As the cloud of dust settled down, the situation in the sewer tunnels became clearer. Most of the smaller critters, the toads and cockroaches that had warred so far, were trying to low down and slowly stepped back from where the explosion had occurred - never daring to take their eyes off the three creatures that seemed to be the ones who would determine how this fight would end.

The three fighters in question each slowly looked at the others in the middle of a field of rubbles, checking their state, their opponent's, and how dangerous they could be.

On one side was a gigantic red and brown bull-themed toad with massive horns, quickly nicknamed Matoador by James.

On the other was a humongous black cockroach with blue markings and bladed antennae which were currently flicking in the air, a very angry Titaroach.

And finally, between the two and with his back to the canal, James himself. Still using his humanoid form, he stood taller than the Titaroach but shorter than the Matoador - not that height mattered when the both of them were this large. As he regenerated the holes left behind by the Matoador's horns after its charge, James quickly checked up on the ratlings and the two monsters before him.

Good news, the ratlings were fine. Some scratches here and there but nothing too dangerous.

Bad news, neither of the two aggressive beasts that had started this rampage seemed injured.

Oh, the Titaroach still had the cuts that James had inflicted, but just as he had thought such small injuries were useless on a creature immune to blood loss, it almost looked like they had already healed, turning into small white lines, but James knew those were only the thick blood providing an emergency clotting. Oh well, better luck next time.

And it doesn't appear phased by the whole tons-of-stone-falling-on-it thing. This... Is harder than I hoped it'd be.

CROOOK!

And I also have this new abomination to take care of. Great.

Indeed, the Matoador was quickly growing bored of this stand-off. Its skin didn't appear harmed by its charge straight into a pile of rock and its horns were just as spotless. It began to drag its feet on the ground, mimicking a bull's hoof pawing - a clear sign of an incoming charge.

So, let's sum it up. Neither seems to care about blunt damage, cutting isn't effective on a cockroach this big and the same is probably true for the big guy. Let's try piercing then!

James jumped back, quickly forming a pair of bat-like wings and turning parts of his body into a highly dense gas, thick enough to stay connected to his solid parts and yet light enough to lose weight and ease the use of his wings to stay afloat.

Of course, neither of the two animals let him freely break the stalemate without doing anything themselves. The Matoador immediately charged at James as soon as he began to move, his new airborne method of transport allowing to narrowly escape the mad amphibian's horns as it quickly found itself hitting the floor on the other side of the canal headfirst whereas the Titaroach decided to play it safer, running onto the wall and putting some distance between itself and its two opponents.

The Matoador quickly hopped back into the fight, completely unaffected by its blunder - apart from its red-colored skin getting slightly lighter, James noted. The Titaroach immediately struck with its long bladed antennae, taking care to aim for James first in such a way that its attack would still hit the Matoador once it would have cut him in half. James flapped his wings and rose above the attack, an attack which ended up harmlessly bouncing off the Matoador's fat slimy hide.

The Matoador launched its tongue at the Titaroach who jumped out of the way at the last moment, letting the tongue get stuck on the wall before brandishing its bladed antennae once more and striking down, aiming to cut the fleshy appendage in two - which surprisingly worked.

CROOOOOK!

The long, pink muscled organ began to thrash in the air, nearly hitting James as blood gushed out of the cut and the Matoador croaked in pain, the Titaroach buzzing in pleasure at the sight of its main objective's suffering.

That is until James pierced it with a newly-formed spear-leg. Then it too began to screech.

SCREEEEE!

Hearing the cockroach's pained cry shook the toad out of its stupor, and it was not pleased. Its red skin, which had been a dark shade of crimson at the beginning of the fight, had slowly lightened until now when it suddenly accelerated the process, becoming a bright scarlet, nearly glowing red - James was pretty sure it also emitted the air-altering effect of extreme heat. Even its horns had become a lighter shade of white, so light it appeared to glow. It almost seemed like there was steam coming out of its ears and some of its warts, too.

CROOOK!

James extracted his leg from the Titaroach and dodged back, evading another swing of its antennae and even a few attacks it did with its legs before rushing down onto the ground, letting himself turn into a more liquidy form and quickly rushing under the Titaroach's body. The insect, remembering James' previous tactic, stayed still for a second before jumping off the wall just as the Matoador began to charge, hitting the spot where it had been - and, by extension, James.

AAAAAHHHHH!

James' sense of pain had been greatly diminished, but not fully removed - something this experience painfully demonstrated. The actual attack, the charge itself, hadn't hurt that much, merely equal to a punch in the gut. No, the true source of James' suffering was the heat emitted by the toad's skin and horns. It felt like he had only been punched, true, but by someone wearing a burning metal gauntlet, one on the edge of melting.

