The chimeragon lunged towards Miri and Anne, deciding to attack them first. Anne reflexively shrieked as she formed a Protective Ward in front of her, protecting both her and Miri from the incoming assault. The beast slashed against the ward repeatedly with a savage fervor as it pressured the two women back up against a wall, each slash dwindling the ward’s defenses little by little as cracks formed on its surface.

  Out of sheer desperation, Miri tried casting Crescent Arc and Starlight Bolt over and over again at the creature, but that seemed to have little effect on the creature’s advancement as it continued clawing against the magic barrier. Even though it seemed to have felt the pain inflicted from those attacks, it chose to ignore it in favor of an aggressive all-out approach. Perhaps the beast had somehow gotten angrier since their last encounter due to Miri’s devastating Void Vortex and now it’s coming back with a vengeance.

  While the chimeragon was being distracted by focusing on Miri and Anne, Hugo figured that this was his chance to escape. Over at the darker end of the room must be where the exit was since that’s where the chimeragon came from. Realizing that, he tried making a run for it towards that direction. However, in his haste, he’d accidentally tripped over some of the bones lying around and ended up spilling his bag of runes all over the floor.

  The runes scattered across the floor as it left the bag, mixed with the surrounding bones and rubble while under a thin veil of darkness. Hugo watched with panic as he saw all the runes falling out of the bag. He scrambled quickly to try to retrieve them, not willing to leave out a single one.

  In a situation like this, the longer he’d stayed, the more dangerous it’d be for him as there's a chance that the chimeragon might decide to go after him instead. However, he simply won’t be satisfied unless he’d reclaimed every single rune. He believed that each and every one of those runes was rightfully his to begin with and he won’t rest until he recovered them all.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  After being backed at a corner like that, Miri decided to take a risk and use Meteor Impact on the chimeragon. At this close of a range, the resulting splash damage might harm both her and Anne as well, but it was a risk she’s willing to take as the only other option was to allow the beast to eventually tear down the ward and maul both of them to death.

  “Meteor Impact!” Miri yelled, summoning a meteor to descend upon the chimeragon, crashing into it in a billowing cloud of smoke and embers. The resulting splash damage of the exploding impact had indeed torn down what little remained of the ward, damaging both Anne and Miri, but the damage wasn’t very serious—only minor burns and some slight disorientation from the shockwave.

  After getting hit by that powerful attack, the chimeragon stumbled back a little, just enough to give Miri and Anne some breathing room. Taking full advantage of that, Miri quickly grabbed onto Anne and used Traversing Wind to teleport themselves up towards the collapsed ritual room above them. Because of how high up the ritual room was, they were only able to make it halfway, hanging on by a ledge on one side of a wall. Now, at the angle Miri was in, she didn’t have a good line-of-sight to teleport the rest of the way up.

  “Isaiah!” Miri yelled as she and Anne hung onto that ledge with their dear life. “Isaiah, you there?!”

  “Yes, I’m here!” Isaiah replied anxiously. “Are you two alright?!”

  “Yeah, we’re fine! Just nearly got eaten alive by a chimeragon! You know, just another Tuesday!” Miri bellowed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Hey, I don’t have a good line-of-sight to the top right now so I cannot teleport back up there! Do you think you can send a rope down or something?!”

  “Sure, I have a rope in my bag!” Isaiah informed. “I’ll send it down right now!”

  “Hurry! My hands are slipping!”

  The chimeragon took a moment to recover from the staggering effect of the meteor. Then, as it looked around, it found that the two women were nowhere to be seen. Instead its eyes were now set on a brand new target—Hugo Victorstein.