“Wow that was unpleasant.” Kavon mumbled, eyes slowly opening. “Sariah, I’ve never been overpowered like that before. I thank you for the lesson.” Every movement that Kavon made introduced him to a new level of pain.

“You’re welcome!” Sariah responded gleefully. “You still have the stone I gave you awhile back, it should be properly attuned to you now. Healing faster will be required for our adventures. So, you’re a hybrid? I’d heard of them but never did see one. How many of your people are there?”

“To my knowledge, only my bloodline carries the scorpion. I’ve never been able to summon it for more than a few seconds, and only with one part of my body at a time. My newfound magic made it far easier to tap into it. Gods this headache makes it hard to think. The healing stone is right...”

“Stupid human scorpion thing! You talk to Tom now! Why you not tell me about scorpion thing when bonding? You changed and almost killed me and the rat, stupid!” Tom was obviously frustrated with Kavon, but at least he was able to find a new tasty kind of brain while Kavon was sleeping. “Won’t forgive you for this! You sleep again, stupid! Need rest, drink this.” Tom handed him a vial of liquid.

“Tom is your name then? What is this potion?”

“Shut up and drink. Make head feel better. You stupid enough, don’t need headache killing you.” Tom promptly darted out into the trees a moment later.

Sitting right next to Tom was Sariah and Srit, both of which were whispering and chuckling. “Should I take this? That little fella seems a bit off his rocker.”

“Kavon, he can’t kill you or it’d kill him, remember? Plus, he seems to be a master alchemist. He’s been feeding that rock golem you created potions all day and it seems fine.” Srit flatly said, staring at Kavon’s forehead.

“Rock golem? I never created a rock go…” Kavon was unceremoniously lifted from his seat and brought face to face with a 12-foot-tall golem. There was a gold light in the center of its “face” that resonated well with Kavon. He could feel a slight pushing on his mind, a sort of request. He opened his mind with great difficulty and pain, but still managed it.

“No die. Master body no break. Good. Erection do good.” The rock mentally stated to Kavon. An enormous crater, roughly shaped like Kavon was set into the center of the golem’s body. Obsidian and Gypsum formed the bulk of the body, not two stones that are normally placed near one another. There appeared to even be some Iron and clustered in the center piece of the body shape. Kavon couldn’t remember the blast that landed him into the cliff face, but this was defiantly his magic at work.

“Did you say Erection?” Kavon asked. He cringed as the words came out. Most likely it was the Imps doing.

“Yes.”

“For fucks sake, I’ll rename you…umm…”

“No, tiny creature make deal. I keep name, it not harms you when sleeping. Erection will not fail you.” Erection stated with a dangerous undertone.

At that very moment the Imp lost his cool. Sariah and Srit began laughing so hard that the tiny demon fell off the log. Sariah had tears freely flowing from her eyes. That is such a stark contrast to the woman that I fought last night. She seems so soft and friendly. The best killers are always the ones that you don’t see coming I guess. Kavon thought and began pondering his newest creation. He felt like he had to tinker with it, make it more, better and absolutely had to make it more intelligent. Maybe if I pump more energy into it I can…

Srit picked himself up from the log, he hadn’t laughed that hard for as long as he could remember. The Mage had so much respect for him that he’d never even say a word.

I’m the best Imp ever! Every time he calls that thing, it’ll make him crazy and make me laugh. There’s something artistic about a joke with longevity after all.

He’s so deep in though and he should be sleeping. I suppose I should assist and help him go back to bed. Srit reached in his bag and chanted a quick spell. Light flared inside the bag and his hand passed into the pocket realm where he was hiding his favored objects. Wrapping his hand around the best one, a grin forming from ear to ear, the he stalked over behind his pray.

Srit! You better not! He has enough injuries already! Sariah lashed the thought into his head.

But boss lady, if I don’t, how will he ever keep his reflexes strong? You have already told him to go back to sleep. Even that feral beast told him to go back to sleep. If he doesn’t sleep, he’ll never recover. I’m doing this for him, boss. Innocently replied Srit.

Well, I suppose I see your logic. Proceed. The link shut off.

*WHACK*

All Kavon saw was a bag, roughly the size of his head, flying towards his face. And hanging out of the bags, flopping in the wind were a variety of…dicks.

“HEEEYYYYYYY!” Erection the golem whined at Srit.

“I never said I wouldn’t hurt him when he was awake. Boss lady, have you ever noticed that someone is usually knocked out around you? Anyway, Erection, let me teach you about special moves! You see, all of the best ones are named. You have to...” Srit’s voice trailed off, the pair walking to the lake.

Tom had been alone for so long now that he had forgotten how much he truly hated other beings.

Bitch lady wasn’t so bad, she was intelligent and ruthless. Trait’s that Tom could respect.

Srit and his seemingly endless supply of male genitalia were quite annoying. Every chance the little Imp got to poke and prod Tom, he took with gusto. Tom shuttered at the thought.

Ugh! I’m not even sure if it really is a stick he’s poking me with half the time!

