Zareth looked at the scientist and let out a dry cough. "I am a retired Priest now. The only things I exorcise these days are cheap booze and unfiltered cigarettes."
"A Priest?" Jarrar stepped back because the revelation hit him hard. "That old man is a bloody Priest?"
He touched his nose and remembered how Zareth had clobbered him into the washbasin back in the village. The humiliation burned worse than the bruise.
The henchmen wavered as the realization sank in, but Hunter barked a command to rally them.
"He is a Priest? So what! Look at him. He is injured. Do not let his stance fool you because the mutagen is still coursing through his veins. Go get him!"
The men hesitated, but fear of their master outweighed their fear of the old man. Three men rushed ahead while they screamed "DIE!"
Their bodies underwent rapid, grotesque transformations. The first man's right hand swelled into a furry, clawed limb. The second man forced a sharp bone spike from the palm of his hand. The third man's legs reshaped into the backward-jointed limbs of a cheetah.
They looked like a scary trio, but Zareth wasn't fazed.
"Good grief. I guess I have to deal with the small fries first."
Whoosh!
The cheetah-man vanished and reappeared instantly behind Zareth to sweep his legs. Simultaneously, the wolf-man swung his claw at Zareth's chest while the spike-man thrust his weaponized palm at Zareth's ribs.
"Now that they have him surrounded, he's dead meat," Jarrar said with fists clenched in hope.
"Hmph. You young folks truly overestimate your abilities."
Zareth lifted his right leg and leaned his body sideways. The cheetah-man missed his trip. Zareth brought his boot down hard.
Crack.
He stomped on the speedster's neck and ended him instantly. The spike-man was close to impaling Zareth's right side, but Zareth caught the wrist. He dodged the wolf-arm and used the momentum to drive the captive spike into the first man's heart.
While they were stunned, Zareth unleashed his mutated left arm. He punched a hole straight through the second man's chest.
Vanderznak observed the carnage coldly. "He eliminated them in a matter of sixteen seconds. Tsk! A bunch of useless specimens." He glared down at Hunter.
Hunter shivered under that gaze. "Dog! Kill him!"
Beltrom nudged Jarrar. "Get ready to release your gas."
"Now you send a dog to fight me?"
"BARK! BARK!"
The beast lunged. Zareth swung, but the creature dodged his heavy left arm and bit down hard on the scales.
CRUNCH.
The density was too much for the dog to bear, so a couple of its teeth cracked against the obsidian hide. Zareth punched the dog with his human right hand and sent it crashing into a lab supply cart. It whimpered once and never rose again.
"I'm not one to take advantage of wild animals," Zareth said as he plucked a broken canine tooth from his scales. "But that dog needed to be disciplined."
Hunter gripped his deformed face. "Damn him! Even my brother is…"
He possessed an unusual ability, but he found it too disturbing to use except as a last resort. Luckily, he didn't have to act yet.
"Gas Release!" Jarrar dashed forth. He plucked the plug from his neck and sprayed Zareth with toxic yellow fumes.
Vanderznak, Hunter, and Beltrom fell back to avoid the cloud, but Jarrar kept the stream focused solely on Zareth to ensure he went down.
"That bastard must have dropped dead by now."
After a minute passed, Jarrar sucked the residual gas back into his neck and plugged the hole. To his shock, Zareth stood there, glaring at him through the dissipating haze.
"Impossible! How are you still…?"
Zareth grabbed Jarrar's neck. "I won't fall victim to your gas again."
He tossed the man into the concrete wall where he stuck there, unconscious.
"Even Jarrar failed to incapacitate him." Beltrom glanced at Hunter. "It is down to the two of us now."
They stood still, paralyzed by indecision.
"Wonderful," Vanderznak clapped his clawed hands. "I expected nothing less of a Priest."
"Retired Priest," Zareth corrected.
"Regardless." Vanderznak waved a hand. "You have shown exceptional talent, both combat-wise and in your resistance to the mutagen. However, how long can you stall for? I suspect you are using the flow of your Gospel Rhythm to keep the mutagen in check. It must be taking a toll. In this case, I doubt you can properly wield your priestly powers to their fullest."
Vanderznak grinned, exposing rows of serrated teeth. "If that were the case, I would have been scared, but certainly it isn't. You will die here today, old man, and I will use your corpse to further my evolution. But before you are rectified, tell me your name so I know what to put on your tombstone. Be honoured, for I have slain many in the pursuit of science and only a handful of specimens have received a proper burial."
"Just call me, Zareth," the priest replied. "Now give me the antidote. That is the only reason you are still breathing."
"Antidote?" Vanderznak scoffed. "There is no such curative. Look around. This lab is filled with experiments, failed and incubating. The effects are non-reversible. Why would you even want to go back to being a feeble old man? Rejoice! For you have tasted a sliver of evolution. The future is within your veins."
"What do you mean there is no cure?" Zareth felt a vein pop in his forehead. "Then the only thing left to do is kill you."
He took a step forward, but Vanderznak raised a hand.
"Wait. Hand over the boy before you extinguish what little life you have left. The boy is an important variable that has caused me to evolve. I suppose I should also thank you, Priest. If not for you maiming me like an animal, I would have wasted my precious formula on one of these pods and missed out on the opportunity of perfection. Now my patience can only extend so far. Thus, I will ask again in its finality: where have you hidden the boy?"
"Go to hell," Zareth refused.
"Have it your way then. Once I've recovered my eye, the truth will be revealed eventually."
Vanderznak flicked his tail. The tip peeled back to reveal a sharp, dripping needle.
Thwack. Thwack.
He plunged it into Hunter's neck, then into Beltrom's spine.
"I shall test a theory," Vanderznak mumbled as the two men collapsed.
"Maybe I can do without the boy because those newly discovered genes now flow inside me. By injecting these two already mutated specimens with my enhanced genes, I hope to push their evolution to a perfected state."
"KYAAH!"
Seconds later, Hunter gripped his deformed face and started to scream.
"GYAAAH!"
Beltrom hollered as his arms elongated and hardened into chitin. Both men bulged and deformed as they underwent rapid biological rewriting.
Hunter's head exploded open, shedding the human visage to reveal a beastly snout. His legs and arms burst through his clothing as he grew into a hulking silver-furred werewolf that rivalled Vanderznak in height.
As for Beltrom, who could previously only morph his arms, his entire body shed its skin. He transformed into a full mantis creature encased in organic armour.
Standing side by side, these two beasts glared at Zareth. A hulking silver fur werewolf and a deadly mantis.
"Huh," Zareth sighed. "They seem more powerful than the riffraff I just took care of. Good grief, I need a smoke."