I started running forwards to the breach the second I read the message, putting my newly recovered body to good use as I could feel my newly rampant emotions fueling my body into a higher speed then I would normally be capable of. ‘Really?! An immediate threat to the surface, ten minutes until it reaches the breach?! What the hell kind of quest is this?!’ I thought to myself furiously as I swiped away the countdown to concentrate on the here and now and ignore the upcoming boss battle.

  I had spent a lot of time gaming way back when, that time feeling so long ago that I nearly couldn't believe it had happened. Though a few years is not all that long when you think about it with some perspective, I had changed so much in my last two years on earth that anything before that seemed like another life ago. Even the first few days. But that old life still clung on as I couldn’t help but see this quest like a level of a videogame, or a dungeon raid in dungeons and dragons.

  So I knew what I needed to do to prepare, and then all I could do is hope I get a good nat twenty if this thing is too high level for me. God, that brings me back… I could almost imagine I was one of my characters that happened to share my skill set. A werewolf with a paladin-monk multiclass. He was quite the fighter. And I was the last of the party alive, going to confront the BBEG at his underground lair.

  “You run towards the chasm in the rock, the strange unnatural light from beyond it becoming clearer the closer you get.” I heard Jayden, my friend and dungeon master for this session, narrate in my head with his dramatic voice. He was always the best at that, even when we were younger.

  I was seated across from him, looking down at the figurine on the table between us and the others all around us, watching silently. Kalie beside Jayden, working with him with a dark smile as usual. Ky pumped me up with energetic jumps as he worked out the tension in the room and giving me a pat of support on my shoulder. Zach, Cally and Georgia arrayed around the table between me and the two Dungeon Masters, unable to do anything. Zach looked chill, but I could see the ways his eyes narrowed at Jaden that he was razer focused. Cally was biting her nails as she looked restless and anxious with her gaze bouncing around between Jayden, Kalie, me and the board arrayed out before us. Georgia's eyes doing much the same as she shuffled from one foot to another, her eyes a little more vacant as she pictured and analyzed everything that was happening. And Isabella…

  I pace my breathing as I approached the entrance, squinting and trying to peer at what awaited me inside.

  “You stop just before you pass through, observing the environment you find yourself in front of. You appear to be standing before a large pond of water that also appears to be the main source of light in the cavern. Thousands and thousands of tiny lights seem to permeate its surface, moving and swaying in an almost hypnotic pattern. The structure of the cavern seems to be rather normal for an underground cavern, with it having a rounded shape and the shape seeming to stretch around at a bend opposite to you, the rest out of sight. The ceiling seems to be made of stalactites, with small dots of blinking and pulsing lights taking residence on it making it look like an alien starscape. Though you are sure in both cases of the light that it is simply various tiny glowing insects in reality.” I heard Jayden narrate with some whispers from Kalie who was reading some notes of hers alongside his narrating.

  I looked around as I saw just that, thinking to myself that I should probably avoid the glowing bugs if I could help it… The chance that they were poisonous, especially with Kalie being who she was and the bigger ones being venomous as well. I took a step into the room, trying to keep my eyes on everything. Then I noticed the smell permeating the room.

  “There is a stench emanating from everything around you now, one that could be described as sulfur, wet earth, minerals, dust and rotting meat, coming from seemingly everywhere.” Jayden announced, and I recoiled while trying to ignore it. It really did stink, even with my human nose.

  Then I looked out at the underground pond, and I noticed it flowing and moving in and out of the cavern I was inside even without the interference of the insects. This must be a branch from a larger underground stream or river. I started to move again, watching where I was stepping and moving towards the only path forwards, towards the bend in the underground tunnels so I could take a look around. I kept to the dry edges of the passageway, not stupid enough to go into water that was who knows how deep and with who knows what in it.

  “You walk slowly along the stone, your shuffling footsteps echoing a bit even as you try to stay quiet. After a few seconds of careful walking, you make it to the corner of the tunnel.”

  I turned my head around the corner so I could get a look at what I was walking into before I did, the warning of the system still in my mind along with all the other insect monsters that I killed. They came from here, so there would be more.

  “You see the underground pond seems to lead around the corner, being fed by a small lake that reminds you of a mountainous cove in shape, lit up with the glow of glowing insects the same as the offshoot of the cavern you came from. There is much more dry land around the edges of this small lake, and a large rock jutting from the lake in almost the direct center of it. There are also plenty of large rocks almost the size of your body standing up around the edges of the water and stalactites forming here and there. The water is more lively here as well, with bubbles rising from somewhere under the water and ripples large and small all over its surface.”

  “You also see several dozen passages into the cavern, most with the water stretching into them but some seem to lead in the opposite direction you came from and those are almost completely dry.” Jayden says, looking down at a paper I can't see along with his Co-Dm, who is now grinning as she plays with some dice with her hands.

  ‘There is totally something in the water… And probably more monsters waiting out of sight in the other tunnels.’ I think to myself as my eyes widen a little, my heart pumping blood to my head as I feel a bit of panic encroach. I stifled it with a deep breath, ignoring the stench.

  “You are going to want to check the water. Just to be sure before the fight. You don't want to get surprised when you are already fighting.” Georgia said instantly, giving me advice from across the table. Kalie instantly smacked her, and giving her trademarked harsh baby-face look. “No! You are dead, remember!” She called out in protest, only for Georgia to smirk. “My incorporeal spirit whispers it to him as we follow along behind him while invisible.” She announces, and gives a look of approval to Kalie and Jayden. Jayden looks at her for a second, internally debating whether or not to allow it. “Fine, you can talk to him as spirits. But you have to make a D20 roll for how clear your words are in the future.” He allows with his typical compromises added on. Georgia gave a satisfied nod while everyone brightened at that, even Kalie.

  I grinned.

  Ky immediately makes a roll, looks down at me and grins. “Avenge papa for papa, pup!” He calls out in his best impression of an old grandfatherly voice. I sigh. “You are not my dad, idiot! I am older than you are!” I called back to his ‘spirit’ in my mind which caused him to laugh, then I concentrated on what to do.

  “Right… so this is the most stereotypical thing to do but I am going to pick up that rock over there and throw it into the water.” I said to the others on the table in my imagination, in reality tossing a stone that was by my feet into the center of the body of water. ‘Testing the waters.’ I thought amused as I looked at it flying in the air.

  I watched in silence as the stone smacked the water, ripples spreading from the point of impact slowly with the little lights of the glowing bugs gliding away from the rock and creating a dark hole in the water. Nothing seemed to happen as I waited for a few seconds.

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  Then I saw a ripple coming from in the water, seeming to emanate from the rock protruding from the water. And as the ripple went through the water this time, all the insects turned dark in a tide and it was as if they disappeared from anywhere remotely close to the rock or the deeper parts of the water. And I saw something moving and rippling with colors of blue as another light seemed to pulse into life under the water's surface to replace it. A solid mass this time, replacing the firefly-esc glowing water bugs that had gone dark. And it was moving up to the surface of the rippling water.

  “A glowing figure slowly rises from under the surface, the water falling in curtains around its large serpentine body and highlighting its dark blue glowing eyes that lock onto you instantly, its body curling and writhing in the water in a way that makes it look angry and restless. It seems to assess you for a moment as you assess it. Its body reminds you of stories you have heard about sea serpents from the depths of the sea, only this one does not have scales but instead a glowing blue exoskeleton like the underworld centipedes you have killed before and grey skin beneath that that makes it clear that it is some kind of eel. Its long thin head and circular eyes also resemble that of an eel.” Jayden narrated the description of what appeared to be happening before me in my mind and I could hear the collective winces from my dead party.

  “Its head alone however, is almost as long as your entire arm and on top of that, the length of its body that rose above the water is easily two times your height with the rest of its body curling around the entire circumference of the lake which you can see shining through the water clearly now, much longer.” Jayden announced to the table, and Kalie cackled a bit maniacally.

  I stood strong, keeping my eyes on its own eyes in an attempt to watch its movements for any sign of attack while I winced internally and I could feel the touch of fear grab hold of my heart as I looked up at it. I started to transform, the world slowing down just a touch around me as I grew just a bit more tall and much stronger and faster than ever.

  I could almost imagine my friends around me in the cavern as I stared down the monster. Ky was shouting hype to me as he shadow boxed in the air behind me, Zach was leaning in the shadows and watching the monster just as carefully as I was, Cally was hyperventilating a little as she looked at it with a little awe, Georgia was a dozen feet away at the edge of the water, studying it.

  On the opposite side of me, Jayden was standing a little expectantly beside Kalie as she was beaming with excitement with her bright but somewhat creepy smile.

  And just beside me, I could almost feel a delicate and supporting hand on my chest, seeming to cover my Pendant that was around my neck once more. I nearly looked away from the monster's face by instinct at the feeling, but I controlled myself. It was just my imagination… She was gone long before I even died on Earth. I needed to act in the real world now.

