CHAPTER 40: THE MEAT GRINDER

The hallway was an absolute mess of elemental spam, fireballs and lightning bolts bouncing off the sterile white walls while Rin tried to keep his barrier from shattering under the pressure.

’This is actually insane,’ Rin thought, reinforcing the purple shield as a lance of magma slammed into it, the heat radiating through the air and making his skin crawl.

"They don’t stop," Sable yelled, her hands pressed against her temples while she tried to find a mind to grab. "I can’t hit them because there’s nothing there, it’s just static inside their heads!"

Dr. Helix stood at the far end of the corridor tapping on his tablet, looking completely unbothered by the fact that he was unleashing lobotomized Hunters on them.

"Subject 44 adjust trajectory," Helix mumbled, his voice amplified by the corridor’s acoustics. "Subject 12 suppress the golden one."

Subject 12 was a woman with cables running directly into her skull who opened her mouth and screamed a shockwave that ripped up the floor tiles, sending Director Tau sliding backward until he dug his massive dao sword into the concrete to stop himself.

"These were Association Hunters," Tau growled, sparks flying from his blade. "That’s Siren, she went missing in the Caprivi Strip two months ago."

"She’s not Siren anymore," Rin said, wincing as his barrier fractured under a barrage of ice spikes. "She’s just ammo."

The text floating in his vision wasn’t helping either.

[Analysis: Hostile density is too high]

[Attrition rate: 100% probability of death if position is maintained]

’I know we’re going to die, give me a solution.’

Jax popped up from behind an overturned medical cart, looking terrified but determined. "I have an idea, it’s stupid but it might work."

"I love stupid ideas," Rin shouted while deflecting another lightning bolt.

"The fire sprinklers," Jax pointed up. "If I hit the resonant frequency of the pipes I can burst them, get water everywhere."

"And then we get wet and die?" Sable asked.

"No," Rin realized what he was getting at. "Then we have a conductor."

He looked at Tau who was basically a golden lightning rod when he powered up.

"Director," Rin shouted. "Can you fry everything in this hallway without frying us?"

Tau deflected a fireball with his bare hand. "If you give me a medium yes, but you three need to be insulated."

"I can make a bubble," Rin said. "But I can’t hold it for long, it’ll be a burst shield so you have to time the zap perfectly."

"Do it," Tau ordered.

Jax took a deep breath and aimed his emitters at the ceiling, humming a low vibrating frequency that shook Rin’s fillings until the pipes above buckled and burst with a loud metallic snap.

Water sprayed down in a torrential sheet, soaking the hallway and the experiments instantly.

"Now," Rin screamed, grabbing Sable and Jax and pulling them close.

He focused every ounce of his attention on the fracture energy, not trying to cut space but isolate it, pulsing a sphere of purple void around them that cut them off from the hallway’s reality for a single second.

Outside the sphere Tau drove his sword into the wet floor.

Golden electricity exploded outward, riding the water and arcing through the spray, turning the hallway blinding white while the screams of the experiments were cut short as hundreds of volts seized their muscles.

Bodies dropped, convulsing on the wet floor, and Rin’s sphere flickered and died.

’That worked way better than it should have.’

Rin gasped as the air rushed back into his lungs, the hallway silent save for the hissing of steam and dripping water.

Dr. Helix was gone, a blast door at the end of the hall sealing shut just as they looked up.

"He ran," Sable panted, wiping water from her face.

"He retreated to a secondary position," Tau corrected, pulling his sword from the concrete, looking tired because that attack had clearly drained him. "Check the bodies to see if anyone is alive."

Rin walked over to Siren, the sound manipulator, who was breathing shallowly while the cables in her head sparked.

"Alive," Rin said. "But empty."

"We secure them later," Tau said, stepping over the fallen Hunters with a grim expression. "Right now we push because if Helix escapes this was for nothing."

They reached the blast door which was thick reinforced steel glowing with mana-repellent runes.

"I can cut it," Rin said, raising his hand.

"Save your strength," a voice crackled over the intercom. "I got it."

The runes on the door flickered and died, the heavy locking mechanism spinning with a heavy thunk before the door slid open to reveal Nyx wearing a white lab coat over her combat gear.

"Took you long enough," she said, looking bored. "I disabled the localized dampeners so you’re welcome."

"Nyx," Sable actually looked happy to see her. "You didn’t die."

"Obviously," Nyx tapped her tablet. "Helix went to the Bio-Dome in Sector C, he’s activating the Apex Assets."

"Apex Assets sounds bad," Jax said. "Why do evil scientists always have to name things like that?"

"Because Big Scary Monsters doesn’t secure funding," Nyx deadpanned. "Vance is on the top floor in the Spire but you can’t get to him until you clear the Bio-Dome since the elevator is locked down from the inside."

"Then we clear the Dome," Tau said.

Sector C wasn’t a hallway, it was an indoor ecosystem, a massive subterranean jungle with artificial sunlight streaming from panels in the ceiling and strange purple-leafed trees growing in twisted spirals.

"What is this place?" Rin whispered.

"Simulated fracture environment," Nyx explained as she walked briskly along the catwalk overlooking the jungle. "Krell figured out that monsters grow faster if you expose them to dungeon radiation constantly."

