It almost felt as if the soil itself was boiling, bubbling beneath us as blood trickled from Dionte's forehead,

"They're underground?" Alexander said, "How the fuck has this happened?"

I leaned my hand against the wall, my body starting to cramp, "I don't know. We don't have long, I'm guessing what they're trying to achieve is to burn it up from the inside out. Destroy our foundations."

I felt liquid trickling down my cheek, why on Earth was I crying? I wiped it away to see the red on my hand. My mind flashed back to when I had been injected back at the base. I had been crying blood than too.

"Hey, hey what's wrong?" Alexander grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face him. "What-"

"Tears of Blood," I whispered, "I'm not sure, it happened at the base when I got injected. I didn't even remember that it happened until now when it's happened again."

His fingers came up and gently tried to move the liquid off my face, I already knew that my face was stained red, the white in my eyes a light, pink colour.

"Maybe it's triggered by something, while it's strange, it's not dangerous." He whispered. "But we need to get moving, are you ok?"

I scrunched my nose, "Of course,"

The ground was getting hotter and hotter, the soil drying up and cracking as the grass started to brown and wilt.

And then everything went silent.

All I could hear was my heart beating, the blood thumping in my ears.

A pillar of flame suddenly broke through the ground, spiralling intensely into the air any building or anything around it broke and burned away.

My eyes widened, "We don't have much time, get in contact with the other packs now, and I want as many warriors in the general facility, now."

He didn't even need to reply, his eyes immediately glazed over as he barked orders through the mind link.

I pulled out the two knives that I always kept in my shoes and held them firmly in my hand. No matter how much I had thought about this whole situation, I could never have been properly prepared.

Another fire pillar, then another, and another, popping out out the ground faster than I could blink. As I moved myself away from the buildings and back into an open area, pillars erupted around me. My heart started to beat faster, my cheeks still wet.

I tried to keep myself aware of my surroundings, try and keep on top of the surrounding fires.

You could see them from anywhere, and suddenly, my mind flashed back at the Games, how I had quickly been surrounded by fire. I felt like I was there again, desperately trying to find a solution.

A body jumped over a fence of fire that had formed itself between the pillars, Alexander rolling against the ground before pulling himself back up and placing himself right next to me.

Just as he did, the ground rumbled, causing the two of us to fall on our feet purely from the shock of it.

I planted my hands in the soil, trying to keep myself solid as in the distance, a dragon broke out of the ground. My breath was caught in my throat as I saw another pair of wings unfold.

And then, right in front of us, another dragon cracked through the ground. It was different to the others that I could see, for one, it was bigger. Its wings expanding out so far that my view of anything that was behind him had completely disappeared. Greenish-yellow scales with a great, purple underbelly. Black teeth and fiery eyes.

I looked at him and made direct eye contact.

I bit my tongue ot hid my emotions, hide my surprise.

Master Skotus.

"Master Skotus," I whispered, "That's him,"

I heard Alexander swear. "Not that we can see them, but I would guess that the forces I called on have already turned up. We just need to hold out against these dragons, which I know we can."

I spun the knives in my fingers and sent them flying into foreign directions, a muted screech telling me that I had done something.

All the pillars fell, and as that happened, a few more dragons flew out of the floor.

We couldn't waste any more time.

Both Alexander and I shifted, just as Master Skotus began to fly in an upwards spiral. Now that the fire was gone, we could move freely, jumping into different positions to try and make our rebuttal.

I already knew their plan, to burn us to a crisp and destroy this pack to the ground.

We needed to stop them before they could.

This time, we had a force behind us, Bloodlust warriors all prepared and ready to go. Half the issue was, was that the dragons were in the sky, while we were stuck down here on the ground.

If I was correct, whatever forces they wanted to send through next would get here via the tunnels and then enter pack grounds through the holes that the fire pillars had created.

The dragons came together, high in the sky and formed a circle, Master Skotus at least double the size of the others, dominating the sky as they positioned themself in a deadly arrangement. Being in wolf form wasn't going to do anything for me.

