“Did you finish it?”

“Yes, sir. The package was delivered.”

“Good. It’s a shame that we have to lose so many test subjects, but with this, we’ll be able to complete it. Finally.”

Doctor giggled as he twirled around in his chair. Breaker sighed. That man truly was like a child.

That fact only made him scarier.

“Are you sure about this, sir? What if they escape?”

“Don’t worry. You said your mole is secure, right? We’ll be fine.”

“But if the creature fails-”

“I’ve accounted for that. Just because they are bugs does not mean that they cannot defeat another bug, Breaker. Things are unpredictable, I know that much. You need to calm down. It’s all under control.”

“...yes, sir.”

Breaker walked out of the room with heavy footsteps while Doctor continued to laugh to himself.

“Oh, how sweet their despair will be…”

~~~

“What the fuck is-”

John was interrupted as the pain in his chest flared up again. It was almost fully healed, but he’d rather it not be injured at all if something like that was coming.

“Is that some kind of mana beast?”

“That’s… I don’t know,” Fate hesitated.

“I thought you knew everything!”

“I don’t- what? That’s not a mana beast?”

“What are you yapping on about?” John yelled as he pulled Fate in and slammed the door shut.

“Kit said that she’s never seen something like that before!”

The group got quiet as they hid in the secret lab. Danjo herded the prisoners towards the back of the hall in order to keep them safe, as per Fate’s orders, but they now had bigger issues on their hands.

John opened the door a crack to take a peek, and the creature turned around. John held his breath but didn’t close the door, continuing to look.

It was bipedal, but it was very clearly not human. It had the body of one, but then there were… other things. Spider legs on the back, claws instead of fingers, talons instead of feet. The thing was some kind of chimera.

“Hey, Fate?”

“Yeah?”

“Are chimeras a thing in this world?”

Surprisingly, it was not Fate, but Kit, who reacted. The little fox started jumping up and down, growling at the door.

“Whoah, whoah, way too loud!” Fate grunted as he held his ears. “She wants to know how you know about chimeras.”

“They’re, um… sort of common,” John muttered. “Do we know how to kill it?”

“They were artificial creatures with the strength of young Mythics. They were banned quickly, though, so no one’s ever seen one,” Fate said, translating for Kit.

“...you’re telling me that thing has the strength of a child god?”

“They don’t have any intelligence,” Fate offered. “It shouldn’t be too bad.”

“You want to kill a god.”

“That’s not a god. It’s a beast.”

John shrugged as he took out his shotgun. Subtly, he popped a pill inside his mouth. “Well, it’s not my first time dealing with gods.”

He rummaged around inside his bag and pulled out another grenade.

“It’s not your first- wait, is that a flashbang?”

“Yeah. Didn’t I already use one? We go on three.”

Fate nodded. “Ready when you are.”

John nodded back and tossed the flashbang out the door. “Three.”

With a yell, he kicked down the door and charged forward, the chimera stunned by the bright flash and loud noise. Modern Earth weapons seemed to work well on those that didn’t expect it.

He pushed the muzzle of his shotgun right into the thing’s chest and pulled the trigger, knocking the chimera back. Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was annoy it. With a roar, it charged forward with the intent to kill, swinging its claws at a terrifying pace.

“Prota!” John yelled, and an ice pillar pushed him out of the way just in time. He looked back to see his sister looking at him disapprovingly.

“Three?” she glared.

“Sorry.” That was all John had to offer before running off, pumping shell after shell into the creature.

“Are you not still injured?” Fate exclaimed, firing off a fireball as John fell back.

“Oh. I am, probably. I took a painkiller,” John explained as he continued to retreat. “It has an adrenaline boost in it, too. I’ll be unconscious for a day, in about… three hours? The pain will start rushing in then. On the bright side, I’ll be unconscious for about a day, but that’s fine, right?”

“Why would you use something like that?”

John pointed at the chimera. “That thing’s strong, right? This isn’t the time to play around. I hope you’ve got a plan, because I sure as hell don’t.”

