began to laugh maniacally, sounding utterly unhinged, then vanished and reappeared behind Jeffrey.

"I... need... at... least... two... chains... for... a... monster... your... size."

The abomination then proceeded to pierce her long fingers into the hamstring of Jeffrey's other leg, causing the werehuman to howl in agony.

"No!"

Noah had no idea what he could even do in order to help his friend, as he began to frantically run towards Jeffrey.

"Stop." Jeffrey motioned his webbed arm in Noah's direction. "I'll hold her off. Please, run away, Noah."

The werehuman then smiled - or smiled as much as possible with his elongated shark head—before snapping backwards and sinking his powerful jaws into the abomination's shoulder.

The dark entity writhed and shrieked in pain and rage, but Jeffrey grasped her tightly, using his massive body weight to keep the abomination in place for as long as he could.

'Is there really nothing I can do?'

"Kid..." Silas' gravelly voice echoed inside of Noah's head. "Don't waste the shark man's sacrifice. You're not going to honor him by staying behind and foolishly dying, too."

And so, Noah dashed through the tunnel, leaving behind Jeffrey grappling with the abomination and his remaining undead minions.

He ran in the opposite direction, though. Back to where the group had come from.

***

Jeffrey had fought as long and hard as he possibly could. By now he was no longer able to stand on his feet. The abomination had pierced his body again and again, with her impossibly powerful fingers and yet, he refused to relent, keeping the dark entity locked in his crushing jaws.

'At least he got away...'

Jeffrey had no regrets. Noah, who still held onto his innocence, in this cruel world, deserved a chance to make it back home.

"Do... not... worry... I... will... catch... the... other... monster... too."

The abomination kicked the werehuman, throwing him on his back and finally forcing him to release his jaws.

Jeffrey attempted to get back up but collapsed onto the damp tunnel floor.

'This is it, huh?' Jeffrey watched as the abomination approached him menacingly, while dragging chains across the floor. 'I wonder if I'll see her again. Huh, I really hope so.'

Suddenly, the twisted woman stopped in her tracks and turned to look down the tunnel.

"Wha... what... is... this?"

From the darkness of the tunnel, hundreds upon hundreds of glowing, green eyes had gazed back at her.