[I told you not to shout so much.]

Before he could think of a retort, two glowing eyes became visible right on the edge of their sightline. Auron’s Inspection now activated for him without a thought thanks to the setting he changed. The information appeared above the monster along with a rush of intangible movement akin to stomach butterflies that flowed through his body from his chest to his eyes.

<Sonic Bat Rat> lvl 1 Danger level: Low.

The red text appeared above the head of the creature while the information that followed was sent directly into Auron's mind.

Twitching from the sudden flow of information, Auron adjusted to the feeling quickly. “Not much information there from a skill literally called inspection, not that I would know what to do with the info. The colors listed here are different than the ones on that crocodile creature.” Auron whispers to Zander as they keep their eyes locked on the creature as he feels the information flow to his mind in an instant. Through his mental connection with his familiar, he was about to try and communicate when the creature moved closer, and then leaped back when it hit the stream of sunlight filtering in.

*Screeeeeeeeeee* A noise louder than anything Auron ever heard assaulted his eardrums. Blood rushed down the sides of his face as he experienced the loss of one of his senses. Zander immediately began healing the damage.

“Shit that hurts. Why does everything here scream at me!” Auron shouted though the words sounded distant to his damaged ears as if said from a great distance. He looked at his health, and he noticed the attack did around 1/10th of his total health bar in damage. The sound and feel of his heart as it thundered in his chest took the place of the normal sounds he should be hearing.

Auron made sure to stay in the area of the cave still lit by the sun as the monster seemed fearful, or at least pained by the light.

The creature moved along the line separating shadow from the light it became bold and peeked its way toward Auron allowing him to see it's twisted form. Patches of yellow sickly wet-looking fur half-covered almost translucent pale red skin.

The rat came up to the height of his knees. Saliva was dripping down in a stream between two large sharp teeth each the length of Auron's palm. Its eyes were a silky white an obvious sign of blindness, and small wings grew off of its back un-moving clearly vestigial.

“Holy shit who is down here breeding mice, bats, and those freaky hairless cats that some people strangely love, my goodness. Pikachu what have they done to you?” Auron says as he tries to push back his fear with humor.

Seeing its prey not fall to its attack only enraged the cave dweller. Another screech tore out of its throat as it leaped forward and snapped its teeth at Auron. Taking an additional 10% of Auron's health bar with its scream as it echoed down the walls of the cave.

“I guess that thing is not friendly Zan. What should I do?” Auron quickly asks as another slow dribble of blood runs down his ears, and he narrowly falls backward avoiding the monster's large jagged central incisors.

[You need to fight it Auron. That is how this world works. Fight and survive.] Zander sends the message quickly over their link as jumps to the wall and walks away from Auron.

“Yeah I am not to keen on that plan, and running has worked so far for me. I really don’t want to go around murdering things for no reason. Let’s just get out of its territory maybe that bird or whatever swooped down is all full after eating the bark croc.” Auron moves to follow Zander but is blocked by a wall of wind.

Before he could question this betrayal a blinding pain raced up his leg and into his brain. The creature had swiped his claws across the same calf Zander had just healed from the Croc bite. He kicked his leg out which managed to throw the creature back as he felt something brush against his mind.

The creature continued its assault becoming braver by the second as Auron wildly swung his fists and kicked his legs out in defense.

“Zan help me please!” Auron begged as he meekly held the monster back. His emotions slowly changing from fear to anger at his so-called familiar.

“Are you going to let this thing kill me!?” Auron’s pleading turned to a shout as a haze rolled over his mind. His shouting only seemed to embolden the creature as it now did not seem to fear the light at all. Leaping forward the creature latched onto Auron's forearm and his vision waned temporarily from pain.

Looking down he can see the monster's steel-like claws and teeth easily shredding into what was once considered his left hand. Screaming from the pain he tries to toss the feral beast off of him and get away to safety, but the wall of wind keeps him from leaving.

[I am sorry, but this is your fight. If I help you now you will never survive this world. I will not let you die, but physical pain is something you are going to have to get used to here.] Zander sent the message, but Auron could see the pain in his eyes. He was not enjoying this. 

“You have got to be.. kidding me… this thing is ripping.. my arm.. apart.” Auron spits out as Zander does show some concern, but does not move from his post on the wall. The pain and fear seem to mix with a third feeling in his mind, but Auron can not place it.

