Chapter 93: On a Silver Platter

Kaius groaned as he stared at the system notification that had appeared when he had identified the four armed horror that occupied one of the sealed enclosures that flanked the hall. He knew, now that they had confirmation that it was a Champion, that the other two still living specimens most likely were too.

“I assume that it is, in fact, a Champion?”Porkchop asked, smug that he had been right.

“Yeah, it is.” Kaius responded glumly.

“Great!”Porkchop said, starting to push past him to enter the massive hall.

“Woah woah woah.” Kaius said as he hurriedly held his friend back. “Look, there are not only three Champions in there, but a Guardian as well. If that runed glass fails, we aredead.”

Porkchop huffed, but backed off before he risked being spotted by the contained creatures.“And what do you suggest then? We both know we’re going to risk it. Three Champions in the same place is FAR too good of a find to turn our nose up. We could spend months trying to find more!”

“I know.” Kaius sighed. “But at the very least I want to be ready to bail if we get the slightest hint of things going wrong, okay?”

“Fine,”Porkchop said.“Lead the way, oh fearless leader.”

Kaius stepped through the door, Porkchop close on his heels as they entered the massive hall that held the strange menagerie. He was tense, sword drawn and ready, and prepared to bolt for the entrance at the slightest hint of the glowing runes that covered the glass walls of the enclosures failing. Even if the glass was a full stride thick, he had no confidence in it being able to hold back aChampionwithout magical reinforcement. Especially because it looked to his unexpert eye to be simple and mundane, though he could easily be wrong.

The hall was clearly used as some sort of research station, other than the ten bays that flanked each wall, and the titanic enclosure that held the bone tree at the far end, dozens of observation and experimentation desks were set up.

Where the rest of the biome had been set up to be clearly experimentally focused, this seemed like it had been used for a different purpose. No alchemical set ups, or dissection tables, or any of the other profane horrors they had seen were present. Instead the tables were laden with notes, diagrams of various specimens and more.

As they walked past the first bays, Kaius peered through the slightly shimmering enchanted glass. They had definitely originally containedsomething, that was for sure. Some form of biological horror, akin to the rest of the depths-born that populated the facility judging by the twisted mass of muscle and bone that lay decomposing in the far corner of the fifty stride wide enclosure.

Thick enchanted steel doors with a simple spindle mechanism barred their entrance to the enclosure. It used an airlock system, two doors separated by a short tunnel of glass. Clearly whoever had invented this facility had takensomeprecautions against letting these superior specimens escape. Though clearly by the infestation in the rest of the biome they hadn’t done enough, and something had gone wrong by the time the Depths decided to use the space as a template.

They passed more stone rooms walled off by glass, each and every one having a decaying horror inside. Some were animalistic, others unidentifiable blobs of twisted muscle and bone.

As they approached the first bay with a still living Champion, Kaius slowed his pace and moved to crouch behind one of the many desks that dotted the inside of the hall. It was the same horror he had first identified. Subject #38949 ‘Lover Boy’ as the system had called it. At the very least the name confirmed that these creatures had been created, or at least modified, rather than invading from some outside source. Though hedidquestion the sense of humour of the researcher who had given the monstrosity its moniker, some things just weren’tright.

It was similar to the flayed horrors they had fought so often. Only strides taller, twice as muscular, and toting an additional pair of arms that sprouted rather unnaturally from its ribs. That wasn’t all, now that Kaius had gotten closer he could clearly see that it looked far more coordinated than its lesser cousins. Even as it stood still in the enclosure, facing away from them to look at the stone wall, it twitched. Exposed muscle fibres rippling rhythmically.

He had no way to know for sure, but he would bet that it was a good deal more lively than the clumsy flayed horrors.

“How do you feel about that one?” Kaius asked, his voice a low whisper so as not to break the suffocating silence that hung throughout the open space.

“Probably not, It would be tough to deal with if it managed to grapple me.”Porkchop replied, watching the Champion closely.“Though it’s not exactly an impossibility, let's check the others first.”

Kaius nodded, and led the way to the next bay he had remembered holding a living specimen. As a pair they kept low, slipping between the many desks to obscure themselves from the sight of the four armed giant. Afterall, if they could avoid provoking the Champion into testing the glass defences of its prison, the less risk there was that it would escape.

They reached the next bay. This one held some monstrous ursine creature. A skinless bear, it was covered in innumerable thick bone plates that were firmly attached to the flesh beneath. They ranged from the size of a plate, down to little shards of bone as large as his fingernail, and lookedagonising. As the bear slowly prowled its cage, every movement caused its bone armour to yank at the raw flesh beneath, pus weeping from the gaps of its natural defences.

Kaius focused on the creature, identifying it.

Subject #13845 ‘Harlequin’- Level 25:

Champion, Depths-born, Abomination (Flesh), Beast

“Well?”Porkchop asked, looking at him expectantly.

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“Similar number system to the first, but this time with the name ‘Harlequin’, though I have no idea what that would refer to.” He mumbled. “It’s level twenty-five, so a little lower than the last. What do you think?”

“I want to check the last one, but I'm feeling pretty good about this one. It’s clearly some sort of bear and I have a lot of experience with those. The Patriarchs like to get the cubs to deal with them when they get a little ornery around breeding season. The lower level ones, at least.”Porkchop replied.

“Not worried about the armour?” Kaius asked.

“No.”Porkchop shook his head.“Look at those plates. There's massive gaps between them and I’m not sure how firmly it's actually attached to its flesh? I think I might be able to get a claw under them and pull them off.”

