Song: Nightcore Sarcasm By: Get Scared

( A/N You don't have to listen to the song. I just listened to it while I was writing this chapter. I tend to think that I have horrible taste in music, and I'm probably right. )

( Mia's P.O.V )
The creature's eyes were glowing a crimson red and it had almost a crazed look in its eyes. The eyes pupils were narrowed vertical, almost like cat's. It snarled at us, exposing its teeth. Its teeth and claws looked as if they could pierce deep into ones skin, and they most likely could. It had a large tail and it stood on all four legs, and their skin was a navy purple, close to the color black, but not quite. Extended scales had popped out from its back and legs. It had a strong and muscular posture. It could definitely run fast.

"Please tell me that, that's the only one down here..." I muttered.
"I really doubt that...RUN!" Grayson yelled. That was all I needed to here, and we both took off running. I looked back and saw the creature was running, but Drake hadn't moved.
"Drake! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Grayson yelled.
"Just go! I can deal with it!" He called back. Grayson looked back at me and then at Drake. The creature was getting closer and closer.
"You better not die!!!" Grayson shouted back. He took me by my wrist and we took off running.

( Drake's P.O.V )
By the time that Grayson and Mia had left the creature was able to catch up to me and pinned my to the floor, its claws digging into both my shoulder blades. I groaned in pain. It opened its mouth to bite me and I kicked it off. I quickly took out a piece of paper that was shaped like a rectangle, trying my hardest to ignore the pain. I was mostly able to, but I still cringed. The creature shook its head, as I was doing this, and lunged at me again. I was to dodge it, but it turned around and hit me on my face with its tail. I held the paper rapidly out in front of me and chanted a word that would stop it.

"Annullera!" I called. ( A/N I used google translate)
The paper started to glow as did the four-legged creature. Soon both the paper and the creature became shards of the color of raven black.
'I knew it.' I thought. "Black Magic. Of course." I muttered.

I held onto my shoulders tightly and began walking towards the direction that Grayson and Mia had gone. I gingerly reached for my backpack and pulled out some bandages and a potion of regeneration that Grayson had bought at the inn. I patched myself up and drank the weird tasting potion. I put the half full bottle into my bag and walked at a faster pace.

( Grayson's P.O.V ) -FINALLY-

I took Mia to a somewhat safe place that was far enough from the creature we saw. That was definitely no nightcrawler. 'Drake better be alive.' I thought.

"What WAS that?!" Mia whispered-yelled, as she was panted from all the running.
"I don't know! Drake had better be alive. We should go back!" I stated, turning around. Mia grabbed the collar of my jacket and pulled me back.
"What is it?"
"Drake told us that he could deal with it. We should wait here. You need to trust him Grayson." I looked back from where we had sprinted away. Then back at Mia, then back at the hallway. I sighed.
"I trust Drake."
-----
A while has passed since our encounter from the monster. Me and Mia watched each-others backs, as we awaited Drake's return. We stayed exactly where we were.
"Where is he?! He better not be dead!" I inquired.
"It has been a whi-" Something cut Mia's sentence short. Something more like...a growl.
We both froze instantly in place. We both slowly looked at where the noise came from. There at us, was another creature, except with golden eyes, ready to lunge at us. It started dashing towards us. I raised my sword to strike it and it came on top of me. I was pinned to the floor by it.

"Grayson!" Mia shouted. I stabbed it chest and it cried out in pain. I dragged myself out from its grip, yet it didn't die. I stared at it for a couple of seconds.
'Wait...is that...a Panther?' I thought. Mia raised her bow and shot its neck. She then helped me up.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine."

NORMALLY someone that took that many deep wounds would be dead by now. But all the 'panther' did was knock off the arrow, and its wounds closed instantly. Mia and I gasped. 'Immediate recovery?' I thought in awe. The 'panther' got back up and lunged with it teeth towards Mia.
"Mia!" I shouted, as I ran towards her. She shot an arrow at its neck again and knocked it off with his tail. We heard faint footsteps.
'More?!' I thought. We would have to make a run for it.

"Annullera!" We heard a familiar voice called. It's eyes widen and it started glowing. Soon it turned into nothing but untouchable and unharmful shards.
"Drake!" Mia and I yelled at the same time we both ran over and hugged him.
"Ow, ow..." Drake winced. We stopped and got what he was meaning. On both his shoulders, we saw bandages wrapped around them, and blood was starting to appear.
"What happened to you!?!?" Mia blurted. He put his hands on his shoulders and held them tightly to stop the pain from continuing most likely.
"It scratched me...but I'll be fine. We shouldn't be worried about me. It's the creatures we should be worried about. They're made from pure Black Magic." He informed us.

"Black...Magic? How can you tell?" Mia inquired.
"The way the eyes glowed. The shards of the actual Black Magic. The book where it said He sent something down here."
"Hmm...that's weird...when we fought Him didn't he spawn some monsters?" I asked.
"Maybe because he didn't need those at the time? Unless those things were like the nightcrawlers." Drake suggested.

"If that's the case, then we need to get out of here as quickly as possible. There has to be tons of things here. And the fact that they can regenerate...is a really big problem." Mia announced.
"I agree, we need to find those stairs as quickly as possible. Are any of you guys hurt?" Drake inquired. Mia and I shook our heads.
"I think we should really be worried about you..." I said, whilst pointing to one of his shoulders. He chuckled hesitantly.
"I guess. Let's get a move on." Drake insisted, pulling out his sword.

-----
"Annullera!" Drake chanted, as me and Mia distracted it.
I got scratched by it slightly on my leg, but the cut barely left blood. Mia was luckily unharmed.
"Don't these things look like panthers to you guys?" I piped up. Mia nodded.
"Now that you brought it up, they kind of do..." Drake trailed off.

We turned a couple of corners and saw an entrance to another room. We walked into it and had there was nothing really inside. A couple of sleeping bags, cracked glass bottles, and a furnace for a fireplace. The room was somewhat circular. I went over to it and got out my flint and steel. I lit it and the golden sparks fell into the wood, and it illuminated brightly.

"We stay here a rest for a bit." I said, as I sat down. The others didn't protest. We set down our things, but we had kept our weapons at a near distance.

( Mia's P.O.V )
We set down our things and I took out and piece of bread. As did Grayson and Drake. I turned to Drake.
"Don't you ever run out of those papers?" I asked him, as I took a bite of my bread. He looked at me for a second in confusion but then understood what I was talking about.
"If they run out, I can generate more. They're seals. They're used for things that are Black Magic entities." He answered.
"So that's what they're for..." I trailed off. We stayed in silence for minutes. Grayson then stood up and gathered his things.

"Are you guys ready to go? If not, then I can keep watch." Grayson offered.
Me and Drake stood up and shook our heads. We gathered out things and followed just behind Grayson.
"I don't think we went this way." I said as I made my way ahead of them.

"Does look like we haven't gone here..." Drake trailed off.
A huge kinda square room. There were a couple of chests in minecarts, and railways that had passageways that were too small for us with the minecart. I went over to one of the chests and opened it up, careful not to be too loud. My eyes brighten up.

"Artifacts!" I squealed and immediately put them in my bag. I look at another and was a little dishearten that there weren't anymore.
"There's a couple of Rupies in here guys!" Grayson said, putting them in his backpack. We moved onto the opposite direction.

Pitter-pat.

We all froze. We turned around slowly and saw a whole hoard of 'panthers.'

"We can't take on all of them at the same time!" I whispered.

"This time, we run! You too Drake!" Grayson called, taking us by the wrists and dragging us along with him.

We only ran ahead of them barely, and they had ran extremely quick. We turned the next corner on the mines and found staircases. We sprinted down them, but I wasn't fast enough and one of them left a gash on my shoulder blade and shoulder. I cried in pain. Drake and Grayson turned around while running.

"MIA!" They called. I was just behind them. Grayson gritted his teeth and his grip on Andruin tightened.

"I'll be fine!" I yelled back and ran faster. I wasn't fine. And they both could see that. This is the pain that Drake feels?! And the fact that it's on both of his shoulders?! That's insane. I ran even faster, panting. We turned and turned corners. Until we reached a dead end.

"Absolutely amazing!" Drake called sarcastically.

Deja vu.
Drake took out some of the sheets of paper. A couple of them, actually.

"Eliminera!" He called, and slowly, the papers started to glow a bright lime green. He throw the papers casually and the papers swayed onto the panthers scales, almost as if they knew where they were going. It stuck on them and the creatures started to glow as well. They then only turned into the untouchable shards of Black Magic.

I kneeled down on the floor and held onto my shoulder tightly and gasped for breath.
Grayson knelt down beside me and quickly got out a cloth and gingerly wiped off the blood and Drake handed him the bandages, giving me the health potion. I drank it after Grayson finished tending to my wounds.
"Thanks." I said to both of them. Grayson smiled and turned to Drake.

"Thank Drake. If he didn't use that spell, then we would have been royally screwed." I chuckled. Drake looked slightly pale.
"Are you okay Drake? You look a bit pale." I asked. He nodded and held his head, but didn't look in pain.
"Probably for using a lot of mana."

"Should we rest? Your magic is literally the only thing that's keeping us alive." He nodded.
"I'll take first watch while you guys rest." Grayson offered. Drake nodded and fell asleep instantly. I fell into a light sleep.
'Do they usually go through tense things like this? Their whole lives? It was very possible that Drake had. If you connect the dots on his life, he had to be in danger and fear for his life. I don't know about Grayson.'