*GRROOORR*

The dragon continued its roar. It looked as if it had a metal plating on its forehead, and its skin looked impenetrable. With its huge murky physique and pure red eyes, it glared towards the unknown manster which was still hiding in the black fog.

"Is the dragon trying to provoke the other manster?", Saransh asked.

"Probably… yes", Vishal replied.

The dragon which was as tall as a Three storey building was waiting for the unknown manster to make its move. And finally the unknown manster made a huge roar.

*KROOOORR*

The ground trembled and the fog which covered the atmosphere was almost fading.

The unknown figure was now becoming gradually observable. The huntsmen who were already stunned by the sturdy dragon were flabbergasted by the shadow manster which was pitch black in color and twice as big as the dragon.

This manster didn't have any skin or scales but it had a pummelled human physique. It was a humanoid type manster. Compared to the dragon, the shadow manster was only relatively huge and nothing else. It didn't appear to be strong nor sturdy.

Jagdish had already returned to his colleagues as soon as he saw the shadow manster emerging.

'What the hell is that?', Saransh thought to himself.

Even though it hasn't been long since he started his job as a dismantler, he never thought he will get to see something like this.

"Everyone listen, it's not safe here anymore.", Jagdish spoke.

"Let's withdraw to the nearby vault in the east.", he added.

Everyone nodded as they knew it was their only choice for survival.

They started moving as soon as he said it.

*KABOOOOM*

The shadow manster finally made its move. It blasted pure black flames through its mouth which made a direct hit on the dragon. The dragon flinched for a moment.

But somehow, the shadow manster stopped focusing on the dragon and swayed its attention towards the escaping huntsmen and started glaring at them.

The fog which surrounded the whole area had already cleared off because of the intense battle.

The path in front of the huntsmen was crystal clear and all they had to do was run. But as if frozen by a blizzard, none of them could move a single muscle.

'What's happening? And why am I stuck?'

Saransh thought to himself.

The Shadow manster was still glaring at the huntsmen with its white cold eyes. It was similar to some petrification beam from some ancient myth which had immobilised the huntsmen with a single glare.

*GRROOOOR*

The dragon which had now seen an opening, spread its wings and flew towards the shadow manster. As if it was some dragon instinct, it tried to grab it's back with claws and opened its jaws to throw flames from its mouth. Unfortunately, the shadow manster was fast enough to avoid the attack with the claws but still couldn't avoid the pure red flames from the dragon.

*KYRRRAAA*

It cried in pain and retaliated using its huge body to smash the dragon onto the ground. The dragon which grabbed onto the shadow manster's body couldn't avoid its fatal attack.

'Am I imagining things or is the dragon really trying to protect us.', Saransh thought.

The dragon fell onto the ground and cried in agony.

"I can move my fingers now!!"

"Me too"

The frozen huntsmen were no longer under the spell.

"Come one now move..."

All the huntsmen started moving in unison.

"Wait... Why are you still not moving?"

Vishal shouted by pointing his finger at Saransh. Huntsmen turned around to see that Saransh was still frozen at his spot.

"Maybe he is so weak that he is still affected by the spell". someone from the newbies said.

"Yup, even among the dismantlers, he is so weak!".

"He is weakest among the all the level one."

As if the Newbie huntsmen had already concluded in their mind, they all said in unison without a second thought.

"Let's leave him behind."

Hearing all this, the Jagdish finally spoke.

"He is not even from our clan. Let's leave him behind."

After hearing the Jagdish's declaration, Vishal was dumbfounded and shouted.

"Are you people even humans? How can you just abandon someone?"

"He has got nothing to do with us." Someone responded.

Meanwhile the dragon and the shadow manster were having a death match. But unfortunately, shadow manster was the one dealing all the deadly blows.

A dragon, mightiest of the beings was being dragged down and beaten up by the shadow manster. But this intense battle was more than enough for the shadow manster to lose its concentration on the spell which it had casted on the escaping huntsmen.

Saransh could finally move his lips.

"Vishal! Don't stay here... It is too dangerous"

Saransh spoke with a stiff face.

"BHAI.... How can I abandon you??"

Vishal was a kind hearted guy. Even though it hasn't been long since Vishal knew Saransh, he already considered him a good friend. This was why he agreed to join Saransh in his venture for first two weeks until he joined a good clan. Even though Saransh was a skilled dismantler, most of his jobs were inside his home vault and he didn't have a chance to come out of the vault.

"Just go already!! ", Saransh spoke up with all his energy.

"Bhai...!", Vishal was already in tears. He looked like a puppy who was just abandoned by its owner.

"Don't turn back, just go!!", Saransh shouted with all his strength.

Half-heartedly Vishal ran from the spot. He was already in tears and joined the other new recruits who were already retreating.

'So I'm all alone now!', Saransh thought.

