Looking up at the shorter dragon, he saw the shadowy outline of her twisted horns and long scorpion-like tail. She crossed her arms and spread her wings out wide, blocking all of the green light from reaching Silas' face. With that one motion she plunged him into darkness as she held the needle-like pointed end of her tail at Silas' throat. It looked sharp enough to kill in one fatal blow. He was inches away from death.
Interrupting the tension of the moment was an alarm – it buzzed nonchalantly from the projector wrapped around Scylla's wrist. Apparently she'd set it to signify the "training" session was over as soon as Silas was unable to keep running. Silas was saved by the bell.
Scylla wasn't content with letting him go unscathed, however. She leaned her yellow locks over his head and spat, acidic dragon saliva landing on his face, sizzling slightly. He winced – even her spit was venomous.
She shoved her claws deep inside her ragged pockets, deep inside her torn black baggy khakis. She scoffed and looked to the side, pointing at the door in the other direction.
"You've had your fun. Now get out. I don't want to see you until I have to."
Behind her, Silas saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The scoreboard was changing. It took a while for him to refocus his eyes on it, but he saw a new name added to the list. It didn't take him a minute to figure out whose name it was.
AGILITY:
Rekka: 190
Evelynn: 175
Axel: 170
Macy: 165
Silas: 20
Silas' cheeks burned. So that's what the number meant. Silas had been able to keep running for twenty seconds. Which should have been an accomplishment in and of itself, if all of his companions had score similarly. But instead, when Jasper, Julia, and Saya went through the training, they'd see Silas' awful score plastered on the scoreboard the entire time. Even Macy had managed to last so much longer. It confirmed his suspicions. He was pathetic.
Silas slunk out of the room, towards the door. At first, all he do was crawl. He could feel the venomous glare of Scylla hot on his back, burning into it like acid. His entire body ached, despite not having been injured. His mind was ringing and everything was swirling before his eyes. His heart was heavy and hurt like hell. When he made it to the door, he used what little arm strength he had left to drag it open with a raspy screech and squeezed himself through the crack.
He dragged his body up, his clothes catching all the grime and dirt that had been piled on Scylla's messy office. He heard the heavy metal door slam shut behind him with a heavy thunk. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that he'd been able to push it open with his magic.
Silas heaved himself up off the ground by using the well-worn leather swivel chair as an unsteady support. He paused, listening for clawsteps. There were none. The room was utterly silent except for the quiet whirring of distant machinery. Scylla was nowhere to be heard. Hoping that Scylla wasn't going to be coming through the door anytime soon, Silas risked a glance at the map in front of him.
Some of the holograms were still floating around the air in front of the map. Silas peered intensely at the one spot labelled "Lachlan" as if to check that it was still there and hadn't disappeared after their "training".
Suddenly, a holographic picture appeared in front of Silas' eyes as a small ring encapsulating Lachlan on the map drew itself, before leading to a screen accompanied by a photograph and scrolling information.
Lachlan
Landlocked industrial city located in the heart of Leagionis. Population: 737,900. Average estimated 2,000 monsters per square kilometer. One of the larger cities in Leagionis and the largest city in the province of Jallen. The majority of inhabitants are Lykans and Voxens, but almost al northern-hemisphere monster species can be found in Lachlan. Lachlan is home to many weapon manufacturing companies and purification technologies. Thus, it is leading the forefront when it comes to radioactive cleansing. The current Barrier Keeper is Minerya Palisade.
The photograph flickered between different shots of several streets in Lachlan. Gazing intently at them, Silas saw that the streets were crowded, bustling areas full of different types of monsters. He saw every kind of ear and animal feature imaginable – bat wings, rhino horns, cat ears, rabbit tails, horse hooves, etc. Shockingly, they all were about the same height – the height of an average human. There weren't any small or giant monsters that stuck out in the busy throng. About half of them even had human faces. The only thing that differentiated those monsters from humans were their animal ears and tails.
Silas saw that the streets of Lachlan were narrow. Lining the streets were various small shops, with intrusive glowing sides and magical holographic displays. Each floor of the buildings was stacked on top of another in a disjointed fashion, like messily-placed Jenga blocks in colorful layers. They hovered precariously over the alleys and passageways, filed with people. In some ways it looked like a neon forest. On top of what seemed to be residential buildings, advertisements, projections, and signs showcasing the latest product draped across their surfaces.
