It took us a bit but eventually, we coaxed Al to come down. Despite being so big and durable he seems like a kid again when he was hanging from the ledge of the building. I’d heard of him leaping from higher, but it must be the difference between consciously doing it vs in the heat of the moment.

Dashing down the alleyways and going to the location from the map doesn’t take us too long. The interesting part is as we get closer there are guards posted outside and around the building. The pungent reek of the fowl Chi below feels like it’s pouring from this place too.

Edward shivers for a moment before covering his nose. “Ugh, I thought I was starting to get a handle on this feeling.”

“You are… there is something about this place. We need to be careful it seems to be connected to whatever that feeling is.”

We move along the sidewall. It’s roughly a thirty-foot wall topped with barbwire.

Al speaks up first. “How are we getting in there?”

Edward answers first. “Transmutation would be a problem… people would see the light.” I can’t help but shake my head.

“You’re thinking too small Edward. May I see your coat?” He looks at me oddly but gives it to me anyway.

I walk up to the ground in front of the wall and lay the coat over it.

“For the transmutation light to be seen, there needs to be nothing between the transmuted object and them. By covering it up we can transmute a bit more stealthily.” Using the stone transmutation circle, I make a small trap door underneath the wall. Using my senses, I know there are no guards on the other side.

Sliding under and closing the trap door to the other side we move towards the building itself. The doors are locked up tight with wooden beams and barbed wire wrapped around each bar.

Edward stops for a moment and closes his eyes. “I… is there anyone in there?” He turns towards me. I can’t help but smile… He’s either picking this up fast or has a good lucky guess.

“Not that I can feel.” He performs the same trick I did using his jacket to cover up the wall and makes a garish metal door that has a cartoon depiction of his face on it.

I just point at it with a sigh. “Are you sure you want to leave a picture of your face on our covert mission?”

He looks a little embarrassed rubbing the back of his head for a moment before clapping and with a small jolt, the face is removed. “W-woops uh it’s a bit of a habit.”

We start moving through the laboratory slowly. There are lights on the floor keeping most hallways lit. Edward laughs a bit. “Yeah, abandoned my ass. I guess we should just head towards the lights?” Only certain hallways are lit pretty much guiding a path.

Only one path being lit up makes me a little nervous though. “Either this is a trap or they are just lazy and don’t want to learn the route.”

We all peer into the side rooms as we pass each one. Although none of us can sense anything here that doesn’t mean that we can’t find anything interesting.

Al stops for a moment in one of the rooms he comes out with an old dusty clipboard with some useless documents on it. “This is an elaborate facility for just one thing…”

I just shrug. We’d been pretty quiet until now but sensing nothing and walking for a long time we were starting to relax a little. “It probably means that they just repurposed it. Can’t have people asking too many questions about what’s going on downstairs if no one is working upstairs anymore.”

Edward turns the corner ahead of us. “I guess so… Oh some stairs going down over here. I guess this is the way to go?" I just shrug and we all head down. It's the most likely place for them to keep stuff.

Heading down we walk for nearly 5 minutes straight down before we finally come to an open room. In its center, there is a large transmutation circle with an elaborate array of circles and squares. It’s easily one of the most complicated circles I’ve ever seen for alchemy. In the center is a small podium that has a smaller depiction of a somewhat simpler rendition of the outer large circle. The most important sections though are 4 small circles that are stained with blood.

Edward pulls out a notebook and starts sketching everything down. “Well, this looks like it’s it.” Looking around there is another passageway on either side that seems to go deeper.

Al looks at the circle too. “If this is the ritual room, what do you think is further in?”

“Something you lot will unfortunately never find out.” A voice startles all of us from one of the passages.

I can’t help but look around in surprise. I’d grown so reliant on my ability to sense Chi that they snuck upon us. Now that I’m concentrating more I can also hear the distant clank of metal coming down the stairs. Interestingly I don’t feel any Chi from either direction… they are like Al.

Edward frowns before closing his small notebook and putting it away. “Well, come on out you coward! We don’t have all day.” He claps and extends the metal blade on his arm.

From around a corner, a suit of armor greets us. They are wearing old Xing guard-style armor and a white cloth covering the lower half of their face. In their hand, they are wielding a long Nodatchi blade.

I can’t help but frown seeing them. Edward just looks pissed off and starts moving up to meet him. “Who the hell are you anyway? Know anything about this lab?”

This seems to get a chuckle out of the suit. “Well… I am quite familiar with this lab. After all, I am tasked with protecting it from brats like you. Hmm as for who I am? You can call me Forty-eight but years ago I went by a different name, Slicer.” A quick mental search doesn’t turn up any results… I haven’t heard that name before. He looks towards me as he says that like he was expecting me to know it. He likely recognizes Zig's mask.

After looking at me for a moment he seems to be taken aback. “Oh, my… are you by any chance a prince? It’s been a while since I’ve fought one of you. Which clan do you represent? I’m not exactly up to date you see.” He gestures towards his armor.

