They walked on from their latest pile of corpses, and the tree opened up into a giant cavern with an ascending ramp spiraling in the center. Save for a path that led to the beginning of the ramp, everything else was covered in the now familiar red water.

“That’s a hell of a lot of water to purify.” Mason resisted the urge to put a hand to his testicles in protection. “Are we going to need a uh, series of repeat performances?”

Calypsa shook her head and stared with horror. “I don’t have the power to cleanse these waters, druid, regardless of how much seed I have. Not even Thea could do such a thing.”

He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed. “Then what do we do?”

“Whatever is corrupting this place must be destroyed,” Calypsa said simply. “That may give us the tools we need.”

“Right,” Blake grinned. “Have to kill the dungeon boss first, old boy. Let’s start climbing.”

Mason glared at his brother the gamer. “I hate that this makes sense to you.”

“Everything makes sense to me,” Blake said matter of factly. “Except horoscopes.”

Mason just walked on, and the group soon reached the foot of the ramp and began to follow the spiral.

“I don’t suppose I need to say you’d best all pay attention,” Mason said.

“I don’t suppose.” Becky grinned.

They climbed and slowly circled the giant central pillar in the center of the cavern. Mason began to hear a shrieking or squawking in the distance, and soon heard the flapping of wings on the air.

“Get ready,” he said with a grimace. “There’s something flying out there. I expect it’s not friendly.”

The shrieking and flapping moved closer, until nothing but the sounds of whatever made it filled the air above them. Still Mason couldn’t see above the overhanging lip of the pillar, but his bow and powers were ready.

A scraping sound began, dragging down slowly towards them, like metal rubbed on rock. They all stood there in silence, no idea yet what to plan for. Then huge claws lowered from above, avian looking feet and legs following the slow descent.

The group stared in silence, including Mason, frozen in surprise and perhaps fear at the sight.

“It’s not necessarily the boss,” Blake licked his lips. “Maybe it’s some kind of protector, and doesn’t much like our corrupted friends. Maybe if we ask nicely, he might fly us on up to…”

The giant creature shrieked so loudly the rocks around them shook. Mason activated Power Shot, and loosed.

His arrow blasted one of the giant cat toes, ripping flesh and snapping the talon, sending it falling with a spray of blood. Massive wings flapped down as it pushed away, revealing the twisted body of a creature vaguely like a giant, winged snake mixed with a lion. And was that a goat head?

“Holy shit, it’s a Chimaera.” Blake actually grinned.

“Shut up and start running!” Mason pushed the others on, then started filling the air with arrows.

The creature shrieked and turned its wings, dashing towards the pillar as it extended its claws. Mason sprinted and jumped down the ramp just as the razor sharp blades raked the wall where he’d been standing.

So much for not being able to reach us, he thought.

He tried Crippling Strike but had very little hope of success. Then he ran back up the ramp, trying to throw traps at the very edge of the stone lip. His vision glowed with the potential of the power, and it looked like the trap would explode the stone into some kind of shrapnel when touched. It would have to do.

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With no other real plan, he just ran back and forth shooting and dodging claws and apparently tail swipes, hoping the creature stayed focused on him instead of the others.

Then it started spraying thorns from its tail. Of course it did.

The first wave of barbs rattled like hail across the pillar, impossible to completely dodge. Mason dropped and tried to make himself as small as possible, but still felt several pierce into his arms and legs, cursing himself for not using Shield.

He ignored the pain and ran on, knowing without cover he would need Rebecca’s shields to protect him. He continued loosing arrows as fast as he could, watching the growing pattern of buried arrows and seeping blood from the creature’s body. He supposed they were even.

The tail, he realized, was re-growing its barbs.

“Great,” he muttered, “just fucking great.”

He activated Aspect of the Cheetah and ran at full speed up the ramp. “If you can do anything to hurt it,” he yelled, mostly at Blake, “now is the time.”

Frankly he didn’t expect much. The vicious laser-like spell Blake had been using might work well on smaller targets, but he doubted a man-sized gash would be the end of this giant. Unless maybe he hit its throat…

Another tail swipe forced Mason to activate his Shield gem or get crushed, then barely gave him enough time to leap away from the claws that followed.

[Shield Gem: 75%]

The force of the blow had still caused him to twist an ankle, but he ignored the pain, hearing the others up ahead.

Power Shot recycled, and he dropped to a knee, watching for the big bastard’s eye.

“Come on,” he muttered, waiting for his shot. “Look at me with those pretty baby blues.”

Instead the creature pulled back its tail, which spread its barbs as if ready for another blast.

“Shit.” He didn’t have time to shield himself. “Becky! Shield!”

Mason ran for the girl and leaped to the floor, covering his head with his arms.

He heard the blast, and the familiar rattling of the barbs against stone. Then the glorious sizzle of Rebecca’s defense.

“You’re amazing!” he shouted, back on his feet as he ran to higher and higher ground. “Blake, hit something vulnerable. A neck. It’s eyes. It’s balls. Anything!”

He was hoping Calypsa might have something useful, but the nymph seemed more or less trapped against Rebecca, staring out at the giant creature with wide, fear-filled eyes.

Mason dodged more claws and tail-swipes, loosing more arrows but saving his Power Shot when it eventually recycled. He finally reached the top of the platform, finding another pool with a stone altar in its center, a large, beating red heart on its flat surface.

The Chimaera seemed displeased with Mason’s progress. It roared and beat its wings to rise up above the pillar, coming fully into terrible view.

The disfigured face of a massive lion growled. Behind it, a swaying goat head swung back and forth as if drunk, the neck sticking from its shoulders. The wings were feathered, but just barely, belonging more to a bat than a bird.

The beast landed between Mason and the heart. Its wings swept the shallow water as its head lowered, jaws opening to howl with a fierce roar.

Mason loosed his Power Shot straight into its mouth.

The beast pulled back and silenced with something like a gag, eyes going wide and flaring with pain. It staggered forward and turned, tail whipping out like a massive flail.

Mason had no desire to block that again. He waited, and chose to drop flat at the last moment, the tail swiping above him with a terrifying sound of force.

He’d grown tired of running. He dropped his bow and summoned Claw, activating his renewed Aspect of the Cheetah as he raced to cross the distance. The Chimaera clearly hadn’t expected this, its tail still waving back and forth where he’d been, its wings spread to stop him from fleeing to either side. He jumped with his sword extended, slamming it down into the beast’s chest.

It squawked with a broken, trembling sound, thrashing as it spun and snapped its jaws towards him. But it couldn’t see, not with him so close and its lion’s neck unable to twist so far. He used both swords like climbing sticks, ramming them into the chimaera again and again as he tried to work his way towards the heart, barely avoiding life-ending bites.

When he’d reached the center of the beast’s chest, he drove his Claw with a Predator’s Strike, then looked up to just see the corner of the creature’s eye staring down at him, almost amused.

Shit, he realized, thinking of the altar. That wasn’t some metaphorical dungeon heart, it was the actual Chimaera’s God damn heart.

He was about to drop when he realized the creature had taken to the air. He looked down and saw he wasn’t even above the pillar anymore—nothing remained but the water hundreds and hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the cavern.

“Blake!” he shouted, not sure exactly what he was going to do.

“Hold on!” he heard his brother yell. Then he looked back and saw Blake finish casting his spell. The air around him shimmered, and a now familiar red and purple line formed on the heart resting on the altar, tearing it in two.

The chimaera groaned. Its eyes flickered, then it stopped flapping its wings, and fell straight down.

Mason fell right along with it.