The Chameleon Loop

No! I’m not going to die again! Not without killing your stupid bull-shitting-head! Thought Nox, sawing into the minotaur’s neck with his combat knife. I need strength! Cmon Loki! Do you really want to see me fail now? Is this fun for you? Asked Nox.

‘Knowledge is power, so figure it out. No one enjoys the suffering that comes before victory. Watching someone work out at four AM is boring, but seeing them do it each day is rewarding. I don’t care if you all die and have to restart. You’re the one who said you could beat the minotaur. Have you had enough Nox? Are you ready to give up?’ Said Loki.

Never. Thought Nox, feeling nothing but spite for the sagely demon.

He reloaded Taylor’s 1911, emptying eight rounds into the minotaur’s open neck wound. It shuddered, spasming as the rounds tore through its throat. Hope surged within Nox’s chest. Had they finally killed it? Not daring to dream, he reloaded again, sensing another one of Loki’s tricks. The minotaur spasmed, muscles contracting without conscious control. Jesus appeared on Nox’s right, sword raised. Eyes fell on Nox and widened, surprised, hesitating.

“Get back!” He shouted, aligning his slash with the minotaur’s spine.

Too tired to argue, Nox rolled backwards, flopping down the monster’s smooth back where he lay for several moments. Unperturbed by the violence occuring no less than six feet away from him. Blood splattered as Jamal joined Jesus, hacking at the minotaur’s spine. With creatures as durable as a boss the hunters resorted to the old adage, ‘If it moves, cut off it’s head, if it keeps moving cut out the heart.’

I’m too weak for this job. Maybe I should retire. Even with regression I can only help others, my E ranked powers will never grow. Sure, some hunters can workout, practice, and become experts in their field, but the highest re-assessment only took someone from a C- to a C+ ranking.

Dejected, Nox struggled to his feet, coughing blood. He could breathe, but only barely. Jesus seemed unaffected by the radiation, while Jamal seemed energized. Higher ranked hunters were simply on another level, exponentially more powerful than Nox ever could be. His thoughts turned to how they could repeat this victory nine more times. And felt sick.

The minotaur moved, its arm brushing past Jamal. He cried out, leaping over the minotaur in an adrenaline fueled pounce that brought Taylor’s glowing blue sword down onto the minotaur’s skull. Where it snapped, careening into a nearby wall.

However, his acrobatics had been in vain, the minotaur wasn’t reaching for him. Instead its hand slid slowly towards the loincloth, towards what Nox had seen hours ago. A pouch at its side. If the minotaur wants that, chances are it’ll kill us all if it gets it.

He dashed forward, gagging on each breath before reaching the pouch a second ahead of the minotaur. Dark hands wrapped around him, black fingernails crushing his chest in a single squeeze. Nox felt his heart *pop*, experienced his lungs collapse, and his bowels empty via external force. His entire body compacted to death in a second, yet he smiled. Inside the pouch was an emerald, brilliant and glowing; shining with a light that filled Nox’s soul with joy and whispered

‘it is going to be alright. You will be okay.’

Raising his Mbar in a final act of defiance Nox stabbed the emerald. It flowed into him, raw mana that rewrote his body’s architecture. Heat from the transformation burned away the minotaur’s hand, freeing Nox and dumping him onto the floor.

[labyrinth core absorbed], integrating core with host.

ERROR: incompatible vessel.

Sufficient energy present in [labyrinth core] to permanently upgrade host via acquired souls.

Time froze as a sort of quest window appeared in Nox’s mind. His body was paralyzied, while his mind raced. Reading the simple sentence with “yes” and “no” options beneath it.

Upgrade host?

Yes No

This makes no sense… acquired souls? I’ve got a spider, a goo monster, and two people. What happens if I say yes? … Fuck it. If whatever this is gives me the power to win. I’ll be the best god-damned felinid-spider-girl ever to exist. Thought Nox, selecting the “yes” option.

He awakened.

From crown to soul Nox’s body changed, his defective genes finally expressing the gene they had so stubbornly refused to replicate. His lungs reinflated, his heart beat once more. And Nox reloaded.

–Just in time for the minotaur’s head to roll free.

[Theseus slain, +1 hero, minotaur {BOSS} soul]

‘Hehehehehe hahahahaha AHAHAHAHAHAHA!’ Howled Loki, laughing endlessly.

Nox rolled away from the minotaur, shivering despite feeling more alive than he’d ever felt. His eyes fell on the minotaur, wondering what the system meant by ’Theseus slain’, the only thing they had slain was a minotaur… One without a name.

Loki’s laughter howled in Nox’s mind, rebounding off his reason and tickling his nightmares.

No… The minotaur can’t be human, it can’t be Theseus, he’s the hero who –KILLED– the minotaur! Thought Nox.

