The corridor opened out into a short junction with two side corridors and one main route that led forward. At first glance, it seemed as though every surface as far as the eye could see was reinforced with embedded panels that looked as though they might have led to maintenance access.
But that couldn't be possible.
Adam held his hand up to slow their movement and they came to a stop, the ominous silence punctuated only by their restrained breathing felt strange after the noise of fighting only a few minutes before.
He moved forward cautiously, his movements slow as he tried to peer inside and see what lay beyond the latticed metal. He frowned as he realised that between the latticed metal was sandwiched a reinforced panel of glass that was so dirty, he could barely see through it.
Then, in the dim light of the passageway, he caught the sight of movement beyond the glass and it suddenly dawned on him that these weren't maintenance panels at all…they were cages and this one, it had something, or someone, inside.
He motioned for Greyson to join him and as they both tried to see beyond the glass, a soft inquisitive chirrup came from behind them.
"He asked if you wanted him to take a look," Aoife said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.
"His eyesight is better than ours?" Adam asked with a frown, "The glass is thick with grime so even with our wolves we can't see beyond it."
"It seems to be hermetically sealed as well…at least from this side," Greyson added, "I can't pick any scent traces up from here. There must be ventilation inside."
"That's an awful lot of trouble to go to, to keep something alive behind there," Allen cut in, pushing through the ranks of men waiting patiently for their orders.
"He's part dragon," Aoife shrugged, ignoring the rest of their conversation, "I don't really know the extent of his vision, but his magickal skill should at least be able to sense whatever is in there."
Adam nodded and motioned for Orynn to come forward, and as he peered inside, placing his hands against the metal lattice, he gave a faint trill of surprise.
Although he couldn't see through the filth as Adam had suspected, his magick had tentatively rippled through the air, communicating back the shape of a human shaped figure with their arms held up by restraints that were fixed into the wall. The unfortunate prisoners head hung forward, and it told him that their body was covered in wounds that didn't originate from fighting.
Some were superficial but others were deeper and worse still, the sense of internal injuries from being used in a way that made Orynn feel sick, was communicated loud and clear.
"I don't think this is a willing participant in whatever they have been subjected to," Orynn replied carefully to Aoife, "They are going to require healers as soon as we can manage because their injuries…"
His voice faltered in Aoife's mind and she knew then that it must be bad. Orynn had seen no end of horrors whilst serving in Eromaug's realm so this must be something beyond what he had seen before.
She relayed the information to Adam and his face hardened as he pointed to two units towards the back.
"I want you to focus on extracting the prisoners, and you healers to focus on doing what you can for them and getting them to safety."
A chorus of agreement met him as he scanned the rest of the walls.
"Fuck..this is going to take forever." he murmured and Greyson grimaced at him.
"We should take it slowly down here, split into two groups maybe and clear the side corridors before moving to the main.corridor. What do you think?" Greyson suggested as the teams set to work behind them.
"I don't want to give them any longer than necessary to prepare a defense," Adam sighed as he tried to work through the options in his head as quickly as possible.
But as they moved a few steps forward to cover the teams as they began their rescue of the prisoners, a second construct dropped down from the ceiling into the main corridor.
Yells of surprise rippled through the ranks as it landed on all fours and directed its anger towards the units closest to them.
This construct was vastly different from the lumbering brutes they had already faced, it was too long in the spine for a start, and was clearly built from at least three different species that definitely weren't related in any way.
Its jaw opens horrifyingly wide and it doesn't look as though it was sourced from any wolf or human, nor does it appear that the teeth that jut out from its mismatched mouth, belong to the jaw that was attached to the skull. The stitches and seams that ran the length of its body looked as though someone had drawn them with a ruler and then stitched them together as quickly as possible, without much care to the aesthetics.
Two fleshcrafters dropped down behind it, one on each side and carefully keeping their distance from the body, although from what Adam could tell, it seemed they were both sharing control of this one.
"With me," Greyson hissed to Orynn as they rushed forward to engage them.
The construct lunges towards them and Orynn intercepts it easily, not by taking the hit, but by stepping into its path and forcing its momentum sideways. He hissed furiously as he grabbed at a line of stitching at the shoulder, sinking his fingers through the mushy skin there and wrenching back.
The construct shrieks as the flesh tears loose, exposing the necrotic flesh beneath as it tries to stagger away from Orynn.
Greyson uses the opening to dart past and in seconds he has already reached the handler.
The fleshcrafter's hands snap up to throw another command at the beast behind Greyson but Greyson doesn't let him finish.
He hits his forearm hard, breaking the angle completely and the second strike goes straight through the chest cavity, the paper thin flesh folding easily under his Lycan strength, his claws piercing through a section of the handlers lungs as he squeezed tightly and pulled back, ripping it free with frightening ease.
The fleshcrafter drops to the ground as soon as he pulls his hand back and he throws the chunk of lung to the side in disgust.
"One down," Greyson murmured as he turned to the last remaining handler and in that moment, he realised that there was no way that he would be able to get to the handler, without crossing paths directly with the construct that writhed furiously in front of him.