“So, um, how are we going to cheat?” Lyam asked.

Aveline leaned closer and looked at him gravely. “If you kill a mutant of tier 7 or above, you’ll unlock ‘dust alchemy’. It's an ability to extract one of the mutant’s skills.”

“Wait so, let's suppose I used that ability to extract the wraith wolf's skill to make dust shadows, would I be able to project images of myself like it did?”

“No,” Aveline said, “but you’ll be able to unlock a stat from that ability. And based on that stat you'll be awarded a skill of your own. However, you won't be able to mimic its powers directly.”

“How many stats can I unlock like that?”

“Only three more. That will give you five stats in total. That's what a full-dust or a basilisk level wielder gets.”

“And do all chimera wielders get Prowess and Focus as their starting stat?”

Aveline nodded.

Lyam nodded back and looked down at the ravine. “I'm assuming, this is where the tier 7 mutant lives then?”

“It's close by,” Aveline said and pulled out another tome from her satchel. ‘Mutant-logue’ was embossed in golden letters on its black leather. She flipped through the pages before stopping on a section titled: ‘Corpse Eagle’. “It lives in water but likes to hunt flightless land prey. More emphasis on ‘likes to hunt’.”

“So it will play with me before picking the flesh off my bones?”

“Apparently.”

“Does the book tell you how to defeat it?”

“It does, but I won't tell you.”

Lyam frowned. “Why not?”

“The system will know that we cheated,” Aveline said, closing the book. “We want you to be able to unlock the dust alchemy skill. You'll only earn it if you find the mutant’s weakness in combat.”

“That doesn't make any sense. We are already cheating by trying to unlock the dust alchemy, aren't we?”

“If it was cheating, the system wouldn't have made that particular skill available to use,” Aveline said. “What we are doing is cheating in the human world of dust wielders. There are many half-dust wielders who don't know the method we are taking, simply because they are less informed about the system. But in the eyes of the system itself, we are just utilizing another skill that it has to offer. But we won't be able to use it unless we play fair to unlock it first.”

Lyam narrowed his eyes. He could see the point she made but he couldn't help feeling nervous at the thought of going up blind against a tier 7 mutant. He still believed he had been lucky with the wraith wolf. He wasn't sure he would be able to find a way out of this one.

“So,” Aveline said, holding her amulet in front of him, “ready to go down to the lake?”

###

She teleported him next to the lake in which the stream of ravine drained itself in. “You’re on your own now,” she said, “I don't want the eagle to target me and involve me in the fight as well. If the system sees that as cheating we won't be able to unlock dust alchemy. But I'll be close by. You still have that ring, don't you?”

Lyam nodded, holding up his right hand, the red stone glinted on his finger.

“I'll come to your rescue if things get dire.”

“Thank you.”

Aveline nodded before disappearing in the red mist.

Lyam turned back to the lake. The water was still. The air was windless. A bluejay sang in a tree somewhere. The serenity of the moment would've fooled Lyam. How could one even tell that a deadly predator lived here?

“You can always get ambushed,” Lyam thought out loud, “but then it's also too late.”

He scoffed and shook his head. He pushed the thought away and focused on the lake. For a moment Lyam considered climbing up on a tree before he drew the mutant bird out of the water. He was quick to discard the idea. Climbing on a tree to hide from a bird sounded like diving in a pond to hide from a fish. Not very effective.

He raised his right hand and fired off [syphon burst] right into the lake. The explosion raised a pillar of water into the air. Bluejays evacuated the trees behind him. Then everything went completely still.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the water rippled.

The bird flew straight out of the lake, unfurling its wet wings in the air as it gave a screeching cry, shaking the water off its body. Lyam stopped breathing as he took in the sight of the bird. There wasn't any flesh on its skull. Just a bare piece of bone that had two bloodshot eyeballs shoved into the sockets and serrated teeth that shone on its bony beak. Its torso looked like a patchwork leather quilt. Its wings were the only parts that had feathers on them. And its talons were curved downward and black as coal.

