“Wait up!” shouted Barry, who was struggling to keep up with the rest.

  “You catch up!” Chloe retorted with the same volume without stopping her feet. “We are already going slower than we like.”

  They were rushing through the cavern, hurrying to the tunnel that would take them out of the cave. They had already quickened their pace since their encounter with the predator. Now, they were sprinting. The reason for that was the sound of the lizard wolves. They were nearby, and from the sound of it, they numbered in the hundreds. With that number, Henry had no trouble picking up their scent. They were far away, but they were rapidly approaching their location.

  “Damn it. I thought they were afraid of you!” Alex whined.

  “Strength in numbers,” Henry responded calmly. “They probably think they have the advantage in numbers.”

  “Do they?” Ani inquired sincerely.

  “They do,” Henry admitted. “I can kill them all, but not without killing ourselves in the process.”

  “Guys… please. For real now… I can’t…” Barry struggled to speak, and he struggled even harder to keep running. “Alex… help me…” he grabbed onto the hem of Alex’s jacket.

  “Let go of me, you idiot,” Alex baulked, gncing behind him. “You’re gonna make me trip! I’m tired enough as it is.”

  “I carried your ass for hours!”

  “No one asked you to, you i—” Alex lost his voice, stolen by fear. His eyes widened.

  Seeing his friend’s expression, Barry also turned around to look at the cause. What he saw stole his voice and left his mouth agape.

  On the ceiling, there was a lizard wolf twice the size of the usual ones. It had deep bck skin that would have blended well with the darkness if it weren’t for the glowing mosses on the ceiling.

  Henry was the first to notice the two as he stopped hearing their footsteps. He turned around and saw the same thing as the two. “Holy fuck. Of course, there would be an alpha-esque variant.”

  Chloe and Ani also stopped and turned around. Before they could express their surprise, Henry had already charged at the Alpha lizard wolf, just as the Alpha lunged at the two gging behind.

  Henry crashed into the Alpha before it could reach the two that was frozen in horror. The crash between the lizard wolf and a humanoid dragon snapped them out of their daze.

  “What the fuck are you two idiots doing? Run!” Chloe shouted at them.

  Fear was an effective motivator. Barry found strength in his legs and immediately took off into a sprint. Alex lost his bance as he tried to run, but he immediately scrambled back up and ran for his life.

  Meanwhile, Henry was still engaged in a scuffle and struggle with the Alpha lizard wolf. It would be more apt to call it a lizard werewolf at this point. It had a much more humanoid appearance compared to the others, and it was also significantly stronger. Henry found himself being slowly pushed back. He was pinning the Alpha down with his hands when it suddenly grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands away.

  The Alpha growled at Henry as it was overpowering him. It spread its jaws wide open and thrust forward with its open mouth. Henry responded by ramming the Alpha with his head. As expected, his skin was as tough as always. The Alpha’s fangs broke off against Henry’s defence. It flinched and howled in agony over its lost teeth. Feeling the Alpha’s grip loosen on him, Henry flung the Alpha’s hands away and grabbed it by the neck before choke smming it to the ground. Before the Alpha could compose itself, Henry unleashed his bzing breath onto the Alpha at point-bnk. The Alpha could do nothing but scream and screech in utter agony as it was being burned alive and reduced to ashes. It struggled and filed its limbs, but Henry had learned to put all of his weight on his victim.

  After making sure the Alpha was truly nothing but cinders and ashes, Henry picked himself up off the ground. He saw no one in sight. Ani and the rest had already run ahead. He wasn’t afraid that they would be lost. The path ahead was a straightforward one. They only needed to run without making any turns. Even if they did, he would know they had taken a wrong turn, and he would simply find them and lead them back on the right path.

  Thinking so, Henry began to run after them. Just then, something dropped down in front of him. It was a lizard wolf. He didn’t think twice and stomped the lizard wolf ft on its head. Not a second went by, and another lizard wolf dropped in front of him. Before he could stomp this one, another one dropped down from above. He looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling. Lizard Wolves were pouring in from that hole, literally.

  The lizard wolves looked afraid to be in Henry’s presence, but their fears did not st long. Seeing their brethren by their sides, fear became a lost effect. They pounced on Henry when their numbers grew beyond the twenties.

  With a punch, Henry sent two of the Lizard Wolves flying with nearly every bone in their bodies shattered or broken. He stomped on the ones that tried to bite his leg. The ones that crept up on him from behind were shredded by his wings. One tried to bite his neck, but it ended up getting bitten in the neck instead. The lizard wolves were incessant with their efforts. No matter how many Henry killed or crushed, they just kept coming as if they believed all the sacrifices would be worth it and they would eventually succeed in killing him if they tried hard enough.

  “Ah, fuck it!” Henry growled and aimed his mouth at the ground. He then unleashed a Firebolt, creating an explosion that swallowed many of the lizard wolves and sent a tremor across the cave. Wails and cries echoed throughout the cavern. The explosion freed him from the swarming of the lizard wolves. He seized the opportunity to run for the tunnel. He had to steel himself against the pungent burnt smell of the many charred lizard wolves. They smelled exceptionally bad. They were already enough while they were living. In their deaths, they were worse.

