Lya walked down the tunnel Herman had assigned her. Although she could use her mythos to check the tunnel quickly, she felt it was safer to conserve her strength.
It didn’t take long for Lya to find trouble. One armed guard spotted Lya as she came into view.
“Freeze!” the guard yelled, pointing their gun at Lya.
Lya raised her hands. The guard looked away to alert the other two behind them. However, when the three guards looked back, Lya was already gone.
The guards scanned the area but saw no signs of Lya. That’s when one of the guards noticed dirt falling from the ceiling.
In the instant the guard looked away, Lya had blitzed to the top of the tunnel. Before any of the guards could raise their weapons, Lya dashed in and knocked each out with a punch to the jaw.
Lya knelt on the ground to examine the bodies to see if they had any radios on them. As she was examining them, Lya noticed the bodies start to be pulled further into the tunnel. Lya felt herself being sucked further into the tunnel.
Lya tried to step backward, but taking her foot off the ground made her feel like she was about to lose balance. She stared deeper into the cavern to try and locate the source of this force but saw nothing.
Then, in an instant, a long serpent head came racing from out of the shadows. Using her speed, Lya was able to catch the serpent's head with her hands before it could sink its fangs into her. She noticed that the body of the serpent stretched out from the shadows, and was also somehow suspended in the air.
However, as Lya was trying to discern the origin of this attack, another serpent came racing towards her legs. Instinctively, Lya lept from the ground, causing the serpent to rush past her legs. With the serpent just below her, Lya planted her feet on its body, and kicked off it, while using her hands to push off the head of the other serpent she was holding.
As she landed on the ground--a few feet back from where she previously stood--Lya noticed that she was no longer being pulled into the cavern. However, she looked and saw the unconscious bodies of the guards still being pulled inward.
Stepping out of the shadows from further in the cave, two figures emerged; one was male and the other was female. Six serpents protruded from the back of the woman, like the tentacles of an octopus. As the male approached Lya, she felt herself being sucked toward him.
Lya took a step back. She had found the source of her troubles.
“Face it, you're outnumbered,” the woman called out.
Lya grinned and assumed a sprinter’s position. “But not outmatched.”
Meanwhile, Lou had a much easier time traversing through his tunnel. Anytime he encountered a guard, he would always be faster on the draw than them. It didn’t matter how many there were, Lou was able to knock them all out before any of them could even reach for their weapon.
Eventually, Lou stumbled upon an unarmed woman. Lou hid behind a rock to avoid being seen. He tried to get a good look at their face or see their tattoo, but the low lighting made it difficult.
“You can come out now,” the woman called out, glancing in Lou’s direction.
Lou knew he had been made, and that there was no use hiding. What’s more, this person was unarmed, so he couldn't shoot first.
Lou stepped out from behind his cover. “Sorry, I’m shy around new people.”
“What a coincidence,” the woman remarked, “so am I.”
Getting a closer look at the woman's face, Lou recalled seeing her listed in Saxon’s report as one of the avatars working for the Chimera family. “Have I seen you somewhere before?”
“No,” the woman replied. “I believe introductions are in order.”
“Well nice to meet you, my name is …” Lou cut himself off by manifesting his revolver and unloading it at blinding speed.
However, the woman was able to keep up with Lou’s speed. She raised her hand as the bullets came flying toward her. They slowly began to lose momentum until they came to a complete stop just in front of the women, suspended in midair.
The woman flicked her hand, and a gust of wind took over the cavern, sending the bullets flying into the air.
“Bit rude for an introduction,” the woman remarked. “Certainly leaves a strong impression though.”
Lou blew the smoke off his revolver’s barrel and aimed at the woman.
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Strangely, Tay encountered nobody for the vast majority of her trip down her tunnel. Even stranger, she stumbled upon stone statues of people.
Tay closed her eyes to think. Flipping through the pages of the Chimera family report in her mind, Tay eventually remembered an avatar working for the Chimera family that could be the source of these statues.
As Tay opened her eyes, she saw a bright yellow light shining down on her. Instinctively, she turned toward its source and saw a man clinging to the side of the cavern wall with clawed hands and scaly skin. The light was emitting from the man’s reptilian eyes.
Tay felt her hand grow cold and looked to see it being slowly encased in stone. She raised her other hand to block her vision of the man and managed to shake the stone off her other hand.
“Aren't you even gonna look at me?” the man asked.
