Silence reigned in the halls of Griffon's Watch.

The din of combat subsided with the Mana Discharge of the Hoplax Wildmancer – the creature that now stood victorious over the four Hybrids who had challenged it.

They were strewn across the room in the moment it redirected Fauna and Lamphrey's magic out in an area of effect strike that could have decimated any unguarded creature on Argwyll.

Fortunately, Fauna and Lamphrey had managed to bring up some Spell Shields just as the wave radiated out from the abomination's body, and managed to keep their comrades alive. Barely.

They struggled to stand, Klax helping Tara to her feet – she holding on to him with a bloody gash cut across her forehead. Lamphrey groaned as she rose to her feet, her stave cracked and barely responsive. The purple shields stuttered and died – their owner's Mana had finally run dry.

The Hoplax amalgamation was wounded itself. Its limbs dragged lamely as it moved towards the group, intent on consuming them and having them join with its mass.

Isn't this just beautiful? A dark voice called out from the darkness around them – something emanating from the cracked walls of the Keep itself.

"Haylock," Klax coughed.

"Ain't that…that bastard gonna ever…shut up?"

Tara's voice was a shadow of itself. She slumped in Klax's arms, and he struggled to keep her upright.

You hybrids never cease to amaze and amuse me in equal measure, the sadistic Doctor giggled. You struggle and struggle against this world, and against your designated place within it. You never stop even though you know that one day the light of your kind shall be extinguished from this realm. There's beauty in that. It has the sweet, tangy taste of innocence to it.

Haylock's grisly abomination opened its grotesque mouth in a laugh as he spoke.

You truly are wonders of creation – I mean that sincerely! I admire your persistence even against the Law of nature itself. I admire the challenge to all human life you represent. The disgust you manage to conjure in the people of this world not because of who you are but what you are. I admire your easily adaptive forms. Really, we humans could learn a thing or two from your anatomy…and your tenacity.

The great beast crept closer. Lamphrey tried raising her staff to strike against it, but found that – yes – all the magic she had in her had been depleted. Klax and Tara simply stood beside her, and tried to keep from running for their lives.

But more than that…the Doctor sneered, licking his lips from whatever hole he was hiding in. I admire your blind, unshakable devotion to the ultimate mistake of nature: the Archon.

The Hybrids stiffened. If they still had the strength to deny the Doctor his monologue, they would have.

But they were too focused on thinking of a plan. Of something that could turn the tide here. After they had worked together with such success…

"Look at its core structure," Lamphrey whispered. "It is dying."

Klax and Tara followed her lead – Appraising the beast and seeing what she'd seen:

Hoplax Wildmancer, LVL 90

HP: 450/1300

They had brought it almost to the brink of destruction. But still…to be able to do the final sliver of damage that they needed…

I will admit: I despise a lack of understanding, Haylock droned on. Why you resisted the Greycloaks for so long. Why you resisted me at Triant. Why you chose to liberate Sentinel…but most of all, why you follow that ridiculous little hat.

Beneath Klax and Tara's feet, something stirred. In the rubble that had been strewn across the room, something was rising…

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But I think, finally, that I have validated my hypothesis. Logic is simply not a component of your simple minds. Nor do your hearts rule you as so many of the foolish members of my own race allow. No – you are simply ruled by fear. And your Archons are your only source of reprieve from the constant threat of your extinction in this world. You worship them like Gods because, well, easy answers to complex problems have a beauty of their own, don't they?

Lamphrey stirred, but also watched the rubble begin to move.

She knew what was down there, struggling to rise up.

You simply lack the will to think for yourselves, Haylock sighed as the abomination finally made it to the group, raising both its magically imbued limbs and charging up a final attack.

I thought, at one time, that you were sentient beings. I wished to believe it – an illogical decision, to be sure – yet one I could not shake off me. But every good researcher must abandon their hubris sometimes. There truly is little that distinguishes you from the other monsters that wander in this dismal little realm we call Argwyll.

