The Dragon King's Heart

"Those are Mycellem Puffs, poisonous fungi that corrupt and mutate living creatures," he explained.

The spores were inhaled, the living creature will either die from poisoning or mutate into something terrifying. The rat king they had encountered was likely one such victim. As they continued to observe the mushrooms that covered the cave floor, they notices that some of them had been eaten.

"The Rat King must have eaten the mushrooms as well, which would explain its accelerated mutation," Laina deduced.

She turned to Titan, realizing he was not protected. Dante seemed to have read her mind. He explained that Titan was immune to the effects of the mushrooms. As a Solar Mastiff, he was immune to all if not most poisons of any form.

Laina crouched down and gave Titan a pet on his head, "Why aren't you a wonder dog."

Titan seemingly understood that Laina was praising him. He said down proudly, tilting his head upwards while wagging his tail. Just then, Laina grew tense. She got up on her feet and took a few steps forward.

"What's wrong?" Dante asked, noticing her actions.

She raised her hand, signaling him to remain quiet as she continued to look deeper into the cave. She had a gut feeling they were not alone. Just then, a gust of icy wind blew past them.

The sudden chill dropped their body temperatures significantly in the blink of an eye. Laina dropped to the ground, shivering where she stood. Titan summoned two bursts of hot flames from his mouth, simultaneously surrounding Dante and Laina to protect them from the chill.

Even Dante was caught off guard. It was as if the icy wind had sucked out all of the warmth from their body. Even with his natural resistance to the cold, he was able to feel the chill. But with Titan's protection, they were doing a little better.

"What was that?" Laina whispered to Dante when she realized they were not alone.

Dante was shivering. His hands were shaking. When he looked down at them, he realized that the spell he had cast to hide the darkened veins had been lifted. Furthermore, the veins were spreading. It was acting up again.

"No... not... not now," his teeth were chattering as he muttered beneath his breath.

Dante clutched his heart. He was immobilized by the pain that spread from his heart. He wanted to warn Laina, but no words could come out of his mouth. Laina, realizing something was terribly wrong, turned back to see Dante crouched on the ground.

"Dante!" she yelled his name as she ran to him.

She could see the dark-colored veins creeping past his forearm, about to cover his hands. She clenched her jaw as her heart sank. But before she could say anything, she heard footsteps echoing throughout the cave.

"Laina... get... back..." Dante struggled to speak.

"There's no time for that," she replied snappily as she drew her weapon.

Her entire body was shaking from the cold. Even with the gloves, she had on, her hands were hurting from the cold. Laina knew she had to do something. No matter what happened, they were all going to come out of this alive.

"Titan!" she called for her Solar Mastiff who replied to her with a bright bark, "Protect Dante at all costs!"

With a second bark, Titan hurried over to Dante's side. He expels another burst of flame onto him. A swirl of flame enveloped him. It restored some warmth to him.

"It's too dangerous!" Dante urged, knowing that escaping would be their best option.

But Laina refused.

"We won't be able to outrun it," she said as she turned to him, "Not in our condition."

Laina raised her sword into the air, summoning a fierce flame that covered the blade of the sword. The creature finally revealed itself to them. It was worse than anything they had seen before.

Similar to the rat king, the abomination that revealed itself was a messy mutation of different beasts and creatures that lived deep in the mountains. It had three main heads. A deformed mountain goat, snow tiger, and an ice wyvern.

It had three pairs of wings sprouted on its back. Each was more deformed than the last.

Dante cursed beneath his breath. He gritted his teeth and wrecked his brain. There had to be a solution to the crisis at hand. There had to be!

He could not accept the fact that his decision to stay by Laina's side would lead to their deaths. This was not what he wanted.

"Laina, leave me," he pleaded with her, "Save yourself!"

Laina turned back to face him. Her expression was not one of worry or anxiety. Her face was contorted in anger. He had never seen her so worked up. A shiver ran down his spine.

"I will never leave your side. Never!" Laina yelled at him. She tightened the grip on her weapon.

Without a care in the world, Laina ran towards the grotesque beast. She leaped into the air and raised her weapon above her head. It looked as if she was about to hit it straight on one of its heads.  But Laina underestimated the beast.

In the split second she brought her weapon down, the beast swiped at her in mid-air. Laina hit heavily against the cave wall.

She winced in pain as she fell to the ground, blood dripping from the side of her lips.

"Laina!" Dante called out her name.

He tried to get back up on his feet. Dante used the cave wall as support as he stood up. But he immediately became dizzy and fell back down on the ground. The beast lunged towards Laina, raising its claws at her.

"Laina!" he yelled again as he reached out his hand.

Dante's eyes glowed ice blue. In an instant, the beast's claws were covered in a layer of ice. The ice spread swiftly across the beast's body. Dante smirked, thinking he had successfully subdued the beast.

The beast let out a terrifying screech, causing the ice layer to crack.

"No, no!" Dante panicked, but there was nothing he could do.