The revelation that Station Chimera was a failed monster factory changed the entire mission. They weren’t just hunting escaped beasts anymore. They were wading through the evidence of a secret and horrifying disaster. Every dark corner, every flickering light, held the potential for a new, unnatural nightmare.

Jonah’s cautious, step-by-step approach became their lifeline. He would send Shard’s sonar pulses echoing down hallways, mapping rooms before they ever set foot inside. He’d report the location of the unpredictable chimeras, and they would navigate around them, avoiding unnecessary fights. Their goal was to find the source of the disaster.

But their slow, careful pace was getting on Draven’s nerves.

The fiery-haired Warrior, who had been grudgingly quiet since his initial shock, was starting to get restless. He was a Blademaster. His solution to every problem was a bigger, flashier sword strike. This sneaking around, this reliance on Jonah’s “tricks,” felt like cowardice to him.

“This is ridiculous,” he grumbled as they paused for the fifth time while Jonah scanned the floor below them. “We’ve been in here for an hour and all we’ve done is tiptoe around. There are bigger things down on that sublevel, right, Tamer? The ones you mentioned at the start?”

“Three large signatures, yes,” Jonah confirmed, not looking up from his mental map. “They haven’t moved. They seem to be contained in a large, central chamber.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Draven demanded, his voice rising. “Why don’t we stop crawling around like rats and face the real threat head-on?”

“We don’t know what those threats are, Draven,” Seraph said, her voice sharp and low. “We move with caution until we have a full picture. That is the mission.”

But Draven had had enough. His pride, already wounded by having to follow a first-year’s lead, finally boiled over.

“Enough of this sneaking around!” he declared, his voice echoing dangerously in the silent station. “True Elites face their enemies head-on! That’s what strength is for!”

He ignited his greatsword. A massive, two-handed blade of roaring flame appeared in his hands, casting flickering, angry shadows on the walls.

“Draven, stop! That is a direct order!” Seraph yelled.

Draven either didn’t hear her or didn’t care. With a battle cry, he charged. He sprinted past the rest of the team and vaulted over a railing, dropping to the stairwell that led down to the sublevel. “I’ll handle this myself!” he shouted back.

“Idiot!” Seraph cursed, a rare flash of fury on her face. They had no choice. They couldn’t let him face whatever was down there alone, no matter how stupid his actions were. The team was forced to follow, racing down the stairs after their reckless powerhouse.

They arrived at the bottom of the stairwell to find themselves in a massive, cavernous laboratory. This was clearly the station’s primary testing chamber. Huge, shattered glass tanks lined the walls, and broken machinery sparked and hissed in the darkness. In the center of the chamber, three large stasis pods stood, their energy fields flickering and failing.

Draven was already there, his flaming sword held high. His reckless charge, the raw magical energy from his sword, it had been enough to disrupt the failing stasis fields.

As they watched in horror, the energy field on the largest, central pod sputtered, glowed violently, and then died with a loud ZAP.

For a moment, there was silence. Then, the front of the pod was torn open from the inside.

What stepped out looked like something ripped from a fever dream. It was massive – easily fifteen feet tall. Its upper body was all raw, bear-like muscle, but from the waist down, it twisted into a mass of coiling tails. Instead of fur, it wore a shell of thick, overlapping armor plates that looked more crustacean than mammal. Two enormous crab-like claws stuck out from its shoulders, and its head looked like all three creatures had been smashed together – glowing insect eyes, twisted features, and a mouth packed with thin, piercing teeth.

This was the alpha-chimera. The boss monster.

Before anyone could even react, the creature opened its mouth and unleashed a silent, invisible attack. It wasn’t a roar or a beam of energy. It was a wave of pure psychic power, a mental scream that slammed into all of them.

Pain exploded in Jonah’s mind. It was a thousand times worse than the backlash from his syntheses. It felt like his brain was being put in a vise. Eliza, the medic, crumpled to the floor instantly, unconscious. Vanessa cried out and staggered back, her light shield flickering as she fought to stay conscious.

Seraph gritted her teeth, her incredible willpower allowing her to stand, but even she was pale and unsteady.

Only Draven, who had been the target of the psychic scream’s full focus, seemed to be holding on, his own powerful aura pushing back against it. “Is that all you’ve got, you ugly freak?” he roared, shaking his head to clear it.

He charged forward, his greatsword blazing. “I’ll tear you apart! Raging Inferno Slash!”

He leaped into the air, bringing his most powerful attack down on the chimera’s head. It was the same kind of overwhelming force he probably dreamed of using on Jonah.

The flaming sword met the creature’s armored hide. There was a loud CLANG, like a hammer hitting an anvil. The flames sizzled and died against the weirdly resilient shell. The attack, which could have leveled a small building, barely even scratched it.

The chimera seemed more annoyed than hurt. With a movement that was shockingly fast for its size, it swatted Draven out of the air with one of its massive crab claws.

It wasn’t even a full-force blow. It was a casual, dismissive gesture, like a human swatting a fly.

Draven shot across the room like a ragdoll and slammed into the far wall with a sickening crunch. His greatsword vanished into sparks. He hit the ground hard, holding his arm, eyes wide with shock, his mouth frozen in a silent scream. Whatever confidence he had was gone, replaced by the stunned realization that he had just picked a fight with something far, far beyond his league.

The team’s strongest fighter, their one-man army, had been taken out in a single hit.

The alpha-chimera turned its glowing, insect-like eyes toward the rest of them. They were trapped. Their heavy-hitter was down, their medic was out cold, and they were facing a monster that was immune to both physical attacks and psychic assaults.

Draven’s folly had doomed them all.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep