Hello everyone! Guess it's been a tough and busy week for many of you cos' the reviews have dwindled. Nonetheless, thanks to the following people for reviewing my story: Im Blu, Reaper Whisper, BryceSyce, TheGreatAthlon5, Koipbuiop, PincheeX, Iron Carnotaur, a guest reader, Gyltig, DeathDrayanD, MarbleSky and pyro159.

It's been a rough week for me emotionally. Had issues in the romantic department. Hope it didn't affect my writing too much. Please continue to offer your support if you can. I'd really appreciate it.

This chapter is written from Gregor's perspective.


Chapter 29: Covert Mission

"We're near," Gregor observed.

"How do you know that?" Apollo asked, hopping towards Gregor and leaning over to take a look at the tracker.

"We can see ourselves on this," Gregor replied, pointing at a blinking green dot which as just mere centimetres away from the red one. Gregor wished to heaven that he was centimetres away from Calvin's location, but an optimistic estimate would put him kilometres away. If not for Apollo's wings they would have been grounded in despair, left to wander around aimlessly in unfriendly and treacherous territory.

The land was as barren of life as it was of hope. Sharp, jagged rocks lined the ground with hostility, meant to harm feet instead of providing a platform to walk. Gregor could vaguely hear the roar of a red queen in the distance, churning forth frothy lava to incinerate any travellers in its path.

There was an obvious reason why this place was unchartered.

"How long more do you need to rest?" Gregor asked Apollo.

"I haven't flown in a while," Apollo replied, gingerly stretching his wings and giving his head a little shake. "So to carry the two of you is quite a struggle."

"I think we still have time," Gregor reassured him. "You wanna go for a practice flight? Might give you some time to work your flying out."

"No harm, I guess," Apollo shrugged, before taking off into the air.

Gregor watched as the black figure of his friend slowly disappear into the distance. If Apollo died on this mission, Gregor would have failed not just Apollo and himself, but Ares as well. Ares' sacrificial death was a lesson conjured by fate to teach Gregor that his actions and decisions had consequences. Many of those Gregor loved had perished or suffered because of his carelessness. Gregor had only begun to grasp that lately, but better late than never. He hadn't lost everyone yet.

"What's your plan?"

Gregor turned around to face Ripred and replied, "I don't really have one."

The rat, lounging against the tunnel wall, just rolled his solitary eye. "Of course you don't."

"Do you have one?" Gregor challenged Ripred.

"No," the rat admitted.

Gregor was given a crash course by Mr Bennett in how to use the tracking device, before he headed back down to the Underland. It didn't take him long to find Ripred and convince the old rat to follow him. He didn't want to tell Luxa about this covert mission, for fear that she would talk him into staying back instead. He wanted this to be a quiet affair, with as little as people as possible being involved.

He did, however, inform Hazard about his plan to rescue Calvin. He put the kid in charge of keeping things quiet about their decision to leave, which included bribing some of the guards at the wall. If news leaked out that both the Warrior and the Peacemaker were gone, the rebel gnawers could strike while the iron was hot and sow discord in the city, which was already in a chaotic state as things stood.

Ripred had been uncharacteristically quiet on their journey thus far, perhaps because he didn't want to distract Apollo, who had already been put under heavy strain from the combined weight of both the one-eyed rat and Gregor.

And of course, his relationship with Gregor was… Complicated, to say the least.

Every single time Gregor looked at Ripred, guilt became a rock which weighed down his heart. In the warped way the world worked, Gregor actually hoped that Ripred wouldn't forgive him, and that he would have to get onto his knees and beg for Ripred's forgiveness. That act would at least absolve some of the guilt, but the fact that RIpred had brushed the matter off so easily had broken Gregor on the inside.

After everything he had done to Ripred, after all the hatred he had physically inflicted on the old rat… Ripred had somehow found enough kindness in his heart to make Gregor feel worse by forgiving him. Who knows, perhaps Ripred had deliberately chosen to forgive Gregor just to make him feel awful.

Gregor recalled how close he was to plunging that sword down. More importantly, he remembered how close he was to becoming someone like Flavius. There was an almost indiscernible streak of malice and ruthlessness that had driven Gregor to the edge of his sanity, but it had been there nonetheless, egging him on to kill Ripred and punish the old rat for all the pain Gregor had suffered.