I maintain my glare at him, but I suppose I should respond… there’s the chance that he worked for my family or something. “I am the Prince of the Du clan.” He nods then looks towards Zig. “Hmm, it would have been Su that's the head guard right? Shame she isn’t here… she’d put up a hell of a fight.” He lowers his stance. This... could be bad. He knows Su and is looking forward to fighting, either he is suicidal or a lot more skilled than anything I was expecting to face here.

My mental self is searching for anything… They know Su so they must have some sort of connection to our clan. Must have been a moniker used either here or he was never mentioned because he was shunned… like what would happen if he were sent across the desert or deserted us. Damn…

Regardless they are more dangerous than the other two can probably handle. “Edward watch our backs… He’s hollow like Al. He said his name is 48 which means there are potentially 47 more like him about.”

Edward freezes for a moment before nodding. “That… would be troublesome.” He grits his teeth for a moment. “But what about you guys?”

“We’ll be fine. You just need to make sure we aren’t surrounded and block off the other passageways if more come chokepoints will limit their attack options.” My eyes never leave the armor in front of us. He’s not moving just waiting for our approach.

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In the distance, I can hear the clank of metal echoing on the steps faster now.

That could get annoying. “Or they are already coming… Can you seal the stairs?” Edward nods and transmutes a stone slab to block off the staircase.

“Alright, watch that path and deal with anything that comes through… Ready Zig?” He nods slowly he has a blade in one hand while flexing his clawed hand. Alright… He’s a suit of armor which means that Ice will be useless against him. So long as they aren’t idiots fire would be too. What are my options… metal? That could work… I don’t know the specific alloy of steel but the transmutation circle might be able to make up for the slack but he has a lot of flowing fabric that might get in the way... It's risky but a valid option.

While I’m planning, he speaks up. “Since you are one of the princes I might as well give myself a bit of a handicap. You’ll need it if you have any hope of winning.” He lifts his face mask. At the back of his head is a transmutation circle… that’s pretty simple.

“Destroy this and I’m put to rest.” He puts down his helmet.

He points towards Al with his sword. “Considering I can’t feel your friend over there I can tell you are already familiar with my kind.”

Interesting… he willingly showed us where his transmutation circle was. Why? Honor? I move my head to look down in thought while I consider my options. I don’t have a sword on me, it’s back at the house but my arms are made out of metal and I have a few knives still and some other stuff in my pockets.

Noticing me looking down swordless, he finally lunges towards me. “Hahaha weren’t you ever taught to not take your eyes off your foe?” With a small flash of transmutation lightning, I round the edge on my metal arms and meet his blow guiding it to the side and delivering a strike but it rings hollow on his metal chest as he kicks me sending me sliding back. He's able to hit with such force and speed that I can't quite keep up... He's more skilled with Chi than me and has been fighting with it for far longer. A normal human couldn't have kicked that fast or hard... My hand gently touches my shoulder, I can't help but wince a little in pain a bit.

“Come on now little prince. You can pack a bit more of a punch than that right?” Please, a normal human would have died from a solid steel fist punching into their chest. He blocks a blow from Zig as the mound of snake muscle charges into him but is somehow able to leverage his weight to stay upright.

As they continue to exchange Zig seems to be slowly losing himself. His skill gives way to a more animalistic series of wild slashes... Damn it. Slicer meanwhile seems to skillfully push back each blow or let them strike him while moving back with the blow. For each small scratch, Zig manages to land he's receiving four gashes along his skin. A particularly meaty slash sacrifices bits of flesh on his palm as he attempts to catch the sword.

Slasher seems to be amused by this though. "Were you even trained properly? You are acting like a rabid animal! Unless that mask is just for show." I need to help him before he gets too cut up. I know I'm the one that's going to need to treat his wounds later. I might as well help prevent him from receiving more.

This time I run towards Slashers back, going into a slide in an attempt to knock him over while Zig lunges from above. I see two holes in the lower back of his armor light up for a second and he uses his blade to pivot his movement abruptly moving himself to the side avoiding both our blows as kicks Zig away. As I move to recover into another punch he drags his sword up towards me, I manage to catch it on my arm again to redirect the blow but he uses his height to his advantage pivoting his blade on my arm slicing my side.

Before he has the moment to press his advantage Zig manages to get a few deep claw marks into his back drawing his attention off me. This isn’t good, he’s a strong fighter. If he were human I’d just need to touch him once to kill him with ice. He has too much loose cloth I might miss with the metal transmutation.

After throwing Zig off him once more he takes a moment to glance at my ruined sleeves revealing both are automail. Slicer just hums to himself. “Hmm, both arms are metal it seems. That’s unlucky, an assassination attempt perhaps?"

Instead of answering, I dust myself off and a small transmutation zap on my side closes the small bleeding wound.

This seems to surprise him. “And an alchemist too… what are you doing this far from home little prince? Too crippled that they didn’t want you anymore?” He's starting to get on my nerves...