Fate nodded. “I think I do, actually. That stuff around the creature’s chest looks like the shell of the crab we fought earlier, but I think we can crack it.”

“Crack it? What?”

“The key is Prota.”

Prota looked confused. What was she supposed to do here?

“Her Blossom. It’s a very powerful spell, but she needs to be able to hit it point blank. Now, I’m not expecting it to crack the shell, but it’ll make it brittle. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?”

“You need to help me give Prota an opportunity. I’m gonna deal with most of the attacks. You need to run in and out and annoy it. When I give the signal, you fall back, Prota hits the spell, and I go in. Got it?”

John nodded. “Better than nothing, I guess.”

Fate raised three fingers. A countdown.

“Prota. Are you ok with this?”

Prota didn’t know. It felt strange. She was the centrepiece, not Fate. It’d always been Fate that dealt the final blow, Fate that did the damage. She was the support, the mage that fired from afar.

Now, she was being told to deal the finishing blow. Could she do it?

I am strong. I’m not weak anymore.

She hoped she could.

“Go!” Fate yelled, charging forward. A shell flew out of John’s shotgun as he pumped it, rushing towards the chimera as fast as he could.

Sparks flew as Fate’s blade and the creature’s claws clashed. He had to go all out from the start. Their opponent was strong. Prota watched as John leapt forward, pulling the trigger of the shotgun and blasting away before rolling as he hit the ground, strafing around the enemy before going in for another shot. It wasn’t really doing much, but it was something. She watched as his thumb shoved something into his weapon between shots, a sort of hypnotic rythm of pump, trigger and reload. She didn’t know it, but it was clearly not a normal gun.

“Prota! Now!” Fate yelled.

This was it. She charged forward, the blossom in her right hand. Fate’s sword clashed with the creature, knocking its claws away, giving Prota the perfect opportunity…

And she missed.

To be exact, it didn’t hit directly. It flew a bit too far to the right, exploding a bit too far away to do enough damage. However, it was enough to stun the creature for a bit, allowing the group to regroup and replan.

“S-sorry…” Prota panted.

“No, it would be unreasonable to expect you to hit that first try,” Fate said, panting. He wasn’t quite out of breath, but his breathing was rather laboured.

John, on the other hand, appeared to be fine.

“You don’t need a break?” Fate said.

“It’s ok. I’ll be in immense pain and agony later. Worry about me then.”

John was annoyed. He’d pumped numerous shots into the beast, but it was just too well defended. It wasn’t as if the thing was ignoring him, though. It was still using its backside to block John’s shots, but it wasn’t taking any damage regardless of where John hit it. It was annoying.

He didn’t like it. In this fight, he was pretty much just stalling for time. He wasn’t very helpful here. His knowledge of stories wasn’t helping here. He couldn’t think of any weaknesses, any paths to victory. The only thing that could happen was a power up, a lucky shot, or someone stronger coming in to save the day.

That, or a clever plan. John was banking on Fate’s plan.

“Prota,” John said quietly. The chimera looked like it was recovering. “How many more times can you do that?”

Prota thought for a bit. The healing she’d received from Kit had helped, but it wasn’t perfect.

“Three,” Prota said. If she continued to cast mana recovery, her body would put up with three more blossoms. Despite Kit’s healing, she still wasn’t fully recovered from the fight with the crab.

“Alright. Let’s get to it,” Fate said as the creature roared.

“Nn. Souls.”

“...what?”

“Multiple souls.”

John stared at the recovering chimera. “It has multiple souls?”

Prota nodded.

“That would explain the strength… still, if we can blow its head off, it’ll die, right?”

John clenched his teeth. “Hopefully.”

The time for talking was over. The monster was getting back up. Once again, it was the same pattern as last time. Prota focused. Three more times. She couldn’t lose her focus. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and felt the chimera’s mana. It was easier to pinpoint the chest based on where all the cores were.

John, on the other hand, had lost all interest.

