***
Andreas and Nicholas had not been idle; while Nishga and Achil had gone after the beast, they had set more traps each more gruesome than the last. They had made metal spikes out of the remains of the chains that had littered the pulley room and surrounding caves, and then hammered them into wooden planks. So that when the creature stepped onto one of the traps, both sides would snap shut crippling it. Giving them time kill it. They did not have the same misgivings as Nishga had shown to Achil: it was after all their land that had been so ravaged by the Dragon. They carefully took up positions and waited. The cavern had taken the shape of some macabre torture chamber. As they had laid all the traps they had not noticed the strange transformation of the cavern and the way their attitude had altered with it. They had worked tirelessly as though possessed by some demonic energy, and if they had looked up to see their monstrous shadows reflected on the walls perhaps they would have seen what they had become. Their nature in unison with what they had created around them was galvanized toward one thing, the total destruction of their enemy.