-Callen-

  The earthkin shed a cloak, unveiling the amalgamation that was his body. His back had eagle wings, his legs were replaced with multiple tentacles, one arm and his chest were a gorilla’s and the other arm was a shrimp’s claw, his tongue hung from his mouth showing a snakelike fork, and one eye was catlike and the other I couldn’t recognize.

  His tongue darted out before slinking back into his mouth.

  “Good, it seems I won’t need to hunt down the unique specimen after all. Today might be troublesome, but it should mark the turning point of my research.” His words were more distorted now than the raspy earthkin voice he had been using previously. When mentioning a new specimen, his eyes tracked me like I was some kind of prize. Out of everything that might make this psycho target me, only one encounter would yield the information that might interest this monstrosity. It seems we’ll need to have a long discussion with the inspector after this whole mess is resolved.

  “I’ve heard enough.” The baron interrupted the abomination of an earthkin. With a smooth motion he drew the hilt of a sword. In the next moment the blade sprang out, stretching from the hilt. Its color was black like the night sky, and all along the length were small shifting dots of light like countless stars. It was a mesmerizing piece of work unlike any I had seen, and it became all the more brilliant under the light of my sense of mana. The blade stretched like a pocket of space, and the hilt was made with the most complex enchantment I had ever seen. Gramit, however, clearly wasn’t nearly as captivated by the blade.

  “Capture the boy and girl. I’ll deal with the Baron!” His words spurred the hybrids chained to the walls around the room into action, but it was far too late to change the outcome. The Meccas reached Gramit in an instant, swinging down decisively, bisecting the researcher. I would’ve kept watching, but Callia and I had our own issue to deal with now. The hybrids rushed us with reckless abandon, but most likely the true source of their motivation lay in the collars around their necks.

  Sis had her bow up in a second and clearly identified the same target as me. Her arrows zipped around us, clipping the collars and leaving the wearers relatively unharmed. While she dealt with the enemies, I focused on impeding them long enough for Sis to finish. Conveniently the previous earthkin trap had provided me with a high-quality net. It only took a second for me to arrange some simple caltrops between us and the hybrids and release the net from above. The result was a complete mess of people tripping over spikes or entangled in the net. To be completely honest, it was one of the easiest fights I had ever dealt with. All the hybrid people were way too low level to properly threaten us. Honestly, if we were ordinary town guards, we would’ve had a fair chance of safely subduing them.

  I looked over to check on the baron to see why he hadn’t helped us. However, instead of the baron, I saw Gramit pulling himself up off the floor. Everything from shoulder to hip, where the baron had cut him in half, was now completely naked. The sound of something hitting the ground below us violently made me shift my attention to the floor. I hadn’t noticed it originally, but the ground was interlaced with cracks, and one line in particular was now more visible as whatever dust that had obscured it originally was now gone. Sis reached over to me through our bond and pointed out that the floor ahead had numerous pit traps. I had no idea what the trigger was, but it seemed the baron was sent below.

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  “Hmmm, it seems my informant severely underestimated your capabilities when he told me about a rare unidentifiable subhuman. It seems that researching you will not be as easy as I had hoped. The ground thumped again, and bits of dust drifted down from the ceiling. Gramit frowned a bit, looking down towards the trapdoor that had stopped the baron. “However, just being a bit harder won’t matter. The baron will have to slay my best monsters and escape a containment cell rated up to monster level 150. His fate is sealed, and so will yours. After all, I am . . .”

  I was invested in hearing what his reasoning was, but Sis had heard enough. An arrow ripped through the man’s skull at incredible speeds, blowing his head up like a watermelon. I just looked over to her, raising an eyebrow while she pointed out that there was no point in letting the man monologue. I just shook my head and sighed. Reaching out with my mana sense, I checked the function of the pit trap while Sis focused on tying up the less docile hybrids.

  It was easy to identify the basic function of the runes as remotely triggered by Gramit. I moved over to search his body for the linked remote trigger, but in the next second a powerful impact struck me in the gut. My eyes bulge and the world spins as I’m sent flying. Tumbling over to the far side of the room, it takes a moment for me to recover. Gramit was pulling himself back up, chuckling manically, and distress from Sis made me snap over to check her. In barely a moment we are both refocused, Gramit. I hadn’t been affected yet, but Sis was beginning to feel numb and lightheaded.

  “Truly direct confrontation is not among my specialties. I am, after all, a researcher, but I have a most exquisite understanding of what a human body can and can’t tolerate. It seems the two of you both have poison resistance. As for myself, I’m a master healer, and I’ve infused myself with countless creatures. One in particular, a scavenger-type insect, is able to survive for weeks without a head. Combine that with the regenerative abilities of certain lizards, and now I am immortal!” With that declaration, Gramit jumped from the ground, flapped his wings, and launched himself up onto the ceiling above. His tentacle legs let him stand upside down. I reached down and started fixing my own ribs that had been cracked when he smacked me across the lab.

  Sis, meanwhile, was sparing no effort in expressing her displeasure. A dozen arrows arced up towards Gramit, several sticking into him, but any headed for his head and vitals were intercepted by his claw hand. The other arm pulled out the control for the room's traps. On instinct I jumped forward as the floors all around the operating room's edge dropped and the room’s entrance slammed shut. Callia and I both slid to a stop on the central platform. Below us the Baron was busy dealing with whatever Gramit had prepared for him, but that meant that he couldn’t open this trapdoor without risking letting Meccas out.

  “Clever, but a shame; if you won't kindly enter the cages on your own, I’ll have to force you.”

  Into the darkness

  Meccas fell through the trapdoor but landed on his feet in the pitch black. Up above he heard the trapdoor sliding shut even before he reached the ground. Crouching briefly, he jumped upward, brandishing his blade. The dark ceiling shook, and countless runes glowed, illuminating the cavernous chamber briefly, and the part he struck was ripped through like paper. Another couple strikes should see the trap undone, but he wasn’t alone.

  The brief illumination revealed a massive lion with various other monster heads grafted onto it. It was the legendary chimera. To seal something like this so close to his city was unacceptable, but he also couldn’t risk letting the beast out while it was still alive. One stray attack with its toxic breath could wipe out the city. He felt frustrated but left matters above for the twins to handle. Their conduct so far had been exemplary, and he had cut the irritating dwarf in half, so they should be ok.

  His eyes now adjusted to the darkness as the massive lion stood up, its fur and accompanying heads raised aggressively. In the darkness the two began to dash about, swinging and swiping as the container's runes flickered and cracked under the pressure. With a clean hit the beast lost one of its front legs, and with another strike the snake tail's head was severed. The beast cried in desperation as it quickly realized it was not the man trapped in here with it, but in fact it was trapped down here with the man.

  12:12 - Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.