The scent grew stronger as I continued down the dark passageway. My paws silently padded against the cold metal ground as I continued my calm pace. Tired of walking blindly in the dark, I summoned the helmet portion of my magic armor for a tiny bit of light. The gold speckled dark magic barely provided luminance, but it was better than nothing.

Soon, I spotted the bar-covered wall a few inches away from my face. CLANG! A sudden noise behind me confirmed my suspicions. I reabsorbed the magic around my head and calmly waited.

Suddenly, the floor jerked and began to rise with a chorus of loud clangs and clinks. After I regained my balance, I faced the front of the cage, stood tall, and grinned menacingly. After a few seconds, a slowly growing gap appeared above me and beamed light into my enclosure.

As soon as I could see into the arena, I glared at the cage opposite of me, then grinned as I saw my opponent. Stellan. The dark-clothed creature was almost as tall as me, but its thin bipedal build made it appear weak and scrawny even with the cloak draped over them. His hood-covered ears laid flat; its eyes were wide fear-filled eyes looked around the stained concrete walls and dirt floor as he nervously gripped the bars with his tiny hands.

I could sense his faint magical energy, but the in him magic was vastly different from the energy inside Master and monsters. The magic burned when I tried to take it, but somehow, the energy signature felt familiar but unfamiliar.

He looks weak and an easy kill, like most Stellans. He doesn't seem to have any weapons. I grinned and tensed my muscles, ready to charge the second the cell doors dropped open.

"Kill." Master's monotonous voice filled the room with the single-word command as the bars in front of the cage noisily dropped.

The single command filled my mind as I unthinkingly roared a deep wordless battle cry as I leaped out of my temporary enclosure and sprinted towards my opponent with my teeth bared and my claws outstretched.

The figure panicked and reached for something hidden beneath his navy blue and black sleeveless cloak without emerging from his cage. SHING! As I neared the cell, he pulled out a long metal blade and held it in front of him.

Sword. The sight of the blade broke me from the single-minded focus of Master's kill command. I need to think more strategically than just blindly rushing forward. I growled and blasted a bit of my dark magic at the figure. While the Stellan was distracted by my magical attack, I spread my wings and launched myself into the air with a single bound and a single flap of my wings.

My wingtip nearly brushed against the side of the circular arena as I flew around the perimeter and surveyed the mostly barren field below me. There was no non-metal platform to stand on. Other than the cages, there are no defendable places.

To my annoyance, the creature never came out of his cell. That's no good. I mentally growled, then dove, and landed atop the slab of metal of the Stellan's cage while its occupant was distracted. I need to force it out of there before I fight and remove his advantage. The cell is too defendable.

I summoned my armor as I dodged a few wild stabs from the being reaching his sword arm out and stabbing upwards. It's only a matter of time before the cage begins to crush him. I had had this happen to me before in one of my first few training sessions. My prey has a choice, be crushed and die, or be killed by my paws. I jumped on the top of the cage a few times as I dodged the Stellan's weak attempts to stab me through the bars on the sides of the cell.

Just as I expected, the enclosure soon clicked, and the roof of the cage and the bars slowly began to sink beneath my weight. The Stellan's breath below me caught in a panic as he realized his options were to be crushed or stand out in the open and fight without any protection.

He slowly backed out of the cage in a slightly crouched position with his sword raised between us. His wide eyes remained locked on me, so I growled and menacingly stared down at the being.

I lashed my tail as my opponent's sword trembled slightly. It looks pathetically scared, weak even. I silently chuckled and bared my sharp teeth in a grin, then internally laughed as my opponent winced at the sight of my teeth.

Once my height advantage had sufficiently diminished, I leaped off of my perch to an area adjacent to the being. Since I didn't need to, I didn't use my wings in the jump. I crossed the distance without them.

Of course, the trembling Stellan swung his metal blade towards me as I was in the air but wildly missed. I was not stupid enough to jump near him while his sword was between us. Even if it had hit, the hard dark magic armor around me would have easily protected my body.

After I landed, I grinned and began to circle with my body low to the ground and studied the being's frantic movements. The Stellan slowly stepped in a circle in pace with my circling, his muscles tense.

A twinge appeared deep in my stomach, but I immediately suppressed it. It was the same feeling I got when killing, but I ignored it as I glared at my opponent. We continued or circular "dance" around the arena.

Eventually, I growled in frustration and slashed the ground with my paw, which flung a cloud of dirt into my opponent's face. The suspended dust particles consumed my opponent and sent him into a flurry of hacking coughs. While he covered his eyes to protect them from the onslaught of dirt and rocks, I used his moment of blindness and incapacitation to my advantage.

I swiftly move behind him in two bounds, then slashed my magic-enhanced claws across my opponent's back. I violently tore through his cloth armor and flesh as if he was just a ball of mud. The bees done, I leaped away from my opponent to watch him squirm out of range of his sword

I grinned as my opponent screamed in agony and collapsed onto his knees. His sword remained gripped tightly into the handle of his blade. He mumbled incoherently in a pained voice with each pained exhale as a large red stain spread across the back of his torn clothing.

As I watched him struggle to deal with the pain, the unfamiliar twinge of pain once again arose, but I immediately quelled the feeling. I allowed the pain to madden me, as it hindered my enjoyment of this fight. My tail lashed as I watched my blood-and-dirt-covered opponent struggle to stand.

