“Seems likely,” Patrick replied.
I frowned. “And the door is probably going to close behind us.”
“Think that key is for the other exit?” Marissa gestured to the other doorway. “We could make a run for it.”
“I think that was her plan.” My eyes narrowed. “And it didn’t go well.”
“What’s our plan, then?” Patrick asked.
I briefly debated going back to get one of those giant metal spheres to block the doorway and prevent it from closing behind us, but we were short on time. I didn’t know how a person with a severed arm had survived this long, but I wasn’t going to gamble on taking a few more minutes when she was in that bad of shape.
“We do what they didn’t do.” I glanced to each of them. “We stick together.”
Patrick and Marissa nodded.
We stepped inside as a team.
The door slammed shut behind us.
And the injured woman screamed.
The monster descended from the ceiling.
But after our lesson at the entrance, we were a little more ready for a threat from above.
A long tail lashed at Patrick, but he expertly dodged out of the way.
He wasn’t ready for when the tail paused, revealing a snake-like head atop it. The snake head opened its jaws and exhaled a jet of fire toward us.
I countered the flames with a shockwave from Selys-Lyann, but as with the giant, it didn’t have the power to stop the fire completely.
Patrick waved both hands and fired a burst of fire right back at it. The two flame attacks slammed into each other and spread outward, sending burning energy across the room.
Fortunately, it didn’t hit anyone directly.
Marissa jumped and swung a fist at the snake head, but the tail whipped out of the way, and we got a better look at the main body.
It was tremendous, at least twenty feet tall, with the body of a lion and the head of a goat.
“A chimera,” Marissa mumbled, “Of the classic variety.”
The three of us fell back into formation while the chimera’s goat head bleated into the air.
“What do we do against a chimera?” Patrick asked.
“Dodge!” Marissa replied in a panicked tone.
The chimera had already started to charge.
We rushed the sides of the room while it closed the distance, trying to trample over us.
That did exactly what we’d been hoping to avoid. We were separated, with Marissa and I on the beast’s right side and Patrick on the left.
The tail swung toward Patrick again.
“Marissa, up!” I yelled.
She got my meaning, leaping into the air and aiming for the snake head before it could breathe fire again.
The tail switched directions and opened its mouth hungrily.
“Resh.” Marissa raised her arms to block, but she couldn’t do much against fire breath without fire or ice magic.
The snake-head breathed flame, but only for a moment. Patrick jammed his new sword into the chimera’s side, then stepped back and channeled a bolt of lightning into the metal.
The new sword was ruined, but it had done its job well.
Marissa flew through the flames, her shroud absorbing the brief blast, and slashed a blade-aura covered hand across the tail. Unfortunately, she hit too low, and the scales on the surface of the tail absorbed most of the blow. A flow of blood emerged from the wound, but the head wasn’t severed.
Marissa landed on Patrick’s side of the chimera. I lunged from the opposite side, stabbing it with Selys-Lyann.
The chimera swung toward me faster than I’d expected, hitting me hard with a claw.
I flew backward, losing my grip on the sword and impacting with a wall.
That was bad for me, but it was worse for the chimera.
Ice was already spreading from the wound, and it was getting further each moment.
My barrier was badly cracked by the attack, but between that and the two shrouds, I was still in pretty good shape.
Unfortunately, now I had the chimera’s attention, and I was unarmed and backed against a wall.
The chimera turned toward me and prepared to charge.
One, I counted, focusing on my right hand.
“Patrick, I need more height!” Marissa shouted as she charged at the creature from behind.
Two.
The chimera charged, the snake head poised to breathe down on me the moment it got close.
Marissa jumped.
“Levitate!”
Three.
Marissa flew twice as high this time, swung, and floated downward to the floor.
When she hit the ground, the serpent’s head fell next to her.
The chimera’s remaining head roared as it continued the charge.
I jumped, too.
Four. Good enough. Jump.
The ring of jumping carried me upward, and I slammed a fist into the goat’s head, releasing the mana I’d stored in my hand.
And just like that, I punched out a twenty-foot tall chimera.
The creature fell to the ground, insensate. Marissa moved closer and swept her hand across the other neck, finishing the job.
I groaned, rubbing my newly-bruised hand, and retrieved Selys-Lyann.
Patrick rushed to the woman in the corner. “It’s going to be okay.”
“You…killed it.” She mumbled. “You actually…killed it.”
“It’s okay. We’re going to get you to help.”
We probably should have insisted on bringing a healer, but it was far too late at this point. If we were lucky, maybe the student waiting outside was a Mender.
After sheathing Selys-Lyann, I checked the nearest other person, while Patrick attempted to calm the wounded woman. It was remarkable she was alive and conscious with such a serious injury — I assumed she was probably a Guardian or a Mender herself, and she had done something to stop the severed arm from bleeding.
After a minute of checking, the other two didn’t seem to be conscious or breathing. I was pretty sure they were dead, but I wasn’t an expert.
Either way, we’d found the three people. Marissa and I transported the fallen bodies as carefully as we could to the corner.
“We’re going to get out of here now,” Partrick explained.
“Wait,” the woman insisted. “Crystal…it should be in the next room…”
She looked at her severed hand, still holding the key. “We could still get to the crystal and finish our mission.”
I glanced at the other two. That was a sorely tempting prospect, but it wasn’t our mission. “I’m sorry, we can always come back for the crystal later.” I shook my head. “You and your companions need immediate medical treatment.”
She shook her head. “No, no… The crystal.”
“I’m with Corin here.” Patrick nodded.
“Same,” Marissa replied.
“Stay close.” Patrick picked up the severed hand, then rang the return bell.
We found ourselves outside.
The student outside was very, very surprised when six people appeared near him.
“Gaah!”
Ordinarily, I might have laughed, but I was in damage control mode. “We have three injured people here. Are you a Mender, by any chance?”
He shook his head. “No. Summoner. But I can summon something to get a message to town real fast, hold on.”
He summoned an air elemental, which flew to the settlement after receiving his instructions.
Then we waited, dealing with the wounded as best we could. I used a couple Lesser Regeneration spells on each of them, but I doubted it would accomplish much.