Below them things moved in the undergrowth, big things that shook the trees.

"We need to cross to the far side," Nyx pointed to a heavy door across the chasm. "The elevator to the Spire is there."

"Look out," Nandia shouted from the rear, the rest of Alpha Squad finally catching up to them.

The catwalk shook violently as something massive slammed into the support pillar below.

"Here comes the Apex," Nyx sighed. "I told Helix this design was flawed because it has too much muscle and not enough control."

A creature leaped from the jungle floor, clearing fifty feet in a single bound to land on the catwalk in front of them, bending the steel beams under its weight.

It was humanoid but only barely, standing nine feet tall with skin like obsidian plating, four arms ending in bone blades, and a face that was just a featureless mask of bone with a mouth full of serrated teeth.

And it was pulsing with purple light.

[Analysis: Entity Identification - The Titan]

[Composition: Human/Dungeon Core Hybrid]

[Threat Level: High A-Rank]

"That’s a person," Rin realized, seeing the tattered remains of a Hunter uniform fused into the creature’s hip.

"Was," Nyx said. "Now it’s a weapon."

The Titan roared, a shockwave that rattled Rin’s bones, and the giant skin-hardener Bastion charged forward, slamming into the creature like a linebacker.

The Titan didn’t move, catching Bastion with two of its four hands and squeezing until metal groaned, then throwing the three-hundred-pound man off the catwalk like a toy.

"Bastion!" Jax yelled as the man plummeted into the jungle below.

"Spread out," Rin shouted. "Don’t let him cleave us!"

Vane slammed his hands onto the catwalk trying to bind the creature with concrete from the supports, but The Titan flexed and shattered the stone instantly.

"Magic resistance," Vane cursed. "He’s immune to binding."

"He’s not immune to gravity," Nyx said calmly, clenching her fist so The Titan dropped to one knee as the weight of a car slammed onto his shoulders.

"Hit him now," Nyx yelled. "I can’t hold him long!"

Nandia blurred forward delivering a flurry of punches to the creature’s midsection, each hit sounding like a cannon shot, but The Titan just grunted and swiped a bone blade at him.

Rin stepped up.

"Jax, Sable, support," he ordered.

Sable hit The Titan with confusion, making the creature shake its head and swing wildly at nothing, while Jax blasted a sonic frequency right at its ear holes to disorient it.

Rin sprinted, running up the railing and leaping toward The Titan’s head.

’Burst.’

He didn’t try to cut the armor, he tried to cut the space inside the armor, driving his hand toward the creature’s neck.

The Titan reacted fast, two arms shooting up to catch Rin’s wrist with a crushing grip that made Rin’s radius groan.

"Get off," Rin grunted, unable to break free because the thing was just too strong.

He didn’t pull away, instead he pushed, channeling the fracture energy out of his hand directly into the creature’s grip.

Purple fire erupted from Rin’s skin, dissolving the creature’s hands into dust as The Titan shrieked and let go.

Rin fell back landing in a crouch, his wrist bruised and purple handprints searing his skin.

"Tau," Rin yelled. "His neck is compromised!"

Where Rin had grabbed him the obsidian plating was cracked and glowing purple.

Tau moved like a golden blur, vaulting off Nandia’s back and soaring over The Titan, bringing his dao down in a two-handed arc that struck the compromised spot.

The Titan’s head tumbled from his shoulders, the massive body standing for a second before collapsing and shaking the catwalk.

"Bastion?" Jax asked, looking over the edge.

"I’m good," a voice yelled from below. "Landed in a tree, think I broke a rib but I’m good!"

"Get back up here," Tau ordered while sheathing his sword, looking at Rin. "Good synergy, you break the shell and I cut the meat."

"Gross analogy," Sable said. "But accurate."

Rin rubbed his wrist which hurt but wasn’t broken, the tracker in his shoulder giving a warning spike.

"We’re pushing the limit," Rin muttered.

"The limit is there to be pushed," Nyx said, stepping over the corpse. "The elevator is ahead, Helix is probably waiting."

They reached the far door which Nyx hacked open, revealing a large freight elevator.

"Everyone in," Tau said. "We go up to finish this."

As the elevator began its ascent climbing toward the Spire the mood was heavy, everyone bloody and tired and bruised.

"So," one of the other D-ranks tried to lighten the mood. "Who had fighting a four-armed zombie on their bingo card?"

"Shut up," everyone said in unison.

But Rin smiled just a little, checking his mana levels.

"Helix is next," Rin said. "And then Vance."

"And then pizza," Sable added. "So much pizza."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing not a lab but a penthouse with glass walls looking out over the desert, expensive furniture, and classical music playing softly.

Sitting in a leather armchair sipping a glass of wine was Vance, looking completely relaxed.

"Welcome," Vance said, smiling warmly. "I see you brought friends, excellent, we were just discussing the future."

Standing next to him was Dr. Helix.

And standing next to Helix was someone Rin hadn’t expected to see, a woman, tall and elegant, wearing a sleek combat suit with familiar features.

"Hello Rin," she said.

Rin froze, his brain refusing to process the visual data.

"Mom?"