It let out another screech and dove straight down at Lyam. The boy was ready, not letting the bird catch him by surprise like the wolf had at the crumbling castle.

Lyam aimed for the bird's leathery torso and fired off [syphon burst]. The bird didn't stray from its trajectory. It simply spread its wings and halted in the air. The leather patchwork on its breast seemed to unravel, forming a hollow space. The beam of life dust passed straight through the opening.

Lyam had no time to be shocked. The bird was blazing through the air, headed straight towards him. The boy fired off another [syphon burst]. This time, the bird merely dodged it by whirling sideways in the air. The boy was about to use the attack again but the corpse eagle was just a few feet away now. Before Lyam could raise his hands to fire again, it screeched at him.

The boy flinched and covered his ears, gritting his teeth. Then felt a tight slap of the corpse eagle's wings on his face. The impact sent him tumbling sideways.

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The bird flew up in the air again as if gathering more momentum for its next dive. Lyam tried to scramble back up to his feet and attack before the bird could strike again.

When he looked up, the eagle just ignored him. It soared in the air, flapping its wings. Blue smoke gushed out of two slits in its beak. It made a loud howling sound before it took a dive. Only this time, it went straight into the lake.

Lyam took the opportunity and ran for cover behind a tree. His face was still burning in pain, his ears were still ringing from that thing screeching so close to him. And his jaw still rattled from the bird's wing slap.

He frowned at the absurdity he had just witnessed by the lake. The creature had some sort of control on its flesh. If it could break down and build up its body like that, landing a hit on that thing was going to be a feat of its own.

But the absurdity didn't end there. The spot at which Lyam had fired [syphon burst] was the bird's breast. There should've been a rib-cage or a spinal cord under its patchwork flesh. But that hadn't been the case. Lyam had seen barely any bone when the creature dodged [syphon burst].

Before he could think further on that, the tree had been leaning againts gave a rumble. A slit appeared on the bark right above his head. The main trunk slid sideways before toppling over with a loud crash.

The corpse eagle was out of the water again. And flying circles above him, screeching in that painful voice Lyam had come to hate so quickly.

The boy dove backwards and raised his hands, aiming at the bird again. The bird liked to hunt as Aveline had said. It could've sliced him open with his wing in if it wanted. Yet it had merely slapped him. Lyam glared at the creature and used [syphon burst].

The corpse eagle didn't use the weird method of dodging the attack. It merely arced upwards in the air. Lyam's attack went up into the clouds. He grit his teeth harder and fired again. The eagle flapped backwards, upwards, ducked the life dust but it didn't use the same tactic as before. It came gliding at Lyam again. The boy charged at the trees again. The bird sliced through them with his wings like before, screeching after him.

It was all a game for the bastard. It was probably enjoying watching Lyam jump around like a grasshopper in a meadow. The boy prepared to shoot another [syphon burst]. But when he turned to take aim, the bird had already changed paths. It was flying the other way, back at the lake.

“Not again!” Lyam snapped and let off several volleys at the bird. “Come back here!” He ran for the lake. He was still using [syphon burst].

He wasn't going to let the bird escape that easily this time. He took another shot at the creature as it dove towards the lake, steam blowing out of the slits in its beak again.

Finally the corpse eagle's flesh parted to let the beam of life dust pass. Then it disappeared into the water with a big splash.

Lyam fell to his knees by the shore, out of breath and covered in sweat. He glared at the lake where the bird had escaped back to. He pondered following it into the water. The idea felt as bad as trying to hide in a tree to avoid the eagle. So he pushed it away.

He sighed, feeling exhausted but a faint triumph was warming up within him. When the bird's leathery flesh had parted this time, he was sure he had seen a network of tendrils swirling within. And all those tendrils had been connected to a flower.