I grinned and moved in for the finishing blow, then dodged as the sword was once again swung at my face, though with much less strength than earlier. He's tiring. I mentally laughed as I continued to watch my opponent struggle and tremble. This battle won't last much longer.

Slowly, my opponent rose to his feet. His shoulders heaved with each pained breath, and the sword shook in his hands. One eye was squeezed shut and teary, and his mouth was open as he released whistling exhalations through his barred teeth. "I.... can't... lose." He growled in pain as he swung his sword right at my neck.

I jumped back, but the tip of the blade scraped against the tip of my armor. However, the weapon showed much more damage than my magical defense. While my armor had a quickly-disappearing scratch, the tip of the Stellan's sharp metal stick was completely misshaped and warped as if it had melted and bent on contact with the energy that surrounded my form.

The figure stood frozen, his eyes locked on the now-useless tip of his double-edged sword. "H—h—h—" he stuttered, then trembled and almost dropped his weapon. "I'm...I'm..." he breathed heavily in shock.

I can't hesitate now. I ignored the throb from inside my body and took his moment of shock and lunged with my magic-tipped claws fully extended. Much to my annoyance, my opponent managed to dive out of the way just in time to avoid being shredded by my sharp claws.

However, during his move, he plummeted face-first into the dirt floor.

I landed, quickly faced my prone opponent then moved to attack one again. My opponent futility attempted to throw a cloud of dust into my eyes as I lunged, but the rocks and dust simply bounced off of my armor.

My aim was true.

CRACK!!!

The sound echoed throughout the arena as the being stilled beneath my weight, and would never move again.

Click click click.

I stood there, standing over the broken form of my opponent. Deep in my stomach, an unknown sickening feeling festered, but I immediately suppressed it. What is wrong with me? Stellans are monsters, just like me. This was an easy fight, but why do I feel pain inside of me like this? I stepped off of my dead prey and maintained a facade of calm.

CLANG!

I quickly swiveled my head towards the source of the sound: the wall behind me. A large door hidden in the metal walls of the circular room had appeared, and it slid to the side and released an I.D.RO. The metallic being sped over to me, then lifted me off of the ground in its yellow tractor beam.

As the robot carried me off, I glanced one last time, and barely managed to suppress a wince as the sickening feeling once again welled up inside of me. What is wrong with me? I've killed before. They're the enemy! Why do I keep feeling this way?

No voices or thoughts answered as I once again suppressed the strange emotion, but it was not as if I expected an answer. I remained limp as the I.D.R.O. ferried me down the maze of metal hallways.

Soon, the dish-shaped robot entered my housing room and floated over to an empty, proper-sized cell. Once it opened the door, it emotionlessly deposited me onto the wood chip floor of my cage and closed the door.

SLAM!

One day they're going to break that door, I mentally snickered, that will be funny. With nothing better to do, I sat down and began to clean the sticky red liquid and sawdust from my paws. For a few moments, a grin lingered on my face. Suddenly, my grin vanished as my focus returned to the owner of the blood I was cleaning off of my claws. I grimaced a bit but continued my task as the sickening feeling arose as my excitement slowly faded.

Why does this bother me? I paused my cleaning and gazed at the ground.

For a few moments, I was at peace with my questioning thoughts.

"Did ya fail, pipsqueak?" Killico's voice suddenly mocked from just beyond the barred door of my cell.

"Far from it," I laughed as I paused my self-grooming, "I am going on the next mission, which you might be too weak for after I defeated you." With that, I silently continued to lick the red stains off of my paws while Killico fumed.

CLANK!

I whipped around and stood as Killico opened my door. "Can't stand losing?" I laughed in his face. "Want a rematch?" I raised my head to be taller than him, then summoned my yellow-speckled black armor.

Killico released a gravelly growl as he flattened his small ears. As he glared at me, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His claws gripped the wood dust floor and his muscles tensed.

He's itching to kill me. I mentally laughed, then grinned as I returned to cleaning my paws, but I kept an eye on Killico. I have enough magic to block him if he decides to attack me. "It would be a shame if you couldn't come on the mission because I defeated you in the holding room."

Killico growled and glared at the grin spread across my face, his muscles tense. After a moment, he snorted and relaxed his taut muscles slightly, then stormed out of my cage with a huff.

WHAM! My entire cage rattled as Killico slammed my cage door after his departure and slinked back into his cage. SLAM! His cell noisily shut, though not as loudly as mine.

I chuckled and reabsorbed my armor. To think I used to look up to Killico as a powerful monster. After a brief chuckle, I laid down and settled my wings against my sides. He's barely better than average.

The door opened, and the dees arrived, with a cart and their paws loaded with food bowls and magic cloths.

CLACK!

A dee opened my cell door and slid a large bowl filled with meat and magic gravy into my cell. Once the bowl was in place, the short chubby orange being closed the door.

My mouth watered as I approached the food, then greedily began to devour the food. No thoughts appeared in my mind as I scarfed down the food, my thoughts solely consumed by thoughts of meat and magical gravy.

I didn't notice or care about the dees as they covered the wounds across my back with the magical bandages. Also, I never saw them leave, but when I finished my meal and raised my head to look around, my short caretakers were gone, the cell door was shut and locked.

My full stomach made me yawn as I trotted into the sleeping cave. The next mission can't come soon enough. With that thought, I curled up and fell asleep under the warm light on the ceiling of the small space.

Author Notes!

Hoshiryu is a real monster, absolutely. He is a cold-blooded killer and nothing will ever change that. Nothing.