“Mad Mike,” Giles said with a dark expression as he looked at Michelangelo. “I recognize that name.”

“As do I,” Riel agreed, his eyes narrowed and wary. “Rogue player who escaped from prison a few months ago.”

My eyes shot to Michaelangelo. I barely knew the man, but from what little I did know, I wasn’t the least bit surprised that he would have ended up in prison. However, I was definitely curious about how he could have escaped. Conversations about theoretical prison escapes had been rather popular back when I’d been in.

“The name Wolf was on some of the same reports,” Riel added, staring at the lizard man…at Wolf. “They said you were believed dead.”

Wolf growled as if he was the very animal he was named after. “His buddy cut off my arm and left me for dead,” he said, glaring at Michaelangelo, then gestured back at the Labyrinth entrance. “Fortunately, I have an ability that lets me heal…” He tapped his scaled arm and scowled. “With side effects.”

“As interesting as that is,” Frank commented. “We don’t have time for grudges at the moment.”

“Not yet,” Wolf agreed, turning his attention to Fenrir.

The giant smoke wolf was now completely ignoring the origami birds that circled its head and was instead focused on us. No, on Wolf. The hairs on the back of my neck all stood on end as I could feel the attention, and the moment of indecision as the creature tried to decide whether to attack or run.

“You know this thing?” Grayson asked as he raised his shield and readied himself for the attack.

“Big Bad and I go back a ways,” Wolf admitted with a shake of his head. “We’ve been hunting each other for months.” He spat on the ground. “It won’t end until one of us is dead.”

“Why, Mister Wolf?” Giles asked. “I doubt that its just because you’re an invoker.”

“What the fuck did you do?” Lenore demanded. “Did you kick its puppies or something?”

Wolf let out a sharp laugh. “No… My mistake is that I made a deal with a damn infernal…”

“Foolish,” Giles stated.

“No argument there,” Wolf admitted with another growl.

He didn’t take his eyes off of Fenrir. The two of them continued staring at each other, as if each was waiting for the other to blink.

“I freed the damn infernal in exchange for power,” Wolf explained. “It gave it to me…but with a catch.”

“Of course,” Giles responded grimly. “With infernals, there usually is.”

Wolf merely nodded once. “It gave me power…but also stuck me with an aura that antagonizes every primal I run into. They all either run away or attack.” Then he gestured towards Fenrir. “It turns out, Big Bad was hibernating nearby, and my new aura woke him and drew him to me. We’ve been after each other since.”

“So, this infernal arranged for you to be hunted by a wolf spirit?” Riel asked. “That sounds ironic.”

“Just like an infernal,” Giles agreed. “And what happened to the infernal?”

Wolf snorted. “No clue. It ran off as soon as I freed it, before Big Bad showed up. I think it went deeper into the Labyrinth, but other than that…”

At this point, Fenrir growled, but it was that low rumbling growl that sounded like thunder. A moment later, the giant smoke wolf leapt at Wolf.

“LOOK OUT,” Grayson shouted, even as everyone was already jumping back and out of the way.

Wolf leapt back with a swirl of smoke forming around his body. Then, tendrils of smoke surged around him and stretched out towards Fenrir, catching the primal’s own smoke tendrils. A moment later, primal and invoker stood there, fighting each other only with the smoke.

“You made a deal with it?” Giles demanded.

“No,” Wolf responded with a snarl, not taking his eyes off his opponent. “I stole some of its power… An ability called siphon. It lets me take their power without having to make a deal.”

Wolf tried to step forward, a grimace of fierce determination on his face. Then his smokey tentacles seemed to fade and weaken. In an instant, his expression turned to one of worry, right before Fenrir lunged at him again. Suddenly, Wolf was sent flying through the air.

“As entertaining as this is to watch,” Frank said. “I’d rather join the fight.”

Frank charged forward, swinging her axe at one of Fenrir’s legs. Stine and Grayson both followed her example and charged forward as well. Each one took a different leg.

I took a deep breath, clenched my staff tightly, then fired off another ‘Hex’. A second later, I charged forward, aiming for the creature’s side. My heart raced with terror as I got close to the thing. Memories of Pham’s last moments kept flashing through my mind. However, I pushed those aside and focused on what I needed to do.

I smacked Fenrir in the side with my staff, then steadied myself to hit it again. However, the primal snapped around, growing with that eerie thunder sound. A pair of glowing red eyes were suddenly glaring down at me.

“Your banes are hurting it,” Grayson exclaimed.

Stine suddenly grabbed me and pulled me out of the way, right before Fenrir’s jaws snapped shut where I’d been. I gasped in surprise and relief.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling a bit uncertain after the way I’d thought he was part of the kidnapping attempt.

“Glad to help,” Stine told me before he turned back to the primal. “But be careful with this bastard.”

“Keep distance from that damn thing, Red,” Lenore called out as she fired an arrow at Fenrir.

