The chimera lurched forward, its patchwork body a grotesque mountain of stitched flesh. Its many mouths screamed at once, a chorus of agony that rattled the broken windows of Duskreach's tower. Cobblestones split under its weight, rot dripping in strings from its stitched wings as it reared.
Loid gripped his makeshift weapon, a massive oak beam scavenged from the ruins and felt his arms tremble. Golden lightning still coiled around his legs, Juggernaut's Rush thrumming in his veins thanks to Mirror Soul. But even with Angela's strength humming in his body, his throat dried at the sight of the beast.
Angela slammed her greatsword against her armored shoulder and grinned savagely. "Now that's more like it!" Her crimson hair whipped in the wind, and her eyes glowed with battle hunger.
Selvara's silver eyes flicked over the monster, calculating, her voice quiet but sharp. "Too big. Too many limbs. The necromancers want it to buy them time."
Isolde wrinkled her nose, her delicate face twisted with disgust. "Tch. Revolting. It doesn't even resemble a proper creature. It's just… scraps. Filth pretending to be alive." Lightning sparked down her arms, her pride refusing to back down.
The chimera stomped forward, its clawed hand swinging. The air shook as if the strike carried a storm with it.
"Move!" Loid shouted.
They scattered. The hand crashed into the street where they had stood, stones exploding outward. Loid was hurled against a wall by the shockwave alone, coughing dust. His head rang, but adrenaline forced him back onto his feet.
Angela roared and dashed, golden lightning blazing around her greaves. She slammed her greatsword into the chimera's ankle with Juggernaut's Rush, the ground cracking beneath her step. The blade bit deep, spraying black ichor like tar.
The chimera barely flinched. Its stitched heads turned, mouths opening in a scream that sprayed rot-laced breath.
"Angela!" Loid barked.
Selvara blurred, momentum exploding from her stride. She seized Angela's arm and yanked her clear just as the black miasma scorched the ground, hissing and smoking. The cobblestones where Angela had stood bubbled like acid.
Angela growled but gave Selvara a nod. "Fine. I owe you one."
Selvara didn't answer. She was already moving again, her estoc gleaming crimson with its vein of light. She darted across the chimera's flank, Needlefang leaving distortions in the air as she stabbed. Every thrust struck joints, tendons, weak points but the sheer size of the beast made her precision feel like needles against a mountain.
Isolde lifted her hand high, golden eyes blazing. "Chain across the carrion, Shock Current!"
Bolts leapt from her palms, crackling into the chimera's many heads. The creature convulsed, black smoke rising from its fused flesh. But instead of falling, it only grew angrier, wings flaring with stitched sinew that groaned under their own weight.
The beast leapt.
The entire street shuddered as it came crashing down. Loid braced, lightning bursting along his legs. He met the monster with his oak beam, both arms straining. The impact nearly broke his shoulders, bones screaming, but Juggernaut's Rush gave him the strength to hold for a heartbeat.
"Ghh! Angela! Now!"
Angela dashed, her blade a golden arc. With a roar, she cleaved into the chimera's torso. Flesh split, a shower of gore drenching her armor. The chimera staggered but slammed a claw into her chest, sending her crashing through a ruined cart. Wood splintered around her.
"Angela!" Loid shouted, his heart spiking.
From the rubble, she rose, coughing blood but grinning like a madwoman. "Still standing. That all you've got, you corpse pile?"
The chimera howled, swiping again. Selvara blinked forward, momentum bursting under her feet. Needlefang pierced straight through one of the fused skulls, snapping shut with a glass-shatter sound. The head went limp, but seven more mouths screamed back.
Loid gritted his teeth. "Selvara try killing the necromancers!"
She darted toward the robed figures at the edge of the square, but the chimera lurched sideways, slamming its bulk between her and the necromancers. The ground shook, cutting her path off.
Her silver eyes narrowed. "They won't let me pass."
"Then we carve it down!" Angela roared, charging again.
The next few minutes were chaos. Every strike they landed bled black ichor, but the monster kept regenerating, stitched flesh knotting over wounds. Isolde's lightning scorched it, Loid's oak beam crushed ribs, Angela's greatsword hacked off limbs, Selvara's estoc skewered organs but the chimera moved as if it felt no pain, its massive size allowing it to ignore wounds that would have killed a dragon.
Loid's arms screamed with every swing. Sweat poured down his back, blood running down his arm where a claw had grazed him. His heart pounded with borrowed strength, but even Angela's power inside him was being pushed to its limit.
"Damn it! it just won't fall!" he snarled.
