Wait, the two-meter tall creature is staring me in the face? I'm definitely tall, so maybe, but probably not that tall. I jump back, shoving the unconscious Turpin in his face.

I expected an attack but he simply raises his right hand, lazily placing his palm on Turpin's bare chest. Instead of the body falling, it seems to stick to the rough scales covering his palm.

He then throws Suxen's goon aside and slowly rises back up to his full height, taking rough, shivering, breaths. We stare at each other for a long while, me rather unwilling to attack with Suxen so close, him apparently preserving his body heat.

I notice that the skin on Turpin's chest, where the Lisilese placed his palm, took the red tint of a rash. Suxen is moving while keeping him between us. Having learned my lesson about this being's speed, I don't let her distract me too much but it's not like I can just ignore her either.

“Ka'tchuk!” He growls for the fourth time.

“Elizabeth Vil!” I yell back, annoyed. He flinches, reflexively touching his jaw with his left stump.

“Khsss.” He hisses.

The 'kh' sound rose from his long throat while the 'ss' was produced by his tongue as it flickers in and out of his maw. Suxen raises her hand and the runic collar around his neck starts glowing golden with a bit more intensity.

The Lisilese almost entirely stops moving, the two pockets in his back contract. The warmer liquid in them flows into the being's body, raising the overall temperature by a fraction.

I have a gut feeling that he's about to attack. I take hold of my scimitar in both hands and deliver a quick strike to his smooth chest. He shifts backward and to the side, easily avoiding my blow.

Something grabs my left knee, making me buckle. The counter escaped my notice, his right foot's three clawed toes are now gripping my leg and squeezing. I let go of my scimitar with my left hand and lion strike with my right.

I expect him to dodge but it's worth a shot. Before the strike even reaches half of its arc, the Lisilese's spine bends backward, beyond what a human could do. He doesn't even lose his balance despite standing on one leg, he actually turns the move into an advantage my using my leg as an anchor.

My foot slides forward from the weight. My symbiont, having read my intention in letting go of the weapon, flashes down to grab one of the small claws and pulls it out of my flesh.

The Lisilese loses his grip and, angled back like he is, starts falling. He doesn't even try to recover his balance, he simply goes limp. His shoulders impact the stone floor and he rolls on his back, getting back up on his three toes in one smooth motion.

I take a step back, limping from the injury in my left knee. Suxen raises her hand. A wave-like construct bursts out of her palm and bursts into flames, homing in on me. I raise my scimitar, trying to both block it and the Lisilese's eventual attack to take advantage of my distraction.

The being instead steps in front of the fireball, receiving it in his back. The long pockets along his spine expand, growing to a size that they hadn't before. I can sense the heat transferring through its scales and into liquid filling them.

“Hiiishk!” It shrieks in pain.

He didn't get out of that without any damage, the flesh to which his back's scales are attached to is swelling. The creature then pulls the hot liquid back into his body, his internal temperature rises by several degrees.

I get into a guarded stance, rather unwilling to get close to him as he is rather hard to handle. Not to mention that it feels like Suxen is threatening his life with the runic collar.

“This creature has named itself Ka'tchuk, as you've guessed, Specimen.” Suxen speaks up with a polite smile. I kind of just yelled back, didn't realize that was his name. “Apparently, its tribal honor demands that I not interfere in the Hunt. Primitive foolishness, it is the reason why these creatures can never truly defeat the Empire.”

“Coward.” I reply. “Threatening him to fight for you.”

“I did no such thing.” Suxen denies. “I am merely using this collar to protect myself. It has lost a hand which is a humiliating loss for these primitives, Specimen. These primitives allow what they hunt to land a single hit as a way to demonstrate skill and domination. The harsher the mark, the higher the risk, the stronger the prey, the more honor they receive. The most savage members of their species have scared scales all over their bodies but lose all their standing if they receive debilitating injuries. This one foolishly believes in their superstitious Hunter's Blaze, hunting a strong opponent to feed it to it will suffice to begin restoring his honor.” Suxen explains.