He drops into a defensive stance as both Zig and I approach him from separate sides. Circling in towards him. “You two may think you have numbers… but I have experience.” He is only following one of us… odd he keeps his back completely open.

We both attack but his extended reach pushes us both back... the circle continues. "A normal person may not be able to keep up. But I have no longer have a limit! No muscles that get sore, no fatigue to drop me in battle. You're outmatched, boys!"

Both Zig and I close the distance again he reacts the same as before, parrying Zig’s blade. He seems ready to tell us off as I go in for the same attack, I see the same red flash again and his blade is there to catch my fist… Idiot, If we are doing the same attack obviously we are planing something. As my metal arm is pushed off from his blade I activate my metal transmutation circle. There is a small amount of lightning that arcs between my arm and his sword as it glances past the etching.

Seemingly noticing the lightning, he ditches his parry turning it into a shoulder charge, this change in movement allows for Zig to land a blow on his helmet, knocking it off as the blade shatters into pieces.

The suite of armor collapses on top of me pinning me to the ground. Not without a thud and some cracks though… I think it broke some of my ribs. “fuuuuuck…” I can’t help but moan in pain a bit.

Zig quickly grabs the helmet. “You failed, you could never hurt my masssster. So much talk for a dead man.” Tossing it aside.

Taking stock of the situation I notice Edward and Al fighting some rotund suit of armor with a skull helmet and two butcher hand axes. No other threats currently I start to push the armor off me. “Mind giving me a hand Zig?” With a serious nod, he moves to help but as he does Slasher comments from the floor.

“You know… there’s a little-known secret from back when I was still alive. The authorities couldn’t figure it out for the longest time. Slasher… it wasn’t just one person.” The suit of armor I’d already disregarded as empty pulls a tanto short blade from its waist. As it goes for my heart I manage to tug up one of my arms the blade sliding along the curved surface until it finds purchase in my shoulder between the metal and flesh.

“My Lord!” Zig frantically begins to rip into the sides of the armor but while he’s leaving long gouges it’s not stopping, nothing hurts it unless you destroy its mark which could be anywhere in its body… Right… it’s just a blood mark.

Wincing in pain as its other fist begins to slam into my side that’s already likely cracked. My head starts to ring as it lands one blow on my head. I can hear someone yelling and the helmet mocking us but the words just escape me. I need this to work, I activate my transmutation circles again… this time I use the blood that’s leaking from my arm and push it up inside the armor before making it burst.

The armor's rain of blows seems to slow, their motions start to twitch like their connection is messed up. Small movements seem to twitch and one of its arms falls limp at its side.

“HISS” Zig manages to push it off me. Its grip on me having slackened Zig just starts tearing into the chest piece of the suit ripping it off and throwing pieces around until it stops moving.

From nearby I can hear the frantic yells of the helmet slicer saying “Brother! Hold on! Don’t move on without me!” I wince and see some spots in my vision… that can’t be good. Using analyze on myself, I check for any more stab wounds, and it looks like I’m mostly okay… well besides the bruising, stab wound, cracked bones, and hasty patch job I’m a picture of health…

The good part about metal arms is that even if they are beaten to shit they can still move. My none stabbed arm reaches over and I mentally prepare myself. This is going to hurt like a bitch…

I transmute the blade out of the wound, and quickly press against the flesh, transmuting the flesh to close and clotting the blood vessels… I’ll need to fix all of that later. For now, I perform what little I can do to just sit up. Zig finally finished with destroying the armor comes over and helps me onto my feet. I wince in pain but I’ve felt worse. That pain resistance skill is looking a whole lot more tempting… though I think I’ll be taking martial arts after this… I’m good but against a foe that uses Chi in every little action, they do? The issue most people have is they use it conservatively to preserve stamina… these suits can just keep using it over and over.

Paying attention towards Edward and Al they have also finished their fight pretty handily. Edward looks a little scuffed up but he’s not looking as bad as I feel. Their guy is on his back arms melted away from transmutation and it’s just a torso flopping around cursing.

Turning my head towards the helmet it finally speaks up again. “Well done, I suppose… it was a fine last battle. Just hurry up and end me already I don’t want to keep my brother waiting.”

I stagger over near him finding my feet as I adjust for the injuries. They don’t actually impact my walking as much as I was expecting it too odd. “Do you mind telling us stuff about this place before you go? I’d kind of appreciate it and call us even for that cheap shot with your brother.”

This gets another laugh from the helmet. “Ahhhh well… I suppose we did lose. I’d say I couldn’t due to my honor but my first vow is to Xing before Amestris even if that was a lifetime ago.”

I feel something churning in my stomach. A fowl feeling is approaching closer.

The helmet can feel them too. “Oh… it appears we have another guest… I guess you’ll have to fight them too if you want answers.” I can almost feel the smugness coming off them. At the end of the hallway on the side, I can see a lean muscled man wearing a crop top with long green hair and a bandana with peculiar red markings on it. On their left leg there is a tattoo of an ouroboros.