I woke suddenly, gasping for air, but all that filled my mouth was a foul, cloying sludge. I would have coughed if there was any air left in my lungs. Instead, my whole body spasmed, as if I could shudder the stuff out of my me.

I had the presence of mind not to open my eyes. I tried to swim out of whatever I was in, kicking with my legs in primal desperation. My foot landed against something hard, and I pushed myself forward.

“You are facing down.” It was the same voice I’d heard earlier, its tone flat as if it didn’t actually care what I did. “You should go up if you want to breathe.”

I did want to breathe, so I windmilled my arms and pulled myself in the direction the voice had indicated was up. After a second, my head broke the surface of whatever I was submerged in, and I gasped in the sweet air. Okay, it still smelled like death, but it was the most lovely death-filled air I’d ever breathed. I began coughing and spitting, gradually aware that I was absolutely covered with the stuff like I was caked in sticky mud.

“Stop moving,” Carter said near me, and I immediately stopped. With my eyes still closed, I took in my surroundings with mana sight. I saw the outline of the dragon den, with three brightly burning cores of individuals. One knelt over me where I lay partly submerged in a viscous fluid, with my chest and arms on solid stone and legs still dangling in the muck. I pulled myself the rest of the way out without thinking.

“I said, stop moving,” Carter said again above me. “Let me rinse some of this off your face.” She poured water from her canteen onto my face and scrubbed clean what she could. “God, this stuff is gross,” she said. “I’m not washing the rest of you.”

“Thanks,” I said when I could open my eyes again. I then proceeded to spit the substance out of my mouth with poor results. What I wouldn’t give for Listerine and a toothbrush at that moment. I proceeded to try to scrape the rest of the gunk off my body as well. That was when I saw what I was holding in my right hand. That was odd. Unlike every other time when I’d absorbed energy from a core, this core had not turned to dust.

“Oh, you’re paying attention to me now?” the voice in my head said.

I looked around to hopefully identify the source of the talking, but there was no one new in the cavern. Three dragon corpses and three people.

“Did you say something?” I asked Carter.

She shook her head before walking back over to Chavez, who was still motionless on the ground.

I looked the others over. Andy was no longer bleeding, the stump of his arm poking out of his shirt sleeve where it had been torn off. I could tell Chavez was breathing steadily, even if he hadn’t woken up yet. Then I realized someone was missing. I looked around, and couldn’t find our team sniper.

“Where’s Bragg?” I asked into the silent room.

“Said he needed some air,” Carter said. “Can’t really blame him. This place smells foul.”

“Well, I did the best I could.” It was that voice again. I realized it was a distinctly male voice, though of a higher pitch, like a small child lacking any emotion. “You try dealing with the stench of giant lizards.”

“Who said that?” I asked, turning around again and looking at the cave walls.

“I did?” Carter looked at me with confusion.

The mystery voice chimed in again. “Oh, you are stupid. Even for a monkey.”

I took the backpack off and tucked the core inside, keeping an ever-watchful eye on my surroundings, before I drew my sword again.

“You didn’t hear that voice?” I asked Carter.

She didn’t say anything. And she didn’t say anything very loudly. When I turned to look at her, she had a distinctly uncomfortable look on her face, like she was facing a beloved, but potentially rabid dog.

“What?” I asked.

“No one said anything,” Andy chimed in. He started climbing to his feet, the motion awkward with only one hand. “You feeling okay, Bear?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I actually feel great. I just could have sworn I heard something.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Carter said. “Can you carry Chavez?”

“You think he’s safe to move?”

“I think he won’t get better if we keep him in here,” she said.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s just take a look at…” I trailed off as my gaze moved upward. The mana funnel was no longer there. It had come down through the ceiling of the cave, but the mana that had once permeated the air in the cave had also disappeared. The ambiance of the room also felt much less oppressive, even if it didn’t smell any better. “Well, I’ll be damned.” I know, sometimes my way with words can surprise even me.

I hefted my pack onto my back, sheathed my sword with another mistrustful glance around the room, and unceremoniously picked Chavez up, princess style. Oh, he was going to love that when he found out.

We left the Komodo cavern behind and trudged our way through the water, past the crocodile corpses. It wasn’t until we stepped out of the mouth of the snake and touched the ground that I realized how much I had missed the sunlight. The entire time we’d been inside had felt unnaturally heavy, and now that I was standing in the sunlight, I could feel part of the weariness falling off my shoulders.

Still, there was no sign of Bragg, and I looked around nervously for the man. Even if we had killed almost everything in the zoo, I wasn’t confident that we were completely safe.

With no signs of Bragg, we moved out. Carter was at the front now, since I was carrying Chavez. Andy held his left hand on his SMG and was furiously trying to steady the weapon with the stump of his right elbow.

“Why did I have to give up my right hand?” he asked aloud. “I could have used my other hand.”

“Because you’re an idiot,” I shot back. Then I decided a little teasing might cheer him up. “Come on, you didn’t like that hand anyways.”

