As soon as they entered the lab, they’d be on borrowed time. The Flesh Golem was fast when it wanted to be. But as far as time was concerned, they were already limited on it. So Sen wasted none when the freshly healed Orttha led them to the room he’d discovered. 

The lab contained rows of metallic desks with an amalgamation of notes, journals, ingredients, and other materials scattered about haphazardly. Long glass tubes filled with half-formed flesh golems lined the walls. A variety of smaller tubes fed into them, depositing an assortment of odd-colored liquids. Together, they mixed to create a blood-like solution in which the unfinished golems floated. It was utterly disgusting. To the rear of the room was a bookshelf filled to the brim and then some. Books were stacked tightly together and then stacked on top of the shelf as well. 

Orttha grumbled at the display. “These books deserve proper love and respect. When all is said and done, I’ll find them a home where they’ll be cared for as they should.” 

Dasai scratched the back of his head. “He sounds more mad about the books than the missing students….”

“Those students appreciate the value of knowledge, young man! They’ll need something to read after we save them!” Orttha snapped. 

Dasai slowly disappeared until he was completely invisible. 

Orttha blinked in surprise. “Young man? Young man?”

Alari shook her head. “Alright, so what’s the plan? How do we kill that thing?” she asked. 

Admittedly, Sen was operating more on a theory than a plan, but it was better not to make everyone worry. “It was created by a rare technique. A technique that, when applied, changes the body permanently. I believe if I apply that same technique, I can reduce it. We’ll cut away parts of it until there’s nothing left, then destroy what remains,” Sen said.

Alari raised a brow. “Think you can teach it to me quickly? Cutting’s my specialty.” 

“We don’t have time,” he said. If anyone could pick up on flesh sculpting, it was probably Alari. She was the top-ranked student in the country. But he didn’t know her well enough to trust her with a spell that had already proven to be a monstrosity in the wrong hands. From what he’d heard about her father, the Flame Lord, his hands would be the wrong ones. He couldn’t risk that. 

Orttha studied one of the glass tubes. Alari shrugged and drew Flamesaber. She found a quiet corner and began laying enhancements on herself. Dasai remained invisible, but Sen noticed books floating off the bookshelves and opening up. He was doing some research, it seemed, or perhaps he’d taken Orttha’s words to heart. Sen turned to the door and waited with crossed arms. It wouldn’t take long for the creature to arrive, if he had to guess. It was powerful, and had already beaten Orttha once. He’d looked at the book the older man carried; it enhanced all of Orttha’s stats to where Sens had been before he traveled in time. If that was the case, this monster was likely well above that. However, Orttha lacked Sen’s magical knowledge, and Sen had grown stronger since coming to this world. If that creature thought this would be easy, if it even could think, it would be unpleasantly surprised. 

As if on cue, the stomping started. The creature was coming down the hall. Orttha wheeled to face the door, the book fueling him. Alari held her blade up in anticipation. Dasai dropped the book he was reading. 

Orttha spun around and looked in the general direction of the invisible boy as if he’d just stepped on a puppy. The book slowly floated off the ground and landed carefully on the bookshelf. 

“Sorry,” Dasai whispered. Just as the flesh golem ripped through the doorway of the laboratory. 

The fight was on. Alari was the first to attack. Flamesaber looked like a manifestation of the sun as it ripped through the air to cleave at the golem. The golem’s left arm fell, hanging by a thread. The severed flesh smelled like burnt meat. 

Orttha moved to the opposite side of the room. Under the combined effects of Encapsulation and Aggression, he delivered a burst of high-speed punches into the creature’s right side. Each fist penetrated deep into the skin, ripping out chunks of flesh. 

Sen held a palm out. “Spectral Simulacrum Maxima!” A ghostly manifestation of the flesh golem from the basement appeared, carrying an imitation of Flamesaber. It charged the flesh golem before it and struck. The ghost struck mind and body. It went right through its grotesque physical counterpart, sliding to a stop on the opposite side. Chunks of the flesh golem’s body fell out in pieces, and it grasped at its head as pain lacerated its mind. 

Sen stared down the creature. “Flesh Sculpt Maxima!” he cried out, hurrying forward to plunge his palm through its face. 

In that moment, everything changed for the worse. Where Alari had cut off most of its left arm, a meaty leg kicked out and struck her in the face. She flew into the opposite wall and a glass tube shattered around her. Shards of glass rushed by, cutting her skin, and her own blood mixed with the crimson solution that housed the half-formed creature. 

Mid-strike, Orttha’s fist caught, and the creature’s head slowly turned to look at him. Orttha trembled for only a moment before striking hard with his other fist. That too caught. The old man closed his eyes and sighed. “I had so many books left to read.” 

The creature grabbed him and flung him into the bookshelves at the back of the room. “Then read!” it opened its mouth and screamed. Its voice was deep, garbled, and demonic. 

Sen was an inch away from striking it, having just seen both of his allies swatted away. The spectral creature he’d summoned turned back to strike again. Six fists popped from the flesh golem’s chest, aimed directly for Sen. A giant mouth formed on its back, stretched out and bit down on the ghost. 

Sen released Flesh Sculpt and pivoted his body to avoid the brunt of the attack. Two of the fists still hit him and sent him sliding backward in the room. The creature’s entire torso rotated so Sen could watch as it ate a spectral being. The ghost flesh golem and the imitation of Alari’s magic weapon were crushed by the giant teeth in the creature’s back. That was when Sen realized this creature was a lot stronger than he’d imagined. How could something physical eat a specter? 

“Tutor, what’s its level?” he asked aloud, not caring who heard. 

Tutor’s voice was grim as he answered. [500.]

