As soon as I heard the Grendel roar, my mind raced with panic. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. My whole plan revolved around freeing the vampire and setting up the perfect trap for the Grendel after Octavius had recovered.

I looked at my friends who were visibly freaking out after hearing the roar. Knowing we needed to take immediate action, I forced myself to speak. I said, "We need to bolt the doors."

I hated how high pitch my voice sounded. Leaving Octavius behind to recover, and we all ran into the main room and to seal the outer door. Thankfully, Aelius, the crazy wizard who built this place, designed this fortress to last.

Cedric and I ran to the entryway, which had twin stone doors that looked like they hadn't been shut in a thousand years. We each grabbed one and tried to push them closed.

I don't know if it was because the doors hadn't been closed in forever, or because they were too heavy, but the doors wouldn't budge. At this point, we could hear the Gredel growling as it moved closer, and then I heard Alicia scream.

The Grendel hurled a stone through the entryway at incredible speed. Unfortunately, the rock glanced off Alicia's arm, breaking her arm. Hearing her cry of pain chilled my blood.

Furious, I pointed my wand at the door and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Cedric followed suit, and just as the doors shut, I could make out the Grendel headed our way. It seemed bigger than I imagined, and I could feel it hatred wash over me. Just as the doors were closing, it launched another boulder towards us. Thankfully, I got the doors shut by the time it hit and was unable to penetrate.

Knowing more needed to be done, I pointed my wand towards the door and shouted, "Colloportus."

The locking charm did its job, and three thick metal bars slid out and barred the doors shut. I turned my attention to Alicia, who outside the initial cry of pain, hadn't made any noise.

She was gritting her teeth, determined not to make any more noise. Looking her over, I asked, "Are you ok."

Anna harshly replied, "Of course, she isn't ok, that monster almost killed her. What is even doing down here?"

Shooting a dangerous look back to the room where Octavius was recovering, she added sarcastically, "I thought that the vampire said it was always gone for three days."

Wanting to stop that train of thought, I replied, "I don't think you can blame him. How was he supposed to know our actions would infuriate the Grendel."

Anna seemed unconvinced and looked like she was about to scathingly reply, when Cedric barked, "Anna enough, this isn't the time to assign blame. Alicia hurt, and in case you forgot, there is an angry monster out there that sounds like it wants to kill and eat us."

Anna and I were both somewhat stunned, Cedric hardly ever raised his voice. If that didn't convince her to let it go, the doors shuttering when the Grendel started beating on them did.

I reached into my pouch and started pulling out potions. I had arranged them in a particular order, so I knew what I was retrieving. Handing the first one to Alicia, I said, "Here drink this."

Alicia trusted my skill in potion making and downed the potion without hesitation. She looked at her arm in wonder and asked, "What kind of healing potion is this? It already feels better."

I shook my head and said, "That wasn't the healing potion, and your arm is still broken. What I gave you was a painless potion. It essentially takes your ability to feel pain for a few hours."

I pulled out another potion and said, "This is the healing potion, it will heal you, but it takes a few hours. There are bone healing spells out there, but they are pretty advanced, and if you botch them, the consequences can be severe."

After she downed the healing potion, she asked, "What are we going to do."

Before I could answer, I heard Octavius from the door say, "Yes, I was rather curious about what your plan was as well."

I turned to look at Octavius, and he was scarcely recognizable, his skin had filled out, and he looked healthy, albeit slightly pale. He seemed to glided as he moved closer.

Anna, already distrustful of the vampire, kept her wand trained on him at all times. Octavius looked down at Alicia and offered, "You were injured in the pursuit of my freedom. I offer you a drop of my blood, which will heal you instantly."

Before I could warn her that doing so could forge a tempory connection between them, Alicia carefully responded, "Respectfully, I decline your generous offer."

He eyed her thoughtfully and asked, "Have you had dealings with my kind before."

Alicia nodded and said, "I've met one of the blood before."

Octavius sighed and complained, "Here I was hoping to get out of my debt easily. Fine, I offer you a favor in return for your injury."

Turning to me, he added, "Three times you have come, and three barriers you penetrated to free me. To finish the cycle, I offer three favors for you to collect upon in the future."

I nodded and replied, "And for my friends."

