Clayton carefully and slowly led the way into the dark cave with his giant axe placed in front of himself. Adam still shuddered at that enormous presence he felt inside the cave, but still followed Clayton in. It took a few minutes for everyone's eyes to completely adjust to the darkness of the cave. Adam had it easier with his elemental sight as he stretched it out as far as he could to try and find that demonic beast before it noticed them.

Clayton led them into the cave for an impossibly long time. With the cave being in the outcropping it should not have been this big. They had already been going along the cave for easily a half hour! Even if they were being slow they should have reached the end by now. This cave was clearly unnatural and may have even been dug out deeply by the beast waiting within. At a certain point an enormous roar erupted out from the depths of the cave yet again. Being inside the cave this time it sounded so much louder and even shook the cave walls! Clayton paused briefly to let the roar subside before he continued on into the darkness. As they moved further into the cave Adam saw more and more earth essence in their surroundings. It was likely that this cave was sloped downward at an imperceptible degree. The cave was taking them deep underground!

After another long while, the cave finally changed. It went from going straight to opening up into a very wide and tall area. Adam had been the first to notice this space with his elemental sight from afar. After entering the wide space, Adam was actually unable to see the other ends or even the ceiling of this space! In the top of the ceiling far away there were stones casting a very faint luminous light that made it look like the night sky! These odd rocks allowed the others to see more clearly than they had before but they were still unable to tell the dimensions of this giant space they had suddenly found themselves in. blackness was still all around, unable to be dispelled by the weak light from the rocks in the ceiling. Strewn across the ground were various size chunks of rock going from sizes as large as a wagon to small pebbles.

Finally having enough light to work with, the trackers set about their task to see if they could find anything helpful. Before too long the came to Clayton with their findings. In a whispered voice one of them said: “The beast is definitely somewhere in here and it is big. There are gigantic claw marks everywhere but there are too many markings for us to make heads or tails of what direction it could be in.”

Clayton nodded his head at this information. He then turned to Adam: “You cant tell where it is at all?”

Adam shook his head: “This space is too big. I can tell that it's not anywhere within a hundred and fifty meters of us but that's it.”

Clayton went into some contemplation before coming together with a plan. “Adam you will stay with me. The rest of you stay in the cave there until I am done. When we find the beast Adam, I will engage it while you head back to the cave. I will take the beast on my own.”

Everyone nodded in agreement to their role. The trackers were no longer of much use so they had no qualms about staying out of Clayton's way. Clayton led Adam out into the giant space covered with many different sized rocks. They moved carefully so as to not kick any of the loose stones and send them flying with a pitter patter.

Ten minutes after they had started their search, the beast finally roared again! The rocks all around vibrated at the massive roar as some pebbles even bounced around on the ground! Adam covered his hears that were assaulted by the sudden thunderous sound as he staggered from the pressure of the sound. There were also sounds that they had never heard before. The sound of crashing and exploding rock! Suddenly a large beast appeared within Adam's elemental sight as it swiped and flung the rocks about in a sort of violent rage!

The creature was scaled with four limbs and two wings. It had a long tail and neck. It's body alone had to be around ten meters in length! This appearance could mean only one thing, it was a dragon! Adam was slightly stupefied when he saw this. How could it actually be a dragon? It was just supposed to be a slightly strong demonic beast! Dragons were notoriously hard to deal with and normally required an experienced group of martial artists and spiritualists to deal with!

As those thoughts raced through Adam's mind, he noticed something odd about the dragon as well. Its soul was very chaotic. It was almost as if it was fighting against it's own soul. This was probably the source of the dragon rampaging as it was in agony over fighting its own soul. But why was it killing itself by fighting its own soul like this?

Adam had no further time to contemplate on the dragon's condition as it finally noticed that there were two humans nearby. It gave out a challenging roar, that wasn't nearly as strong as it's roar earlier, and charged forward at Clayton and Adam. Clayton circulated spirit essence within his body and axe and charged to meet the dragon as he roared: “Adam get out of here!”

Adam turned around and ran to follow Clayton's order. Even with Adam's strength with his sword song, he would be next to useless in a fight against a dragon. Adam ran a certain distance before stopping. He really didn't want to run and wanted to help Clayton in some way but how? Adam watched as Clayton swung his axe at the dragon as the dragon swung its claws at his axe. There was a loud BANG and the result of the collision was that both were forced back. Clayton appeared to have been forced back more and was at a slight disadvantage against the dragon. Adam then noticed that a large amount of fire essence was gathering in a formation inside the dragon's mouth. Adam quickly yelled: “It's going to breath fire!”