Angela spat blood from her lip. "Then we break it harder!"
Isolde's voice cracked as she screamed, "I can only chain lightning for so long before my mana collapses!"
Selvara's voice cut through, flat but urgent. "Eyes. Kill the heads. One by one."
The order stuck.
Angela cleaved through another skull with a Juggernaut strike, lightning blasting from her step. Selvara skewered a second with a sidestep lunge that split the shield of fused bone. Isolde lashed her magic into the chimera's gaping maws, frying its tongues to ash.
Loid saw his chance. With a roar, he sprinted up the beast's arm, Juggernaut's lightning propelling him like a thunderbolt. He drove his oak beam straight into the central mass of heads, ramming it down the throat of the largest. The skull exploded in a spray of ichor and shattered bone.
The chimera wailed. Its balance faltered.
"Now!"
Angela's blade split its spine. Selvara's estoc pierced its heart. Isolde's lightning carved its wings to char. Loid wrenched his beam free and slammed it down with all his might.
The chimera collapsed, the earth quaking as its body hit the street. Black rot oozed across the cobblestones, spreading stink and smoke.
For a moment, silence.
Then the necromancers screamed.
Green fire lit their eyes as they raised their staffs. Spells erupted, bone spikes lancing upward, shadow chains lashing, waves of skeletal wolves surging.
"Shit," Loid muttered. "Of course it's not over."
The fight against the necromancers was swift but vicious. They hurled spell after spell, desperation twisting their gaunt faces. Selvara blurred between spikes and chains, her estoc severing throats before incantations could finish. Isolde's pride burned through her exhaustion, every whip of lightning frying group of undeads at once.
Loid fought beside Angela, swinging his beam like a war god, their strikes carving gaps in the tide of summoned skeletons. Angela laughed through the blood on her lips, Juggernaut's Rush restoring her stamina with every kill.
One by one, the necromancers fell, their shrieks echoing in the night. Until finally, the last collapsed in a smoking heap, throat punctured by Selvara's blade.
The square stank of char and rot. Their breaths came ragged. Loid dropped his beam, shoulders heaving, hands shaking.
"Tower," he rasped. "We need to see what they were hiding."
They entered the crooked spire. Angela stormed ahead, smashing tables and altars with her greatsword, fury still crackling in her veins. Selvara darted from corridor to corridor, a blur of speed, checking each chamber. Isolde walked calmly beside Loid, brushing dust from her golden hair with disdain.
Selvara reappeared in a flash, silver eyes sharper than usual. "Treasury. Found it."
They followed her down a crumbling stair, then through a broken arch. The room beyond glowed faintly blue.
Piles of coins, silver and gold spilled across cracked chests. A sack bulged with currency. And in the center, stacked neatly, were dozens of glowing spheres. Aether cores. At least a hundred.
Loid's breath caught. "Saints…" He crouched, picking up one of the cores. It pulsed in his hand and before he could react, it dissolved into his body like water into dry soil.
He staggered, eyes wide. "What the---?"
His UI shimmered before him:
[ Reputation Coins: 80.40 ]
[ Reputation Points: 4789 ]
[ Units Owned: 3 ]
[ System Level: 3 ]
And then, as the core dissolved fully, the numbers changed:
[ Reputation Coins: 130.40 ]
[ Reputation Points: 4839 ]
[ Units Owned: 3 ]
[ System Level: 3 ]
Loid's eyes widened. "It… it gave me fifty. Fifty coins and points."
Angela frowned, lowering her sword. "That's new."
Isolde arched a brow. "You absorbed it directly. How quaint. Almost like you've finally grown a scrap of mana."
Loid swallowed, picking up ten cores. He willed it and again, it all dissolved into him, power rushing through his veins. His UI leapt:
[ Reputation Coins: 580.40 ]
[ Reputation Points: 5289 ]
He laughed, a breathless, almost hysterical laugh. "Hah… we could buy our mounts today. Finally."
Selvara tilted her head, silent but approving. Angela smirked faintly. Isolde sniffed, hiding her curiosity behind feigned disinterest.
But Loid's excitement dimmed into thought. He clenched another core, frowning. "Why now? Before, they were just… loot. But now they come into me. What changed?"
He froze, his eyes flicking to Angela. To the golden lightning still faintly crackling along his veins.
His voice dropped to a whisper. "…Is it because I have mana now?"
The question lingered heavy in the treasury, the glow of the cores painting their faces in ghostly light.
And for the first time since Duskreach, Loid smiled, not just with triumph, but with the terrifying promise of something greater still hidden inside the system.