###

Lyam waited for the bird, standing under the one tree the creature hadn't slashed yet. The corpse eagle was taking longer to come out of the lake. He knew it was going to come out again.

Its game wasn't concluded after all.

The boy's eyes never left the lake. The water was as still as it had been when Lyam arrived before this little face off began. It almost seemed like a normal lake for a moment. As if no hungry predators lurked at its bottom.

Then the water rippled and the bird soared up again.

“There it is.”

Lyam didn't move from his spot as the eagle shook the water off its wings. It let out another grating screech. Then it dove towards the boy again.

He didn't flinch, neither at the screech nor at the sight of the creature getting this close. The bird did what it had been doing in their past duel. It slashed the tree Lyam was leaning against. The boy stood still as the tree fell behind him.

The bird soared up in the air and came down at him again. Lyam didn't leave his spot. The corpse eagle dropped heavily on his shoulders and drove him off balance.

Lyam crashed face-first on the ground, the eagle on top of him, its weight almost felt like a boulder crushing him. The bird screeched at the air, spreading its wings. Lyam remained still. Just a little longer, he kept telling himself, only a little while longer.

He felt the bird leaning its head down, its beak was right next to his ear. It stank like rotting meat. For a split second he remembered Mamie's butchershop. Lyam's thoughts were soon derailed by a sharp, scorching pain in the back of his neck. The boy screamed as he felt the bird's beak digging into his nape.

Just a little longer, Lyam reminded himself.

He let the bird sink its beak further into his flesh. There was a spurt of blood.

Lyam finally did it. He grabbed onto its talons with his left hand. Then he blasted the eagle with [syphon burst] using his right one. The bird quickly withdrew its beak and tried to flutter off. Its survival instinct parted its flesh again to dodge Lyam’s attack.

Up this close, Lyam saw it clearly–the forest of translucent tendrils woven within its body like a cobweb. Lyam could tell they were projections made of life dust, acting as a substitute for a skeleton while also allowing the creature to use that defence tactic to survive attacks. And at the heart of this network was the dust bloom, pulsating with that very familiar buzzing.

Blue steam gushed out of the bird's beak again. Lyam had observed that the steam came right before it was about to dive back into the lake. And it also came after the bird used that weird dodging skill.

But Lyam's grip on the bird's talon was unyielding. He wasn't going to let the bird escape this time. He shoved his hand into the parted section of its flesh before its patchwork skin could seal up again.

The bird fluttered even more frantically, taking off, lifting Lyam along with itself. Its leathery flesh closed around Lyam's arm, trapping his limb within.The edges of its skin and muscles were serrated like a hacksaw. They dug into his arm. Lyam held back a scream and clung onto the talon.

He used [syphon burst] with the hand that was trapped within the bird. Its torso exploded in a hundred pieces. But the pieces were still connected by the network of life dust. Without missing a beat, Lyam snatched the dust bloom that had it all held together. The bird screeched helplessly as the boy severed its life line.

He blasted the dust bloom with another [syphon burst]. The bird made no sound this time. It just went limp in the air and came crashing down with a resounding thud. Lyam fell with a noise that was a lot less resounding but twice as painful. His spine felt like someone had driven a nail into it. This time he didn’t restrain the scream.

A screen popped up in front of him.

You have defeated tier 7 “corpse eagle”

The [system] rewards you with 1000 [dust points]

Your [chimera] tier has now reached tier: 7

Your [Prowess] has been raised by +2

The [system] will now initiate a [blessing]

There was a brief pause before the wound on his neck and on his arms sealed themselves shut. The pain in his back lightened before it disappeared. He sat up and looked at the dead bird lying next to him.

Another screen popped up in front of him.

Would you like to [harvest] the [life dust] from the “corpse eagle”?

Yes/No?

Another five thousand dust points were added to his reserve after he selected yes. That made his current dust count eight thousand.

Then another message popped up in front of him.

For defeating a tier 7 “enemy”, the [system] rewards you with the [skill] of [dust alchemy]