A/N: Thank you all again for your kind words, please leave reviews! I would greatly appreciate it. Good or bad, it helps me learn.

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Anders watched as his baby rabbits grazed on the grass which covered the final room of his cave. The brown balls of fluff hopped and flopped around. An empty nest rested just a few feet away, their mother was out grazing as well. They were taking their first bites of the rich grass in the open room, their eyes had just opened for the first time that morning. As he watched them frolic, he fondly remembered the moment he had discovered the rabbit warren just a few short months ago.

He had awoken in a barren room, his body gone. It had been replaced by a beautiful magic sapphire. Memories of a full life and a horrifically violent end sent him into a panic. He had frantically dug out to the surface to escape into the light, but after just a few short movements his digging revealed a den of newborn rabbits. The discovery had shocked him, as soon as he reached them a wave of power washed over his body. He quickly flew through the tunnel to the surface, reaching out into the world through a tunnel not his own. As he continued to explore, he found it was a proper warren, with six different nests of cute fluffy bunnies, each discovery bringing with it a new surge of power. That evening as he watched, the mothers returned to nurse and sleep.

The adult rodents put forth even more energy than their babies had. He was in bliss. And somehow, he knew what to do. He began a new tunnel from his home to the world above, wider than the tunnels of the rabbit warren. Next he widened his home, and dug deeper into the hillside.

The rabbits had thoroughly explored this cave behind them, despite it being bereft of life they hopefully searched for blades of grass from time to time. With their visit, they left their droppings. Insulting pellets left behind by his tenets. But what began as a rude poop soon blossomed into something wonderful. Tiny grass seeds had found purchase in his domain, and with the soft light of the sun from the entrance, they thrived in the damp ground. As he watched the new life growing in his cave, another adventurous rabbit wandered into his cave, and devoured the infant stalk.

In his frustration he had tried to save the blade of grass, pouring energy into it. The infant blade of grass recovered it's damage and grew. It took time but with his help it lived out it's full cycle before dispersing new seeds into his realm in a matter of days. He had discovered a wonderful secret.

He quickly funneled the energy from the rabbits into the grass, spreading it around his cavern. Soon the rabbits all found their new source of food and no longer left his lair. His daily power supply doubled.

With the explosion of grass had come mice. They dashed through the tall grass which filled the entry room, tunnel and the area outside his lair. He quickly expanded, adding on new rooms. All with their own grass fields. Soon, the young in his lair began to connect with him. It was gradual at first, but as his strength grew they came one after another, and he welcomed them with open arms. He protected them from insects, and predators. Countless insects entered his lair only to be drained before they could get a foothold. He would allow nothing to harm his pets. He had nearly driven out the first rats that came, and had the poor mother not been on the verge of death he would have. Soon they too joined his pastures. He sounded the alert every time a fox stalked by, or grew curious and entered. All of his pets fled into the holes with plenty of time, but they still lived in fear.

Everything was going wonderfully as he reminisced, but he hungered for more. He was digging deeper and deeper, and then something surprised him. A tiny hole had appeared in one of his warrens, and through it he felt another of his kind. He was so small, still an infant. But Anders would allow no one to threaten his flock. A red, hungering presence loomed through the tunnel, and he felt those starving eyes scanning his territory, and so Anders flexed his formidable power. He thought of all the grass he could grow with this being's wasted power. His territory was so small, the life force circulating large in quantity, but so pathetically weak. He would be easy prey. His flock had lurked in the shadows long enough, this was finally an opponent they could fight. The prey would become the predator.

Anders summoned his two oldest and strongest rabbits, half of his rats, and one hundred mice. It was a force that completely eclipsed the feeble strength of the being who had fled from the slightest glimpse of his power. He burrowed into the wall, chasing after that smallest glimpse of his first prey.

He ordered his creatures to bring back the heart of this lair or destroy it. They were simple, but they understood. And then the crossed the threshold into the darkness that was not his own. And he waited. Anders grew excited as he felt despair wash over the other lair's energy at the sight of his forces. He swelled and stressed as he felt the rise and fall of the other dungeon's emotions. But then seven of his mice returned, frantically scrambling through the border. Their eyes were bloody holes in their skulls, and their bodies were covered in countless wounds. He tried to ask them what had happened, to read their minds, but all he saw was pain, terror, and suffering. Nothing else remained.

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The torturous agony burned like a blazing inferno. Every corner of his soul screamed out for salvation and yet it seemed impossible for him to survive. The mouse's gnashing teeth crunched off piece after piece in rapid succession. The pain had started as unbearable excruciation, and then it only got worse with each successive chomp. It was unimaginable, incalculable anguish. He was going to die. But then a dark shape slammed itself into the mouse, knocking it from it's prey.

