“What kind of hitch?” Lonzo gripped his son’s hand.

“We cannot leave right away.” Noble shook her head.

“Why not?” Harlow pursed her lips. “We’ve been stuck here long enough!”

“Does anyone else not find it weird that we’ve been left alone?” Noble watched the others exchange confused glances.

“What do you mean?” Fir scratched his head. “We are all here.”

“Yes, we are. But the Skinwalker isn’t. It hasn’t so much as lifted a finger to bother us. The monster even waved at Jet even though it must have known we were not vessels.” Noble ran over these facts in her head.

“It killed my decoy,” Coy pointed out. “Or tried to…”

“Could it take possession of your decoy?” Noble hadn’t asked before.

Her hand had passed through it when she reached out, but the full nature of the duplicate was unknown to her.

Coy shook his head, “It disappeared before they could try anything weird.”

“Shouldn’t that have alerted the Skinwalker? Even with the diversion that Saint Jet created, at least the two guards left behind should have investigated the strange disappearance. They didn’t even come inside the building.” Noble furrowed her brow.

“You are giving this thing a lot of credit.” Lonzo stroked his chin. “Maybe it isn’t intelligent enough to realize this decoy was a diversion.”

“The Skinwalker took over an entire city and the only people who noticed were you and your son. A million people and not a single one raised a red flag or asked for help. The mayor didn’t even sense anything was wrong until the dome went up!”

Noble pictured the man and his wife walking around town having no idea that everyone they looked at was part of a single Nightmare Creature. Their friends and neighbors were all gone, and they were none the wiser.

The professor shook her head and continued.

“I don’t know how much interaction you had with the Skinwalker before you hid here, but I have had a few run-ins with it now. It is smart, careful, and devious. Which is why the current behavior makes no sense.” Noble hesitated. “I don’t know how, but I think it is watching us…following us. If that is the case, it won’t let us leave.”

“It reacted rather strongly to Jet’s exit,” Coy noted. “but that could have been the explosives she rigged and not her actual departure.”

“That was disconcerting.” Noble could still hear the hissing that had filled the air. “I wish we knew what was happening on the surface. Surely they have put out the fire by now. I don’t like feeling this blind.”

“Do you sense any nearby right now?” Chip glanced at the door.

“No…but I can’t sense much of anything down here. The ground and I…let’s just say we aren’t exactly friends. Being underneath it dampens my ability. On top of that three of these walls are extra thick.” Noble had instinctively extended her emotional sense when Chip asked only to find three out of four directions entirely blocked.

Harlow stifled a yawn. She motioned to the sides of the room.

“I reinforced the walls here. I had to leave the back one unprotected or we wouldn’t be able to get a signal out, but I figured they wouldn’t tunnel to find us anyway.”

“Well I hope you did a better job here than Crestfall,” Chip crossed his arms. “Or is shoddy workmanship all you can do?”

“Ha! That is rich coming from you,” the old woman straightened her back, “If I had known the government was going to send the dregs to help, I would have never tried to hold out this long. I may have weakened the wall, but you are the one who let someone you care about die. If anyone is to blame for Jo’s death, it’s you.”

“Let’s make sure everything is ready to go, son.” Lonzo pulled Teran closer to him and backed away quickly to the bedroom. The door shut not a moment too soon.

“Chip,” Coy touched the man’s shoulder. “She’s baiting you.”

“You vile wench. I told you to keep Jo’s name away from your lips.” Chip’s face began to contort into a monstrous visage.

“You mean like how Jo stayed away from yours?” Harlow smiled darkly.

Coy’s jaw clenched. “You know what? She deserves all she gets.”

The curly-headed Master barely managed to step out of his friend’s way.

Chip exploded with speed and slammed Harlow’s head against the wall. His right arm had her in a chokehold as she glared back.

Chip rolled his shoulders as his upper body became covered in scales.

Long talons replaced the fingers on his right hand while his left hand was replaced with blood-red barbed tentacles. The most striking change, however, was his face.

Gone was the visage of a human and in its place was a scaled reptilian head. Normally, his Flaw prevented anyone from looking at his face but just now it was in full view, ready to incite a new type of horror.

Noble had known that his Aspect gave him an ability from each species of creature he killed. While each power was not necessarily deadly, the accumulation of so many attributes was frightening.

Pinning Harlow to the wall, the long talons dug into the woman’s neck and small droplets of blood began to form on her skin. Chip bared his fangs.

“Time to finish what those cursed snakes started.”

“You’ll regret this,” Harlow choked out, her eyes wide. She pulled at his muscular arms but to no avail.

Chip opened his mouth to strike and found himself frozen in place. Unable to move, he felt invisible pressure on his arm to ease his hold as he fought the sensation.

“Chip. Let the woman go.” Noble’s firm voice did not allow for an argument.

The burly man’s eyes returned to their human form for a brief moment. “You better have a good reason for stopping me, Noble.”

“I may hate it, but we came to save these people, not kill Harlow.” Noble’s voice was strained. “Right now, she is not the worst enemy we are facing.”

Chip turned to disagree, and a rock from the wall dislodged and hit him across the face.

He landed on all fours, ready to turn and pounce again. Noble put herself between him and the infuriating Awakened.

“Stop this, both of you,” Noble shook her head. “Do you both really want to waste essence fighting each other when there are corrupted creatures waiting for us outside?”

Chip stared at her for a long time, his heart beating wildly. Finally, he stood and allowed his face and body to return to normal.

“Fine. For the sake of the mission, I will hold my grudge for now.”

“That’s right. Keep your dogs in check, Noble. Don’t let them off their leash.” Harlow touched her neck.

“Final warning to behave, Harlow. I might not want to expend essence, but throwing you to the Skinwalkers requires no effort at all.” Noble threatened.

“So touchy, dearie. It was only a little joke to lighten the mood.” Harlow sighed. Rock dust poured from her fingertips, covering the wounds with a pink shimmer.

“The moment we get out of here, we will finish this, Harlow. Mark my words.” Chip clenched his fist.

“Looking forward to it.” Repulsed by Chip’s human features, Harlow turned away.

“I don’t care what either of you do when this is over, but right now we need to focus on getting out of here.” Noble’s voice rose slightly as she struggled to remain in control.

Harlow grinned. “That’s the first sensible thing you have said. We have to make sure the way is clear for little Teran. Since I don’t trust any of you pups to do the job properly, I suppose the task falls to me. It’s just as well. Things are a little stuffy in here anyway, and I could use the fresh air.”

“Do NOT go out there,” Noble warned her. “Everything in me is screaming that–”

“Using fear to try to control me?” Harlow clicked her tongue. “I’ve had quite enough of that. You may be a Master, but I was slaying Nightmare Creatures while you were in diapers. A bunch of babies, all of you. Momma will go check things out and be back in a moment.” Harlow reached forward and patted Noble on the head.

Noble swatted her hand away, leaving a nasty whelp on the woman’s palm.

The floating Awakened balled her fists. “You know what? Fine. Go. Ignore my warning and offer of protection. You don’t deserve it anyway. Do what you like. I won’t stop you.”

Rubbing the spot on her hand, the older woman graced her with a vicious smile. “There’s a good girl. I’m glad we understand each other. I’ll be back soon, dearies.”

Harlow opened the door and swept into the hall.

But Noble didn’t care. Her attribute did not stir to cover the woman in its safety.

If anything, it pulled in the opposite direction toward the father and son who needed her help.

Coy shut the door and made sure it was locked. He looked at Noble.

“What’s the plan now, boss?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep