The Chameleon Loop

“Ashley, we can’t fight that thing alone, take Garcia and run!” Said Nox.

He reached down, freeing two grenades from Jenkin’s plate carrier, they probably wouldn’t scratch the creature but he only needed to buy time. Distract it while the others escaped. Evans flicked his MK18 to full auto and emptied a mag into the viper’s face. Blue supernovas erupted at each collision, but not a single one of his thirty rounds left a scratch.

“Fuck.” Said Corporal Evans, with sincerity.

“I’ll distract it for about ten seconds.” Said Nox, “Run.”

The serpent slid behind a stalagmite, pausing as it watched the prey flee. Many warm bodies remained, more than enough for it to savor.

A grenade pin echoed through the stalagmites, loud despite the drumming retreat. Yet it paled in comparison to the fragmentation explosion four seconds later. Light, fire, and shrapnel all culminated into a puff of hot air. As the boss serpent didn’t even blink, it simply slithered forward, advancing on Nox with the confidence of a bully who knew his prey was helpless against it.

Nox aimed the second grenade at the creature’s mouth, cooking the grenade for a single second before he underhand tossed the orb. Olive drab green metal bounced off the tunnel ceiling, landing directly atop the viper’s diamond shaped head. Where it detonated.

Still, the serpent wasn’t even angered, it blinked lazily, clearing dust from its eyeballs.

Well… Time to see what Loki was able to change in the labyrinth. Thought Nox, raising the MP-7 to his shoulder and aiming at the serpent’s eye. They say fortune favors those who act, but it performed no miracle for Nox. His first bullet connected with the absolute dead center of the serpent’s pupil, and bounced off. Worse, it looked as though the serpent wasn’t even bothered! In fact the viper flicked out its tongue, tasting the air of victory. Mana flowed from the creature with every undulation of it’s scales, pungently basking in the ocean of difference between Nox and the serpent. Unlike the minotaur, this serpent was an animal, trading intelligence for raw stats. It would probably starve to death in a labyrinth, but here, in a tunnel full of goblins and shape shifting traps? Well, it could afford to be a lazy king, snacking on whatever it pleased.

Shouting behind Nox caught the serpent’s attention. Three gunshots echoed in quick succession, irregular, but lightning fast. Ashley screamed, alive, but for how much longer…

White energy turned the cavern into the surface of the sun for a picosecond, flash melting the stone floors, walls, and Nox’s face. However, the shot did far worse to the serpent, totally annihilating the bosses head and slagging a kilometer long hole into the tunnel.

HP 40%

Just being near that blast took more health than being shot?! Twice? Thought Nox, impressed and horrified.

More pressing than his ego was the sudden blindness in his face. Without eyes, he would be dead the second something found him. So doing the most logical thing possible, he played dead, falling to the prone position and checking on his other stats. MP 140% !!! WARNING !!! MANA SICKNESS IMMINENT

Shapeshifting seems all fine and dandy, but it’s kinda useless in a fight! Can you be healing or maybe do something cool? Like grow some extra eyes—

The memory of the dopple shifting its wounded throat back together spat on Nox’s intelligence, mocking him for the idiot that he was. Without another thought, Nox ordered his body to shift into how it had been. In the space of three seconds the bullet hole in his neck and the torn flesh across his face repaired itself, shifting his eyes back to their unblinded state as well. Though it drained his mana to 80%, a cost that limited his healing ability severely.

“Oh, that’s a neat power. Guess I should let you live.” Said a voice above Nox.

He looked up to find an elderly man with a white beard and approximately zero hair left on his head, though the pointy hat helped conceal that fact.

“Hmm, but we can’t leave any footage just floating around. of me.” Said the man, frowning softly at the doctor ordered, go-pro covered helmet on Nox’s head.

He snapped his fingers and the helmet crumbled to dust, disintegrated by powers Nox couldn’t fathom.

“What?” Began Nox, groping for a helmet that was no longer in existence. “Who are you?”

The wizard stepped on Jones’ corpse, walking towards the snake’s corpse, as casually as one might stroll through disneyland. He opened a bag at his waist and the serpent half flowed, half slurped into the pouch, shattering stalagmites as its headless corpse was claimed as the wizard’s prize. Rock fragments shattered, pelting Nox and richocheting off the walls. A thousand stinging bees.

When it was finished the wizard ran one hand around the brim of his hat, straightening the trademark with an odd flourish.

“Since we are fellow Venators, you may address me as Roland in private. However, the sapiens must never hear you address me openly.” Said Roland the Archwizard.

[Make the sapiens bleed as badly as they made us bleed.]

The tag froze Nox in his skin, and his wide eyes splashed into pools of arcane power.

“Ah, you continue to fascinate me. I sense some form of appraisal, yet my wards and charms do not prevent it. Ahem, it is common courtesy to introduce yourself.” Continued Roland.

“Ah- uhm… I’m Lima –ahem! Nox Hawke, and thanks for the help, I was about to be snake poop before you arrived.” Said Nox.

“Hawke… I once knew a Venator named Grey Hawke and his wife Liz, any relation?” Asked Roland, stroking his beard as he casually stepped on the bodies of Rogers and Jones.

Cmon man, do you have to step on them like that? They weren’t the best people but they had families too…

“Yeah, those are my parents.” Said Nox, slinging the MP7 and picking up the bodies of the two fallen rangers.

