Garrick strode forward, his feet leaving the comfortable firmness of the castle's stone floor to arrive onto bare, hard-packed earth, which then changed to soft, warm sand not more than five paces further. As the texture of the ground changed beneath his feet, so did the rest of his surroundings. The sounds of seabirds crying as they hunted along the waves changed to the mingling twitters of countless song birds as the sand he strode across became soft, young grass.

Garrick didn't have time to savor all of these changing sensations, however. His strides were long and quick, cutting his time in each world as short as possible.

At one point, his tunnel lead him through what seemed to be some noble's house, and as his feet thunked over the wooden flooring, he heard a surprised gasp from someone unseen to him, and he wondered how many ghost stories would be created from his brief intrusion upon this world.

From somewhere behind him, a dog growled, and not wanting a scuffle with a guard dog slowing down his search, Garrick picked up the pace to leave the lord's home behind and enter the next world, an open field where he saw wild horses grazing.

He let out a sigh as he traded the even flooring for the roughness of packed dirt. He was safe.

The nearest horses let out startled whinnies and bolted from Garrick's sudden intrusion upon their world, and he watched them as they galloped toward there the tunnel formed a border, where they vanished from his sight as his view of their world was obscured by the upcoming world of jagged cliffs that cut through a snowflake obsidian sky.

However, under the sounds of hoof beats and grasses that rustled against his knees with every step, the ominous lupine snarls remained and seemed even closer than before. The obvious explanation was that he had interrupted a pack of wolves as they'd hunted, scaring off their intended prey with his sudden appearance. After all, it was impossible for the guard dog in the last world to have followed him without a Chimera of its own, and no ordinary animal would have a Chimera.

Since there was a good chance the interrupted wolves might make him their new target, Garrick sought a button with his thumb, and pressing it, his spear materialized in his free hand, constructed from pixels as the Chimera brought the weapon to existence. The coolness of the wood in his palm calmed him. If he were attacked, he knew he could make short work of even the largest pack of wolves.

He was close to the next world, but Garrick glanced over his shoulder just in case any stray predators had moved close enough to strike. But what was behind him was no wolf, no guard dog, and definitely not anything natural. Instead, the monster that followed behind him was an impossibility that made his blood run cold.

What seemed to be a massive, lanky, hairless dog was charging after him through his tunnel, bounding on all fours effortlessly through the same worlds that Garrick had just traversed himself mere moments before. It closed the distance between the two of them with a pace that was disturbing in both its speed and its gait. The latter of these originated from its body, which was all wrong.

Instead of the barrel chest and paw-tipped limbs expected of a dog, this creature had the body of a man. But even when compared to a human, the body was amiss in all sorts of unnerving ways. Its arms were gangly and thin, proportioned much longer than a human's to better support its animalistic, four-footed run, and there seemed to be far too many joints. The body itself was gaunt, with skin stretched over its muscles like saran wrap.

Garrick had been frozen in startled terror, but he snapped out of his fear and confusion to act. He rested his spear against his shoulder in order to hold his Chimera with both hands, and when he found the button he needed, he jammed it hard with both thumbs.

The sliver of world Garrick stood in expanded, driving away all of the other worlds he had traveled through in his search for Conrad as the tunnel collapsed around him, trapping the beast a few worlds back.

Garrick let out a long sigh. Other than the wild horses nearby that snorted and paced about him at a cautious distance, he was now alone.

It had been such an easy solution, Garrick almost laughed as he found himself freed from his pursuer. Whatever had just happened must have been some sort of fluke. It was gone now. He was safe.

It seemed that something or someone didn't want Conrad to be found and had sent that beast after him. Who knew if there were more? Just in case, he kept his spear out as he repeated the same steps he had gone through back in the library, typing in his desire and selecting his brother's name from the list offered to him

But before he could press the final button, he heard another snarl and the horses surrounding him bolted with frantic whinnies. Garrick looked up and saw a dog-headed man seemingly identical to the one that had charged him in his tunnel sprinting toward him on all fours, lips pulled back to reveal curved fangs.

Garrick dismissed his Chimera and raised his spear as he shifted his weight to his back foot. His pulse thudded in his ears as his mind raced. How?

Only two explanations came to him, and he didn't like either of them. It could be that this was the same creature that had chased him through his tunnel, and it had clawed its way between worlds to find him again. That, or it was a different one that someone had injected directly into this world to specifically target him.

Either way, it seemed that someone was trying to prevent Garrick's efforts, and that the only way to continue his search for Conrad was to kill this creature.