Hearing Adam's shout, Clayton dove behind a rock just as the dragon let loose a great breath of blue flame. Even with his reinforced body Clayton felt the sweltering heat coming from these flames. After the flames had abated, Clayton leaped out from behind the rock and swung his axe toward the dragon's extended neck. His axe was able to bite into the dragons scales and slash at it's neck! But that was all. The slash was not a very serious wound for the dragon and only served to enrage it some more as it became more vicious.

Adam had drawn his sword as he watched but could only stand there and do nothing. Clayton was moving almost too fast for Adam to perceive and the dragon could still counter all his attacks! While the dragon could not actually move it's body as fast as Clayton could, it could move any of it legs or even it's tail fast enough to meet any of Clayton's attacks. It would even occasionally use it's wings to try and buffet Clayton and throw him off balance. Watching all of this Adam could only strike out at a large rock in anger. As his sword struck the stone, it bounced off with a clear ringing sound. When this happened, Adam noticed an odd change in the dragon. It froze for a brief moment!

Adam stared at his sword as he thought: “What just happened?”

Adam then concentrated to watch both the dragon and his sword at the same time. He swung out at the rock gain. When he swung he was subconsciously using his sword song in the swing. A small amount of spirit essence swirled around his blade as it guided his swing. When the blade struck the rock it made a clear ringing sound as the spirit essence that had surrounded it suddenly exploded away with the sound. This created a small ripple in the spirit essence of the area around Adam going all the way to where the dragon was. When this ripple touched the chaotic soul of the dragon, it seemed to disrupt it and cause it to fall into confusion. While it was in this state Adam could see something else deeply hidden in its soul trying to fight out! The dragon's soul was trying to drown something inside itself and that thing was struggling with all its might! This was why the dragon's soul was so chaotic. Adam did not know why that faint ripple of his effected the chaotic soul but he wasn't going to complain. He now had a way to help Clayton!

Adam got as close to the fight as he dared to. He thought that if he was closer his sword may have a better effect on the dragon. Adam was constantly moving around the battle in a circle as he struck stones with his sword. At first Adam tried to strike as many stones as possible to keep the dragon still for a long time. Clayton was able to get a deep strike at the dragon's chest before it could react thanks to this. As the fight progressed, however, Adam noticed that his sword was having less and less of an effect on the dragon. He began to try and time it so the dragon would be effected when it was right about to attack Clayton or right when one of Clayton's attacks were going to hit the dragon. Adam was trying to optimize his usage to give Clayton the biggest advantage he could.

The dragon was slowly becoming more and more enraged. It wanted to kill Adam who was somehow sending out ripples of spirit essence that were confusing it. It also wanted to deal with Clayton who had given it enough wounds that it was starting to worry for it's life. If it could only form a good spirit formation it could at least take care of Adam, but that ripple that Adam's sword would send out always disrupted it's attempt to form one!

Clayton was originally dismayed when he first saw the dragon. By himself he was no match against such a beast. But this dragon was not what he expected. Either it was too young or sick or something, it just wasn't as strong as it should be. He was able to fight on par with it but was still unable to get a good advantage to kill it. Then he noticed the dragon suddenly stopped a few times! During the longest time it stood still he was able to make a deep wound on it's chest close to where Clayton figured its heart was. Unfortunately it was not deep enough and the dragon became enraged by this attack and no longer seemed to pause quite as much. In the course of the fighting Clayton had been feeling odd ripples brush past him and knew they were the cause of the dragon suddenly pausing, but he had no idea where it was coming from. Finally saw Adam flitting about and striking rocks outside the area that he was fighting the dragon. Clayton was initially angry that Adam had stayed instead of leaving but quickly noticed that each time Adam struck a rock that ripple would follow shortly after. It was Adam that was somehow effecting the dragon! Clayton started to get more aggressive in his attacks to make sure the dragon stayed fighting him instead of trying to kill of Adam.

Finally, when Adam's sword had stunned the dragon yet again, Clayton was in the perfect position to attack the deep wound he made on the dragons chest again. Hoping to end it in this last strike Clayton put all his strength into the swing. Just as his axe was biting in deeper than it had before, the dragon suddenly kicked out with one of its fore legs. This kick first hit Clayton's axe in a spot that had no power to resist the attack. The axe was flung away as the leg also hit Clayton sending him sprawling some distance away.

