It seemed like this particular Station Node, Station Node 2, was a sort of massive interchange; upstairs had symbols that looked like a bird and a flying carpet, while this level and the level below seemed to lead to different colored lines, probably subway lines. Serenity followed the yellow line markers down the stairs to what was clearly a subway platform.

Three lines came together at that particular platform; they’d all start in the same direction, but brown fairly immediately headed off towards a different Station Node. Green would mean they’d have to disembark after two stations to get onto either yellow or mauve; either of those would take them to Station Node 14. Serenity wanted to simply catch yellow since it would be easier.

The subway platform was definitely a case of form following function; it was nearly identical to platforms Serenity - er, Thomas - had been to in cities on Earth. The largest difference was the complete lack of rails in the depressions on either side of the platform; this train clearly didn’t run on electricity supplied from outside.

It was only a couple of minutes before Serenity heard the approaching train. His eyes shone as it pulled into the station. It was magitech! Functional magitech!

Magitech being used for something as prosaic as a floating subway car.

He recorded the portion of runes that were visible on the outside of the car, then checked to confirm that it was the correct train. Luckily, it was; a line of yellow ran along the entire side of the train, a little above door height.

Serenity ushered Andarit onto the train, then took one of the seats that faced the middle of the train area. It’d be good enough and they had a good distance to travel.

It was unfortunate but not surprising that there was no sign of the magitech in the cabin of the subway car. It wasn’t like a normal Metro subway car obviously showed the engine, after all.

Arrin grumbled about rushing things as he followed the Lowpeak Daughter-Heir’s traces through the doorway. He was happy to leave; the smell of half-burned flesh was unpleasant.

Only to stop in shock at the sight of the next area. Weren’t dungeons supposed to be linear? He’d done six of them and they were all very straightforward. Enter room, fight monsters, move to next room. Multiple exits to a room was rare, but even when it happened, everything connected. If there were multiple exits, all he should have to do is follow the trail of dead monsters.

Only there were many different possible ways forward here and no monsters.

Well, there was a reason he had four different tracking or shadowing type Paths, all but one of them aimed at following humans rather than animals; he’d taken one each Tier to build on each other and keep the Skills at their peak. Following a traceless trail was slow and draining but entirely possible; no trail was actually traceless.

It helped that he wasn’t far behind her, only about ten or fifteen minutes.

Arrin followed her trail along the wall until she stopped, probably to look at the artwork. Arrin didn’t get it; there was nothing pretty about the mess of colored lines. Still, women could be like that; he didn’t have to understand her taste in art to kill her.

She’d then headed downstairs, to the left, and across another stone walkway towards a large stone ditch. There was another ditch to the left, but she’d headed towards the one on the right.

Arrin stopped when he reached the ditch. He was falling farther and farther behind her, but that wasn’t what stopped him. Her trail stopped; she didn’t jump the ditch, since it was a flat wall on the other side, but she also didn’t go down in it; her trail wasn’t there. Neither did she walk alongside it. He checked each option, then returned to the point where he lost the trail, a little ways over the ditch. What was he missing?

She couldn’t have vanished into thin air!

He was rechecking along the side of the ditch when a strange noise drew his attention. Wind moving?

Something big was coming down the ditch. Had it been dug by a monster? Arrin moved well away from the ditch. Somewhere close to the midpoint between the two ditches seemed like a good place.

Was it possible that her trail vanished because a monster grabbed her? That would explain why it simply stopped; he hadn’t checked to see if her trail continued in the air. He couldn’t fly, after all, and neither could she. There was no sign of a fight, and she hadn’t simply died, at least not where her trail ended. He’d have been able to tell that much.

A strange, squarish snake hurried through the ditch, then halted. Its square face shone with light, along with the oddly metallic gleam of its skin. A brown stripe ran the length of its side, oddly flat. Strangely, it was the stripe that made him realize the truth: that wasn’t a snake at all! It was an artifact of some sort. He could see doors in the side; it looked like they were the kind that simply needed to be pushed open. Was that why she wasn’t here?

Her trail cut off into the side of the artifact-snake, but there was a doorway only a few feet from it. Arrin gathered his courage and pushed the doorway open, reactivating his Traceless Tracking Skill as he went.

Yes, her trail did come into the snake, as though it were air! It went forward, in the direction the snake moved.

There were chairs in the snake, but Arrin stayed standing. He didn’t want to be caught unaware if a monster appeared; this was a dungeon, after all.

When the snake moved, Arrin nearly fell; he hadn’t expected such a harsh jerk. He braced himself, grabbing a loop of leather dangling from the ceiling that seemed to be for that purpose. As the snake moved, he watched Andarit’s trail, happy he was on the right trail once again.

Wait, why did her trail suddenly turn left? How was he going to catch up to her now?

The first two line changes went without incident. They were nearly to the last change when the subway car jerked to a halt with a loud sound of tearing metal; Serenity could see a hole in the front of the train, jagged but large enough to get through. Moments later, the lights died.

Serenity could see the mana flows moving strangely, being pulled towards the front of the car. It took him a moment to recognize what was probably happening. “Fuck. An Eater. A Magic Eater at that.” A moment more and he realized he wasn’t quite right. “No, only Mana. Bad enough.”