Exhaustion hit Nox like a charging bull, brought on by the absorption of a legendary soul. His knees went weak and he staggered backwards, collapsing onto the floor and remaining prone.

“You alright?” Asked Jesus.

“Just peachy…” Said Nox, feeling more like a peach that had been squished through a meatgrinder, baked in an oven, then run over by a thousand bulls in heat.

The kill team spent the next half hour butchering the minotaur. Most of that time was spent digging out the two-foot-wide black orb that served as the monster’s heart or core. When Jesus finally extricated the core from the gore a gate appeared, perfectly forming a circle of hard blue energy. Practically a mirror. Or a glimpse into humanity’s domain. Samson appeared on the other side of the portal, with his own version of Betty the bomb bunny in his hands. A full company of armored vehicles and M11A4 main line battle tanks were arrayed in front of the gate, more cannons, machine guns, grenade launchers, and 3d printed RPGs, than Nox could count.

Jamal picked up Mary-sue and Ashley, marching through the gate with one woman in each arm.

“Thank god… I never thought we would actually make it…” Whispered Jesus, tearing up at the sight of other humans.

Through the haze of pollution Nox caught sight of three blackhawk helicopters, each bearing the sigil of a white tree and a sword’s silhouette emblazoned across the nose and doors.

“Team Arigorn came to bail us out… how nice.” Said Nox, struggling to stand.

Jesus’ strong arms picked him up, lifting him onto his feet and carrying him out of the gate. Not daring to linger in the dungeon for a moment longer. Though Jesus was sure to let Nox pretend to walk, if only so he could save face back on base. Polluted California smog had never tasted so delicious. Nox shuddered, dropping the Wilson combat pistol and removing his backpack to lay on the warm asphalt. His mind had not rested in days, and that mental exhaustion combined with the burden of dying dozens of times caught up to him.

Darkness crept over his eyes, his body had been refreshed by the minotaur’s emerald, but his mind had been working ceaselessly for what felt like days. I guess that’s reasonable, thought Nox. If he counted each life as a continuous timeline, he had been awake for close to a week.

“Loki, when do I have to do that again?” Asked Nox.

‘Hmmm?… oh, not for a while… You had too easy of a time so I’m gonna change some things. Ta ta.’ Loki said.

Nox was too tired to complain. Sleep drowned his consciousness.

—

Treatment and Debrief lasted for days. Since there were so few Homo Venatorus and so little was known about dungeons, mana, and Venatorus anatomy, healthcare was free* with conditions. Such as being subjected to incessant blood draws and experimental treatments. Processes that delayed the kill team’s debrief for three whole days. Magical healing could repair torn flesh, regenerate burns, and regrow chunks of flesh, but it supercharged cancer. Creating a problem that doctors solved by simply carving out the cancer with their largest scalpels and allowed healing magic to replace the excised flesh. Surgeries that left the five kill team members covered in bandages for a week, as they were repeatedly ‘trimmed’ and healed, giving every bureaucrat involved with the misranking plenty of time to blame someone else.

Jesus and Jamal both recovered quickly yet were held for quarantine. Homo Venators of all ranks were in short supply, except for E rankers. Since Therapy hunters were pulled from the United States Army, who was in the middle of their own, sapien-specific, draft. Thus C ranked hunters with talents or leadership qualities were needed everywhere. Often commanding platoon sized kill teams of D and E rankers.

Meanwhile Mary-sue had received the highest radiation dose, and would be convalescing for far longer, possibly several more weeks. The barrier she had erected around Ashley prevented the worst of the radiation, but Ashley was only a D ranker. Her body lacked the raw mana processing abilities of Mary-sue’s and was similarly damaged, leading to the two women alternating bouts of surgery with hours or days of healing each other. Though Nox’s own healing had to be delayed due to the process of his Venatorus Gene Cluster awakening.

No one within the Hunter Corps wanted to take credit for bungling the gate’s mis-ranking. Technical readings were read and reread by analysts in every department, from the department of fish and game all the way to the department of energy’s nuclear power division. With most of the quacks tentatively –but never conclusively– stating that the E gate had not indicated anything other than E gate readings. Even the wire rat’s recordings showed a grey-stone cave and no labyrinth. Casting aspersions on the hunter’s story until kill team Arigon threw ten dead wyverns through the gate. A tangential bounty they accomplished while recovering the dead members of Nox’s kill team.

Considering the relative strength of ten armored wyverns and the minotaur’s core, there was no doubt that the gate was S ranked. Not only was the minotaur’s core one of the largest ever recorded, but it had been recovered undamaged, a happy accident due to the kill team’s inability to actually harm the boss.

