Chapter 105 We’ll Get Him Buddy.

The farther they went the more runes they found. Some of them they let go. Those were in place to counter invisibility and as that didn’t affect them at the moment, getting rid of them would have been a waste of time. For others they had to wait for Edward’s chime to break them.

“We’re getting close.” Isaac whispered as they came upon a ring of runes around the entire circumference of the tunnel. Some of them had already been triggered and were now dormant.

“How close?” Edward asked.

Isaac pointed through the doorway that was the ring of runes. “It’s right over there. No way to tell exactly where it is but somewhere between a hundred and a thousand feet I’d say.”

Edward nodded and started inspecting the runes. As he approached one of them flashed and then went dormant. “Shit.” Edward swore quietly.

“What was that?” Isaac asked.

“An alarm. Nothing else happened.” Edward explained.

“Then we need to either hurry up and deal with it or hurry up and leave.” Isaac replied. “I don’t want to give them any more time to get ready for us.”

Edward nodded. “We need to clear out these wards. No telling what they’ll do.”

“Come here for a moment.” Isaac told the other two and beckoned them closer.

“You can do three people?” Edward asked.

Isaac shook his head. “No, so let's make this quick.” He pushed the other two so they were facing where they needed to go and put his hands on their backs. He pushed out with everything he had and tried to cover all three of them. He felt the strain building on his mana pathways. As soon as the circuit was complete he ordered them through gritted teeth: “Move.”

The three of them ran through the ring of runes and Isaac’s will power and mana gave out only a few seconds later. He dropped to his knees panting. Lenna was on one knee with her hand on his shoulder near instantly. “Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.

It took a moment for Isaac to answer but he eventually nodded. “Yeah.” He took a few more deep breaths. “Just… Give me… a moment.”

Lenna nodded but didn’t leave his side. Edward stood over them, his eyes looking around for any sign of trouble. “What level are you, really?” He asked Isaac.

Once Isaac had gotten his breathing under control he, with the help of Lenna, got back to his feet. “High enough to know my limits but too low to take on an army.” He cheekily replied with a smirk on his face.

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Edward shook his head. “Any mage at level nine should be able to cast Shroud on three people at once if they know how to cast the spell. You claim to be level nine but you struggle with something like that. Why? Even if it is a better version of the spell it shouldn’t tire you out after a few seconds.”

Isaac shook his head. “It’s not a spell, remember.”

“I know but…” Edward was cut off by loud scraping and heavy footfalls echoing down the tunnel. Whatever it was didn’t seem to be going towards them but it sounded like it was ready for a fight.

Isaac took a step forward. “Edward, anything you see until we are out of here never happened.” He ordered the man who was technically his boss. “Kahtesh, someone big wants to play with you.”

“What?” Edward asked as he watched a black void that defied his darkvision spread out across the ground in front of Isaac. A boney claw reached out of the void and dug into the stone. Then another. And soon a small dragon skull was pulled out of the inky darkness. Eventually an entire small dragon made of elongated bones stretched like a cat and flapped its wings once like a bird before settling them neatly behind it.

Isaac walked over and patted the bone dragon’s head. Shadows poured out of Isaac as the black void faded away. His shadows moved in between each of the dragon’s bones and contact points with the ground. “Lenna and Edward in the front, I’ll be in the middle, Kahtesh will play damage support. Whatever that thing is will tear him apart in one hit.” Isaac ordered.

Lenna did as she was directed and moved to the front. Her sword was drawn and at the ready. Edward hesitated a moment before doing the same. “Who put you in charge?” He grumbled under his breath.

Isaac placed a hand on each of them and focused shadows to do the same to them as he had to Kahtesh. He could feel the strain on his mana already. It was just a little too much for him so he dialed Edward’s back to the point where only the man’s boots were gifted with silence. At that ratio Isaac could keep up their relative silence almost indefinitely which was hopefully enough for them to get the drop on whatever was waiting for them up ahead. “Go.” Isaac whispered.

The small party continued through the dark tunnel. Edward kept a hand on his hilt ready to draw it at a moment’s notice. Kahtesh was staring through the wall as they continued, his ability to feel the other monster apparently stronger than Isaac’s.

“Another ward.” Edward whispered and pointed at the wall.

Lenna squinted at it, trying to make out the complex rune. “Divination, protection, negation, dispel, motion.” She listed off quietly.

Isaac noticed the sand covering the area of the tunnel starting from a few feet before the rune and continuing as far past it as they could see. “The sand is the trigger. If it just negates divination or protection from it we should be fine.” He commented.

Edward nodded and swallowed. “Alright. We need to move. I’ll trigger it.” He told the pair, and Kahtesh. He moved ahead of the rest of the team and as soon as he stepped on the sand the rune flashed but nothing happened. He nodded in understanding. “This is what got Azazel. If his divination protection was negated then the rest of the runes would have steadily removed all of his concealment measures on the way out.”

The team continued around another bend and stopped. Azazel’s missing arm wasn’t missing any longer. It was just sitting there on the ground in near perfect condition. It looked as though the monster hadn’t even stepped on it while traversing the tunnel. Edward sighed. “Damn it.” He whispered under his breath. Azazel was weird but he was a good kid. Edward had sent him to his death because he overestimated the boy’s ability to navigate dangerous environments.

The scraping and stomping continued from just around the corner. “This is it.” Isaac whispered. “It’s all but on top of us. But why hasn’t it attacked yet?”

The team decided to rush around the next corner. It was better to lead with pressure that could be backed off than let their opponent seize the momentum. Around the corner Lenna ignited her sword. Edward pulled his out an inch before slamming it back down, the hilt changing colors to an ice blue as a cold mist wafted off of it. Isaac tapped Lenna on the back and turned all his shadows into death flames while cutting off the shadows silencing Edward to conserve mana.

What the party saw before them was a monster unlike any other. A chimera of monstrous proportions yes but the real marvel was the number of creatures used in its construction. Normally a chimera was limited to three different creatures of origin due to issues with synchronizing mana flow and the general expense of the ritual. This monstrosity was not a hybrid of three monsters, not four monsters, but five.

It had the skeleton of a basilisk, complete with claws and teeth. Some, of only its creator knew how many, shadow-wolf internals that coated it in an eerie black fog. Falling shadow hide stretched across the skeleton to protect it from poisons and acid. Long insectile armblades that looked as though they were pulled from a praying mantis the size of a small house. And finally, the part that boiled Isaac’s blood and most likely the reason Kahtesh had been acting so strange, the eyes of a young blue dragon and a thousand of its little scales stitched into the hide covering important organs.

“We’ll get him buddy.” Isaac promised in a whisper to Kahtesh. “No one gets to use your eyes and scales like that.”