Kavon was going to get himself killed, and in turn get Tom killed if he challenged Bitch Lady too often. It was a close thing in their last “sparring session”. Had Tom not exhausted all his magic on the calming sensation he used on her before that last punch, he and Kavon would probably both be dead right now.

How was he able to transform before being bonded? That chitin armor burned away energy every second that he used it. Maybe it is like Tom’s mental abilities, using them caused him to become hopelessly exhausted before the bond, but was hardly noticeable after.

After several minutes of searching for ingredients, Tom finally reached his end destination. Huddled on the ground was a small child, the very same one that had attacked their camp a few nights before. When Tom found the child, it had been badly broken, both mentally and physically. Tom had stolen Kavon’s healing stone and left it with the boy.

“Hi boy. How you do?”

The ragged boy was now physically capable enough to stand, walk and hunt for himself. His clothes were still dirty, but the creek baths had done wonders for removing the blood. Fear was evident in the boys eyes most days, but today was a bit different. He had the look of someone that had totally given up on life.

Tom, of course, couldn’t understand why they boy wouldn’t simply be happy to be alive.

“BOY! You answer when Tom question!!” Tom scream and promptly slapped the boy to the ground.

“I’m..f..f..fine. Why don’t you just kill me already and be done with this? You monsters murdered my whole family!” at that, the boy lost his composure and began to cry.

Tom sat down beside the boy and rested his hand on the boys back. “Boy, Tom no kill you. Tom not murder anyone. Tom your friend, save you and heal you, feed you.”

The young man lifted his head at the kind demeanor that Tom was portraying towards him. He was right, Tom was with the monsters, but he didn’t take any part in the killings. “Why are you helping me? I’m just a child.”

“Tom just good Gnome is all, totally not to eat brains or anything.”

“Eat brains?! Why would I have to worry about you eating brains?” looking alarmed the boy recoiled a bit from Tom.

“What? What you talking about? Who said Tom eat brains?!?” Tom acted startled and spat on the ground appearing disgusted. “Boy is so strange. Tom worry about boy being pervert!”

“YOU! You brought up eating brains and now you’re saying I’m a pervert?!”

“Nooooooo, Tom never say he eat brains! Tom talking about eating regular Gnome food…that Gnomes like to eat, normal stuff. Boy start talking about eating brains and having mating thoughts about Tom!”

Neither one of them moved or said another word for 30 seconds. Those 30 seconds seemed to stretch into 20 minutes.

“OOOOOkkkaaayyyy” the boy finally broke the silence. “I’m just going to act like that conversation never happened. Why did you save me? Why keep me alive? I’m a child with nothing to offer, your friends killed my entire family and we had little to no possessions out here.”

“Tom need boy for potion testing. Need regular human. Tiny human not best, but it works too.” The cursed flayer gnome had never considered himself much of an alchemist, but Sariah had pointed out that the brain potion was well beyond anything she’d ever seen created. It took Tom 400 years to make it, but the best things in life were never rushed.

“So why not just force me to take potions? I mean, it’s not like I can fight you or anything.” Oddly enough, the boy didn’t seem opposed to this, just curious.

“Tom need real answers to questions like: How you feel? What it do? Where it hurt?” complete honesty seemed to work much better on the child.

“What do you give me if I agree to this? Are you going to hurt me?”

“Tom not hurt you (the experiments will). Tom keep you alive, feed you and protect you. You work for Tom. You say no, Tom just kill you and find new tiny human.” Tom held out his currently hand shaped claw.

“I guess I don’t have any other options then. Agreed. My name is…” the boy was quickly cut off.

“Name is Experiment 1, no, too long. Name is Subject 1. Call you Sub for short. Come with, drink first potion on way, meet people that kill family.” Tom grabbed Sub and started pulling him towards the camp.

Sub hadn’t even considered having to face those monsters again. Cold fear ran through his body as he remembered the ferocity that his people were dispatched with.

Kavon was awake again, his headache completely gone now. Being able to focus was refreshing. Sariah had to heal him manually since the stone she’d give him kept disappearing.

His golem had gone off with Srit while he was knocked out for what Sariah called “Life Training” and that left him to talk freely to Sariah for a while.

“Where is our next destination, if you don’t mind answering.” He questioned Sariah while she was staring off into the distance, something she did often.

Not even looking over her shoulder to speak to him, she said “We’re going to head in the direction of my next armor piece. I’ve been able to gain a precise direction to go, just not distance. The power keeps fluctuating for some reason. Imagine holding back wavy water with a plank. You’re fine until a wave hits you. It feels like that.”

“I see. What direction is it?”

Raising her hand, she pointed West, “That way, what is that way?”

“A few small towns, Keystone is a good distance away in that direction. There should be a few military garrisons that way also.”

“Good, take your scorpion form. I need to see something.” She finally turned and looked at him.