“What?” Andarit glanced towards Serenity, unable to see him for a moment, then used her Light Skill to make her outer robe radiate a soft glow.

“An Eater. They’re one of the known imp evolutions, fortunately rare. They come in a number of types, and each Eater type can eat something, like the name says; this is one of the worst types. This one eats mana. It’s probably effectively almost immune to magic, and magic items will tend to fail around it. Probably not permanently, but it depends on the item. It’s damaging.” Serenity needed to figure out how they were going to kill it. Eaters tended to be fairly weak other than their one power if they were young, but they couldn’t be allowed to grow strong; some could start to learn to Eat other things. Hopefully this one was young.

Serenity didn’t want to use his ax near the Eater; it would probably be fine and work well, but that chance to damage the item was simply too dangerous. His duplicating knives wouldn’t work at all, and neither would most of his spells. A Mana Eater was one heck of a mage counter. “Do you have any attacks that aren’t magical? A weapon or anything?”

Andarit shook her head. “No. Even my dagger is magical.”

Serenity sighed. That was the reason a Mana Eater was such terrible news, after all; everything was magically made, once you got above Tier Three; even at Tier Three, weapons and armor were usually enchanted. Serenity expected that Earth would probably have no trouble making nonmagical Tier Three equipment, but he didn’t have any. A gun, even a standard pistol, would take care of a low-Tier Mana Eater with no trouble; nonmagical Earth was far better prepared to fight a Mana Eater than almost anywhere else.

If only he had his claws!

Well, why didn’t he? Yes, he’d have to shapeshift in front of Andarit, but so? She already knew he could put on a “disguise” that was far better than it should be. “I’ll take care of it, then. Keep an eye out for anything else; I don’t expect more, but I wasn’t expecting a horde of imps, either.”

Serenity turned away from Andarit, pulled off the shirt he was wearing over his armor and tossed it into his Rift, then pushed on his Take Shape ability, shifting to his chimera form. His armor-self shifted around him, fitting himself to his new shape. It felt wonderful to be back in one of the forms he thought of as his; the dhampir form wasn’t terrible, but his chimera form was like stretching out a tense muscle.

Well, except for his feet. They were very uncomfortable inside his boots.

He heard a sharp intake of breath behind him and glanced backwards at Andarit.

“You have wings?”

He’d forgotten that the feathers would be blatantly obvious. Oh well.

“Yes,” Serenity admitted. “We can talk about it later. For now, I have an Eater to handle.” He stepped out of his boots and tossed them through the Rift as well; for now, the scales on his feet would have to do.

Serenity gazed towards the tear in the subway car. It looked even more menacing now that he was going to try to fit through it, especially with wings, but he didn’t have a choice if he didn’t want the Eater joining them inside.

When he actually reached the rip, it was even worse. He wouldn’t be able to simply step through it; he’d have to go through sideways, and it was a bit too short for him as well. Worse, because of his wings, he wasn’t entirely certain he’d fit. Maybe if he stretched out his wings and put one through first?

It simply wasn’t a good choice with a monster on the other side. He wasn’t entirely certain where the Eater was.

Serenity wished he were wearing his Boots of Far Step. They were failing and using them near a Mana Eater would probably finish off the enchantment, but they would get him through without risking crushing a wing. They’d also be useful if he had to walk on some of the bits of subway car that had been torn off; his scales were strong, but more foot protection wasn’t a bad thing. Unlike the boots he’d been wearing, the Far Step boots actually fit his feet as a chimera.

Come to think of it, just because they were designed to be worn didn’t mean they had to be worn in order to be used. They’d take longer than he wanted to get on securely, but he could hold them, one in each hand, and still teleport as long as he triggered them properly.

Serenity pulled the Far Step boots from his Rift and used them. The Far Step seemed to cut off oddly, but it still got him outside the subway car. He tossed them back through his Rift as he searched for the Mana Eater. It was only after the boots were gone and the Rift closed that Serenity realized that he’d just used a magical Skill next to a Mana Eater. It shouldn’t have worked … unless the Rift Skill wasn’t powered by mana. He’d never checked; now he’d have to.

Serenity followed the traces of mana flowing past himself to the Mana Eater. It was actually just behind him, clinging to the front of the subway car with its stubby-appearing arms and legs. Stubby compared to the mouth, at least; it looked very much like one of the small imps they’d killed in the gymnasium, except that the head was now as large as the torso, maybe larger - and it was mostly mouth. There was no way anything it was eating would reasonably fit into its body; it simply wasn’t a sensible design plan for a normal creature.

For a Mana Eater, it made far too much sense. The mana didn’t have to physically fit, after all.

It didn’t even seem to have noticed Serenity. All of its attention was on the subway car.

Serenity reached up and stabbed it in the head with the claws of one hand. They pierced its thin skull and squished. It was a thoroughly disagreeable feeling, but Serenity made certain to slice with his claws until he was certain the thing was dead.

With the right tools, a low-end Mana Eater was easy. Magic didn’t work, but everything else did.