Because Hugo was too busy picking up the runes, he hadn’t noticed the chimeragon leering at him. However, once he’d heard the low, rumbling growl, he was stopped on his tracks by a rising sense of terror as he looked up to meet the beast face to face. At first, he was almost paralyzed with fear, but then his greed for the runes quickly took over, the two mixing together in a tumultuous blend of emotions.

  “What? You want these runes as well?” Hugo asked with crazed eyes, holding onto those palm-sized stones with trembling hands. “Well, you can’t have them! They’re mine, I tell you! Mine! And no one else!”

  The chimeragon didn’t seem to understand or care what the mad man was saying. Instead, it was driven purely by its primal instincts to hunt and slay as it pounced at him. Hugo tried to react, but he was simply too slow—allowing the beast to slash and eviscerate him with a vicious, savage fury. Blood flew everywhere as the man was brutally being ripped and torn apart, his screams and cries for help sadly fallen on deaf ears. After a while, he was no longer screaming.

  “Father…” Isaiah murmured as he heard the cries and knew that the man he once called family was being savagely slaughtered in front of him. Despite all the things his father did, he couldn't help but feel a bit saddened by his death. However, he couldn’t let that distract him right now. He still needed to focus on saving Miri and Anne. After tying the end of a long rope around one of the stone mechanisms off to the side, he threw the rope down the pit—allowing the two women below him to climb back up to safety. “Alright, the rope is down! Can you two see it?!”

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  Miri turned and saw the rope dangling behind her within arm’s reach. “Yeah, I see it!” She grabbed the rope before turning to Anne. “Hey, Anne! Hurry! Grab the rope and climb up!”

  Anne did as she said, grabbing hold onto the rope before proceeding to climb up it. Once the cleric had climbed a good distance upward, Miri began following suit, grabbing onto the rope and climbing up as well. However, when the mage looked down, she’d noticed that the chimeragon was now looking up at her, its multiple mouths now stained with Hugo’s blood after the brutal killing of the man.

  And the chimeragon looked angry.

  “Oh, shit! Hurry up!” Miri urged. “The chimeragon just spotted us! It’s getting ready to attack!”

  “By the goddess!” Anne exclaimed as she tried climbing up the rope as quickly as she possibly could, with Miri quickly following behind.

  However, it might not be quick enough. The chimeragon began steadying its stance as different types of elemental energy started oozing out of its multiple mouths. After seeing that, Miri already knew what’s about to come next. The beast was charging up for another Tri-elemental Blast. Try as they might, they won’t be able to make it up the rope in time. This only left Miri with one other option—she had to fight back.

  Extending her staff downward towards the chimeragon, Miri cast her most ideal spell for this particular situation as she called out its name. “Void Vortex!”