The dual-lights of untold quantities of mana blazed on the hulking monster's forelimbs. The sheer intensity of the light threw its massive shadow across the hall and blinded the Hybrids.

So, unfortunately, I shall abandon this experiment. You were suitable subjects, for a time, but all life must end. Not even I can prevent that.

The lights coalesced into a single cone of green-purple energy, and then a single beam of killing light gushed forth.

You now have my permission to die.

The sheer heat of the magic missile was enough to melt muscle from bone, and all the Hybrids shielded themselves from its trajectory.

But in that moment, the rubble at their feet shifted, and someone emerged from the ground.

In the next instant, a flash of wild wind swept up from the rubble of the tower and the Hybrid team found themselves covered in a translucent violet bubble. Instantly the power of the abomination's spell was redirected right into the creature's horrifically grinning face.

And Fauna the Wildglance smiled as it fell backwards, wailing in agonized confusion.

She stood tall, proud, and unshakable. Even though Lamphrey could sense that the Repulsion Charm she'd just cast had been the last spell she could conjure up. And their foe wasn't quite dead yet…

"F-Faun?" Tara groaned.

The Hopla looked over her shoulder and smiled at her friend. Her face was covered in ash and soot, and her shoulders were beginning to sag under the weight of keeping herself standing.

Yet still, she stood.

"You think we resist you because we have no choice?" she shouted up at the castle roof. "You think you understand us, that watching us scurry through this death trap will show you all you need to know about us. But you could never get into our heads, Doctor. Someone like you could never understand us."

The Doctor's creature roared in protest, rising up and stretching its limbs wide, expanding them into six different limbs that each glowed with intense, blinding light.

"We're here because we chose to stand up against men like you – men who spend all their days making this world a worse place to live. We're standing up because – because we chose to stand rather than let you take everything from us."

"And we'll keep standing," Klax said, coming to place his hand on her shoulder and stand beside her. "And even if we fall, the Archon's will won't ever spoil."

Tara concurred: "We'll – we'll be content to know that we were here, at the end. We fought together and – shit – we ain't gonna die sitting down."

The three of them rose to their full heights, each one holding up the other as the beastly nightmare creature looked on in anger.

Even Lamphrey came to stand at their backs, smiling despite herself.

"…well said," she admitted. "You are all a credit to those that came before you. And those that shall come because of you."

Fauna couldn't help it. In this moment, staring death in its eerily glowing eyes with her friends beside her, she thought of the school back home. She thought of little Mara, and her kids. She wondered how they were right now, what they were doing, what trouble they were all getting into…and if they'd remember her when she was gone.

"You're a legend…Faun," Tara said beside her.

Fauna flashed her the kind of smirk she was used to getting from the Minxit herself. "We're all legends."

The six limbs pulsed with energy again, the Hoplax pumping everything it had into this blast this time.

Its entire body shuddered with the power flowing through its gelatinous muscles, almost as though it was ready to explode in pure fury and unrestrained, raw energy.

She knew she should close her eyes. But she couldn't. She gripped the hands of her comrades and faced what was coming like her family had faced the blades of the Greycloaks. She wasn't running this time. She'd stand here and face her fears just like Ethan would have wanted her to. Just like…

CRASH.

The entire ceiling came down, literally ripped apart by something that had been rumbling through the floors above, tearing through each Duskmetal wall like it was nothing more than layers of dust.

This thing – electric blue, buzzing with lightning and emitting a sub-zero temperature – crashed through the tear in the dark roof and smashed right into the Hoplax's confused face. It drilled through the creature's entire upper body and kept on traveling through its gelatinous guts until it emerged out the creature's backside, and the being exploded in a hail of blood, guts, viscera, and other fluids.

Where once there had been a nightmare abomination with the strength to topple a continent, now there was nothing but a smoking ball of wooden limbs.

And a little blue hat sitting atop them.

"Sorry for dropping by so late," Ethan said. "Did I miss anything?"

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