After a few minutes, everyone had already set out to their designated positions, the revving of vehicles and the marching of troops in the snow was very audible as the blizzard started to get stronger.

Morning was approaching soon, but the sun would not come to rise until eight am in the morning due to the snowstorm and how dense the clouds were. The loud revving of engines and snow-mobiles were starting up and they propelled themselves through the snow.

Pyron was caught off guard and fell back in his seat but managed to regain his composure. Since they were riding in a speed-type vehicle, there weren't any noticeable windows or roof. The cold air was swirling around through the entire vehicle.

Pyron stared out and stared at the trees that they were passing by so quickly. It was all covered in snow. He looked at the very top of the trees and he was still amazed at how big they were. The shortest had to be at least a hundred feet tall.

It was all because of the Holy Knights doing, ever since they started the rejuvenation of the world back in 2030 the world was starting to heal, and because of the rifts opening up at the same time, all the strange new animals and creatures had perfect homes.

The magic and different species also had a major effect on the changing of biomes and ecosystems. It was funny though, because even though most Riftlings were hostile to humans, they had almost zero interest in other fauna. "Neutrals" was the name that was given them, most were still dangerous but would only attack if provoked.

But even so, I vowed to eliminate all Riftlings, no matter what. I have to do it for her, for Kuro. And now I've been given the first chance to get even closer that goal. Becoming a Rank S agent would open up all kinds of doors and opportunities for being able to accomplish my goal. I would be given access to all the information I need and also the firepower and control to completely eradicate everything that spawned from the underdark.

The memories of that night still fresh in Pyron's mind. His intentions were as clear as day. He swore to find out what happened to her, he didn't want to believe that she's dead. His reason for becoming a grand council was to obtain classified information about the creatures, and also about Rifts. It's been over 75 years since the first Rift appeared, and the public still hasn't been informed about any new discoveries the Order has learned.

There were plenty of rumours that they have already learned about what is on the other side of the Gateway, and he wanted to know what it was. The answer he was seeking held the key to finding out what happened to his friend.

Pyron managed to doze of completely and managed to sleep through a few hours of the ride. The rest of the ride went off without much incident, and then a loud screeching halt was heard and Pyron was still asleep, so he ended up knocking his head on the driver that was in front of him.

A loud thunk followed the motion accordingly.

"Ow!" The grunt rubbed his head where it was struck by the carbon coated helmet.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry, are you alright?" Pyron reached out a hand in an apologetic manner.

"I-I'm fine. Don't worry about me sir." He waved a hand dismissively.

The other driver turned around and faced clumsy teen and the cloaked nightmare, and he said in accordance with signalling the other agents behind the vehicle to stop.

"We've reached the vantage point. This was the last place where the Category S was reported to be seen. It is the first of three spots we have to search."

He gave a nod and got out of the vehicle. The other agents followed shortly after.

The vehicle stopped right on the outside of the clearing of the forest. The dark green trees still lined the area, but it was a lot more dangerous since now it is lined with all sorts of dark and magical beasts that reside inside.

Pyron shook himself awake and helped unload the equipment from the back of the vehicle. There wasn't much so he didn't tire himself out at all. The other crew members had already fully equipped themselves.

They started to form small groups and ventured out into the area. Pyron and the Cloak were both assigned to different parties but shared the same objective: search the area for the designated target.

They left the original campsite where the vehicles and extra equipment were left to be watched by a small group of scouts. Pyron was leading a small party of five people including him.

They entered the forest in an orderly manner. Two of the men were armed with pulse rifles and the other two with the signature weapons of the order, a polished blessed sword and shield. They were being led by the much younger fully-armoured boy carrying a large black sword.

The snow rustled beneath their feet as they trudged through the forest ground. The snow barely fell once they were inside the brush. The trees were so thick that you could barely see the sky, and because of this, it also gave the atmosphere a sort of quiet and heavy feeling of nature.

Nothing made a sound except them, and after awhile they could definitely sense something watching them as they made their way even deeper into their route. As they got closer to the very centre of their designated endpoint, Pyron's visor lit up and a warning was shown.

"WARNING: Category A Riftling Detected. Caution is advised."

Pyron help up a hand to his side motioning for the other troops to hold their position. They waited and listened to the silence which was starting to become more and more eerie.

Pyron activated his visor and then a crosshair locked into an energy source that appeared as a red spot on his visor. He immediately prepared his weapon and raised it up in a battle pose.

The knights behind him took stance and prepared themselves to have an encounter but before they could advance a large leopard-like creature lept out and attacked them. Pyron managed to dodge the creature and the person behind him managed to raise his shield up and hold back the enraged beast. It rammed it's head right at the shield and pushed the other agent back a bit.

From a glance Pyron could identify it by its very distinct features. It had a two tails and both were had sickle like blades on the end of each, and they were really sharp. It also had jet black fur and horns that you would see on a Ram and it also had a brown mane that seemingly shone even without any light.

It was a Chimera variation. Most Chimeras were extremely dangerous, and get ranked as at least a category B. Its species isn't generalized enough to have any specific details so they couldn't be classified as any single species, and every new generation would change accordingly in very strange and different ways than a parent.

Most Chimeras have a specific weakness that you must find out immediately after you encounter one. Agents with higher experience usually lasted longer when fighting dangerous Riftlings, and that managed to buy other agents enough time to find a weakness and neutralize the target. You had to pay attention to every single detail of their body and see how they work.