So... Fire... Bad...

The Titaroach buzzed at the sight of James' body being incrusted in the wall as he was, as well as his lack of movement. It then quickly focused back on the Matoador as it turned around and faced it. The two mortal enemies stared each other down, the toad groaning to show its displeasure at the bug's challenge as said challenger buzzed to taunt its opponent, taking care to analyze each and every one of its moves to predict any future charge.

Then there was a spear in its thorax, again.

SCREEEEEEE!

James quickly flowed back, avoiding the large insect's stomping frenzy as it realized he had survived getting splattered on the wall.

I have a fast recovery, good to know. Though hopefully there won't be any more bad surprises-

The Titaroach screeched as its markings and openings in its chitinous armor - both the natural segmented ones and the cuts made by James - began to glow a bright blue and sparks of electricity began to fly between its two antennae.

Of course it would- AAAAAHHHHH!

The Titaroach unleashed massive amounts of electricity on James from the tips of its antennae. And again. And again. And again. And again. And-

The Matoador sent it flying with a headbutt.

Elec... Tricity... Bad... Too...

The Titaroach got back on its feet and screeched at the Matoador. The two faced each other once more, one emitting large amounts of steam and heat to the point that the water in the canal began to boil and the other releasing large amounts of electricity in the air, some stray sparks already branching off and traveling through the steam cloud, fading away before they could reach the Matoador.

All throughout the tunnel cockroaches and toads began to buzz and croak, each side cheering for their champion, praising their might and encouraging them for this fight. They would be the ones to win, they would be the ones to kill their opponent, they would be the ones ruling this area!

The sole exceptions to this were five little rats, equipped with improvised metal weaponry, who looked worryingly at the two combatants, noticing the absence of their caretaker ever since he had been hit with the Titaroach's electricity.

The two monsters kept on staring at each other, slowly getting closer as their respective emissions grew stronger.

And then a shadow rose on the wall behind the two.

Two ruffians were exploring the sewers. One was tall and scrawny, dressed in red and beige and carrying a shovel on his shoulder, while the other was short and on the wider side of things, wearing brown and red and lighting up the path forward with a flashlight. Both had black and somewhat greasy unkempt hair.

"Say Barry, you sure this is a good idea?"

"Why, having second thoughts Larry?"

"Well, momma didn't raise no dummy, and going down there is kinda dumb. And I think I'm getting a cold."

"Ah, but you see Larry, it's because going down here is dumb that it's smart."

"Uh?"

"If no one's dumb enough to roam the sewers, then no one's gonna find any hidden stash. So, where's the best place to hide something?"

"The bank?"

"What? No! The sewers you idiot! No one comes by so no idiot can find something they weren't meant to."

"But Barry, doesn't that mean that bad people could be down there too?"

"Bah, we just have to make them think we're badder than them! It's like with bears, you just have to appear bigger!"

"But Barry, not all bears are scared of yelling, there are even some that get even madder if you do!"

"Larry, Larry, leave the thinking to me, alright?"

"Sure Barry, sure"

The two advanced in silence for a minute.

"Barry, I think we're lost."

"Larry I swear to-"

A few meters ahead of the two a wall suddenly exploded.

No, it'd be more accurate to say that something burst through the wall. They could see it right now in fact, a surprisingly large bulltoad was fighting an equally oversized electroach, releasing great amounts of steam, heat, and electricity around them. Barry could almost feel himself losing weight just by being near, it was worse than that time they had tried to make a sauna to rip-off idiots.

The electroach was currently being pressed against a wall by the bulltoad's head, its body heat slowly cooking the insect as it screamed in pain and discharged electricity into the toad, the steam and slime it produced providing excellent conductors which allowed the electroach's attack to be even more effective than it would normally be.

The electroach produced a particularly large discharge in a burst, throwing the bulltoad away despite its weight and giving the insect enough time to get back up and collect itself.

The two monsters looked at each other and began to groan, trying to intimidate their opponent into giving up.

And then Larry sneezed.

"Larry, why."

"Barry, I'm sorry."

The two beasts turned around and stared at the two little things that had dared interrupt their duel, their hatred for one another slipping into hatred toward those annoying little bipedal pests - whose silhouette somewhat reminded them of that annoying shadow thing. They slowly approached the two ruffians, ready to have a quick mid-fight snack.

"Larry, give me the gun."

"The gun?"

"The gun I asked you to buy. The gun you told me you had."

"Ah, that gun."

"Yes, that gun."

"It, huh..."

