My secret tool... I think it was an experiment done by the Usurpers. It was incomplete when I found it. Naturally, it was my job to finish... -91.6 Seconds Post-Integration.

  It was somehow both easy and difficult to locate a wounded Slime Dragon.

  Easy in the sense its hurt thrashing was all around them.

  Hard in the sense that it sped through the store block, knocking over anything in its path -- human, Slime, or otherwise -- and somehow blended in well to the chaotic splendor of the battlefield.

  Keep on it, keep on it! Clark didn't want to lose the beast. He could only imagine the consequences for losing sight of a creature like this...

  Keeping track of the monster while dodging Containment Guards battling Slimes and Airhearts, plus the ever-present exchange of projectiles from each side -- arrow bolts as well as slime vomit -- proved tricky. With Theo and Hera's help, they managed. Barely, but managed.

  They tracked the beast to the back of the store block. It rested within an open-air shipping and receiving section. 'Open' in the sense windows to the outside were flung open to let in fresh air. Clark tried his best to not look outside, least he got vertigo from seeing how high up the tower he was.

  He and Hermes met Theo and Hera at the intersection leading into the back.

  Theo huffed. "Do you know how many monsters we had to gut on our way here?! So many!"

  "I believe you." Clark noted on the way in how the employee-only passages had been drenched in ectoplasmic slime. Not unlike how the Lost Sector he and Theo discovered some months ago. Clearly, he intuited, this had been the dragon's birthing canal.

  Hermes motioned for quiet. "The beast doesn't have anywhere to go. Its wings aren't mature, so it can't fly outside. I figure it's too wounded anyway. Theo, Hera, take the right. Clark, we go left. Spread out equal distance from each other. Enhancement Dandies, everyone! On my mark, we each charge toward a different part of the beast at the same time and hack away at it until the Slime Node underneath is revealed."

  Moments later, everyone had coordinated on which part of the creature they would attack. Hera took point on the wings since she had the best usage of magic missiles. Theo took one of the legs -- and tail, if he could manage -- while Clark decided on the other leg. Hermes volunteered himself for the head, the most dangerous part of the creature.

  The attack plan decided, the team took positions around the beast.

  Lying in the open, Clark saw the creature clearly for what it was -- a strange assemblage of bits and commodities bound together by otherworldly goo. It was only vaguely in the shape of a dragon and about the size of a modestly constructed pioneer wagon. Bleeding ectoplasm into the floor where it rested, he felt the thrill of the hunt enter him -- it was wounded, hurt, and ready for the final blow.

  He and his team drank down a host of Dandies. With a whisper and hand-movements, Clark, at Hermes behest, signaled ' to go.'

  Mana at his feet, he stepped forward; he released the slightest spurt into his muscles. As before, he was in front of the dragon in an instant.

  Clark willed his muscles into action without thinking of the anti-dragon violence in his heart. He pulled back, then swung at the creature.

  His blade made contact just as the others landed hits. Effortlessly, his blade cut into the 'meat assorted' 'flesh' of the dragon, slicing deep into its skin made of deli meats, cheeses, and parchment paper. The smell was terrible, but he couldn't stop his assault.

  Before the dragon reared itself into an offensive position, he had landed several critical blows against the beast, revealing its pulsating leg node.

  "Dodge!" Hermes yelled. "It's going to swipe at us!"

  Seconds later, Hermes warning came true.

  The dragon reared itself on both of it battered hind legs and lunged at the group in a sweeping arc, nipping, biting for good measure.

  Thankfully, the assault found no purchase, as he and the team side-stepped back in the nick of time.

  Having dodged, this was when Hermes entered the fray. He charged mana into his feet and jumped high into the air, swiping at the dragon's ferocious jaw. Though he only nicked it, the beast roared mightily in response.

  Hera took up the mantle from Hermes and blasted the dragon with a stream of magic projectiles burst from her stave while also bombarding the beast with nearby but Manipulated debris. Whack, whack, whack! Chunk after chunk slammed into the dragon's stout snout.

  "Now, Clark! Theo -- go!" Hermes urged them forward to resume their attack.

  Trying an unusual tactic, Clark stuck his sword in front of him and only then urged his mana to his feet. He stepped forward and using the momentum from the Dandy, skewered the dragon straight through its leg, clear into and out the other side of the node.

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  He yanked his blade free -- strange puss-like goop squirting all over which reeked of rotted meats and cheeses -- and went in for another swing.

  Hack, swack! Hack, swack!

  He thought of nothing except rearing his sword and landing a blow; the beast roared its mechanical cry formed from electronics and plague energy; Hermes directed them on when to evade and when to attack. The battle was going well.

  Key word -- was.

  With a final swing, the slime node within the leg Clark assaulted burst and caused the dragon to collapse to the floor, writhing desperately.

  "Keep the pressure on it!" Hermes screamed as he stabbed the creature's head over and over.

  The dragon struggled to right itself; when, in a fit, a flurry of assaults, it managed to forge itself some breathing room by keeping their melee attacks at bay, Hera shotted and shattered one of the nodes in the creature's wings, once more toppling it to the floor.

  Somewhere to his back Hermes yelled for them to 'keep the hurt on!'