Ajax stood over Damien's ruptured core, vibrant ruby light bathing him in it's glow. His front two left legs little more than stumps. The mouse rose, it's body half eaten, bloody and malformed. It's body was a seething mass of massive black flies, each biting and clawing away. The beast shrieked out it's furious determination. It's face was an eyeless visage of pain, but still it charged forwards. By smell or by sound Damien couldn't know, but the beast knew where it's wounded prey lay. The dying rodent mustered it's final charge, and threw himself into it's final battle. Without it's sight, it slammed into Ajax.

They tumbled around, the mouse was a flurry of gnashing teeth and wild scrambling. Ajax desperately tried to pull away, to separate, but the blind rodent continuously drove him into the ground. The black and yellow spider furiously stabbed down with his fangs, piercing in and out of it's side, but it's venom glands were empty. They tussled, bit, grabbed, clawed, all the while Damien choke down his utter agony to focus on the battle. The mouse crushed another of Ajax's legs, and the spider bit down into it's face, tearing through it's left nostril. Two of Ajax's eyes were torn from his skull, but he returned the favor by burrowing his teeth in the rodent's soft belly. And then the rodent slammed into Ajax's final two left legs, snapping them like twigs. With a final surge of strength Ajax lurched and threw himself atop the mouse, and buried his fangs though the empty eye sockets. His terrible foe twitched and spasmed as it's last breath wheezed out of it's lungs, finally bringing the battle to a close.

"It's over... Its actually over" Damien whimpered, his power hemorrhaging out through the cracks. All the power he had earned in this battle was washing away into nothingness. One side of his heart had countless bites and scratches missing, but as the minutes passed the leak began to close. As the pain slowly subsided, and lessened to a soul crushing ache the cracks sealed, leaving sharp, jagged edges where once smooth rounded edges decorated his flawless core. "I'm alive..." He weakly moaned as his senses returned to him. He was surrounded by what little remained of his minions. A few hundred maggots, seven hundred flies, fifty huge ants, ten beetles, thirty grubs, and one heavily wounded spider. "Is this all that's left?" Damien cried, his last months work shattered in thirty minutes. But then something clicked. One spider. There was only one spider.

He stared at the yellow spider in front of him, so many shattered legs failing to support his bruised and bloodied body. The torrential flood of power unwillingly released from Damien's core had stopped the bleeding, but he was in bad shape. But without pausing to check on Ajax he roared "Sheila!" And a weak response pulsed through his mind, and he saw what had befallen his treasured spider. She lay amongst the dead piled around his heart. The rat had torn her apart. Legs lay mangled, her abdomen torn open in a dozen places, and half of her face was chewed and shredded, dragging on the ground beside her. She had desperately crawled closer to Damien after killing the rat. Her foe lay dead far behind her, his body frozen in his final throws of venom induced agony. She had felt his pain when he was attacked, and had hauled her failing body to him, to protect him. With only one leg remaining she had used her stumps, leaving a trail of blood as her wounds released the last remnants of her vital ichor.

"No!" He cried, his champion. His pet. His treasured spider lay dying. Weak as he was, he poured mana into her, desperate to save her. But her broken shell could not hold the mana. He tried and tried, but her body was too frail to put it to use. What he gave her only sped up her heart, and she only bled out faster. Still he poured in every last ounce of strength he had. He was utterly spent. But he felt her slipping further and further away. He sobbed, crying in his flickering core. His brilliant ruby core faded to a dour purple. As he choked back the tears of his broken soul, he felt a pain more terrible than anything that worthless rodent had wrought.

There was a gentle tapping on his weeping heart, and then she moved no more.

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The beginnings of fear began to course through Anders' mind as he felt the terror inside his flock. then he felt the dungeon's great pain. It's throes of tremendous agony, and he once again grew excited. Eager to feed. Energy surged out from the lair, and he drank it up as fast as it came, but then his rabbit came through. Blood welled from it's ears, and as he examined it, chunks of it's brain were missing. Something terrible was happening on the other side of the barrier. Something in there devoured eyeballs and ate his creatures from the inside out. These terrible beasts rested in this tiny lair before him, and he had poked it with a stick.

And then he felt terrible anguish and loss from the red lair, its color changing to purple. It grew weaker and weaker, almost faint. Anders considered sending what was left of his rodents in to finish the job, but just as he began to summon his remnants, everything changed. The pain and despair was replaced with rage and hatred the likes of which he had never felt. And that fury was all pounding against the thin barrier between their lairs. He didn't know what had happened, what had gone wrong, but he knew he had woken something terrible. He bid his creatures to flee, and he filled in the tunnel behind them.

Fear had found it's home in Anders' heart. The rodents were prey once again.