"Nobody move," Kris hissed, trying to summon as many as he could maintain at once and pooling them at everyone's feet. Lorelei's mind flashed back to the pivotal moment in Jurassic Park, when the Tyrannosaurus Rex stares down at the guys in the jeep but cannot see them because its vision is based on movement. There was a second - the briefest of seconds - when she thought Kris might actually be on to something here.

***Help Message***

Yeah, not so much cupcake.

The Chimera's head jerked to the right with appalling swiftness and locked its aim on Michael. Despite his range of escape skills, the rat-like man had no chance to react as the giant snake gave a slight cough and spat a globule of something pretty disastrously vile straight at him.

The impact of the creature's sent the man staggering backwards, the ball of liquid that enveloped him almost matching his size. There was a nicely hopeful beat when it seemed Michael had - aided by Kris's - tanked the attack with relatively minor damage.

And then the screaming started.

Michael was suddenly shrieking as if his whole body was ablaze. As the others watched, horrified, the glowing green venom that had covered him head to foot began hissing and bubbling, burning through his thin leather armour in moments and searing deep into his skin. The Veiled Stalker let out the worst scream Lorelei had ever heard in her life, raw and primal, as the acid ate through layers of flesh, his muscles spasming violently, each contraction tearing at the venom-riddled wounds.

"Shit," she murmured, unable to move as the little man pretty much began to disintegrate before her eyes, pieces sloughing off him as if he was going through a particularly effective chemical peel.

Michael clawed at his chest, trying in vain to wipe clear the noxious substance, flesh peeling away under his nails, revealing raw, red muscle and bone. Then, he couldn't even do that much longer, as his hands lost their physical integrity and turned into mush. He held them up in front of his face, eyes wide in agony and fear as the Chimera's opening attack continued its relentless assault, boring deeper, sending shockwaves through his nervous system.

“Michael!” his sister screamed, "Someone help him!"

At this stage, in a display of perceptive groupthink, the party all instantly decided to abandon Operation Stand Stock Still for something a touch more frantic.

Chrissy ordered her troll forward to provide some cover, speedy thinking which saved Zorrobar and Steffan from being hit by the Chimera's follow-up attacks, its poison seemingly having little effect on the undead summons.

Sadly, the same couldn't be said for Michael, though, whose legs gave out, his melting form collapsing to the ground as the acidic venom continued to burn, sending waves of unbearable pain through his body. His skin blistered and split open, oozing blood and pus and the smell of burning flesh filled the air, a sickening, acrid stench.

"Let's pull back," Steffan yelled, CCMD rearing up and spitting its own poison back towards the snake. No one noticed if the spider's assault made any difference to the Chimera; they all were pretty busy with their own issues.

Pete rushed over to the fallen Veiled Stalker. “Hold on, lad! We’ll get ya outta this!” he shouted, trying his best to grab him under the arms and drag him away from a pool of acid that had appeared under Michael's body. Fortunately, he quickly realised that he was likely to rip extremities off if he pulled too hard and chose instead to scoop the man up into a cradle position. Even then, each movement elicited screams of agony from the Veiled Stalker's sizzling body.

Still, under the cover of Chrissy's troll—who was hit five more times as they stumbled backwards—they succeeded in pulling back to the cathedral's gates, at which point the Chimera's eyes closed, and the toxic barrage subsided. As soon as they were safe, Kris stooped to pour everything he had into the quickly liquifying man, but the virulence of the venom was relentless. Light flared as every Skill the healer activated sought to mend the gaping wounds, but the acid fought back, sizzling anew with each casting.

Michael’s skin bubbled and hissed, a grotesque patchwork of burns, blisters, and hastily healed flesh. Then his body convulsed uncontrollably, his eyes rolling back into his head as the poison truly took hold. Blood vessels burst, causing hundreds of dark bruises to blossom under his skin. His breath came in shallow, desperate gasps, each one a struggle against the venom tightening around his lungs like a vice.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Lorelei did her best to help the healer, repeatedly casting until all her mana was used up. For once, her luck largely held when using this Skill as most of the randomised repairs were substantial enough to keep the Veiled Stalker alive, and the appearance of the randomised effect When You Are Dying No One Can Hear You Scream made being him around him a little easier.

