The door rattled in its frame at the impact, and it occurred to me that the protections probably reinforced existing defenses. Doors and windows would be the weakest spots even with the protections. It made sense to create entry points like that too, because otherwise there'd be no point to the internal defenses and the invaders could just bust in anywhere once the protections came down.

Still, the door was big and looked sturdy. The mirrored surface was metal, not glass, and the thing was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. Whatever was trying to take it down was STRONG. I'd lifted that bar holding it shut, if the door was made of the same material I knew I wouldn't have been able to make it shake like that even if I used my strongest blow. Whatever was out there was raining down blows and from the look of it the thing wasn't going to hold out for long. I reached out to take Callie's hand, giving it a squeeze, half to reassure me and half to reassure her.

Before I even had a chance to withdraw my hand and the door was smashed inward with a boom. Not just broken down either, it was like a cork popping out of a champagne bottle. It burst inward, flying across the room to smash into the wall, and a THING, stepped through. It was huge. Easily fifteen feet tall and bipedal, with huge slumped shoulders and long, thin arms tipped with long fingered, sharp taloned hands dragging dark metal shackles attached to nothing. It's blood red eyes had no irises, just a single pitch black dot in the middle that roamed around the room as it turned it's massive, antlered head.

I thought back to an exchange I'd heard from the others back when Abel saved us, a comment one of the enemies had made about 'releasing the Wendigo'. The others had dismissed it, almost disgusted by the idea, and part of me had been amused that they would dismiss a potential weapon like that. It had sounded like a living, thinking thing, so holding it in containment instead of using it seemed stupid, even if I was glad they'd decided to do it.

Now though...now I got it. I'd looked up the word Wendigo. It was a racial trait, a horrifying one that granted some pretty immense bonuses at the cost of losing your inborn ability. Mostly passive multiplicative enhancements to Vitality and Might (ten Might counted as twenty, that sort of thing), along with some ice based touch abilities. I hadn't been able to find a picture though, just a description, and this thing definitely fit the bill. 'Red eyes blazing with hellish flames of hate' was a dead on description of this beast.

It radiated a palpable sense of malice and hate, and I could almost feel the decay and death coming off of it. Just looking at it made me sick, and that was without even taking into account that this thing had been a fucking PERSON. Someone had willingly chosen to become this in order to gain power. Racial traits couldn't be forced any more than abilities could. This had been a decision, and it just proved to me how monstrous the other side of the hero coin could really be. I'd always thought about criminals and gangsters when I thought about villains, but the line between human and monster wasn't exactly impassable. Hell, the Lich proved that, even if I hadn't really taken it to heart.

From behind the Wendigo poured a score of robed figures, all wearing beaten bronze masks just like the ones we'd seen on the other Sanctuary Hall goons. Like the Wendigo, they were all G-ranked as expected, and it occurred to me that we were damn lucky the Wendigo had been a person, because if it was a tamed beast they could have brought something at the F-rank. Still, I was pretty sure from the damage it had done that it was almost entirely Might and Vitality focused, and I was guessing the thing was at the high end of G rank, meaning we were talking potentially thousands of effective Might after passive enhancement.

A fact that everyone, including Jessie, clearly understood, because my blonde teammate gave a quiet command and Randall, all several tons of him, hit the Wendigo like a speeding truck, smashing the unnaturally lanky creature to the ground and beginning to rain down blows on it one after the other. I hadn't ever been slapped by a bear before, but something about the way it looked made me pretty sure I didn't want to try it. I wasn't sure what it was about those strikes that made them look so much heavier than a normal super strong person could deliver, but they were scary to see.

With Randall moving, Sloane, Beric, and Croll also blitzed forward, ready to attack. Sloane blurred as she moved, her fox and bird vanishing, and I saw her hands flatten and twist into talons as a pair of fox ears emerged from her scalp. She sprouted a pair of silver wings and her face elongated into a fang filled muzzle. Beric had expanded into a massive fur covered tiger form, and Croll had shifted into a thin, swift looking scaled form that looked incredibly deadly. The three of them spread out around the big fight between the Wendigo and the bear and hit the other robed figures as hard as they could.

I wanted to watch, but I found my gaze drawn back to the spectacle of animal vs. monster. The Wendigo had twisted in some sort of unnatural, jerky lunge and managed to get out from under the paws, slamming its antlered head into Randall's upper body and driving the huge bear back. Randall snarled, but the bloody furrows the antlers dug (surface wounds only from the looks of it) closed almost immediately, a green glow knitting them back together. Jessie had obviously juiced her tamed beast up nice and full.