The only real disadvantage with Chimeras is that since they practically evolve or mutate differently as every new generation is birthed, any genes that they inherit from their parents will be close to practically useless.

A good example is having a Chimera parent having the features of wings and is able to fly but then it has a child with a scorpion tail and uses hearing for sight, the genes of being able to learn how to fly is naturally passed down, but is useless because of it not having any wings and having different features completely.

And aside from that, it was possible that the different body parts would contradict with each other, and would make it difficult to accomplish certain tasks. An example is having developed gills and bat wings at the same time would probably be really ridiculous.

Pyron paid close attention to the beast that was attacking his comrade. When it first attacked them, he noticed immediately that it uses its massive curling horns as a charge attack, much like a ram does. It was really fast and was practically unavoidable for any agent below rank A, and it was really strong in addition to that. If they weren't prepared, they could have easily been knocked unconscious or even killed if they were hit with that attack head on.

But he noticed that when it would do so it was unable to turn and would rush straight on which meant that its momentum was easily could be used against it.

The Chimera tried to slash the knight behind the shield with its claws, just barely reaching him. Then the other knight tried rushing to his aid but then it knocked him back with the sharp tails that it had.

The soldier with the shield used that opportunity to push it back, but right as it did it pounced back onto him, and this time it managed to scratch his arm.

The defending knight yelled out in pain.

Pyron locked onto the creature with his visor and rushed forward. He noticed that when attacking with its razor tails, the beast would temporarily stop attacking and shift its attention toward the new threat which would leave it vulnerable to any other attacks.

It had a mental blind spot. This Chimera has short 'lapses' in its attention and has to fully focus on one target at a time, meaning it can't multi-task very well. But right as he was about to attack it from behind where it's blind spot was, another warning popped up and he turned around immediately and blocked something that came flying his way. It sparked as it hit his sword before it fell to the ground. It was some sort of projectile that was shaped like a spine. He looked up to see an even bigger Chimera standing upright at around six or seven feet tall, it was hidden behind a tree.

It had red eyes which glimmered in the dark, but before Pyron could react, the creature shifted just a little before sending about five more projectiles his way. He managed to block three of them but the other two had managed to pierce his shoulder in the space where the joints would disconnect from his shoulder to his forearm. He winced at the pain as he pulled it out.

"Injury has been detected. Applying medical treatment." A voice had notified Pyron of the suit's other special features such as this.

He read most of the manual but still barely got the idea of what it can do at its full output. Right after he was notified of this, an anti-biotic spray was administered onto the area from the interior, which was then followed by a ray of heat which seemingly sealed the wound temporarily.

He remembered that this suit has different modes that could be changed with mental commands. He activated the 'defence' mode and the carbon-fibres started contracting and formed an even sturdier shell-like feeling, and right after that a sort of magnetic aura that repelled everything else also acted as a shield that could probably block the projectiles.

He started analyzing the beast that was hidden. Enhancing the images and turning on the Rift energy sensor, he could see the creature clearly now. It stood at seven feet tall, arms and back completely covered in spines. It had a very wolf-like face but a humanoid figure with hooves for feet and claws.

It fired another projectile but it was deflected by the energy from the suit. Pyron decided that the best way to get information about this thing was to see what it could do.

He turned on his transmitter and broadcasted a message to the other four knights.

"Hey, I'm going to need you to keep that one busy for awhile, I'm going to take on this one. Good luck."

"Yes sire." They all responded.

Pyron switched the suit from 'defence' mode into 'speed' mode and suddenly the armour felt almost four times lighter than it originally was. He received a massive movement boost as the fibres loosened up and turned into 'muscle' like textures, which contributed to his, movement. With one quick motion, he dashed to the right circling around the beast at high speeds. A gust of wind followed him as he ran through the trees.

He got around to the back of the creature and jumped up and swung his blade straight down, but as soon as he touched its back a flurry of spines flew out at him. He managed to switch it to defence mode immediately and blocked the incoming spikes. He fell back and took a defensive stance again.

The Chimera slowly turned around and stared at him right in the face. It started backing away, moving its position further from Pyron. It raised its arms and launched more spikes at him. He switched to speed mode and managed to dodge them this time.

He moved closer from the front this time and charged forward using his sword as a lance, before he could get any closer the Wolf jumped back really far away and stuck onto the side of a tree. Pyron stopped and looked up at it, and he saw the red eyes from the darkness.

Another rain of spines came raining onto him and he blocked it again. After awhile he realized that it had a pretty simple attack pattern, it probably wasn't very good at close combat because of its size and weight, but it has enough power in its legs to launch itself away from the enemy then using its spines as projectiles again.

He looked closely at its back and saw that it was slowly regenerating the spines that it released awhile ago due to his attack from behind. It only took a few seconds to regenerate, and even if he did try to attack it from behind multiple times, he knew that he wouldn't be able to do it fast enough to strike at it when it was vulnerable.

The weak point was obviously its bare skin, but those spines served as live armour every time you attack it. There were even very small spines on its torso now that he noticed it. But they didn't seem to be releasable at all, they were too small and upon closer inspection they seemed to serve as a layer of protection.

He attacked from behind again after circling around it a second time and activated the projectiles. He went to the front and used his visor to see any changes. Then he saw how the bristles would 'relax' or weaken when it entered it's regeneration state.

This was going to be tricky.

~~~~~~

Dying story is dying.