The Lisilese makes a move, accelerating from immobility to speed above that of my lion's step within a split second. It's a lot easier to detect his moves now that he's warmer.

I really wish I won't have to fight a cold chunk of metal as fast as he is at some point, swords are a lot easier to follow because they're held by humans who can't physically demonstrate the kinds of bursts of speed he has.

I strike out at his legs while closely watching his right hand. He jumps over my weapon and crashes into me. Fucking... I smash my mask into his muzzle. Guh. I hit the ground. It shrieks out in pain, opening his mouth wide. Shit. He bites down on my left shoulder and seizes my left forearm with his right hand.

My symbiont twists and starts reaching up to his jaw through sheer strength. It tries to stop it but finds that it's unable to. It increases the pressure on my shoulder, squeezing red and viscous brown blood out.

His left stump hits the side of my head and mask, breaking the hold of construct that's keeping it on my face. The wooden item flies off and hits the wall, cracking further. He brings his leg up to claw at my thigh.

I jerk my leg up to both dodge and strike him in the groin, to no effect. I feel my symbiont doing something in its part of our left shoulder. The Lisilese suddenly releases my left forearm, angling his head aside without releasing his hold to avoid the blow he just released himself.

His arm then flashes around the limb, enclosing it between its biceps and the pit of his neck. I'm going to lose hard if I keep fucking grappling. While my symbiont strikes out at the scorched scales on the Lisilese's back, breaking a few but doing little to free us, I assemble an air-blade between our bodies.

Yet, before I can activate it and slice at the scales protecting the Lisilese's stomach, it propels itself back, spitting dark-orange blood out. It bristles and whines as it opens and closes its maw.

I look down at the teeth marks on our shoulder, finding a glistering gel-like substance. Did my symbiont actually... I explode in laughter, unable to help it. They were trying to eat each other at the same time!

Alright, enough screwing around. I get up to my feet and use the air-blade to propel my scimitar up, snatching it out of the air. I then form an armor-piercing construct. The Lisilese shifts its stance, guarding himself primarily with his left stump.

“Elizabeth Vil, predator.” I declare with an aggressive grin.

“Ka'tchuk, Sssprst Hrrssr.” It replies in a deep, throaty voice.

I throw an overhead lion strike at his mid-section. He kicks the ground and spins on his left toe-heel's claw, using barely any effort to dodge. I shift my hands opposite to each other on the hand and open my fingers while keeping my palms on the handle to make my scimitar arc down around the point held between my hands.

I seize it again after it spun a hundred and eighty degrees, achieving a reverse grip before even the Lisilese can take advantage. It strikes out with his right hand, I forcefully reverse my weapon's momentum into an upwards lion strike.

His left forearm takes a red glow, that of his flow, and strikes the flat of my blade with his stump to redirect it to the side. The movement required him to twist his spine, yet his right hand's aim remains true.

I flick my head to the side but one of his right hand's claws bites into my left cheek, knocking my mask aside and leaving a cut almost deep enough to pierce all the way through.

“Rhaaaaa!” I shout in pain and anger as my blood cascades out.

I hurriedly shift my mask back into place and once again use my symbiont's superior strength to slam my scimitar into his side, catching the Lisilese by surprise but not enough to cut more than scales. He blinks with his two sets of eyelids and puts some distance between us.

My grin widens and he opens his maw just slightly, forked tongue flicking out. I shift my grip closer to the blade to be able to attack quickly while retaining the use of the handle to defend myself.

We exchange blows, or I do while he retaliates once in a while. I throw out quick attacks to try to force him to constantly use his top speed which would eventually tire him out but he is wise to my tactic and makes use of his left forearm covered in some kind of flow construct to defend himself whenever he fails to catch one of my slashes in time to twist away.

