“Why is the hole here? I can guess why the car stopped if the Mana Eater damaged the enchantments, but how did it make that hole?” Andarit stood next to Serenity outside the subway car, staring at the hole she’d exited through.

Serenity stared at it, frowning. “It looks like it goes through some of the runes on the front of the subway car, so maybe it’s the real reason we stopped and not the Mana Eater. I don’t think it was from the Mana Eater. Maybe it wasn’t alone after all.”

Serenity started scanning the poorly-lit darkness around them. The only light was from Andarit’s robe, but he didn’t need the light to see. “I’m not seeing anything. Which could mean it was the dungeon using a different monster than normal for the scenario or it could mean that whatever it is is hiding from me.”

Andarit glanced around, but she didn’t seem to see anything either. “Do we just walk toward the next station, then?”

Serenity shrugged. “May as well. The next station is where we’re supposed to change lines anyway; that should let us move forward with the dungeon. We’ll need to keep an eye out so we aren’t ambushed, but that’s not new.”

Arrin kept his tracking sense tuned to the trail left by Andarit. It’d taken hours to figure out, but he now knew that if he went to the opposite platform when he lost her trail, he’d be able to back up and find it again. He still had no idea how she was picking which way she went; maybe it was random, but it didn’t seem random. He didn’t care; all he needed was to be able to follow her. Slow was fine.

Suddenly, Arrin found himself flying forward as the square worm-shaped box halted. He skidded on the floor, landing near the front as it was plunged into darkness. He made sure to keep his grumbles inside his head as he pulled on the Goggles of Minor Darkvision. Anything that would make this transport stop suddenly enough to knock him off his feet was something he didn’t want to catch the attention of.

Something whipped in front of him, missing Arrin only because it wasn’t aimed at him. Arrin pushed himself backwards, away from whatever it was, and followed it with his eyes. There was an entire bunch of what looked like tentacles waving from a crack in the front of the transport; as they hit the chairs and floor, Arrin could see them either embed themselves temporarily or simply break off pieces.

They seemed to be trying to widen the crack, but they weren’t having much luck. It was like the tentacles weren’t very strong, which didn’t make any sense with how well they were embedding the tips into the surrounding area.

Arrin didn’t consider it for long; it was acting exactly like a monster he’d fought in one of his Court’s dungeons: a Piercer, sometimes called a Piercing Horror. They were threatening only if they could reach you, but within their range they could be deadly, piercing through even good steel armor. The seven arms were all connected to a bloated ball of a body; no one knew how they stayed alive, since there was no way for them to eat. They simply killed, usually from ambush.

Piercing Horrors were easy to kill if you were prepared for them and had a way to keep them away from you. Running would work, since they were slow, but running in a dungeon was generally not a good idea. The usual solution was an Anchor Skill, but that meant you had to take a specialist with an obscure skill into the dungeon. Arrin preferred pit traps, and he always kept track of where they’d passed one. The dungeon he’d been in with Piercing Horrors also loved pit traps.

To actually kill them with magic, you had to hit the body, but Arrin had a better solution. Poison would kill even if it hit one of the tentacle-arms. It always ticked the mages off when he got more kills on the “anti-fighter” beast than they did, which always pleased Arrin.

This was really the perfect situation. It wasn’t going to be able to squeeze through the narrow tear it’d made in the box’s front any time soon. Arrin carefully scooted backwards, away from the Piercing Horror. He wanted to be well out of range of its tentacles before he drew its attention; they could stretch, and he’d seen that catch more than one person off guard over the years.

Once he was certain he was well out of range, Arrin pulled out several of his poisoned darts, the cheaply made ones that wouldn’t penetrate armor and were really only single-use. Recovering darts inside a dungeon was spotty, so he might as well use the cheap ones.

Four darts later, he put everything away and waited. Four was plenty. The Piercing Horror was already dead. He simply had to wait until it realized it.

“Station Node 37,” Serenity read as the last car they had to catch pulled into the station. “Finally. I wonder what we’ll find at inprocessing?”

Andarit shrugged and looked around. “Probably another monster encounter. I see a sign that says inprocessing, let’s head that way.”

They followed the signs to a small door labeled Inprocessing. Unlike the doors they’d seen earlier, this one had no fancy touches other than the name; it simply looked like an ordinary wooden door.

The door led to a small room furnished with two beds and two chairs. There was also a door on the other side that said THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING INPROCESSING, EXIT WHEN YOU ARE READY TO CONTINUE.

The entrance disappeared once they were both inside.

“This looks like a checkpoint, a safe place to rest.” Serenity pulled up his Status and found that he’d earned a truly miniscule amount of experience; it wasn’t even enough to get him to Level 10 and his first Skill. Well, he hadn’t done any magic after gaining the Path; it was probably giving him some credit because he “fought” the Mana Eater and maybe a little for the “puzzle” of the subway system, but that was all. He shouldn’t have expected anything that quickly.

