A terrified gasp escaped the lips of a fur-adorned woman.
Her growling throat akin to the rumbling of an engine belied the tear-formed rivers dripping atop her human skin, and between her whiskers.
Her brown wolf tail flew behind her, claws finding purchase in the soft soil.
She dashed, pink leaves and ancient trees blurring past her horizontal, lupine eyes.
The crack of a nearby twig made her wolf-like ears spike up, the being emerging from the darkness intimidating and horrifying in equal measure.
A Minotaur. Its dark skin and large horns would make any man shrink.
Her companions did not, and they all perished so promptly.
It bellowed and charged forth as she leaped upward atop a branch. Its weight shattered the trunk of the plant she hid upon.
'Shit. Shit. Shit!'
Her thoughts were a mess of insults and adrenaline – any higher thought replaced by the heat of desire. The will to live.
Without realizing it, her spine curved downward as she shifted to all fours, throat hissing like an engine pushed into a higher gear.
Never would have her mind gained such reaction speed, never would have her human body achieved speeds only cars could, but it was possible in this world she once called a game.
It was then she caught on a small root hidden in the undergrowth. She felt her ankle twist and limbs brace.
Her skin crashed into the earth, rolling and dragging.
Friction burned into her flesh as tissue was scraped away, a sickening scent of fresh meat filling the Minotaur's nostrils as it huffed in satisfaction.
"NO!"
There was no whimper, no longing or regret. There was naught but a rage against the abyss and the powerlessness it inspired.
The Minotaur did not care, it raised a large, wooden club and swung it downward at the woman, which she did not dare to watch.
Her eyes closed as the world went dark.
And yet, the club never struck.
The beast turned with a confused and irritated puff of smoke, only to freeze akin to the cows it detested.
There stood an armored giant of a man, adorned with silver armor outlined with pink decor.
His red and black eyes pierced the soul – and the immense Zweihander on his back inspired fear.
It felt a strong gust of wind wash over its body, yet it was not the wistful sigh of mother nature.
It was Maximus' breath.
He lifted his heavy arm and struck. A crack of air, akin to a gunshot, shattered the woods as nearby trees shook.
The once intimidating beast no longer had a head.
Its body rag-dolled through many trees as it ground to a halt, similarly to the girl.
Maximus knelt next to the girl, ripping away his armored glove to check her pulse.
He sighed with relief as she gasped in pain at his touch, her shredded flesh now mixing with the dirt.
'Alright. I finally found someone, now I need to make sure they live.'
From abandoned camps to distant screams - Maximus had left crater after crater in his wake as he ran through the dungeon, trying to find anyone else stuck in here with him.
He had found bodies. Four of them.
He grabbed a healing potion from his belt and poured it into her mouth, lifting her so her skin wouldn't regrow into the dirt.
Slowly, her blood ceased its flow as muscle fibers returned to their places, her body pulsing like a tumor as it expanded at a visible rate.
Maximus, who was holding her, found the sight deeply unsettling.
He would have reflexively dropped her right then and there, if only he wasn't trying to save her life.
With a worried sigh, he watched her form shiver then stabilize. Then, small packets of dirt and debris tumbled out of her healed pores.
Finally, Maximus could take a second to see the person he had saved.
She was a furry, the mostly human with animal features kind.
Her hair was a thick plumage of warm orange with thick streaks of heavy brown – like rivers of mud flowing through unharvested, sun-kissed plains.
Her skin was white but clearly tanned, thin whiskers descending from her cheeks as she breathed deeply.
She was clothed strangely well given her desperate situation – a coat of fur adorned her shoulders and upper back, beneath which she wore light brown robes tightened by light blue clothes at her waist and just under her armpits.
She was extremely warm, as if the engine that her body had become was near melting. Maximus could also feel barely any sweat flowing from her pores.
'Shit, not entirely human anymore, so she might have trouble cooling down through sweating.'
Her mouth was slightly agape, panting, but Maximus feared her mostly human body would have a heatstroke before she cooled down.
He placed her back upon the dirt and drew upon his immense blade, the Zweihander light in his unwavering grasp.
With an unsure, gentle placement of his fingers upon the blade's sharp edge, he traced a single line across the steel.
The sound of cracking crystals echoed around him, sourceless and omnipresent. From the blade, a cold, freezing mist billowed and spilled, curling around the woman like a cocoon.
Maximus' red eye flared brighter in the shadow cast by his helmet, and his blade ceased its spillage. He then knelt again and checked the woman's temperature, finding it much more amendable.
'Woo… Great, maybe this NPC has some answers as to what is going on.'