He looked at them, and offered, "My line will forever consider you to be allies. Should any of you need sanctuary, seek one of my lineages, and they shall give assistance."

His words seemed like a ritual, and I could feel something pass into all of us as he spoke. I got the sense it wasn't harmful; it was more like a brand indicating we were allies.

More angry pounding from the Grendel distracted us, and I said, "That door isn't going to hold out forever. Were going to need a plan to deal with it."

As I racked my brain for a minute, a plan began to form. I turned to my friends and said, "Alright, this is what we're going to do."

While I was getting ready to explain the plan, the pounding on the door fell silent, and all the noise from the Grendel fell away. We all eyed the door warily. The silence was worse than the constant pounding. At least when it was noisy, we could tell where it was.

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I turned sideways to Octavius and asked, "Can you still hear it?"

He closed his eyes, listening for anything. Before he could say anything, one of the Grendel's arms burst through the wall next to the door as the Grendel charge into it.

Without thinking, I slashed my wand towards the arm and roared, "Diffindo."

The amount of strength I put into the severing charm ended up more than enough to amputate the claw of the Grendel. It roared in pain and ripped what was left of its arm back through the hole.

Before I could celebrate, it stuck its face up to the hole that it had punched through and peered through it. The head was too big to fit through, but we could all see it's glowing yellow eyes twisted in pain and rage.

The Grendel seemed to sense that I was the one who had hurt it, and it glared hatefully at me. After it roared its vengeance at me, I knew then, that the only way this ended, was to put it down for good.

There was no way I was leaving this malevolent creature alive. Mainly because, it had enough intelligence to set a trap, and now bore a grudge against me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed on the severed claw was a bracelet with a chip of the time stone.

I was sure that this was the bracelet that would allow me to get through the time. So, I concentrated on the bracelet, and chanted, "Accio."

It zoomed over, and I pocketed it beneath my robes. As Grendel began tearing its way into the room, I noticed that the claw that I had severed had already started regrowing.

Anna pointed her wand at the growing hole and shouted, "Impedimenta."

As the spell hit, the Grendel froze for about two or three seconds. During our training, we had looked up ways to restrain magical creatures, and the impediment jinx will freeze or slow magical creatures down. Usually, the impediment jinx lasts longer against monsters, but I will take what we can get.

I turned to my friends and shouted, "We need to time our spells to prevent the Grendel from getting inside. I don't think fighting this thing in an enclosed space is a good idea."

Cedric, Anna, and Alicia began casting the impediment jinx one by one. As soon as one wore off, another spell would hit the Grendel. Needless to say, the Grendel was not pleased.

It seemed to get even angrier, and I noticed the spell was becoming less effective. Knowing that the only way forward was to deal with it out in the open. I lined up a shot and shouted, "Flipendo."

The spell hit the Grendel, just as it became free. It was picked up and thrown across the cavern, smacking violently into the cave wall and then falling to the cave floor.

Seeing we had a few free moments, I pointed at the growing hole and shouted, "Reducto."

The stone turned to ash, and a large opening was left behind. Wanting to be first, I called out, "Follow me."

As soon as I exited the fortress through the gap, I saw the Grendel pull itself up. When it saw me exit, it roared its frustration and charged.

I couldn't believe how fast it was moving, and I barely had time to cast the knockback jinx before it reached me.

Once again, it was tossed back like a rag doll. Once everyone had made it out, I barked, "Octavius, only engage it if it reaches us, I don't want to worry about friendly fire."

Motioning to my friends, I ordered, "Spread out and continue trying to slow it down. I'm going to try and kill this beast."

All the time we had practiced together really came in handy, as we had gone over scenarios on how to face the Grendel. While one might think that stick close to one another was most effective, it was better to spread out to present multiple targets.

Everything started coming together, and while my friends always froze it in place, I started cutting. Over and over again, I chanted, "Diffindo."

While the severing charm was useful in slicing up the Grendel, it was also continually healing. Trying to catch my breath, I glared at the Grendel and wondered what the hell it was going to take to bring this thing down.

Seeing that cutting it to pieces was not going to work. I decided to change tactics, and I chanted, "Incendio."

The fire spell was one of those spells that had a vast amount of variation to it. You could send out a short burst of fire, or as I had practiced over the year, have it run a continuous stream of fire.

