Chrysalis

The city was in ruins. Forget about a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster, this level of destruction was far beyond that. It looked as if a meteor hand landed on the city, or if a god had stamped down with its heavenly foot. If the latter had occurred then that god had supremely flat arches because the city was just gone.

It looked as if no two bricks still stood one atop the other. Every building had been flattened, the open spaces were strewn with rubble and the once proud, cobbled roads were broken and cracked. In the distance, the hill on which the castle had once stood, with its inner wall and high towers, there was only a ruin.

This city had been built up over two hundred years of effort and endeavour, and now it was gone. If anyone wanted to try and recreate the city, establish the kingdom of Liria once again, they would need to do so from scratch. Heck, even the job of cleaning up this mess would take a monumental effort.

Although, just because the buildings had ceased to be, didn't mean the space inside the walls was empty. Oh no, it was full to bursting. With Monsters.

Across every surface, on top of every stone, they stood, stock still. As if mesmerized by an illusion, monsters of every type from the first strata stood rooted to the ground and stared in one direction, unmoving and still. The site sickened me to my core for reasons I couldn't explain. It was unnatural for monsters to act this way, as if they were mindless drones with no will of their own. These were creatures born of the Dungeon! They should fight, struggle and battle!

Silent and still they appeared weak, like slaves to a greater will than their own. Bears, frogs, centipedes, hounds, slugs, bats, apes, lizards, even a few shadow beasts were in the mix, each doing the exact same thing, staring in the same direction, even the sightless monsters, as if they were receiving the light of the sun from their god.

Or goddess, in this case.

the Dungeon entrance inside the city. When I lay on eyes of the beast it felt as if her aura that dominated the air around me grew stronger, threatening to knock

not sure what I expected Garralosh to look like, her offspring seemed to gain limbs, heads and tails as they evolved, following a strict 'more is more' policy, but the big momma Croc did not seem to follow in that pattern. Of all of her different offspring mutations she most resembled a Titan Croc. Long reptilian body, powerful front and back legs that supported her when she lay flat and would allow her to walk when she stood., with a second pair of arms below the first to help support

three heads, or the over and under jaws of the Commanders, Garralosh simply had the one Crocodile head. It was difficult to make out the smaller details at this distance, but I think she did have more than just the two

the back of her body, lazily sweeping back and

down her back, almost long enough to be called spines, from her head all the way to the tip of her tail. They were dark in colour, and gleamed like obsidian

was nothing exceptionally remarkable about Garralosh in monster terms, so

It defied physical reality for a crocodile to be this large. What is this, the cretaceous period?! Someone get this frickin' dinosaur out of here! My mind boggled to even look at her. She was

truck, in mass as well as length, since she wasn't just long, she was built. Her neck, shoulders and body were thick with muscle, not to mention her enormous jaws which looked as if they could shatter a building with one snap. This was ridiculous! Did you pour every ounce of your evolutionary potential into getting massive?! Were you a

size of the monster that I failed to focus on what was

is it?] I sent over our

doing?] she asked, her mind strained

you seeing

divert my focus away from gawking at Garralosh to take in what was happening in the monsters' surroundings. From the distance we were, it was hard to make out the small details, but what I saw