The burning skull monster

The direction of the lower levels was down the stairs in the room. Ares could now visualise the entire facility and knew the best route to get where he wanted. Before he set off, he looked at the two collapsed on the floor. Jason and Sky were still laid out unconscious. Initially thinking about leaving them he changed his mind. Afterall they had helped him in the escape of the Spider.

Ares went over to the two and retrieved a bottle of water he had on his person. He poured a small amount over the head of Jason first then Sky.

There was a second of silence before both of them woke up. Sky first up tried to stand quickly and, in doing so, fell straight over Jason into a bundle in the floor. Jason, too looked like he wanted to jump up, but having Sky fall over him he remained in a heap on the floor.

"Are you two going to get up?" Ares asked them.

Jason glanced up and looked at Ares with groggy eyes.

"What happened?" He asked.

Sky had the same question on his lips and looked towards Ares for an answer.

"You both passed out from a mental attack, luckily whatever it was ran out of energy before it could do you anymore harm." Ares explained to them leaving his conversation and plans unsaid.

"I do have some good news though." Ares said a slight smile on his face.

By this point they had both stumbled to their feet Infront of him.

"Go on Justin." Sky said looking at him.

"Before it ran out of energy the voice said something about there being artefacts on the lower levels." He said providing a partial truth.

"what sort of artefacts?" Sky asked.

Ares shrugged pretending not to know.

"Are you in?" Ares asked.

Sky looked hesitantly at Ares. It was clear he harboured doubts; he did initially think Ares was going to trap them; but both him and Jason had been powerless and yet remained unharmed.

"Of course we are." Jason answered for both him and Sky. It earned him a disapproving glare from Sky.

Ares smiled at them both. It was good to have someone to go with; the path was dangerous and you never know when you need another pair of hands.

"Follow me." Ares said making for the stairs.

Jason followed closely behind only Sky stood momentarily staring at Ares as he led the way. He felt more and more suspicious towards Ares.

The three of them started walking down the dark stairs into the pitch black.

Ares already had it in his mind where this path would lead to. The whole facility was four levels deep and this would lead to the second floor. It would also however lead through a labs in which a testing facility of various beasts was based. Praying to himself that the beasts would be long dead they continued on.

After around 10 minutes of descent the small party arrived in another lab. Unlike the clean nature of the one above this one was in disarray red marks and scratches on almost every surface. Whatever had happened here had caused untold carnage.

Ares led the way the two brothers in tow. He knew that behind one of the cases in the room was another staircase descending to level three.

Despite the rooms damage it was still huge easily the size of a running field; various destroyed furniture littered the floor between him and his target.

Whilst walking it was almost although the group had an unspoken rule; all three remained silent attempting to avoid any loud noises.

They were about halfway through the room walking over various items when Ares heard a loud crunching from behind him. He turned to find Jason had stepped on a broken glass beaker of sorts. The sound of the broken glass grinding on the floor resounded into the room.

An audible growl started coming from behind the heaps of trash in the room. Ares glanced to see what it was to see a grotesque monster slowly uncoiling itself from a head of trash. He hadn't noticed it before but now he looked the room was covered in scale like material.

The monster was unlike any Ares had seen before; it was huge and long, the scales he could see were the size of a small shield. Whatever it was it had many traits of a snake but its face was something far more horrifying. Its face was that of a human skull with glowing blue embers for eyes. Unlike some of the other monsters Ares had seen; this one had no sense of intelligence only a wild madness within its eyes. At the moment it was shaking its head lightly still bleary to its surroundings.

Ares realised that for this monster to remain here it must have killed all its brethren; it was likely it was the last left and had gone into hibernation until their disturbance. God only knew how old or dangerous this thing had become.

Knowing silence was pointless Ares charged his arms with the push spell and shouted to the others.

"We need to kill this thing quickly." Whilst finishing his words he started running in its direction leaving Sky and Jason behind him.

Seeing some prey appear Infront the monster quickly sobered up, it struck towards Ares with a terrifying speed. Its mouth opened and an array of sharp fangs presented themselves before Ares face.

Ares was luckily already prepared and as the skull began to bite he used his charged spell to hit it square in the face.

Despite being the one to hit the monster clearly his spell was offset by the speed and velocity of the monster. Both of them went flying back away from each other. The monster collided with a pile of debris and shrieked an ear-piercing sound.

Ares too landed in a pile of debris. The air was driven out of his chest in a wheeze, he felt searing pain as his ribs broke. He crawled to his feet as he looked in the direction of the monster. It too began to get up only to madly charge directly at him ignoring a metal pole which had imbedded itself in its body.

Ares tried to prepare a spell but his mind was distracted by the pain of his ribs. The monster was like the wind as it appeared Infront of him its jaws again wide ready to bite. Ares had no opportunity to react and instinctively shut his eyes for a second.

As he did a snapping sound resounded centimetres from his face. A fishy smell wafted towards him and he opened his eyes. The monster was snapping its jaws as it tried to get to him; only now it was now being pulled backwards away from him. It hadn't seemed to notice its own movement as it was still attempting to bite in a feral manner. As it writhed Ares managed to glimpse what had obstructed it. A large stone figure twice as large as a man had its tail and was dragging it away. It was clear that even despite its size and stature the stone figure was struggling to keep it at bay.

"Come over here quick." Ares heard from behind him; he glanced around and saw Jason beaconing him towards the side.

"Sky cant hold it for long, hurry the hell up!" He shouted.