I Received System to Become Dragonborn

Jan, Mark, Hund, Kaela, and Thorne all felt a spike of panic stab through their chests—but they buried it deep.

Panic would only sharpen the enemy's blade. Experience whispered to each of them the same truth that they need to keep moving, keep breathing, and don't let fear take the reins.

Their eyes met in silent agreement. No orders needed to be said. They all understood that this was their fight now.

Jan pulled out his bow, its limbs already glowing with a steady hum of Magic. An arrow of shimmering silver formed in his fingers, glinting like it had been forged from starlight.

Mark, Thorne, and Hund gripped their swords tightly, the steel ringing faintly with the energy pulsing in the room. The runes in their blades already pulsing with blue light.

Kaela spun her twin daggers wirh her nimble fingers. Her eyes narrowed and ready to attack.

"We can't let that thing near Selene, Esther, and Annette," Mark said, his voice sharp. "I think its better that we attaxk first ans eep it away from thia room at all costs."

"Agreed," Jan said, already nocking his arrow.

Without wasting a second more, they turned toward the massive door.

Hund stepped forward and shoved the iron protrusion that locked it shut.

The door creaked open and the stench of twisted Magic and rotting minds hit them like a wall.

Standing there, blocking the passage, was a creature unlike anything they had ever seen.

A towering abomination, nearly five meters tall, its bloated grotesque form looks like a nightmarish fusion of dozens of humans.

They were the same husks of empty human they had found earlier in those chambers who had been drained of their mind. They were now mashed and melded together, their limbs and faces fused into a shifting mass of flesh and bone.

Some of the eyes blinked. Some mouths gaped soundlessly. The people weren't dead. They were still alive and that makes everything even more disturbing.

"What the hell is this thing…" Hund muttered, eyes wide with horror.

But their hesitation lasted only a heartbeat.

Jan loosed his Magic arrow and it screamed through the air.

SWISH!

The impact struck the creature square in the chest, exploding in a flash of silver light and knocking it several meters back down the corridor.

It screeched and letting out a chorus of distorted voices crying out at once but the path was now clear. It had been pushed from the chamber.

"Go!" Jan shouted.

Mark, Hund, Thorne, and Kaela surged forward.

Hund let out a battle cry. His blade glowing blue as he slashed through the nearest protruding limb.

Kaela danced between the grotesque arms that reached for her, her daggers flashing with deadly precision.

Mark and Thorne flanked the creature's sides, cutting deep into its unstable flesh, drawing strange, thick ichor that hissed on contact with the floor.

The monster thrashed wildly, its many arms and limbs flailing in chaotic patterns.

It howled in pain and confusion like a mockery of the living things tjey used to be.

Jan stood a little far away behind, loosing arrow after arrow to cover them.

SWISH!

SWISH!

SWISH!

"Aim for its joints! Disrupt its shape!" Jan shouted.

The ground trembled again—not from the breach of the Magic circle this time but from the sheer force of the battle erupting at the corridor.

Behind them, the three girls still stood unshaken. They believe that their friends will hold the line.

Annette's ward continued to glow brighter, resisting the pull of the breach.

Selene's sigils burned into the earth like ancient chains. And Esther, still laughing madly, roared again with a blast of violet fire.

Then, without warning, tendrils of dark green energy lashed out from the center of the breach.

They slithered like serpents filled with hate and malice, striking out in every direction with terrifying speed.

It was as if the portal was aware and become a living, reacting force now, sensing the threat to its existence. It had begun to fight back.

The tendrils slammed into the golden barrier that Annette had created. The holy ward groaned under the pressure, lines of divine light shuddering and flickering as if about to collapse.

Annette gasped, hands tightening as she poured more of her faith, more of her god's will into the barrier.

"It's resisting!"

"I see it!" Selene shouted, already moving. She raised both hands and hurled her sealing sigils forward.

The runes blazed in mid-air, spinning toward the ward.

As they struck the edge of the barrier, the golden light surged back to full strength.

The tendrils hissed and recoiled but only briefly.

More of them sprang from the breach, snapping like whips, some slamming into the ground around inside the barrier.

One almost reached Annette's arm before Selene's sigils formed a second barrier just inches in front of her.

Then Esther stepped forward, no longer laughing.

Her wild grin was gone, replaced by clenched teeth and narrowed eyes.

"You want to lash out?" she growled. "Then feel what it's like to burn!"

She raised her staff and screamed a spell in a harsh tongue.

A blast of fire erupted, but it was no longer violet.

This time, the flames were deep crimson, churning like molten blood and laced with writhing glyphs.

The fire wrapped around the tendrils, not just burning but consuming them, unraveling their Magic from within.

The tendrils recoiled harder this time. But then, several of them shriveling into ash. The breach let out a distorted howl that shook the air, as if the portal itself had been wounded.

Selene took the opening. "Now!"

She slammed both palms to the ground. The sealing runes she had placed earlier lit up like stars and each of them locking in place and drawing tight across the breach.

Annette followed immediately, her circle expanding and locking over the glowing sigils like a final clasp.

The portal pulsed one last time with furious and desperate struggle.

Then it went still.

A silence followed. It feels heavy, eerie, and unnatural.

The glowing circle dimmed into a dull light, no longer aggressive and longer expanding. The breach hadn't closed, but it had stopped for now.

Selene slowly rose from her knees, sweat trailing down her temples. "We got it... for now."

Esther lowered her staff, breathing heavily.."

Annette nodded. "It will hold as long as we remain standing."

But none of them relaxed. Their hands stayed ready, their eyes on the quiet, beaten portal.

Because they all knew that this was not the end.

Behind them, down the corridor, the others were still fighting a monster made of broken minds and stolen flesh.

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