Again, it was all about control. Gregor had lost control of his emotions and in turn, lost control of his rager abilities. His rager abilities were supposed to help him, but he was starting to realise his body was merely a vehicle for his rager abilities to take control of. It was almost as if it had conceived a mind of its own, always trying to force its way up into Gregor's mind and assume complete control to dictate each and every action Gregor took.

Every physical scar or wound Ripred bore had an emotional replica staining Gregor's conscience. The immense amount of shame and disgrace for what he had done to Ripred followed him into bed when he slept, and rose together with him when he woke up. It was a horrifying reminder of the person Gregor could have become had it not been for an ironic last-minute intervention by fate.

"How's your eye?" Gregor asked abruptly.

"Which one are you referring to?" Ripred replied with his trademark sarcastic edge. "The blind one or the one that can see you right now?"

Ripred really knew how to invoke remorse and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Ripred," Gregor said as genuinely as he possibly could.

"Apology accepted," he replied curtly.

"No, I'm serious," Gregor said earnestly.

Ripred's sole eye shifted upwards to stare straight at Gregor. "So am I."

Ripred was clearly uncomfortable discussing this topic, but his distant reticence on the subject was frustrating Gregor as well. Gregor wanted to hear his thoughts out completely.

"Why?" Gregor asked him. "Why do you accept my apology?"

Ripred sighed out loud, before saying, "Does it benefit either of us if I don't forgive you?"

"I guess not," Gregor replied, scratching the back of his head. "But… But it just doesn't seem like you."

Ripred snorted. "Believe me, boy, I'm always the one doing the forgiving."

"I don't know why I did what I did," Gregor said, embarking on what felt like a quasi-monologue. "I just felt angry and betrayed, so I just wanted to kill you."

"I warned you all those years ago," Ripred interrupted him. "It's a lot easier to lose your head than to keep it."

"You should have just told me the truth," Gregor said, shaking his head. "I was wrong to fight you, but you should have told me what you wanted from me. It broke my heart when I found out you went behind my back to break me and Luxa up."

"Are you seeking an apology from me, Overlander?" Ripred asked.

"No," Gregor replied. "I just want to understand why you did what you did."

"You know very well why I did it," Ripred said, sounding like he was bordering on frustration. "Luxa inherited softness from her grandfather and stubbornness from her grandmother. It makes for a terrible leader."

"She wasn't soft," Gregor said defensively. "Conrad left her with all the dirty work. She was far too overwhelmed by it."

"Precisely," Ripred replied. "She was far too overwhelmed to be a good leader for her people."

"You still believe you're in the right, don't you?" Gregor asked, surprised by the amount of bitterness he felt in his tone.

Ripred seemed to grimace slightly, but the grimace slowly morphed into an expression of resolute fury. Ripred took this matter to heart, and he was clearly very unhappy with the state of affairs back in Regalia. "I was never wrong, Overlander. Perhaps I was foolish to try and engineer a conflict behind your back, but I was never wrong."

"How can we fight together if I can't even trust you?" Gregor asked him.

Ripred almost smirked. "Do you really think I'll let our disagreement affect this mission?"

"I don't know," Gregor answered. "You still surprise me, even after all these years."

"Well," Ripred growled, "one thing you SHOULD know about me is that I do what is necessary. If it means we have to set our differences aside to fight together, I'd do it in the blink of an eye. Would you do the same?"

"Probably," Gregor responded.

"Then we understand each other," Ripred concluded, leaning back against the wall and closing his eye.

"Will you still be able to fight with one eye missing?" Gregor asked, unsure how to phrase his sentence to make the question more appropriate.

"I didn't lose my brain, Overlander," Ripred replied sarcastically. "Of course I can still fight. The question you should be asking is whether I can still fight like I used to."

"Can you still fight like you used to?" Gregor asked promptly.

"I don't think so," Ripred replied. "I seem to have lost my sense of… perspective."

Ripred had deliberately laced his answer with even more bitterness by refusing to say that he had lost his sense of sight. He may have lost many strengths he once had, but his caustic wit wasn't one of them.

