Runeblade
Chapter 85: Unnatural Places

**Biome Entered: Fleshwarper's Laboratory**

Kaius winced as he read the alert that appeared in his vision as he crossed into the new biome. While he couldn't be certain until they started to encounter some of the biomes depths-born, he was almost certain that they would be running into abominations of the fleshy variety.

He had never fought them himself, they were exceedingly rare to replace outside of the Depths. Usually the creation of foul rituals and alchemical mishaps. Either intentionally created as some sort of obscene fighting force, or as a side effect from some practitioner pursuing forbidden knowledge.

They were supposed to be horrid, twisted creatures, possessing almost unrivalled regenerative capabilities. Gibbering balls of teeth and eyes, twisted golems of flesh, and more. Kaius had no doubt that even if could deal with them with relative ease thanks to their growing strength, there was no way he was getting out of this biome without new nightmares. Luckily, they were almost universally stupid, so Porkchop might be in luck as he doubted any of them would be using weapons.

"What is it?" Porkchop asked, seeing his expression. His friend walked over the line, joining him in the new biome. "Is it the biome?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure we're going to run into abominations." Kaius explained.

Porkchop simply cocked his head at him, confused.

"You'll see. We'll be fine, it's not the worst match up for us. Just be prepared for things to get a little gross."

Having forewarned his friend, Kaius took the lead as they pushed further into the hall. He quickly reached one of the long side tables that he had spotted. Strange glassware, distillation columns, and more tools that he had no name for covered its surface. It was old. Stained from use, the remnants of alchemical experiments that had been left to evaporate. A book had been left open at its centre.

Leaning over in curiosity, Kaius found that much like the books he had seen in the city it was written in some strange language that differed from Common. He still didn't get it, how would anyone speak anything other than the language of the system?

Other than the illegible notes, it was covered in diagrams. Most of them were meaningless to him, clearly related in some form or another to alchemy. As he kept turning pages, the content of the diagrams only got more disturbing. Blueprints for some sort of operation to infuse a person with tonics and only gods know what else. The next few pages displayed a slow progression of change from man to a twisted pillar of weeping flesh and exposed muscle.

Kaius sighed, picking up the book to show Porkchop what he had found. "Abominations." He said, flicking through pages to show Porkchop various sketches of twisted horrors of flesh and bone.

"Matriarch's spite, that's disgusting! We're going to have to fight those?" Porkchop asked, aghast.

"Yep," Kaius said grimly.

"..Are you sure you don't want to look for another biome?" Porkchop said as he turned to look back the way they came.

"Not really," he mumbled. "But like I said, we're a surprisingly good match up. Mostly unarmored, probably no magic, and no weapons. Just going to have to keep an eye out for anything weird like acidic vomit."

"Acidic vomit. You want to fight things that will try to throw up on us?" Porkchop said, his voice flat.

"I mean, it's better than ghosts?" He said, trying to keep upbeat.

"That is a low fucking bar, Kaius," Porkchop said with a grunt. "But lead the way."

Kaius groaned. He couldn't believe they were actually going to do this. Flesh crafted abominations weren't the most dangerous things in the Depths, not by far, but they certainly were legendary. Almost every delver whispered about encounters with abominations. About how the smell lingered for weeks, and how they saw strangely shifting flesh every time they closed their eyes.

Hells, he'd heard tavern talk on his visit to Deadacre. That there was a well mapped portal to the depths near the city. One that had only been so thoroughly explored so that people could consistently avoid the third layer abomination biome that sat adjacent to the main path down.

Slapping the book down on the table, Kaius squared his shoulders and took the lead.

Hampered vision or no, right now he really wished his helm had a face guard.

…

As they pushed further into the laboratory Kaius was entirely unsurprised when they started to run into traps. They were tricky, sophisticated things. Showers of acid that rained from the ceiling, alchemical explosives set below pressure plates on the floor, and other such nastiness.

Unlike a simple spear trap, Kaius had no confidence in simply safely triggering them from a distance. Who knew what a haze of poisonous gas could do to them if released into the close confines of a stone hall.

Instead he leaned heavily on Explorer's Toolkit. When they couldn't simply skirt around a trap, he disarmed it. Much like he was trying to do currently.

A wide pressure plate stretched across the entire floor, wide enough that he wasn't fully confident that they would be able to jump over it successfully. He'd managed to spot it because of a thin silver wire that was embedded into the grout between the masonry of the walls.

He followed the line of metal, replaceing that it led to a series of slightly uneven bricks sitting right next to his head. That was nasty. Clearly the trap had been designed to take out groups. The front runner would hit the pressure plate, triggering the payload right in the middle of the group.

He drew his hunting knife, setting it against the seam of the suspicious stone. Explorer's toolkit guided his movements, warning him away from the trigger wire. He should, if he was careful, be able to leverage the stone away from the housing of the trap.

He dug his knife in and wiggled it. Powdery mortar fell away, revealing that the 'brick' was really just a slab a half a finger thick. He pushed down with his knife, catching the stone with a grunt as it fell free. Setting it to the side, Kaius leaned in to get a better look at what he was working with.

The trap was surprisingly simple. The partially exposed wire he had spotted through the grouting ran into a hollow cavity in the wall, running through the cork of a glass flask of brownish liquid. Staying well clear of the wire, he reached forwards and pulled the cork free, leaving the wire dangling.

