It took us nearly an hour to get whatever this was where the two human’s scents lead to and my Blood Count Percentage had only just dropped to 95%. It was a large steel circle in the middle of the hallway with a little room off to the side where there were some crystals and other random things, Charm took one of the shiniest ones: a sort of glowing purple crystal around 25 centimeters long and then we went over to the supposed entrance. I tested the door before deciding to punch it open as there seemed to be no clear mechanism to unlock it; however, Charm was faster and with four quick strikes, two horizontal and two vertical, ripples in the air shot from her claws and carved a doorway into the metal.

The newly made doorway started to tip towards us and she stepped to the side and looked at me expectantly. I growled and stepped up, digging my claws in and slowing it's descent to the floor. I let it’s momentum keep going, albeit slowed and used enough strength to slow down the fall so that it wasn’t going to be horribly loud when it hit the ground. 

I held it in place about a foot off of the ground and looked out through the doorway to see another pair of shocked looking guards. But a slash, jump, and another slash Charm surprise-attacked them both and landed lightly on the door. Seemingly surprised by how quickly she took them both down. 

“Oooo I got a few new Titles” She said grinning at me, “Soundless Dispatcher and Vault Cracker.” Oh and did I mention that she was standing on the door? Yeah? Well she was making it heavier; Stupid feline characteristics. 

I growled mockingly and dropped the door the rest of the way to the ground, surprisingly causing an inch dent in the stone from the edge of the iron door. I smirked as her balance toppled and she fell backwards through the doorway. 

“So much for always landing on your feet” I grinned walking past her as she rubbed her butt glaring at me. 

“Well you caused it” She said, “And I wasn’t expecting such a short drop to be so surprising.” Her face turned all pouty and I swear that the gold of her cheeks got a little brighter than normal as she looked away from me. I grinned wider and her ears drooping to the sides of her head this time. 

"Come on. You can pout later. When there isn't any guards to wake up near us." I said lifting her off from the ground and she seemed to realize that we were still in danger because she went over and kicked the left side guard in the kidney for no apparent reason. "Why did you do that?" 

"I wanted to," she said, "and he was the one that roughly dragged me and you down here." 

"Oh, well in that case may we meet again so that we can properly rip you apart for this later," I growled down at his unconscious form. "Now where are we going?" 

There were too many scents in the air and I couldn't distinguish the difference between others and the two that we'd passed, nor the ones unconscious behind us from the lingering scents of others that had come through this tunnel. I smelled other fainter smells one was probably mine, the other was definitely Charm's but faded, she had a certain scent and I don't know why but it was very addicting. The ones layered underneath that were harder to distinguish though: monster, human, and many other creatures had come through here in the past. 

I followed Charm as she lead the way out, probably being able to track certain smells better, so I followed her to another circular steel door. Where she used Sonic Slash to cut the edges of the door and made me catch it once again to bring it to the floor while she attacked the surprised guards ahead with Sonic Punches or whatever else she could. 

Sometimes there wasn't even anyone of the other side, and other times we didn't have to do anything because the supposed guards were already passed out with drinks at their sides, gold in hand, of which we took, and both cards and drinks on the ground in the middle of the two. Pretty risky considering a superior could come at any time, but seeing that that place wasn't used often I imagine that they could probably play until the end of whatever shift they had or until one of them wasn't or didn't want to play anymore. Anyways as we continued on soundlessly we finally reached a door that wasn't like the others. 

Charm tried to use a Sonic Slash on it like all of the others, but this one was different and resisted her attacks. It looked like it was made of Iron and something else that was mixed in to make it stronger. The color was different too, it looked like the stone around us, but more polished and nicer looking than the stone we saw around us, and there were a few rune like symbols all over its surface. 

"My Sonic Slashes aren't working on it" She growled in frustration and I grinned. Finally we come across something that I got to rip my way through. 

"Cool, my turn" I said stepping up to it and Charm stepped to the side with an amused smirk. She then went behind me cautiously stepping back a bit, but not too far as she was also interested in what would happen. I stepped up to the door and punched it once without using any skills, and to my surprise a large barrier of red formed in front of the space before my fist hit, but it didn't last long as the next four or so punches shattered it and made a large dent in the steel. 