"Stick close to me," Gregor told him. "If you stray too far I can't cover you."

"Oh please," Ripred rolled his eye. "You don't have to babysit me, Overlander."

"Judging by your behaviour, I'm not so sure about that," Gregor jibed playfully at Ripred, trying to defuse the sky-high tension.

"Hilarious," Ripred said, before sardonically faking a laugh that sounded more like a cough.

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," Gregor grumbled, a little fed up by Ripred's snide attitude.

"Only idiots who don't know how to use it say that," Ripred fired back derisively.

Gregor raised an eyebrow but didn't respond. Then, out of the blue, a memory floated by.

"There was a guy in my school," Gregor recalled. "The one in Virginia. His name was Ray, and-"

"I don't care," Ripred interrupted, throwing his paw in the air to wave Gregor's recount away dismissively.

"His name was Ray," Gregor persisted, "and he was the most sarcastic son of a bitch I'd ever come across."

"Really now?" Ripred's ears literally perked up. "I'm calling bullshit, but you have my attention."

"He was ignored by everybody else," Gregor said. "Nobody really found him funny or witty. All that sarcasm ended up making him look like a complete jerk. I thought he had put in a whole lot of effort for nothing."

"That was… anticlimactic," Ripred said scornfully.

"I wasn't done," Gregor replied. "It wasn't till months later, when I was talking to one of his friends, that I realised why Ray was so sarcastic. He was trying to use the sarcasm to mask the pain he had back home- the pain of having divorced parents, one a drug addict and the other declared mentally unsound."

Ripred's expression suddenly became more solemn. "We all wear masks," was all the old rat offered in response.

The delicate silence was shattered abruptly by the beating of wings, as Apollo landed next to the two of them. He was panting heavily, and Gregor couldn't help but notice how the large beads of sweat that clung to his fur. "What happened?" Gregor asked him, jumping to his feet instantly.

Apollo did his utmost to catch his breath, before replying, "I found… I found the base. It's… ten minutes from here."

"You saw it from a distance?" Gregor asked.

"Yes," Apollo nodded his head. "It's inside a cave. There are tunnels on the east side that look unguarded. We… We could sneak in from there."

"No," Ripred replied bluntly.

"No?" Gregor and Apollo both questioned simultaneously.

"Of course not," the rat snarled. "It's a trap set up by Flavius. He knows we'd coming for Calvin eventually. He's been ahead of us this whole time."

"How would Flavius know that?" Gregor asked.

"If he has Calvin down there, he's using Calvin as bait," Ripred said. "We can't fall for any bait he offers us. The best way is to try and find the area which we can handle and penetrate the base from there."

"But what if all the other areas are heavily guarded?" Apollo asked.

"Then we have to fight our way through it," Ripred said grimly. "We have no choice. If we take the eastern tunnels, I'm positively sure it's a trap."

"How many do you think can we take on?" Gregor asked Ripred.

"If we were both healthy I'd say at least a hundred," the old rat replied. "But seeing how the both of us beat each other to a pulp, my numbers wouldn't be so optimistic."

"I can chip in," Apollo said. "I won't help much, but I can kill some of them."

"No, stay out of the fight," Gregor instructed him. "If one of us can find Calvin and get away, you need to be there to fly us back."

"I didn't come here to cower, Warrior," Apollo said firmly.

"I know," Gregor said. "You've done more than I could ever ask of you by coming on this trip. You're no coward, Apollo, but we need you to be alive. Your job is to drop us off and then fly us out of here in case we can escape."

Apollo looked reluctant to agree, but he nodded his head slowly. "It will be as you said, Warrior," he responded.

Gregor turned to face Ripred. "You ready?"

Ripred sighed. "I can't really say no, can I?"

Gregor afforded himself a half-smile, before climbing onto Apollo's moist fur. Ripred, inhaling a deep breath, leapt onto Apollo's back as well, invoking a grunt from the bat. "Maybe I should have left you back in Regalia," Gregor quipped to Ripred. "Your weight is going get all three of us killed."

