Razor fangs, curling ram horns, a spiked tail, a blade-ridged back, and wicked claws — the nightmarish monster had the shape of a dinosaur merged with a lion. As Arms drew his sword, the beast head-butted him. A trail of silvery blood followed Arms as he tumbled through the air and struck the padded wall with a THUD. He fell limp and didn’t get back up.

The monster crouched, bunched its muscles like a cat ready to pounce on its prey, and locked its crimson eyes on Arthur.

Arthur drew his rayguns. “Oh crap.”

The beast roared and charged.

Arthur fired five shots, and learned an important lesson: Hitting a big target wasn’t as easy as he’d have thought when the target was moving and scaring you out of your mind. One shot struck the beast in the chest, doing nothing; a second shot hit the monster in the foot, also accomplishing zilch; and the remaining shots missed.

Just before the beast reached him, Arthur dove to the side and rolled out of the way. Morgan activated her force field and met the beast head-on. The impact knocked her back against the wall. She struck the pads with a THUMP, but not nearly so hard as Arms had. She sank down to her knees, gasping for air. Her shield had saved her; and she still had her hands up, keeping it active.

Lexi leapt on top of the monster, dug her front claws into its neck, and raked with her back claws. The monster roared and bucked like a bronco, but it couldn’t shake her loose. Unfortunately, all she seemed to do was make it angrier. Vassalus sprang to Morgan's side and stood guard beside her.

The monster stopped bucking, and again charged Arthur. He only managed to get off four shots before it reached him. Three shots struck it in the chest. One shot struck it between the eyes — and did nothing. Unfazed, unharmed — the beast kept charging toward him.

He didn’t dive aside soon enough. The monster’s horns clipped him in the side. He somersaulted through the air and struck the wall.

THOOM!

* * *

“Arthur!” Lexi screamed. “Arthur! Are you okay?”

Arthur woke, hurting and winded. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out. Morgan was standing over him and shielding him with her force field, as the monster repeatedly head-butted and chomped down at them. With her heels dug into the floor, she held her ground, but just barely, and only because the monster wasn’t charging. If not for Morgan and those gloves, he’d be dead by now. But her shield wasn’t defeating the monster, and it probably couldn’t hold up forever …

Clawing her way up onto the back of the monster’s head, Lexi was doing her best to kill the monster, but was getting nowhere. Vassalus locked his jaws onto the creature’s tail and bit down hard enough to draw dark, smoky blood from it — but without letting up on its attacks against Morgan, the monster deftly wrapped its tail around Vassalus and squeezed him boa constrictor-style. Clutching his ribs, Valet stabbed the tail with his rapier, but that didn’t help at all.

Despite the danger, Arthur drifted back into darkness — then woke with pain flaring in his forearm. What the heck?! Morgan was still shielding him. What had —

Morgan lifted her foot and aimed her heel at him.

“Hey!” he said.

“Stay awake and do something!”

“What?”

“I don’t know … anything! I can’t hold out —” her shield flickered “— much longer.”

The beast chomped down, and the shield flickered and shrunk down so that it barely covered him and Morgan at the same time. But as it bit down, Arthur spotted something: a glowing red dot at the back of the monster’s mouth. That was odd.

Arthur scanned around; he had dropped his rayguns when the monster knocked him against the wall. Ugh, one was under the creature, and the other was … over ten yards away. He’d never get to it before — oh, Morgan’s! It was in the holster on her opposite hip from him.

He rose up into a crouch, reached around Morgan’s waist, and drew her gun.

Morgan elbowed him in the throat. “Don’t touch me, perv!”

Arthur doubled over, sucking wind. “Wasn’t — trying — to —”

The beast struck hard — the shield went out. The creature caught Morgan with its horns and flung her aside. Arthur readied himself to die, but the beast thudded after Morgan. The force field must have angered it. Morgan sat up slowly, too dazed to move or realize how much danger she was in. He had to get over there fast. He started toward her, but the beast was already rearing up; he wasn’t going to make it in time.

No — this wasn’t going to be like with Derek. He wasn’t going to lose someone else — especially not Morgan. He needed her. The world seemed to close in around Arthur, as if he were in a tunnel — just like when he attacked Derek earlier in the day — but this time a white mist surrounded him instead of shadows. A surge of adrenaline pumped through him, and again it felt as if two hearts thundered within his chest.

With unbelievable speed, Arthur rushed over, dove in front of Morgan, and lifted his raygun. When the beast attacked, with its gaping maw speeding down toward them, Arthur squeezed the trigger three times, aiming toward the back of the monster’s throat.

One shot struck the red dot.

BOOM!

Thunder echoed through the training hall as the monster burst into a cloud of smoke. Lexi fell to the floor, paws splayed, eyes wide with surprise. Vassalus collapsed onto his side, gasping for air.