Still, it was terrifying that the G-ranked Wendigo had managed to actually drive back the bear. Granted, Wendigos had some serious weaknesses, being almost completely Might and Vitality dependent and unable to properly utilize most Skills, but still, being able to accrue this kind of power at our rank...it scared me. Abel's combat power had shown me another path than just grinding, and this was showing me a third. There were more than just one or two ways to become powerful, and if I forgot that I would probably end up dead soon enough.

The Wendigo reared up on its elongated hind legs, suddenly even taller than before as it shed the hunched posture. Randall was on his own back paws, reared up in a display of primal fury I doubted I'd ever forget as he sent a series of powerful swipes smashing into the stretched, too thin grey body. Thw Wendigo's hide was the sickening pale grey of diseased meat and its thin papery skin was stretched taught over its sharply angled bones.

The monster opened its mouth, baring far too many serrated and improperly sized teeth, and then it did the most horrible thing it had done since it got here. It spoke. "Beast." It hissed out, its voice the unsettling hiss and crackle of cold wind in dead branches. "Were I not hampered by this place. No mere animal would restrain me." I blinked in horror as I realized that this was the Wendigo AFTER suppression by the defenses, and a terrified part of me decided this thing had to die before that suppression wore off or we were all going to suffer in ways I couldn't imagine.

Luckily, I was in a position to help. The Wendigo was distracted, and my reading had informed me of their biggest weakness. Wendigos were monsters of ice and emptiness, unceasing pits of hunger. But ice could melt. I reached for one of my fire attacks, triggering Touch of Tears, Consecration of Flame, and Mercy Kill. I did NOT use afterburner, though it probably would have straight up killed the thing, because this was just their can opener, and being weakened before the real threat arrived would be pure stupidity.

So I kept the attack to my easily repeatable moves and then triggered a stored blast of flame from Cark. The absolute torrent of aqua flames flew at the Wendigo's exposed back, and it turned with unnatural, jerky quickness to stare right at me as the fire came toward it. There was a gravelly roar and it raised its arms, now wreathed in ice, to intercept the fire. I wasn't sure the ice would be able to counter my flame, but in the end it didn't matter. When focusing on me the monster had ended up ignoring Randall, and the bear didn't let that go unpunished. He brought both paws down in an arc on the Wendigo's wide antlers, and the monsters red, hate filled eyes went wide in shock as it was driven to its knees from the force. The ice dispersed as it unconsciously began to turn to the beast before regaining its focus just in time to shove one of those long arms forward in desperation to take the attack.

It roared in pain and hate as the poisonous flame consumed its limb, leaving behind a smoldering stump at the shoulder along with several burns along the chest and ribs on that side of its body, all spiderwebbed with green cracks filled with guttering embers. The Wendigo turned to glare at me, vicious teeth exposed by peeled back facial skin, but it didn't have a chance to attack before another powerful smash of paw landed upside its head.

Down an arm, poisoned, and reeling from being bear slapped in its ugly face, the Wendigo had absolutely no chance as the higher ranked beast fell on it ravenously and began to tear it apart. Razor sharp claws and fangs were flashing like a busy nightclub as Randall laid into it, and I exhaled in relief as I shot Jessie a thumbs up. She gave me a cold, solemn nod, that showed me she was taking the threat seriously, and I carefully tucked away the emotions that killing the thing were starting to stir, even by proxy. I made a mental note to confront those feelings though. Not just because they were important, but because I knew Jessie would need to talk about it too, and she never would if I didn't bring it up.

Looking at my blonde friend was all the saved me as I watched eyes widen in horror. I didn't even think, I activated Double Trouble as I felt the blades dig into me on either side, leaving deep gashes under my ribs. I appeared behind the robed figure trying to bisect me with his daggers, seeing another engaging a frantic looking Callie, who visibly relaxed into her fight when she saw me escape, her mouth firming with determination as she focused on taking her own opponent. I brought up my cane, unleashing the force burst and a poison fire smash into the short ribs of the dagger wielding assailant.

Then I had to throw myself to the side, triggering a healing burst to patch up the wounds in my sides as a second robed figure attacked. I cursed under my breath as I rolled to my feet, readying myself for the rest of this fight. Using my last fire attack to take out the Wendigo had been the right call, but it had pierced my stealth and drawn attackers to me like a beacon, endangering Callie too.

I had to finish my fights and help with hers to make up for that. I spun my cane as I pushed my back to the wall behind me, cutting off an attack direction as I prepared. The big guy was down, now we needed to finish the small fries before the boss herself showed her face. I had a feeling that confrontation would be problematic enough without minions underfoot.