I shifted back, leaning my body over to a warrior who was stood beside me and grabbed as many daggers, knives and swords as I possibly could. My mistake for coming out in the first place without my usual set up. Once I had set myself up as much as possible, I started to move,

"Stay low," I whispered, staring up to the still practically unmoving dragon circle. "They're building up to something huge. It's a technique that Master Skotus used to exert the most power as possible, and he's doing it with them all."

I moved into a blindspot, climbing up the edge of a building and tucking myself behind another before launching. I sent the biggest sword flying first, flexing my arm and twisting it before sending it flying.

My aim was perfect, burying itself directly in his chest. I watched as the dragon struggled to stay up just for a moment before quickly beginning to collapse. I knew that in any other situation, the surrounding dragons would have jumped to place themselves beneath him in an attempt to catch him, to save him, but I knew that they wouldn't. Instead, they held themselves in the exact same position as he made his descent to the floor.

I couldn't waste any more time. I could see their necks beginning to glow, meaning that the fire was only moments away firing.

I threw another set of knives, angling it to shred through the wings of the next closest dragon. It pulled them apart, resulting in that dragon, too, to fall.

I tried to destroy as many as I possibly could, ripping wings, cutting limbs, slicing chests. I knew that the only one I had managed to kill was the first that I had impaled with the sword.

By the time I was finished, there were only three dragons left, and I could barely believe my luck that I had brought the number down so dramatically.

And just like that, they opened their mouths,

"EVACUATE THE AREA!" I screamed, "NOW-"

I was cut off by the sudden breath of fire, lead by Master Skotus in a blaze of fury. The orange and red covered everything in a matter of seconds. I pushed myself as tightly against the brick wall as I could, clenching my entire body as I attempted to practically mould myself to the building.

I felt the heat dancing on my skin, but I knew I wasn't burning. For that, I could be thankful, that I wasn't going to walk away from this with third-degree burns and massive red welts covering my body.

I wondered how long it would last, I refused to move my face from the current position I was in in the fear that I would somehow burn myself, regardless of the confidence that I had in my positioning. I felt the heat lower, meaning that chances were that the only dragon letting out any fire now was Master Skotus.

I couldn't feel anything in my chest, no tug or pains anywhere in my body. It didn't mean much, but it assured me that wherever Alexander was right now at this moment, he was safe and out of harm's way.

While I knew that I wouldn't be able to feel the breaking of the bonds, I hoped that as many people as possible had been able to move from harm's way. Nothing could ever come without casualties, but all I could hope for was that as many had been able to stay safe as possible.

No one deserved to die, and at the mouth of Master Skotus, I doubted that any death from him could be listed as anything else but torture.

Finally, I felt the heat of the flame ebb away and as I looked up, I watched as the final puffs of flame disappear and retract back to the one dragon that remained in flight. Unsurprisingly, after dishing out that much power, the others didn't even have the energy to stay afloat, not even beginning to think of doing it again.

In this side of the pack, most of these building was made of brick, and I couldn't be more grateful. I didn't have the time to look but in a spare moment, I noticed the black scorches, the completely destroyed nature that surrounded the streets and of course, the few bodies that lie crisped on the floor, completely mummified by Master Skotus's fiery breath.

The thought alone made me cringe.

I was snapped out of focus by noise, more and more noise that seemed to tumble not only in front of me but from beneath me.

I wasn't stupid enough to not realise what was going on.

The rest of the organisation had arrived.

All at once, people began to crawl out of the many holes that had been embedded in the ground, turning the scorched graveyard into a battlefield within seconds. Out from hiding, Bloodlust immediately jumped into action, first trying to prevent people from climbing up in the first place.

I recognised the people that were making their way up and into the pack. Vampires, fae, spirits, even a few sirens made an appearance. But no wolves. I already knew it was deliberate, to save them for the final battle, the final defeat.

I could have snorted, as if they would ever get the chance.