***Help Message***

You're welcome.

Under the auspices of this effect, Michael’s howls died down to weak, gurgling moans, and - as Kris and Lorelei's healing finally started to win the battle - his writhing began to still, save for the occasional shudder when one or other of the cooldowns slipped off before another Skill was cast to replace it.

The group stared down at him, trying to find any words for what they had witnessed. Michael's skin was a horrifying mess of raw tissue and charred remnants, his veins still visible through the thin, scarred patches where the healing spells had managed to partially close the wounds.

"Fucking hell," Steffan whispered.

***Help Message***

Not for nothing - and I'm not claiming to be some sort of tactical genius here or anything - but a sensible leader would probably want to avoid letting her squishy DPS take direct hits like that. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's your team, and you can do this however you want, but, you know, in the spirit of actually surviving as a group, maybe try a different approach?

Lorelei dismissed the notification, accepting a mana potion from Zorrobar and recasting five more times in quick succession. It was on the final cast that she finally hit something substantial. Or, rather, the attention span of the System ran out.

Charmed Life activated: You roll the dice on a randomised heal.

HP restored: [Randomised] 500 HP + D.o.T removed.

Status Effect: [Randomised] I'm getting bored of all this healing action. Now get the fuck on with the epic, climactic battle: the HP of the focus of this effect stabilises to 'circling the drain'. This status effect will stay in operation for as long as your party stops fannying around and actually takes on the boss. Should I grow bored at any stage, the removal of this effect will be an instant wipe for the melty dude. No backsies.

Loreli touched Kris on the shoulder to stop him from casting further, relaying her Guide's ultimatum to everyone else. "Basically, he'll be okay as long as we attack the Chimera." This was not accepted as universal good news.

"We can't beat that thing!" Hild said, eyes huge as she stared at Michael's ruined remains. "Look at what it did with its opening attack!"

Zorrobar also shook his head. "I'm sorry, Lorelei, but she's right. I don't even think it was trying too hard. What are we supposed to do against something that strong?"

***Help Message***

I'm not loving the defeatist attitude here, to be honest. Okay, well, if keeping the rogue alive isn't enough motivation for an all-out Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid charge, how about I make the Countdown Clock REALLY fucking persuasive?

Everyone's eyes unfocused at the same time as their individual Doom Clocks sped up, leaving just fifteen minutes to complete the quest. The words 'Chimera Enrage Effect' were added beneath it in a slithery, pulsating font.

"Shit," Pete and Steffan said.

"This is your fault!" Michelle said, standing from where she had been crouched by her brother's body to spit her own brand of venom into Lorelei's face. "If you'd just left us alone in the Botanical Gardens, none of this would have happened. From the first fucking moment we met you, we've stumbled from disaster to disaster! How many of us need to be killed to help Fortuna's Fucking Herald to complete her quest! Fuck you! I'll be doing us all a favour to fucking kill you!"

The Veiled Stalker vanished into a portal of shadow to reappear directly behind Lorelei and activate her Skill. Things would have been looking pretty sketchy for Lorelei had not Hild's swinging fist took the rogue full in the face and smashed her several feet backwards.

"Time and fucking place!" The crunch of cartilage and bone was so sickening - even after everything they'd just had to listen to as Michael melted - the party still winced. "Didn't you see what she did against that troll?" Hild shouted at the second maimed Veiled Stalker of the day. "I don't like the bitch anymore than you do, but if you think we have a chance against this thing without her, you're even more fucking moronic than I thought! You've got the same status update as me, haven't you?!? We defeat this thing in fifteen minutes, or we're dead! So let's focus the fuck on that and leave revenge until later. I'll even hold your hair as you whale on her. But not now! Do you fucking get me?"

Whilst pleased to have her life saved, Lorelei wasn't wild over a few aspects of Hild's motivational speech. Still, that would be a problem for a her, who was still alive in fourteen minutes and twelve seconds. Eleven. Ten.

"Okay," Lorelei said, clapping her hands together to grab everyone's attention away from the cat fight and back to something a bit more significant. Like avoiding their immediate deaths. "We're only going to get one chance at this. Unless anyone objects, this is the plan . . ."