I'm not all that great at fight scenes, but I did my best. Hope you like this chapter.

Chapter 5 - Mishap of the Void

Skulduggery was peeved.

In fact, he was more than peeved. He was fuming! Just as he, Saracen and Dexter were going down to the Caves of the Void to search for Gracious and Donegan (who got lost down there, yet again), the latter two both decided to let Erskine tag along. Of all people!

So whilst he took the lead, the other three Dead Men were trailing behind him. Skulduggery didn't like these caves, and it was not just because of the inevitable peril and crap-ton of monsters. Whenever he was down here, Vile got very… agitated… Today, he was particularly violent towards the bars of his cage, repeatedly hissing in the back of Skulduggery's mind and lashing out whenever even the slightest sound was heard. For some reason, there was a hint of… worry? ... within his twisted ramblings.

They'd followed a trail of symbols that had been drawn on the wall with chalk; clearly left by Bane and O'Callahan; for half an hour when the trail ended abruptly at a T-junction.

"Dammit," Skulduggery cursed as he raised his flaming palm higher in the hopes of the extra light revealing more symbols; thus the direction in which the two Monster Hunters had gone. "It's ended."

"It looks like there was a fight," Erskine mused, walking toward the cave walls. He accidentally brushed past Skulduggery when he did so, and although the Skeleton Detective didn't react, Vile's persistent prodding halted, and the monster let out a low growl of… contentment..?

Skulduggery shook his head. Was everyone going stark raving mad?

"Look at these scorch marks," Erskine continued. "They're new. And only an Energy Thrower could make those sorts of burns. Then there's the claw marks," he pointed to a set of gouges in the wall. "We ought to follow them."

"Sounds like an idea," Saracen agreed. Beside him, Dexter nodded. Skulduggery simply grunted, and reluctantly followed the trail under Erskine's guidance. Smears of blood were found here and there, and Skulduggery began considering the odds of the two Monster Hunters having bumped into a pride of Phalanx Tigers.

It wasn't long before they heard running footsteps. Tensing, the four Dead Men got ready for a fight when two men rushed past them.

"You should run!" Gracious barked as he charged in the opposite direction of where the Dead Men had been headed. Looking back, they saw two Phalanx Tigers racing towards them with a rabid hunger glinting in their eyes.

Heeding the advice of Gracious, they all ran for their lives, but not before Skulduggery hurled up a wall of air for the beasts to smash their faces into. He couldn't hold it up for long, though, and pretty soon, they were snapping at his and Erskine's heels. For some reason, Vile was screeching in urgency for him to do something, a phenomenon he'd never done before. Vile was never this frantic unless he wanted to kill something.

"What are those things?!" Dexter yelled, wildly tossing a bolt of energy behind him in the hopes that it would hit something. It struck the smaller of the two monsters, and it stumbled a little, before carrying on in the same relentless fashion as before.

"Phalanx Tiger!" Saracen shouted in reply. "We should just keep running!"

"That's what I'm doing!"

Erskine glanced behind him, and saw that the Phalanx Tiger was dangerously close to catching him. He was at the back of the group, clearly unused to fleeing for his life.

"That's our trail!" Donegan shouted, pointing to the chalk symbol on the rock wall. Everyone turned into the tunnel, but the creatures followed suit, and one of them managed to hook its claws onto the hem of Erskine's trouser leg and tripped him.

Erskine fell to the floor with a heavy 'thud!', grunting when his chin smacked the hard rock. The animal snarled and jumped on top of him, snarling and drooling on his back, the hot spittle spattering the back of his neck.

"Erskine!" Saracen yelled, skidding to a halt. He rushed back to help, but was tackled by the other one.

Erskine was frozen in place, his breathing harsh and eyes wide with terror. The talons of the creature ripped into the leather of his jacket and grazed across the marred skin of his back, making him shake uncontrollably. He was helpless, he was going to die, he-.

A rush of air passed over him, solidifying into a wall that sent the creature smashing into the wall. He didn't see Dexter sending the other one flying with a well-aimed and dangerously powerful bolt of energy, instead, scrambling back against the cave wall and trembling like a leaf. He was back in the cell. It was dark, and his back hurt and bled and-.

