Aaron stared in disbelief as Azenlond picked herself up and faced the Hell beast and was promptly swatted to the ground with one paw as though she were nothing more than a fly, she was however was no weakling and raised herself back to her feet almost instantly.

"YOU KILLED MY SIAD" Azenlond's voice rang through the grey corridor tauntingly restored to its former fury.

The hell beast laughed mockingly in its strange voice without moving its lips then took another swipe at Azenlond. She caught the paw, that was easily four times her size, two handed and slid back mere inches from the blow then began carving into the Hell beast's paw with her scorpion tale arms like a crazed butcher covering the paw in inky black splotches and streaks.

Aaron suddenly realised that the Hell beast's paw wasn't turning any blacker, it seemed the Hell beast had an immunity to whatever it was that had happened to himself and it wouldn't be turning into a statue any time soon.

As he watched he noticed something else strange, the Hell beast sat idle observing Azenlond carve into its hand as though it were curious, but as he watched he changed his first opinion it wasn't curiosity but play.

Aaron tried to move his frozen lips to warn Azenlond as he saw one giant paw rise into the air, with all his might he tried, but to no end, his lips stayed frozen in place as the Hell beast's paw reached the pinnacle of its arc, then in a blur the paw came down to meet the other and burst Azenlond's body like a water balloon sending waves of blue ooze across the walls and over Aaron's cold black body.

Something inside Aaron stirred then burst into life, the hand frozen infront of his face gradually became pink again then slowly spread up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes locked onto him then it took a step forwards.

"NO ARLIN." A sad voice brought him back to his senses and the iron coat changed direction once more slowly crawling back up his arm, the Hell beast's eyes stayed on him for a moment longer then returned to the body at its feet.

As Aaron watched, frozen in place he was suddenly overcome with drowsiness and he was sure that if he hadn't been an iron statue his arms would have fallen limp to his sides just like they had when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, infact the feeling was identical to when he'd been hit by Azenlonde the first time, realising that he was losing consciousness he struggled back to the surface just long enough to here; ""ARHAGEB."" Then he was gone.

"Wake up." The same sad voice Aaron heard earlier tore him from his nightmares and hurled him into a dark corridor filled with the awful stench of sulphur and the sound of claws on stone drawing closer to him. No he wasn't here, he couldn't be, it had all been a nightmare, this wasn't real.

Out of the darkness appeared two monstrous faces drooling blue blood, intelligent eyes distorted by animal hunger focused on Aaron who didn't need to try, just to be as still as a statue or to stop from screaming.

A wet nose poked into his chest and sniffed at his iron body, then without warning the Hell beast leaned forward and picked him up in one of its mouth trying to chew on him.

Inside its mouth Aaron could barely see, but it wasn't hard to tell that the sticky fluid that splashed onto him several times wasn't only the creature's saliva, it was the blood of its previous victim.

Aaron felt something break accompanied by a loud yelp from the Hell beast then he dropped to the floor with a loud metallic clang.

""ASHOT."" The Hell beast swore in its loud unearthly voice then picked Aaron up in its mouth and carried him to the end of the passage, drew back one immense paw and knocked a hole in the solid stone wall.

Aaron suddenly got an extremely accurate estimate of just how big the castle really was, in his view were eight large turrets sprouting from a wall easily fifty stories high, each turret unique in its own shape and proportions and even further below them he could make out a large stone wall surrounding the castle.

Behind him he heard a clang and he found himself hanging in mid air, then his body tipped and he caught a brief glimpse of the ground far below him before his body spun wildly into a pin drop and his range of sight was locked onto the blur of grey bricks as they sped away.

In a way it was worse than just falling, his eyes frozen in place, were unable to look beneath him at the approaching ground and when he finally did hit, he'd given up bracing for the impact and ploughed into the soft earth disappearing up to his knees in the dry ground, completely without warning, standing straight as a flag pole.