Roland’s hand caught hold of Nox’s shoulder, feeling like an immobile wall more than a hand, he couldn’t even feel the fingers flex or the skin budge. A wizard who’s this physically tough? Could he be a S ranker? No, the only S ranked team is Arigorn…

“Tell me what appraisal talent you used on me, or I’ll have to apologize to your parents for leaving your corpse behind.” Said Roland, fingers gently crushing Nox’s shoulder.

Without thinking, Nox tried to knock Roland’s hand aside, his wrist rising to intersect the older man’s. If his hand was granite, then his wrist was hardened steel. Not only did Nox’s motion fail to move it, his wrist felt like a bruise was already forming.

“I don’t know!” Shouted Nox, “My black day was earlier this week! I don’t know my rank or talents!”

Roland’s dark eyes peered into Nox’s, wrinkles cracking across his face.

“Damn sapiens. Sending a fresh hunter into a dungeon.” Said Roland, releasing Nox. “I’ll be checking in on you later, but for now, you have roughly fifteen minutes to escape the gate.” Said Roland.

A blindly white portal appeared in front of the wizard, nearly identical to the bolt of lightning that had summoned this dungeon’s gate. Nearly identical… Thought Nox. His mind processing information a microsecond too slowly to ask Roland what he was doing here. Ultimately allowing the arch wizard to escape through the portal, and leaving Nox in darkness that was only broken by a pair of flickering gun-lights.

“Weird wizards and feline dopples. Time to leaf!” Muttered Nox, picking up the bodies of the two rangers and jogging back the way he’d come.

Only for a half dozen pairs of flashlights to aim in his direction.

“Halt! Where are you going with those men?” Sneered Sergeant Jimenez.

“Oh great, guys cmon! We don’t have time for dick measuring contests!” Snapped Nox, slowing to a halt as more flashlights aimed at his face.

“Nox, are you alone?” Asked Mary-sue, her slow voice drumming against Nox’s skull like a funeral dirge.

“I… wasn’t… crap, fine! I’ll cut my hand.” Snapped Nox, not wanting to be trapped in the dungeon.

He set the bodies down and slowly drew his Mbar, using the tip to draw blood from his palm. “Good enough?” He asked.

“No, open a vein–” Said Sergeant Jimenez.

“Yes, rangers! We are leaving! Pick up the bodies and doubletime it out of here! You’re all beginning to suffer from mana sickness. So RUN!” Ordered Mary-sue.

She passed by them, coming to hold Nox’s bleeding hand in her own. A kind gesture, but an unnecessary one. Since Nox healed the wound to reduce his own mana levels.

“Thanks, but I have a healing talent now.” Said Nox, absolutely giddy at the thought of having his own talent.

“Pick up Ashley, we’ll talk outside.” Ordered Mary-sue, her cold and ominous.

He obeyed, noticing the bodies of Corporal Evans, specialist Jenkins, Garcia, and the dazzler operator whom had supposedly escaped. Neat bullet holes decorated their foreheads, as if each of them had been executed in an instant, while Ashley bore two black eyes. Nox wrapped his arms around her, grip tightening as he wondered what could’ve occurred only a few yards behind his back. Did you do this Roland?

Rustling wind crept through the dungeon. More dopples were coming.

“Run! Run like your lives depend on it!” Screamed Nox. “They’re on our heels!”

Two of the remaining rangers spun and fired blindly into the darkness, clipping Nox’s side with their erratic fire. He ignored it, activating his healing shift as he sprinted past them, quickly overtaking the other rangers. Explosions echoed from behind him, temporarily halting the dopple whispers. Ahead of them the gate appeared, swirling as it began to slowly fade. This wasn’t right! We should have more time before the gate closes!

“Gate is closing! RUN OR BE TRAPPED!” Shouted Nox, willing his legs to persevere.

Under the force of his desire they lengthened, extending his stride. Long legs ate up the distance to the portal, and Nox passed a concerning number of blood stains and half mined crystals. Yet that wasn’t his problem. He tucked Ashley into a ball and leapt through the gate, emerging into a scene of carnage. Two lines of bodies extended from the gate, more than a score of rangers and at least double their number in dead miners. But that was only the dead, less than a hundred feet away there was a line of blackhawk helicopters, airlifting the wounded to proper hospitals.

If Roland had said every ranger and miner had been wounded inside this gate, Nox would have believed him. A wounded ranger with one arm in a bloody sling waved him onward.

“Keep moving! Don’t block the gate!” He shouted.

A dozen people exited the gate Behind Nox, but the last two rangers didn’t make it The looks of horror on their faces crossed dimensions as the portal closed in front of their eyes, and Nox saw the outline of several dopples just behind them, fading into the stalagmites with feral joy. They would be eating well, and would not run out of fresh meat for many weeks to come.

During the chaos of the cleanup, Nox was able to liberate two MK18 rifles –complete with suppressors, red dots, lasers, and flashlights– as well as enough ammo to fill the rest of his backpack. Though he found none of the specialty ammo for any pistols. To top off the disaster sunday with a shit-cherry, the Persean orb activated four times, absorbing the souls of nearby rangers who took their last breath an inch too close to Nox.

[human soul +1]

[human soul +1]

[human soul +1]

[human soul +1]

Nox stared at those [LOCKED] souls, finally beginning to understand Theseus’ warning. Would I have chosen any differently if I knew the cost? Wondered Nox.

The answer appeared in his mind, but he refused to say it aloud, rejecting it in a vain attempt to keep his heart uncalloused.