I swing out at his belly, the tip of my weapon brushes the surface of his pliable scales, which have a slightly lighter blue color than the rest. My armor-piercing construct merely cuts a small thin line into them.

He hisses victoriously, I squint my eyes and throw a reverse one-handed lion strike with my symbiont that he definitely doesn't see coming as it slices a layer of skin off his left forearm, completely destroying the construct anchored to it in the process. Blue blood starts oozing out of the injury.

His right hand's claws dig into the left part of my chest in retaliation, sheering through cloth and flesh to leave four bright red trenches. I growl is anger and limp back to put some distance between us. Stupid, he didn't see it coming but neither did I and I think I pulled a rib if that's a thing, it sure feels like it.

We lock eyes, sharing a crazed look, that of battle maniacs who can't fully enjoy themselves because we're splitting our attention with the intruder. I throw a quick swipe at his long neck, aiming at the collar, which he hurriedly dodges.

He could have easily avoided that, there was no need to use that kind of speed. So, the collar will kill him if damaged. I nod and swipe at his neck again but interrupt the strike before it comes close. He blinks at me three times, twice with the scaled eyelids, once with the cloudy white membranes.

“Turn around and die in dishonor.” Suxen threatens, apparently sensing something from this pause in our battle.

“Kss.” He replies sharply, throwing a bloodthirsty look over his shoulder.

I take advantage of his foolishness but decide not to kill off the Lisilese. Instead, I lion strike at his chest with the flat of my blade to propel him at Suxen, to distract her and shatter some of his bones so I can deal with her without interference.

My scimitar violently impacts him but I hear no crack, feel no break. His chest's bones seem to bend inwardly, absorbing much of the momentum. He flies off at her, spinning on himself much quicker than he should be.

He lands on his feet right in front of Suxen, his torso twisted at a hundred and twenty degrees from his waist. His spine unwinds and his right hand lashes out towards her throat. Suxen's eyes widen.

“Krrrsssssssssssss!” He growls, the blue and red scales on his head bristle.

An unbelievably fast and thick arrow flies in my direction, coming from my back. My breath catches. In the position I'm in, just after delivering a huge blow, I simply can't move out of the way and my symbiont is extended in front of my chest so there's no way it can reach all around to my back in time either. Am I dead?

Luckily, or perhaps because I was never the target, it zips just above my head, actually disturbing some of my hair, and pierces the Lisilese's left shoulder. The impact shoves him aside and into the tunnel's wall. His long muzzle hits the wall and, this time, I can distinctively hear a small crack.

His eyelids close over his red irises. He seems to have fainted and is bleeding from the two slits at the end of his large snout. I start slowly sidestepping towards my mask, realizing that charging Suxen or making a sudden move might result in my death.

“Don't move.” A man's voice orders, coming from a ways away in the tunnel I took to get to the crossing. So he came from the institute, why isn't he killing me?

“I need my mask, I have a skin condition.” I reply, not stopping.

“The specimen is lying.” Suxen speaks up, looking pale.

“Silence, Director.” The man replies. “Do not move, Elizabeth Vil, or I will shoot.”

I slowly lean down towards my mask, preparing my scimitar, ready to intercept the arrow that won't fail to come. Twang. My symbiont snaps out, smashing the scimitar flat into the thinner arrow aimed at my left knee. Clink, crack, clink.

The arrow's shaft shatters into dozens of wooden shards while the head spins out of control and hits the wall. I stumble a little from the sudden movement and shift in weight distribution but recover quickly.

I pick up my mask, set it back on my face, and stand up while turning around to see what the newcomer looks like. He is a good fifty meters away, a huge bow in hand. The draw weight of that thing must be at least seventy-five kilograms yet he's already knocked another arrow, a thick one, and is pulling his weapon taut without any apparent effort.

