Floor 499 — Luminor — The Lower Sectors
The air was thick with tension, heavy with the scent of ozone and the metallic tang of blood. Before Jace stood two grotesque abominations, their forms twisted by whatever dark experiments the Ringmaster had subjected them to.
The first creature had a mass of writhing tentacles where its head should be, each one tipped with sharp, bony claws. Its torso was disturbingly humanoid, but its legs were nothing more than a tangle of serpentine appendages and with wings that allowed it to hover above the ground. Without warning, it lunged at Jace with terrifying speed, its claws slashing through the air.
Jace barely had time to react. He conjured a massive block of ice, shielding himself just as the creature's claws struck with a force that sent shards flying. But before he could regain his footing, the second monster—a hulking brute with arms thick enough to shatter stone and skin like a hard rock—charged. Its massive fists came down like hammers, aimed directly at Jace's skull.
Thinking fast, Jace sent a fragment of himself flying backward, just as the brute's fists crashed into the ground. The impact was catastrophic. The bioreactor behind Jace exploded, sending glass and fluid spraying in all directions. The children inside—lifeless, their bodies frail and pale—spilled onto the cold floor.
The brute grinned, realizing too late that it had smashed only an ice statue, a decoy Jace had left in his place. From the fragment he had sent away, Jace's body regenerated in an instant. His eyes burned with fury as he summoned a pillar of ice to encase the fallen children, shielding them from further desecration.
The brute's grin twisted into a snarl. It hefted another bioreactor—a massive, glass tank filled with swirling fluids—and hurled it at Jace with a roar. Jace caught it, his muscles straining under the weight, but his focus was split.
A shadow moved behind him.
The tentacled monster had circled around, its claws poised to carve into Jace's back while he was occupied. Ice erupted from the ground at Jace's command, forming a jagged barrier just in time to block the strike. He retaliated with a wave of icy spikes shooting from the floor, but the creature was fast—too fast. It dodged, weaving through the attack with unnatural agility.
Frustration gnawed at Jace. He couldn't afford to waste time.
The brute hurled another bioreactor, then another, forcing Jace to juggle their weight while dodging the tentacled horror's relentless strikes. With a snarl, Jace froze the air itself, suspending the tanks in a crystalline grip with one hand. His other hand shot forward, releasing a beam of freezing energy straight at the tentacled monster.
The creature shrieked as the ice encased part of its body, slowing its movements. Jace didn't hesitate. He grabbed one of its flailing tentacles—where a leg should have been—and slammed it into the ground with bone-shattering force. Ice spread rapidly, encasing the monster completely before Jace shattered it with a single, brutal stomp.
Turning his attention to the brute, Jace summoned a massive fist of ice and hurled it forward. The monster crossed its arms, bracing for impact, but the force sent it skidding backward, a cloud of frost and debris obscuring its form.
Jace didn't wait for the dust to settle.
He burst through the fog, his fist driving straight into the brute's gaping maw. Ice surged from his knuckles, flooding the creature's throat, freezing its blood, its bones, its very organs from the inside out. The monster collapsed, its body rigid, its breath coming in ragged, dying gasps.
Jace stepped forward, his boot crushing its skull with a sickening crack.
Silence fell.
The battlefield was a ruin of shattered ice, broken glass, and lifeless bodies—both monster and child alike. Jace's chest heaved, his hands trembling not from exhaustion, but from rage. He had been too slow. Too weak.
His gaze snapped toward the corridor ahead, where the Ringmaster had fled.
Teeth clenched, Jace took off at a sprint, his vow a silent roar in his mind:
This ends now.