“Nope!” Tay exclaimed.
“Might be a little hard to find your way, if you can’t see where you’re going,” the man remarked.
Tay removed the scarf she was wearing and tied it around her eyes to blindfold herself. “Don’t worry, I’ll manage.”
“Where is he?” Tay whispered to herself.
In the darkness, a brief flash of the man’s outline became visible to Tay. She turned to face the man and assumed a fighting stance.
“How inviting,” the man said.
Similar to Tay, Ada encountered no armed guards. Herman had selected the tunnel closest to the surface for Ada to check because the guards there were most likely to be sent topside as reinforcements.
However, Ada remained on guard the entire time. Eventually, she stumbled across a woman. Though Ada didn’t recognize her at first, once the woman turned toward Ada, revealing her face, Ada recognized her as an avatar within the Chimera family.
Ada tried to end the fight quickly. She launched her spear at the woman, but she wasn’t fast enough. The woman extended her hand out.
However, the woman didn’t catch the spear--she never intended to. The spear struck the palm of her hand and embedded itself deep into the woman’s arm, yet the woman didn’t even flinch.
She pulled the spear out of her arm and tossed it to the ground. The wound that was created regenerated instantly.
“That hurt!” the woman called out.
“That was the point,” Ada replied.
“So now it’s only fair if I hurt you, right?” the woman asked.
Ada resummoned her spear to her hand. “You can certainly try.”
For Saxon and Herman, it was much the same as it was for Ada and Tay. They encountered nobody, which concerned them both.
Their concerns were answered once they arrived at what the group had suspected would be Draumur’s hiding spot. Saxon and Herman gazed upon an enormous vault large enough to store all the wealth in Fable with the security measures to match. In front of it stood two men, whom Saxon and Herman recognized as two of the Chimera family’s strongest avatars.
“Got the bottle?” Herman asked Saxon.
“Yeah,” Saxon replied, pulling out a bottle of water. “So we’re doing hot and cold?”
“You know it,” Herman said.
Herman and Saxon approached the two avatars guarding the vault. As the two avatars focused their attention on the Dynamic Duo, Saxon began stretching.
“Alright, time to hydrate,” Saxon announced, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Not now,” Herman said, waving his hand in the direction of the bottle. As he did, Saxon discreetly tapped the bottle, causing the water inside the bottle to turn to ice. The bottle had been supercooled before the raid, such that any stimulating force would turn the water within to ice.
“Bit rude,” one of the avatars called out. “Freezing your friends' drink.”
“Oh I can do a whole lot more than freeze,” Herman replied.
Herman threw a piece of flash paper that quickly turned into flames.
The other avatar narrowed his eyes. “You can freeze a bottle, and burn a scrap of paper. Your mythos is to alter the temperature of things.”
Well, it was now. Herman smiled knowing the prerequisites for his mythos had been met. “And what if it is?”
“Oh, it’s just that things might be a little fun around here for once,” the avatar responded.
The avatar closed his eyes. Wings sprouted from his back, his skin grew scaly, and his hands turned to claws. He opened his eyes, and they were no longer human, but reptilian.
His partner’s body also began to shift. Snow white fur emerged all across his body as it grew to over twice its size--his muscles even more so.
Herman contacted the rest of the infiltration team. “Saxon and I just encountered some resistance. What about the rest of you?”
Lya, Lou, Tay, and Ada all answered in unison. “Same here.”
“Just got jumped by the avatar of Charybdis and the avatar of Scylla,” Lya said. “It’s 2 to 1. I like those odds for me.”
“Staring down the avatar of the Sylph over here,” Lou informed the group. “She's a talker. Should be fun.”
“Encountered the avatar of the Basilisk,” Tay said. “If I’m honest, the statues he made are scarier than him.”
“Dealing with the avatar of the Hydra on my end,” Ada informed the group. “Seems she’s just as much of a fan of hitting back as I am. I think I’m gonna enjoy this.”
“Saxon and I are about to take on the avatar of the Dragon and the avatar of the Yeti,” Herman said.
“Been a while since we fought together, should be nostalgic,” Saxon joked.
“Can you all handle yourselves?” Herman asked.
Once again, Lya, Lou, Tay, and Ada all answered in unison. “With ease.”
Herman looked at Saxon as they both smiled.
“Alright then,” Herman said. “Give ‘em hell.”