As the distance between them closed, the monster rose up to run on its back legs. Its tongue flopped from its open mouth as it lashed out toward Garrick with hands tipped with wicked claws.

A spin of his spear deflected the incoming blow and opened the beast up to a counter attack. Garrick thrust the head of his weapon toward the creature's torso and made easy contact. However, the the weapon's edge merely skidded across his opponent's skin with hardly a nick, and dread filled Garrick. His spear had been magically honed so that it could slice through steel like butter, but this creature's very flesh managed to repel all but the mildest of cuts.

With a snarl, his foe lunged forward, claws raking the air and aiming for Garrick's throat. Another spin of his spear deflected the blow, and Garrick darted backward in an attempt to keep distance between himself and this monster. But the dog-faced creature pressed the attack, the slashes of its claws swift and unrelenting.

The horses around them were growing restless, pawing at the dry earth with their hooves and tossing their heads, ears pressed flat. A stampede was imminent. Garrick could only hope that they chose to aim their rush away from him.

Garrick continued to dance away from his attacker, thwacking at the claws that threatened his eyes and throat.

As he continued to fight defensively, he glanced down at the gash that he had made earlier. It was thin, like a papercut, and red dripped from it in raw lines. But that cut was now the chink in this beast's armor. With its flesh already damaged thus, he should, in theory, cause even more grievous wounds than he'd managed with his initial strike. It would be risky with how wildly his opponent was attacking, but...

The bipedal dog snarled and sliced at Garrick again with its claws, but instead of blocking, Garrick ducked. The sharpened digits sliced past him, and he felt those long fingers brush against his ear as one claw caught at his jawline. He felt the sharp bite of pain followed by a warm wetness that trickled down the side of his neck. Ignoring both these sensations for now, Garrick thrust his spear upward, connecting with the beast's man-like torso. The tip of his blade found the opening it had made earlier and penetrated deep within the flesh of the foe, its progress halted only by the similarly tough hide that coated the creature's back.

There came a yelp like a dog that's had its tail stepped on, and the dog-like monster whimpered in pain. Yet in spite of the hole left in its gut, it still raised its clawed hands menacingly, stretching its fingers out as it attempted to reach its prey, even if it meant pushing the spear deeper into its body.

Garrick yanked his weapon free, lurching the monster closer. But before it could strike him, he flipped his weapon around and bashed the butt of it into the beast's solar plexus.

The monster stumbled to the ground but still clawed at the earth, attempting to drag itself closer in its desperation to end Garrick's existence. However, the Nascentian kept his distance, standing just out of reach of any further attack as he looked down at it, analyzing it for weak points as he tried to come up with a way to kill it for good.

It was then that the horses seemed to have enough of spectating, and the herd charged. Garrick looked up and raised his spear as adrenaline thundered through his veins. Falling beneath so many hooves could mean death, even for someone as hardy as himself, so he widened his stance to brace for impact and took a deep breath as the wall of horses enveloped him, sending trembles through the earth as they beat upon it with their hooves.

Using his spear, Garrick parted the charging animals, sending them to his left and right with nudges and the occasional nick on their chests and shoulders to encourage their changes in direction. The one that was charging up the center toward him wouldn't be quite so easy, however. As it neared, Garrick repositioned his spear and then swung the weapon like a club. With a startled whinny, the smacked horse reared into the air, hooves threateningly close. Garrick raised his spear again, ready to stab this one through the heart even if it meant losing the very tool that was keeping him alive. However, he let out a relieved sigh as the horse lowered to all fours again and joined its fellows in the streams of wild bodies that passed harmlessly on either side of Garrick.

The stampede thinned and the rumbling of hooves faded, and Garrick lowered his spear with a sigh of relief. His hands still shaking from the fading adrenaline, he looked down at where his attacker lay.

All that remained was a mound of flesh that had been trampled into the dirt. Its bones were shattered so that what was left was twisted and crushed into an unrecognizable lump of meat. But finally, it was unmoving.

Garrick took one last moment to stare down at the beast before summoning his Chimera to his free hand. This was all wrong. A being such as this shouldn't exist, shouldn't have these powers.

And the timing... it had attacked him while seeking Conrad.

Fear filled Garrick. This was proof that he had been right, that his brother was truly in danger. He kept his spear out as he reopened the tunnel, and with his Chimera in one hand and weapon ready in the other, Garrick raced through the old worlds, his eyes and ears ever vigilant for anything else that might dare try to stop him.