Alone wouldn't be the right term since he could already see two huge mansters fighting in front of him.

'I knew I was weak, but this is just hilarious. How come I am the only one who couldn't resist its plasma energy.'

The dragon was trying it's very best to endure the pain and attack relentlessly but all of its efforts were just in vain as no substantial damage can be seen on the shadow manster. Shadow manster had terrifying regenerative abilities and thus the wounds didn't last long on its body.

Shadow manster smirked.

What's left was a finishing blow and victory would be in its grasp, that's what it thought.

*KYRAAAA*

The dragon cried in pain. But it's eyes had changed. It changed to pitch black colour as if it signified death itself. The dragon had resolved to something and was willing to fulfil it no matter what.

Plasma which covered the dragon's scales and metallic body was glowing brightly, better than ever. Huge chunks of plasma poured out of if it's scales and wounds which was inflicted during the battle.

The shadow manster which had understood what's going on panicked and flinched for a second. It realized that dragon was going to use its life force to kill its enemy.

For every manster, the plasma energy was basis for its energy. Engulfing oneself with plasma energy from its life force to kill its enemy was not something every manster could do.

The shadow manster soon made its move. It was going to retreat for now and avoid being the victim of a suicidal attack.

When the shadow manster was about to retreat, the dragon flew towards it with all its might to bite its broad shoulders. Having seen it before, Shadow manster evaded the first hit, but the dragon had already used it's claws to grab the shadow manster's short legs. Having succeeded in grabbing its enemy, the dragon started pouring out all of its plasma channelled for a single attack.

*KYUUUU*

The shadow manster made painful sounds when it was being enveloped by the dragon's dense plasma. Even though it tried to resist the dragon's plasma, all of its efforts were in vain. Soon enough a white sphere which enveloped them both was already sending tiny shock waves ever where.

Similar to some explosion on the astronomical level, the whole white sphere condensed until it became a small dot and exploded.

*KABOOOM*

A huge explosion which could have been seen from 100s of kms away from the epi-center was already sending huge shock waves on the earth's surface and it created a huge crater on the ground where the explosion took place.

The intense battle was concluded and everything had turned into dust within the perimeter of the explosion.

'Oh, the spell is undone now.'

Saransh thought. He was finally happy to have his movements back.

*Human…*

*Can you hear me…? *

Saransh turned around and looked for the source of the voice but he couldn't see anyone. All that was left was the remnants of a harsh battle.

'Am I imagining things now?' He thought.

*You must listen…*

The voice still echoed in his head.

"I can't see you!", he said in bewilderment.

*You can't see me because, I'm just a lingering thought. *

"Who are you then?"

*Listen, you must head east… there is something waiti…*

Before the voice could complete the sentence, it had already faded into oblivion.

"What something?", Saransh was baffled.

'It didn't even answer who it was.', *SIGH*

'What was it talking about? I don't think I was imagining things though.'

'From all the anime and manga I have seen, I can conclude one thing, it must be the lingering thought of one of the mansters that just turned into thin dust. And that's the most clichéd thing to happen.'

'But, who could it be?'

'If it was the dragon, I'm half-relieved but if it was the shadow, then there's no way I should head east.'

'Uff…., What should I do?'

'There was no point in staying here anyway.'

'Maybe I should move towards east and meetup with Vishal.'

'Because standing here would be a bad idea.'

'Even then, why do I feel like I'm forgetting something? Well it doesn't matter'

Saransh looked towards east. There was huge path made on the barren sands as if someone or something was dragged through that sands which made that path.

Saransh started sprinting on the path.

"Isn't it the same direction through which the shadow manster came in?... Somehow that is so creepy!"

After some time Saransh noticed something, that no Mansters were attacking him while he was on the course. Tugged rats stayed put out of some unknown fear.

"Undoubtedly, this is the because of the plasma left by the shadow manster along its way."

"Anyway that makes this path more suspicious."

After an hour or so, Saransh could already see the stem gate of a different vault. After assimilating a little amount of plasma energy humans were now capable of superhuman physical abilities. Without which he could have never covered 14 kms in just an hour in his normal state.

While sprinting through the path he saw many broken down buildings and even felt nostalgic of the once familiar locality.

"Finally, the gate is here!"

Stem gates weren't that big of a structure as its primary purpose was transportation.

As he came closer to stem gate, he had a flabbergasted expression on his face.

"What the hell happened here?"

All his suspicions were becoming true because the path which he sprinted through and the path made by the shadow manster all led up to here.

A huge hole which covered the entirety of vault could be seen on the ground. And it meant one thing.

'The shadow manster attacked this vault before it came to our vault.'

'But if the vaults are made practically invisible to the mansters, then how did it discover the vault in the first place?'

'I should find Vishal before anything else goes wrong, I don't want to be trapped in another deadly fight.'