Endless wires and clothing racks flew from building to building, criss-crossing the air above the city streets like black vines. Despite the congested appearance, the sky was clear and the air was clean, free of pollution. Thanks to the Barrier Keeper, who upheld the spherical magical barrier that simultaneously prevented nuclear fallout from entering the city-states of Leagionis and also cleaned and purified the air inside, Lachlan's air was pure and healthy.
However, the limited space inside the barrier also meant that the city had a huge population problem. New city-states were constantly popping up all over the barren countryside of Leagionis, reclaimed from the polluted, radioactive Badlands. People migrated out from the subway tunnels in each of the cities, that snaked underground, connecting the city-states. There were no such thing as horizontal neighborhoods and urban sprawl in Leagionis' city-states. Instead, as was the case in Lachlan, people built upwards. A single building was a hodgepodge of tiny handmade homes piled on top of another in a desperate bid to claim any iota of living space.
Some of the higher homes sat precariously on an unsteady mixture of houses and condos below with no foundations whatsoever. Any natural disaster, like an earthquake, would easily send them tumbling down in a catastrophic display of dominoes. These homes were only accessible by monsters who could fly, like Wraith. There were no elevators and rickety stairs were only present near the bottom few dozen floors. At the center of the city, the wealthier classes were able to inhabit penthouses a hundred or so floors up.
Silas' eyes widened at the sight of this strange society. It seemed all familiar to him, but at the same time… alien. He looked around at the other places on the map, glancing at the holographic projections of the photographs of the landscape. There were several pictures of futuristic-looking parks with bright green grass and trees surrounded by pure white walkways, clean and free of debris. Rolling hills and rocky ravines gushing with green flora, with brilliant flaming orange sunsets on hazy indigo mountains. There were photos of monsters, and Silas even recognized Scylla in her usual all-black getup, alongside Hydra and Charybdis. There were even a few with her smiling.
The map was rich with culture and memory. There were photographs of different monsters – ones with crocodile features, some with squirrel, racoon, and cheetah features, too. They varied in skin tone, shape, and color. In Scylla's photos, most of them even looked happy, proud of their culture and society.
But there was one thing that was missing: humans.
Silas burned the photographs into his mind as he felt the need to leave. He couldn't be late for whatever Charybdis had planned next for him. It was imperative he follow along with her experiments as closely as he could. She was the only person he could really rely on for anything, unsteady as their relationship was.
When Silas opened the door, Charybdis was standing outside, waiting for him. Silas stumbled back in surprise as her tall and imposing figure shadowed over him as the door opened to reveal her. To this, she chuckled warmly.
"I was a bit worried that you would be unable to operate the doors without Scylla. And knowing her, she might not have helped you. So I was waiting to see if I should come in and get you. But it appears that that's not necessary. I take it that your training with Scylla went well?"
Silas didn't reply, but simply gave her a look that said, "no, it was horrifying." Charybdis gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Ah, yeah. Scylla will do that to people. After all, unlike me, she joined RimOps out of thirst for revenge. I deeply apologize if she has mistreated you, but be assured that absolutely no harm will come to you as long as you are under my watch."
"It really didn't seem like that in there, when she straight up threw boulders at my head," Silas mumbled, too tired to restrain himself.
"If those boulders hit you, they would disintegrate," Charybdis said. "It's part of her training. It helps it feel real. But in reality, they are harmless. Though I understand how frightening it must be, and I'm sorry to have to put you through that ordeal. I will have a word with her after if you'd like."
"No, no, it's fine," Silas assured her hurriedly. It was not fine, but he didn't want to deal with Scylla's reaction next time he had to see her. Dread welled up inside his heart just thinking about it.
"Well, I do say you deserve a well-earned break. I've personally ensured that you have access to all the recreational facilities. Yona and Jayken have both volunteered to be your supervisors, and they are waiting for you outside. Jayken will supervise you personally while you're on your break. Please take this time to eat and rest up, as we have an afternoon filled with experiments. Like I said before, I highly recommend Ludo's Cauldron. They have the best soup in Lachlan, I can assure you that."
Charybdis winked, then with a wide sweep of her hand, guided Silas back into the light. With Charybdis' by his side, he felt safe and protected against the alien atmosphere that Scylla made her home. All the thorny and prickly green pipes and levers backed away when they saw Silas was under Charybdis' wing. Soon enough, they were back in the much cleaner, comfortable hallways full of bright shining lights and perfectly-washed walls.