Gadra landed with a deafening thud as she stopped herself in front of them. Raising her head to meet them she paused in shocked silence. “Why are you chasing us!?” Joseph asked, having not recognized the changed Gloria. Melissa on the other hand had a feeling of familiarity but couldn’t fully understand who she was either. She scanned the dragonkin knight and felt a shiver go down her back…

“You looking to get payback for your fellow monsters? Then come on and take it!” Joseph had enough of what he saw as another monster trying to kill him and Melissa. Turning to the Foreman woman he asked, “You ready?” That shook Melissa out of her daze and she nodded not entirely sure if that was truthful. The two then readied to strike as Gadra was still stunned by seeing her closest friend and sister here of all places.

Joseph fired a shot from his seemingly endless revolver as Melissa swung her ax. That seemed to cause Gadra to snap back to reality however she was too slow to react as she felt the ax cut into her armor and touch her scaled skin while the bullet passed through her arm. “Ahhh!” Gadra screamed a scream that was much deeper and guttural than her former voice but undeniably her. Melissa realized this as she looked at her pained sister with wide eyes.

“Stop! It’s Gloria!” Melissa screamed towards Joseph who was aiming another shot. Turning to her sister who was now reeling from the attack as Melissa pulled the ax out, “What happened to you?” Gadra didn’t answer as she returned to her feet with only her moans of pain filling the castle halls.

Before anyone could do anything a club-wielding goblin stalked closer to Melissa attempting to hit her from behind. “Look out!” Gadra and Joseph both screamed as Gadra pulled her sister forward and Joseph fired two shots at the goblin. Klags used his trusty club to shield the first but the second passed through his stomach causing him to shout out in pain. Slipping out of her sister’s grip Melissa swings at the intruding goblin who is able to fall back and cause her to miss him.

“What are you doing newbie? The Lord has told you to make sure these humans don’t escape so do your damned job!” Klags screamed as he scampered towards Joseph and swung at his face, to which the captain shielded his foreman, eliciting a loud crack from his bone. Gadra sneered at the reminder as she turned to look at her sister. Too emotionally conflicted she fails to even take a step toward Melissa before she unknowingly avoids her.

“What the hell are you doing Gadra!? The lord-” Klags shouted towards her before being cut off as his neck gained a hole through its curtsy of Joseph’s bullet. “Will you shut up?” Joseph asked the choking goblin as he fell to the floor.

Further pushed out of her conflict Gadra turned to Joseph and rushed to attack him but was too slow to land a hit on her mentor. “Stand down Private Foreman!” Joseph shouted trying to force her to stand down. What he saw instead was a new fire in her eyes as if she hated Joseph with every fiber of her being. That scared Melissa and Joseph both as the captain urged the civilian to help him.

“Argh!” Gadra screamed as Melissa did so, striking her ax into her back below her wings. “I-I’ll kill you both!” Gadra screamed as she flew into a rage completely turning her body as she tried to swipe at Melissa. Gadra has now entered into what is called a ‘Critical State’, where she will be much more damaging and resistant to attacks.

The fight then completely changed from that point on. Melissa was now fighting like a cornered beast, perhaps not understanding exactly who she was fighting any more, as she failed to strike against her sister and former mentor. All the while Joseph and Melissa both fail to land a hit, still coming to terms with the person they were trying to rescue now a monster trying to kill them it seems. “Gloria, it is us! Your captain and your sister are here to help you, can’t you see!?” Joseph asks as Melissa avoids another of Gadra’s wild swings.

Gadra doesn’t answer she instead roars as she rips into Melissa. Melissa’s clothes were shredded off by Gloria’s claws and her skin was also dug into. Joseph couldn’t stand it anymore and so fired another shot at Gadra’s back hitting her in the small of her back below her wings. Screaming in both pain and rage in equal measure she lightly let up on her assault against her sister leaving her the opening to get away. “Sister, get a hold of yourself!” Melissa tried to get to her monstrous sister.

As if she couldn’t hear her, Gadra only lunged at her retreating sister, failing to reach her by mere inches. Forced to fight back, Melissa landed her ax at the base of one of Gadra’s wings causing her to again scream in animalistic pain. Joseph also fires another shot yet fails to pierce Gadra’s armor as she continues to shake in pain. Firing another shot it again bounces off her armor as she stands and stops suddenly. “Y-you alright?” Joseph asked cautiously yet with a bit of hope.

“I think-” Gadra begins before another swing of Melissa’s ax falls and cuts her tail in half. Gadra screamed a far more human scream as she cursed between shouts of pain. “I’m so so so sorry!” Melissa apologized as she dropped her blood-covered ax and covered her mouth with both her hands.

The dragonkin’s screams soon turned to laughs as her tail quickly grew back before looking completely unharmed in under a minute. “Hahahaha! I fooled you, didn't I!?” Gloria asked as she finished healing her tail. “You don’t honestly think that would truly hurt me so much did you!?”

Joseph saw the telltale signs of Gloria lying, or rather Gadra as she was now called apparently, however, Mellisa seemed unaware as she sighed in relief. “That’s good. Still, I am so sorry, Glorious.” Melissa apologized using the ‘nickname’ their mother often used to call Gloria. “I see you have calmed down, can we sit down and talk?”

The three did so as the Dungeon Core watched on. “Should I and Clerd finish them off?” Busta asked the floating light that was the Core. After a shake of the phantom head, the Dungeon Guardian nodded her head. “Understood my lord.”

The humans were curious about what happened to the former Gloria so she retold the story from her watching the rock fall to the ground all the way to her transformation. “I see… So I suppose this ‘Dark Lord’ wishes to do the same to us?” Joseph asked her. Gadra merely shrugged her shoulders, not exactly sure. “If so then I won’t suppose he would simply allow us to leave.”

“I wouldn’t think so. However…” Gadra began before trailing off. After being urged by the others to continue she did so. “Perhaps if we head to the Dungeon Core room or the Boss room? Then we can talk it over and come to an agreement?”

If Gadra was honest she wasn’t sure if the Dark Lord would let them leave, or at least not without a fight that she wasn’t quite confident in Joseph and Melissa winning even if they were fully healed. “Then let’s try that.” Melissa agreed to her suggestion however Joseph wasn’t quite sure but decided that this was their best shot. Gadra stood up and was about to ask if they could before a notification appeared on her status screen. It was a message from the Dark Lord.

“Bring them to the Boss room and we can talk.” Gadra nodded her head after reading it and informed the two humans. The two were still quite uneasy about this but chose to trust her as they followed her closely. Unknown to the three of them Clerd was silently following them with his footsteps being covered by a spell. The three entered the Boss room with Clerd waiting outside the room waiting for a signal to be made by the Dark Lord.

The two humans didn’t see anyone else so they were perplexed why they stopped here in this large dark room. The large room was much rockier than the rest of the castle, almost as if a cave was in the middle of the Dark Castle dungeon. Sure enough, there was a hole in the corner of the room perhaps leading into a cave, in reality, it would only lead to Gadra’s room. A privilege she is afforded due to being a Boss monster compared to the goblins and kobolds who had to sleep at their post. Suddenly the two humans were shocked when they heard a voice seemingly coming from nowhere.

“What do you two want?” Darius asked in a deep booming voice that echoed around the room knowing full well what they wished for. “Give me a satisfactory answer and I may just give it to you two.” Darius was unwilling to give up Gadra for free but still, he was willing to at least allow the two to fight and most likely fail for it. The two gulped as they began to formulate a response.