The creature standing in the doorway was huge, easily two metres tall, and could have been described as a six-armed human torso grafted onto a large fleshy insect-like thorax standing on four segmented legs, the ends of which looked very sharp. It lacked the trademark Sanguine gauntness, but it still looked unhealthily thin. The creature’s face apparently wasn’t blank either as I realised it was wearing a mask not unlike the one Caeileera had. It also had messy crimson hair, which also wasn’t exactly a common feature among the Sanguine; and I could see four short horns protruding from its head.

‘Gaar’rinver,’ Caei hissed.

‘So you still recognise your own, bitch,’ the creature spat. ‘I was thinking your traitorous ass would not mention your ancestry to your new “friends”. You have such a terrible taste too. A slime and a mongrel.’

‘Listen here, you… what are you even?’ I asked. ‘Other than “one ugly bastard”, that is.’

The creature straightened and intoned.

‘Spare me your taunts, slime. They do not amuse me. I’ll entertain your question though, as mayhaps you don’t realise you are addressing one of your betters. As Caeileera said, I am Gaar’rinver, Lord Diagnostician of the Sanguine.’

‘Lilyth, Pal…’ I began but the spider wannabe cut me off.

‘Silence, worm! You are nothing before me.’

‘I can see why you wanted to leave, Caeileera,’ I said, ignoring our new pal. ‘This guy fucking sucks.’

‘ENOUGH!’ Gaar’rinver shouted, enraged. ‘Slime, I am willing to overlook your lack of respect and let you leave if you hand over the traitor to me. If not… Laachersain will reward me handsomely for all three of your heads.’

I moved in front of Caeileera so that I was standing in between her and the monster. To my pleasant surprise, Aki joined me.

‘Caeileera may be a bitch, but she is our bitch,’ she explained.

‘Love you too, Pipsqueak,’ the Sanguine replied, clearly moved.

‘So you choose death,’ Gaar'rinver sighed. ‘How… disappointing.’

‘Odd… that's what your mom said about you last night,’ I taunted him.

‘Ignorant fool. You are so haughty and yet so primitive. Our kind has no need for such crude methods of reproduction. Mating like animals in heat. Disgusting.’

He took the bait. Good.

The hope was that I could piss him off enough that he would focus on me rather than my companions. I wanted Aki and Caeileera to have as much time to prepare as possible, too. Already I could see my girlfriend positioning herself to flank the ugly bastard.

‘Maybe if you mated from time to time, you wouldn't be such a dick. Then again you don’t seem to have one.’

If I read Gaar'rinver’s body language correctly, that one seemed to have really struck a nerve but I never got to hear his brilliant retort.

‘You-’ he began but then Aki’s Abyssal Bolt struck the side of his head knocking his mask off to the ground, where it broke into several pieces.

Unlike with Caeileera, Spooder-Boy losing his mask did not improve his appearance any. The top of Gaar'rinver's head was mostly human, though one of his eyes was entirely black while the other was white, but instead of a jaw, he had a pair of mandibles.

‘MY MASK!’ Gaar’rinver yelled in a mix of anger and horror. ‘You’ll pay for this, you mongrel b-’

I didn't manage to regain much mana since the fight with Löwe, but I had enough for what I could describe as a pro-gamer funny move.

I pointed my hand at the shards of the mask and cast Gust of Wind. The torrent easily picked up the pieces and promptly drove them into the wall, the strength of the blow turning the ceramics into fine dust.

I heard Caeileera hiss at that. Gaar'rinver slowly turned towards his face a mask of absolutely incandescent rage.

Might as well go for broke.

‘Awww…’ I teased. ‘Is someone angy?’

I got what I was asking for, as Gaar’rinver roared something incoherently, probably that he indeed was angy, and just ran at me. He rammed into me with a surprising amount of strength which sent me flying into one of the catafalques. I hit it with a loud thwack, and I learned that no matter how accustomed you get to being thrown about hitting very hard objects still hurt like a motherfucker.

Before I could get my bearings again Gaar’rinver was on me. Two blood-red swords appeared in the top pair of hands and the Sanguine raised them so that he could plunge them straight into my head, but then a lance of hellfire pierced his upper shoulder causing, blowing the arm off,

‘Forgot… about… someone?’ I croaked as the monster roared in pain.

Gaar’rinver was one persistent bastard, as he still wanted to finish me with his other sword but at that point, I had recovered enough to roll away from its flight path. The blood-red sword bit into the stone of the catafalque. Instead of trying to retrieve the weapon, the Sanguine jumped back to avoid a swing from Caeileera’s glaive. Gaar'rinver, panting from pain, must have realised he was at a serious disadvantage fighting against three opponents, so with his lower four hands he waved a complex series of gestures that summoned a web of a few dozen small bloody projectiles. He released them, forcing us to desperately seek cover to avoid the barrage. There were just too many of them, however, as despite my best attempts I received several hits all across my body. Where the projectiles impacted my armour it easily absorbed the kinetic force, but enough of them struck the exposed parts of my body to do some damage. I saw that Aki received a nasty blow on her shoulder, but as she was to the side of Gaar’rinver she avoided most of the onslaught. Caeileera wasn’t so lucky however and she took the full brunt of the attack just as she was diving behind one of the catafalques. The Sanguine’s wings were pierced in several places and the remaining projectiles struck Caei with enough force to deflect her from her flight path causing her to hit the next bier in the row.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I saw Gaar’rinver had used the confusion to retreat from the confrontation, so, despite the pain, I scrambled to my feet and chased after him, shouting to Aki to help Caei.