“Damndest thing, though,” he mumbled. “I can still feel my hand itching. I know it’s not there, but I can feel it.”

“Maybe one of the civvies back at the school is a counselor. You could do therapy.”

He glowered at me. “Remember, I only need one good hand to fire a gun.”

“Yeah, you’re a big, strong man who doesn’t need anyone to help him,” Carter jumped in on the fun. “I bet the girls will love hearing your story about how you lost your arm, though.”

“If I tell it at the bar, I’d probably get some free drinks out of it,” Andy chuckled dryly. “And who knows. We got magic now. Maybe I’ll find a way to grow it back.”

That was a new thought. I chose not to say anything, however, since I had no idea what the likelihood of that was. Besides, I still had something else on my mind. Where was Bragg?

I didn’t have to wait long to find out. We found Bragg lying on the ground, not daring to move. It may have had something to do with the fact that the tiger stood over him, one massive paw pressed down onto his chest. Bragg had gone white as a sheet.

The large cat did not regard him with any particular hostility, as far as I could tell. I couldn’t see its claws out either. Andy and Carter both had their weapons up and trained on the tiger. As we came closer, the tiger carefully lifted its paw off our fallen comrade and took several tentative steps back. It continued backing up as we moved in, each of its steps silent on the concrete.

When I finally took my eyes off the tiger to look at Bragg, I realized what the problem was. The man wasn’t afraid. His face was twisted in rage. His eyes flashed, and his pale face never wavered from the cat.

“Bragg,” I said. My voice cracked in the silence, grabbing the man’s attention. His eyes snapped to me. Then they slid down to my chest. And down to my stomach. Then back up to my face again. Then he licked his lips.

“Focus,” I went on, this time with the voice I would use on a rabid animal. I lowered Chavez to the ground as gently as I could. “This isn’t you.” I looked down at his chest, at the core throbbing where his heart was. The magical energy had nearly turned completely black, only a small portion in the center of the core shining with a faint green light. “You have to fight it, Bragg.” I pointed down at his chest.

I could tell the man inside hadn’t completely gone yet. His chest rose and fell rapidly as I would expect from a crazed animal, but he was listening to me. And he wasn’t attacking, which was the best response I could have hoped for.

“Look at yourself,” I said, still pointing at his chest.

He looked down.

When he looked back up at me, his head tilted to the side.

“It’s influencing your mind, Bragg,” I said. I pushed the other two aside as I moved closer to our friend. “You have to fight it.”

His head tilted to the other side. I would have laughed at the comedy of it if his eyes hadn’t conveyed the desperation in his thoughts.

“Use the mana in your body to fight it.”

He looked back down at his chest. The green energy pulsed feebly, and I could see a tendril pull away from the core. It swept through the dark mana, and I could tell by watching that it did some damage. However, the dark mana consumed the shining arm in the process.

I realized the problem then — Bragg didn’t have enough mana in his body left to destroy the corruption. Even as I watched, the corrupted mana began to constrict around the pure mana in his core.

“Dammit,” I growled. “He needs more mana. Did either of you somehow save a core from the animals earlier?”

“They disappeared as soon as I touched them,” Andy said.

“Me too,” Carter answered.

I focused back on Bragg, his eyes still locked on his core. Sweat poured down his skin, and he looked even paler than before if that was possible. The dark mana no longer pressed in on the shining core. Instead, the darkness seemed to form a solid wall around the core. At random intervals, sharp points like needles flew out from the darkness, striking at the green core in the center of Bragg’s chest. I watched, helpless, as his core grew smaller and smaller. Bragg needed more energy, and I had no cores to give him.

Or did I?

I couldn’t give him the core from my chest. Well, maybe I could, but I wasn’t willing to try that. But I could try to give him some energy. I looked down at my chest, the light a pure beacon. I just hoped this would work. I put my hand against Bragg’s chest, just over his core. His eyes snapped up to meet mine, right before I willed the energy in my chest down my arm and straight into Bragg.

It was remarkably easy. I remembered how previously I could barely make the energy go down my leg, and it burned like fire. Now, however, it felt like the energy mana was more responsive and flowed through my body more willingly.

The mana flooded out through the palm of my hand and into Bragg’s chest. It surrounded his core, swallowing both the darkness and light. My own energy shone brightly in his chest before it dissipated through his channels. I recoiled at what was left when it was over, however.

Bragg’s core had gone dark. Not dark like the corruption mana, which shone with its glossy black luster. Bragg’s core was the black of charcoal.

The man’s eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell onto his back.

“What did you do to him?” Andy breathed.

“I think I saved his life.”

“We should get him back to the school too,” Carter said. “We’re not safe here, either.”

“I agree,” I said. “I’ll carry them both.”

“You sure you can take the weight?” Andy drawled.

I picked Bragg up and tossed him over my shoulder. With Carter’s help, I got Chavez over my other shoulder. I felt ridiculous, but together they weighed just over four hundred pounds, so it wasn’t like I was breaking any world records.

That’s when I realized the tiger had disappeared. I scanned around us, but the large cat had vanished without a trace.