“Oh Gods, you’re not going to kill me this time, are you?” fear of this woman was nearly a physical thing at this point. Kavon had never feared anyone before, this was a new emotion. Sariah continued to just stare at him with those cold eyes. He began and finished the transformation quickly.

Sariah walked around him slowly, studying the entire form. After four passes, she stopped in front of him.

“I wondered how you could create that golem without focus. I’ve seen master Makers unable to produce anything near that powerful, nor that quickly. Do you know what happened?

“No, I remember throwing you and then seeing you come back out of the tree line, that’s all.” That was defiantly an even that he’d never forget.

“A piece of your carapace shattered and broke off into the cliff face that I planted you into. Taking that form requires more than just energy, it requires intent, right?”

Shocked at her knowledge he answered, “Yes, either intent to destroy, or in that case, intent to survive.”

“I understand, when you make a golem it requires that you give it a basic purpose. Your intent was to survive, and your form was very strong. At the last moment, you released almost every bit of magic in your being to toughen your body. When the piece of your carapace broke into the stone, all that energy and intent was embedded into it. Thus, you created what I believe is the most powerful golem I’ve ever seen. While you’ve been out I’ve fed him a multitude of metals, gems and rocks. He absorbed quite a few of them into his mass. He’s dumb as a literal box of rocks though.” She chuckled at the last bit of this.

“I see. This is astounding indeed. I will improve him and make him, more. What exactly are you? I’ve never been so soundly beaten with so little effort. Don’t think that I didn’t’ see you slow your dash and give me time to set my block.”

“I am the one you called The Destroyer. I forget that you had that memory broken during the Bonding process.” And as calmly as if she had never said that she was the most powerful magical being the universe had ever seen, she got up and started packing their belongings.

Kavon sat in disbelief, confusion, aww and terror. He was currently serving the being that single handedly destroyed more than half of the human population of the world, defeated the Ancient Monsters of legends and recently had been believed to have been imprisoned in the Ether Prison…in the Exile Realm. There he was, staring like an idiot, at what he considered a God.

“Get everyone to gether Kavon, it’s time to head out.”

“Yes ma’am.” Kavon he simply stated, heading for the lake where he had seen Srit and..the golem going. No way was he going to try to call Tom again.

“Anyhow, that’s how you do a super move!” Srit exclaimed happily and hopped down from the pile of rocks he was standing on.

“Okay. I can use these to be better at keeping Master safe?” Erection drawled.

“Sure can! Save them for rough battles though, they can’t be used on just any old creature. Let’s head back, Sariah is calling me so it must be time to go.”

As Srit and Erection began heading back to the camp they spotted a small human being led along the tree line by Tom.

“Tom!! What’s the deal?” Srit asked as he mentally opened the connection to Sariah so that she could receive the information as he got it.

“Human is Subject 1, just call Sub for short. Going to be test dummy for potions. Gave him potion to make stronger earlier, break all his bones again. Forgot to make bones stronger too. Get right next time.” The little beastie didn’t even stop when explaining himself.

Srit reached in his bag and incited a quick chant. Light flared inside the bag and he began to select the biggest throbbing wang he stored in there. As his hand began to retract a sharp pain flared in his arm.

“OWWWWWW!!! You bit of my arm! DUDE! Why would you do that?! It’s going to take days for it to grow back!!” screaming, black blood already coagulating over the wound Srit was then assaulted with the same dong that he planned to hit Tom with, only, his arm was still holding onto it and Tom was holding on to his arm as a handle.

“Stupid thing! Use new weapon! You not funny when do it too many times! Well, still funny when you hit stupid human with it. You touch Tom with one of these again, I make you choke on it!” Tom unceremoniously threw the arm and dong on the ground.

Erection picked up both limbs and quickly swallowed them.

“Tastes bad, rocks much better.” Somehow the rock monster looked as though he was sick to his stomach.

“Golem, Srit, Tom! Come with me, the master wants us to head out on our next mission. Srit, where the fuck is your arm?” Kavon was about 20 feet away from them.

“Your stupid Gnome chewed it off! Then you stupid Golem ATE it! He ATE my fucking arm! What kind of twisted people are you?!?!” Srit was furious at the trio.

“Well…What did you do to provoke that kind of response?” Kavon already had a good idea of the kinds of antics that would cause such an instantons rebellion directed at the being but couldn’t resist seeing if he’d lie with this many witnesses.

“I was just…well, you see…what had happened was…” he just couldn’t come up with a fees able lie seeing as how his arm was missing and would soon be turned into rock shit. “Fuck you, Sariah says that we need to hurry up. Apparently, she caught the taste of something foul coming from behind us and wants to avoid it for now.” He took one last look at the golem that ate his stomach. Pretty good move ya big bastard, too bad the comedy was lost on you. *hehe* Erection eating an erection, love it!

And so the group rallied and moved out, nobody spoke to Sub, they loaded him on to a stretcher while Sariah healed him on the move.

What could scare Sariah? I’m in no hurry to meet something like that! Kavon thought, steadily keeping his defensive aura active and senses tuned up to max.