[Are you not going to fight?]

“She’s going to miss,” John muttered. “Twice. Then she’s going to figure something out on the third try, and then we’re going to win.”

[You’re acting on the basis that she’s a [Character]. Remember. She’s an [Anomaly], just like you. Try not to predict anything when you’re around her.]

“...looking forward to it,” John muttered as he cocked his shotgun again.

Prota, oblivious to this, was focused so deeply that her mana started to fold over itself. Just like the principal of her Blossom of Ice, her mana began to develop layers. It began to compact itself and fold over, becoming denser and denser. Each petal of ice packed a slightly harder punch than before.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She wouldn’t fail. She needed something else. Something that would give her enough time to cast her spell.

In her right hand, a fire started burning. Just like the flower, the layers of mana began to condense. She had the mana to do it. A constant stream of mana from the chimera fed the spell, causing it to turn orange, then yellow, then blue.

A crystal blue flower. A blue flame, the same hue as her left eye.

“...are you kidding me?” Fate muttered as he looked back. “That’s ridiculous.”

Double casting powerful spells. Granted, it wasn’t something he couldn’t do, but still… John was looking at it with an amazed expression, but for a very different reason.

“You’re fucking with me. The- the fire- the ice- her eyes-” he stammered, lost for words.

[John. Please just leave it alone.]

“The author couldn’t come up with anything better? Wow. Her abilities and her eyes match colour. How incredibly creative. I sure do hope this doesn’t translate to her future abilities.”

[Leave it.]

A spider leg grazed his leg, but he was so incredibly amazed that he just completely ignored it.

“You’re kidding me.”

[John. Leave it alone]

“I thought I did a bad job at being a good character. But-”

[Leave. It. Alone.]

“...fine.”

He clenched his teeth as he loaded a special shell, loaded with explosive pellets. He’d been saving this for an opportune moment, but it didn’t look like he was going to get one any time soon. He would’ve used them more often, but the kick was going to possibly break his bones, so it wasn’t something he could use often.

There was a loud bang as the shells shattered against the beast, staggering it and forcing it to take a few steps back. Fortunately, at the same time, Fate had been fighting against the thing’s claws and had managed to parry a blow at the same time, leaving the creature’s chest wide open.

“Prota! Now!”

Her eyes snapped open, bright and glowing as she held fire in one hand and ice in the other. Once again, she dashed forward, but this time, things were different. She didn’t have enough stamina to do this again. It had to work this time. She threw the fireball first, heating up the plating on the creature’s chest and causing it to fall back onto its legs.

Time seemed to slow down as Prota aimed. This was it. Her opportunity.

She wouldn’t miss.

“Blossom,” Prota whispered, and the flower exploded.

The extreme difference in temperatures was enough to completely shatter the creature’s head, causing it to explode. The body stopped moving and fell down to the ground with a thump, but no blood leaked out.

It wasn’t a normal body.

Unfortunately, that was their final mistake. In some kind of post death reaction, the creature’s legs flailed out. Fate and John both reacted in time, but John just wasn’t fast enough. A leg plunged itself into his back. He yelled in surprise, but not in pain, as he collapsed to the ground.

“John!” Prota yelled out, but he just yanked the thing out and grunted, standing up.

“I’m fine,” John grunted, getting back up. It didn’t hurt, but he found that his leg wouldn’t support him. Prota rushed over to support him, and he leaned on her like a crutch.

“Those were acid spider legs,” Fate said, shaking his head. “Your wounds aren’t going to recover very fast. But… what the hell is in that drug of yours?”

“Secret,” John sighed. “Prota? Can you ice my leg?”

Glaring at John, she put her hands on his wound and began to put a thin layer of ice over it.

“What- why does she look like that?”

“She’s mad.”

“At what? You?”

“Yeah.”

John sighed as he collapsed, sitting on the ground. The ice wasn’t helping all that much.