"I could say the same for your mouth," Ripred fired back, as Apollo launched himself upwards and soared through the air like a rocket.

Within five minutes, Apollo was flying through a set of winding tunnels. And when they emerged from the tunnels, Gregor found himself gulping in absolute shock.

Apollo hovered behind a stalactite as Gregor looked down below. It was a colossal cavern, titanic enough to fit the whole city of Regalia. Gregor could see a sea of reddish-brown below, moving wave after wave all over the place. A mammoth military base shaped as a pentagon roared out its presence in the middle of the cavern, looking like a hybrid of modern and ancient architecture with its mechanical grey colour and Renaissance-style arches. The view was utterly stupendous.

"Oh my god," Gregor breathed. "This place is teeming with foxes."

He looked down at the tracker. Their blinking green dot had still not quite converged with the red dot. "He's not in that building," he said to Apollo. "Is there anywhere else he could be imprisoned around here?"

"I think some of these tunnels will lead us to another cavern," Apollo said, gesturing with his head at a couple of narrow tunnels. "But I can't fly through those. My wingspan is too long to fit through them."

"Just drop us off at the entrance," Gregor told Apollo. "Then hang about, but remember to stay out of sight. When you hear three whistles…"

"I'll be listening, Warrior," Apollo assured him.

Apollo flew over to the entrance to the tunnels, allowing Gregor to hop off with ease while Ripred had to put in considerably more effort to propel himself off Apollo's back to land at the entrance. Stifling a laugh, Gregor turned to Apollo and said softly, "Thanks Apollo. If I don't make it out of here, I want you to know it was my greatest honour fighting alongside you."

"You'll make it out alive, Warrior," Apollo replied. "I know it. Fly you high. And Lord Ripred, run like the river."

"Fly you high," Ripred replied.

Apollo then left them to the mercy of the menacing darkness as sinister laughs seemed to echo throughout the tunnel ominously. "I'm not getting a good vibe," Gregor said, fitting his black mask on properly.

"Always one for dramatics, eh?" Ripred remarked, before strolling down the tunnel.

The two of them continued down the winding throat of hell slowly but surely. Gregor's rager senses were at their peak right now, ready for a surprise assault at any moment. He could see Ripred's muscles beginning to tense up as well, an indication of how consumed he was by his rager senses.

Light began to pierce through the darkness, highlighting the edges and curves of Gregor's armour and also shedding the darkness that concealed Ripred's remaining eye. The lights suggested that they were close to Overlander technology, which must have meant that they were going to exit the tunnel soon.

Then two foxes walked round the corner.

Within seconds, Gregor had swung his sword and sliced the throat of the fox on the right, while Ripred had shredded the throat of the fox on the left with both sets of claws. Soft gurgling could only be heard, followed by a light thud. "We're near," Ripred said, gingerly stepping over their bodies and walking towards the exit of the tunnel.

They emerged out of the exit and found themselves right in front of at least a hundred schemers.

"Hello!" Ripred greeted them cheerfully as they gaped at Gregor and Ripred in shock.

Gregor wasted no time on a conversation. He drove his blade between the eyes of a fox standing on his right, killing it instantly. He then pulled it out and parried an attack from the fox on his left, before jabbing it in the shoulder with his dagger. He proceeded to finish the fox off by slashing its throat, causing blood to spurt out and drench him in dark red.

Three foxes recovered from the surprise entrance and barreled towards Gregor. He took a couple of steps back to imply a retreat, but suddenly rushed forward to intercept their attack. He caught the fox in the middle by surprise, slamming into it and bringing it down. He then lifted his sword up and swung downwards, but he missed and only took the right ear off. He hacked his blade downwards a second time, on this occasion hitting the target and breaking its jaw. He stabbed down one final time, ending its miserable life the moment his blade pierced its heart.

But he had wasted too much time taking this fox down. The fox on the left rushed at him and a phenomenal rager reflex prevented him from dying, as he brought up his dagger to block its swing. He swung his right sword and severed its limb, eliciting a scream of pure horror from it. He was seconds away from stabbing its throat when he had to turn to his right, this time using his sword to parry an attack from yet another fox.

