After a few more spontaneous deaths, the gnome going pop being the last straw, the group began to fracture and panic. Some stayed with the masked man, the others scattered like a nest of cave crawlers. I wasn’t concerned about them ever making it out of these halls though. As if to punctuate that thought I heard a short scream followed by a quick thud and a soft fleshy squelching. I directed my gaze to the red spot which was now the gnome. Before his untimely demise, he began to bloat like a four-day-old fish due to his magic trying to fight off the Pestilence. It’s a sign of a fairly skilled amateur where I’m from but considering how it was a gnome, a being generally placed up there with spirits not to mess with, that just made this mistake I’m not sure what to think. It's not a common mistake either, one has to know how to combat magical parasites with magic but also not know how much magic to use or lacks the necessary control.

I sighed at my crumbling worldview and moved on. I’ve dilly-dallied long enough, and it was finally time to take care of the masked man. He moved at a more panicked pace now with only two humans left following him. Since I’m no longer disguising myself among people, I dropped my form in a trade for one resembling a wolf. The soft crackling of my bones was music to my ears as I dropped down to all fours and charged. My claws clicked with every gallop and the sound of panicked footsteps came closer. Taking a note from twiggy's book I took to the walls to gain more momentum.

POV Shift--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s just a normal recruitment mission they said it’ll be fun they said. All you will need to do is feign confidence and let the artifacts do the rest, it's perfectly safe, they said. It sure doesn’t look safe to me. I looked to my side and saw two people still following me, I’m sure they won't mind me sprinting, I’m confident that running away from people literally exploding won’t be a sign of weakness. I really don’t know what happened, one moment everything was going swimmingly, the next I learn a facility was destroyed and the recruits started dropping like flies due to THE plague of gods. The light sound of tapping suddenly threw all my senses into overdrive and I dove for the floor. Just in time too, a massive shadow sailed above me and disappeared into the darkness of the hall ahead.

I heard a scream behind me and saw that one person was gone. After a second something large and fleshy thudded beside me… it was the mangled remains of the missing person. His intestines were hanging out of his legless corpse and many crisscrossing gashes littered his now pale body, showing bone and viscera. I quickly pushed myself up onto unsteady legs and went to run but before I could a small light at the end of the hall caught my eye. Seemingly sensing my gaze, the light began to sway strangely. Swaying side to side, closer and closer. Until finally I could see a mangled head emerge from the inky blackness. It was large and bloody, covered in many scars with bits of skull showing. I froze at the sight of its horrid visage and before running even crossed my mind it leapt to shred. I raised my arm in defense and I felt sharp teeth pierce my suit. Thank god I was wearing bracers underneath. The solid steel held for a second but ever so slowly I could feel it collapsing. I stared into the cavernous eyes of the beast as a realization hit me, the plague of gods and now suddenly a strange humongous pitch-black wolf covered in egregious injuries, it could only mean one thing. I was staring into the face of the herald of death, the Black Shuck.

In a moment of quick thinking, I grabbed my flask and slammed it into the beast’s face. A solid thud was the only answer I received. Alright, that didn’t work, what do I know about the Black Shuck. Most of it is pretty theoretical, legends and such. Considering its theorized that this ghostly hound originated from the frigid depths of hell my fire trick should be pretty effective. I popped the lid of the flask with my thumb and went to douse my aggressor but a strangely human-like hand grabbed my arm and pinned it to the floor. Alright, what to do now. My bracer was uncomfortably crushing my flesh now, my time was running out to do something.

Why did it target me? It supposedly only attacked after someone pisses it off… or was a prolific sinner. My eyes drifted to my left breast pocket where a certain flower rested. With a burst of effort, I activated the latent magic of my mask and used the brief shield to slip my right arm out of its grasp, and tossed the flower to the side causing the hound to suddenly release my arm and intercepted the black petaled orchid. Using this opportunity, I slowly backed away, the one thing I learned in these mountains is not to turn your back on predators, supernatural or not. The dog eyed me as it seemingly enjoyed chewing the orchid. I could almost see the satisfaction in its nonexistent eyes as it swallowed. Note to self, ask the boss to stalk up on black-hearted orchids. Another note to self, don’t let anyone convince me to go undercover ever again. I’m a magician, not an actor. With a spring in my step, I continued to back up until I could duck behind a corner and turn around to get myself out of here. But before I could even rejoice at escaping from one of the most mysterious and deadly creatures known I was stopped in my tracks when I found a now-familiar head two inches from my own.