Adam was stunned when he saw this. When he had seen Clayton go in earlier he though for sure that it was all going to end. Now the dragon strode over to Clayton with a menacing look as it opened its mouth to chomp down! Adam quickly ran forward, pushing himself to make it in time to save Clayton. Adam started striking rocks along the way but the dragon seemed to be mostly immune to that now! The dragon had gotten its jaw around Clayton but Clayton had put his hands on its upper and lower jaw and was fighting with all his strength to keep it from snapping shut on him! Fear spread across Adam's heart that he was not going to make it in time. With his will power alone he pushed himself to move faster. Suddenly Adam felt a weird resonance inside his mind. It then suddenly felt as though there were no air resistance in front of him and that there was a large pressure pushing him forward from behind. He flew forward so fast that he couldn't even make out the forms of the rocks he was going past. He ended up scrapping by one of the larger rocks tearing the leather on his leg to shreds and revealing skin that now had a heavy abrasion. Adam ignored the pain and the confusion of what was happening. Instead he thrust his sword forward with an emphasized sword song. He was aiming at the deep wound Clayton had made earlier in hopes of actually getting the dragons heart! Adam's sword easily slipped in a fair distance before hitting some bone. After glancing off the bone, the sword continued to slip further into the dragon's chest and finally seemed to hit its mark! The dragon suddenly jumped back while flapping its wings as though it was trying to flee from the pain that suddenly assaulted its chest. The wind pushed Adam over and into Clayton who caught him from behind. The dragon had flown itself backwards a dozen meters before it fell to the ground on its back as it growled out in a whiny pain. The dragon then gave a few huffs with deep growling before it finally let loose one last breath and stilled.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

That was not the end of the danger, however! As Adam watched the soul of the dragon start to disperse, the dragon's body also started to disperse all its essence! It was very weird and violent. The essence seemed to explode like a volcano in every direction! One clump of essence was heading in Adam's direction but Clayton quickly stepped in front while circulating his own spirit essence to collide with the clump coming at Adam. The clump was only made of essence and while visible, it was without any physical form. Nonetheless, Clayton was heavily pushed back as he deflected the clump away which then broke apart and continued dispersing into the area. From afar, Adam and Clayton heard someone scream! Clayton then cursed: “Damn, one of the trackers must have been hit! Adam we need to go back to camp and make sure none of those clumps of spirit essence made its way above ground!”

Clayton quickly ran over to grab his axe before running towards the cave that led out. Adam gave one last glance at the dragon. The dragon now looked mummified as it's scales tightly hugged its skeleton. The scales had also lost all their luster making it appear the dragon had been dead for a long time. This was the result of all the spirit essence in its body exploding outward. Even though its body did not actually explode, it was drastically effected. Adam also noticed the dragon's soul was also acting weird from how normal creatures died but had no time to observe as he quickly ran after Clayton

Reaching the cave that led to this space, Clayton and Adam found one of the trackers on the ground as he shook with a seizure! This man's blood veins all clearly appeared on the surface of his skin and were colored black! Adam became quite concerned when he saw this man. There was a large amount of spirit essence running rampant through the man's body and attacking his soul! There was no telling what the outcome would be if the man was left like this. The man's condition suddenly stabilized as he suddenly growled and tried to attack another one of the trackers! Just as the man was going to attack the other tracker, Clayton made a swipe with his axe and beheaded the man!

One of the remaining trackers asked: “B-boss, what just happened? You had a ferocious sounding battle and then, suddenly, there was that mass of light that just rushed at us and hit Jimmy! What happened after that... it could only mean he had turned into a ghoul!”

Clayton had an extremely sour look on his face. “The beast was a dragon! I don't know if you have heard about how dragons die but they release all the spirit essence they have collected in their bodies. Jimmy got hit by a mass of the stuff and it corrupted and turned him into a ghoul! We need to get back to camp and make sure none of the spirit essence got out from underground and hit anyone else. We could have more ghouls or even demonic beasts spawn because of this!”

Adam gulped as he suddenly realized the seriousness of this. He had not quite recognized Jimmy's condition as that of turning into a ghoul since he had never seen one with his elemental sight. Now he knew and was a little afraid to see if anyone else back at camp succumbed to the same fate. After someone turned into a ghoul, there was no going back. At least no one had ever heard of someone being healed of the affliction. If there was anybody that got hit back at camp, they would have to be killed just like Jimmy! Adam hoped that their run of bad luck would end here as Clayton led the group to rush back to camp. With them rushing, it only took them forty minutes to make it back. While on their way back, they had heard odd growls coming out from a few spots in the forest. Clayton had a grave look when he heard these.

