Aoibheann may have been an Empress, but she had a shit taste when it comes to pets. What is wrong with owning a cat, or a dog? Hell, horses are a fine enough hobby for most rich assholes.

  The wolf-chimera eyed them all the same way a starving man gazes at a kingly feast. Their only saving grace was the fact that the alleyway was too narrow for the chimera to fit inside of it. It was not for lack of trying, either. Roof tiles and chips of wood rained on the alley as the beast attempted to violently force its way into the narrow gap.

  The walls of the buildings surrounding the alleyway held against the chimera's rage. For now.

  Oak shielded his head with his hands and turned to Ur-Namma. “What do we do?” he shouted over the sounds of shattering tiles and the tortured groaning of wood. He reckoned they should get a move on as quickly as possible.

  The elf’s eyes were fixed on the chimera. He bit his lip in thought. “Carry me,” Ur-Namma replied. “Carry me, and I will dive into the Dream. I’ll distract the beast as best I can while you and Geezer handle the running.”

  Hope bloomed in Oak’s heart. “Can you purge its mind?” he asked.

  “I can, and I will. But it will not be enough,” Ur-Namma said. He furrowed his brows and had an exasperated look on his face. “My dear sister, in her infinite wisdom, gave that chimera a constantly regenerating brain. She made sure its cognitive structure renews itself in lockstep with the physical regeneration.”

  A tile fell towards Oak, and he stepped to the side. It shattered against the cobbles, and shards of clay peppered his trousers. “Meaning?” he asked. The chimera was giving him an evil look. With three sets of eyes at the same time.

  “It's almost impossible to purge the beast's mind permanently. But I can buy us some time,” Ur-Namma replied and sheathed his longsword. “Let’s wait until the chimera has squeezed itself deeper into the alley before we take off. Every heartbeat it has to spend extracting itself from this narrow gap is to our benefit.”

  “Fine by me.” Oak shrugged. “That constantly regenerating brain sounds useful as Hell, but there has to be a drawback I’m not seeing. Why doesn’t everyone with the means do something similar?”

  Geezer pushed his head against Oak’s thigh and whined quietly. Oak knelt down and gave Geezer a hug. If this went badly, he might not have another chance.

  The best friend a man could ask for. You deserved better than me, goofball, but I’m selfish enough to admit I would not change a thing. No matter if you could have gotten a better life. He kissed the hellhound on the forehead. A man should be true to himself. A hard lesson, but a lesson learned all the same.

  Ur-Namma revealed his pointy teeth. “While the beast’s cognitive structure does constantly renew itself, it also means it always returns to the same framework,” he said. “If you did this to yourself, you could never truly transcend who you currently are. You would be a closed circle.”

  The elf spat on the cobbles in disgust.

  “Stillness is death. I consider this merely a complicated form of revenant, not a truly living creature,” Ur-Namma said. “Get ready, and put me on your shoulder. It’s almost time. On my command, you run like the Seraphim are right behind you.”

  “The wolf is bad enough,” Oak said, and stood up. He grabbed Ur-Namma, and slung the elf over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Ready Geezer?”

  The hellhound looked ready to pee himself.

  Oak looked up. The wolf-chimera had dug its way down one floor towards the bottom of the alley, and it continued to push itself further down, to the detriment of the apartment buildings surrounding it. The beast still had two floors to go, but Oak really wanted to leave while they still could.

  “Wait,” Ur-Namma whispered.

  The wraith. How could I forget the wraith? He closed his eyes and accessed his sanctuary.

  Their chances of survival would be a lot better if the wraith of the Librarian stood by Ur-Namma’s side in the Waking Dream. With a quick mental pull, Oak unraveled the quick-release knot, keeping the wraith attached to his own wards, and sent it to the Dream. He gave the spear-wielding Librarian a set of simple instructions: stay close to him, and guard the three of them to the best of its ability against all comers.

  Barely a heartbeat had passed before he opened his eyes and looked up again.

  The chimera inched closer, teeth like daggers glistening with drool. Oak could see the whites of its eyes clearly, and in those windows to its soul, he beheld a familiar bloodlust. The beast would kill the world if it could. In this, it and the Butcher were kin. We are kin, Oak corrected himself. It would not do to fall back on old, destructive habits.

  “Wait,” Ur-Namma whispered.

  A beam snapped in half and the wall of an apartment crumbled inward with a cacophony of noise. The chimera dragged itself another five feet closer. Soon, the wolf-heads at the ends of its tentacles would be in striking distance. The jaws of the wolf-heads snapped back and forth, impatient to sink their teeth into their chosen prey.

  “Go!” Ur-Namma shouted.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Oak took off, and Geezer followed. He held tightly onto the elf as they ran towards the other end of the alleyway. If Oak dropped Ur-Namma now, the elf would die, and none of them would ever get out of Ma’aseh Merkavah. That was not an outcome he could accept.

  The tentacles attached to the beast's shoulders stretched themselves towards the three of them as Oak passed right under the chimera. The wolf-heads at the ends of the tentacles snapped their jaws in frustration and banged themselves against the walls of the alley. When the chimera realized that the prey it had been drooling over had, at least temporarily, escaped from its clutches, it roared in rage.

  The sound of the beast’s displeasure was deafening.

  Wood splintered, and boards snapped, as the chimera tried to extract itself from the narrow alley it had burrowed into. Oak did not look back. He reckoned it would not take long before the chimera was breathing down his neck and saved all of his focus for running as fast as he could.