Sen frowned. Almost a hundred more levels than his own when activating all three of his hybrid stats simultaneously. “Well, so much for this being a quick fight.” Normally he’d relish the opportunity to fight a truly powerful opponent. But lives were on the line, and his senses were so dampened he couldn’t tell how his friends were doing. He couldn’t focus on that now. He needed to keep this creature on the defensive. 

Sen blinked. 

When he opened his eyes, the creature was gone. “Hello,” he heard the voice to his right and turned as quickly as he could. Out of pure instinct, he wrenched his head back, and a massive fist penetrated the space where his head had just been. For a moment, as the attack passed by, Sen thought he smelled the faintest scent of a demon. 

[That blow would have decapitated us.]

Those words really pissed him off. He turned to stare at the flesh golem with red eyes full of rage. “Sorry, let me get serious.”

Mana Encapsulation, and seven other full-body enhancements layered around him in an instant. He chanted each one so fast that his own mind scarcely had time to process them. “Time Crawl Maxima,” Sen said. Another fist came toward him. He dodged to the side and drove his own back. “Flesh Sculpt Maxim!” His hand pierced through the creature’s chest and ripped out a heart. He pulled. Sen tilted his head. It was actually a mass of about six hearts. Based on the size of the creature, it had plenty more. It didn’t really need all these. Sen crushed the mass in a fluid motion. Then jumped back to avoid a kick from a leg the size of a horse. The flesh golem was getting faster. Even with time crawl active, it was speeding up to react. This creature was way too adaptive. 

Then it did something that really surprised him. In a warbled voice, it spoke in slow motion. “Time Crawl Maxim.” 

[What?!]

Sen’s eyes widened as a technique he’d known hadn’t been lost to time was used by a flesh golem of all things. That…that wasn’t good. When only Sen was enhanced by Time Crawl, it felt like he stood out of water, fighting someone who was in a vertical pool. The resistance of water slowed their punches, while Sen struck them freely. Now, it was as if the Flesh Golem had stepped out of the water and evened the playing field. He’d watched this mindless sack of flesh step after him into the flow of sped-up time. This thing had to die now. It hadn’t known how to do this a moment ago.

 It was evolving way too fast. 

The creature stopped halfway through attacking him and suddenly looked up. “Girl. Girl has knowledge. Pink hair girl dies. Feed me. Consume. Evolve.” And just like that, it made a break for the door. “I’ll be back!” it called out casually. A short black ponytail was forming on the back of its head. It was changing to look more human. 

The creature was naturally faster than Sen. Time Crawl had changed that, but with them both under its effects, the flesh golem had the advantage again. It was powerful, and it was heading straight toward Milim. 

[515.] 

“What?” Sen thought quickly. 

[It leveled up fifteen times in that encounter.]

Sen blinked in confusion. “How was that possible?” 

It didn’t matter. He had to put it all on the line. “Millennial Anchor Maxima.” He threw a palm in the creature’s general direction and a chain shot out of a portal in his hand. It speared through the creature’s flesh. The golem stopped in its tracks before it could reach the stairs. 

It threw its arms down angrily, as if it were throwing a tantrum. “Ugh. Let me eat! I’ll be right back! Promise!” 

Sen glared at it.

The flesh golem sighed. “Fine! I’ll kill you first!” It stopped resisting, and the chain reeled it in towards Sen. Fast. The golem cocked an arm back in a punch, and Sen gritted his teeth. Shade flame erupted out of nowhere and covered the creature’s arm. So his nose had been correct earlier; the flesh golem had consumed a demon at some point. 

He reared back a punch to meet the golem head-on. 

As soon as it passed the doorway, and Sen felt its momentum was set, he activated his spell. “Flesh Sculpt Maxi—” 

The creature spun its entire body, altering its trajectory to move slightly to the right, toward a still recovering Alari. At these speeds, she was helpless. Sen willed his body to move, but he couldn’t possibly make it in time. He had to enhance her. It was the only way she’d get a half-hearted defensive technique up. “Time Crawl Maxima!” He applied it blindly in her general direction. It took. But Alari didn’t speed up. 

He blinked in confusion as her eyes moved in slow motion to face the blur approaching her. He caught hints of fear, panic, and then a sort of sorrow he hadn’t expected. Even the flames of her sword died down in defeat. The punch reached her, and blood splattered across the room. 

Alari slammed into the wall behind her, bouncing along it and slamming into the bookcase. When she landed, she didn’t move. The flesh golem squinted, still staring where it had thrown its punch. It held his arm up like something was on the end. Then it shook the arm up and down in confusion. 

The imperceptible boy’s spell slowly broke, and Sen realized what had happened. An invisible Dasai had been standing near Alari. He’d been the one to get enhanced. In mere seconds, when he realized he could protect his friend, he’d thrown himself in front of her. 

Dasai looked down at the massive hole in his chest. He gasped for air and choked as blood poured from his mouth. The strain on time was too much, and all three time-crawl spells shattered at once. Orttha and Alari caught up with the rest of them in the flow of time. 

“Young man!” Orttha cried out. 

Alari’s hand shot to her head. She was bleeding, but she’d endured the blow thanks to her enhancements, and the fact that Dasai had taken the brunt of it. She looked up and froze when she saw her friend hanging off the arm of the flesh golem. “Dasai…what…”

Dasai turned slowly to look at her. He smiled through bloodstained teeth. Feebly, he raised his hand ever so slightly to give her a thumbs-up. He tried to say something, but his strength failed him. 

Sen felt new rage surge inside of him. Death wasn’t enough anymore. Not for the flesh golem or its creator. 

He was going to make them suffer.