He moved with the rhythm of one who'd walked hostile halls his entire life. Heavy footfalls muffled by confidence, by mastery.
The hound followed at a respectful distance- not out of fear anymore, but instinct. Watching. Learning.
They passed under a gnarled stone archway, shadows flickering across Caelun's stone grey skin and rune-branded chest. And then, from around the bend-
A flash of motion.
A Barbarian- 12 feet tall- hurtled from cover, stone axe raised high, orange mane billowing like a wildfire. Its muscles were knotted like tree roots, and its feet cracked stone as it launched toward the hound from behind, its ape-like face bearingit's teeth in a wrathful but silent sneer, aiming to crush it under one wild, savage blow.
But Caelun was already moving.
The ground shattered beneath his pivot. His arm blurred, and he caught the Barbarian's wrist mid-swing, bones cracked as he squeezed, and before the brute could howl-
Caelun ripped its arm free from the socket in one brutal wrench.
The axe clattered to the floor.
The hound skidded back, startled by the sudden violence, and perhaps by the sheer size of the thing that had tried to kill it. Even one-armed and shrieking, the Barbarian dwarfed them both.
Caelun drove his knee into its gut, a sound like a war drum, and the thing folded, vomiting blood and bile before collapsing.
"Bigger," Caelun muttered, watching it twitch. "Still soft."
But the cry had been loud.
Heavy footfalls thundered through the hall, the kind that made the stones vibrate. More were coming. A tribe.
He turned.
Five more Barbarians, hulking, snarling, each between 11 and 14 feet tall. Clubs, spears, axes- crude, but honed. Primitive. Dangerous.
They came in a formation, not just a mob, but a hunting pack.
The hound let out a low growl, ears back, flame licking the edges of its jaw. But it didn't move.
Caelun licked the blood off his knuckles, took a massive chunk out of the furry arm with a bite- cleaving through bone with ease, chewing thrice then swallowing, he cracked his neck, and grinned bringing his bloody predatory maw to bare.
"Let's see if you're smarter than the last batch."
The Barbarians roared and charged.
Caelun didn't flinch.
He took a half-step forward, about to lunge with terrible force, but behind him, the hound finally snapped.
It reared its head and spewed a thick, oily arc of flame, not fire like a forge, but napalm: sticky, burning, clinging to everything it touched. It washed across the hallway like a living curtain, igniting walls, floor, and stone weapons alike.
The charging Barbarians stumbled, startled, blinded, shrieking in confusion, even their flaming manes recoiling from the sudden blaze.
Caelun paused, reached back with one hand eyes locked on the blaze, and gave the hound a firm, approving pat.
"Good boy."
And then he moved.
Straight through the flame.
The air around him hissed in protest, not from the fire, but from the sudden acceleration as Caelun tore into the pack like a demon.
The first Barbarian he reached raised a spear. It struck Caelun square in the side- the point sliced skin, blood flew-
But the shaft shattered.
"HAHAHAHAHA-"Caelun roared with laughter, caught the Barbarian by the legs, and swung it like a flail into its comrades a mass of bone, meat, and fury slamming into flaming skin and breaking bodies as the spear tip was pushed from the fleshwound it made, not even cutting halfway through a single strand of muscle before the wound began to close.
Another raised an axe.
Caelun caught it mid-swing, twisted, and buried it into the wielder's own skull- stone splintering, bone cracking.
A club slammed into his back.
The impact staggered him slightly- a rare thing- the sheer force moving his titanic mass and bruising his nigh indestructible flesh for a moment before it inevitably healed away in seconds, but he turned with a savage grin, grabbed the wielder by the throat, and slammed it into the ground splattering it against stone which shattered from the impact as the giant primate became ash.
One remained.
The largest.
Fourteen feet tall. Fire pouring from its mouth in a billow. It raised both hands high- a two-handed maul made of fused stone, a sorry imitation of a flame giant hed say, those things were much more ferocious and far more intelligent after all, they knew to run when they saw him coming after leaving their kin in fleshy heaps.
It brought it down.
Caelun caught it by the head.
Not with a shield.
With a single hand.
Stone cracked under the strain- the ground buckled- Caelun's knees bent, blood streaming down his forearms from the pressure…
And then he snarled.
Grabbed the hammer with his free hand.
Lifted.
And threw the Barbarian overhead like a sack of wet meat which it would be shortly. It slammed into the wall so hard the rock gave way — and Caelun was there before it hit the ground.
He grabbed it by the waist. Lifted it high.
And with a scream of exultation, tore it in half, spine to belly, gore cascading over his shoulders and chest.
The body turned to ash mid-fall, the Dungeon's reclaiming mechanisms kicking in. blood evaporating in the heat.
Caelun stood in the aftermath, breath ragged with excitement.
Soaked. Laughing.
"This place might be stingy," he muttered, wiping ash from his eyes, "but at least it keeps the floors clean. Decent fights too, i suppose."
The hound approached slowly, stepping over smoldering weapons and scorched bone.
Caelun looked upon his pet and gestured to the dissipating ash leaving behind glowing stones.
"Good work. Eat up. You're growing and i expect to see a little more participation next time."
The hound obeyed, chewing with a low rumble of satisfaction.
Caelun reached down, plucked a length of hide that hadn't yet disintegrated. It held. Useful.
"We'll need more, keep 'em around a little longer next time, I admit I got excited when I found they had the strength to actually hurt me, even if only for a moment but," he said. "They taste much better than the dogs."
And with that, he turned, fire still smoldering behind them, and walked deeper into the 46th Floor.
This was his hunting ground now.
-------------------------
as Caelun strode away intent on continuing his hunt with the hound following close by, a little more pep in its step after dining on the stones of powerful monsters... a ragged sharp breath previously masked by a skill became apparent, a human woman stood around the corner from the carnage that just unfolded Infront of her, she was tracking the pack as a scout/ranger for her party, preparing for a long hard fought battle against a pack of such monsters with a flame breathing variant to boot... she sharply inhaled and held her breath merely at the memory of what she had saw, bathed in flames, laughing in malicious glee tearing a whole pack of berserkers to shreds alone and coming out unscathed... she had wet herself during the ordeal, and right now despite being a seasoned level 5 adventurer she could only say one thing
"Wh- wh- WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!"