I'm pretty sure he isn't wearing an illusion construct because I've seen him before when spying on the Hetlan Lady at the docks. He looked like an average sailor, which is pretty muscular now that I think about it. He has rough traits, one that definitely wouldn't look out of place anywhere and be soon forgotten.

“What does Hetlan want?” I ask, peeved. “Or are you the Shade?”

“Ho.” He exhales with an impressed look. “The latter.” He tells me.

“Suxen blabbed.” I comment.

“Set that weapon down, Elizabeth Vil.” He replies, ignoring my attempt to arouse conflict.

“I would rather play with you for a while.” I counter.

I flick a look at the quiver on his back and repress a swear as I find a second one behind his waist, containing at least four dozen arrows in total. Did he come here prepared to fight an army or what? It is a bit flattering.

He releases the arrow but it flashes past me, towards Suxen who hurriedly raises her hand, which already is glowing with flow, and forms a wide barrier with it. Her construct shatters but she does manage to deflect the arrow.

“It goes for you too, Director Suxen.” He warns. “The next one will contain a shredding construct.”

I weave a defensive construct in my scimitar, waiting to get a feel of what's actually going on since they don't seem to be working together and it would be beyond unwise to give them a reason to.

“Specimen, you think yourself powerful.” She affirms, and isn't exactly wrong. “I hadn't through you would have this much access, I admit. But you will soon hit a hard limit, if you haven't already. You are an ersatz of a hybrid, if you do not completely integrate the parasite, you will stagnate and die because your body cannot handle the strain.”

“So?” I ask, caring little as I've gotten this far through brutal wits.

“Do not sacrifice the future for your animalistic need to prove your dominance. Surrender, evolve!” She orders.

“You're insane.” The Shade intervenes.

“What you're doing isn't creation, it's destruction.” I utter coldly.

“A negative change for some, a positive for others. It matters little, one dies and is reborn with every passing second.” She dismisses, mentioning her mad philosophy once again.

“You call this positive?” The Shade asks, baffled.

“I pursue knowledge.” Suxen replies.

“I worried about whether or not I would have the guts to kill you all, put an end to this madness.” I take a deep breath to calm myself. “It hasn't been a concern.” I finish by throwing her a bloodthirsty glare.

“The Emperor will never allow the perversions you pursue. You deserve death for those who have died in your experiments.” The Shade throws out with a calm but judging look on his face.

“This is not even a mere a raindrop compared to those who died to protect the Empire!” Suxen exclaims. “What I'm doing will save thousands, millions!”

“That is a false equivalency.” I counter. “Those who have died to protect the Empire have chosen to accept the risk, your victims have not.”

“Yeah right.” She scoffs, her polite smile gone, replaced by the ugly grimace of a thwarted egomaniac. “No one volunteers for the Vaul...” Suxen interrupts herself. I notice, from the corner of my eye, that the Shade suddenly injected about a dozen portions of flow into his arrow. “Why aren't you killing me?” Suxen snaps to the Shade who relaxes a little. “You've ruined my institute for a reason. Is it because Cenwalh won't be paying for a new one? That way, he'll be wanting to get rid of me. Which means you want me.” The man frowns, likely because he's missing several pieces to put the puzzle of her erroneous assumptions together.

“It doesn't have anything to do with you, Suxen.” I speak up in a mean tone. “The destruction is all me, the Shades are only concerned with the data and me.”

“Actually...” The Shade starts with a bit of an awkward smile. “You're not even a secondary concern, Elizabeth Vil.” I buckle, that hit me straight in the ego. “Unless you can tell me where Aisha is, since she left a message upstairs saying she does have the data.”

I freeze, realizing that Suxen is right, that they want her. I can't allow that. I secure my grip over my scimitar. The Shade immediately switches his aim to me with a ruthless look in his eyes.

He pulls some of the flow in the arrow but there's enough of a glow left that I can tell there's a construct anchored to the projectile. I don't move since he isn't firing and start assembling a lightning construct inside the metal veined tunnel, just underneath the stone's surface.