Eric was still flying midair, a couple of meters away from hitting the warehouse wall, when suddenly he felt the same weapon that had already stabbed him once before, pierce him once more.

  This time it was through his lower back, and it didn’t stop until it completely bore through, pinning him to the wall.

  “Agghh!” he grunted in pain. “What the fuck is your problem?!”

  As if insulted by Eric’s words, the unseen figure suddenly reached for Eric’s arm, grabbing it with both of its own.

  Eric expected something cold and metallic, fitting of the world he was in, but to his surprise that wasn’t the case. They felt soft, squishy, human and far too small to fit the body of the person he imagined was throwing him around.

  Then, as he contemplated the hands that he was feeling, he heard a small whirling sound, like a small motor in the distance. Before he knew it, his entire left arm had been twisted like a wet rag.

  Eric would have screamed if he had seen it coming, or even felt it as it was happening, but he didn’t, it was all instantaneous, leaving him no room to react.

  He only gritted his teeth in response to the pain as his mind rushed to find a solution to his current predicament.

  There was a heat deep within him that was only increasing the more he got injured, it had been happening ever since his bloodline assimilation reached 99%.

  He didn’t know what it was, but it was a good point of focus to distract him from the pain he was feeling.

  Mana flooded his channels, still causing him a bit of discomfort but that didn’t matter anymore, he needed to get a grasp on the situation.

  Directing the mana primarily toward his legs, he pressed both feet against the wall and pushed away as hard as he could.

  The hidden figure that had attacked him was strong, strong enough to send him flying and strong enough to completely destroy his arm with a simple movement of their hands, but that didn’t mean that they were untouchable.

  Indeed, they, like everyone else, were still subject to physics and its basic workings, at least that’s what he thought.

  As soon as he pressed his feet against the wall, he heard that same whirling sound that he had heard earlier, if only a bit more distant than before.

  What followed was the sound of something hard being broken. With how clearly Eric could now hear, he could make out the sound of something like concrete being broken.

  When Eric finally pushed away from the wall, he bounced a bit but ultimately didn’t move far from his original position. His plan had been simple, to push himself from the wall, causing his opponent to shake a bit from the force he generated and maybe create some distance.

  What the fuck went wrong? Eric asked himself. I managed to push myself without issue, even the wall cracked from the force I used.

  The wall had a large crack with two parts that were visibly deeper than the rest of the crack, its where his feet had made contact.

  So, what stopped me? Why am I just dangling in the air with a sword through my stomach… sword? He looked down, getting a better look. Not a sword?

  The object that was sticking out of his lower abdomen wasn’t a sword. The tip was sharp and most of it was thin, almost like a blade, but it wasn’t quite thin enough to be a sword.

  On closer inspection, Eric could make out small groves that suggested that the object could open or change form somehow.

  But the object’s shape didn’t matter, not to Eric. With zero hesitation or planning, he reached for it with his one good arm, pouring mana into it with zero restraint.

  There was no way for him to remove the object from his current position, so he set his sights on crushing it instead.

  He felt that his opponent reached for his right arm, but they were too late, Eric already had the object firmly in his grasp.

  That didn’t stop them from still grabbing his arm and beginning to squish it firmly, like a fruit. But in the few seconds that had transpired, Eric’s left arm had already healed more than enough to help him with his efforts.

  As Eric made a considerable effort to crush the object, he got the first piece of information about his opponent.

  They have a short reach, it’s either one arm or the other, they can’t reach both for some reason.

  Suddenly, he stopped feeling his right arm being wrung and immediately knew what was about to happen. In a rush, he extended Mana Projection to the item.

  His intentions were simple. He was trying to force some of the sections that he wasn’t grabbing to open, regardless of whether that was their function or not.

  However, unlike what he expected, he suddenly found himself moving. The object itself had moved, faltering under his weight. His efforts had weakened it somehow. Regardless, Eric didn’t miss that chance.

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  As soon as the tip of his shoes touched the ground, he poured mana into his legs and kicked off. Once more he heard the sound of concrete cracking, but his opponent had made a mistake.

  They probably thought that Eric would once more make an attempt to throw them off balance or perhaps use it as a chance to escape, but he didn’t, he used it as a chance to pivot his entire body.

  With mana being poured into his legs, Eric was already turning, his right arm already formed into a fist as he threw his entire body behind that punch, helping him to pivot further.

  The opponent tried to dodge but found that their legs were firmly planted on the ground, refusing to move.

  Pouring all the force he could muster on his still healing arm, Eric unleashed a devastating attack against his enemy. His fist hit metal, and it wasn’t ordinary metal, it was from a world that had had mana since who knew when and it was reinforced beyond anything he had ever encountered. With a loud thud, his fist came to a sudden and abrupt halt.

  Eric was now facing his enemy head on.

  It was a small humanoid who was almost entirely mechanical. The entire face, except their lower lip, was nothing but machinery. There was also zero harmony to their appearance, as if they were a mixture of various parts that they forced to work together.

  There were two lenses that reminded Eric of eyes, but one was almost three or four times bigger than the other. Wherever their nose was supposed to be was nothing but discordant pieces of technology. Their entire head was nothing but a mess that just looked wrong.

