One Dungeon to Another

"[D] Initiating Boss Fight protocol."

I look up in time to see the screen split in two vertically. Each side slides into the walls, revealing a giant humanoid robot - easily fifteen feet tall - as the room seems to expand to accommodate it.

"[D] Captain, Lieutenant, please assist in defeating the nephilim. I do not wish either of you hurt."

Demona shakes herself out of her shock. "[D] Computer, override code... 'Demona, Koran, Mara, Rita'."

"[D] Override code expired. Continuing Boss Fight protocol. Warning: further interference will label you as enemies."

The giant machine raises a fist, pointing it directly at me. "Find a way out!" I run forward, ducking and rolling as the fist thrusts, denting the floor behind me with the impact. Standing back up, I close the distance to the robot's main body, hopping up on the back, non-buttony part of the console to push myself further in the air. As I'm about to slash into the main body, the torso twists around, the chain connecting the launched fist to the robot colliding with me and shunting me into the side wall. Think I heard a rib or two...

The chain is pulled taut, and the fist drags across the floor. Simultaneously, the other fist rises toward me, a cannon of some kind unfolding out from the forearm. Shit. I push myself up, wincing from the pain in my chest as I **** myself to run. Not even a second later, I hear the *whirr* of some kind of rotor, followed by the feeling of heat from a thick blue laser just behind me hitting the wall.

Let's not find out how that feels... I ready myself and my dark blade, watching the mechanical monster twist completely toward me.

"Sir! I have a plan!" Bel's voice barely reaches my ears through the ringing I only now realize is there.

The machine aims the laser cannon at me again, and I prepare to dodge out the way. "Feel free to fill us in!"

. . .

I feel the heat of the charging beam once more as I hit one last button on the console. The blue glow dies down, and I collapse onto my rear, the adrenaline rush wearing off. "I can't believe that worked..." I guess a semester of programming pays off...and also the fact that the machine is operating in demonic.

The robot - now missing one leg and its chain arm, which are both on the floor - stands frozen, before it begins falling like a ragdoll, crashing into the wall. "[D] System restart complete. Factory settings restored. Please register primary user."

I glance to Demona, who has some visible cracks along her stony skin as she sits against the wall, but she finds the strength to give me a thumbs up. "Go for it, boss..."

I nod, pulling myself up and leaning forward onto the console. "Dusk Blackwing."

"[D] Recovering file... Welcome, Lord Blackwing. Warning: alpha-level user has issued an order for your elimination."

"[D] Computer, who was that user?"

"[D] Error: File corrupted."

I sigh. "Of course." Looking at my teammates, I switch focus. "Bel, Demona, how you feeling?"

The undead gives me a thumbs up, her head a few yards away. "I will need some time to recover."

Demona coughs, her voice strained. "I'll be fine..."

I begin healing myself a bit as I walk over to the gargoyle. "You'll be fine after you're healed." I kneel down, tracing my glowing hand across the cracks. "Been a while since it's been this bad for you, huh?"

She laughs before coughing again, though it sounds much less pained than before. "I've had worse. You shoulda seen me after Alkadabuki came through last year."

Last year...that's when the Saintesses killed the last Demon King, I think. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that when I have to fight her."

The gargoyle forces another chuckle, the cracks along her slowly closing off as her smile drops. "Yeah...let's hope not..." She clears her throat. "I should be good for now."

I nod, standing up to go over to Belinda. "How about you?" The undead's body looks completely broken, only her right arm not bending at an unnatural angle as it clutches the blade. She'd done her best to distract the mech while I operated the terminal. Can't imagine how bad this all feels, even with dulled senses...

"My body hurts tremendously." Bel - the head - mentions.

"Well, let's get that fixed, shall we?" I begin casting heal, only to yank my hand back after a dark, deathly aura emerges from it. Right...undead target, gotta use **** magic instead of life. I begin casting again, the sickly grey glow still unsettling me a bit as I use my other hand to help reset the bones.

"Thank you."

A few minutes later, Bel is healed...mostly. My magic doesn't seem to work as well on her. Probably because she isn't human, so my oaths aren't helping out... Maybe taking Cleric isn't a bad idea after all, since they have some necromancy... I pull her up to her feet, but she quickly stumbles and falls against me. "Don't worry, I've got you."

Linda wraps her arms around me, though follows my advice of not over-exerting her limbs, only holding tight with her good arm. "I suppose I will be taking leave earlier than expected." I turn my head, spotting Demona - still a bit cracked - holding up Bel.

The gargoyle chuckles. "Knowing you, you weren't planning on taking any leave."

With a chuckle myself, I shift to have Belinda's arm over my shoulder to help prop her up, reaching out for her head. Demona hands her to me, and I rejoin the undead together. "How you feeling, now?"

She adjusts her legs, stretching them before placing more weight against me. "I will definitely be resting the next few days."

"I'd say you earned it. The metal here alone should be enough to cover the king's test..." Right...her uncle... "Speaking of-"

"Another time, please."

I shrug. "I'm not gonna **** a sore subject. Anyway, we should probably head back and-..." I pause, feeing a somewhat familiar tugging sensation. I shake my head. "Let's head back for the night. We all need some-" That tugging again...Kara? "Sorry, do you guys mind taking a short break here? Demona, maybe you can use the computer to find something out?"

She nods, although looks a bit confused. "Something wrong?"

"Maybe. Kara seems like she-" Another tug, this one more forceful - no, ****. "Yeah, something's wrong." I help Bel lean against the wall before sitting against it. "Hopefully I'll be back in a few minutes." I slow my breathing, concentrating on the tether between myself and the kitsune.