(New Skill: Punch)
(New Special Skill Gained: Blood Punch)
(New Title Gained: Barrier Destroyer)

Cool! I figured that I would gain a new skill by doing this but I also thought that it would take a bit longer than that. I decided to use the new skill the next time I punched and while it didn't look flashy or anything it was certainly stronger than just punching the door normally. I made a large crack in the middle of the large dent that I had made into the metal and there was a bit of light coming from the other side. I grinned and looked at my hand, no blood of broken bones, good. Then I looked at my stats to make sure that I wasn't harming myself too badly and my health had only gone down by two points. 

Thankfully my Blood Count didn't decrease from this so that was nice, but my mana went down and I also noticed that my status had changed a bit. I had leveled up somehow and was now level twenty, almost at the level cap where I imagined something else would happen. I moved to a different area and punched the door again while simultaneously watching my level and I saw that with that one punch it had gone up but my mana had gone down by twenty, and that wasn't bad for a simple punching skill. I stopped and turned to Charm for a second while pulling up my status for a moment. 

Hey did your status change, like have you suddenly gained levels for no apparent reason? I asked and she paused for a second and looked at her own stats before looking at me and nodding. I turned back to mine to see what had changed from my fifteen unannounced levels:

Name: ---------- (Jo)
Age: 17
Race: Blood Pup
Condition: Normal
Level: 20/25
Vit: 1900
Bld-Vit: 450/450
Mana: 1640-/1850
Bld-Mana:+750
Str: 1200
Bld-Str:+300
Agil: 1350
Bld-Agil:+375
Cha: 45

Skills:
Bite (Lv.2)
Slash (Lv. 2)
Language Apprehension: (Lv. MAX)
Sense (Lv. 6)
Punch (Lv. 3)
Telepathy (Lv. 4)
Stealth (Lv. 5)

Special Skills:
Seer (Lv. --)
Shadow Stalker (Lv. 1)
Blood Punch (Lv. 2)
Blood Claws (LV. 1)
Blood Bite (Lv. 1)
Blood Blades (Lv. 1)
Bloodsucking (Lv. 5)
Blood Manipulation (Lv. 3)

Titles: Cursed Being, Observer, One Who Does Not Wait, Shadow Warrior, Fate Bound, Bloodsucker, Barrier Destroyer

There was a new special skill now, Shadow Stalker, and I wondered what that did. I activated it and found myself in a plane of complete darkness, seemingly visible and invisible at the same time, with spots and areas of light that I had an inkling would make me reappear should I step into said area, or at least that part of me that crossed into it would momentarily be visible. When I looked around I could that I was still in the cave and with Charm's surprised face it seemed she could either see me pretty clearly or didn't expect me to have an ability like this. 

My Mana was going down at a pretty steady rate of ten per second, so I would be able to stay in this form for around 6 minutes if I didn't use magic for anything else, and that also depended on whether or not the Bld-Mana counted for this kind of use. It was like being a ghost made of shadows, I was able to float around but I wasn't able to go through solid objects and could still use weapons for a short time or risk breaking the form. I decided to peek through the hole that I made in the door to see what was waiting for us on the other side and found something that almost caused my to stop using this Shadow Form. 

On the other side of the door a small battalion of humans were forming, warriors that looked like seasoned warriors with a few less experienced ones mixed in. I wondered how easily they take both me and Charm down in small groups and, as if having experienced warriors wasn't enough, there was a line of mages in white robes behind them. Along with a third row of four healers dressed in priest like clothes embroidered in gold and the mages had normal white robes with patterns throughout the entirety of the cloth. 

I retreated back into the cave area and returned to normal, my mana stopping at 1400 and slowly starting to rise back up again. I looked at Charm and huffed in irritation. She cocked her head cutely at that and decided to look outside for herself. 

"I don't want to open this door anymore," I growled, "How about we recover our mana, stamina, and maybe think of a battle, or possible escape plan." I punched the door one last time causing another decently sized dent and glance showed a few of the lesser experienced soldiers outside had jumped a little while they seasoned warriors just tightened their grips on various weapons...mainly swords. Great, why did an army have to be here at the exact moment we were trying to break out?

A man embroidered in metals of many kinds and a large fancy blue and white robe walked past the two guards waiting for him. They were the  ones set to guard his tent for the afternoon until the next shift took over at sundown. When that Blood Pup had been seen along with an equally rare Illusion Kit, half starved and in a state where it might snap any second he saw it as a blessing from the gods. For this was going to be the start to his rise of power and all he needed to do was get those two to submit to his every whim and become his slaves. 