Auron fell to the ground a few feet from where he started to flee earlier. The Sonic rat did not slow down it is shredding of his arm. Passing through skin and muscle it sets its teeth around the bones of his wrist. With a loud snap, it decimates the osseous tissue with ease. Practically comatose from the pain Auron starts to spasm violently. This movement finally flung the creature several feet away. *Bing*

The words appearing in his vision were accompanied by a slight decrease in the deluge of brutal agony radiating up from where his fully functional hand was moments before this. He pushes himself partially up against the cavern wall. In his reprieve from the onslaught of fangs and teeth, he forced himself to look at the damage. Now that he was a few feet closer to the entrance of the cave he could see clearly. The bones in his wrist were sticking out jaggedly and his hand was barely attached to his body by what remained of the skin on the underside of his arm. More chittering was heard from where the beast was just thrown.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. What the hell kind of fantasy world is this.” I don't want to be here. Just let me go home. Zander please just help me.” Auron’s begging turned to angry screaming as his calls went unheard.

After a few moments, Zander responded.

[You see the colors on the creature? Those correspond to their abilities. Red with yellow as the sub color equal some sort of sonic attack. You need to keep this information in mind while fighting.] Zander speaks calmly over their bond. This only seeks to infuriate Auron further. As this interaction takes place the monster has recovered and is slowly creeping back toward Auron.

Feeling something deep in his chest stir Auron took a pause in his pleading. The slight negative unknown feeling dancing around his head with his fear and pain turned swiftly into an overwhelming force of malevolence. This new sensation taking his mind in this instance of Auron's internal weakness.

The Rat bat made its way back over to its victim elated that it found this meal first. Its thoughts slow and jumbled, all it cared about was the next food it would receive. Jumping forward greedily it came within a foot of the prey. Without thought driven by instinct alone, the monster was ready to continue to devour the delicious meat. What it found instead was something else entirely.

Auron stands and grinds his feet into the stone floor, the floor biting back with a feeling of cold retaliation. This is what he focuses on, not the mind-numbing fire coming from his ruined appendage. Just as water would flow through a broken dam, he releases any inhibitions related to wanting to keep the peace with his surroundings. At this release, his mind is overrun by foreign malevolence. *Bing*

“Fine. IF this world is going to treat me this way. I will not hold back.”

Auron growled as he stepped forward and caught the creature by its neck. As it screeched and took away another 1/10th of his health bar Auron slammed the bones of his arm up, through the wide-open and quickly approaching maw of the rat monster. His eyes took on a prismatic glow as his mind finally succumbed to the stress and fear. The white impromptu weapons blew through the soft tissue of its mouth embedding directly up into its brain.

Turning to his familiar turned torturer Auron's madness addled mind found no recourse in his plan to rip Zander apart. His arm still was held on by a particularly resilient flap of skin as he took a look at the two bone spikes now splattered with gray matter from his previous battle.

“You set me up for this, and I know exactly how I am going to pay you back.” Auron raged as he rushed toward the wall Zander was resting on. Under the influence of the dungeon madness, he was not himself. The familiar whipped up a gust of wind with healing properties and shot it at the arm with a flick of his tail. Auron ignored the appendage as it began slowly knitting back together.

[It’s going to be okay. I did not expect such a low-level creature to do that to you. I am sorry Auron. You used to have so much more power.] Zander sent through their link as he began to glow a darker green than usual this time the glow concentrated into a pinprick an inch from his reptilian mouth.

As quickly as Auron was rushing forward he was shot back three times that speed into the opposite side of the cave wall. A super-compressed blast of wind summoned from the front of Zander being the cause of his sudden change of direction. In his crazed state, he completely missed the confession by his familiar. 

The loud crack of several ribs greeting the stone wall is all he heard, upon impact his head slumping down. Just before the dark veil of unconsciousness took him, he vaguely could see an X now ripped into his chest through his blurry vision, his health bar blinking red in the upper left corner.

With great effort, he tilted his up slightly and looked Zander in the eyes. Time seemed to freeze between the two, as Auron coughed up blood. Staring daggers at the creature Auron managed to spit out one word. “Why?” He said as his eyes rolled back and he passed out.