The smoke formed into a swirling column that sped across the room and back into the container Lexi had knocked over.

Still clutching his ribs, Valet raced over, and then capped the container. He returned it to the shelf, which held over a dozen similar containers of various sizes. Arms staggered over, weakly, and double-checked that it was closed.

Hurting all over — again — Arthur climbed to his feet. “Morgan?”

“I’ll live.” She staggered over to Vassalus. “Are you okay?”

“I am … fine, dear lady … thank you. Just a few cracked ribs. They will soon heal. We numina are built tough.”

Lexi rubbed against Arthur’s leg. “Master Paladin, I am so very, very sorry about the container. I was just being …”

“Curious?” he said.

“I am a cat, darling. And if I had known …”

“It’s okay,” Arthur replied. “It’s a good reminder that we don’t know how this place works and the servitors can’t easily tell us.”

He examined the shelf. The canister that had opened was the third largest, and it was imprinted with a picture of a creature like the one they had fought, along with a name. Apparently, each canister contained a different monster.

“This says we just fought a takaturio — I guess that’s a particular kind of wraith?” Arthur speculated.

“That wasn’t a wraith or a shade,” Morgan replied. “Couldn’t you tell? It didn’t have that empty feeling to it or that same depth of darkness. That thing was more like smoke than it was pure shadow. I bet it’s some sort of Aetherial construct, probably based on a real monster.”

Arms gave a thumbs-up to her answer.

Arthur shook his head. “So the Paladins keep monster constructs for training? That’s ridiculous.”

“But effective,” Morgan replied. “And at least it was just for training. There wasn’t any risk of us dying.”

Arms shook his head and gave a thumbs-down.

“It would’ve killed us?!” Morgan said. “What kind of training exercise is that?”

“I think it says a lot about how dangerous a Paladin’s work in the field must be,” said Vassalus. “And I suspect each creature has a weakness. Knowing the creature’s weakness would make defeating one of them far easier.”

“Oh sure,” Arthur groaned. “I just had to hit the red dot in the back of this one’s mouth with a raygun shot. You know, if that was easy, I’d hate to see hard.” He sat down and leaned against the wall. “But at least we survived.”

“And now you have another fighting experience under your belt,” Lexi added.

Everyone else sat down nearby.

“I feel like I've been battered to a pulp,” Morgan said.

“I think you probably have a concussion,” Arthur told her.

“Well, I know you do.”

Arthur tapped his steel helmet. “I’d be in far worse shape if not for this.”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “I think I'll feel better after a nap.”

“You can’t,” Arthur said. “You have to stay awake after a concussion. I had a bad one after my cousin hit me with a tree limb one time.” (Derek hadn’t even gotten in trouble for that.) “They took me to the hospital after I started throwing up, and they made me stay awake all night, even though I was sleepy. I don't remember why, but going to sleep is a bad thing. Of course, I had a severe concussion. I’m not sure about a smaller one.”

Morgan groaned. “This is why I must have internet access. So, when can I sleep then?” Morgan asked.

“I think you have to wait at least twelve hours.”

“No way I can stay up all night; I’m already exhausted.”

“Well, maybe if we get some food and you seem alright after a few hours … then maybe it'll be safe for you to go to bed real late tonight.”

“Food … I hadn’t even thought of that,” she said. “We are going to need to eat tonight, to keep up our strength. Where is the kitchen?”

Through gestures, Valet told them it was the first door on the left when entering the Grand Hallway from the Great Room. That should be relatively easy to reach from the Armory, which was the third door on the opposite side; they would be running away from most of the shades.

Arthur passed the raygun back to Morgan. “You didn’t have to elbow me in the throat.”

“You didn’t have to get fresh.”

“Get fresh? Who talks like that anymore?”

“I do.”

“Well, I was just reaching for the gun.”

“You got too close. Let that be a lesson.”

Arthur shook his head — whatever. “I say we make a run for the kitchen as soon as we’ve caught our breath.”

“I’d like to rest longer, thank you,” Morgan said.

“The lady has a point,” Vassalus added. “You have been through a lot.”

“I know,” Arthur replied. “But I think if I rest too long, the adrenaline is going to drain right out of me, and all these aches are going to get worse, and my sore muscles will seize up on me. I say we go while we can still move.”

“Let’s do it,” Lexi piped. “Food, food, food!”

“You cannot eat, Alexis,” Vassalus said.

“Well, I can … I can enjoy food vicariously. Let’s go.”

“Who made you two boss?” Morgan said.

“He is the Multiversal Paladin,” Lexi told her.

“Yeah, but he’s also a moron.”

“Maybe,” Arthur said as he stood up. “But I’m right, and you know it.” He retrieved his rayguns. “Let’s go.”