  Eric couldn’t see much more because it was veiled under a torn cloak, but the more he kept looking at what he could see, the more he wanted to break it apart, not out of some sense of mercy, but because he wanted to know how it all connected underneath.

  But his curiosity quickly died down when he realized something.

  “How long have I been staring?” he mumbled, his body tensing as he realized that he had spoken out loud. When the cyber human before him failed to react, he continued. “I didn’t really do that much damage, did I? No, I didn’t, the metal piece is completely intact.”

  Laying his hand against the section where his punch landed, he extended Mana Insight and Mana Projection. It was a combination of both skills that he had come up with pretty easily, though this would be the first time he actually put it to use.

  The theory was pretty simple, he would envelop the inside machinery and wiring with Mana Projection, coating them in mana, and with Mana Insight he would get an image of what was going on inside. He wasn’t so smart that he could completely visualize the insides in a 3D mental image, but with the help of Mental Focus, he could make some sense of the information he got.

  Sense it was the first time that Eric had ever tried this it took him a while to even begin. To use both skills at the level that he wanted and needed, he had to concentrate on both of them at a similar level or else he would get nowhere. So, this was a slow process, but after a while, he got what he needed.

  “Just like I thought, I didn’t do shit, externally that is,” he said, removing himself from the object that had pierced him.

  This was something that was becoming more and more prevalent, his disregard for personal safety. Even when he was still being wounded, he stopped to satisfy his curiosity.

  “The exterior is alright but the vibrations that my punched caused were enough to dislodge something inside it’s head,” he added, now tracing what had pierced him twice. “This is… what is this?”

  Now that he was free and had a firm footing, he could more easily use what was at his disposal. He cycled mana through the appropriate channels in his body, with a special focus on his fingers and he pried the thin blade-like object open.

  He furrowed his brow, confused at what he was seeing. To find the full answer, he removed the torn cloak that obscured the rest of their body.

  “It’s all the same. Its nothing but a jumbled assembly of parts that have no reason to go together… Marcus would love to take a crack at you,” he added, no emotion in his voice. “And yup, this is an arm.”

  Tracing the object toward where it came from, Eric could see it in its entirety.

  “It connects near the shoulder blades and can both attack and be used as a hand. Maybe it’s some kind of assistance device—again, Marcus would love this.”

  As he took a few steps to get a better look, he felt how he kicked some small rocks. His sight fell to the ground, and he saw what had helped him deliver his punch.

  Their feet were still mostly human, at least the front part, toes and all, but everything else was machine. A stake like object had shot from behind its heel and dug deep into the concrete, allowing to stand firm.

  “It stopped my first attempt, but it saved my second, thank you,” Eric said, still emotionless.

  No matter where Eric looked, it was impossible to discern what this test subject had been before it was turned into what it was. Using the same method he had used to feel the inside of its head, he did the same thing on its torso and discovered nothing.

  “Whatever organic things are still inside it, if any, are way too small for me to make them out accurately,” he said with a shake of his head. “There’s no organs, bones or muscles. If I’m right, they were testing how much they could cram into them.” He took one more look and spoke, “Well, better get this over with.”

  He hadn’t only confirmed that it was barely human, but he also noticed that some of the machinery was doing something, and as someone who had consumed vast amounts of books, comics, manga and the like, his mind immediately went toward self-repair. So now, he was going to break it beyond repair.

  Exerting great force, he managed to bring it down to its knees.

  “Fuuuck, your tough,” he said, feigning being winded.

  Then, as if he were about to choke them, he wrapped his arm around their neck and began to pull upwards while he pressed down with both his legs on their own legs. The amount of force he was exerting was incredible, and the mana consumption was just as unbelievable.

  The metal began to creak under the strain. Whatever plastic pieces where used began to crack, but didn’t break completely. A couple more seconds passed, and now he could even feel some of the parts heating up, even some sparks were flying as electrical components began to break.

  Eric could feel that his mana was nearing its limit, so he had to finish soon. “Come on! Break goddammit!”

  More audible strain was heard coming from the metal that made up the body. Eric’s arm suddenly dug in deeper, some of the components breaking under his effort. When he felt that he had gained a better position from which to pull, he made a greater effort.

  Suddenly, as he was about to pry the head from the torso, the entire body came to life. But something that Eric had done broke something crucial and the body couldn’t move as it wished.

  When Eric was about to celebrate internally, the extra arm closed and pierced him near the bottom of his neck, or at least it tried to. Whatever Eric had done while prying it open didn’t allow it to fully close and one of its fingers got stuck on Eric’s clavicle. Regardless, Eric continued to pull.

  When Eric was only one more tug away from completely severing the head from its torso, when only a few weak connections remained, the lower part of its mouth opened.

  “Mama, no, please. I can do better… Please…”

  Eric was somewhat startled and yanked on instinct.

  “Please, mama… Pleas—”

  Eric stood a few steps behind, and his gaze shifted between the head and the rest of the body.

  “What the fuck was that?!”

  Test Subject T-092X-L6 +18000 credits.

  Quest: Rampant tests.

  Objective: Find and kill all the escaped test subjects. Test Subjects 1/3.

  Rewards: Access to next floor, +10 Reward points.