  I pushed aside my imagination to the back of my mind, the faces of the others disappearing from my mind. But the feeling around the Pendant stayed. I faltered a bit, looking down and touching my pendant for a moment.

  That moment was all it took for the eel monster to attack, the standstill broken by my distraction.

  It lunged towards me, its body uncurling and thrusting forwards like an elastic snapping out with its body under the water punching it forwards in a quick darting attack, its mouth open and its many teeth each the size of my thumb as the water was thrust aside by its fast movement and lapping up onto the dry rock around me. If I didn't register the sudan movement in the corner of my eye or if I wasn't transformed and my mind moving two times faster than a normal human mind, my head would have been bitten clean off my body. But as it was, I barely managed to move my hands in front of the creature's wet mouth, my claws curling around its open mouth and holding it tightly open as I tried to push back against it in the second before it withdrew.

  It didn't quite work however, as although my reaction was quick and my hands were firm and my body was strong, I couldn't overcome physics as the entire weight and force behind its lunging attack sent me back with enough force that I was sent flying off my feet and crashing against the rocky wall behind me. I growled in pain as I felt my furred form smack against it with a solid thud, the back of my head feeling sore as the shock of the impact washed over me alongside my middle back and shoulder. My leather jacket and my fur on top of my thicker skin must have deadened the impact quite a bit however, because after I shook my head I felt completely fine. I didn't feel much of the the drain that my healing caused either.

  Still, after my firm awakening to the situation before me, I felt caution push back against the instinct to run right back at the serpentine monster and just start clawing and tearing through its protections. I got up from my belly on all fours as I kept my eye on the monster that looked like it was about to lunge back at my prone figure in a heartbeat and leaped to the side as it came forwards, its head hitting the stone where I used to be a second prior with a crack and causing it to let out a high pitched shrieking hiss that sounded like a cry of pain as its own force, size and weight worked against it.

  It withdrew back a bit slower than before, clearly stunned a bit by the impact, and I could see a small crack in the plates on his face that oozed that blue luminescent liquid that I was familiar with coming from the shell. And a hint of red underneath it.

  I howled as I recognized it as a moment of weakness for it on the instant before it realized it as well, and then I started to push myself off the ground on all fours and sprinting to the stunned eel’s figure only a few feet away. Its eyes widened slightly as its left eye caught sight of me just in front of it, but there was no time for it to react as the second that it saw me I was upon it.

  I ended up body slamming into the head of the eel monster with a final leap propelling me into its side, and pushing it back a good four or five feet with the initial impact, shaking its head with an impact once again in the process although much less powerfully then against the rock. But the bodyslaming was not what my attack was, and I could feel my claws dig into the cracked armour plate on its forehead, digging into the flesh underneath and widening the crack until its entire forehead plate was a spider web of cracks. But I only managed to stay on for two seconds before I was thrown by the big head of the eel as it whipped it around in pain, flinging me into the water on the opposite side of the entrance.

  The monster was hurt now, and my claws had apparently done a good deal of damage to its head, as blood flowed freely down its head as it turned to glare into my eyes with a whiplike motion. It rose higher, writhing in a hypnotic and distracting glowing armoured swaying dance, the light on its armour pulsing. That made me blink. This is a weird, almost distracting ability for a predator to have. Maybe used to lure or distract prey? But nothing about this makes sense… Animals don’t usually work like this, unless they are incredibly specific hunters. It's just how nature works.

  It let out a hiss that bounced and echoed all around the room, sounding pained and angry… But also scared and warning perhaps? Though I couldn't exactly say, it was the hiss of a monster eel. And a wounded one at that.

  Then in a split second, it moved. But not like I expected and not towards me. Its glow went out with a bright flash, and then it sunk back into the water. It was almost invisible in the water with its sudden flash of light immediately before almost complete darkness making my eyes have to adjust, but I could see the pattern of ripples on the water's surface moving as they headed through the water and towards a flooded tunnel to the left of the entrance I came through. Then it was gone, and the little glow bugs in the water slowly started glowing hesitantly in a wave as the monster fled.

  I blinked, transforming back with a little bit of mixed confusion and relief as I looked where it had left. “You know… They are still animals at their core, aren't they?” I commented to myself, realizing that it had backed off and retreated to save its own life. I had thought that monsters would fight to the death. That they would be like monsters from stories, that only care for mindless killing. Apparently not all would be.

  Then in the moment of peace after the battle, a notification sounded and a black system screen appeared so suddenly I flinched at it before realizing what it was and reading its message quickly.

  “TEN SECONDS!?”