I would like to personally thank both ironicbear32 and The Toast Ninja for there reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter and remember to review.

Gregor held his hand off to the side feeling the wind rush past it, like out the window of a car, this had become quite the boring ride fast. He decided it would be better than nothing if he played I spy with Enos. "Do you want to play a game, the point of it is to guess what I am looking at with my echolocation. I will give you hints until you get it" Gregor finished hopefully awaiting an answer.

"That sounds much better than just flying in silence, I will start" Enos sent off a barrage of sound waves. "I see something pointy" Enos said, and patiently yet expectantly waited for Gregor to respond. He sent off sound waves, slowly swiveling in all directions to get good coverage. There was nothing in front or to his right or left that fit the description, so he turned around. It only took one sound wave to tell that something was horribly wrong, but he sent out a second just to be sure.

He turned forward and said under his breath "stingers". Enos looked quizzically at him, then Gregor said in a slightly louder voice "quickly tell Jupiter that we are being perused by a group of at least one-hundred stingers". He patiently waited for Enos to finish conversing in the sounds that were far above the human capacity to hear.

He finished and spoke to Gregor "Ripred thinks it may be better if we turn and fight them now rather than waiting for more to join them". Gregor shook his head in agreement, unsheathing his sword creating a beautiful sound of metal on metal. Mareth had designed the scabbard to sharpen the sword every time it was inserted or removed. "We will both fly low when Jupiter gives the signal, I will attack from the air while you two stand in defense on the ground" Enos awaited his heart rate rising as he let his rager side take control. Gregor could tell the signal had been given when Enos started a steep decline toward the ground. He got prepared to jump from his back, and when they were eight feet from the ground he jumped. He rolled popping into a fighting stance right next to Ripred.

"Remember" the rat began "worry about the stingers utmost, then the claws and jaws". Gregor tried to log that into his rager calculations, but it had already decided the course of action it would take. Standing side by side they waited for the stingers crest the hill in front of them, the sound of shell on rock would have struck fear into the most seasoned warrior. Time began to run in slow motion, his breathing became calm as he focused completely on the battle at hand. He was acutely aware of all objects that had any path of motion, like Jupiter and Enos circling above them in a holding pattern, waiting for the signal. Ripred lunged toward the first stinger cresting the hill, he sliced of the stinger then, immediately stabbed it through the head grabbing the detached stinger and retreating to the space next to Gregor. He thrust the poisonous barb into his empty hand, Gregor was unsure of what to do at first but then he got the idea. He grasped the base of the two foot long stinger, feeling it's weighting and letting his rager abilities compensate for the awkward feeling. They both rushed the hill at the same time, followed shortly after by the bats. Gregor ignored everything except the stingers and the position of the poisoned barbs on the end of their tails. He sliced through ones head easily twirling, barely dodging claws and jaws of five others that had came to take it's place. He dodged under a claw targeting the open mouth of the one across from him. It brought up it's tail whipping it over it's head toward Gregor, the speed was astounding. He dodged the tail and his sword sunk into the vulnerable flesh. Enos dropped a dead stinger on three of the ones by him killing them instantly. Gregor turned his attention to the last one dispatching it easily. They slowly worked their way through the remaining stingers, hacking, slashing, and dodging. There were three left, these seemed to be seasoned fighter and very well may have been ragers, he dispatched the one it front of him by feinting right, dodging left and driving the blade into one of it's many eyes. Even though they were ragers, they had never before used there abilities. He turned to the one behind him, but it was to late the poisonous splinter was one foot from a chink in his armor, he watched helplessly as it slowly approached. Death was the only possibility, his rager self did not even attempt to block it. At the last second the barb was grabbed with a set of claws and jerked into the air, where Enos then killed it. Enos had just saved his life, he fell to his knees exhausted, they had managed to take out all of there ranks. "Well look who is all bad now, sure when your fighting me you don't try, but when faced with an army of stingers" Ripred came up and patted him on the back "we should find somewhere to rest for a while". There were no complaints, so they set off once again.

Enos was looking for a crevice to hide everyone in. Gregor did not know what to do, how do you thank someone for saving your life? "Uh, thanks for saving me back there, I owe you one" Gregor was happy with that.

Enos looked confused "one what?". Gregor had forgotten that he probably would not know an overland saying like that, even though Ripred had been teaching him a few.

"It basically means that I owe you my life" Gregor watched as Enos tried to comprehend the saying, he wondered what it felt like to be owed a life debt, he owed many life debts to Ripred, but he had never saved anyone's life.