A whole swarm suddenly charged forward and crashed into him, knocking him over and sending him rolling. Amongst the snapping of teeth and swinging of claws, Gregor relied on his rager senses to protect him, parrying and blocking all kinds of attacks which were thrown at him. He quickly forced himself to recover and stumbled to his feet, kneeing one fox in the jaw as it lunged for his hip.

Another lashed out for his right foot, but he managed to spring out of the way, before ruthlessly plunging his sword down and impaling its brain. A fox sprang forward towards his left side, but he delivered a swift and deadly stroke with his dagger, striking the fox's snout and sending it reeling.

Yet another fox ran straight at him, forcing him to backpedal a bit as he furiously reacted to the fox's attack, swinging his sword and dagger all over the place to block every slash by the fox. He was biding his time for the moment to strike, as he sat back and defended against its ferocious lunges and swipes at him.

Finally, the fox's unrelenting attacks faltered slightly, giving Gregor the chance he was waiting for. He leapt up into the air and fired a kick at its face, sending it flying back and crashing into some of its comrades. But no sooner had Gregor created space for himself than he was suddenly mobbed by a whole lot of them. They piled on top of him and started trying to tear their claws into him. Most of their attacks ended up scratching his armour but not penetrating it.

He fired an elbow to his right, hearing a sickening crack as it connected with the skull of a fox. He then fired multiple punches at the throat of a fox which was pinning his left arm down, causing it to gag and stumble backwards. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a fox leaping through the air at him, its claws extended and its jaw wide open.

He reacted quickly, throwing his dagger at it. The dagger embedded itself between the fox's eyes, killing it right away. Its body landed on some of its colleagues, pinning them down just before they were about to make a renewed assault.

Gregor picked up his sword and parried an attack made by a fox, before he rammed his blade into its throat. He was showered in fox blood and bits of fur and flesh, making him seem more of a corpse than a living man. But he shrugged off the rancid stench and vomit-inducing images to fight on, this time diving between the legs of a fox and sticking his blade upwards, opening up a huge gash on it underbelly. He winced as he got to his feet, trying to ignore the fact that he had just disemboweled it.

On complete impulse, he suddenly raised his blade behind him and felt his arm shudder as his blade was struck with force.

The sound of claw against metal rang out through the cavern.

Gregor spun around and found that his blade had just blocked a fox from striking him down from behind. The fox had a look of complete shock on its face, and it wasn't hard to understand why. Gregor should have been dead. That strike from the fox would have broken his neck.

But he had somehow, somehow, found a way to miraculously block the strike without ever seeing it coming.

Other foxes looking on seemed dumbfounded as well. That was supposed to be the killing blow- the blow to all but end the Underland's hopes of surviving against a combined assault of Overlander mercenaries and foxes. But here he was, with his sword holding the claw at bay determinedly, as if the blade had a will of its own.

Gregor reacted faster than the fox. He sprang into the air and landed onto its back, capitalising on its despair and surprise. He stabbed his blade downwards, emphatically driving his blade right through the brain of the fox. The fox's body lulled forward and then sank to the ground, with Gregor maintaining his balance and standing right above it.

If there was ever an image that was demoralising to the foxes, it was this. Their brain was just as addled by indoctrinated obedience to Flavius as it was overpowered by fear of the Warrior. It ended up being meaningless, and Gregor taking down the fox by stabbing its brain symbolised that fall. The foxes had no chance against Gregor, even with all their intellect. That was how Gregor saw it, at least.

He leapt off the dead fox's back and advanced towards them, causing them to retreat rapidly away from him. One daring fox launched an ill-advised attack, diving for his feet before using the momentum to leapt upwards. But Gregor had seen it coming from a mile away, and he reacted by sidestepping the attack before calmly slitting its throat.

"GREGOR!" a guttural growl echoed throughout the cavern.

Gregor glanced in Ripred's direction, and couldn't help but gulp. His former mentor was struggling against a dozen foxes, just about fending them off. He was focussing so much on self-preservation that he was barely killing any of them. One fox lunged forward and nearly sank its teeth into the old rat's head, but Ripred quickly ducked underneath the lunge to avoid the fox's jaws.