  More than happy to continue the assault, once Clark was about to bring himself in for another Enhanced Speed Jab of his blade through the dragon's sensitive bits, a glowing cinder growled to life inside its maw.

  Clark reacted before he had time to think about what was happening -- "FIRE!" he screamed. "Get out of the way!"

  Suddenly, the whole of shipping and receiving was encased in lapping fire.

  With a violent tug, Hermes cast Manipulation at him and pulled him backwards and out of harm's way. Freed, he slammed down to the floor and rolled to dose the stray flames which managed to jump onto him before Hermes's rescue.

  "Theo! Hera!" he shouted repeatedly.

  His heart raged with madness only possible from war. Were his friends dead? He didn't think he could stomach identifying their charred corpses.

  To his relief, Theo and Hera's brilliant voices called back to him. They were safe!

  Don't get distracted! The battle isn't over!

  Around him was fire. An alarm blared and fire sprinklers went odd, dosing everything in disgusting water kept locked in pipes for how many years.

  He frantically searched for the dragon, finding it smashing out windows to make its escape. Why was it doing that? Hadn't Hermes said they were too high up for it to fly away? Unless... perhaps it knew something they did not? Clark couldn't wait around to find out.

  "We have to stop it!" he gasped through the flames and ineffectual water, which, despite a constant splatter, had not managed to put out the fires.

  Shouts from Theo, Hera, and Hermes filled the room but he couldn't make out what any of them said. All he had eyes for was finding some way to stop the creature's escape. He ruled out using his enhanced speed to charge it -- as Hermes had drilled into him, charging it would be suicide.

  He connected 'enhanced speed' to 'enhanced sight' and directed the mana from his Dandy into his brain. He searched, searched, and found what he was looking for, a nice, big hunk of metal which had weakened from the fire and clattered to the ground.

  All it took was a moment for him to reach out toward the junk with his mentality. He connected it to his willpower and urged it up into the air, where he spun it around like a lasso. Once he gained momentum he flung it at the dragon.

  Unfortunately, his aim was poor.

  Although the projectile smashed into the creature -- and caused an explosion, somehow, which blasted apart the tail node, detaching its tail from its body -- the dragon continued its escape; with a final heave, the dragon finished clawing its escape route from the window and walls and crawled out from the back room.

  He and the rest ran after the dragon. Clark grabbed hold of the wall to keep balanced as he stared outside. Though he caught sight of the dragon clawing its way down the tower, there was nothing he could do to follow or hurt the beast. Especially not when, upon first sight of the land outside the tower, Clark was forced back into the room by sheer panic.

  Being on floor two or three thousand something, Clark, intellectually, understood how high they were in the air. Especially after earlier when he looked through a window and saw rolling pastures and woods far below. Seeing a greater sight thanks to the blasted chunk of wall being completely removed and only having a small grip standing between him and falling to his death, Clark felt fear well up inside of him the likes of which he had never before known; below, were the lands he had known all his life. Ruined cities of the Trimarches, the lush forests and wetlands of the Duomarches, and, of course, his home, the Wastes, a featureless black landscape set upon the land like a wound. All of it was below the cloud line and it terrified him.

  Clark removed himself from the hole in the wall, back to safety.

  He was hyperventilating. Voices around him chattered, talked, but about what he didn't know.

  Minutes passed and he managed to calm himself through practiced breathing. It wasn't easy bringing himself back from the brink, but he handled it well... all things considered.

  To his back, Hermes was busy firing off rounds from his multi-tool at the beast. A few shots later and he turned around to look at Clark and his friends.

  "You should've used your weapon burst and projectile manipulation to attack the dragon." Hermes sounded angry at first, then exhausted.

  "Sorry," he said, not knowing what else to say.

  Hermes only waved his apology out of mind. "It's fine. You have a fear of heights, I take it? It can't be helped."

  No one knew what to do or to say.

  Except Theo: "So... did we win or lose?"

  Hermes sighed. "A little of both, I reckon. The dragon escaped. Which isn't good. But we did badly wound it. Months, I reckon, is what it will take for it to heal up. I'm kicking myself, though. I should've had the idea to plant a tracker on it. Just in case. Like now. Alas! Can't go back and change things."

  [Experience Points Awarded: Partial Engagement: Slime Dragon]

  "Did anyone else gain experience?" he asked. "I got a hefty bit."

  The experience he earned made his eyes widen. After the multiplier bonus activated, that is.

  [Congratulations! You've Reached Imbued Level 26!]

  [Congratulations! You've Reached Imbued Level 27!]

  The notification repeated an additional two times, not ending until he had reached Imbued Level twenty-nine. What made it all the more impressive was how rarely he got a 'level up' these days. Once every few weeks, really. Depending on how many monsters he killed. Several level ups and for not even killing the beast? He could only imagine what he would've gotten if they had managed to kill the dragon...

  "Yeah. I got experience, too," Hera confirmed. Then Theo and Hermes.

  Everyone was silent once more, perhaps on edge, perhaps processing the experience gain.

  Several more minutes later, Hermes picked himself up, literally dusting off his armor. "The beast fleeing is unfortunate. But it can't be helped. Clark! I told your friend here I was willing to sell you my old multi-tool. That hasn't changed. Let's adjourn and get that sale finalized, eh? Nothing I like more than a nice and frothy transaction!"