All Attributes +1

Flesh Perspective was impossibly solid. After Xia Lun failed to break through it, his head spun.

But with danger bearing down on them, he had no time to rest. He forced himself to focus again and tried to shatter the illusion. It felt like ramming into a brick wall, but a moment later, Flesh Perspective dissolved.

"Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump."

His heart raced and his ears rang. Beads of sweat rolled from his brow onto the bridge of his nose. Xia Lun glanced around and saw Renee half dragging, half carrying him down the stairs.

His arm was draped over Renee's narrow shoulders, his full weight resting on her. She gripped his wrist and struggled forward, stumbling with every step.

Renee had tucked the Revolver into her backpack. Its grip was just within reach of Xia Lun's left hand.

The floor tilted and the wind howled. Beyond the piercing ring in Xia Lun's ears came hysterical screams and the rumble of the flesh monstrosities' advance. "Xia Lun!" Renee cried, apparently sensing that he was awake. "Don't worry. I won't leave you behind!"

Boom!

Before she finished speaking, the wall below them burst apart. Fist-sized stones slammed into the stairs and walls like machine-gun fire. Through the spreading dust, Elisa stepped slowly out of the breach, Scepter in hand.

"Click, clack. Click, clack."

Gears meshed and turned as the Scepter in her hand transformed layer by layer. In half a breath, it became a jagged iron whip made of flexible, interlocking steel links!

Its serrated plates were viciously sharp. More than a hundred of them reflected Elisa's dark, cold face and her beautiful molten-gold eyes. Though she wore human skin, Xia Lun could still see her true form beneath it: slick, writhing tentacles and suckers, with the dark skin