“What the hell was that thing?” John muttered, staring at the dead chimera on the ground.

“Why’re you asking me? I know as much as you do,” Fate muttered, wiping the blood off his sword. “That’s a freak of nature. It shouldn’t exist.”

“...then we’re in the right place?”

“Probably. Multiple souls. Chimeras. It all links up, doesn’t it? It looks like your theory is turning out to be correct, John.”

“Yeah. I kinda wish I was wrong, though,” John muttered.

Prota was finishing up a cane of ice, which John gladly took. He hobbled back to the lab with the others, licking his lips.

“I need some water.”

“The acid will do that to you. We still need to get rations for the prisoners. Let’s keep looking.”

Somehow, John had completely forgotten that they were originally looking for rations. The beast had appeared out of nowhere, for apparently no reason. He pondered on that for a bit. A fight was usually meant to accomplish something. The introduction or removal of an enemy. To bolster one’s growth. To encourage training. But this monster had done nearly none of that. It was simply a fight for the sake of fighting. A fight to survive.

As they ventured deeper into the lab, they found more tied up bodies and vats full of monster parts.

“...chimera research,” Fate muttered. “This is disgusting.”

“Mm, yeah,” John muttered, chewing on a piece of jerky he took out of his bag. “Disgusting.”

“You can eat?”

Even Prota was incredibly disgusted. At least she wasn’t throwing up this time. But John just stood there, munching away. Fate stared at him.

“What? I’m hungry. I need meat to recover, right?”

“...never mind.”

At the end of the lab was a door. At this point, Fate was tired of opening doors. They always had bad things behind them. Surely this one would have something.

Please. Please.

“The supplies!”

Behind the door was a bunch of dried meat and crackers, as well as barrels of water.

“You think this was for the prisoners?” Fate said as he rolled some of the barrels out. He winced as the injuries he’d received from the fight yelled at him, but he was fine for now.

“Probably for whoever looked after them,” John shrugged. “Oh, I’d leave the meat alone. Just in case.”

Fate gagged as he remembered the room full of human, elf and dwarf meat.

“Good idea.”

“...that’s animal meat. You know that, right?”

“Then why are we leaving it behind?”

“I just don’t trust it. It’s fine. The prisoners don’t need the protein right now. The bread should be good enough until we can bring them back.”

Fate hesitated but then nodded. It wasn’t worth the risk. The prisoners could afford to go without meat for just a few more hours. They gave the crackers to John, and Prota pushed one barrel while Fate pushed the other.

“You sure you’re ok?” Fate worried as he pushed the barrel.

“Just worry about yourself. I told you. I’ll be an inanimate object in… two and a half hours, now. Worry about me then.”

Fate nodded and continued to push. He wished Kit could come out and heal them, but with all the prisoners nearby, it was too risky. John apparently had the same thought, because he spoke up.

“Hey. Where’s Kit when we need her?”

“Too risky,” Fate explained.

“What, is it weird for a Mystic to be out and about?”

“...yes? What kind of question is that?”

“Forget about it,” John muttered. “How did she heal us in the first place?”

“Fire isn’t just destructive. You’re thinking too narrowmindedly. Remember what Kit said about mana? It’s the building blocks of the world. What you can do with it is really only limited by what you think you can do. I’ve been told about pure mana users. Never seen one myself, but apparently, they’ve existed.”

John ignored this since it wasn’t like he could do anything about it anyway, but Prota paid close attention. It was only limited by what she could do? She thought back to her system. [Creation]. At the time she’d obtained the ability, it’d felt like it was just the ability to make new spells, but to distort reality?

She looked at her hands. What was she really capable of?

Now wasn’t the time for trying things out, though. She didn’t realize how tired she was until she tripped over a small crack in the ground, landing face first.

“Prota!” John yelled, hobbling over. “What the-”

He looked at the little crack. “You need to rest.”