The guards that went in around three hours ago should've been back about now, and the man was starting to wonder whether sending that old man and his apprentice was a good decision or not. When he got to the area the 'vault' door was located instead of finding he soldiers lazing around while they waited for orders, or enjoying themselves he found that the Enhanced Iron-Steel door rumble and shake as it was hit repeatedly from inside, and every soldier was on formation and on guard. Each hit caused the entire camp to tense and a few of the newer one's he'd gathered for this expedition sucked in measured breaths to calm themselves.

The door was punched several more times and there were flashes of red with every strike and soon enough a hand of small, deadly claws burst through and made a large gash down a side of the door. The man moved up to the front of the line of defense and tried to look into the small hole that was made in the very large dent in the door. It was surprisingly still holding itself together, though barely the bolts connecting the door to the mountain were coming out and barely holding onto the structure of the rocks it was made in. He waited for ten minutes before saying something to get the attention of those inside. 

"Announce yourselves or I will be forced to order my army to further rip the door off and storm the tunnels with a kill on sight order!" The man yelled hoping that this was just the older guard making a racket or maybe the other one being stupid and causing a scene, "Identify yourselves this instant!" 

A pair of red eyes suddenly appeared in the hole, the slight glow of red teeth lit up the sides and surrounding enough to make out the figure of a small wolf-like face. The man frowned. Did it really take the two he sent in to get it and the other one down so easily? The old man was someone with plenty if not more experience with monsters than anyone here, and that kid was a damn powerful monster in his own sense.  

"Hi interesting looking human." It suddenly spoke and the man was taken by surprise, there hasn't been a monster that could speak in a long time, "What are you anyways? A General? Or maybe a higher ranking soldier maybe? Oooh are you a Noble, one that got stuck here for some reason? No that one doesn't make sense, you don't look like one and you certainly don't seem to act like one either." It's smile was creepy, and yet it was intriguing all the same. 

"What happened to the guards?" The man threatened narrowing his eyes putting a hand on the pommel of his sword. It was studded with various gems each glowing with power of different degrees.

"Me and my friend ate them--" The creature grinned at him and then it disappeared from sight with a startled yelp and snarl. The man hoped that the two had maybe come back and were in the process of capturing or subduing the beast, but his hopes were struck down as a pair of Toxic Aqua-Blue Eyes came into view, along with the face of a Felid and glowing golden fur, something that was clearly not human. 

"Sorry about him, he can be a bit childish and stubborn at times." A feminine voice said looking towards the man for a moment before scanning the soldiers around him. 

“He is still trying to figure out how to interact with people and figure his way out of a tough situation, speaking of would you mind telling us why we're here and if there's any chance of you letting us go without a bloody, death-filled fight?" The man was still in shock as the realization that two monsters that he had wanted to use as mindless weapons weren't mindless at all, spoke his language, and was actively assessing the situation calmly. Eventually the question registered and he pointed his sword back at the hole. 

"There certainly will not be any blood shed here, well not of my own and these men, and what makes you thing I'd let you two get away from me?!" The man scowled, "You two are mine and you will serve me as my weapons of war for when I take over this country!" He roared and the feline creature's eyes narrowed before shining dangerously. 

"Okay then." She said and stepped away from the door. "You take the mages and healers first and I'll take care of the warriors and other clsoe range fighters until you're clear." 

The man was unaware of the conversation going on inside and Jo formed two blood daggers before handing them over to Charm as well as a few knives before handing those over as well. 

"I don't know how they'll fare against the armor those warriors have but if you need something else that's stronger just yell and I'll get it to you as fast as I can." He said and Charm looked back at the man in charge. 

"You're making a big mistake Human." Charm growled to him through the hole that Jo had made, "I'm nice, so I'll give you one last chance to let us go on our way without a confrontation."

"Oh I just had an idea," Jo suddenly said and Charm looked at him already knowing what the arrogant human leader outside was going to respond with. "After this battle lets think of names and stuff, I mean this is pretty much our new life, and I never liked my name so why not change it like everything else has already?"

"Sure" she said smiling softly, "Why not." Just as the man responded with the exact refusal she expected hearing. 

"No. I will never let you two out of my sight! I will make you submit to me one way or another and nothing, not even you, has a say in that!" He screamed and roared to his army, "READY YOURSELVES MEN! TAKE THEM ALIVE AT ALL COSTS, NO SERIOUS WOUNDS!" 

Charm smiled, that was exactly what  she wanted to hear, and it was exactly what was going to guarantee them this fight. Then Jo punched the door a few more times until it flew off of it's hinges and the two monsters came out to play.