"Erskine! Erskine, what's wrong?"

Saracen? What was Saracen doing here?

"Erskine, talk to me," Saracen pressed, taking hold of Erskine's shoulders and shaking him gently. "Come on, it's okay. You're safe now."

"N-no," Erskine whimpered, trying feebly to get out of Saracen's hold. Tears were streaming, unbidden from his eyes. "Please, no. Don't… don't do this to me, please…"

"Erskine, you're okay," continued Saracen. "You're safe. Come on, snap out of it."

He carried on trying to calm Erskine down whilst the others battered the creatures to pulp. Eventually, Erskine broke out of his panic attack and relaxed into Saracen's arms; still shaking, but in control of his thoughts.

"You okay, now?" Saracen asked, helping Erskine to his feet. He received a hesitant nod as a reply. "Good. What brought that on? Did that thing hurt you, or..?"

"It… it just…" Erskine mumbled incomprehensibly, still in a state of shock from the attack. "It was on top of me, and…"

Saracen nodded grimly. "I understand," he said, pulling Erskine close to his chest and rubbing the back of his neck gently.

Skulduggery watched the display with carefully masked confusion. In the back of his mind, Lord Vile was muttering bitter insults at him.

'That should be you.'

'Since when did you care about someone other than yourself?' was the silent reply.

'For as long as you have.'

He didn't know how to respond to that.

"Hey guys," Gracious interrupted, looking a little more than bemused. "Hate to interrupt the bromance there, but… I think we should go before the doggies wake up."

There was no need to voice agreement. The group started following the symbol trail, at a more cautious rate this time.

They'd barely gotten two feet before the long awaited disaster struck…

Skulduggery noticed it first; a shadowy shape with two gleaming dots flashing from its frame.

"Look out!" he yelled, tensing as it rushed forward. Vile screamed.

CRASH!

A flash of light. Pain. Skulduggery screaming…

Black.

Erskine woke up coughing on dust and covered with rubble. There was an ache in his abdomen that made him feel ill, and he spent several moments retching quietly until the discomfort subsided.

"Urgh," he groaned. "G… guys?"

No response. Struggling to his feet, Erskine looked around worriedly. Darkness obscured his vision, so he did the natural thing and summoned a flame in his palm. It cast long shadows along every surface, but he could discern a human figure lying on the ground next to him.

"Saracen?" he ventured, bending down and shaking his friend's shoulder gently. Eventually, Saracen woke up, groaning and rubbing his head.

"What… what happened?"

Erskine smirked good-naturedly, despite the dire situation they were in. "I thought you were meant to know that."

"Shut up," Saracen grumbled as he stood up, looking queasy and pale in the light of Erskine's flame. "I feel sick."

He promptly threw up, the watery remnants of his breakfast splattering on his boots. Erskine just grimaced and rubbed his back gently to help ease Saracen's sickness.

"Better?"

"Eh… Yeah, I think so. Where are the others?"

"I'm not sure. Oh, wait. What's that?"

"Ow!" Gracious squawked. "Jesus Christ, don't step on me!"

"Oops. Sorry."

"You'd better be," Gracious mumbled as he got onto his feet. Dust coated him, but he was otherwise unscathed.

"Come on," Saracen muttered as he straightened up. "We need to find the others."

Erskine nodded, and immediately started wandering around in search of the others. He found Donegan on his feet and looking around confusedly, and Dexter curled up in a ball and groaning in discomfort. Saracen told him to carry on looking for Skulduggery whilst he tended to the blond Energy Thrower.

After five minutes of worried searching, Erskine heard soft whining in the corner. It sounded like someone in pain.

"Skulduggery? Is that you?"

Inching forward, the light in Erskine's palm managed to reveal a torn, bloodstained suit and…

"Oh, god. Skulduggery!"

Valkyrie jumped when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Taking it out, she saw Skulduggery's number and answered.

"Hello?"

"Valkyrie?" Saracen's crackly voice enquired. Bad reception.