Gregor barreled forward and killed the sprawling fox, bringing his blade down at splitting its skull open. He caught sight of his dagger still embedded in between the eyes of a dead fox, and quickly yanked it out to make sure he was well-equipped to deal with any assault. Meanwhile, the other foxes had begun to focus their attention solely on Ripred, having realised the futility of trying to kill Gregor.

The old rat dashed away from them and ran towards Gregor. The foxes quickly followed behind, snapping at his heels hungrily in an attempt to incapacitate him. But they quickly halted their assault as soon as it became abundantly clear that they were going to have to fight Gregor to get to Ripred. The old rat managed to get to Gregor and stood to his right, panting away heavily.

"I thought you could handle them," Gregor said.

"I'm old," Rirped said, still breathing heavily. "I'm not who I used to be."

"We still haven't met any mercenaries yet," Gregor said anxiously. "If we do, we could be in some trouble."

He stared ahead at the dozens of foxes who seemed happy to partake in a standoff. They had lost almost a third of their original number, but still had enough numbers to kill both Gregor and Ripred off. "They're stalling us," Ripred told Gregor. "They're trying to delay us so backup can come."

"We're gonna have to find another way of getting past them," Gregor murmured out loud, and then an idea struck him.

"I'll ride on you," Gregor suggested. "We just force our way towards the entrance on that side of the cavern, and we run as fast as we can till we find Calvin."

Ripred stared at Gregor in disbelief. "Ride on… me?"

"Yes," Gregor said firmly. "Don't argue with me on this one, I know what I'm doing."

"No," Ripred replied, sounding more horrified by the prospect of being ridden on than taking down almost seventy foxes. "I forbid you from- wait, get off me, I said GET OFF-"

Gregor ignored Ripred's protests and leapt onto the old rat's back. "Trust me," Gregor pleaded with him.

The old rat let out an exasperated sigh of pain. "You owe me one for this," was all he said in response.

"Let's get 'em," Gregor said as his rager senses started its ascendancy once more.

Ripred charged towards the foxes and plowed right through them, knocking some of them down in the process. Gregor swung his blade, delivering fatal strikes to any fox that threatened to knock him or Ripred over. The rat couldn't resist from lashing out with a swipe or two once in a while, injuring them and even landing a couple of killing blows as they just ran right through the pack of them.

They broke past the horde of foxes and Ripred broke into a sprint down a series of tunnels. Gregor made a face as the rat's fur quickly moistened from the amount of sweat that was being churned out, but he took in a deep breath and braced himself for any more attacks.

"Use your echolocation!" Ripred grunted as there was a noticeable dip in his pace.

Gregor clicked his tongue furiously, trying to pick up on any anomalies or obstacles that would come into view as they ran down the tunnels. All he was getting was the sheer number of foxes chasing them down behind, but he was sure that there were others waiting ahead. "They're gaining on us!" he told Ripred.

"Then do something about it!" Ripred snapped back.

Gregor looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel as yet another idea sprang to mind. Gritting his teeth together, he stretched out his sword and hammered at the stalactites above, doing his utmost to dislodge them. At first it was proving to be ineffectual, with the foxes being hindered by a second or two at most.

But more and more rocks began to rain down from the ceiling and disturb their assault as Gregor continued to swing hard at the ceiling. He didn't expect to bring the whole thing down, but it might just do enough to keep them off Ripred's heels for a little while longer. And then, while he was still in the midst of clicking, he detected three objects around the corner. "Take a sharp right!" he yelled at Ripred.

Ripred banked to the right as three huge foxes came into view. Only one of them was within range of Gregor's weapon, and Gregor promptly took him out with a solid swipe of his left dagger, elegantly slitting the fox's throat. The other two took a second too long to react, and by then Gregor and Ripred were pulling ahead.

Gregor heaved a euphoric sigh of relief. If not for his echolocation, both he and Ripred might have been skewered by those foxes.

They raced through more winding tunnels and finally emerged into a cavern. Gregor's eyes instantly settled on a wooden stand, where a noose dangled ominously in front of them. "Oh no," he breathed.

Ripred suddenly tilted his snout upwards. "I've got Calvin's scent!" he said, turning towards a dark corridor.