“I need to get close to hit it with more banes,” I snapped back in annoyance and shame at having needed to be rescued again.

“Buy me another minute,” Maestro called out.

He was crouched down beside the remains of his puppets, which he’d piled all together. I couldn’t tell what he was doing with them, but he seemed focused.

Frank leapt on top of Fenrir, or tried to. She fell right through the wolf as though it really was made entirely of smoke. As soon as she hit the ground beneath it, she rolled to the side, right before a smokey tentacle reached for where she’d been.

“This thing is unpredictable,” Giles pointed out. “Sometimes its solid, other times it isn’t.”

“Then we just need to keep stacking up the damage,” I said. “Sooner or later, it will add up to enough.”

“Preferably sooner,” Grayson said.

Just then, Maestro’s puppet pile began to move. He’d connected the pieces together so that they now resembled a giant wooden spider. It took several awkward steps towards Fenrir.

“Now, go my minion,” Maestro ordered with a triumphant expression on his face.

Suddenly, a pair of smokey jaws snapped down on Maestro, leaving nothing behind but a pair of severed feet. The wooden spider immediately collapsed back into an inanimate pile of wood.

“No,” I gasped in horror at this repeat of what had happened to Pham.

“Damn,” Michaelangelo said with a look of annoyance. He fired one of his scepters at Fenrir. “I needed him.”

Michaelangelo looked around, clearly searching for a way out. His eyes locked onto Wolf for a moment and his expression hardened. Wolf wasn’t moving, but Michaelangelo still aimed his scepter at the fallen invoker.

“I don’t think so,” Wolf snarled as he slowly got to his feet. A blast of green energy hit him in the chest, but he didn’t go down. Instead, he was now covered with stone armor.

“What…?” Michaelangelo gasped in surprise.

“New ability,” Wolf responded as he slowly walked towards Michaelangelo. “Recently syphoned.”

Michaelangelo cursed, then he turned and ran. Wolf was about to follow after him, but Fenrir came at him again so he quickly turned to face the large primal.

“Here we go again,” Wolf spat out.

A pair of jaws snapped shut in Wolf, but the armor held. Fenrir lifted the lizard man up and tried chewing on him. I could hear the cracks from breaking stone, but the man wasn’t dead yet.

“Damn,” Lenore snapped as she fired several arrows into Fenrir’s face, trying to get it to release Wolf. Riel, standing beside her, only had an ordinary crossbow, but he added to the attack.

Wolf suddenly dropped from Fenrir’s mouth and hit the ground where he remained motionless for several seconds. Then, he slowly got back to his feet, the remains of his armor flaking away until it was gone entirely. His scaled body was torn up and bloody, but far more intact than it had any right to be after being chewed up by Fenrir.

Another blast of energy suddenly hit his body, knocking him back to the ground with a smoking wound in his stomach. Michaelangelo stood back with a scepter in his hand and a smirk on his lips.

“Nothing personal,” Michaelangelo commented. “But I’m not going to risk you coming after me.”

Riel fired a crossbow bolt at Michaelangelo, but he dove to the side. This sudden movement seemed to catch Fenrir’s attention because a moment later, a long tendril of smoke suddenly lashed out and wrapped around Michaelangelo’s leg.

“LET ME GO,” Michaelangelo ordered, even as the smoke tentacle began dragging him along the ground, pulling him right towards Fenrir.

Frank rushed forward and slammed her axe down through the smoke tentacle, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on the smoke. The primal continued dragging Michelangelo towards it. When that didn’t work, she snapped around and threw her axe as hard as she could, right into Fenrir’s face. She hit the primal in the snout, causing it to actually flinch for a moment.

Michaelangelo used this momentary distraction to pull out a different scepter, then he blasted the smoke tentacle. A blast of purple light hit the tentacle and seemed to disintegrate a part of it, freeing Michaelangelo.

“I hate to use this,” he grumbled as he reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a silver metal sphere. “I won’t be able to replace it.”

He turned to face Fenrir with a smirk on his face, even while he began doing something with the sphere. But a moment later, a thick cloud of black smoke spread out from the primal and washed over him. Michaelangelo bent over, coughing and gagging.

“We need to all hit Fenrir at once,” Giles called out. “Everyone.”

“Agreed,” Frank said. Somehow, she had already recovered her axe and was holding it in her hand again.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed, glaring at the creature that had eaten Pham.

Fenrir suddenly lunged forward, his jaws snapping at Giles. Grayson was in motion already, grabbing the invoker and pulling him away just a second before he was killed. But in spite of that, I still heard a scream that was abruptly cut off with a squishy crunch.

For a moment, I just stood there in confusion, but then I realized where it had come from. My eyes went to Michaelangelo, or to the puddle of blood that oozed out from beneath Fenrir’s paw. A single leg stuck out from beneath the primal’s paw and seemed to be the only part of Michaelangelo that hadn’t been stepped on.