I moved from where I was currently situated as more and more people came rushing into this area, either with weapons in their hands or in a ghastly wolf form ready to attack.

But attacking and defending wasn't my priority. Finding Master Skotus and ending him was.

Madame Beaudeline was the head, no one could deny that. And as long as she was alive, so was the Organisation. But, after removing both Master Skotus and Mistress Hemlock from the equation? Suddenly, she's not so powerful.

At least, that's what I was hoping for.

As I jumped down from the building and moved my way across and in between the streets to where I had seen Master Skotus's body gently drift down after exhaling his last fireball. As I moved I picked up discarded weapons along the way, shoving them onto multiple places on my body just to make sure I had that extra level of protection. I kept moving through crowds, through individual fights among Bloodlust and Organisation. I tried to be quick, weaving through them as I made my way further and further along.

Finally, I saw him.

Master Skotus.

Unsurprisingly, he had shifted back into his human form. Blood seemed to be leaking from the places where the scales protruded from his skin.

"Nightstalker," He grinned, "What a coincidence."

I flexed my fingers. "I'm surprised you managed to get through that. So much fire at once, I didn't realise you could still handle it."

His eyes narrowed as he took a step closer, grabbing onto my chin and lifting my face towards the sunlight. "The crying blood, it was Madame Beaudeline's idea you know. Whenever you're in a situation of danger, to cry tears of blood. I'm not sure why, but I thought it would be an amusing side effect. And I was right. Very funny."

He dropped his hands. "Now, how about we finish this? Just like old times."

I flashed him a smile, "I couldn't ask for anything more."

A flurry of fists and kicks. I felt like the small child receiving his training for the first time. All the bruises that had risen from being thrown into the wall, all the broken bones that he had snapped to teach me discipline.

A final to chance to get back at him.

I was killing Master Skotus today, and he didn't even know it.

If I was correct in my assumption, he probably doesn't think that I have the guts.

I suppose I know where my dagger will go.

"I know you can fight harder than that? You've let yourself get weak Nightstalker," He taunted as he bached me into the ground again. "Fight back, I dare you."

With a grunt, I toppled him, repeatedly punching him in the throat, over and over again.

I was sick of the taunts, sick of the comments that he whispered in my ear on every occasion. He liked playing mind games just as much as mental games.

"Come on Landon," I hissed, "Why is this so easy? Where's the challenge? You're practically doing my job for me."

That only seemed to rile him up more. Each hit now became more and more aggressive,

"I used to think you were my strongest student, the one to compare to, the one I did my greatest job training. With punches like these, your barely scraping the bottom of the barrel."

I spat a wad of spit out of my mouth, "I learnt it from you."

Another hard punch, sending him scattering to the floor. This was my opportunity, if I didn't take it now, I was done for.

I pinned him against the ground and laid in just a few more punches, mainly to ensure that he was going to end up completely out of it.

I pulled out the dagger from my pants and went to town. Stomach, intestines, bowels, pancreas, kidney, everything I could think of ended up with a blade running through it. One stab after another, each one causing a louder and louder gasp from my victim. I couldn't stop, I wouldn't stop, raging endlessly.

I knew that chances are was that he would need medical attention right now to even last a minute. Since I knew that wasn't going to happen, I knew my job was done.

But I couldn't stop.

Stabbing and stabbing and stabbing, try to inflict every kind of pain on him that I had experienced in my seventeen years of hell.

Finally, with my breath harsh and raving, I made my final stab. Throwing the bloodied dagger to the side and letting it disappear into the grass. Master Skotus would bleed out completely within an hour, but there was nothing that could be done to save him now.

I stood up and shoved his body into a bush, meaning that unless someone was looking, there was no way he was going to be found.

"I think," He croaked, "If you weren't so emotional, weren't so attached to your bloody notions of family and love, you would have made a perfect soldier Nightstalker, the best."

I turned around and kicked his head into the bush, now completely hidden from view,

"My name," I hissed, "Is Cassandra Verano."