Two foxes walked out of the corridor and gazed straight at Gregor and Ripred. It only took a moment for them to process the realisation that Gregor and Ripred were standing right in front of them. Hollering a battle cry, they charged forward. Ripred unleashed his own battle cry and broke into a sprint towards them.

Gregor felt his blood flowing faster and faster as the distance between Riped and the foxes was slowly whittled down to a few metres. On the contrary, time began to slow down as Gregor observed every last action taken by the foxes. His vision splintered violently, displaying the muscles in their hind legs tensing up and their claws being unfurled. They inched closer and closer, with Ripred putting in even more strength in his sprint as they came within three seconds of meeting each other head on.

The foxes began leaping through the air, and so did Ripred. The old rat grunted as he propelled himself off the ground and into the air. Time now stood completely still as numerous weak spots popped up all over Gregor's reddened vision. He took in a deep breath and let the rager inside him take complete control just for these few seconds.

He found himself swinging both his dagger and his sword as both foxes appeared on either side of Ripred. He could feel the sinew and muscle that his blades connected with, and could feel little splatters of blood landing on his obsidian armour. He could vaguely hear Ripred still yelling at the top of his lungs as his body brushed past both foxes. The last thing Gregor could see was a set of claws before…

Time sped up, and Gregor grunted as Ripred hit the ground hard, sending Gregor flying off the old rat's back. He quickly stumbled to his feet and limped over to Ripred, who seemed relatively unharmed despite the impact of the fall. "You ok?" Gregor asked.

With a groan, the old rat forced himself up. "I'm fine," he mumbled, staggering a bit before righting himself. He turned around and took a look at the pair of foxes. "You're good," he said to Gregor.

Gregor glanced over at them. They were lying motionless on the ground, blood gushing out of massive gashes on their throats and faces. Gregor couldn't even remember what he had done to them. That was the full extent of his power- that was the sheer strength and ability he possessed when he fully gave in to his rager abilities. It was simultaneously thrilling and frightening to know that close to no one stood any chance of taking him down.

One day he would fall, but not today. Not when he was like this.

"Stop daydreaming!" Ripred called out as he jogged down the dark corridor. "He's nearby!"

Gregor broke into a sprint down the corridor, feeling uneasy as the distinct sounds of fox growls echoed through the cavern. Their window of opportunity to save Calvin was dwindling fast, and if they couldn't get him out in time then Gregor and Ripred would be trapped together with him in this prison. It wouldn't be long before Gregor would be hanging from the noose once he was caught.

Ripred halted in front of a wooden door. "He's in there," the old rat growled.

Gregor heaved against the heavy door, but it wouldn't budge. It was probably bolted- not that it would make much of a difference. Gregor was getting in at all costs.

He quickly found the handle of the door and then drove his blade as hard as he could through the wood. The sword just about broke through, and he jiggled it around a bit, hoping to damage the lock enough. He pushed again, but it didn't work. He thrust his blade through the door a second time, this time hearing the sound of metal clashing against each other. "Come on," he snarled.

He pushed hard, but the door still refused to move. "Having a bit of trouble?" Ripred asked.

Cursing in frustration, Gregor lashed out with a powerful kick at the door. The door shifted backwards slightly, an encouraging sign amidst his exasperation in trying to bring it down. Ripred surged forward and placed both paws against the door as he begun to push it forward ever so slightly. Gregor, inhaling sharply to brace himself for the pain, rammed his shoulder against the door and put his weight behind it.

Eventually, the door groaned and moaned on its way to submission, giving way to Gregor and Ripred. It swung open and revealed a room that looked like a grotesque child of art and science. Renaissance statues were placed at awkward points in the room, an image which was tarnished by the rather messy chemistry equipment which was scattered across tables.

And sitting there, right in the centre of the room, was Calvin himself.

"Calvin!" Gregor exclaimed in delight.

Calvin's head shot up immediately. A smile of relief and excitement crossed his face for a split second, before it was buried by a concerned frown. "Gregor, don't-"

His words were suddenly caught in his throat as his eyes settled on Ripred. The frown quickly disappeared, but a smile didn't emerge in its place. Gregor could only watch on as Calvin's face morphed from anxiety to alarm to fear and now…

Complete horror.