**Ding! Explorer's Toolkit has reached level 16!**

Holding the flask gingerly, Kaius identified it with his True Sight

Explosive Flask:

Depths-wrought Trap

An inert trap component. Requires a spark to ignite.

Kaius sighed in relief as he read the description, before he looked back to see the remnant drips that still lingered on the exposed section of wire.

"I think I should put this way back down there." He told Porkchop, gesturing back the way they had come. "The trap should be disabled, but there's enough juice left on that wire that I don't want to accidentally trigger the flask if we leave it too close."

He ran off, leaving the flask on the floor a good two dozen long-strides down the hall before returning to where Porkchop waited.

"Together?" He asked Porkchop.

His friend nodded. A step forwards took them onto the pressure plate, the mechanism grinding downward under their combined weight. A loud CRACK sounded from behind them. Kaius flinched as a wave of force buffeted him as the remnants of explosive on the wire ignited.

"Hells! That had some juice." He said, barely able to hear himself over the ringing in his ears.

Porkchop whined, scratching at his head. "Ouch! Good thing you left the rest of it so far down the hall. We would have been toast."

"All part of the fun, eh?" Kaius said with a grin, his ears itching as a trickle of health healed the damage to his hearing.

Porkchop rolled his eyes and shoved him forwards.

"Let's keep moving."

…

Passages started to branch off the hall. Most were similar. Interiors of rough hewn masonry lit by alchemical lights every few paces. Some were different. Large corridors of a finer make with full blown chandeliers dangling on chains.

They kept to their path. Currently they had little way of knowing if one direction would be better or worse than another. There was something to be said for maintaining an easy exit to the familiar Great Warren if they found this biome wasn't to their liking.

After a few more hours of walking the hallway abruptly ended in a door. Thick, and made of well varnished dark brown wood, sheets of iron were riveted to its surface. Towards the top there was a grate, something that should let them peak into the room beyond.

Kaius stepped up, craning his neck to see through the opening.

Beyond the door was a large room with high vaulted ceilings of ribbed stone. A mezzanine floor wrapped around the room. Kaius assumed the half floor was some sort of library, what with the bookshelves that lined the walls and the various thick armchairs dotted between them. The ground of the room seemed to be some sort of laboratory. Great glass tanks were attached to the walls by iron brackets. Stretching all the way to the ceiling, they contained some sort of thick black fluid. Almost like treacle.

Other doors, siblings to the one he was currently looking through, dotted the edge of the room. Though he couldn't see much from his angle, it didn't look like they led to more hallways. It seemed they had found the meat of the biome.

Something moved. A wet slap of something hitting the floor of the room off to the right. Just out of sight from his current angle.

Kaius held his breath, looking past rows of tables and alchemical implements to try and catch a glimpse.

He spotted it, sucking in a breadth. It was an abomination alright. Vaguely similar to one of the diagrams he had seen in the book at the entrance to the biome.

It was a mockery of a man, a full stride taller than he was, and wrapped in grotesquely overwrought muscle. Only muscle. Exposed fibres glistened in the soft alchemical light, weeping and wet as it moved in what must have been constant agony. Beady lidless eyes were set deep into its face, giving it a twisted look of pain and scorn.

With a breathy groan it took another lumbering step through the lab, exposed flesh hitting the stone with a wet thwack. Kaius stared at the spot its foot had just been in, at the slight pool of secretions that had been left behind.

Kaius blanched, suppressing a heave. Depths-born or not, it was a twisted fate. One he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.

He focused his True Sight on the monster.

Flayed Horror - Level 17:

Depths-born, Abomination (Flesh)

Confirming the nature of the beast, Kaius stepped back and leaned down to whisper in Porkchop's ear.

"There's an abomination in there, if you wanted to get a look through the door." He said, gesturing to the view port. "This seems like our best bet to start clearing the biome. If it's anything like most abominations, its head won't be an instant kill, and it will most likely be able to regenerate lost limbs and the like."

Porkchop shot him a look of surprise. "That doesn't seem fair."

Kaius shrugged. Abominations had many faults, but one of the things they did have was insane durability. Thankfully amputation was actually a rather good method of dealing with them, from what Father had said. Fully regenerating a limb took a lot of Health, and with their twisted and broken bodies, few abominations were stable enough to survive long without its bolstering effects.

Porkchop crept forwards, rearing up on his hind legs to peer through the door. As soon as he caught sight of the flayed horror he yelped in shock and jumped backwards.

Kaius slapped his head, sighing. Porkchop had almost certainly just given them away. A moment later he heard a strained groan, then a rapid procession of wet slaps that were quickly approaching the door.

"Nice going, dumbass." Kaius said teasingly as he drew his sword.

"Sorry! I know you said they were gross, but I wasn't expecting it to be so … sticky." Porkchop chittered with embarrassment.

Kaius snorted. "Well, it's done now. Hope you're ready!" He said, charging the door. Twisting the latch he booted it inwards, rushing through with his blade held ready.

The horror was waiting for him, charging towards his position as it knocked aside a table to send glass implements shattering on the ground. With a ripple of exposed muscle, lipless jaws swung open to roar at him, streamers of viscous fluid flying free in great droplets.

Kaius's face twisted in disgust.

Bringing the pommel of his sword in tight to his armpit, he trained its point on the horror. Porkchop roared from behind him and barrelled into the room.

They charged.