"Yes, Larry? What could possibly trouble you enough NOT TO TAKE THE SOLE THING THAT COULD SAVE US IN THIS LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION?!"

"It doesn't work."

"What."

"Well, you know how I told it was a brand new gun? Turns out only the paint was new. The rest was old. Like, really old. Like, it can't shoot anything."

"Why did you buy a USELESS PIECE OF SCRAP?!"

"I thought it was legit! Barney sold it to me and he works for the Angels!"

"But Barney is a scammer Larry! HE NEVER SELLS ANYTHING LEGIT!"

SCREEE! CROOOK!

Larry and Barry brought their focus back on the two murderous monsters that were much closer than they were a few seconds ago and couldn't help but hug each other for comfort.

"Oh gods we're going to die."

"You know what Larry? Despite everything, at least I'm glad I get to be with you in the end."

"Oh Barry!"

CROOOK! SCREEE!

"OH GODS WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT LARRY!"

""AAAHHH!""

And, just as the bulltoad and the electroach were about to each devour one of the two idiots before them, a massive black spike fell from the ceiling onto the bulltoad, falling on its head on a spot with brown skin and going all the way through its skull and mouth, the tip of the spike piercing through the bottom of its throat and getting stuck into the ground.

The bulltoad didn't even have the time to try and take a look at its aggressor, blood began to fly out of its wound as the amphibian simply fell down, its rage no longer fueling its muscles its lifeless body stopped emitting heat and steam and returned to its darker colors as its eyes began to roll back into its skull.

The spike that had felled the beast melted, turning into a shadow that suddenly charged at the electroach.

The insect screeched, launching bolt after bolt of electricity at the shadow that simply formed holes wherever the attack was going to fall, ultimately rendering the large bug's attempts at killing it useless.

The electroach began to back off, screeching more and more as it kept on sending electricity, its attacks getting less and less focused and more desperate. Had Larry and Barry not known that electroach were all mindless killing machines they would almost think the thing was afraid. What a silly notion, had they not been in a life or death situation involving two monstrous Cored animals and an unknown entity - well, only one monstrous Cored animal now.

"Larry, I think we should run."

A stray lightning bolt flew above their heads and struck the ground a few meters behind them.

"On second thought, don't move. At all."

The electroach screeched once more at the small black puddle on the ground as it got closer, hoping beyond hope it could scare the little abomination away. A plan that failed, obviously, given the brand new massive spike in its thorax, going all the way to the ceiling.

SCREEEEEEEEEE!

The electroach focused all of its energy on itself, releasing a last-minute electric aura to fry the shadow or at least force it to give it some space. Which worked, surprisingly. The small shadow rushed away as soon as the insect began to emit its electricity, slowly emerging from the ground and taking on a somewhat humanoid form - if you were willing to call the silhouette of some kind of vampire or cape-wearing spirit humanoid, that is.

Something was wrong, however. Even Barry and Larry could tell the electroach's discharge was too long, and even if it had been willingly keeping it active more than normal it should have stopped screeching and probably would try to run away. Instead, it stayed in the same pose for unnervingly long seconds, screeching all the while, at least until smoke began to escape from the openings in its chitinous armor and its eyes suddenly popped.

Barry and Larry flinched at that, still in each other's arms. Their gaze went from the electroach that was somehow electrocuting itself to the shadowy thing that seemed to be taking in the spectacle.

Huh, it worked. I mean, it was obvious that its chitin wouldn't be affected by electricity or at least wouldn't be conductive, otherwise, it would have killed itself long ago, but I wasn't entirely sure this protection wouldn't extend to its insides.

The Titaroach finally fell, no longer emitting anything. Its blue markings stopped glowing and its legs curled up.

Still, good idea to hide the scraps I was carrying in the ceiling. I'm pretty sure its lightning bolts would have had an easier time hitting me otherwise. Annnd I'm very, very thankful the shadow shifting came back. I don't think shadow manipulation would have been helpful here but being a shadow sure helped, especially with speed.

"Do... Do you think it's going to eat us, Barry?"

"Shut up Larry. SHUT. UP."

Oh yeah. These two. Well, this is awkward, I have no plan in case of human contact yet. What could I do? I mean, just leaving would be weird and they may report me to someone or...

"Do you think it's a vampire, Barry? I don't want my blood to be drunk!"

"Larry do not make the very nice shadow thing that just saved our lives mad. Especially when it could easily kill us both!"

Do... Do they think they're being stealthy? Ok, let's get this over with.

James turned around - not that he needed to, he just wanted to let them think he actually had a front and a back - and began approaching the two dirty ruffians he had accidentally saved. He had absolutely no idea of what would happen next.