  The alleyway ended, and Oak burst onto the street. There was no convenient gap between buildings on the other side of the street, so he turned left and ran back towards the large road. Ur-Namma had chosen the road as their route to the fold in space that would take them out of the city, and Oak thought it best to run towards their destination instead of away from it.

  Oak turned right, stumbled on the cobbles, and barely kept himself standing. The open road stretched before him, covered in fog. Distance. As much as possible, Oak thought. Breathe. Don’t pant, just breathe. There is no time for panic. He put his long legs to use and flew down the road like a man possessed. His boots beat the cobblestones in a steady rhythm.

  Geezer ran by his side. In the gloom of Ma’aseh Merkavah, the dog was like a living shadow. The hellhound’s stride was a graceful sight, and if they had not been in mortal danger, Oak would have taken the time to admire the sheer effortless nature of it. Geezer almost glided over the street. A streak of black fur, and two red eyes glowing in the dark.

  For a frozen moment in time, they ran together through the City of God, unburdened by worry and doubt. Oak could almost feel their hearts beat as one, united in the shared joy of movement and unity of purpose. Nothing existed beyond the next step. The here and now.

  A crash and a roar behind Oak heralded the end of serenity. Aoibheann’s pet chimera had pulled itself free.

  Gigantic paws struck the road. Again and again. The heavy thuds were like the drumbeat of doom. Oak would have been content without even an ounce of doom, but the chimera was not interested in his opinion. The sound of enormous claws digging furrows into stone echoed on the road. The beast gained on them with every leap and stride.

  Oak tried to pick up the pace, but it was no use. He was already running as fast as he could. The rucksack full of rituals on his back, and Ur-Namma’s limp body bouncing around on his shoulder did not help matters, but unless he ditched either, there was no way he could increase his speed further.

  Sound waves bounced back from the chimera, and the Ears of Amdusias painted a picture of the beast to Oak’s mind long before it was visible through the thick mist. Now would be a good time for the elf to make himself useful, he thought. All help would be very much appreciated. He was no coward, but there was nothing quite like running away from a furious wolf-monster the size of a house to make a man rethink his life choices.

  To say he had regrets would have been an understatement. The first of which was all the time he had wasted lazing about, when he could have been running up and down the hills near Spoke to prepare himself for this moment.

  One thing was certain. Geezer was a true friend. The hellhound was faster than him, and yet the dog was only a couple of feet ahead of him. It warmed Oak’s heart to know Geezer was not willing to leave him behind. The feeling was mutual. He was ready to meet his end in battle, but the idea of Geezer dying to some overgrown mutt was not something he was willing to abide.

  A speck of hope revealed itself up ahead. The open doorway of a house on the right side of the street was a welcome sight. Sadly, the safety those walls provided was too far away.

  The chimera closed in. Twenty feet. Oak could hear the beast’s heavy breathing. By the Chariot, what are you waiting for, Ur-Namma? Fifteen feet. Ten. Nothing for it, Oak thought. Better to do it on my own terms. He was about to fling the elf forward, and turn around to face the chimera, when Ur-Namma struck in the Waking Dream.

  The chimera stumbled. It tripped over its own feet and crashed face first onto the street.

  “Door on the right, Geezer!” Oak shouted, and ran towards the alluring promise of refuge from tooth and claw. Geezer seemed to get the idea, and the dog made a beeline for the doorway.

  The hellhound ran up the stairs and jumped inside. Oak came in just behind him, the elf bouncing on his shoulder. Ur-Namma was still in the midst of the dive. Not a second later, the chimera tried to smash its head through the doorway. The beast splintered the doorframe, and growled in fury at the prey that was giving it such trouble.

  Oak stumbled back and stared at the chimera. This felt like an opportune moment to give Pyrokinetic telekinesis a try. He pointed his right hand at the raging monster and called for the flame inside his soul. A cone of bright orange fire lept from Oak’s hand and struck the chimera straight on the snout.

  The beast’s head snapped to the side, and it yelped in pain. Fast as lightning, it pulled back from the doorway. The fur on its snout looked scorched, and the ends of its whiskers were on fire. Oak considered the damage. That felt about the same amount of power as a good hammer swing. The chimera roared in rage and charged the doorway again. The impact shook the walls of the house, and Oak could hear beams and planks snapping from the force.

  He repeated his earlier action and covered the monster’s snout in flames. With another yelp of pain, the chimera retreated to lick its wounds.

  “Take that, you fleabag!” Oak shouted. He wanted nothing more than to turn the mutt into a merry bonfire.

  Two figures stepped through a doorway behind Oak, into the cramped entrance hall. The blue flames inside their eye sockets flickered and focused on him. Thanks to his enhanced hearing, the pair of revenants didn’t take Oak by surprise.

  He dropped Ur-Namma, and spun around to face the walking corpses. Geezer was smart enough to look after the elf, and the hellhound did not disappoint. The dog stood over Ur-Namma’s limb form, hackles raised, and growled.

  The smell of sulfur filled Oak’s nose.

  The undead charged forward, bony hands stretched towards Oak. Desiccated flesh covered their withered forms, and the tips of their fingers had more in common with claws than human hands. Their jaws opened far too wide, revealing rows upon rows of rotten, pointy teeth.

  Fuck this city, and every cursed monster inside of it.

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