As a jet stream of fire erupted from my wand and engulfed the Grendel, as it screamed in pain, I roared right back at it.

Anna joined in with another stream of fire, while Cedric and Alicia continued to slow the Grendel down.

After a couple of minutes on continues fire, the screams died away, and I let the spell fade away. What was left was a burned husk, unmoving, and kneeling on the floor. Finally, I was getting worried that nothing was going to be able to put this thing down.

I lowered my wand, breathing heavily, when all of a sudden, it leaped at me with a roar of rage. Cedric tried to freeze it, but unfortunately, the spell missed.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched the Grendel fly at me with its claws out in front of it. Try as I might, I couldn't get my wand up in time before it hit me.

As soon as the Grendel reached me, it grabbed me on each shoulder, The claws on its hands pierced deep into my skin and threw me across the cavern back towards the fortress.

As I was thrown across the room, Anna screamed, "Alex!"

I blacked out as soon as I hit the wall. I don't know how long. I was out. ?But, When I came to, I saw Octavius latched onto the back of the beast ripping into the creature with his claws and fangs. My friends were cautiously casting spells, not wanting to hit Octavius.

I could tell that I had numerous fractures, and possibly a concussion. Thankfully, I had held onto my wand, and as I reached into my pouch to dig out some potions to help. Each movement sent a sharp slice of pain deep within.

I felt better once I drank a few potions, but I was still in terrible condition. Then, I saw the Grendel swing Octavius so hard that it tore one of his arms, and he went flying across the room.

Without pausing, it turned and sprang towards Alicia. Once it caught her, it used her as a shield blocking the next hex sent by Cedric and Anna.

Struggling, I pointed my wand at its legs and weakly chanted, "Diffindo."

When the spell hit, the Grendel let out a roar of pain, and it tossed Alicia at Cedric and Anna. They all got knocked down, and then the Grendel turned back towards me.

Nearly spent, thoughts began racing through my head. This thing was virtually unstoppable, and it tanks everything we've thrown at it and come back for more. At this point, I was half-convinced that we needed to drop a mountain on top to bring it down.

As soon as that last thought entered my head, I looked up and saw the large sharp stalactites hanging from the ceiling. I looked back at my friends, who were on the far side of the cavern, near the exit tunnel. Even though the Grendel had blocked the exit, I sure they could blast their way out.

A felt a moment of fear, as I considered taking action. Doing this would lessen my chances of survial, but as I saw my friends slowly recovering my hesitation vanished, I would not let my friends die here because of my mistake.

Mustering my strength, I yelled, "Octavius, I am calling in one of my markers. Get my friends to that tunnel."

Hearing my shout, Anna, Cedric, and Alicia looked towards me in confusion. As I pointed my wand towards the ceiling, Cedric understood my meaning, and shouted, "Don't do it, you'll die!"

Seeing the Grendel headed my way, I gathered the last of my energy and let loss the deadliest curse I had learned so far. "Confringo." I roared.

A massive explosion rocked the ceiling, and loud cracking and rumbling could be heard as pieces of the cave's ceiling began falling. The Grendel charged me, determined to have its vengeance.

As the pieces started falling, I made eye contact with my friends and shouted, "Get out of here."

They all looked determined to try to save me, but Octavius stopped them and started dragging them towards the exit. The last I saw of them was Anna's tear-soaked face along with Cedric and Alicia fighting furiously to get free from Octavius.

As soon as they were gone, I let out a sigh of relief and turned my attention back to the Grendel. I had hardly any strength left, but seeing the ceiling come down so hard, made me glad that at least I was taking the Grendel down with me.

Seeing how quickly it was moving towards me, I feared it would reach me fore the falling rocks could kill it. In desperation, I pointed my wand at it and chanted my final spell, "Immobulus."

The Grendel froze in place long enough for it be buried beneath an avalanche of rocks. Not wanting to give in, I dragged myself back inside the fortress, hoping that the spells holding it together would give me an edge.

As more rock started falling, memories of my family began running through my head. Even if this was it for me, I was grateful for everything I had in this life. I had a loving family and found friends, and it was more than I ever hoped for in my previous life.

As I laid the reminiscing, everything went black, and I knew no more.