"I appreciate that greatly, but I was just doing my duty to protect you" Enos said, "I believe I found a good crevice". He called to Jupiter and they changed their course, heading for a small cave. They tumbled in and practically collapsed on the floor. All of them except Ripred who had made up his mind.

"I will take first watch, after we eat I'm starved" Ripred went over to the knapsack and opened it. He grabbed a water skin full of shrimp, his favorite and tossed a bunch of fruit to the bats. Then he stepped back allowing Gregor to rummage through the contents. He ended up making a simple sandwich by carving a piece of ham, then placing it on some delicious bread with fresh, crisp lettuce. He ate it quickly, and got out his sleeping bag laying down for a long awaited slumber.

Gregor awoke back at the palace, he walked out onto the balcony and saw a full blown war proceeding by the wall. He ran from his room, wondering why nobody had woken him up. He rapped his scabbard around his waist, and slid his sword into it. Sprinting out the door he saw Ripred and all of his friends standing there blocking his path. "You can't go into the war right now, we are saving you as a last resort" Ripred said holding up a hand, signaling for him to stop.

"Get out of my way, now!" Gregor said feeling his rager side take over.

"We can't, not yet." Vikus said, who was standing behind Ripred. Gregor drew his sword, as a force not under his control made him thrust it through Ripred's heart. Gregor wanted desperately to stop, but he couldn't. He moved on killing Vikus, who was defenseless and turned to Luxa.

She got down on her knees begging for mercy "please Gregor you are better than this". His arm raised into the air his mind was screaming for him to stop this madness, but instead he brought down the blade, it sailed towards Luxa's neck. He was going to kill the one he loved in a fit of rage, and he could do nothing. It was just centimeters from its target when Gregor awoke, in the cave, not the palace.

The dream had seemed so real, he began to wonder if something like that could really happen. Gregor clicked toward the entrance of the cavern, the returning echos showed Ripred's figure sitting in contemplative silence. Gregor got up and walked across the cold stone floor to take a seat next to the rat. "Could I ask you a question?" Gregor asked, checking over his shoulder to make sure that Jupiter, and Enos were still asleep.

"I don't see why not, unless it is help with women, because I don't care much for your private life" Ripred said sarcastically. It made Gregor smile and helped to lighten the mood.

"How did you gain complete control over your rager abilities, because when you fight you seem to be aware of what you are doing. When I fight I have no control over what happens, my rager mode takes hold of my consciousness" Gregor sat silently, watching Ripred formulate his answer. That dream had planted a seed of doubt in his ability to even semi-control his rager self. The other disadvantage to being a rager was, it would look for the best course of action to inflict the most casualties, even if that meant his demise.

"You have to learn to control the urge to protect yourself, while you are your rager self. We could practice this right now if you would like" Ripred said looking at Gregor. He shook his head to signify a yes and followed Ripred deeper into the cave. They stopped when the cavern opened up a little more into a small alcove. "Okay what I am going to do is throw one rock at you, to get you into your rager mode, it is okay to block this one. Then I will throw a second rock and don't even try to block this one" Ripred finished, and set to work finding two good stones. He threw one of the stones, and Gregor let himself enter his subconscious, allowing his rager self to take over. He deflected the small projectile easily, but when Ripred threw the second rock he could not stop himself from dodging it. Then his rager self locked onto the source of the projectiles, and propelled him toward Ripred. Thankfully Ripred was much more skilled than him, and disarmed him with ease.

Gregor finally regained control and looked at Ripred. "I almost killed you" Gregor said horrified, "for throwing a pebble at me".

"Don't worry yourself boy, I can stop you easily, we will work on your skill more later. Let's go wake up the fliers, we should continue our journey" Ripred began to walk back toward the camp, followed by Gregor. The encounter had done nothing for his conscious, as he had hoped it would do. When they returned both fliers were already awake and eating breakfast. Gregor joined them, and watched Ripred's dismay when he realized he had already eaten all of the shrimp. So instead he made a sandwich with Gregor. "Are you guys ready to continue to the spinner lair" Ripred said as soon as they finished.

Jupiter responded, saying "We are both well rested and should be able to fly the remaining distance without rest". They packed up their stuff into the knapsack and got on their fliers. the got into the air, orienting themselves to where the spinners were then took off in that direction. Gregor could only hope when the time came he would be able to control his rager self.

Remember Gregor would want you to review, and I will probably get a chapter out the day after Halloween. Thanks for reading.