His throat no longer inhibited words coming out of it. "Get away," Calvin said softly to Ripred, before yelling, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

He then broke into quick, short breaths as symptoms of someone suffering from a panic attack began to surface. His face became shiny from sweat and his pupils dilated so much that they looked on the verge of springing out of his sockets any second now. His muscles were contracting violently as he began to hyperventilate.

And then he screamed.

The shrillness of the scram made Gregor wince, but what sent chills down his spine wasn't the decibel level of it.

It was the unadulterated fear in the scream that gave Gregor the shivers.

"They're going to find us, you idiot!" Ripred hissed at Calvin. "We're trying to rescue your sorry arse!"

"You're not helping, Ripred!" Gregor barked at the old rat. He turned to Calvin and said, "Calvin, calm down. We NEED you to calm down NOW."

But Calvin continued to scream as his eyes locked onto Ripred and refused to shift away. "Jesus," Gregor muttered under his breath, and summoned up the courage to do what was necessary.

This was going to be very unpleasant.

He fired a solid punch between Calvin's eyes, enough to leave a bruise but nothing more. Calvin's eyes rolled upwards when Gregor's fist connected with his face, and he began to look increasingly disoriented by the passing second. Finally, his head lurched backwards and he slumped back into his seat.

Gregor cut him loose from the straps which bound him to the chair and lifted him up. "I didn't know I looked that hideous," Ripred wisecracked.

"We need to get him back to Howard," Gregor said as he dragged Calvin off. "I need you to carry him out of here."

"You must be kidding," Ripred deadpanned.

"Stop being so sensitive," Gregor replied harshly. "This isn't the time to be choosy."

"Oh that's right," Ripred said sarcastically. "Put him on me and forget that he got a panic attack from seeing my face. Very wise, Overlander."

"Now's not the time for Calvin to be choosy either," Gregor told Ripred. "Just do as I say for this once."

Ripred stared at Gregor blankly for a couple of seconds, before eventually caving in to his demands. "Fine," the old rat sighed. "This better work out."

Gregor could hear the sound of foxes gathering in the distance. He quickly hauled Calvin's limp body up and draped him like a carpet over Ripred. "You run out of here as fast as you can," he said to Ripred. "Don't wait for me unless I tell you to do so. Three sharp whistles and Apollo will come for you."

"You don't really expect me to leave you behind, do you?" Ripred replied. "If anyone should be left behind, it's me."

"You can carry Calvin out of here, I can't," Gregor pointed out. "Besides, I can hold them off long enough to find a way to escape."

Ripred nodded. "Take care, boy," he said. "Fly you high."

The rat, with Calvin lying on his back, then slinked out of the room and dashed down the corridor. Gregor took in yet another deep breath to calm his nerves, before allowing his rager senses to surge through his blood once more. He ran out of the room and sprinted down towards the corridor, towards the cavern…

And found himself running into the middle of a whole fox army.

He prepared himself for an attack, but it never came. They all backed off and allowed him to walk into the middle of the cavern. He stared around, amazed at what was going on. They were literally just opening up a path for him to walk right out. Something was not right, surely they were just setting him up for some grandiose event, some theatrical spectacle, some feast for their eyes…

"Warrior," a voice behind him breathed menacingly.


The ending was originally a bit longer, but I decided to cut it for a bit more fun. Hope you liked this chapter and that my standard of writing didn't dip. Hope that it was exciting for y'all to see Gregor and Ripred fighting side-by-side and taking on foxes.

Favourites/follows are recommended, reviews are strongly encouraged! I need them.

I had a mini Easter Egg inside this chapter- a reference to DeathDrayanD. It wasn't very subtle, but nonetheless did you spot it?

Question: Was the writing in this chapter ok? And do you think the voice at the end of the chapter belonged to Flavius or Snake? Or maybe… Gorger?

Also, for the first time ever I'm doing two sets of death predictions for my story. Do you think anyone will die within the next few chapters? If so, who will die?

By the way, I'm not trying to hint that there will be deaths in the next few chapters. I'm just leaving it up for speculation.