Kaius shuddered at the image. Porkchop definitely had a certain…visceralityto his fighting style that he could appreciate, but sometimes it got a little…hands on for his taste.

“True, what about the regeneration though?”

Porkchop wiggled his head side to side.“It’s a problem, but it's also going to be a problem with all of them. I’m hoping, with its clear defensive bent, that it leans heavily in that direction. I’m less concerned with how long it will take to kill, and more how easily it will be able to kill ME.”Porkchop explained.

Kaius nodded. It was a smart play. Every battle against the abominations had been a slog, so he could definitely see the value in extending the fight a bit if it meant going up against a match up that had less offensive capability.

They moved further through the hall. Every step they took closer to the bone tree horror at farr end of the room causing more and more icy dread to claw its way up Kaius’s spine. It wasterrifying, knowing that all that separated him from a confrontation with the terminal challenge of the depths was a few hundred strides of open space and a wall made of uncomfortably thin glass.

Yet despite his misgivings, the odd creature had not reacted to them in the slightest. The nerve fronts at the tips of its branches still swayed in a nonexistent breeze, and its vascular roots still pulsed to an unseen heart. Beyond that, nothing.

He shoved the anxiety deep, focusing on bringing them closer to the final Champion. By this point it was all but a certainty that the Depths was playing this room above board. That they would have to physically enter the enclosures to challenge the monsters within, otherwise they would have already triggered the first two Champions as they had drawn close to them.

It was still uncomfortable, having a bloody Guardian looming so close put his teeth on edge. Even a tree.Especiallya tree made of bone and flesh. He couldn’t even imagine what sort of abilities it must have, how threatening it must be to have been selected as a Guardian despite being immobile.

Forcing his ruminations away, he focused on their next target. It was in the third to last enclosure, less than two-hundred strides from the Guardian. Some sort of twisted cat, just a little shorter than his chest at the shoulder paced back and forth in its cell, frustration evident in its movements.

Unlike the other abominations they had seen, this one actually had skin. Italmostlooked normal, apart from being so muscular that its hide looked ready to split, distorting its features in a grotesque way. That, and the half dozen ropey tendrils of muscle and sinew that erupted from its spine in a cluster just behind its shoulder blades. They lashed the air, writhing with independent curiosity, the boney knives that topped each one whistling as they cut the air.

Subject #41893 ‘Man Eater’- Level 27:

Champion, Depths-born, Abomination (Flesh), Beast

“Somehow I don’t think that’s the one for you.” Kaius whispered.

The beast's ears twitched, and it suddenlypounced, clearing a good thirty strides to slam into the glass wall that separated them from the Champion. It yowled, knife tipped tentacles striking like snakes in a failed attempt to break through the glass. Enchantments pulsed, obscuring their view slightly as an invisible magic barrier flashed into existence.

Kaius’s heart leapt into his throat as he all but threw himself behind the cover of a nearby desk, ready to run.

Nothing happened, the glass held firm.

“Got a bit of a fright there, did you?”Porkchop said, chuckling at him.

“I was worried it might escape? How were you not?” Kaius asked, astonished at his friend's nerves.

“You saw a cat that pissed off and you DIDN’T expect it to throw itself at us, even with a stride of inscribed glass in the way?”Porkchop asked, genuinely perplexed.

Kaius grumbled, but returned to watch the champion with what remained of his dignity. Sometimes he forgot that as a beast himself, Porkchop had what sometimes seemed like a preternatural ability to read other creatures' intent.

The Man Eater hissed, swiping at them ineffectively as its claws screeched against the glass barrier.

“Not this one then?” Kaius asked.

“Gods no, did you see how fast it was? That ones going to be a struggle, even for the two of us, let me tell you.”Porkchop responded with an emphatic shake of his head.“No, I’m going for the bear.”

Kaius sighed in relief. For a moment with how calm Porkchop had been to the cat's attack, he had been worried that he would want to fight that one. Honestly, in comparison to a giant cat with prehensile knives and a tweaking four armed giant, a bear in plate armour didn’t seemsobad.

He might have developed alittlebit of healthy respect for the beasts after one had crushed his shoulder in the glade.

They crept their way back down the hall, returning to the Harlequin and stopping just outside its enclosure. The bear had clearly seen them, but despite its pacing this abomination seemed to understand the futility of attack. It simply kept one eye on them as it walked back and forth through its enclosure.

Kaius stared at it with discomfort, unhappy he wouldn’t be able to help his friend with his challenge.

“How do you want to do this?” Kaius asked, tearing his eyes away from the pus ridden abomination to look at Porkchop.

“Well, I’ll need you to do the doors. So you wait in the little hallway bit?”Porkchop asked.

Kaius nodded. He was going to suggest that if Porkchop hadn’t. Staying in the enclosure himself ran too much risk of getting involved in the fight, what with how small the area was, however there was no way in all the hells that he would be caught dead waiting outside. If something went wrong it would take him far too much time to help.

Walking forward, Kaius set his hands on the spindle that kept the thick runed steel doors locked tight. They were impressive things, half a stride thick and built like a vault door. While it didn’t come anywhere close to the master work that was the dwarven vault they had seen, it still looked more than rugged enough.

He spun the wheel, bolts retracting with a satisfying thunk, before heaving it open.

“After you.” He said, waving Porkchop into the short glass hall.

Time to see if Porkchop would get his firstHonour.