I stumble, crashing into the ground as a feeling of panic washes over me.

"Dusk! We must hurry!" I'm pulled up by the scruff of my neck and **** into a run on all fours. Briefly taking in my surroundings, Miki and Kara had been running through the forest in their fox forms before I possessed the mio.

"What's happening?"

"Kaguya's in trouble! Hurry!" She rushes ahead, and if it weren't for Pure Land, I doubt Kara would be able to keep up with her sprint.

My heart races. What could have happened? I only took a glance at his stats, but he's supposed to be a decent level fighter or something, right? He should have at least been able to get away! It's then that I catch whiff of a familiar smell, only amplified by Kara's canine nose. ...blood...

We come upon the source quickly, to find that there's a bit of a trail. Pausing only a moment, Miki races off, and I push to follow. Again, I'm reminded to be thankful of **Pure Land** for the speed boost.

Miki suddenly stops, and I pass her by a few feet before doing the same, another scent mixing with the iron-y tinge to the air. Looking around, I make sure we're still alone, not being watched or followed.

I find Miki sniffing at some paw prints in the dirt. "Wolves..." She doesn't wait more, in fact even seeming hurried by tue revelation.

Wolves? Surely they can't be worse than fighting Diana or that mech earlier. Regardless, I follow her as closely as I can.

Within a minute, we charge into a cave, the blood trail still fresh. What feels like only a few steps later, the cavern opens up, and we find ourselves among a group of ten- no, twelve wolves, each one looking bigger than I expected. On the side, Kaguya lies in a pool of blood.

"Kaguya!" Miki seems to split in four, each image rushing over to help her husband. Two of them dissipate after being assaulted by wolves, but the other two reach their mark, one of them biting into the neck of a younger-looking wolf chomping on the man's leg.

Dread washes over me as other wolves begin to tread closer to both of us. I'm snapped out of my shock when the first wolf pounces, biting into my shoulder and tackling me to the ground. I yelp, before gritting my teeth and concentrating. Please work... I conjure a light blade, feeling my snout bite down on it as a glow stretches to the corner of my vision. I twist my neck, feeling my struggles successful as I hear some sizzling, followed by the jaw unclenching and a yip.

Flipping to my paws, I keep focusing, trying to conjure up a light bolt, only to feel a twinge in my three tails. Suddenly, three bolts shoot forward, two crashing into the stone wall and the third hitting the thigh of one of several wolves in front of me.

I smirk as much as I can in my borrowed vulpine form. This just got a whole lot more interesting. I ready another volley as two more wolves attempt to latch onto me, from both sides. Hopping back, I jerk my head to slash at the one on my left. A howl of pain confirms my hit, and three more bolts elicit another one or two yips from the pack...it's hard to aim when you're firing from behind your head...

I'm suddenly rammed in my right side knocking the wind out of me, and making me drop my blade. I'm about to get up when a pair of paws set themselves down on either side. As drool drips down onto my cheek, the darker-furred wolf gives a deep chuckle. "[D] ...sexy...fox..."

It can speak? I can't help but glance down, the wolf's knotted cock erect. It's times like this that make me thankful Kara's a lesbian, so I have absolutely no influence causing me to even consider it... It's probably also helping that Kara's dad's bleeding out a dozen feet away. "[D] No thanks." I lean up, biting at his neck. As the taste of iron fills my mouth, I can't help but slightly regret the instinctive choice, but it's effective enough to get him to recoil.

The wolf howls, hopping back, and giving me enough room to flip over and stand. Briefly given reprieve, I look at it through God's Eye, confirming that this one is a 'dire wolf alpha', and indeed has at least some intelligence. He shakes his head, snarling and staring right into my eyes. I squint, conjuring another light blade to fight with.

"[D] Come at me!"

. . .

I limp over to my parents, favoring my fore left and hind right legs. "How...how are you doing?"

Mother looks to me, blood soaking her fur, but impossible to tell who's it is. "How much...mana do you have left?"

"Enough..." I look to my father, still bleeding profusely on the ground. "...I hope..." I set my fore paws on his chest and begin healing him, feeling this empty...almost hunger sensation that I haven't felt in a long time. The light from my paws flickers as my vision goes double for a moment, but I **** myself to focus.

"Dusk, we can handle this from here." Mother's own paws give a soft glow of their own.

Dusk? Isn't he...didn't he... I blink, shaking my head as I feel woozy again. "No...I can't...leave Father... He needs me..."

"Dusk...you and Kara...need rest."

Kara? Aren't I... "...jus...jus a mome-" The floor rushes up at me.

A/N: With Senior Year at Magic Academy starting up, I'm now trying to alternate between that story and this one. I'm going to try for biweekly updates on each, so next week it'll be Academy, and the week after it'll be Monster, and so on. I can't guarantee anything, but that's what I'm going to try.

In other news, I'm starting a Patreon! I don't expect much, and I want to iterate that I do this because I want to, not for monetary gain. However, a couple people have expressed interest in having pictures for our main cast. I'm no artist myself, but if we get three patrons, I will pay my own money to hire a HUMAN artist to make HUMAN-GENERATED portraits for our characters, and maybe even some cinematic-style pictures for major locations, like Riverbend, Recuan, and the Hornet Nest. Another thing to note is that patrons will only be charged for every six total new chapters (three of Monster, three of Academy), and never more than once per month.

Patrons will get early access to chapters for both Monster and Academy (both of which have their next chapters posted there already), as well as possibly other stories, if I ever find the inspiration and/or time. Patreon also has a current map of Riverbend, which will be updated with changes whenever they appear. (To clarify, the commissioned images will be available and included in the story.)