Though their testing took two additional days, leading to multiple ‘conversations’ with staff officers and intelligence agents. Ashley and Mary-sue needed intensive therapy, and were confined to the same hospital. Jesus was able to talk his way into a south bound chopper with his prior experience as a non-commissioned officer in the army; but Jamal couldn’t contain himself. Mouthing off to every secretary and nurse until he got handcuffed to his hospital bed and eventually flown south with Jesus. Meanwhile Nox stayed at Ashley’s side. Dreading the day when Loki’s voice would speak again.

—

Black slime leaked from Nox’s skin, he watched the ooze exit his body through glands that should have been sweating. Instead the sauna’s steam and heat was producing this foul substance that reeked of month old eggs and an ocean of armpits.

“I hope you look good bald, cause that goo is going to get into your hair.” Said Mary-sue, sitting across the sauna from Nox.

Bandages covered the right side of her head and her right arm, the two parts of her body that had been closest to the ejection port of the fifty caliber rifle. Yet, she had used the bandages as an excuse to wear the skimpiest bikini Nox had ever seen. A glorified black strip of yarn that barely covered her areola and left none of her pubic hygene to the imagination. Making Nox avert his eyes from the slightly older, and much fitter woman. She looked like a model from the retro days of a “Sports Illustrated” cover, with abs peeking at him from beneath impossible melons.

Can she store mana in those giants? Wondered Nox, immediately covering his face with both hands to hide the idiotic thought.

Ashley tossed another towel at his head.

“Oh, thanks.” Nox muttered, using it to scrape off the black goo that was leaking out across his entire body. He ran a hand through his hair, and found more ichor clinging to his hairs. It’s like i'm shitting through my skin! That thought made his spine stiffen. “Uh, what is this shi– uhm… stuff?”

The two women traded looks with each other, silently coordinating a scheme. Ashley grinned toothily, ready to sink her fangs into Nox’s pure heart. But Mary-sue struck first.

“Puberty! Soon you’ll be appreciating the female figure. Take a good look at my curves while you can, I won’t be giving you a second chance.” Said Mary-sue, leaning forward and planting her hands between her legs, then straightening her elbows to give Nox two eyefulls.

While she meant to display her assets, the motion instead peeled back her bandages. Raw wounds peeked across the sauna and before he could stop himself,

Nox muttered “ew…”

Good natured as she was, Mary-sue only frowned. “Ouch, I was joking about puberty but if that’s how you respond to a woman… Maybe I will settle for Ash.” She said, turning to Nox’s little sister.

“May, you’re bandages slipped…” Whispered Ashley, earning a frown from Mary-sue.

Her good fingers quickly ran across her body, resticking the bandages.

“Never thought I would prefer to have my chest oogled instead of my face.” Said Mary-sue.

Her silliness restored Ashley’s grin, but only made Nox wipe his face with the towel again, trying to remove himself from the conversation he’d initiated.

“Get a good wiff Nox, that’s proof you’re one of us, a blood hunter.” Said Ashley.

The towel fell from his limp hand, slapping against the sauna floor with a moist thud, as if it had stuck like a soggy noodle.

“A blood hunter?” He repeated stupidly.

Has it finally happened? I don’t feel any different, but during the dungeon so much happened…

“Stop looking so confused, and turn up the heat. A talent like foresight, well…” Began Mary-sue, teeth flashing wickedly. “Well, the more powerful your talents, or higher your rank, the more sapien goo you’ll have to expel. Oh, and supposedly you have to leak out all the therapy you took… So, enjoy the hangover from being a therapy junky.” She winked at him, softening her smile. “It’s gonna suck, but thank you.”

“Thank you? Wait, I've been on the therapy for months, one M L a day!” Said Nox, wiping off more of the sludge.

Piles of formerly white towels lay around him, covered in the black ichor. It dripped from his body, but repelled water, causing strange beads to form across his swim trunks. Ashley spun the thermostat, pushing it past the two hundred degree mark.

“Sweat it out, or you’ll be finding little blackheads for weeks. That’s what happened to dad…” Ashley sighed softly, finding her seat. “When he started sweating black goo, he went to the hospital, and of course, the government was watching. It’s why we got pulled out of school.” Said Ashley.

“Why am I just hearing about this now?” Snapped Nox.

Ashley shrugged, “Mom and Dad never wanted you to be a hunter at all, why would they talk about a homo venatorus version of a week long piss?”

Ew… Thought Nox, wishing he could shave as the towel caught on a chunk of dried sludge and ripped out a dozen arm hairs.

“Yeeeaooowww!” Shouted Nox.

The sauna door opened, simultaneously adding the single most expected entrant in nurse Samson, and the least expected person.

“Mom? You’re awake!” Shouted Ashley, rushing to take their mother’s hand.