Chapter 3.20 - Haz - Impractical

We decided to make our way to the laboratory building and look up for any students that could be hiding there. To be honest, I figured that doing this was a waste of time especially when later on we come to realize that not a single soul was found here at all. But for the sake of storytelling and failing to keep the 4th wall behind, I'll continue the story chronologically.

From the moment Lore and I parted ways with the others, we casually walked towards the lab as we carefully observed the surroundings. We had to make sure that the enemy wasn't on to us or something. Lore and Airi did well on the fight just now, but technically speaking, defeating those Imps would be way faster if we just let Mei help us out. She's practically the strongest among us and we could use her help especially in these times of chaos. I could also use her for research purpose. Not physically of course, I meant researching about why was she the top student of Soul Power High School.

"Hey, Haz." Lore started, "What do you think we're going to find inside the lab?"

"I'm not sure. What about you?"

"I think there might be someone inside there hiding. But, I'm still not positive about that though."

I added, "Considering that, it has been like 6 months already. You would think they would stop hiding and went out to revolt like what happened years ago."

"I agree. Plus, the students aren't weaklings like they used to. Our batch were the first batch to start The Students Revolution that has made quite an impact to the whole city."

"We pretty much changed the education system just because of The Seven Month War. Isn't that amazing."

"If I remember correctly. After the incident, the whole country was shocked to find out the numbers of casualty that happened during the incident. Even so, the demon lord did reverse everything about the casualties and everyone that was killed was pretty much alive and well today."

"Except one guy that remained." I added.

Lore seems to forgot, "Who do you mean?"

"Our boy, Kaym Famine, of course. He's the only remaining effects of The Seven Month War that still manages to hold on to this day."

"Oh yeah. He's a half-demon. I wonder if he ever miss being a human." Lore sounded sad.

"Why should he miss?" I try to be positive, "Half of him is still human. Don't think too much about him. I'm sure he's hanging in there."

"Yeah, you are right. But still, have you ever wondered what it is to have another person inside your body?"

"Ever since Kaym told me how he got his power, I've always wondered about that. Now we also found out that anyone who eats an Infinitum Crystal will most likely have a mythical beast inside them."

"Wait. Mythical Beast?" Lore was confused, "This is a first. I thought it was just dragons. Like Hosuke's Leviathan. But it only happen once though. And we weren't even there to see the Leviathan talking in some way to him. All we got was Hosuke and White's account about it. But still, what do you mean by Mythical Beast?"

We stopped at the front door of the lab and I begin to explain, "While we were inside Mei's library. I happen to snoop around some interesting book and I found out that it was not just dragons. It can be any other magical animals. Strong and legendary. They are called Mythical Beasts. The Dragons are one of the beasts of the legends."

"So by that you mean like, phoenix, Pegasus and all of that stuff?"

"Exactly. It has to be a beast that is full of magic energy around them. They have lived for centuries, probably millenniums as well. Maybe before even the earliest records of history. These beasts have lived for a very long time to the point that they went extinct and later on to become non existent at all in anyones mind. Thus, becoming a myth. That is a Mythical Beast."

"That's amazing."

We've finished discussing and slowly made our way inside the lab. It was dark as far as I can remember, I used my Infinibots to look up for anything that could possibly be living and breathing. A human to be more specific. Some of the equipment seemed to be rather warm. It was like someone had used them just a while ago. It raised our suspicion more when one of my Infinibots didn't return at all after searching around the lab.

"Something is definitely here, alright." Lore unsheathes his shield

"And here I thought it will be an easy task to just look at a smaller location..." I prepared myself for anything.

We carefully walked around the lab and notices that more equipment were left behind. Looks like they were in a rush or something. But still, what were they experimenting with these testing tubes? I would take the time to take a look at it but the situation was a little too disturbing for me to focus on researching. Testing tubes and beakers all over the place. Some were even smashed into pieces by apparently a weapon of some sort from the way it was smashed.

Was it the students who did this? Then again, there was no way for that to be possible. I tried smelling some of the content and most of it were unfamiliar to me. I would be familiar with it if its was a student project or something. Either it be potion-crafting or magic enhancements. There was some other tubes that I believed to be an enhancements of some sort but then again, I might be wrong.

It was then when we heard a creaking noise from behind my old workplace. A scratching noise was also heard. We carefully approached the door. As I was about to twist the doorknob, Lore noticed something and warned me.

"It's a trap."

"What?" I was too surprised that I ended up touching the doorknob.

Touching the doorknob resulted to a blaring alarm being sounded off throughout the lab. Curses! I forgot that I have this kind of security system back then. I thought I already dismantled all of the security systems in the lab when I moved my workplace to the headquarters. Unless of course, someone finds a way to put a new one in 6 months.

And just as we were about to run for the exit, the whole walls were in barbed wire. Even the door. Looks like we're trapped inside the lab. Just as things were getting more intense we felt some heavy breathing all over us. It wasn't me or Lore. It was apparently Imps. They were at the ceiling all these times. They released their grip and launched an attack towards us.

"Lore, be careful." I pushed Lore away to safety resulting to me being mauled by a group of Imps.

"Haz!" as Lore realise what just happened, he immediately used his shield to break off all of the Imps that was all over me.

"Thanks."

"No problem, you saved me just now." Lore grabbed my arm to help me stand back up.

"In any case, we have to take care of these Imps."

We looked around and notice that there was more than a few dozens of them. This does not look like it would end well for us. But thankfully, Lore raised his shield and spins it in his hand. As it keeps on spinning, water started to appear from the shield, creating a water tornado that was able to slap some of the Imps who was unfortunate enough to be hit by it.

I continued the pace by releasing all of my seven Infinibots and turned it into a weapon one by one. A sword, a mace, an axe, a hammer, a dagger, a rod and a handgun. I switched weapons one by one as I quickly slashed, bashed, sliced, crushed, stabbed, knocked and shot all nearby Imps that were approaching us.

"And here I thought, we would be struggling against these hordes of Imps." I bragged.

"A little bit of showboating, I see. Two can play that game."

Lore stopped spinning the shield and threw the shield to one of the Imps which makes the shield bounces off to another Imp, resulting in a massive ricochet all over the place. It's like a pinball machine the more you look at it and by the time the shield returned back to Lore, almost all of the Imps were on the floor.

"Looks like we did it." said Lore.

Then suddenly, we felt a strong tremor coming from my old workplace.

"That doesn't seemed normal." commented Lore.

I responded by saying, "I don't like where this is going."

I looked around once again and notice there was a medicine bottle lying on the ground. I try to read it and found out it was the same medicine like the one that the leader of the fake group, Roman had. Has he come to make a return?

I considered that but what was revealed to us was a humongous great red Imp. It was also holding a giant knife on its left hand. The sharp and shiny tooth was very obvious for us to realize it was an Imp. But what freaked us out was there were purple eyes rooted all over the Great Red Imp. It's like the eyes were attached just like how a tree would be attached to the ground, by growing roots all over the place. Only the roots wasn't inside the Imp, we can see the roots of the purple eyes sticking at the Imp. It feel a lot different than the other ones. It's going to be a tough fight, alright.

TO BE CONTINUED