"Saracen? What's going on? Why are you using Skulduggery's phone?"

"We're stuck in the caves beneath your house. There was a cave-in. Mind coming and getting us?"

"You mean to tell me you're also lost?" Valkyrie deadpanned, catching the attention of Clarity, who was talking to Valkyrie's parents about her trip to Tibet. No, they did not find any dragon goblins, so please stop asking, Desmond.

"Yes."

"Then I probably will have to spend ages searching for you."

"Oh, yeah… Um… Is Clarity there? They could track us, being part werewolf and all."

Clarity seemed to have heard that, because they were muttering, "So I'm a bloodhound, now, am I?" in good-natured annoyance. Then they turned to Valkyrie. "Tell him I'll be down in those caves in half an hour," they said. "At most."

"Well?"

"They'll be down in half an hour at most," Valkyrie explained.

"Thank you. Mind bringing some Cleavers or Sanctuary operatives? We've… come across something… not sure what to make of it…"

"What are you going on about?"

"I wish I knew… My power really likes to piss me off at times like this…"

They were down in the caves in twenty minutes, thanks to a blessed absence of traffic. Once in there, Valkyrie flicked on the torch she'd picked up.

"So, where'd they go?" she asked.

"One minute," Clarity said. A curtain of shadows suddenly reared up around them, and when they receded, Valkyrie exhaled in surprise at what she saw.

A colossal black werewolf, the size of a dire wolf when standing on all fours, stood where Clarity had been. Thick, glossy black fur covered it from nose to tail tip, and Clarity's necromancy vessel encased its lower front leg. A short, choppy, glossy black mane crested the back of their neck and their head, framing their lupine features the way it did their human features and the light purple rings of its irises glinted back at Valkyrie.

"Wow," Valkyrie breathed. "You really are part werewolf."

"It dominates the vampire and possible Faceless One in me," the wolf muttered, lowering its snout to the cave floor. "And Serpine. Did I mention him already?"

"No. Did I ever tell you that I want to break his limbs off?"

"I don't think so. Serpine thought it would be funny, I guess. Neither of them made good parents, to be honest, but at least Skulduggery made a bloody effort. True, he ignores me half the time, but what can you do? I swear he forgot I existed for a while after he met you."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay. He stopped complaining to me every chance he got."

"And instead chose to complain to me."

"Thank you for that."

"…You're just as infuriating as him, you know that?"

"Glad to know that. Now, where… aha! Let's go, I've got the scent."

Clarity picked up the pace, stopping only briefly to observe a chalk symbol that had been drawn on the cave wall. "This was made a while ago," they said. "I don't recognise the scent, so it was probably Bane and O'Callaghan who made it. They smell like sweat and cheap aftershave; maybe that's just because they've been down here a while."

Valkyrie nodded, and continued after the wolf, shining her torch down the tunnel. They kept going until they heard voices arguing. It was around this point when they noticed signs of the cave-in mentioned by Saracen.

"So you mean to tell me that you have no idea what's happened." Dexter. Definitely Dexter.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you!" was the retort, clearly from Saracen. "I don't know everything."

"What's happened this time?" Clarity muttered under their breath. Trotting along the tunnel, they and Valkyrie turned the corner to see Saracen and Dexter arguing, Erskine with a flame hovering over his palm, looking between the two of them with an exasperated expression, and Gracious and Donegan searching around for something.

"Valkyrie!" Gracious cheered, turning around and nearly smacking Donegan over the head with the big gun he was carrying. "And-. Holy mother of God! What is that?!"

Clarity snorted indignantly and turned away with a huff. They marched over to Erskine and pressed their head against his chest, whining expectantly. Erskine didn't look surprised at all, and rubbed the back of their neck gently.

"We're fine," he said. "I think…"

The black wolf pulled away, a questioning look adorning their features. Erskine gave them a worried expression and pointed towards a man who lay on the floor nearby. He was drenched in blood, and wore the tattered remains of a well-tailored suit.

"Who..?"

"I don't think you'd believe us if we told you."