I caught up to him in the large antechamber leading to Löwe’s lab. He was ready for me, as he launched a smaller burst of projectiles towards me, forcing me to duck. It gave him all the time he needed.

‘Attend me!’ I heard the Sanguine shout.

Three crimson fissures, two small ones and one enormous, shimmered into existence between him and me. A creature emerged from each of them. Two Hunters stepped out of the small ones, while the big fissure sprang another spider-like Sanguine, which while it seemed to be just a “normal” monster with just four hands rather than six, was easily half-a-metre taller than Gaar’rinver.

Just as I was steeling myself for a four-against-one fight, another much larger fissure appeared.

Wordlessly, Gaar'rinver jumped into it, just as another hellfire lance hit him between shoulder blades. Backing away from his summoned monsters I peeked behind me and saw Caeileera and Aki standing in the entrance to the chamber. The Sanguine was supporting herself on her glaive on her right side and my girl’s shoulder on the other, who was holding the Lance of Longinus in her free hand.

Seeing Gaar'rinver was gone, Caei put her left hand on her side. There was a green flash and several of her wounds closed.

She’s a healer, I realised.

Happy my companions would be fine, I turned back my full attention to the Sanguine, which were slowly circling me. I tried summoning the Blade of the Black Rose into my hand, but nothing happened.

Does it being actually sheathed mean I cannot cheese it anymore?

My momentary confusion gave one of the Hunters an opening to strike at me. Two of its six-fingered hands slashed across my back. Its claws easily pierced my cloak, but the attack seemed to lack sufficient oomph to get through my armour.

Damn. Dragon hide is tough.

I did a one-eighty-degree turn and used the momentum to ram my right elbow into the creature’s non-face. I started drawing my sword, but I heard movement mixed behind me.

Shit!

I needn’t have worried, however. There was a sizzling in the air followed by a loud thud, as the Sanguine Hunter fell dead to the ground. The one before me was starting to recover, but with the Blade of the Black Rose now in my hands, I made short work of it. A quick horizontal slash across its gaunt stomach, and the Sanguine’s body started collapsing to the ground in two pieces. Something weird started happening then, as brown stone spikes began erupting from the monster’s body, its blood spraying all around. By the time both halves of the Hunter hit the ground, the creature looked a bit like a hedgehog.

Level 3 Sanguine Hunter has been slain.

You have earned 300 experience points (1900/2500 total experience points progress to level 5)

Oh right, I realised. That must be the extra effect of the Blade. Damn… that’s so cool. Also messy.

I turned towards the final, spidery Sanguine. If it was upset by the odds suddenly turning around, it didn’t show it. If anything, the gaunt monstrosity looked slightly pleased. Four tentacles erupted from its back and made a grab at its comrade’s corpses. Upon the touch of the fleshy appendages, the bodies dissolved into a blood-like essence that quickly flowed into the Sanguine spider. Its body began growing and shifting. I ran at it, sword raised for an attack, but the creature batted me aside with one of its tentacles and used its four legs to leap away from our trio.

Now that it was temporarily free from our interference, the Sanguine was able to finish its transformation. Its body became slightly bulkier, the torso longer, but most of the extra mass seemed to have been directed towards its limbs. The monster grew an extra pair of legs, probably to help support it, the creature’s tentacles became thicker, and the four arms it had shifted downwards and an extra pair grew above them, each ending with a long bony blade rather than a clawed hand.

It just keeps getting better and better, I sighed internally, as Aki and Caeileera joined me.

The former appeared to have repacked her gun and drew her falchions, while Caei had her glaive ready.

I really needed to help Aki figure out the holster.

Wordlessly, we charged the creature. Caeileera leapt into the air, pointed her polearm at the Sanguine, and, using her wings to gain extra momentum, dove towards the monster. Aki sent out an Abyssal Bolt towards the spidery bastard, but it effortlessly batted it aside with one of its swords. The creature tried to use the other to strike at Caileera but missed, and the girl was able to embed her glaive between its ribs. Just as was trying to remove her weapon, the monster swatted her to the ground with one of its tentacles. It wanted to crush her with one of its layered legs, but by that time I had managed to reach Caei’s side and slashed at the appendage. My blade got in between the chitinous plates and severed the leg. Red ichor began spurting from the stump and the creature howled. Caeileera turned herself to her back and pointed both hands at the monster. A torrent of flames engulfed it. The Sanguine must have realised it was at a disadvantage, as it charged forward, forcing Caei to end the spell, as we did our best not to get crushed by the monster. As it finished its mad dash and began to turn, Aki lunged at it from the side and cut off another leg from the side that was already missing one, which sent it crashing to the ground. The monster was, however, good at compartmentalising certain things as, unfazed, it wrapped one of its tentacles around Aki’s body and began to squeeze. The girl moaned in pain. Caeileera swore and pointed her hand at the tentacle. There was a flash and one of her flying discs appeared vertically through the appendage, cutting it off and causing Aki to crash to the ground.

I nodded my thanks to Caei and started running towards the wounded abomination. It was trying to raise itself using its arms and tentacles to support itself to replace the missing legs.

Fuck. That thing is tough.

Caeileera was close behind me. Once again she took to the air and aimed her glaive to pierce the monster's head from below. The creature moved to stop her with its bone blades, but it only caused the Sanguine abomination to lose balance and once again crash to the ground. Caei overshot her target due to this, but she already had a plan. She turned the glaive in her hands and dropped to the monster's back driving the polearm below the base of its skull. The blade burst out from its non-face. The abomination shuddered and died.

Level 12 Sanguine Brood Guardian has been slain.

You have earned 400 experience points (2300/2500 total experience points progress to level 5)

Then Caeileera did something I never expected her to do. She roared in victory.