  The lizard wolves were unperturbed by the explosion and the fmes. They charged through the smoke and fmes, chasing after Henry.

  “Where did they get their persistence?” Henry grumbled. He had a faint hope that the lizard wolves would be deterred. But as, they chased after him despite the gruesome deaths of their brethren.

  The lizard wolves were no match for Henry’s speed, but they were not only coming from behind. They were also in front of him, having poured in from other holes.

  “Motherfu—” Henry cursed as a lizard wolf lunged for his head. He wouldn’t die from it, but it would hurt a lot, and it would feel extremely uncomfortable. He swatted the lizard wolf away like a fly. Seeing that the lizard wolves were not making way for him, he let loose a breath of fire at them. The lizard wolves screamed as the fmes consumed them. Yet, they still did not scatter. They stared at Henry intently with madness behind their gazes.

  The lizard wolves surged towards Henry in droves, and he drowned them in his fmes. Once a path was made as a result of their reduced number, Henry broke through the flock and hurried towards Ani and the others.

  They were not faring much better. Henry caught up to them in no time as they were engaged in a fight with the lizard wolves. They were coming from all directions.

  “Henry, we’re surrounded!” Chloe shouted as she kicked away two lizard wolves that tried to take a bite at her.

  “Not shit!” Henry retorted. He cracked his tail like a whip at the lizard wolves, snapping a few necks.

  “We can’t hold them off forever!” Ani was yelling in panic. She was cutting down all the lizard wolves that were aiming for the two deadweights. She had no problems pulling her own weight, but to protect others at the same time, she was failing. Barry and Alex were no superhumans. They were only as effective as their weapons, which they didn’t have at the moment.

  There was no end to the lizard wolves. They were emerging continuously from the darkness as if the entire colony of lizard wolves in the cave were swarming them.

  This was not normal, Henry realised.

  Something was forcing the lizard wolves to act in this manner. Their unrelenting assault was a stark contrast to their cautious and submissive nature from before. It wasn’t something as simple as finding the courage to confront a strong opponent. There was no courage involved. This was… desperation. They were attacking out of desperation.

  “Fuck… we are facing the entire colony!” Henry yelled.

  “Why is the entire colony coming for us?!” Chloe questioned.

  “They had no choice. They are desperate.”

  “But what could make them so desperate?”

  “Their predators, that’s what. Those things are smart, and they knew they couldn’t take me on in a fair fight.”

  “So, they are using the lizard wolves?”

  “That would certainly expin their odd behaviour. They are throwing themselves at me without any fear. Evidently, they are afraid of something else more than death. The extinction of their kind.”

  “Why attack us instead of their predator, then!?”

  “You can ask them.”

  “Oh, piss off!” Chloe grunted.

  “Henry!!” Ani yelled. It sounded more urgent than ever.

  Henry turned to her. Dread seeped into him. The lizard wolves were overwhelming Ani, and the two were being dragged away by the lizard wolves.

  “Save them!”

  Henry wanted to argue, but seeing Ani’s unwavering determination, he couldn’t defy her wish. Casting away his fears, Henry went to the two’s assistance. Thankfully, the lizard wolves were careful with the two. They had no intention of killing them, probably to store them as food for ter or for their young. Henry swiped his cws at the lizard wolves biting on the two’s legs. Once freed, he grabbed them and leapt to safety, or at least a spot safer than where they were, which was beside Chloe. She had near-indestructible defence like Henry when she had her armour skin-suit donned.

  Then, a sharp scream could be heard. Fearing the worst, Henry snapped his gaze to the source of the scream. He was relieved for a moment, as it wasn’t the worst, but it was close to becoming one. Ani had lost her sword, and a humongous lizard wolf in bck, much like the presumed Alpha from before, was biting down on her right arm. She was hitting the lizard wolf’s snout and nose with her other hand, but the lizard wolf showed not a hint of letting go.

  Henry immediately lunged at the supposed Alpha without a second thought. However, there were a dense group of lizard wolves between him and Ani.

  “Damn it!” Henry roared. “Ani!!”

  The other lizard wolves were taking swipes at Ani, with one of them trapping her arm. She was fending them off with her kicks, but not for long.

  “Move!!” Henry howled, but the swarm only got bigger. He wouldn’t be able to reach Ani in time, and he knew that. There was only one thing he could do if he wished to save Ani from a terrible fate. He took in a deep breath and aimed in the direction of Ani. “Don’t miss… please don’t miss…” he begged and prayed to himself.

  Ani let out another scream as the Alpha pulled on its cmped jaws.

  Henry threw his mouth wide open and unleashed the bzing energy he had accumuted within him. Instead of a cluster and a shower of fmes, what came out was a thin stream of controlled fmes that resembled Jetstream Breath, but with even more precision. The fmes cut through all the lizard wolves in the way, and also the head of the Alpha lizard wolf that was biting down on Ani’s arm, all the while without incurring any colteral damage to Ani and the surroundings.

  “...I did it,” Henry gasped in relief.