Rushing down the hollow halls of the cavern, he was greeted bycyrie who left from circr, carved out rooms within the expansive domain within the mountain, only to be eviscerated by his sharp, ck ws.


    He slowed down after noticing that within the rooms, humans were kept imprisoned–though none that he could see yet were still alive and breathing.


    Despicable. These creatures of darkness must be wiped out. The stench of their evil is unbearable, he thought.


    Walking down the halls, he continued to check each and every room for Elena, keeping his draconic senses honed as he traversed the bowels of the enemy''s territory.


    As he traversed the halls, he was stopped as he picked up the sound ofbored, yet quiet, weak breathing from one of the many hole-in-the-wall rooms.


    He quickly moved up, looking into one of the rooms to find a young man chained to the damp wall of rigid rock, cut and bruised with flesh missing from his arms and legs.


    "...Are you alright…?" Akanni asked gently as he stepped into the room.


    He didn''t receive an answer from the weak, frail man of shaggy, blonde locks. Just as he knelt down in front of the injured captive, the frail man jumped, pressing against the wall and trembling out of fear.


    Now that he had a closer look, he could see the marks of decaying flesh on his body; the touch of thecyrie''s darkness.


    "No, no, no, no, no…!" He repeated through a shaky, fear-soaked voice.


    "I won''t hurt you," Akanni assured him.


    Though his words didn''t seem to get through to the main enveloped in trauma, who seemed to have been locked away and kept to rot in his own filth.


    "...No! No! Don''t! No, no, no!" The man covered his head, curling up against the ground.


    He looked at the hand he reached out towards the man with, stopping as he stared at the w-like nails that extended from his hand, reaching up to feel the sable horns that curved from the sides of his head.


    Am I…a monster to him? Akanni thought.


    Any movement he made caused the tortured man to flinch, tremble, and cry in fear. He returned to his feet, cutting the chains with a quick sh of his hand before he made his leave from the room.


    "Venture not to leave this room for another hour," Akanni told him calmly as he made his way out, "by then, the ones who hurt you will be gone."


    After leaving that one rocky cell, he soon found many others–some less afflicted, some far more gravely so.


    There were too many; the amount of bodies, alive and dead, surpassed hisprehension of evil that thecyrie couldmit. He went through, cutting each of their chains, though all were afflicted with enough trauma that their quivering bodies would not even stand.


    It was a disgusting concept to him; the torture and subjugation of others.


    The strong are strong to protect the weak. That is why I couldn''t stay in my own homnd; a n that so fervently believed in "only the strongest are meant to survive"--if as an infant, you did not meet their standards, you were banished to the wilnds to die.


    There is nothing more detestable in this world than those who do not consider those weaker than themselves; ones who do not look at the path they walk on, but simply stamp out whatever meaningless life persists below, he thought.


    ncing around, though, he left a trail ofcyrie bodies in his wake, ncing at the cells that held the freed, but still bound by fear humans.


    …Iris and Felix are better suited for saving. I am a destroyer. It is not my ce in this world tofort those in pain. Still, I must find Elena, he resolved.


    Again, he dashed forward, moving with speeds that made thecyrie further down the maze-like corridors of the mountain-innards unable to react to his draconic self.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Before the hunchback, man-eatingcyrie could raise their weapons, he was already past them, swiping his ws as their heads were separated from their shoulders in a moment''s passing.


    This is their own justice. unting their strength, subjugating others with it and filling them with such scars that willst a lifetime–I will let them know what it means to be helpless in the face of the overwhelming strong, he thought.


    From the ceiling and floor,cyrie ambushed him, but the draconic reflexes bestowed to him caused him to flick his heavy, armored tail as it beheaded the brutish orc behind him. For the in that chose to attack him whilst descending from the ceiling with a trident, he pped its head, causing its neck to violently spin and snap as thecyrie fell dead, instantly, hanging from the rocky ceiling.


    However, a new problem arose as he grew closer to the end of the halls, setting his eyes on a familiar head of verdant hair, though it was difficult to see, even with his enhanced eyesight: blocking his path, a fewcyrie began to weave spells, readied for his approach.


    "---!"


    Through their gargled, iprehensiblenguage, they manifested their dark arts into the form of an abyssal gale that swept through the narrow halls of rock, leaving no option for him in the sense of evading.


    The dark gale took the shape of multiple skulls, screeching and howling their deathly tune as it rapidly approached his position.


    As calm and collected as the draconic, dark-skinned man remained, he drew in arge breath, letting his muscr chest expand with the hefty intake of air he brought into his lungs.


    With a mighty breath, he unleashed from his pursed lips a golden me that propelled like a mighty wave of a thundering sea through the corridors.


    The majested, gilded mes had no trouble sweeping past the coalesced dark arts as if it was nothing more than a breeze in the path of hungering mes. With nothing left in their way, the breath-released mes crashed against thecyrie, reducing them to charred, lifeless husks within moments, leaving nothing in his path as he continued to the chamber at the end of the maze-like corridors.


    "Elena–!" He called out as his deep voice echoed off of the mmy walls.


    Though as he reached her, expecting to find a damsel in distress, all he found was the verdant-haired woman, surrounded by a pile of evisceratedcyrie, wiping blood from her cheek as her crimson eyes moved to him.


    "What''re you yelling for?" Elena asked, wiping her shortsword against one of the bodies of the bisectedcyrie, cleaning the fresh blood from its silver-and-ck steel.


    "I thought…" Akanni started, but was at a loss for words.


    There wasn''t a scratch on her pale skin, not on her russet-brown pants, nor a tear of her ck cloak, and not even a nick on the basic, steel-armoring that padded her shins, knees, and boots.


    I underestimated her. Though…I am d my impression was wrong, he smiled to himself small.


    He watched as she finished wiping her shortsword down, sliding it into the sheath stationed against her lower back as only the ivory, bone-like handle was left shown.


    "Anyway, there were a lot more, too much for me actually, but after a lot ofmotion, they ran down the halls," Elena told him, ncing past him at the corridor he came from, "...but, looks like you took care of that."


    "...I did," he confirmed with a nod after ncing back, feeling a tad bit bashful of the destruction heid to the halls.


    "Nice work, big guy," Elena said, lightly tapping his shoulder with the knuckles of her light gauntlets, sounding somewhat sarcastic as she kicked one of the lifelesscyrie, "these bastards tried to put their sooty hands on me–that wasn''t happening. Anyway…where are the other two? Goggles and Iris?"


    He watched as Elena continued to lightly kick the body of thecyrie though it was long since dead,ying in a pool of the coalesced blood of the fallen group.


    "Fighting an entire horde," Akanni told her with a serious tone, "they gave me an opening to pass, and are holding the horde back so I coulde rescue you…but it seemed you didn''t need saving."


    "Damn right," Elena said, though she fiddled with the verdant locks on her shoulder, bringing a tuft of her green hair meekly by her mouth, "...but, thanks. I appreciate it."


    He didn''t know how to ept her gratitude as he stood there nkly for a few moments before a sense of urgency rushed through him.