Black lightning blazed in the murky torchlight, dark fire that rolled and seethed like tempestuous waters beneath bleak, lightless night. I burst from the stones, my eyes burning like twin pools of oil, my sclera dark as pitch, my pupils twin stars shining from my skull. I fell on hands and knees, a cloud of vapor leaking from my open mouth.

"Quite the entrance." Or'do  smiled, gesturing across the way to a portcullis braceted by two statues whose lanterns shone lavender, whose features seemed mocking, whose posture seemed contemptuous. "Therein lies the first of the Ancient Darkbeasts."

I nodded, rising slowly, calmly. "Then let us face him."

"Sure, the lever should be somewh-" Or'do trailed off as I surged past, one arm rising crooked and parallel to my chest, the other trailing behind me, fists clenched and leaking tendrils of flame. I slammed an iron forearm against the portcullis, spraying its sundered remains into the corridor beyond. Slinging the whirligig saw from his back, Or'do came charging after me as I careened into and passed through the solid bronze door that marked the Ancient's chambers.

Or'do kneeling at my side, tears burning in his eyes. I roared, blind fury driving my fist into the monster's face before I even recognized it: a mixture of wolf and man that stood upon hind legs, its abdomen left bare along the midline, covered in coarse fur toward the sides. It staggered back, conjuring orbs of fire in its hands, but then Or'do was there, the whirligig saw grinding against the monster's thighs, shredding its muscles and hurling it to its knees.

Or'do carrying me, his eyes cold as stone, his heart heavy as lead. I slammed an iron fist into the monster's chin, spraying its teeth through the air in a fan of shattered ivory.

Gehrman's scythe against my neck, Or'do catching me as I fall. My fist punched through its skull, passing through its chin and exploding from the crest of its scalp in a geyser of black and scarlet. It fell, then burst apart in a flare of pure, cleansing light.