Finally back at camp, it was full of disarray. When someone noticed Clayton's figure approaching with the others, everyone relaxed a little. Now they knew Clayton was safe and could maybe get some answers about what happened. One of the Silver Saviors quickly came up to Clayton and asked: “Not long ago many colorful masses of light burst from the ground and fell everywhere! After that there were a few odd growls coming out from the forest. Were started to get attacked by some demonic beasts after that! Did you wake up a horde when you went into that cave?”

Clayton tried to cut his response short by saying: “Those lights were condensed spirit essence that were shot out by the dragon that Adam and I killed. Did anyone get hit by them?”

Surprise spread around when they heard it was a dragon that Clayton faced. “I don't think so.” He then gave a concerned look towards Adam. “Though, Alfred did report a light got really close to Silber and may have hit him! Silber has been unconscious since then but has otherwise shown no reaction.”

“What!?” Adam's heart clenched when he heard what was said. “Is Silber going to turn into a demonic beast or something?” Worry clouded Adam's mind. He didn't hear as Clayton started to give orders to form teams and hunt any demonic beasts that were created by those lights. Since these beasts were merely corrupted by a large amount of spirit essence and not actually possessed by a spirit, normal people could also kill them with relative ease. These beasts also had not been corrupted for long and would not have the chance to force the large amount of chaotic spirit essence that invaded them to reinforce their body. They would still be stronger and more fierce than a normal animal, though.

Ignoring the orders being given around, Adam asked someone where Silber was and ran over to him. When Adam reached the place where Silber had been laid to give him some rest, Alfred was currently watching over him nearby. Adam also seemed to ignore Alfred as he got on his knees and placed his hands on Silber. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. There was a large amount of spirit essence moving freely around Silber's body while occasionally attacking his soul! It was a wonder he wasn't seizing like Jimmy was. Adam was at a loss as to what to do. If nothing was done, Silber would turn into a demonic beast that would yield to no one! Finally after Alfred had called Adam's name for a few times he responded: “Has Silber's condition worsened since he first fell unconscious?”

Alfred felt relieved to finally get an answer from Adam. “Nothing has changed since those lights came down. Do you know what happened?”

Adam briefly explained it, leaving Alfred shocked. While he was explaining what those lights were to Alfred, Adam had an idea to help Silber! He ran to go get his flute, he was going to try and gather spirit essence and see if he could pull any of it out from Silber! The plan was less successful than what Adam was hoping for. The spirit essence inside Silber would not escape his body, but it would still react to Adam's song. It still pulled at and slowed the spirit essence and was not nearly as aggressive in attacking Silber's soul when Adam was playing so he did not stop. Not paying attention to anyone or anything else, Adam played for a few hours on end while he watched over Silber. Adam was trying to think of other ways to help him. Over time, it seemed that the spirit essence in Silber was actually calming down! It had started to move even slower and even if it tried to attack Silber's soul, it was strong enough to repel the attacks. This made Adam excited, perhaps the spirit essence was loosing energy from Adam constantly pulling on it with his song. Adam also started to notice extremely faint amounts were actually dispelling from Silber as well! Just maybe, Adam could save Silber after all!

Before too long, though, something happened. All the free moving spirit essence in Silber's body started to disappear! This quite alarmed Adam because it wasn't dispersing, the spirit essence was fusing with and reinforcing Silber! Instead of being happy, though, Adam became panicked. Just because the spirit essence reinforces Silber's body does not mean that Silber won't become a demonic beast, he could still become corrupted! Unfortunately there was nothing Adam could do as the spirit essence swiftly fused with Silber's body with a small amount also fusing with his soul!

There were a few Silver Saviors nearby ready in case Silber turned into a demonic beast. They suddenly became alarmed as a noticeable change occurred with Silber. Through the process of being reinforced, Silber's fur suddenly started to become very lustrous, almost shining with light! The colors of his fur started to look more like liquid Silver and a flowing vibrant white! Silber then suddenly woke up! He got up and barked happily at Adam who was stunned. When Silber barked, his soul shinned brightly and seemed to resonate with Adam. It also let out a sound that Adam seemed to somehow understand. It was as though Silber had just happily greeted him saying: “Beta!”

Adam confusedly said: “Beta?”

Silber seemed to understand what Adam was saying and happily said while wagging his tail: “Yeah, Beta! You always listen to Alpha after all!”

[AN: Since i have not said it enough, thank you everyone for reading, following, commenting, and reviewing my novel! I am going to experiment with setting up my own website to start posting my novel on and make it a kind of hub for my works that I plan on selling. we shall see where that goes ^-^]