“I’m ok-” she started, but John picked her up and put her on his back. He stuffed the crackers into his bag and used the barrel for support, rolling it as he limped with it.

“You good?” John said, looking at Fate. “You got this funny look in your eyes.”

“No, it’s just… you guys really are like family. I sometimes forget that you’re people, too.”

“That’s what I should be saying,” John muttered. “How about you? You have someone?”

“...older,” Fate muttered. “It’s easier not to think about it.”

John nodded. He was curious, but this was clearly a topic for later.

The group dropped off the food with the group and started handing out rations. Fate was concerned that the people would harm themselves by eating too much at once, but John assured Fate that such a thing wouldn’t happen.

“What? How can you be so sure?”

“There’s a certain guy that’s really lazy when it comes to certain details. It’ll be fine.”

“...what?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

After a few minutes, Fate and John got back up to look for more materials. Prota wanted to go with them, but John forced her to stay behind and rest. She was about to protest but felt her legs buckle.

“Your body isn’t that well trained, Prota. Calm down.”

“Fate-”

“Fate’s probably been doing some hell training or something since he was five. You were on the brink of death for a year. Relax.”

“Then you too.”

“Huh?”

“John has to rest too.”

John was about to say something but then stopped as he looked at Prota. He sighed and sat down. And with that, it was settled. Kit remained behind with Prota to make sure nothing would happen, and Prota’s disappointment disappeared somewhat as the fluffy fox jumped into her arms.

Still, as she looked at the prisoners, a new emotion replaced the disappointment she’d felt. They reminded her of herself. Skinny, barren, all bones, a dying light in their eyes… could she help them?

Was it possible?

She wasn’t sure. And yet, despite these thoughts entering her mind, she found that it wasn’t so bad. She still wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear, but there was now a reason for her to stay. She couldn’t do that, even if she wanted to.

Kit pushed her paw into Prota’s stomach softly, trying to get her attention. As Prota looked down, their eyes connected.

“...I have to get stronger,” Prota muttered as she looked away. There was still room to grow.

But that would come later. She closed her eyes and started to fall asleep until John and Fate’s voices started getting louder.

“...and you don’t have a single change of outfits?”

“No.”

“Your sister has lots of different outfits.”

“She wears the cloak every day.”

“That’s different. You’ve been wearing the same clothes every day since we met.”

“So?”

“You don’t see how that’s an issue?”

“Not really.”

Prota opened her eyes to see John and Fate returning with a bunch of rolls and cushions in a cart. There were a bunch of fresh sheets at the top of the pile, presumably what had sparked the discussion about clothing.

“We’ve still got time to kill before the team arrives,” Fate called out. “So come grab some fresh clothing and get some rest!”

The prisoners looked towards Fate with shining eyes. They were desperate, longing, hopeful, and yet still starved of something. Prota shuddered. She was starting to understand the state she’d been in when John had picked her up. She suddenly had the urge to look in a mirror. Did she still look like that?

“Hey. Prota. You, too,” John said, plopping down next to her with a cushion and a roll. “Rest up. You’re gonna have to take care of me in a bit.”

“You should be resting,” Prota said groggily.

“Come on, Prota. Give me a break. I’ll be unconscious… in…”

John’s voice slowly faded out as his eyes began to flutter.

“John? John!” Prota exclaimed, shaking him, but she couldn’t stop his descent into unconsciousness.

[I think the drug kicked in a little earlier than usual. Makes sense, considering the damage he’s taken.]

Fate rushed over, standing over John.

“What? What happened?”

Prota looked up. “Drug… early…”

“I see. I guess we’ll have to bring him with us.”

Prota nodded as she worriedly put her hand on John’s forehead. Using a bit of magic, she put him on the roll he’d brought for her. Twenty four hours. That was a blink of time compared to what they’d been through. Nothing could possibly go wrong during those moments.