“We’ve only been in here a few hours, and I’m still good on mana. The only things I’ve used it for were that Path stuff and the Light Skill, I’ve had plenty of time to recover.” Andarit glanced at the exit door then back at Serenity. “Are you up for moving on? I don’t see any reason to waste time here.”

“I used more mana than you did at the gym, but the subway took more than long enough. No reason to stop.” Serenity headed for the exit; he’d have been fine with a short stop if Andarit wanted to, but saw no reason to wait if she didn’t.

The other side of the door was, once again, the aftermath of a fight lit with artificial but bright lighting from runes set in a very high ceiling. This time, the carnage wasn’t teenagers; it was mostly mechanical, the remains of power armor and their pilots. Serenity frowned. “This time they weren’t defenseless, but the monsters still won.”

Andarit nodded. “I’m ready.”

Serenity stepped through the door and the scene on the other side became more real. Three creatures with three heads each appeared, spread out across the arena, but nothing would move until Andarit also crossed the threshold, as long as he didn’t take too long. Serenity put up a hand to stop Andarit from stepping forward while he examined the creatures.

Serenity took the free moment to examine the creatures. The forward head was feline and heavily furred, with deep gray fur like a long-haired “blue” cat or perhaps the mane of an oddly-colored lion. Rising behind it, from the shoulderblades, was a second head; unlike the first, it was lightly furred and cream colored, with a pointy face and two rear-pointing straight horns. All Serenity could think of it was a goat.

The third head was quite different; it came from what should have been the tail, except that the tail looked like a serpent’s body, far longer and larger than any tail that would have made sense on Earth, ending in a snake’s head. The scales were a mostly uniform leaf-green, with just enough variation that Serenity was certain it would have been hard to see on a tree, but the head was the classic triangular shape that Serenity had been taught often meant a venomous snake.

It was a chimera, the very creature that Serenity’s Species was named after. Or perhaps simply the form he was the most comfortable in? Either way, it was the form he was wearing that moment.

“Be careful. The lion’s bite is powerful, but the goat can spit flame and the snake is venomous with a far longer reach than it looks like it should have.” He’d fought chimeras before. They were rare, but he was sure he’d seen them. This was absolutely the classic example of the Greek chimera, which was surprising in a way; he couldn’t remember if he’d fought this exact combination before or not. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” Andarit didn’t step forward and Serenity realized his hand was still up, blocking her.

Serenity Evoked his Quickness spell on the pair of them, then dropped his hand. He wasn’t certain they’d need it, but he could always re-infuse it after the fight. The moment Andarit stepped through the door, he dropped the Slow spell on the three chimeras he could see, hoping there weren’t any more.

One of the chimeras lunged for Serenity almost immediately, but met his ax flipping through the air instead. It startled, then bit down on the stick, only to have the ax head embed itself in the lion’s upper jaw. It wasn’t what Serenity had aimed for, but it was good enough. He hurried towards the chimera, then called his ax to himself while Andarit tossed an enhancement Skill on Serenity and herself, then started peppering the goat-head with tiny magebolts.

That was a good choice, so while his ax pulled itself out of the lion’s mouth, Serenity threw a Death Magebolt at the snake’s head. It was his biggest ranged attack, and he was anxious to see how well it did.

There was no visible effect, but the snake’s head and body slumped, no longer moving except when the rest of the chimera pulled it around. That was excellent news, even if the mana drain was enough that Serenity didn’t want to have to use it nine times in a row; he probably couldn’t, and even if he could he knew he’d be on the floor unconscious afterwards. They’d just have to kill some of the heads with other methods.

As he was thinking that, the goat opened its mouth and a gout of flame washed over Serenity. It was warm, not painful, but Andarit shouted at him. “How hurt are you?”

Serenity smiled, even though Andarit couldn’t see it. “Fine! I’m fire-resistant!”

He hoped she’d assume he meant the armor, but either way it was true.

Serenity lunged forward and chopped at the lion’s head. It started to bite at him, but aborted the move, which gave Serenity a huge opening. His ax crashed down on the lion’s skull, penetrating deep enough that it was no longer a threat.

As he pulled the ax out from where it was embedded deep in the lion’s skull, he saw Andarit’s magebolts finally hit the same spot enough times that the goat’s neck started to gush blood. It wasn’t a clean cut, but it would be enough. Serenity moved back away from the chimera and saw the goat try to turn and spit fire once more, but it fell before it could complete the action.

“Tier One toughness,” Serenity mused out loud. “It fell far too easily. Probably a Tier Two monster overall, with three heads and that kind of breadth of abilities. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chimera so weak.”

A roar from one of the other two chimeras’ lion heads pulled Serenity away from his speculation. They were both staring at him, as though they’d heard his insult, but he was fairly confident the problem was simply that he was standing next to the dead chimera.

If it kept them off Andarit, Serenity was happy to draw their attention.

Another roar pulled Serenity’s attention to the corner to the left of the entrance. He hadn’t had a good view of the area when he entered, and it looked like he’d missed a chimera.